True G.O.O.D: Ad

Is it me or the month is flying by so fast  like it’s on steroids. Today I was just surfing internet je je li because I was bored after class when I came across these campaign ads. I must say I was impressed.  It is good to see how politics is changing in Nigeria. Maybe not in the core areas we need but at least these political machines are trying to appeal to the voters. Even if they are going to manipulate the elections they have to put up a show they won. It is almost becoming a thing of the past where politicians just go about calling each other names and reinstating Awolowo words (Southwest politicians). With no further ado, here they are:

This first one is very appealing to me, thumbs up to the director of this advertisement. The main purpose is to connect GEJ to the people. Make us feel he is actually human like us. This is what they call the American Dream in the U.S. He tells his life story from poverty to presidency.  It is the belief that a success story is achievable in Nigeria. It is a statement to the average Nigerian that “he is the being there done that kind of candidate” in terms of poverty and hardship. The use of the kids is eye catching too. Good job to the united Nigeria group.

Nuhu Ribadu for President 2011.  While the campaign advertisement of  GEJ seemed to have been channeled mainly for the average Nigerian Ribadu ad crossed across from elementary school kids to office workers to mechanics and okada riders. The song reminds me of Super Sports.  Maybe it is time we stood up for Nigeria finally. Maybe it is time we all go out to vote on April 9. Nuhu Ribadu’s campaign since he declared to run as being centered on a New Nigeria.  He has a blueprint on his website and the ad here also is on that general theme. It is a good ad overall and the song sticks too.

What do y'all think? I sincerely apologize to the other Presidential candidates and their party. I tried to find a good video for them but none was really worth it.   Maybe this would give a nudge to their media coordinators.   If anyone as a good one please feel free to leave the link. Thank you.

Who Born the Maga: Vision 2015

When John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963 the United States mourned. Lyndon Johnson his vice President became President on board of Air Force 1 less than three hours after JFK passed. President Johnson went on to finish JKF’s term. In 1964 he ran for office and he won. LBJ however didn’t win a reelection. LBJ withdrew from the race! His foreign policy and the war in Vietnam affected his popularity. Can you see where am going with this? Alright I will make it clearer. On May 5, 2010 President Yar’Adua died in Aso Rock after returning from a medical trip in Saudi Arabia. On May 6, 2010 President Jonathan was sworn in to complete his boss’ term. Haven said that you might think am advocating GEJ to be president. You are dead wrong!

Before JFK took office in the States, he was preceded by a two-term Republican President; Dwight Eisenhower. In Nigeria, President Yar’Adua was preceded by a two-term PDP president; Chief Obasanjo. During his tenure in office between 1999 and 2007 his party had a majority in the National Assembly. That means that he could have passed any legislation with no difficulty whatsoever. I would leave the details of that administration to the experts. However like any administration Obasanjo’s tenure has a basket full of criticism.

                        

When Yar’Adua became President little was known about his deputy on a national scale. Every political position he ever took was achieved on the mandate of a boss. Dramatically after the death of Mr. Yar’Adua many Nigeria started beating the drum that the name of the new president will be bring good fortune to Nigeria. GEJ suddenly became the right man for the job. That is just absolutely ridiculous. I wonder why he didn’t run in 2007. I guess this absurd notion gingered the president ego. He declared to run for office. This is his first ever. Now that is where I have a problem.

Mr. President wants to rule Nigeria in his own right. He has promised not to seek a reelection in 2015. Nigerians are easy believers. Mr. President I personally do not understand how you would complete your campaign promises in 4 years considering they are the same your party promised through 1999- 2010. As I said earlier, PDP have had a majority in the National Assembly since 1999. In the forth coming election, the opposition parties are not smiling. The chances of PDP winning absolute majority is slim. So Mr. President the task would be more difficult taking that fact into consideration.

In true democracies around the world, the presidency often rotates. This makes for fresh ideas to come into government. GEJ has promised to deliver what the PDP has failed to do in 11 years in 4 years. I do not see it happening. Do you? Egypt with 80 million people generate 25,000 Giga watts of power; and South Africa with a population of 35 million generate 40,000 megawatts while Nigeria with a population over 150 million people, can only generate 3,000 megawatts of power.

The point am trying to make is simple. In soccer a coach subs an underperforming player for someone on the bench even if was to be his best. Alright that might not apply to politics.lol. Nigerians should seek what is right for once. What does a candidate’s name have to do with governance? Nigerians have tried the ruling party since 1999. Are we satisfied? No. Is there enough public goods? No. Are we performing at our optimum? No. Is there enough employments for our annual University graduates? NO. Is there constant power and security? NO. Nigerians do we have a choice? Yes! Let’s make a change. We owe it to our generation.

True G.O.O.D: Election Theme

You know the saying “some songs just pop up to define ones mood”? It’s true. I have listened to a few songs in the past couple of days. These songs are perfect and on point for this season; election season.
Different issues have been unfolding since the New Year within and between Political Parties. I guess it’s not yet time for this candidates (especially Presidential) to start talking to us. All the songs have so much to do with Nigeria. I bet it’s a good way our musicians can ask questions without any fear of arrest or harassment. Without no further a due here are my picks.

This is from 2baba’s 2006 Grass to Grace Album. The song speaks for itself. Political candidates, not peculiar to Nigeria, make several promises during campaigns. However, not all of them keep to their words; in this case Nigeria is a big example. It’s as if they no know shame. Every election, they come out again to perform the same act. Are we going to be fooled again?

E Be Like Say by 2face




This is a strong one. 9ice and Asa speak some bitter truth on this track. 9ice challenges the youth for not speaking and fighting against our struggling system while the elders are too greedy to speak out against it. They make nostalgic preferences to early years after independence. Is it too late now? I hope not.

Pete Pete by 9ice ft. Asa


I was surprised when I heard this on Wande Coal’s debut Album. Just like the previous song he makes preferences to the early 60s. He makes some sad comments about the reality today.

Se na like this by Wande Coal


I added this to the list because this is what our government as turned must of our youth into; common criminals. Let us forget about the “tosh” names “yahoo boys” or “magas”. Employment is always on the list of serious political candidates in the West. How many jobs did the last administration create? How many did the previous create? How many are the present political candidates proposing to create? All this questions should be asked. It’s a shame! Did you hear about the real estate Nigerian fraudster at large in the U.S? Enough said.

Maga No Need Pay by Banky W, Bez, Cobhams, MI, Modele, Omawumi, Rooftop MCs, Wordsmith

Sound Sultan is one of my favorites. He is one of the consistent artists I know that speak about real issue; from government to society. On this song, he addresses the failure of the administration. Proposed constant electricity project by 2010 failed. Would that be the same by the end of 2015?

2010 by Sound Sultan

Asa on her debut Album had a lot of dope songs. Fire on the mountain is one. There is really fire on the mountain for Nigeria. Let us face it. You all have heard about Tunisia and Egypt. April election is the decisive moment. I hope we quench the fire. Get Daddy Showky.lol

Fire On The Mountain by Asa


The last on my list is eLDee’s One day. I have a dream in Nigeria. It’s a strong one. Hopefully the election in April favor the people and we can begin to write the history of our beloved country on the path of greatness and prosperity.

One day by eLDee

I am nervous about the election. Let us all go out and perform our civil duty. Each vote must count. It is our commonwealth! I believe in Nigeria. It’s not too late to get to work people.

Beauty with Brain

I took a 2 hour nap today. When I woke up I had random thoughts in my head. The one which stood out was Nigerian women; Nigerian women and their intellect and beauty.  Back in High school (secondary school) girls competed for the tops in every subject.  Our women and girls are smart hands down.  On several occasions did I get tutoring from them.  Our females are always ready to defy the odd if given the chance.  Unfortunately, like most world of history, our women are not always painted to the best of their elegance and splendor.  There are only a few to be mentioned in the Nigerian history.  These women are sparingly mentioned in schools. These are women our girls could look up to, these are women with beauty and brain.

I believe someday Nigeria would have a female president.  20 years ago many would have doubted.Nigeria to have so many female deputy governors today.  That is the new political trend these days. Very soon our females would take over the banking, oil, and "everything" sector (lol). I believe in the Nigeria to come.  Our females are standing tall in movie and music industry.  Watch out for our females!

This is my little way of celebrating our women. You all rock.  You are supportive, caring, intelligent, hard working, and beautiful. You are the pride of Nigeria. When the super eagles failed us, you lifted our sprites.  You all rock. Someday you will be given the due chance to excel. Never give up.  Shout out to my wonderful mother. You rock ma!

Word War III

I always thought of him as an out of the box politician but not in a good way.  He definitely put his constituency on the map. I consider that an achievement in my book. But he didn’t consider them when firing must of his out of context vocabulary.  I wasn’t surprised when I learnt he lost the parties primaries a couple of weeks ago. House representative Patrick Obahiagbon is also a YouTube sensation among Nigerian internet users.  However I can't believe an individual like him is one of the many that run our national affairs.  There is a thin line between trying to prove to be an intellectual and a mere joke. He unfortunately falls to the latter part. Most of his interviews I couldn't take seriously.

My concern in particular is how such a man could be accountable to his people if they can’t even make out his words. And don’t even give me the excuse “he would speak to them in his indigenous language”. How about his fellow House representatives? Notable Nigerian literature scholars do not even communicate like that. It’s a distraction. Unfortunately in most of the interviews he seemed to take much pleasure in his act.  

Even if House representative Obahiagbon intention and political career was for the people, his indulgence in ambiguous vocabulary as marred it.  As we march towards election day let us not be cocooned or be put in a state of orga moga by political Homo sapiens. Let us pray to the grand architect of the Universe to save us from a Word war IV.     

The Fantastic Five

The Presidential primary elections of most parties are now over. We have the names of our candidates for the general election. The questions from now on till April are what these men have in stock for us. Internal party politics time is over.  Over the years, candidates have usually not presented any concrete plans to the Nigerian public before the election. It is time for them to face the Nigerian people as a whole. As we all experienced a week ago the April polls is not necessary all about the candidates’ zone. Also, this election is regarded as one of the most competitive since the beginning of the current democratic dispensation.  Without further ado, here are our five prominent candidates for the April polls.

Name : Chief Dele Momodu, Party: National Conscience Party (NCP) Age: 50  Current Occupation: Entertainment Magazine Publisher   Website: http://www.delemomodu2011.com/dm2011/

Name: Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, Party: All Nigerian  People's Party (ANPP),  Age: 55, Current Occupation:  Governor of Kano State, Website: http://ibrahimshekarau.com/

Name: Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Party: People's Democratic Party (PDP), Age: 53, Occupation: Incumbent President, Website: http://www.goodluckjonathanfor2011.com/

Name: Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Party: Congress for Progressive Change ( CPC), Age: 68 Occupation: Retired  Major-General, Website:http://buhari4change.com/

Name: Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Party: Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Age: 50 Occupation: Retired Police Officer/ Lawyer, Website:  http://ribadu2011.com/


The webites and campaign videos are pretty much what these men have provided to us to evalutate them. Please check out their websites and read about them. Contrary to popular believe these men actually have some good information on their sites. Get to know them! Hopefully in the following weeks we would get to know them more. People, these faces are not going away any time soon. Let us get use to them.

Ask a ?uestion

General elections are definitely one of the most eventful and decisive moments of any country’s political history. It is 2011. That means Nigerian is either having a new president or retaining the incumbent president. This article will try not to question any aspirant competency or credibility. We shall leave that for another day. What I will try to achieve with this is raise the questions Nigerians should be asking. It is time we stopped playing ignorant.  At this point in any civil society (election period) there are always hot topics every aspirant love to discuss to his/her best ability to score point and increase acceptance from the electorate. In Nigeria there are tons of hot topics. Education, Security, job creation and the economy are the most prominent topics. Recently, the wages and salaries of law makers joined that list.  I wonder why our politicians are not talking to us about issues like these.       

It is not uncommon in Nigeria for politicians to list 7 point agenda or 5 point agenda during this period. However, they never tell us how to achieve these self imposed goals. Many of them make plans and promises as if it only takes a magic spell to turn things around. Unfortunately the Nigerian system is not like Hogwarts. In matured democracy, aspirants aim for reasonable tasks that are achievable within the time frame of the first term in office. This is necessary because public service is a job. If they do not deliver, a second term is not guaranteed. They get sacked by the people; the employer.

Political parties would conclude party primaries in the next few weeks. Afterwards Nigerians would finally know those who are definitely vying for the topmost political office in the country. Unfortunately our political system and the media (no outfit in particular) make internal party politics national matters. The few weeks before the election, (which is unarguable not enough, topic for another day) the contenders would persuade us. I urge Nigerians not to lose concentration. Eyes on the price my people!

After the primaries phase am using this medium to ask and plead to credible platforms to conduct in dept interview about plans and project by each candidate. 2011 is a major year in our history. We have all heard that a million times over. But it can be over emphasized. Candidates should not just hide behind their political platforms. They should thrive to make a name for themselves. Nigerians are not just waiting to vote for a party!  Let us ask questions when the time comes. I know our democracy might still be young for live debate between candidates but the idea shouldn’t be dumped in the trash.  Each candidate should/ could have a live broadcast of plans and projects.

These broadcasts are just not the “I will do that and that” rhetoric we hear all the time. We are asking for a type of broadcast that would tell us the plans and the means of accomplishing them. Nigerians need to be able to hold our politicians to concrete promises.  This is the standard we can test them by.  A concrete self imposed standard. We have to beat them.

Our people have a saying he that asks for direction doesn’t take a wrong turn. Nigerians let us ask these folks real questions. Let us ask them their plans for us as we head into this new decade. Let us ask them why Nigerians should not lose hope in training their kids in their schools. Let us ask them why they go for medical checkups abroad and leave the taxpayers to our dwindling health system. Nigerians let us get to work. Ask a question.