Only the best is good enough for us.
~ Bishop Samuel Adjai (Ajayi) Crowther (c. 1807 – December 31, 1891)
I doubt if you and I would have been here if Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther had not been kidnapped by Muslim Fulani Slave hunters at the age of 12 in 1821. If Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther had not been exchanged for a horse in a slave trade by barter and later sold to the Portuguese slave traders, Providence would not have rescued him from the Portuguese slave ship, the Esperanza Felix, through the British anti-slavery warships, the Myrmidon and Iphigenia. Bishop Samuel Jayi Crowther would not have been the translator of the Holy Bible into the Yoruba language and compiled a Yoruba dictionary with a grammar book between 1843 and 1850.
Most Igbos are ignorant of the historical fact that the first book in Igbo, Isoama-Ibo, a primer, was written in 1857 by Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther. Then, Bishop Ajayi Crowther wrote a primer in the Nupe language in 1860, and a full grammar book with vocabulary of the Nupe in 1864.
Nigeria has not appreciated the great legacy of Bishop Ajayi Crowther in the history of modern civilization and the nation building of Nigeria.
The legacy of knowledge is the greatest heritage to bequeathe to every age.
The ignorance of the lessons of history is often responsible for the prevalence of decadence in the society, because we have failed to learn the lessons of life from the tragic mistakes of the past.
How do we learn from the lessons of history when most of us are non-literates or intellectual illiterates and intellectual hypocrites?
Those who cannot read and write are over 76 million in Nigeria and those who can read and write, but fail to learn the vital lessons of life from reading and writing have worsened the calamity of the Nigerian society by being bad examples for the illiterate majority. The so called Nigerian elites are the intellectual illiterates and intellectual hypocrites. They are mostly graduates of the tertiary schools, but they behave like primitive natives. Like a bank manager whose unhygenic manners are so repulsive that you wonder if he ever saw the four walls of a university. Many of them have very dirty toilets that you cannot feel comfortable whenever you visit them. Others cannot converse in English without making you question their knowledge of the language.
I know one man who is 25 years old and a student in one of the Nigerian polytechnics, but he could not read the essay I wrote when I was only 13.
The appalling state of Nigeria is caused by the prevalence of academic decadence, intellectual ignorance or what I prefer to call intellectual illiteracy.
Nigeria today is a nation of intellectual illiterates and intellectual hypocrites.
How do we define intellectual illiteracy?
As described by Christopher Lasch in The New Illiteracy,
“Mass education, which began as a promising attempt to democratize the higher culture of the privileged classes, has ended by stupefying the privileged themselves. Modern society has achieved unprecedented rates of formal literacy, but at the same time it has produced new forms of illiteracy.”
Christopher Lasch was addressing a similar problem in America.
He noted that the standards of academic education have been deteriorating even at the Ivy League universities. He made references to falling standards in Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia, while the undergraduates and graduates of these highly esteemed universities are still posing and posturing as status symbols of privilege and prestige in the hypocritical American society and the less privileged are being fooled by their conceit and deceit, because they cannot tell the difference. An illiterate or semi-literate cannot tell the difference between the literati and dilettanti.
Mr. Lasch mentioned said a faculty committee at Harvard reported:
"The Harvard faculty does not care about teaching”. According to a study of general education at Columbia, teachers have lost "their common sense of what kind of ignorance is unacceptable”. As a result, "Students reading Rabelais's description of civil disturbances ascribe them to the French Revolution. A class of twenty-five had never heard of the Oedipus complex --or of Oedipus. Only one student in a class of fifteen could date the Russian Revolution within a decade.”"
~ Christoher Lasch / The New Illiteracy
The situation in Nigeria is worse.
The terrible state of Nigerian universities can be traced to the ignorance of previous leaders who misappropriated the revenue allocations meant for the sustainable development of higher institutions in Nigeria and neglected the welfare of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the students.
Nigerian universities have been relegated to the bottom of the accredited universities in the world. No Nigerian university is even rated among the best 1, 000 universities in the world and only one Nigerian university ranked among the top 50 universities in Africa at the 44th position.
Nigerian administrators neglected Nigerian universities, sent their children to the best colleges and universities in America and the UK, and then misappropriated revenue allocations to establish their own private universities. But none of their private universities even made the list of the best universities in the world in the latest global rankings. One of the best private universities in Nigeria, the Christian Covenant University is at the bottom of the rungs in Africa at the 98th Position,
Establishing private colleges and universities is not the solution to the falling standards of education in Nigeria, but making sure that the public colleges and universities are well equipped with the basic facilities and utilities, such as modern classes, laboratories, hostels with clean toilets and qualified academic staff. Most of the teachers and lecturers in Nigerian secondary schools, colleges and universities are not certified teachers. Having a degree is not enough qualification to teach. The teachers must be certified like the graduates of accountancy who must be certifed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) before they can become competent professional accountants.
When the academic faculty is already faulty, then the quality of education will not be up to the required global standards. Poor teachers will produce poor students.
Before anyone can teach, you must have a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university. You must have completed teacher training through an approved program and you must have successfully completed the appropriate teacher certification tests for the subject and grade level you wish to teach
Investigations have shown that many of the teachers in Nigeria cheated to pass their exams and dubbed projects to earn their diplomas and degrees. When they fail to get the dream jobs in banks or oil companies, they turn to the private schools, colleges and universities springing up daily and they are often employed by these insitutions that are in desperate need for tutors to teach the thousands of boys and girls already given admission. These private institutions have already charged exorbitant school fees in thousands of naira like the so called elitist schools charging over a million naira per session for a single pupil in Nigeria!
The private schools are all over the place, competing with the churches for every available space in the towns and cities in Nigeria. To know how phony they are, you can hardly find them in the rural areas where education is needed most. They are all after the money.
Opening private schools and churches are the fastest get-rich quick schemes in Nigeria today.
To find out the truth, cross check the academic qualifications of the teaching staff and compare them with the standard criteria for teachers in America and the UK. Many of them will fail the common examination for the certification of teachers.
Dr. Suleiman Kano, ASUU President, in a news report by the Nigerian Tribune on June 17, 2007, said:
“I think we should ask ourselves this pertinent question. Do we want to produce graduates for the sake of doing so or we want to produce quality graduates? In the latest ranking of world universities, no Nigerian university made the list of the first 1,000 in the world. This is because of the rot in the system. The government should address the issue and rid the system of the rot. Proscribing ASUU will not solve the problem.”
“This is a country where the government itself says we need 47,000 university lecturers, now we have 16,000. What are we doing about getting the balance? Good students do not want to join academic staff, they prefer to work elsewhere. Many medical students do not get to see, let alone use, the equipment they will need when they start practice. What kind of graduates are we producing?”
The rot in Nigerian education did not start yesterday, but decades ago. The falling standards can be traced to the late 1970s as chronicled by Professor Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike in his novel, Expo’ 77 published in 1981.
I am afraid that the same Nigerian secondary school pupils who engaged in the scandalous examination malpractices of the late 1970s and were never prosecuted are now the masterminds of electoral malpractices and perpetrators of other horrible and terrible crimes of corruption, the plague of the nation.
As Jesus Christ said, by their fruits you shall know them.
Millions of Nigerians have been studying and graduating from Nigerian colleges and universities and yet most of them are still intellectual illiterates and intellectual hypocrites, because most of them have been going to school for the wrong reasons. The first reason is for the mere acquisition of paper qualification for the sole purpose of social class struggle in their pursuit of titular status symbols of the social class hierarchy. To secure a dream job, earn a seven-digit salary, acquire a dream house, a dream car and to crown it all, acquire a dream wife or simply marry a woman to bear children who will bear their name and survive them when then die. Finis. Most of them are not thinking of how the acquisition of modern academic or professional education can be the best application for the advancement of modern civilization and as a vital tool for the nation building of a New Nigeria in the leadership of Africa among the comity of nations in the world.
We have over 20 million graduates of Nigerian colleges and universities who can boast of having first and second degrees and that they have written excellent papers, but they cannot boast of other practical achievements we can actually use as indices of sustainable human development in Nigeria. Most of them leave no other legacies than their domestic liabilities.
The majority of Nigerian contributing more to the GDP and GNP are those without any academic qualification. The Nigerian farmers, traders and artisans and not the Nigerian bankers, lawyers, engineers and their fellow so-called educated elites.
The majority of these so-called educated elites are also the leading intellectual illiterates and intellectual hypocrites posing and posturing with false airs and graces, because most of them cannot tell the difference between Chris Abani and Helon Habila or even tell us what makes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie different from Sefi Atta in contemporary Nigerian literature. Do not waste your time asking them why nobody won the last Nigeria LNG Prize for Science, because they will disappoint you. Yet, they can tell you the names of all the players in the first team of Arsenal Football Club or Manchester United Football Club of England. They can also tell you the full details of bizarre pornographic scenarios of the last Big Brother Africa on cable TV and their fellow intellectual illiterates aping American Pop Idols on Sound City and Channel O and corrupting the ignorant and naïve Nigerian teenage boys and girls with their psychedelic and pornographic songs and musical videos.
The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has failed to regulate what to broadcast and what should not even be authorized on any radio or television in Nigeria.
The Nigerian lawmakers are busy fighting and slumping over contracts on how to embezzle the revenue allocations and other public funds, so they are still confused about how to address the problems of governance in Nigeria.
The same intellectual illiterates and intellectual hypocrites are in the Nigerian banks, oil companies, insurance companies, and other corporations, so they cannot address the decadence in Nigerian education and social infrastructures. In fact, they are exploiting the situation like the capitalists fishing in the troubled waters in the Niger Delta.
The banks employ the prettiest female graduates to be trained and used as marketing executives and sent on the mission to hook millionaires to deposit their millions of naira and dollars in their banks. They do not care if the monies were stolen or not. One of these hot legs employed by one of the banks at the zenith of Nigerian banking met me in the office of a young millionaire and was shocked at first sight. Why was she shocked? I knew her as the first daughter of strict Christian parents and here she was soliciting for the favour of a young millionaire who was happily married. She was already willing to date and mate with him. He confided in me that she was sexually harassing him and guess what? She was already engaged to be married to a man who thought he was lucky to have found such a young woman as his fiancée. What an unforeseen romantic tragedy.
The so-called Nigerian elites are the most selfish citizens in Nigeria. Their foolish pride is awesome. As Professor Pat Utomi noted in an interview on the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) published in The Guardian on Sunday of February 3, 2008, that we cannot make a sustained progress, because of the following problems:
§ The Average Nigerian Has Entitlement Mentality
§ We Have No Respect For Dignity Of Human Person
§ We Neglect Culture As A Critical Factor To Progress
§ We Have No Work Ethic and
§ We Mouth Rule of Law, but Operate “Bigmanism”
The last problem, “Bigmanism”, is in fact the worst, because it is the rat race for “Bigmanism” that makes Nigerians to become corrupt, from the Ivory Towers to the Corridors of Power and from the street to the pulpit. The lust for perishable social status symbols drives most Nigerians to exploit all means possible to acquire their dream cars, dream houses, dream wives and other highly coveted trophies of vain glory at all costs, without respect for the rule of law and without scruples.
From the social anomie of intellectual illiteracy and intellectual hypocrisy, let us address the spiritual anomie of spiritual hypocrisy as demonstrated and exhibited in the Christian churches and Muslim mosques.
Hypocrisy is simply fooling yourself while thinking you are fooling others.
The spiritual hypocrites use religion as the camouflage of their dubious lives. They pay lip service and eye service to God, but are incorrigible cheats, liars, crooks, rogues, prostitutes, and other evil fringe elements.
How would you describe the politicians who claim to be Christians and Muslims, but engage in rigging elections and the misappropriations of revenue allocations?
How would you describe a woman who claimed to be a Christian and swore in her oath of office to abide by the Federal Constitution of Nigeria, but within 100 days in office, she was already engaged in corrupt practices?
Are these Nigerians cursed to do evil?
How can anyone who claims to be a Christian or Muslim pay an adult employee N7, 000 (seven thousand naira) only monthly in the present harsh economic realities in Nigeria?
N7, 000 is less than N300 per day.
Can any adult live on N300 per day in Nigeria?
For feeding, housing, clothing, transportation, health care and water supply?
The same so called Christian or Muslim employer will later go to the church or mosque to thank God with a N500, 000 (five hundred thousand naira) donation to the pastor or Imam.
Some are even reluctant to pay their poor workers the monthly salaries, but they are praised in churches or mosques as generous and pious members?
How can a Christian or Muslim maltreat the employees and underpay them, so that they would remain poor and underpaid and cannot even improve their living standards?
A true Christian and Muslim will treat the employees as God commanded us to love our neighbours as we love ourselves.
I cannot send my children to one of the best schools and deprive my employee of the means to do the same for his or her children.
A true God fearing wealthy employer will sponsor the children of the poor employee and treat them, as you would want your children to be treated and not treating them like sub humans or even like those Frantz Fanon called The Wretched of the Earth.
What the spiritual hypocrites call class struggle or the rat race is nothing more than intellectual arrogance and ignorance.
I have seen the parade of ignorance
In the masquerade of arrogance.
Look at the life of Jesus Christ and emulate him or stop pretending to be a Christian when God knows that you are not.
Ninety-nine percent of those who claim to be “Christians” in Nigeria live unchristian lives shamelessly. There is nothing Christ-like about them, they have contravened every command Jesus Christ gave those who believe in him, and how they should live their lives after him.
I have seen childish and foolish mannerisms among those who claim to be educated Christians in their daily lives.
They do not even respect their elders and cannot even pick up the broom to sweep their surroundings clean, but when they go to church, they are genuflecting and prostrating before the pastor and rushing to clean the pews all in their childish and foolish conceit and deceit. What they would not do in their foolish pride at home, they pretend to do in the office or church to curry favour or to impress those they think will never know or see their true colours.
I have traveled and stayed in four regions of Nigeria and I have been active in Christian evangelism since my childhood. I have worked for both Christian employers and Muslim employers for years. I see little or no differences in the characters of these so-called Christians and pagans in Nigeria. The only difference I have seen is the different places of their religious worship, but as the so-called Christians leave their church and the pagans leave their shrine, they end up in the same company of partners in crime in the public sector and private sector. In fact, the pagans fear their juju more than the so-called Christians fear the Almighty God.
Pagans who swear on their juju hardly break their vows, but the so-called Christians break their vows even before the sunset.
Who is fooling whom?
The fools who think they are fooling others.
Personally, I would be pleased to make a public display of such spiritual hypocrites as Jesus Christ did. but by their fruits, you shall know them.
Christianity is not by force.
The churches and mosques are more interested in the members who can give them more offerings and tithes and other donations.
The fact is, most Nigerians judge themselves by the amount of money or status symbols they have been able to acquire or steal.
The moneybags of the rat race and the title chasers are often eulogized and honoured with chieftaincy titles and other awards, while in most cases they have contributed little or nothing to the development of the Nigerian society, besides the donations they made to the church or mosque.
How many Nigerian Christian or Muslim millionaires or billionaires have built free homes for the poor and needy Nigerians who need comfortable accommodation? But the same Nigerians gape and mope at wealthy Americans building and giving free homes and vehicles to their poor and needy Americans in the Extreme Makeover, Home Edition on ABC TV. But how many of them are emulating such good charities? What are they copying? They are busy aping Big Brother House where a young Nigerian woman shamelessly exhibited her naked body to the whole universe in her desperation to win $100, 000 (one hundred thousand dollars) only, but did not win in the end. Tomorrow, a man would be proud to marry her?
Or the Nigerians aping the epileptic dancers on American musical videos, but do not know how to emulate the young Americans inventing technological wonders online and offline.
Is it not a great shame that Nigerians know how to copy all the bad things in America, but fail to copy the good ones?
Now the Nigerian apes are calling every occasion red carpet event, without any clue of the history of laying red carpet for dignitaries. Dummies are walking on the red carpet in Nigeria.
What awards have we given the most brilliant graduates from Nigerian colleges and universities?
What is wrong in giving $100, 000 (one hundred thousand dollars) only, to the most outstanding Nigerian student every year?
Must they strip and bathe naked on TV before we can call them stars and reward them?
Must they ape American musicians and singers and lip-sync to computerized music before we can applaud them and give them awards?
We prefer to celebrate Reality TV prostitutes, gigolos, musical illiterates, and other fringe elements than celebrate Nigerian geniuses in colleges and universities and the unsung geniuses on the streets.
The list of the agonies of the ironies of the anomie plaguing Nigeria is longer, but the solution is quite simple and short.
We must celebrate our geniuses, not intellectual illiterates, and intellectual hypocrites.
We must celebrate meritocracy and not mediocrity.
We must stop wasting over $70 million daily on recharge cards for the GSM phones in useless and unproductive conversations and imagine what would happen to Nigeria if we spend only half of $70 million on buying the works of remarkable Nigerian writers, composers and inventors monthly.
The best way we can appreciate God is by the appreciation of the wonders of His creation in humans.
The developed countries are rich, because they have been appreciating themselves more than the underdeveloped countries.
What you sow is what you are going to reap eventually.
Our banks and other corporations must stop wasting millions of naira on the sponsorships of immoral and non-intellectual TV shows and other extravagant events and spend the money on seed grants for Nigerians who can start cottage industries to boost the Nigerian economy.
Dr. Pat Utomi has many success stories of how charity transformed the lives of many poor widows in Lagos and helped them to educate and train their children to overcome their poverty and become living testimonies of prosperity through wealth creation projects.
We must be honest, transparent, and stop paying eye service and lip service to the best practices of work ethics, values, and virtues of a better Nigerian society.
Leadership is best by example.
We must not compromise with bad people or bad leaders.
We must reject bad people and bad leaders.
God said as written in the Holy Bible, that we must not accept the persons of the wicked.But ironically, wicked people have become the best friends and business partners of most of the so-called Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.
We all know the truth, so let us stop all these nonsense in Nigeria and do the right thing always and do that which is best for Nigeria and Nigerians, because as Bishop Ajayi Crowther said, only the best is good enough for us, so we should not settle for less.
God bless Nigeria.
N.B:
Read the reactions on Nairaland
Monday, March 2, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Audio: Broad-Based Humanitarian Coalition Unveils Roadmap to End Global Hunger
Audio: Broad-Based Humanitarian Coalition Unveils Roadmap to End Global Hunger
Seeking to address a growing economic crisis that threatens to destroy the health and nutrition of millions of families worldwide, the nation's top humanitarian aid agencies joined Representatives Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) today.
Seeking to address a growing economic crisis that threatens to destroy the health and nutrition of millions of families worldwide, the nation's top humanitarian aid agencies joined Representatives Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) today.
News Video Report: Africa's Cinemas Go Dark in Ouagadougou
The FESPACO film festival opening this weekend is an increasingly rare chance for cinema buffs in Africa to see works made by fellow Africans. Across the continent, movie theatres are going dark, victims to the flood of cheap DVDs. In Senegal's capital there are almost no movie theatres left.
U.S. Preventive Medicine(R), ParkwayHealth Sign Affiliation Agreement to Jointly Deliver Preventive Medicine Services in Asia
27 Feb 2009 00:10 Africa/Lagos
U.S. Preventive Medicine(R), ParkwayHealth Sign Affiliation Agreement to Jointly Deliver Preventive Medicine Services in Asia
ParkwayHealth Joins the Global Prevention Network(TM) as Asian Affiliate
NEW YORK and SINGAPORE, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Preventive Medicine(R), a leader in disease prevention services, has signed an affiliation agreement with Parkway Group Healthcare Pte Ltd, a leading healthcare group based in Singapore and a subsidiary of Parkway Holdings Limited, to jointly participate in preventive medicine programs throughout Asia. Under the agreement, ParkwayHealth will become the Asian affiliate in The Global Prevention Network(TM), a select group of preeminent health care institutions with recognized preventive and executive health programs.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080506/NETU129LOGO )
U. S. Preventive Medicine and ParkwayHealth will collaborate in the delivery of preventive medicine programs, including wellness and disease management services to corporate executives, employees of sponsoring employers, and consumer members of The Prevention Plan(TM). As the Asian affiliate in The Global Prevention Network, ParkwayHealth will serve as a local referral partner for The Prevention Plan and executive health programs as well as an educational partner in U.S. Preventive Medicine's international outreach efforts. Affiliates in the Global Prevention Network serve as referral partners in their local markets, enabling U.S. Preventive Medicine to provide both a national and global prevention solution for employers, insurers and governments.
ParkwayHealth operates 15 hospitals in Asia, as well as 48 International Patient Assistance Centers (IPAC) throughout the world.
U.S. Preventive Medicine, an emerging leader in prevention, offers a suite of powerful prevention, early disease detection and chronic condition management programs, including its groundbreaking The Prevention Plan, that improve health outcomes while reducing health care costs. The Prevention Plan is the first-of-its kind benefit concept solely focused on preventive care, enabling individuals to determine their top health risks and receive a customized plan and ongoing personal attention to lower those risks and become healthier.
"ParkwayHealth is an ideal partner in helping us provide practical solutions for preventive care and disease management for The Prevention Plan members internationally," said Christopher Fey, Chairman and CEO of U.S. Preventive Medicine. "Prevention is a movement that is gaining momentum around the world and is going to revolutionize the way health care is delivered. We are thrilled to be working with ParkwayHealth."
"Our affiliation with U.S. Preventive Medicine will help us better educate and encourage our patients to take control of their health, and allow us to provide preventive and follow-up care to a new population of prevention-minded consumers," said Swee Yong Peng, CEO of the Primary Care division of ParkwayHealth. "We are firmly committed to prevention and we look forward to a fruitful working relationship with U.S. Preventive Medicine."
About U.S. Preventive Medicine(R)
U.S. Preventive Medicine(R), a privately-owned global prevention services company with clients nationwide and the United Kingdom, provides primary, secondary and tertiary clinical prevention services to government, employers and consumers that are data-driven and outcomes-oriented. Company products include the world's first preventive health benefit,
The Prevention Plan(TM), available to buy or test drive at, www.USPreventiveMedicine.com and www.ThePreventionPlan.com.
About Parkway Holdings Limited
Parkway Holdings Limited owns Parkway Group Healthcare Pte Ltd and Parkway Hospitals Singapore Pte Ltd which operates East Shore Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Parkway Cancer Centre and ParkwayHealth Day Surgery and Medical Centre. The Company also owns Parkway Shenton Pte Ltd, a major provider of primary healthcare services; Medi-Rad Associates Ltd, a leading radiology services provider; Parkway Laboratory Services Ltd, a major provider of laboratory services, and also operates 48 International Patient Assistance Centres (IPAC) across the globe. For more information, please visit the website at www.parkwayholdings.com.
About ParkwayHealth
ParkwayHealth is a leading healthcare group based in Singapore, operating 15 hospitals with more than 3,600 beds in Asia, as well as patient assistance centres throughout the world. It has an extensive network across Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East with operations in Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. With a team of more than 1,300 accredited specialists covering 40 different specialties, such as orthopedics, cardiology, hematology and neurology. ParkwayHealth is committed to its vision to be a global leader in value-based integrated care. For more information, please visit the website at www.parkwayhealth.com.
Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080506/NETU129LOGO
http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: U.S. Preventive Medicine
CONTACT: Kathy Fleming of U.S. Preventive Medicine, +1-904-562-6239,
+1-214-548-9083, kfleming@USPreventiveMedicine.com; or Christopher Teo of
Parkway Holdings Limited, +65-6349-5763, +65-9724-5664,
christopher.teo@parkway.sg
Web Site: U.S. Preventive Medicine(R)
U.S. Preventive Medicine(R), ParkwayHealth Sign Affiliation Agreement to Jointly Deliver Preventive Medicine Services in Asia
ParkwayHealth Joins the Global Prevention Network(TM) as Asian Affiliate
NEW YORK and SINGAPORE, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Preventive Medicine(R), a leader in disease prevention services, has signed an affiliation agreement with Parkway Group Healthcare Pte Ltd, a leading healthcare group based in Singapore and a subsidiary of Parkway Holdings Limited, to jointly participate in preventive medicine programs throughout Asia. Under the agreement, ParkwayHealth will become the Asian affiliate in The Global Prevention Network(TM), a select group of preeminent health care institutions with recognized preventive and executive health programs.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080506/NETU129LOGO )
U. S. Preventive Medicine and ParkwayHealth will collaborate in the delivery of preventive medicine programs, including wellness and disease management services to corporate executives, employees of sponsoring employers, and consumer members of The Prevention Plan(TM). As the Asian affiliate in The Global Prevention Network, ParkwayHealth will serve as a local referral partner for The Prevention Plan and executive health programs as well as an educational partner in U.S. Preventive Medicine's international outreach efforts. Affiliates in the Global Prevention Network serve as referral partners in their local markets, enabling U.S. Preventive Medicine to provide both a national and global prevention solution for employers, insurers and governments.
ParkwayHealth operates 15 hospitals in Asia, as well as 48 International Patient Assistance Centers (IPAC) throughout the world.
U.S. Preventive Medicine, an emerging leader in prevention, offers a suite of powerful prevention, early disease detection and chronic condition management programs, including its groundbreaking The Prevention Plan, that improve health outcomes while reducing health care costs. The Prevention Plan is the first-of-its kind benefit concept solely focused on preventive care, enabling individuals to determine their top health risks and receive a customized plan and ongoing personal attention to lower those risks and become healthier.
"ParkwayHealth is an ideal partner in helping us provide practical solutions for preventive care and disease management for The Prevention Plan members internationally," said Christopher Fey, Chairman and CEO of U.S. Preventive Medicine. "Prevention is a movement that is gaining momentum around the world and is going to revolutionize the way health care is delivered. We are thrilled to be working with ParkwayHealth."
"Our affiliation with U.S. Preventive Medicine will help us better educate and encourage our patients to take control of their health, and allow us to provide preventive and follow-up care to a new population of prevention-minded consumers," said Swee Yong Peng, CEO of the Primary Care division of ParkwayHealth. "We are firmly committed to prevention and we look forward to a fruitful working relationship with U.S. Preventive Medicine."
About U.S. Preventive Medicine(R)
U.S. Preventive Medicine(R), a privately-owned global prevention services company with clients nationwide and the United Kingdom, provides primary, secondary and tertiary clinical prevention services to government, employers and consumers that are data-driven and outcomes-oriented. Company products include the world's first preventive health benefit,
The Prevention Plan(TM), available to buy or test drive at, www.USPreventiveMedicine.com and www.ThePreventionPlan.com.
About Parkway Holdings Limited
Parkway Holdings Limited owns Parkway Group Healthcare Pte Ltd and Parkway Hospitals Singapore Pte Ltd which operates East Shore Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Parkway Cancer Centre and ParkwayHealth Day Surgery and Medical Centre. The Company also owns Parkway Shenton Pte Ltd, a major provider of primary healthcare services; Medi-Rad Associates Ltd, a leading radiology services provider; Parkway Laboratory Services Ltd, a major provider of laboratory services, and also operates 48 International Patient Assistance Centres (IPAC) across the globe. For more information, please visit the website at www.parkwayholdings.com.
About ParkwayHealth
ParkwayHealth is a leading healthcare group based in Singapore, operating 15 hospitals with more than 3,600 beds in Asia, as well as patient assistance centres throughout the world. It has an extensive network across Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East with operations in Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. With a team of more than 1,300 accredited specialists covering 40 different specialties, such as orthopedics, cardiology, hematology and neurology. ParkwayHealth is committed to its vision to be a global leader in value-based integrated care. For more information, please visit the website at www.parkwayhealth.com.
Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080506/NETU129LOGO
http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: U.S. Preventive Medicine
CONTACT: Kathy Fleming of U.S. Preventive Medicine, +1-904-562-6239,
+1-214-548-9083, kfleming@USPreventiveMedicine.com; or Christopher Teo of
Parkway Holdings Limited, +65-6349-5763, +65-9724-5664,
christopher.teo@parkway.sg
Web Site: U.S. Preventive Medicine(R)
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Samsung Electronics and International Youth Foundation Announce Employability Projects for Young Nigerians
26 Feb 2009 10:00 Africa/Lagos
Samsung Offers 'Real Dreams' for Youth
LAGOS, Nigeria, February 26/PRNewswire/ --
- Samsung Electronics and International Youth Foundation Announce Employability Projects for Young Nigerians
The International Youth Foundation (IYF), in partnership with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, recently unveiled "Real Dreams" -- a youth employability program in Nigeria as a part of the company's corporate social responsibility commitment in the region.
The "Real Dreams" program aims to increase economic activity in the region, particularly by promoting job skills and preparing young people for successful, long-term careers.
The program will be implemented in cooperation with three local non-governmental, educational institutions: the Afterschool Graduate Development Centre (AGDC); FATE Foundation; and Pan-African University. Each organization will implement youth employment and development programs focused on delivering training in life skills, information and communication technologies, and entrepreneurship as well as providing work experience through internships. The program, which will potentially benefit over 600 young Nigerians, will commence in February and continue throughout the year.
"Over 60% of Nigeria's population is under the age of 25; and unemployment for youth ages 15-24 is about 20%," said Kyungtae Bae, President of Samsung Middle East and Africa. "Through these programs, we hope to empower Nigeria's young people and prepare them to compete for jobs, and fulfill their dreams and aspirations for a better future for themselves and their communities."
"Helping today's youth get decent jobs is a critical step forward, not only in terms of improving their own prospects, but also positively impacting the social and economic development of their country," said William S. Reese, IYF President and CEO. "We are deeply grateful to Samsung for its commitment to provide these young people with the skills and motivation they need to contribute to Africa's revitalization in the years to come."
Samsung and the IYF announced their partnership in November 2008 to jointly address youth unemployment in Africa. Under the agreement, Samsung and IYF will find ways to utilize the company's cutting-edge technology and expertise to help address the employment needs of Africa's youth.
Description of the projects:
Afterschool Graduate Development Centre (AGDC)
To help address high unemployment rates among university and polytechnic graduates, the Samsung Real Dreams program will enhance the job opportunities of 240 Nigerian youth, ages 23 to 32. Working with the Afterschool Graduate Development Centre (AGDC) in Lagos, the program will provide employability training and internships as well as career development and job placement services to young people from six regions of the country.
FATE Foundation
Providing young entrepreneurs with training, mentorship, technical assistance, and business development services so that they can start and run their own small businesses is the goal of this Samsung Real Dreams program, being implemented in Lagos and Port Harcourt by FATE Foundation. Approximately 270 disadvantaged Nigerian youth, ages 16 to 35, will benefit.
Pan-African University's School of Media and Communication
Working with the Pan-African University's School of Media and Communication in Lagos, the Samsung Real Dreams program will enhance employment opportunities in the media industry for 100 disadvantaged Nigerian youth, ages 21 to 35, through classroom activities and practical hands-on projects. Participants will benefit from training sessions in new media, creativity, innovative thinking, entrepreneurship and life skills, as well as job placement and business development support services.
About Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2007 consolidated sales of US$105 billion. Employing approximately 150,000 people in 134 offices in 62 countries, the company consists of two main business units: Digital Media & Communications and Device Solutions. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.
About International Youth Foundation: The International Youth Foundation (IYF) invests in the extraordinary potential of young people. Founded in 1990, IYF builds and maintains a worldwide community of businesses, governments, and civil society organizations committed to empowering youth to be healthy, productive, and engaged citizens. IYF programs are catalysts of change that help young people obtain a quality education, gain employability skills, make healthy choices, and improve their communities. To learn more visit www.iyfnet.org.
Source: International Youth Foundation
Jakyung Kang of Samsung Electronics, +1-971-4364-8704, Jakyung.k@samsung.com; or Jim Peirce, Vice President Planning and Outreach of the International Youth Foundation, +1-410-951-1606, jim@iyfnet.org
Releases displayed in Africa/Lagos time
26 Feb 2009
10:00
Samsung Offers 'Real Dreams' for Youth
25 Feb 2009
22:37
PROFNET EXPERT ALERTS: Education & Government
15:00
Muslim Publics Oppose Al Qaeda's Terrorism, But Agree With Its Goal of Driving U.S. Forces Out
24 Feb 2009
23:12
Former Employee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States Charged With Corruption and Tax Violations
17:01
Lamit Company Launches a New Network Solution for Improving the Internet Connection
15:18
United Energy Corporation Reports Significant Increase in Revenue While Reducing Operating Expenses
11:00
Report: Property Rights Linked to Economic Security
23 Feb 2009
16:21
The Bank of New York Mellon Appointed as Depositary Bank by Byblos Bank S.A.L.
10:55
Lamit Company Launches a New Network Solution for Improving the Internet Connection
Samsung Offers 'Real Dreams' for Youth
LAGOS, Nigeria, February 26/PRNewswire/ --
- Samsung Electronics and International Youth Foundation Announce Employability Projects for Young Nigerians
The International Youth Foundation (IYF), in partnership with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, recently unveiled "Real Dreams" -- a youth employability program in Nigeria as a part of the company's corporate social responsibility commitment in the region.
The "Real Dreams" program aims to increase economic activity in the region, particularly by promoting job skills and preparing young people for successful, long-term careers.
The program will be implemented in cooperation with three local non-governmental, educational institutions: the Afterschool Graduate Development Centre (AGDC); FATE Foundation; and Pan-African University. Each organization will implement youth employment and development programs focused on delivering training in life skills, information and communication technologies, and entrepreneurship as well as providing work experience through internships. The program, which will potentially benefit over 600 young Nigerians, will commence in February and continue throughout the year.
"Over 60% of Nigeria's population is under the age of 25; and unemployment for youth ages 15-24 is about 20%," said Kyungtae Bae, President of Samsung Middle East and Africa. "Through these programs, we hope to empower Nigeria's young people and prepare them to compete for jobs, and fulfill their dreams and aspirations for a better future for themselves and their communities."
"Helping today's youth get decent jobs is a critical step forward, not only in terms of improving their own prospects, but also positively impacting the social and economic development of their country," said William S. Reese, IYF President and CEO. "We are deeply grateful to Samsung for its commitment to provide these young people with the skills and motivation they need to contribute to Africa's revitalization in the years to come."
Samsung and the IYF announced their partnership in November 2008 to jointly address youth unemployment in Africa. Under the agreement, Samsung and IYF will find ways to utilize the company's cutting-edge technology and expertise to help address the employment needs of Africa's youth.
Description of the projects:
Afterschool Graduate Development Centre (AGDC)
To help address high unemployment rates among university and polytechnic graduates, the Samsung Real Dreams program will enhance the job opportunities of 240 Nigerian youth, ages 23 to 32. Working with the Afterschool Graduate Development Centre (AGDC) in Lagos, the program will provide employability training and internships as well as career development and job placement services to young people from six regions of the country.
FATE Foundation
Providing young entrepreneurs with training, mentorship, technical assistance, and business development services so that they can start and run their own small businesses is the goal of this Samsung Real Dreams program, being implemented in Lagos and Port Harcourt by FATE Foundation. Approximately 270 disadvantaged Nigerian youth, ages 16 to 35, will benefit.
Pan-African University's School of Media and Communication
Working with the Pan-African University's School of Media and Communication in Lagos, the Samsung Real Dreams program will enhance employment opportunities in the media industry for 100 disadvantaged Nigerian youth, ages 21 to 35, through classroom activities and practical hands-on projects. Participants will benefit from training sessions in new media, creativity, innovative thinking, entrepreneurship and life skills, as well as job placement and business development support services.
About Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2007 consolidated sales of US$105 billion. Employing approximately 150,000 people in 134 offices in 62 countries, the company consists of two main business units: Digital Media & Communications and Device Solutions. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.
About International Youth Foundation: The International Youth Foundation (IYF) invests in the extraordinary potential of young people. Founded in 1990, IYF builds and maintains a worldwide community of businesses, governments, and civil society organizations committed to empowering youth to be healthy, productive, and engaged citizens. IYF programs are catalysts of change that help young people obtain a quality education, gain employability skills, make healthy choices, and improve their communities. To learn more visit www.iyfnet.org.
Source: International Youth Foundation
Jakyung Kang of Samsung Electronics, +1-971-4364-8704, Jakyung.k@samsung.com; or Jim Peirce, Vice President Planning and Outreach of the International Youth Foundation, +1-410-951-1606, jim@iyfnet.org
Releases displayed in Africa/Lagos time
26 Feb 2009
10:00
Samsung Offers 'Real Dreams' for Youth
25 Feb 2009
22:37
PROFNET EXPERT ALERTS: Education & Government
15:00
Muslim Publics Oppose Al Qaeda's Terrorism, But Agree With Its Goal of Driving U.S. Forces Out
24 Feb 2009
23:12
Former Employee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States Charged With Corruption and Tax Violations
17:01
Lamit Company Launches a New Network Solution for Improving the Internet Connection
15:18
United Energy Corporation Reports Significant Increase in Revenue While Reducing Operating Expenses
11:00
Report: Property Rights Linked to Economic Security
23 Feb 2009
16:21
The Bank of New York Mellon Appointed as Depositary Bank by Byblos Bank S.A.L.
10:55
Lamit Company Launches a New Network Solution for Improving the Internet Connection
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Nigerian Christian Book Sells More Than Wole Soyinka's Memoir
The best selling Christian Book
Nigerian
Wole Soyinka
Christian book Scientists Discover Hell: As Astronauts Find Heaven is selling more than the last memoir of the first African Nobel Prize winner in Literature Wole Soyinka's You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Dear Vint Cerf, We Are Re-Branding Nigeria
There is a subtext to “Don’t be evil” and that is “Don’t be illegal”
~ Vint Cerf
Dear Vint Cerf,
You may be the Chief Internet evangelist at Google, but I bet you that you will not get a standing ovation if you come to Nigeria, because Nigerians do not love anyone who is too much of an evangelist in being legit and most of the evangelists in the most populous country in Africa do not practice what they preach and their millions of followers have also followed in their fast footsteps of sharp practices of get-rich-quick schemes and scams, from the street to the corridors of power.. Nigerians do not think being illegal is evil; otherwise they will not be giving national honors and awards to Nigerian politicians and entrepreneurs whose main source of income is by bribery and corruption. The so called Nigerian public office holders are political contractors who rigged their way into office by hook or crook and to them; honesty is not the best policy in Nigeria.
Do not be disappointed that you will not get a red carpet reception if you come to Nigeria to insist on your gospel of honesty and transparency. You will find some hope in the beacon of the Nigerian intelligentsia of
The news of Nigerians being the happiest people in the world is as bogus as their political hocus pocus, because these so called happiest people on earth are the same millions you will see smiling at you and still lying through their teeth as they grin pretending to be happy to see you. But before you can say VGC, they would have conned you online or offline. So, until further notice, beware of them.
As at present, we are set to re-brand Nigeria after we found out that many other African countries also claimed to be the heart of Africa, we have decided to go higher in the leadership of Africa in the world. So, Vint, you will be happy to see Prof. Dora Akunyili flying the Nigerian Flag in the flying colours of New Nigeria that is the Nigerian Dream of every true Nigerian in Nigeria and the Diaspora.
~ Vint Cerf
Dear Vint Cerf,
You may be the Chief Internet evangelist at Google, but I bet you that you will not get a standing ovation if you come to Nigeria, because Nigerians do not love anyone who is too much of an evangelist in being legit and most of the evangelists in the most populous country in Africa do not practice what they preach and their millions of followers have also followed in their fast footsteps of sharp practices of get-rich-quick schemes and scams, from the street to the corridors of power.. Nigerians do not think being illegal is evil; otherwise they will not be giving national honors and awards to Nigerian politicians and entrepreneurs whose main source of income is by bribery and corruption. The so called Nigerian public office holders are political contractors who rigged their way into office by hook or crook and to them; honesty is not the best policy in Nigeria.
Do not be disappointed that you will not get a red carpet reception if you come to Nigeria to insist on your gospel of honesty and transparency. You will find some hope in the beacon of the Nigerian intelligentsia of
- Chinua Achebe
- Muhammadu Junaidu
- Abu-Abdullah Adelabu
- Pius Okigbo
- Bartholomew Nnaji
- Oluwakayode Osuntokun
- Akinola Aguda
- Jacob Ade Ajayi
- Lazarus Ekwueme
- Oji Umozurike
- Babs Fafunwa
- Femi Osofisan
- Kelsey Harrison
- Olajide Aluko
- Tekena Tamuno
- Ladipo Adamolekun
- Wole Soyinka
- Rems Umeasiegbu
- Gbenga Sesan
- Philip Emeagwali
The news of Nigerians being the happiest people in the world is as bogus as their political hocus pocus, because these so called happiest people on earth are the same millions you will see smiling at you and still lying through their teeth as they grin pretending to be happy to see you. But before you can say VGC, they would have conned you online or offline. So, until further notice, beware of them.
As at present, we are set to re-brand Nigeria after we found out that many other African countries also claimed to be the heart of Africa, we have decided to go higher in the leadership of Africa in the world. So, Vint, you will be happy to see Prof. Dora Akunyili flying the Nigerian Flag in the flying colours of New Nigeria that is the Nigerian Dream of every true Nigerian in Nigeria and the Diaspora.
Nigerians Report and Guaranty Success Reported in This Day of Nigeria
The launch of two of my news blogs was reported in This Day newspaper in Nigeria
2 News Blogs LaunchedNigerians Report.com and Guaranty Success.com are two of the most popular Nigerian news and information blogs on the internet, rich with 24 hours news videos from the BBC, Reuters, AP, ABC and other major news channels in the world.
"If you want breaking news from the grassroots, go to Nigerians Report.com and if you want better jobs and better career opportunities and free books on all subjects, Guaranty Success.com has it all," said Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, the Publisher and Editor, who is fast developing the largest Nigerian news and information portal on the internet with over 37 websites so far.
Nigerians Report has been created to promote citizen journalism in Nigeria and so it is a Free For All (FFA) internet news blog for all literate Nigerians to report their own news and tell their own true life stories 24 hours daily.
"Nigerians are the best reporters of what is happening in Nigeria, because we are in the best position to break our own news and tell our own stories before the CNN, BBC or Sky rush to do so, "Michael Chima elaborated.
Guaranty Success.com is in fact the most syndicated Nigerian business success website. It has been syndicated more than 200, 000 times.
"My mission is to bridge the wide gap in communication between Nigeria and the rest of the world on the internet, and stop the misinformation and miseducation of millions of ignorant people on the internet, whose erroneous and ambiguous notions of Nigeria and Nigerians should be corrected to stop the further damage on the image of Nigeria and the global village," Michael Chima said.
.............................
.............................. .............................. .. Contact: Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, Publisher/Editor, Tel: 234 07032366127
Recommended News of the Day:
Akunyili Slams UNICEF over World Children’s Report
Friday, February 20, 2009
Democracy in Retreat as Recession Deepens
20 Feb 2009 10:49 Africa/Lagos
Democracy in Retreat as Recession Deepens
LONDON, February 20/PRNewswire/ -- In a dire warning to global leaders, Robin Bew of the Economist Intelligence Unit warns that the march to democracy round the globe is now stalled and could move in to reverse. Regions of the world that have adopted economic liberalism allied to more political openess may very easily slide in to protectionism and more closed government, he warns in his monthly Global Forecast programme on http://www.cantos.com. This would bring to an end a political and economic phase in international development that might herald growing social instability. Organisations like the World Trade Organisation that monitor free trade face a respect deficit and could be increasingly challenged by countries unprepared to play by the rules anymore.
The interview and transcript are available now on http://w3.cantos.com/economist.
It's free to view. All you need to do is register at http://www.cantos.com. Cantos.com, the online financial broadcaster, features in-depth interviews, documentaries and webcasts with senior company executives. If you would like to contact us, please email enquiries@cantos.com or phone +44-207-936-1333.
Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
If you would like to contact us, please email enquiries@cantos.com or phone +44-207-936-1333.
Democracy in Retreat as Recession Deepens
LONDON, February 20/PRNewswire/ -- In a dire warning to global leaders, Robin Bew of the Economist Intelligence Unit warns that the march to democracy round the globe is now stalled and could move in to reverse. Regions of the world that have adopted economic liberalism allied to more political openess may very easily slide in to protectionism and more closed government, he warns in his monthly Global Forecast programme on http://www.cantos.com. This would bring to an end a political and economic phase in international development that might herald growing social instability. Organisations like the World Trade Organisation that monitor free trade face a respect deficit and could be increasingly challenged by countries unprepared to play by the rules anymore.
The interview and transcript are available now on http://w3.cantos.com/economist.
It's free to view. All you need to do is register at http://www.cantos.com. Cantos.com, the online financial broadcaster, features in-depth interviews, documentaries and webcasts with senior company executives. If you would like to contact us, please email enquiries@cantos.com or phone +44-207-936-1333.
Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
If you would like to contact us, please email enquiries@cantos.com or phone +44-207-936-1333.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Is Nigeria A ‘Wayward Child’, Her Father Long Ignored?
Is Nigeria a ‘wayward child’, her father long ignored?
~ADeleke Adeyemi
Not long ago1 noted Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe posed the all-important question: “What is Nigeria?”
Chinua Achebe
Not surprisingly, he then whipped up an answer to it, one brimming with great insight:
“Our 1960 national anthem, given to us as a parting gift by a British housewife in England, called Nigeria 'our sovereign motherland' --the Mother image. The current anthem, which [replaced] that first one, was put together by a committee of Nigerian intellectuals, and in my view is actually worse than the first anthem. This second one invoked the Father image. So Mother image in the first one, Father image in the second one. But it has occurred to me that Nigeria is neither my mother nor my father. Nigeria is a child; gifted, enormously talented, prodigiously endowed and incredibly wayward.
“Being a Nigerian is abysmally frustrating and unbelievably exciting. I have said somewhere that…I want to come back as a Nigerian again. But I have also in a rather testy mood in a book called 'The Trouble with Nigeria' dismissed Nigerian travel advertisements with the suggestion that only tourists with an addiction to self-flagellation pick Nigeria for a holiday. And I mean both. Nigeria needs help; Nigerians have their work cut out for them, to coax this unruly child along the path of useful creative development…”
But the line must be drawn somewhere along the trajectory of Achebe’s extrapolation, where it goes awry and out of kilter. It’s quite simply illogical of him to assert that “We are the parents of Nigeria, not vice versa.” The two Anthems, respectively, assert not ‘Pater’ but ‘Patria’ (Latin patrialis “pertaining to your country”), ‘Matria’ not Mater’, quite opposed to Achebe’s reading of the lyrics. The Latin word ‘mater’ is the source of the following English words: madrigal (a song with parts for several usually unaccompanied voices popular in England in the 16th and 17th centuries), material, maternal, matriculate, matrimony, matrix, matron, and matter. Its Indo-European ancestor in turn gave rise to the English words mammal, metropolis, and, most tellingly, mother. The Latin alma mater (employed with fond affection to refer to a place of learning we’ve passed out from) means “bounteous mother”. Isn't 'a school a book in which is written the future of a nation'?
However, his summing-up of Nigeria as “a wayward child” is quite simply spot-on. Nigeria has a Father; only he has been long ignored, treated as non-existent by a turncoat omo on’ile ol’ona t’o d’agbero; omo wo’le iya bus’ekun (‘a pedigreed son-turned-rascal, now a spring of sorrow’). It is indeed true: “A foolish son is a heartache to his father and bitter grief to his mother.”2
Despite his faulty reading of the words of Anthems at points, Achebe’s conclusion remains apt: “Nigeria is a country where nobody can wake up in the morning and ask 'what can I do now?' Nigeria has work for everybody.”
And this must start with the following prescription: “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask your father, and he will show thee; your elders, and they will tell you: God Most High gave land to every nation. He assigned a guardian angel to each of them.”3
Can it be that Nigeria does indeed have a father, one whose memoirs we’re meant to consult, to “ask” of him a thing or two? It has to be the most intolerable thing for a father to be ignored and neglected; what else does honour, or the lack of it, consist in? This ignorance and neglect of patrimony always works to the developmental detriment of successive generations: “Honour your father and mother that everything may go well for you, and you may have a long life on earth.” This is an important commandment with a promise.” 4
Our Mother as Nigerians is the Niger Area, as proto-Nigeria: the matrix (womb) or crucible from which a nation, properly speaking, is waiting to be forged and birthed. A readily available well-documented example that should be amenable to adapt is the United States of America: a nation forged out of the crucible of territories settled by the Plymouth Pilgrims (a group of Separatists who broke away from the Church of England). They voted to travel to America from the Netherlands in 1620. The Mayflower landed at Plymouth, near present-day Provincetown, Massachusetts, among others. The land had been uncovered by Italian-born Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus in 1492.
Bishop Ajayi Crowther
Samuel Ajayi Crowther (c.1809 – 1891), Bishop (from Latin episcopus, ‘overseer’, from Greek episkopos, ‘watcher’) of the Niger, awarded a doctorate by Oxford in 1864 for his groundbreaking extensive linguistic work, was a pioneer member and leader of several Expeditions up and down the Niger and the Benue, Nigeria’s twin watermark feature (the pun is intended). But Ajayi Crowther was more than a surveyor; he was a shepherd who went on to codify and delineate various ‘land gauges’ or languages: Yoruba, Ibo, Nupe, Kakanda – entities on both sides of the Niger and Benue Rivers. He was spent working for the best interests of all to be entrenched, regardless of creed or ethnic derivation. In truth and in deed, he’s Nigeria’s long disdained “guardian angel.”
“Ajayi Crowther’s work, like his name, remains an imperishable monument of all his faith and labour. Whatever achievement … lies on the Niger, it will never be forgotten that he broke the hard and fallow ground. It was his brave heart and strong hand that cut the first path through the dense undergrowth of superstition; it was he, as a wise master builder, who laid the foundations of the work…that was to be. Like [first US President George] Washington, he was the father of his country; but he did more, for he proved in his own person the capacity of the African to serve his own people.... His life has silenced many who made us to differ, and in the advancement and development of the native, not only in spiritual but in civil responsibilities, he will be remembered as the forerunner of a potential race to be.”5
It cannot be gainsaid the truth of the saying, “writing maketh an exact man”, 6 like the eyewitness report, above, by the British Jesse Page. Further, since “in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established” 7 we’ll call on another ‘accessory after the fact’, so to speak, to make our case unassailable or watertight: first without, next within. Below is the full text of a letter of monumental historical import for the Nigerian nation. Dating back to 1881, it was written originally in Hausa – for the attention of none other than the Shepherd of the Niger:
“Salute Crowther, the great Christian minister. After salutation, please tell him he is a father to us in this land; anything he sees will injure us in all this land, he would not like it. This we know perfectly well.
“The matter about which I am speaking with my mouth, write it; it is as if it is done by my hand, it is not a long matter; it is about barasa (or gin). Barasa, barasa, barasa! My God, it has ruined our country; it has ruined our people very much; it has made our people become mad. I have given a law that no one dares buy or sell it; and any one who is found selling it, his house is to be eaten up (plundered); any one found drunk will be killed. I have told all the Christian traders that I agree to anything for trade except barasa. I have told Mr. McIntosh’s people to-day, the barasa remaining with them must be returned down the river. Tell Crowther, the great Christian minister, that he is our father. I beg you, Malam Kipo (Rev. C. Paul, native missionary) don’t forget this writing, because we all beg that he (Bishop Crowther) should beg the great priests (Committee of C.M.S.) that they should beg the English Queen to prevent bringing barasa into this land.
“For God and the prophet’s sake, and the prophet His messenger’s sake, he (Crowther) must help us in this matter, that of barasa. We all have confidence in him; he must not leave our country to become spoiled by barasa. Tell him may God bless him in his work. This is the mouth-word from Maliki, Emir of Nupé.”8
Our present generation of Niger Area dwellers can yet get things right–-by getting the essence of what the Shepherd of the Niger, Ajayi Crowther, stood for and went down fighting into the national consciousness: to vivify and recalibrate our long-moribund value system. The greatest help to destiny is direction and the fuel of destiny is vision. For some reason, this realization came as a thought couched in my language of second course– Yoruba. It rose up suddenly to confront me headlong with the force of its import: Iya l'oun to'mo; Baba l'oun t'omo s'ona. Meaning: It behooves Mother her child to nourish; but it is Father's direction that sets it up to flourish.
We have the memory of Ajayi Crowther to mine for the meaning of our shared destiny, what will power us past the bounds of the present love-hate togetherness of the Niger Area polity. Then and only then will we blossom into the reality of true nationhood.
AD 2010, a marginal year to the Ajayi Crowther Bicentennial in commemoration throughout this year, will be Nigeria's golden jubilee. Let us jubilate at this timely rediscovery of the impeccable heritage of service of distinction left us by a long forgotten father, one who taught his wards, composed of kin of every creed and ethnic derivation: “Only the best is good enough for us.”
References:
1. The Guardian Newspapers Silver Jubilee Lecture, October 9, 2008: Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Victoria Island, Lagos; delivered from US base via projector
2. Proverbs 17:25
3. Deuteronomy 32:7-8 (King James and Contemporary English Versions)
4. Ephesians 6:2-3. Even the honour once accorded Ajayi Crowther’s grandson, Herbert Macaulay as the father of Nigerian nationalism seems to have been withdrawn by the authorities since. His portrait that adorned the erstwhile one-naira note is now numismatic nonsense on a coin without credit as currency. Like you, I am yet to handle one since its issuance; least of all move about with it as legal tender– unless you are engaged in coin collecting as a hobby, or amass it and others for other purposes - like smelting!
5. Ajayi Crowther’s biographer, Jesse Page: The Black Bishop, 1916: London
6. Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher and statesman. “One of the pioneers of modern scientific thought” (Encarta Encyclopedia).
7. Matthew 18:16
8Quoted in Jesse Page, The Slave Boy Who Became Bishop, 1892: London. The original letter along with tomes of other Crowtherma is archived in The Crowther Centre, Oxford, England. Ajayi Crowther spoke the emir’s language, Nupé, fluently – as he did Ijaw, Hausa as well as Igbo; he published the first book ever written in it. His son, Dandeson (‘child of liberty’), who worked in the Niger Delta, spoke a number of stock dialects there.
~ADeleke Adeyemi
Not long ago1 noted Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe posed the all-important question: “What is Nigeria?”
Chinua Achebe
Not surprisingly, he then whipped up an answer to it, one brimming with great insight:
“Our 1960 national anthem, given to us as a parting gift by a British housewife in England, called Nigeria 'our sovereign motherland' --the Mother image. The current anthem, which [replaced] that first one, was put together by a committee of Nigerian intellectuals, and in my view is actually worse than the first anthem. This second one invoked the Father image. So Mother image in the first one, Father image in the second one. But it has occurred to me that Nigeria is neither my mother nor my father. Nigeria is a child; gifted, enormously talented, prodigiously endowed and incredibly wayward.
“Being a Nigerian is abysmally frustrating and unbelievably exciting. I have said somewhere that…I want to come back as a Nigerian again. But I have also in a rather testy mood in a book called 'The Trouble with Nigeria' dismissed Nigerian travel advertisements with the suggestion that only tourists with an addiction to self-flagellation pick Nigeria for a holiday. And I mean both. Nigeria needs help; Nigerians have their work cut out for them, to coax this unruly child along the path of useful creative development…”
But the line must be drawn somewhere along the trajectory of Achebe’s extrapolation, where it goes awry and out of kilter. It’s quite simply illogical of him to assert that “We are the parents of Nigeria, not vice versa.” The two Anthems, respectively, assert not ‘Pater’ but ‘Patria’ (Latin patrialis “pertaining to your country”), ‘Matria’ not Mater’, quite opposed to Achebe’s reading of the lyrics. The Latin word ‘mater’ is the source of the following English words: madrigal (a song with parts for several usually unaccompanied voices popular in England in the 16th and 17th centuries), material, maternal, matriculate, matrimony, matrix, matron, and matter. Its Indo-European ancestor in turn gave rise to the English words mammal, metropolis, and, most tellingly, mother. The Latin alma mater (employed with fond affection to refer to a place of learning we’ve passed out from) means “bounteous mother”. Isn't 'a school a book in which is written the future of a nation'?
However, his summing-up of Nigeria as “a wayward child” is quite simply spot-on. Nigeria has a Father; only he has been long ignored, treated as non-existent by a turncoat omo on’ile ol’ona t’o d’agbero; omo wo’le iya bus’ekun (‘a pedigreed son-turned-rascal, now a spring of sorrow’). It is indeed true: “A foolish son is a heartache to his father and bitter grief to his mother.”2
Despite his faulty reading of the words of Anthems at points, Achebe’s conclusion remains apt: “Nigeria is a country where nobody can wake up in the morning and ask 'what can I do now?' Nigeria has work for everybody.”
And this must start with the following prescription: “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask your father, and he will show thee; your elders, and they will tell you: God Most High gave land to every nation. He assigned a guardian angel to each of them.”3
Can it be that Nigeria does indeed have a father, one whose memoirs we’re meant to consult, to “ask” of him a thing or two? It has to be the most intolerable thing for a father to be ignored and neglected; what else does honour, or the lack of it, consist in? This ignorance and neglect of patrimony always works to the developmental detriment of successive generations: “Honour your father and mother that everything may go well for you, and you may have a long life on earth.” This is an important commandment with a promise.” 4
Our Mother as Nigerians is the Niger Area, as proto-Nigeria: the matrix (womb) or crucible from which a nation, properly speaking, is waiting to be forged and birthed. A readily available well-documented example that should be amenable to adapt is the United States of America: a nation forged out of the crucible of territories settled by the Plymouth Pilgrims (a group of Separatists who broke away from the Church of England). They voted to travel to America from the Netherlands in 1620. The Mayflower landed at Plymouth, near present-day Provincetown, Massachusetts, among others. The land had been uncovered by Italian-born Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus in 1492.
Bishop Ajayi Crowther
Samuel Ajayi Crowther (c.1809 – 1891), Bishop (from Latin episcopus, ‘overseer’, from Greek episkopos, ‘watcher’) of the Niger, awarded a doctorate by Oxford in 1864 for his groundbreaking extensive linguistic work, was a pioneer member and leader of several Expeditions up and down the Niger and the Benue, Nigeria’s twin watermark feature (the pun is intended). But Ajayi Crowther was more than a surveyor; he was a shepherd who went on to codify and delineate various ‘land gauges’ or languages: Yoruba, Ibo, Nupe, Kakanda – entities on both sides of the Niger and Benue Rivers. He was spent working for the best interests of all to be entrenched, regardless of creed or ethnic derivation. In truth and in deed, he’s Nigeria’s long disdained “guardian angel.”
“Ajayi Crowther’s work, like his name, remains an imperishable monument of all his faith and labour. Whatever achievement … lies on the Niger, it will never be forgotten that he broke the hard and fallow ground. It was his brave heart and strong hand that cut the first path through the dense undergrowth of superstition; it was he, as a wise master builder, who laid the foundations of the work…that was to be. Like [first US President George] Washington, he was the father of his country; but he did more, for he proved in his own person the capacity of the African to serve his own people.... His life has silenced many who made us to differ, and in the advancement and development of the native, not only in spiritual but in civil responsibilities, he will be remembered as the forerunner of a potential race to be.”5
It cannot be gainsaid the truth of the saying, “writing maketh an exact man”, 6 like the eyewitness report, above, by the British Jesse Page. Further, since “in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established” 7 we’ll call on another ‘accessory after the fact’, so to speak, to make our case unassailable or watertight: first without, next within. Below is the full text of a letter of monumental historical import for the Nigerian nation. Dating back to 1881, it was written originally in Hausa – for the attention of none other than the Shepherd of the Niger:
“Salute Crowther, the great Christian minister. After salutation, please tell him he is a father to us in this land; anything he sees will injure us in all this land, he would not like it. This we know perfectly well.
“The matter about which I am speaking with my mouth, write it; it is as if it is done by my hand, it is not a long matter; it is about barasa (or gin). Barasa, barasa, barasa! My God, it has ruined our country; it has ruined our people very much; it has made our people become mad. I have given a law that no one dares buy or sell it; and any one who is found selling it, his house is to be eaten up (plundered); any one found drunk will be killed. I have told all the Christian traders that I agree to anything for trade except barasa. I have told Mr. McIntosh’s people to-day, the barasa remaining with them must be returned down the river. Tell Crowther, the great Christian minister, that he is our father. I beg you, Malam Kipo (Rev. C. Paul, native missionary) don’t forget this writing, because we all beg that he (Bishop Crowther) should beg the great priests (Committee of C.M.S.) that they should beg the English Queen to prevent bringing barasa into this land.
“For God and the prophet’s sake, and the prophet His messenger’s sake, he (Crowther) must help us in this matter, that of barasa. We all have confidence in him; he must not leave our country to become spoiled by barasa. Tell him may God bless him in his work. This is the mouth-word from Maliki, Emir of Nupé.”8
Our present generation of Niger Area dwellers can yet get things right–-by getting the essence of what the Shepherd of the Niger, Ajayi Crowther, stood for and went down fighting into the national consciousness: to vivify and recalibrate our long-moribund value system. The greatest help to destiny is direction and the fuel of destiny is vision. For some reason, this realization came as a thought couched in my language of second course– Yoruba. It rose up suddenly to confront me headlong with the force of its import: Iya l'oun to'mo; Baba l'oun t'omo s'ona. Meaning: It behooves Mother her child to nourish; but it is Father's direction that sets it up to flourish.
We have the memory of Ajayi Crowther to mine for the meaning of our shared destiny, what will power us past the bounds of the present love-hate togetherness of the Niger Area polity. Then and only then will we blossom into the reality of true nationhood.
AD 2010, a marginal year to the Ajayi Crowther Bicentennial in commemoration throughout this year, will be Nigeria's golden jubilee. Let us jubilate at this timely rediscovery of the impeccable heritage of service of distinction left us by a long forgotten father, one who taught his wards, composed of kin of every creed and ethnic derivation: “Only the best is good enough for us.”
References:
1. The Guardian Newspapers Silver Jubilee Lecture, October 9, 2008: Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Victoria Island, Lagos; delivered from US base via projector
2. Proverbs 17:25
3. Deuteronomy 32:7-8 (King James and Contemporary English Versions)
4. Ephesians 6:2-3. Even the honour once accorded Ajayi Crowther’s grandson, Herbert Macaulay as the father of Nigerian nationalism seems to have been withdrawn by the authorities since. His portrait that adorned the erstwhile one-naira note is now numismatic nonsense on a coin without credit as currency. Like you, I am yet to handle one since its issuance; least of all move about with it as legal tender– unless you are engaged in coin collecting as a hobby, or amass it and others for other purposes - like smelting!
5. Ajayi Crowther’s biographer, Jesse Page: The Black Bishop, 1916: London
6. Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher and statesman. “One of the pioneers of modern scientific thought” (Encarta Encyclopedia).
7. Matthew 18:16
8Quoted in Jesse Page, The Slave Boy Who Became Bishop, 1892: London. The original letter along with tomes of other Crowtherma is archived in The Crowther Centre, Oxford, England. Ajayi Crowther spoke the emir’s language, Nupé, fluently – as he did Ijaw, Hausa as well as Igbo; he published the first book ever written in it. His son, Dandeson (‘child of liberty’), who worked in the Niger Delta, spoke a number of stock dialects there.
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