This woman is simply inspiring!…I almost wish she was my relative or something; I can’t stop trying to imagine what she could accomplish for this country if given a chance. talk about role models!

…My beloved country is 47 years old; and to think that I almost did not say a thing about it?!Well…i did think about it though…and I decided to present a full body version of an earlier posting; something more pertinent to our circumstances at the moment…

For Nigeria’s Sake

We are all a product of the beliefs that we hold to be true.

I do not believe in coincidences; neither do I believe that our lives and destinies are shaped by a series of random, uncoordinated events. I hold strongly that nothing just happens…that the string of events that constitute the timeline of life and existence are all divinely orchestrated.

I have believed for a long time that our country, Nigeria, is the cornerstone of God’s ultimate agenda for the black race. From the foundation of this great country which many people have ignorantly described as the product of colonial political engineering, God’s plans and intentions have implicitly influenced the happenings around us. His unmistakable signature is woven into the fabric of our nationhood; this is visible to the discerning eye.

I believe that there is a reason why the second stanza of our national anthem is in fact, a prayer. I believe that these lines were divinely inspired. A pointer to the spiritual antecedents of this country. These words transcend creed so that their true meaning will not be lost in the religious prejudice that so often rears its head amongst us

O God of Creation, direct our noble cause,

Guide our leaders right.

Help our youth, the truth to know.

In love and honesty to grow.

And living just and true, Great lofty heights attain,

to build a nation where peace and justice shall reign.

And what is this noble cause, some may ask? The answer lies in the last line.

Let me quickly add here that the quest for peace and justice is the springboard from which human society has evolved. A famous scholar wrote that in the ‘state of nature’ the life of man is ‘brutish and short’. The reason why we as humans have chosen over the eons to dwell communally is that there might be peace for all, with everyone getting his fair share from society; we call it Justice.

This is the cause for which our founding fathers lived, fought and died.

This is our ‘noble cause’.

This is the cause that the post independence leaders of our people have abandoned, that the entire generation of post-independence youth has forgotten, that Nigerian children born after the golden years have no inkling of!

I vividly recall my joyful and carefree primary to junior secondary school years. Every morning I joined an army of thousands of young, naïve and happy scholars like myself reciting the words of this anthem all over the country, gathered at our respective schools’ assembly grounds, oblivious to the travails that lay ahead. Not knowing it at the time, but praying for our very future!

I can still feel the thrill. The excitement of marching in time to the cadence of the school band as the drums boomed…left, right, left, right…we marched into the future…innocent, full of dreams, eyes sparkling with hope.

But inevitably, youth ages… and mine has

The innocence is gone! Slain by the treachery of our fathers. The dreams are dying; ambushed by the conspiracy of our leaders.

A barrage of questions echo through my mind; I doubt if anyone my age or thereabouts will find them strange or unfamiliar…what happened to the prayers we said? Did we get it wrong or was God not listening? Where is the guidance we requested for our leaders? Was it delivered to the wrong address…or is God on vacation?

Why are we the way we are? Why must we leave home and country in search of our future? What is it that makes life in this country so difficult…can’t we get anything to work? Things are supposed to get better with time; why has our case been the opposite?

What is wrong with our leaders…do they even care about us? Have they forgotten that God is watching?

Ah…light comes!…perhaps they have not listened…Perhaps the Sirens of Greek mythology have bewitched them and they are blinded by their own lusts…leading us all into temptation and destruction…but wait! I must not speak so against my elders, I must bridle my tongue before I sin with my mouth.

…but I believe that God heard our prayers!

I will speak instead to my peers, my brothers, my sisters and my friends. I will speak to people of like mind. I will direct my words to those whose innocence may have been slain, whose dreams may have been waylaid…but you still have a spark in your eye!

…hope may be frail, my friends, but it is hard to kill!

I believe that God has helped us to know the truth!

I believe that we have the power to live just and true!

I believe that we can attain great and lofty heights!

I believe, my friends, that the young men and women of this country can build a Nation, and not just any nation, we shall build a Nigerian nation. One which shall be known for the twin ideals of Peace and Justice; our very own twin towers if you like. Towers which no terrorist plot, be they indigenous or mercenary, can sabotage.

I believe that our individual and collective destinies can not be divorced from the fortunes of this country. This is what keeps my hope alive; I have implicit faith in the future of Nigeria as a country. This future rests in me and people like me.

We have the power to make our homeland what we want it to be.

Arise, O compatriots..

…Nigeria’s call, let us obey!

Wow…it has been awhile since I was here….thanks to my recent trip to the city under the rock….Abeokuta……

What an experience…wish I could have written about it on arealtime basis…but anyway…my hands  & head were full of other stuff….

I will elaborate as the days go by; there was a bit of a paradox about the trip…..

I recall the saying…give me a rock to stand on, and I would change the world…well…I went in for a what was essentially a Change management program…and it was in a city called Abéokuta…meaning, under the rock!

…and I saw quite a number of interesting people under that rock…..

…my memoirs will unfold….gradually….

I remember you…

From the Days before days were made, from the Time before time became, when I was with Him in whose likeness I am,

I remember you…

 

From before the foundation of Terra Firma, when the celestial was yet to conceive the Terrestrial,

I remember you…

 

From when I stood at the shores of eternity, gazing at the waves of destiny as they crashed upon the rocks of time,

I remember you…

 

From when their was neither You nor I ,but the united essence called  ‘man’…when I was you and You were me and We were us,

I remember you.

 

 

Time tells all, as time itself has proven,

times may change, and they frequently do,

But Time remains constant, immovable, eternal.

It is the divine oracle which tells us what has been, what is, and what is to be.

 

Time reveals all, as time itself has proven.

Thoughts may be hidden, as  they often are,

but time is the laboratory in which they are distilled

and synthesized into action.

It is the translator of covert to overt.

 

Time changes all, as time itself has proven.

Feelings may run deep, convictions could hold strong,

But time is the catalyst that changes them all.

It is the wind tunnel which tests the integrity of the soul.

It is heaven’s threshing floor.

What Time is it?

 ‘’Following the outrage which greeted the renovation contract for the official residences of the Speaker of the House and her deputy, Nguroje, the management of the National Assembly yesterday moved to clear the air on the controversy. It confirmed that out of the N579, 216,417.50 budgeted for the contract, only N52million, representing 25%, had been paid to the contractors handling the projects.”…

….. The Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Nasir Arab who confirmed this yesterday at the National Assembly complex said “the scope of works at the residences of the presiding officers of the House of Representatives namely, the Honorable Speaker and the Deputy Speaker is not confined to mere renovation but entails a comprehensive upgrade of the affected premises to the standard that befits their status.”

from Thisday Newspaper. 03-09-07

It never ceases to amaze me…the crassness and sheer stupidity which oozes from the greater majority of people in positions of leadership in Nigeria!

Our honourable speaker and her deputy, in order to perform their duties to the impoverished people of Nigeria, needed to have their official accommodations ‘’renovated”….no problem with that..no problem at all, they deserve to have standard and comfortable housings, we can’t begrudge them that.It would be unfair.

What I can not fathom however, is how a whopping N579Million could have been budgeted for that singular purpose!…an amount in excess of half a billion Naira!

I would love to see the various bidding documents submitted by contractors for these contracts…I would like to see the work schedule for the proposed renovations and furnishings….I would love to see the proforma invoices for the ‘’fittings” and ‘’furniture”….I would love to have professional Realtor take a look at the property in question and give me an opinion…..

And then I would love to have a chat with Madam Speaker herself….I have some questions or her….

Madam Speaker, I understand that the budget for your own accommodation was about N270million?…I guess that would make it a state of the art house then wouldn’t it?

Forgive me ma, but if I may ask…how many cottage hospitals (lets not go into their condition yet) are in your constituency?

How many ‘’standard and befitting” primary schools are there?

Have you taken an inventory of primary school age children from your constituency who are not in school because their poor parents can not afford the meagre fees because of poverty?

…and I’m also wondering ma, if you were to build or buy a state of the art mansion for yourself…with your own money…how much do you think you would reasonably expect to pay for it? Do you honestly believe that paying the sum of N270.0million for the RENOVATION of your living quarters is a fair to the people of your constituency and Nigerian in general? Considering that the average Nigerian lives on maybe $2 a day, and the amount you earmarked for your housing alone is the equivalent of $2.1million.

Do you realise how many SCHOLARSHIPS $2million would pay for?! Do you realize how much it would fetch in medicare for your constituency?…oh, I’m sorry …you have to be comfortable first, before you think of all those trivialities …I understand.

Anyway, while you lounge in your Italian leather settees watching plasma TV’s, when you are soaking in your Jacuzzis and Saunas, after rolling in your  Persian Rugs, and whatever other vanities have been purchased in the renovation exercise….( I’m believing that you would not stoop so low as to over invoice a contract so you would get some cash out of it)…

While you do whatever it is that people do in a N270.0million mansion…..remember this.

Remember that posterity will judge you. Remember that there are some of us who are not quite as forgetful as the average Nigerian…we are watching, and we will not forget.

Remember that when all is said and done…you are no worse than the men who lay in wait on the highways for innocent passers by.

Remember that God is a faithful judge…no sin will go unpunished…every wound will leave a scar…what you sow is what you will reap. Every one who partakes of your filthy, stolen wealth will partake of the wages of sin.

I hope that you would take the honourable way out and simply resign from office.

 

“…and there was light…”

There are reasons in the heart of every man, which defy reason…there are answers in the spirit of everyone, which transcend logic… there are places we could visit, which have no geo-spatial co-ordinates…

We all exist within the boundaries of time and space, but our lives must be lived beyond the limitations of the terrestrial….

It is imperative that we should extend our scope of perception beyond the panorama of our eyesight….we must condition ourselves to see beyond the visible…to make contact with the intangible…
We must understand the purpose for our sensory interaction with the physical…it is merely functional..we can not allow our senses to rule…dominate…and control…

It is quintessential for us to always have at the back of our minds the fact that we are not mere men..we are the chosen…the very elect…this is pure truth…it can not be over emphasized… nor can it be stressed enough….

The power of vision can only be harnessed when we begin to realize that there is more to us than meets the eye……..

that we are more than we appear to be….
…that life is beyond the physical….
…that truth transcends logic….

We merely exist at the mercy of circumstantial imperatives ……until we awake to the realities of our celestial heritage……until we harness the privilege of our divine antecedents…..

We will only begin to break the surface tension of our collective and individual pool of  creativity and potential when we condition ourselves …

..to grasp the intangible.
…to hear the inaudible.
….to conceive the invisible.
…..to comprehend the  indeterminate.

Look!…it is Dawn!

Call it a peephole into my heart’s cry for my country..call it the ranting of an idealist..call it whatever…BUT, when you are done…think about it for a while.

This is what I believe.

We are all a product of the beliefs that we hold to be true.

I do not believe in coincidences; neither do I believe that our lives and destinies are shaped by a series of random, uncoordinated events. I hold strongly that nothing just happens…that the string of events that make up the timeline of life are all divinely orchestrated

I have believed for a long time that our country Nigeria, which also recently became a year older, is the cornerstone of God’s ultimate agenda for the black race. From the foundation of this great country which many people have ignorantly described as the product of colonial political engineering, God’s plans and intentions have implicitly influenced the happenings around us. His unmistakable signature is woven into the fabric of our nationhood; clearly visible to the discerning eye.

I believe that there is a reason why the second stanza of our national anthem is in fact, a prayer. I believe that these lines were divinely inspired. A pointer to the divine antecedents of this country.

These words transcend creed  and religion so that their true meaning will not be lost in the religious prejudice that so often rears its head amongst us

O God of Creation, direct our noble cause,

Guide our leaders right.

Help our youth, the truth to know.

In love and honesty to grow.

 And living just and true, Great lofty heights attain,

to build a nation where peace and justice shall reign.

And what is this noble cause, some may ask? The answer lies in the last line.

This is the cause for which our founding fathers lived, fought and died.

This is our ‘noble cause’.

The quest for a nation where peace and justice reign supreme.

I ask…are we still on the quest?…when we recite that Anthem and that Pleadge…do we do itwith integrity…or are we just lying to the last person we should lie to..our very own selves?

I believe that there is yet a remnant in Nigeria…a young, rennaissance oriented generation which is intent on influencing positive change around here…

…my charge to you is this…

We ignore our predecessors to our own loss…..we overlook our antecedents at our own peril because every vision of the future must be predicated on hindsight…. foresight and insight…that we may not repeat the mistakes of the past, nor ignore the challenges of the present. That we may see beyond our present horizons…

I will stop there for now…

Your thoughts please?

Welcome to my Blog, I am Dawnchild. Amongst other things, I will share my thoughts and feelings, about me, about Nigeria and the World around me. You will agree with some of my views  and you will oppose some of them; that is the way of the world.

 In any case , I hope you will find a little inspiration here and  a little insight there.

Here comes the dawn!