Learn some Nigerian folk-tales.

Read BitterLittleMan’s Mainichi reviews. Truly ori(m)ental.

Then read up on the scam, the 419′ers wish they’d thought of.

NEPA cuts off power to Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos. The shocking part is they actually did it on purpose. *gasp*. It wasn’t down to standard NEPA unreliability, but because following this week’s airport fire…NEPA decided to call in the N136million debt owed. (Bear in mind that NEPA’s dodgy wiring may actually be at fault for the blaze.)

A government probe is ongoing into the causes of the fire…

After the recent, slighty confusing, study that showed Nigeria topping the world happiness list, it seems religon may hold the answer:

God has become a modern-day juju God,” said Chichi Aniagolu, a Nigerian sociologist and a Catholic who, by her own admission, dips into Pentecostal services. “You appease him. You bring him yams, goats, make sacrifices, and you get what you want. Today, you’re not making sacrifices. You’re giving tithes.

Things aren’t all rosy though. When travelling in Nigeria the exploitation of the poor via religion is immediately apparent, with the huge, out-of-place, over-styled and expensive church buildings, paid for by their tithings. While - similar to all parts of the world - the pastors live an (imho) unnacceptably elevated level of lifestyle. In Nigeria - the 2nd most corrupt country in the world - religion is a lucrative business. I recall a dirt road on the outskirts of Benin on which i counted about 10 churches in a 1 minute drive.

The movement is clearly reflective of everything that’s wrong with Nigeria,” said Nosa Igiebor, the outspoken editor of Tell, a weekly newsmagazine. “Poor people are forced to pay these tithes, and by doing so, every problem they take to the pastor will be solved. The pastors know it won’t be. Just the same way our political leaders deceive people, by making promises they have no intention to keep.

Seems like the Indians may be catching on to what is currently Nigeria’s only monopolised market. I still have hope though, that the guy in the background of the picture is called Adesola or something similar.

Seems like the corruption within Nigeria may be waning though, as for the first time(?) a politician confessed to being offered the opportunity to bribe. Sounds illogical i know…but this is Nigeria.

A New Scientist has revealed that Nigerians are the world’s happiest people; with Romania’s citizens unhappiest.

I am skeptical, to the say the least, as the last feeling that crosses my mind on exiting Murtala Muhammed International Airport is one of contentment and joy.

On the contrary, Nigeria - recently reconfirmed as one of the world’s most corrupt countries (1,2) - seems to be filled with some of the most money-driven, materialistic and dishonest people i know. If this study is correct, i’d feel sorry for any Romanian.

So much so in fact, that i find it almost impossible to believe this study is psychologically valid. I am also extremely curious as to how they managed to test and measure the world’s ‘happiness’ unethnocentrically.

Learn about my origins and ancestors of Benin City (Edo), Nigeria.

Ghana’s ex-president Jerry Rawlings today issued a condemnation against the “internal behavior and weakness” amongst African men. He suggested that:

If [outsiders] are going to contribute to this problem in Africa, the question they are asking is do we deserve the assistance?

I agree. As the years pass, and colonialism and slavery fade into background noise of history the world in my opinion will begin to question why they should provide assistance to the currently undeserving (imho) African governments.

Yearly, Children in Need and Comic Relief reiterate:

Give a man fish, and he will eat for a day. But give him a net to catch his own and he will eat for a lifetime.

In relation to Sub-Saharan Africa, time will be the ultimate test of this simple phrase, but at the moment i wouldn’t fully agree with it. For, in the same way that it is not right to just give the analogous fish, it is also not right to simply give the net either. True appreciation isn’t garnered like that. Therefore, collaboration is the only way to provide a lasting solution.

Rawlings concluded saying:

Assistance is needed and welcome, but Americanizing us or Europeanizing us [just] creates very chronic ailments. Sub-Saharan Africa is not America.

I agree to a certain extent, however, “the West” however developed it may be is not, has not, and will never be an altruistic civilisation. Business and Capitalism drive most Western issues, and it needs to be remembered that no matter the scale of HIV/AIDS, war and famine; at present, assistance is forthcoming when Western interests will mutually benefit.

Mobile phones have had a dodgy week in Africa. In Nigeria, masses are set to switch off their phones in protest at high call charges.

Meanwhile, a South African MP is facing divorce after accidently sending a message intended for his mistress, to his wife instead. I feel his/her pain.

via bbc news:

Nigerians feel under siege. At places of worship, at school, at places of work, and virtually everywhere, they discuss what they describe as the ravages of witchcraft and in recent times, cultism.

In the northern Nigerian state of Taraba, for instance, some parents have been threatening to withdraw their children from school.

According to them, children attending nursery, primary and even secondary schools, are being initiated into witchcraft and cultism.

They say that the practice is not acceptable to them and that it is “safer to have an illiterate child than one deeply engrossed in witchcraft”.

Read up on Mbawo and how the superstitious beliefs of his family made a misery of life.