Adeleke Wins $100, 000 Prize For 'The Missing Clock'

Nigerian journalist, poet and dramatist Adeleke Adeyemi aka Mai Nasara has won the $100,000 Nigeria LNG Prize For Literature for his children's book The Missing Clock.



The Missing Clock, was judged the best among the 126 books entered for the competition. The judges described The Missing Clock as “a genial heartwarming account of how a young boy's simple acts inspire his family to fortune”.

Chairman of the panel of judges, Prof. Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo of the University of Lagos and past co-winner of the prize, said “The Missing Clock celebrates ingenuity, hard work and sparkles in its prose.” She called Adeyemi, “a gifted story teller.”

Mai Nasara is the pen name of Adeleke Adeyemi, a journalist and science communicator with interests as varied as film/TV, tennis, poetry, girl-child education and leadership studies. His work promotes a number of causes, from malaria eradication, orphanage funding to long-term scholarship for girls, as well as the history of science, engineering and technology in Africa. Based on his conviction that "the stories people tell have a way of taking care of them," (Barry L. Lopez), he is at work to set up a network of libraries across Africa, starting in his native Nigeria

His first book "The Mandate of MKO Abiola", a play for the radio was published by Nigerian Times International.



Although his win guarantees him about N15 million, Adeyemi said his focus is on making one million copies of The Missing Clock available to readers by next year. He also plans to produce a comic version as well as an animated movie of his story.
“My plan has always been to use this story, which is timely, to help children grow as human beings. This is why money is not my motivation,” he said. “In fact, 10% of all proceeds from sales of the book will be used to fight malaria and promote girl-child education, especially in Northern Nigeria.”

The highly rated Nigeria Prize for Literature sponsored by the Nigeria LNG Limited, was initiated in 2004 to “improve the quality of writing, editing, proof-reading, and publishing in the country”.

The prize rotates yearly amongst four literary genres: prose fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature.

Click here to order The Missing Clock from Amazon.


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Dark Horse Tomas Transtromer Wins 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature

The largely unknown and unsung Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer was the surprising winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Most of us are ignorant of this 80-year old Swedish poet whose poems have been translated into more than 60 languages so far. One of his latest books is The Deleted World .




Two truths approach each other. One comes from inside, the other from outside, and where they meet we have a chance to catch sight of ourselves.

~ Tomas Transtromer

Press Release
Bio-bibliography
Congratulate the New Nobel Laureate
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	The Sorrow Gondola
	Sämtliche Gedichte.
	Die Erinnerungen sehen mich.
	Das große Rätsel
	Für Lebende und Tote

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The Psychological Problems of the Nigerian Police Force

Nigerian Police Officers on duty

It is Time for Psychological Services for families and Survivors of line-of-duty Police Deaths

The nation currently has a Police Force with no specialized training in professional psychological services nor does it have a system for trauma therapy and grief counseling /psychological outfit for grieving families.

The recent revelation that four hundred police officers lost their lives in the line of duty last year, within the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja tells us that more and more trauma deaths of officers remain rampant across all of the states.

On a physical level, the nation lacks a system of life insurance policies for close family members and survivors. There is no Police Health Plan with a package for trauma therapy for families of deceased officers. The traumatically injured officers lack a system-based insurance or long term financial plans to cover their hospital bills and other basic needs. The reported N500, 000 presented to survivors is a one-time deal that families of the dead get, and at best such collected benefit brings a one second aid to the grieving family. Especially, when they could be grief-stricken, depressed, anxious, guilty and angry over the traumatic death of a loved one.

They might be encountering emotional reactions as in flashbacks, nightmares, and undergoing experiences of emotions and physical sensations of fear, sweating, smells, sounds, and pain which could be long term. Traumatic deaths like officers death in the line of duty could result into numbing, being 'on guard, hyper- vigilante, jumpy, insomnia, irritability, and other symptoms like muscle aches, irregular heartbeats, headaches and feelings of panic.

As such other negative coping behaviors could follow as in drinking too much alcohol, using drugs (including painkillers), and smoking cigarette. All these symptoms could fold into a problem called Post-traumatic Stress Disorder – when they go on for too long.

The Police Force lacks a system of death and grief studies, and ‘Family Orientation to Police Life’ which could further make the experience of premature death more shocking to families.
Given the fact that premature police deaths are statistically higher overall compare to many professions, the federal ministry of police affairs should institute a therapeutic system for many grieving families seeking comfort and closure.

The ultimate sacrifice for these surviving families is the murder of their police officers’ husbands, fathers and sons and daughters. Certainly, there will be police officers killed in the line of duty, as such; the use of psychological resources to attain stability and a support system to help the family cope becomes very vital. A line-of-duty psychological treatment for grieving families, peers and colleagues is more meaningful when the kind of benefits collected by a spouse or family is highly sustaining as these post-duty death benefits affects the length and intensity of the whole grieving period.

It is time that the Nigeria Police Force have individual and group counseling and other related services which should be provided at various commands or locations by trained grief response teams across homes and schools. There is need to begin a telephone program where families and peers of the dead leave information in regards to counseling assistance or other needs.

The Nigeria Psychological Association with all of its human resources and assets are ready to assist when called upon by the leadership and the presidency since psychology has stayed neglected for far too long in many of these national affairs.



~ By John Egbeazien Oshodi, Ph.D.
The Secretary-General of the Nigeria Psychological Association (NPA). Abuja.


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Mr. President, You Said It All

Mr. President, You Said It All: AT Age 51 Nigeria Is Still In a State of Institutional Collapse Because of Leadership Disorderliness?

Sir, the depth and enduring nature of Nigeria’s institutional woes has proved fertile ground for psychological analysis and guidance. And here is why: Professional psychologists remain vast about the institutional effects of instability in regards to human hardship as in many of life’s grittier issues; among them are hopeless, pain, helplessness and general nostalgia.

Sir, these psychological issues are direct consequences of Nigeria’s disordered and ungoverned politics with ongoing massive negative effect on the masses. Ironically and notably, this same institutional disorderliness brings fraudulent gains to many in charge of our institutions.

Sir, in your speech to mark Nigeria’s 51st anniversary of independence from British colonial powers in a just, open and despondent manner, you talked about institutional and systemic breakdown in the country.

Sir, there was need for you to propose a psychological overhaul of the nation’s institutions, if we are to truly bring about a functioning system of institutions.

Sir, you talked about how our ministers’ offices have been rotated into regular ‘consultation’ rooms. Could this be due to the need for a flamboyant lifestyle which can only persist through corrupt practices in order to feed their lifestyle?

It is not unusual to see on a daily basis how the powerful impoverish the trekking masses and motorized drivers with fleet of publicly issued luxurious cars, with privatized Nigerian police and mounted traffic jams on their way home apparently with their ‘consultation’ yields.

Sir, you talked about Nigerian Doctors, who are mandated to protect lives, habitually end up killing people as they did to my mother, and nobody takes action because the institutions that should control and monitor their activities have apparently become exasperated.

Sir, you talked about the nation running on a deficit budget because the institutions that are in charge of protecting public resources are persistently being affected with leakages, mentally of course.

Sir, there is a reason why many of them frequent your office. As you rightly pointed out the “system” is not working well because many of them could be struggling with a mindset of presidential dependency, which could be a sign of habitual helplessness, yet that is what you have surrounding you.

Sir, you cited lack of accurate census figures and incorrect statistics on the economy as indicators of mass institutional fiascos. Sir, when some of them are sent to helpful lectures, meetings, training programs and similar activities they are either asleep during the lectures, runs way after a short stay or simply disappear from the lecture room. But they expect their supervisors and employees to attend and stay in the meetings. In the process there is confusion, as no one actually knows who is right in terms of information, and no one knows the current state of the art in matters of governance.

Sir, you talked about public workers not coming to work by “8am even though the period of service is between 8am and 4pm”, and you asked how many “directors come to work by 8am”.

Sir, there is value in work so if the ministers, directors and other senior officials could come to work on time the general workers will become more responsible for their own actions and behaviors through good attendance.

Sir, you stated that you are not “going to chase them by carrying a big stick going into the ministries and breaking the heads of the people”. Sir, no one in their right mind wants to see a Hitler type of presidential leadership in you.

Sir, if as “a nation, we have to build strong institutions” as you rightly stated, approaches to institutional indiscipline should be accompanied with successive stiffer penalties. And mandating stiff penalties against those who refuse to participate in best practices in our institutions is only fair. And as a matter of fact, heavy fines on failing ministers and other public leaders could serve as a better chance of avoiding continued institutional collapse.

Sir, as you rightly know many public and corporate leaders remain overly wealthy, while about 80% of Nigerian citizens suffer below the poverty line.

Sir, some of these citizens are in pain and remain in the frontlines of economic struggles, and some are seeking solace by way of unusual behaviors like terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery, violent civil unrest, inter-communal tensions, strikes, and prostitution.

Sir, many Nigerians for the first time in their lives feel very vulnerable, and isn’t too proud of the giant of Africa—Nigeria.

Sir, your candid words will certainly give a spiritual lift to many Nigerians and help hit back against a sense of moral and physical decline in our public leaders.

Sir, professional psychology could help our public leaders recognize their strengths and resources for the betterment of their respective institutions.

Sir, the application of the science of positive psychology to improving our institutions could eventually be broadened to the society only if government agencies and leadership focus on integrating scientific and professional knowledge from psychology.

The Nigeria Psychological Association with all of its human resources and assets are ready to assist when called upon by the leadership and the presidency since psychology has stayed missing or neglected for far too long.


~ By John Egbeazien Oshodi, jos5930458@aol.com, Abuja


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An Open Letter to Nigerian Christians

Photo of Nigerian Pastor Chris Oyakhilome.


The problem of the world of those who live and lie in falsehood in Christendom is the fact that majority of those who claim to be Christians have never met Jesus Christ and you can never be a Christian until you have met Jesus Christ.

What we have in Nigeria and the rest of the world are millions of church goers calling themselves Christians when in reality they are not in truth and in spirit.

You cannot be a Christian and behave like a pagan as most of you do.

You only deceive yourself by making all sorts of excuses for your erroneous and ambiguous practices which expose the truth about you.

We are what we do.
As Jesus Christ said, by their fruits you shall know them.
And not by words of mouth.
Not by how many times you go to church.
Not by how many times you give alms to the beggars and paupers.
Not by the size of your Holy Bible.
Not by how many times you pray, praise or worship HIM.
Not by your hypocritical attempts to be pious.
Not by when you dress to impress others.

The hood does not make the monk.

By your fruits you shall prove who and what you are.

You wonder why Nigeria is in hysteria?
Because of your evils.
What we sow we shall reap.
The fruits of the seeds Nigerians have sown in secret and in public are the harvest of corruption, pollution, poverty, criminality and political instability plaguing Nigeria today.

Majority of the millions posing and posturing as "Christians" are nothing more than Hypocrites at large.

They themselves know they are living in their own conceit and deceit, fooling themselves as they are all engaged in the contests of wits to outsmart themselves in their rat race.

True Christians don't join the rat race when they know their Kingdom Race of true Christianity.

I would rather dine and wine with pagans than fellowship with hypocrites who are pretending to be Christians, but do things that show that they do not even fear God as the pagan fear their idols.

Parents have failed to be good role models for their children as they lie and cheat at home and at work and so their children learn to lie and cheat from their parents and sooner or later join their bandwagon of the morally and intellectually bankrupt and corrupt society.

A society filled by the canker-worms of corruption, made rotten by ill-gotten wealth that only ends in their death and leaving their survivors and victims to continue to face the grave consequences of the wrath of the earth.

The solution is to confess the truth and stop lying and fooling yourselves.
Admit it that you have not met Jesus Christ and say it that you are not Christians.
As Jesus Christ said that if you are neither hot nor cold, he would spit you out!

"So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth."

~ Revelation 3:16 (King James Version)


How can you meet Jesus Christ?

"Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

~ John 14:6 (New International Version)

Break down and confess all your sins and evils.

Have you done any evil to anyone?
Have you done evil to any family?
Have you done evil to any people?
Have you done evil to any company?
Have you done evil to any organization?
Have you done evil to any nation?

Then you have done evil to God.

If you want to meet with Jesus Christ.
You must stop doing evil in any form or way whatsoever.
Then repent of the evil or evils you have already done, by confessing to God and to the person, family or people, the company, organization or nation and ask for their forgiveness.
Then I promise you that the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ will visit you.

But until you do so, I am sorry, you are just fooling yourselves and wasting your time in your religious buffoonery.

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Ashoka 2020: The 20 Challenges of the 21st Century

Ashoka – the world’s largest community of social entrepreneurs – has identified 20 key challenges in today’s world that require outstanding entrepreneurs to tackle them. We have supported thousands of groundbreaking social innovators over the last 30 years, and we are now looking for 20 entrepreneurs (business or social) to engineer the big systems change by taking the key patterns to scale, adding what’s missing, and cracking new strategies. If you are an entrepreneur hungry to put your skills to work, think of Ashoka as your platform to drive high impact change.

Join the challenge for Nigeria on http://2020.ashoka.org/


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