Prof. Babs Fafunwa was a Great Educationist.

Professor Babatunde Aliu Fafunwa(1923-2010) Photo Credit: Femi Adebesin-Kuti from 234 NEXT


“It is true that I proposed the 6-3-3-4 system of education system in 1989. I don’t have any apology about it. Our problem is not the system but failure to implement what was recommended be-fore the cancellation.”
~ Prof Babatunde Fafunwa in response to President Goodluck Jonathan who blamed him for the failure of the 6-3-3-4 system of education.


The passing of one of the foremost Nigerian educationists Prof.Babatunde Fafunwa made headlines in the major newspapers and electronic news channels in Nigeria. He deserved all the eulogies, because Baba Fafunwa as is he was fondly called came, saw and conquered. He was the first Nigerian to receive a doctorate degree in Education. But he departed without seeing the fulfillment of his best wishes for Nigeria. He was a former minister of education and did his best to reform the underdeveloped education system in Nigeria. He would have been happier if every Nigerian child is given the excellent education he gave his own children who have proved to be worthy achievers and made him proud.

It is wrong for President Goodluck Jonathsan to blame Prof. Fafunwa for the systemic failure of the 6-3-3-4 system of education in Nigeria.

According to the National President of League of Muslim Proprietors' (LEAMPS), Engineer Ibraheem Abdulkareem, those championing the newly introduced Universal Basic Education (UBE) are responsible for collapse of the 6-3-3-4 system and not Prof. Babatunde Fafunwa.
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National Film And Video Censors Board Wants To Ban Dangerous Men

National Film And Video Censors Board Wants To Ban Dangerous Men

Gugu Michaels, the director of a Nigerian action thriller Dangerous Men said the National Film and Video Censors Board wants to ban his film that is scheduled to start showing from this weekend at the Silverbird and Genesis Deluxe Cinemas. Mr. Michaels said the censors board reported that Dangerous Men showed Nigeria in a negative way and depicted what is going on in Nigerian politics and crime at the moment.

Show Me Your Logo: Building A New Nigeria Starts With You and I

Show Me Your Logo: Building A New Nigeria Starts With You and I

I have the seen the parade ignorance
In the masquerade of arrogance.


Posing and posturing in lip service and eye service with false airs and graces are common life styles of many Nigerians, in particular the so called elites among the populace. The irony of their pretentious life styles is the fact that their unscrupulous behavior exposes their falsehood. They have made little or no positive impact in their community and larger society. That is why so much poverty is surrounding them and they cannot create things that would uplift the majority of the poor masses and have failed woefully to boost human capital development in Nigeria. Most of them are mere consumers and not producers.

We have millions of youths out of school and unemployed and the government cannot provide jobs for them.
Corporate Nigeria wastes millions of naira sponsoring TV Realty shows and games that do not add much to our GDP or GNP and cannot create jobs for our millions of unemployed youths.

They are promoting pornographic and psychedelic music shows misleading millions of our young girls and boys who end up with mass failures in our examinations, millions of cases of STDs and HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies.

Lecturers are on strike as they cannot continue to deceive their students with undeveloped curricula and broken down facilities on campuses where students stool in the bedrooms of their hostels, because their toilets are horrible.

When we disrespect our students, and make them stool like dogs in their broken down hostels, they end up dehumanized and don't care about morals and social cultural values, because they have low esteem. No wonder they have to do all sorts of sharp practices to make ends meet and end up as corrupt graduates and most of them are unemployable and may become our liabilities. Because we now have graduates with questionable certificates and no professional or intellectual skills.

Doctors are on strike, because the government is corrupt and incompetent.

I wonder why any competent government will even allow doctors to go on strike when we don't have enough medical doctors in Nigeria?
And medical students suffer many indignities in our teaching hospitals.
All medical students should be on full government scholarship and medical doctors in our public hospitals should be well paid and given modern accommodations and transportation to motivate them to do their best for the benefit of their poor patients who cannot afford the bills at private hospitals.

The political contractors in power do no care, because they can afford the medical bills at the private hospitals in Nigeria and overseas. And their children do not worry about employment since they have looted the treasury to provide the luxuries of life for them.

It is a tragedy that they spend hundreds of millions of naira on the acquisition and possession of their posh cars and SUVs and luxury homes, when a fraction of that money would have been invested in building cottage industries and creating jobs in their respective communities. With only N3, 000, 000 (three million naira) a cottage industry such as an Adire Tie and Dye enterprise can be developed and create up to 20 jobs in a rural village or urban neighborhood and within 12 months that Adire making enterprise will be making over N5 million profit for the community. And there are many models of profitable cottage industries to use and replicate in every community in every local government area in every state in Nigeria. The untapped Adire Tie and Dye business is a billion naira industry. The Adire cloth can be used to make apparels of all sorts. Adire can be used to make shirts, trousers, skirts, gowns, hats, caps, jackets, uniforms, etc.

In the summer of 2009, I got a franchise for Startup Weekend from the Startup Weekend of America. Startup Weekend is an Information Computer Technology (ICT) initiative to create Internet based companies and creates jobs at every weekend brainstorming retreat that will be held in every local government area. At least 3 companies are created and incorporated at every startup weekend and the companies will be owned and managed by all the participants who are between 100 to 250 people at every weekend. Of course not all the 100 to 250 people need to be actively engaged in the companies, but every one of them will be a shareholder in each of the companies as long as the person participated in the startup weekend that created the startups. The successful models of such startups are the billion dollar Amazo.com, Ebay.com, Facebook.com, and other booming dotcoms in the US.

Startup Weekends can be held in every local government in Nigeria and will create thousands of jobs within 12 months.
There is a Startup Weekend project for Nollywood, the largest movie industry in Africa. This Startup Weekend project will make millions of dollars for Nigerian movie producers and will make more money than Silverbird Cinemas, Genesis Deluxe Cinemas and other cinemas in Nigeria. The captive and receptive audiences for this Startup Weekend project for Nollywood are ready and waiting for the launch.
There is another Startup Weekend project for Nigerian Lotto Games that will gross millions of dollars weekly.
There is another Startup Weekend project for Nigerian tertiary schools that will make millions of dollars annually.
The Startup Weekend projects I have mentioned have been launched successfully in America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. We are ready to launch them for the first time in Africa, right here in Nigeria.

Pastor Poju Oyemade of the Covenant Christian Center has been using The Platform as the pivot for the mobilization, motivation and sensitization of Nigerians for the raising of spiritual leaders, intellectual leaders, financial leaders and political leaders who will be the champions of the nation building of a New Nigeria in the leadership of Africa in the comity of nations on earth. Mo Abudu of Inspire Africa and Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli of Leap Africa and other trail-blazers are busy doing their best to discover and launch young Nigerians who are gifted and poised to make a positive impact in their communities and larger society of our common sovereignty.
Don’t be left out of the revolution of the making of a new nation.


My vision of a great Nigeria was written in my first prize winning essay “What I like Best about Nigeria” when I was only 13 and also in my first prize winning poem “Song of Patriotism” when I was 20. I have used the gospel of Jesus Christ to preach this divine vision to thousands of people on public transport buses in Lagos city for 11 years and I demonstrated it when I launched the first National Literary Essay Competition for Secondary Schools at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies of the University of Lagos in 2003, under my publishing company King of Kings Books International.

What are you doing to make a positive impact in your neighborhood, community and society?
Show me your logo?


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

Highly Recommended:
Only The Best Is Good Enough For Us

President Goodluck Jonathan Does Not Need These Bloody Distractions

What happened to Nigeria on October 1, 2010, is not what I would even wish for my worst enemy. To be given a birthday present of bombs that killed over 11 of your children and left several others injured. The terrorist bombings on the very 50th Independence Anniversary of Nigeria was roundly condemned and denounced by every sensible Nigerian and other people in the world. President Goodluck Jonathan , formers heads of state, prominent leaders, invited leaders of other countries, other important dignitaries and thousands of others at the Eagle Square, venue of the Golden Jubilee celebrations were shocked and embarrassed by the horrifying and terrifying bomb blasts.

I was in Lagos reporting the 50th Independence day parade as I was watching the live broadcast on TV when I received the bad news. TheMovement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta claimed responsibility for the terrorist bombings. The foreign news media as usual reported the tragedy before our own local news media and I got the first pictures of the incident from the websites of the Vancouver Sun and other foreign news channels.

What happened was bad and those who did it were bad as they made Nigerians sad.
Nigeria is not Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Lebanon and other parts of the world where terrorist bombings were common. Nigeria is not a terrorist state. We don’t blow up ourselves. No, this not our way. We are better and wiser than that. We do not breed suicide bombers. So, what MEND and those responsible for these horrible bombings have done is against our beliefs, customs and traditions. Dialogue would solve more problems than killing innocent people. MEND will account for the blood of the innocent people who were killed by the bomb blasts on October 1, 2010.

According to the BBC:
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) is a loose web of armed groups in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta region.

These gangs have spent years kidnapping oil workers, attacking oil fields, blowing up pipelines and fighting Nigeria’s army.

Niger Delta politicians originally created the gangs – by arming young men to use as their private armies and to rig elections.

But later, the young men began to turn the guns on the government, and oil companies, organising into a militant movement, under the banner Mend.

Formed out of previous militant groups in 2006 Send regular e-mails to media Split into several factions Most leaders accepted amnesty 1 October attack first in Abuja Based in creeks of Niger Delta Want oil wealth to remain in Delta Preaching non-violence to militants The day Nigeria hit oil ‘Blood oil’ dripping from Nigeria They demand that the Delta receive more benefits from its oil, with a fairer share of the wealth invested in roads, schools, hospitals, clean water and power supply.

~ Caroline Duffield of BBC News, Lagos

President Goodluck Jonathan doubts if MEND would commit such a horrible crime of terrorism. Many reporters said MEND warned that bombs would be exploded in cars and trash bins in Abuja on the 50th Independence Anniversary and the bombs exploded as MEND warned. And MEND did not deny that it was responsible for the terrorist attack. Kidnappers, armed robbers, bloody militants and other lunatic fringe elements are enemies of progress and the sooner we track them down and round them up, the better and safer we would be.

President Goodluck Jonathan is being challenged to preside over the 2011 elections and such acts of terrorism do not augur well for his administration. In fact, he does not need such bloody distractions. He promised President Barack Obama that the 2011 elections will be free and fair and his hands are already full and anyone who believes in the Nigerian Dream of a new dawn of peace, prosperity and unity should support him to keep his promise for the nation building of a New Nigeria in the leadership of Africa among the comity of nations.

God save Nigeria.

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, author of Barack Obama and the American Dream.

Bombs Kill 8 and Injure Others in Abuja as Nigeria turns 50

Breaking: Nigeria: Sixteen Child Hostages Freed

Bombs Kill 8 and Injure Others in Abuja as Nigeria turns 50

A policeman stands near a damaged car following a blast in Abuja during the 50th independence anniversary ceremony in Abuja on October 1, 2010. Explosions rocked an area near Nigeria's independence celebrations on Friday and killed at least seven people following threats from oil militants, witnesses and a police source said. Photograph by: Pius Utomi Ekpei, AFP/Getty. From The Vancouver Sun .

8 people were reported killed and over 21 others injured in Nigeria's Independence Day bombs.

The daring Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) rocked Abuja with bomb blasts in defiance of the government’s celebration of the 50th Independence Anniversary of Nigeria. The loud explosions of car bombs shook the capital city, with one explosion 1 km away from the parade grounds of the Eagle Square where President Goodluck Jonathan was attending the Independence Day parade.


Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan waves during a military parade marking Nigeria's 50th independence anniversary in Abuja October 1, 2010. Car bomb explosions killed eight people and injured three near a parade in Nigeria's capital on Friday marking the 50th anniversary of independence, police said.
Photograph by: Afolabi Sotunde, REUTERS. From The Vancouver Sun

MEND warned that there is nothing worth celebrating after 50 years of failure. And accused the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of plundering the mineral resources in the oil rich Niger Delta region.

Niger Delta militants in action


Click here for a detailed report.

Rampant corrupt practices have undermined development in Africa’s most populous country where democracy has failed and replaced by what has been condemned as a "kleptocracy", a government of avaricious political contractors and their capitalist collaborators, sycophantic cronies and beneficiaries.

The government has failed to secure lives and properties in Nigeria as rising crimes of kidnappings, robberies and assassinations make daily headlines. The poverty stricken masses are suffering and still smiling and praying for divine intervention in a country where regular power supply, a three square meal or receiving good healthcare is a miracle.

Many of the dare-devil militants, kidnappers, armed robbers, assassins and other lunatic fringe elements were former political thugs and goons employed by the corrupt rulers in rigging elections and for illegal oil bunkering, but these demons they created have turned against them.

Illegal bunkering is still going on while the fake amnesty is being used to fool the ignorant masses.

MEND knows that the PDP wants to use the Niger Delta born President Goodluck Jonathan to woo and to deceive the gullible masses and hoodwink his people in the Niger Delta.

When Prof. Ben Nwabueze (SAN) asked for a bloody revolution on July 7, 2010, he was warning the government of the grave consequences of the impunity of the corrupt ruling party and to challenge the eminent Nigerians and others who were at the public presentation of his latest book; "Colonialism in Africa: Ancient and Modern (Volumes 1 & 2)", at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, Kofo Abayomi, Victoria Island, Lagos. But did they repent?

Google Celebrates Nigeria at 50

Google celebrates the 50th Independence Anniversary of Nigeria with a new doodle on the homepage. Isn’t that so cute!

Two thumbs up to Google!

As Nigeria celebrates its 50th year of independence, Lets Remember

As we mark the 50th Independence Anniversary of Nigeria, let us remember the over 80 million poverty stricken Nigerians who live from hand to mouth. The cheated, deprived and ravaged masses in the rural areas from the Niger Delta to Lake Chad. Let us remember them as we dine and wine in our palatial mansions on Banana Island and Asokoro and as we cruise about in our posh cars and luxury SUVs in our romantic jolly ride of the Golden Jubilee.

For these defenceless victims of the Machiavellian political contractors and their greedy collaborators cannot even read and write and they survive on less than a dollar a day.


Poverty ravages majority of Nigerians in the rural areas. Photo Credit: Stolen Childhood


Let us remember that the families and relations of the 15 school children who were kidnapped last Monday are still gripped by the fears of the fate of their missing children and shedding tears, trickling down to their palms as they bow down on their knees in prayers for the safety of their innocent children.

Let us remember the tens of thousands murdered in extra judicial killings at Nigerian police checkpoints and illegal toll-gates and in the hellish cells of police stations.

Let us remember the abandoned patients in the public hospitals where the doctors have been on strike and where lives have been lost, because nobody cares for them.

Let us remember those who have been killed in ghastly auto accidents on the abandoned roads in Nigeria.

Let us remember the unsung heroes of political conflicts who lost their precious lives in political protests, ethnic-religious riots and in unusual circumstances at different locations in the north, south, west and east of Nigeria, our beloved nation.

Let us remember...lest we forget.

God save Nigeria.

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima

Nigerian Army Takeover Security in Aba over Kidnapped School Children

Combat ready soldiers of the Nigerian Army.

Combat ready soldiers of the Nigerian Army have taken over security operations in Aba, Abia state, in a federal government response to the efforts to rescue the 15 school children kidnapped by gunmen in the commercial city last Monday.
.
Aba has been besieged by daredevil kidnappers and armed robbers in the southeastern region of Nigeria.
Concerned citizens have been calling on President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria to declare a state of emergency in Abia after the kidnap of 15 pupils of the Abayi International School, Aba, on Monday September 27, 2010. The kidnappers hijacked the pupils’ school bus and demanded N20 million ransoms for the release of the 15 pupils. The police and other security operatives have not been able to locate their whereabouts. Then letters of threats from kidnappers forced banks, shops and schools in Aba to close since Tuesday.

"President Jonathan has ordered the inspector general of police and heads of other security agencies to take all necessary steps to rescue the abducted children and return them safely to their parents," his spokesman Ima Niboro told the BBC News yesterday.


Children in Aba. But the city is no longer safe for them.

The incessant kidnappings of helpless people have made residents to live in fear and made many of them to relocate to where there is better security of lives and properties.

“Nobody is safe in Aba. Kidnappers can abduct anyone on the street and demand ransoms as low as N5, 000 to release them,” said a security officer in Aba.

The Abia state government has failed to address the appalling state of insecurity that has harmed commercial activities and frightened away native and foreign investors.

The rampant cases of kidnapping, robberies and assassinations in Nigeria may threaten the 2011 elections as observed by many diplomats and human rights activists.

Nigeria 50 years of Independence

30 Sep 2010 12:53 Africa/Lagos



Nigeria 50 years of Independence


ABUJA, September 30, 2010/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Interview opportunity

“Because of oil exploration there are no more fisheries…We experience the hell of hunger and poverty. Plants and animals do not grow well, the fish have died…”
- Jonah Gbemre of Delta State, April 2008

Nigeria celebrates its 50th year of independence on October 1.

Since the 1960s, oil has generated an estimated $600 billion. Despite this, the majority of the Niger Delta's population lives in poverty. According to the UN, the area suffers from administrative neglect, crumbling social infrastructure and services, high unemployment, social deprivation, abject poverty, filth, squalor and endemic conflict.

This poverty, and its contrast with the wealth generated by oil, has become one of the world's starkest and most disturbing examples of the “resource curse”.

Amnesty International has spokespeople available to discuss the impact of the oil industry on the human rights situation in Nigeria in the past 50 years.

We can also provide interviews on the use of torture and extra-judicial killings by security forces, the death penalty and housing rights/forced evictions over the past 50 years.

For further information, photos or to arrange an interview by ISDN or phone please contact Katy Pownall on +44 (0)207 413 5729 or email katy.pownall@amnesty.org


Source: Amnesty International

Releases displayed in Africa/Lagos time
30 Sep 2010
12:53	Nigeria 50 years of Independence
11:26	Prières pour le Nigéria, Haiti et début du mois marial
29 Sep 2010
21:38	Qualcomm Launches Its West Africa Operations With New Office in Lagos
21:00	Equatorial Guinea Calls for End to Delays on UNESCO-Obiang Life Sciences Prize
18:00	Delta Continues African Expansion With New Flights to Luanda, Angola
14:59	Christy Turlington and Lauren Bush to Attend Yoga Fundraiser at Donna Karan's Urban Zen Center in New York to Help Women for Women International
11:00	Record number of bidders compete for equipment in Ritchie Bros. Atlanta auction

What Are They Offering You in the 2011 Elections?

Nigerian politicians are dyed-in-the-wool Machavellian by nature and when they give you their menu of utopian promises, do not start salivating and smacking your lips, because what they are going to serve you later from the kitchen is most likely going to be totally different from what they showed you in the menu. The rotten food of corruption as the masses have been eating the sour grapes of the ruling party since 1999 to date. It would be terrible if the voters allow themselves to be fooled again.

Politics makes strange bed fellows like seeing President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State together as political buddies. They may belong to the same ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), but in ethics of politics, they are like beauty and the beast.

When the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was still alive and active in office, I called him Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, because in fairness, he was like a sheep in the midst of wolves in sheep clothing in the ruling party.

Beware of the 2011 Elections in Nigeria.