THE 12 CHARACTERISTICS OF GENIUS by imagineer7 You are creative. The artist is not a special person, each one of us is a special kind of artist. Every one of us is born a creative, spontaneous thinker. The only difference between people who are creative and people who are not is a simple belief. Creative people believe they are creative. People who believe they are not creative, are not. Once you have a particular identity and set of beliefs about yourself, you become interested in seeking out the skills needed to express your identity and beliefs. This is why people who believe they are creative become creative. If you believe you are not creative, then there is no need to learn how to become creative and you don’t. The reality is that believing you are not creative excuses you from trying or attempting anything new. When someone tells you that they are not creative, you are talking to someone who has no interest and will make no effort to be a creative thinker. 2. Creative thinking is work. You must have passion and the determination to immerse yourself in the process of creating new and different ideas. Then you must have patience to persevere against all adversity. All creative geniuses work passionately hard and produce incredible numbers of ideas, most of which are bad. In fact, more bad poems were written by the major poets than by minor poets. Thomas Edison created 3000 different ideas for lighting systems before he evaluated them for practicality and profitability. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart produced more than six hundred pieces of music, including forty-one symphonies and some forty-odd operas and masses, during his short creative life. Rembrandt produced around 650 paintings and 2,000 drawings and Picasso executed more than 20,000 works. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. Some were masterpieces, while others were no better than his contemporaries could have written, and some were simply bad. 3. You must go through the motions of being creative. When you are producing ideas, you are replenishing neurotransmitters linked to genes that are being turned on and off in response to what your brain is doing, which in turn is responding to challenges. When you go through the motions of trying to come up with new ideas, you are energizing your brain by increasing the number of contacts between neurons. The more times you try to get ideas, the more active your brain becomes and the more creative you become. If you want to become an artist and all you did was paint a picture every day, you will become an artist. You may not become another Vincent Van Gogh, but you will become more of an artist than someone who has never tried. 4. Your brain is not a computer. Your brain is a dynamic system that evolves its patterns of activity rather than computes them like a computer. It thrives on the creative energy of feedback from experiences real or fictional. You can synthesize experience; literally create it in your own imagination. The human brain cannot tell the difference between an “actual” experience and an experience imagined vividly and in detail. This discovery is what enabled Albert Einstein to create his thought experiments with imaginary scenarios that led to his revolutionary ideas about space and time. One day, for example, he imagined falling in love. Then he imagined meeting the woman he fell in love with two weeks after he fell in love. This led to his theory of acausality. The same process of synthesizing experience allowed Walt Disney to bring his fantasies to life. 5. There is no one right answer. Reality is ambiguous. Aristotle said it is either A or not-A. It cannot be both. The sky is either blue or not blue. This is black and white thinking as the sky is a billion different shaeds of blue. A beam of light is either a wave or not a wave (A or not-A). Physicists discovered that light can be either a wave or particle depending on the viewpoint of the observer. The only certainty in life is uncertainty. When trying to get ideas, do not censor or evaluate them as they occur. Nothing kills creativity faster than self-censorship of ideas while generating them. Think of all your ideas as possibilities and generate as many as you can before you decide which ones to select. The world is not black or white. It is grey. 6. Never stop with your first good idea. Always strive to find a better one an6.d continue until you have one that is still better. In 1862, Phillip Reis demonstrated his invention which could transmit music over the wires. He was days away from improving it into a telephone that could transmit speech. Every communication expert in Germany dissuaded him from making improvements, as they said the telegraph is good enough. No one would buy or use a telephone. Ten years later, Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone. Spencer Silver developed a new adhesive for 3M that stuck to objects but could easily be lifted off. It was first marketed as a bulletin board adhesive so the boards could be moved easily from place to place. There was no market for it. Silver didn’t discard it. One day Arthur Fry, another 3M employee, was singing in the church’s choir when his page marker fell out of his hymnal. Fry coated his page markers with Silver’s adhesive and discovered the markers stayed in place, yet lifted off without damaging the page. Hence the Post-it Notes were born. Thomas Edison was always trying to spring board from one idea to another in his work. He spring boarded his work from the telephone (sounds transmitted) to the phonograph (sounds recorded) and, finally, to motion pictures (images recorded). 7. Expect the experts to be negative. The more expert and specialized a person becomes, the more their mindset becomes narrowed and the more fixated they become on confirming what they believe to be absolute. Consequently, when confronted with new and different ideas, their focus will be on conformity. Does it conform with what I know is right? If not, experts will spend all their time showing and explaining why it can’t be done and why it can’t work. They will not look for ways to make it work or get it done because this might demonstrate that what they regarded as absolute is not absolute at all. This is why when Fred Smith created Federal Express, every delivery expert in the U.S. predicted its certain doom. After all, they said, if this delivery concept was doable, the Post Office or UPS would have done it long ago. 8. Don’t allow yourself to get discouraged. Albert Einstein was expelled from school because his attitude had a negative effect on serious students; he failed his university entrance exam and had to attend a trade school for one year before finally being admitted; and was the only one in his graduating class who did not get a teaching position because no professor would recommend him. One professor said Einstein was “the laziest dog” the university ever had. Beethoven’s parents were told he was too stupid to be a music composer. Charles Darwin’s colleagues called him a fool and what he was doing “fool’s experiments” when he worked on his theory of biological evolution. Walt Disney was fired from his first job on a newspaper because “he lacked imagination.” Thomas Edison had only two years of formal schooling, was totally deaf in one ear and was hard of hearing in the other, was fired from his first job as a newsboy and later fired from his job as a telegrapher; and still he became the most famous inventor in the history of the U.S. 9. Whenever you try to do something and do not succeed, you do not fail. You have learned something that does not work. Always ask “What have I learned about what doesn’t work?”, “Can this explain something that I didn’t set out to explain?”, and “What have I discovered that I didn’t set out to discover?” Whenever someone tells you that they have never made a mistake, you are talking to someone who has never tried anything new. Once Thomas Edison was approached by an assistant while working on the filament for the light bulb. The assistant asked Edison why he didn’t give up. “After all,” he said, “you have failed 5000 times.” Edison looked at him and told him that he didn’t understand what the assistant meant by failure, because, Edison said, “I have discovered 5000 things that don’t work.” 10. You interpret your own experiences. All experiences are neutral. They have no meaning. You give them meaning by the way you choose to interpret them. If you are a priest, you see evidence of God everywhere. If you are an atheist, you see the absence of God everywhere. IBM observed that no one in the world had a personal computer. IBM interpreted this to mean there was no market. College dropouts, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, looked at the same absence of personal computers and saw a massive opportunity. You construct your own reality by how you choose to interpret your experiences. 11. Always approach a problem on its own terms. Do not trust your first perspective of a problem as it will be too biased toward your usual way of thinking. Always look at your problem from multiple perspectives. Always remember that genius is finding a perspective no one else has taken. Look for different ways to look at the problem. Write the problem statement several times using different words. Toyota once hung signs all over their plant designed to encourage workers to work harder and longer. They had no effect . When they posted a sign that said “How to “HOW TO MAKE MY JOB EASIER” they were inundated with suggestions. Take another role, for example, how would someone else see it, how would Jay Leno, Pablo Picasso, George Patton see it? Draw a picture of the problem, make a model, or mold a sculpture. Take a walk and look for things that metaphorically represent the problem and force connections between those things and the problem (How is a broken store window like my communications problem with my students?) Ask your friends and strangers how they see the problem. Ask a child. How would a ten year old solve it? Ask a grandparent. Imagine you are the problem. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. 12. Learn to think unconventionally. Creative geniuses do not think analytically and logically. Conventional, logical, analytical thinkers are exclusive thinkers which means they exclude all information that is not related to the problem. They look for ways to eliminate possibilities. Creative geniuses are inclusive thinkers which mean they look for ways to include everything, including things that are dissimilar and totally unrelated. Generating associations and connections between unrelated or dissimilar subjects is how they provoke different thinking patterns in their brain. These new patterns lead to new connections which give them a different way to focus on the information and different ways to interpret what they are focusing on. This is how original and truly novel ideas are created. Albert Einstein once famously remarked “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” And, finally, Creativity is paradoxical. To create, a person must have knowledge but forget the knowledge, must see unexpected connections in things but not have a mental disorder, must work hard but spend time doing nothing as information incubates, must create many ideas yet most of them are useless, must look at the same thing as everyone else, yet see something different, must desire success but embrace failure, must be persistent but not stubborn, and must listen to experts but know how to disregard them. MICHAEL MICHALKO

HOW TO CONCOCT UNUSUAL AND DAZZLING IDEAS BY UNSTRUCTURING YOUR IMAGINATION by imagineer7 Ask a friend to imagine a creature living on another planet with a different atmosphere in another solar system. Then ask your friend to draw a picture of the creature. What you’ll find is that most people draw creatures that are remarkably similar to animals on earth, even though they’re asked to draw what a creature might look like in another solar system with a different atmosphere and are free to imagine anything they wish without constraints. Most people draw creatures that resemble life as we understand it, even though we’re free to think up anything. Namely, creatures with sense organs to see, hear and smell, and arms and legs with bilateral symmetry. Rather than creating something that’s idiosyncratic and unpredictable, most people create creatures that have a great deal in common with one another and with the properties of typical earth animals. There is no reason why animals on other planets would have to resemble animals on earth. People drawing space creatures could have tapped into any existing knowledge base, such as rock formations, tumbleweed or clouds to get an idea for the general shape of their space creature, and each person could access something different and novel. But most people do not and draw animals that have similar properties to animals on earth. What we’re exhibiting is a phenomenon called structured imagination. Structured imagination refers to the fact that even when we use our imagination to develop new ideas, those ideas are heavily structured in highly predictable ways according to existing concepts, categories and stereotypes. This is true whether the individuals are inventors, artists, writers, scientists, designers, businesspeople, or everyday people fantasizing about a better life. Research shows that we call up typical instances of a concept faster than less typical ones. To see this for yourself, quickly name the first five birds you can think of. Your list is likely to be populated with very typical birds, such as robins, blue jays, and sparrows, and less likely to contain unusual birds, such as pelicans, ostriches, and penguins. Because more typical instances of a concept spring to mind first, we naturally tend to seize on them as starting points in developing new ideas. And because the most typical members of a concept are the ones that have all of its central properties, this can reduce innovation even further. For instance, robins fly, lay eggs, and build their nests in trees, but penguins do not. If you base a novel alien on the more typical robin, it will resemble a stereotyped bird more than if you base it on a penguin. We need ways to unstructure our imaginations to explore the outer limits and dazzling variety of our concepts so we can go beyond the typical and concoct novel ideas that are wonderfully unusual. This often involves visiting seemingly unrelated topics or concepts, ideas that can appear quite foreign or even hostile to the problem at hand. But time after time, this way of cracking the problem code has been successful. All modern thought in invention and discovery is permeated by the idea of thinking the unthinkable. It is this playful freedom from design or commitment that allows you to juxtapose things which would not otherwise have been arranged in this way, to construct a sequence of events which would not otherwise have been constructed. 3M chemist Spencer Silver also liked to play and fool around mixing chemicals just to see what would happen. One of the things that happened was the invention of the Post-it note pads which accounts for over hundreds of millions of dollars. Spencer wrote "The key to the Post-It adhesive was doing the experiment. If I had sat down and factored it beforehand, and thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. If I had seriously cracked the book and gone through the literature, I would have stopped. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do it." And so Silver, in one of those 'Eureka' moments discovered that he had developed an adhesive which created impermanent bond. But now the problem was how to use this discovery. The company climate permitted Silver to continue with his efforts to realize the potential of his discovery, but no one could also develop it into a useful product. The breakthrough when another 3M employee, Arthur Fry, got his inspiration. Art was a member of the church choir and used to use paper slips as book marks to identify the songs to be sung. Sometimes when the paper would fly off, it created problems. The idea of using Silver's adhesive to make "better bookmarks" came to him while singing in the choir. The success of using the adhesive encouraged Fry to start thinking of developing a product out of the adhesive. Top management was skeptical but allowed Fry and Silver to work on the project. Fry assembled a small-scale basic machine in his own basement, which was successful in applying the adhesive on a continuous role of paper. The whole process of bringing the product to the manufacturing stage took another two years. The first marketing attempt was a miserable failure. Consumers seemed uninterested in this novel product. It was the Mid-Atlantic sales manager who saved the Post-It. He went to the home office and said, “I know you will think I’m crazy but the way to sell this product is to give it away. Whenever I give a consumer a sample, they beg me for more when I return.” So 3M sent free samples to the whole universe of secretaries and within a short period of time the Post-It became one of its most profitable products. Thought is a process of fitting new situations into existing slots and pigeonholes in the mind. Just as you cannot put a physical thing into more than one physical pigeonhole at once, so, by analogy, the processes of thought prevent you from putting a mental construct into more than one mental category at once. This is because the mind’s first function is to reduce the complexity of its experiences with a basic intolerance for ambiguity. It was Spencer Silver’s love of ambiguity and directionless play that enabled him to play with his chemicals to see what would happen that led to the Post-it. We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the fact that many inventions had their birth as toys. Artists are also upfront about their love of ambiguity and freedom of directionless play. One artist friend, a potter, showed me how he would create beautiful pots and then, while they were drying, whack them with a stick. Sometimes they just broke, but other times he'd get an interesting shape that he'd never seen before. Then he'd make a whole series based on that new shape. He is wonderfully successful. Another interesting way to stimulate your imagination is to use historical events or people selected randomly as stimuli. Get a website that constains a dictionary of events or the birht and death of a person. Try any date (today’s date, birth date, birthday of a pet, etc.), select an entry because it is bizarre, exciting, or makes you think of something. Imagine yourself present at the event, or being that person. How would they look at your problem? What would they do about it? What different perspectives would you get from being at the event or from the sort of activity? What are the parallels in history between that event and today? The mix of people and events gives a rich source of inspiration. Just as a random picture gives much more than a random word, an event with all its associations will normally produce more than a single person. Try conceptually blending them to generate interesting effects. How would Charlie Chaplin sell a proposal to a board of directors? One gym owner randomly went back to October 25th 1881 and discovered that was the birth date of Pablo Picasso, which got him to wondering how Picasso would market his gym. This inspired his brainstorm. He hired a free lance caricature artist to sit in front of his gym with a sign offering “free caricatures in five minutes.” The artist draws a caricature of the person in a well developed body with his gym prominently in the background. The person also gets a brochure and business card. His business increased substantially almost overnight. Look at the two tables below. The tables appear to be decidedly different. One is narrow, the other wide. Yet, believe it or not, the tables are identical. A B You can prove this to yourself by cutting out the top of table A and, turning it 75% to the right and placing in on the top of table B, or by measuring and comparing the lengths and widths. Here you take a situation that seems impossible and, by tinkering, discover that the impossibility is merely an illusion created by the artist’s perspective. This is one of the values of playing with absurd ideas. By tinkering with them, you begin to see things that you normally would miss. In the following thought experiment there are unusual combinations of objects. This is a workshop technique where participants randomly write nouns on small slips of paper. Then they are randomly combined into unusual objects. Combining apparently contradictory or impossible objects forces participants to stretch and bend their concepts to meet the constraints of the task. The objects below are from a past workshop. THOUGHT EXPERIMENT Try to imagine each object and draw a picture of it. See if you can imaginer it into something feasible. For example, a piece of furniture that is also a fruit could be designed as a giant pineapple carved into a chair. A vehicle that is also kind of fish. An aquarium that is also a toilet. A parking meter that is a kind of person. A bird that is also kind of kitchen utensil. A food flavoring that is also kind of tool. A park bench that is a kind of person. A computer that is also kind of teacup. A cooking stove that is also kind of bicycle. A lampshade that is kind of book. Below are some of the ideas this experiment inspired. A vehicle that is kind of fish = A dolphin pulled boat A cooking stove that is also kind of bicycle = The tubes of a bicycle frame were filled with steam that could be released to do the cooking. The pedaling is the energy source for the cooking. A parking meter that is also a kind of person = Manufacture a parking meter with infrared sensors and lithium-powered computer chips to "see" parking spaces much like a person “sees.” When a car leaves, the remaining time on the meter is erased. An aquarium that is also a toilet = A toilet that looks like an aquarium. An engineer designed a toilet with a glass aquarium tank. The mechanics of the toilet are hidden behind a wall with the front a glass aquarium with tiny fishes swimming around. A restaurant bought the toilet as a gimmick and his business increased as customers told their friends about the toilet. How about a bench that is a kind of person? Visitors to the public square in Cambridge, England see six benches and six rubbish bins, but this street furniture is something very different. The benches and bins are equipped with sensors that allow them to move and flock around the square. When no one is sitting on a bench, the bench will move to another position in a new space to make itself more attractive for visitors. Often the benches will arrange themselves into different patterns. When it rains, the benches move to shadier, drier places. The bins are more solitary and seek more quiet spaces to occupy. The benches and bins drift slowly around the square no faster than a strolling human. Sensors stop them when they are close to other objects. Sometimes when most of the benches are being sat on, they will burst into song with the bins joining in with soprano voices. Michael Michalko

Late Abibu Oluwa, the bard, said in one of his all-time epic admonitions: The absence of an elder heralds the ruin of the community; The death of the ‘patriarch’ turns the homestead into a parlous grave; The gangster does not roam the day while a well-born does not roam the nights; If you are doing good, continue doing it and if it’s evil you do continue; both good and evil are never in vain; there is hope for those still alive therefore we should not hasten the grace of God. Let us feign death in order to know those that will mourn us; Let us take a walk and hurt our feet, to see who will show us compassion; It can never be too bad for one not to have a sympathizer, but who it will be, we do not know; We should not gloat over the death of anyone as we must all die one day; it is not known who is next, but surely death must come; this earthly life is only for a fixed time and it’s very short; however, our destinies are not the same. Some are destined for a short life, while some live very long. We beseech God to pardon the trespasses of our late sister. The insect that devours the plant is blameless; it is the beauty of the plant that attracts it. The world is a mighty ocean and we humans are like the sea; and it is only by the grace of God that we traverse through life. There are conditions associated with death: It is not meet for us to follow the dead into their graves; we only see them off and return home. We are told that the dead pray for the living, just as we the living pray for the dead. For sure, one day, we too would be like them; which is the essence of praying. May we too have people who will offer prayers for us when we are no more! We pray that they would be comfortable in the grave and not suffer the loneliness and punishment of the grave. We admonish them not to eat worms but only those things that are permitted in heaven. There is no iota of doubt that there is a resurrection and Day of Reckoning. The only problem is that contrary to the belief that we will reunite with the departed on that day, it might not be as feasible as we envisage. On that fateful day, each will be preoccupied with the matter at hand; on that day, we would not have time for fraternization. May Allah bestow His mercy on us. We have all sinned; we have transgressed and broken the commandments. Many do not show compassion and love for their neighbors. We failed to give them water when they were thirsty, nor offer them food when they were hungry. We did not put clothes on the back of our wretched neighbors, neither did we offer them shelter from the elements. We have cheated the orphans and converted their inheritance. We have dispossessed the people and impoverished them; sending them into a state of tattered penury. We robbed the people of their patrimony and turned an erstwhile prosperous people into beggars. We have desecrated the house of God, by adorning them with graven images. And we have committed the ultimate sin of worshiping other gods other than the living God: We now worship money! We lust after our neighbor’s wife and covet his belongings. We have been ungrateful to God. We neither thank him for his benevolence nor for His mercies. There is a day of Judgement which we should all have in mind. It is sure as day. Immanuel Kant, the great German philosopher said: 'The drama of this life is not complete; there must be a second scene to it . . . Therefore, there must be another world, where justice will be carried out"- Let us start preparing for the Day of Judgment. When we get there, what shall we tell our maker? What will be our report card? Let us remember the day when we shall not be able to lift a finger; the day when all our wealth shall not avail us; the day when we shall leave all our limousines and be shrouded and conveyed to the burial site in a rented hearse; the day when we shall travel abroad as a first class passenger and return as cargo; the day when we shall no more be referred to in the present tense but as late; the day when our beautiful wives, girlfriends, mistresses and concubines will not be able to touch us, talk less of sleeping with us; a day when our children will no longer see us again but in the dream; the day when we will leave this world as naked and empty as we came. Let us always remember the words of our prophet: The holy prophet said: “a well-dressed soul in this world may be naked in the hereafter”. Subhanallah! In the Book of Job in the Old Testament we read:" Job 1:21 ‘And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. . . . .. This passage from the Bible will one day apply to all of us. Inna lillah wa ina illehi rajiun. We should start reflecting on all we are doing. Are we being fair; to our wives, children and parents, our siblings, our neighbors and our friends; are we being just in our dealings with all and sundry; are we being equitable in our affairs? Finally, have we rendered unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and unto God that which belongs to God? On the Day of Judgment, therefore, there will be many things that will occupy our minds that we will not have time for each other. It will be every man for himself. We all have cases to answer; may God have mercy on all of us. For those who still run after the ‘dunia’ let the words of Rahman Ahmad resonate in their ears. It was Sheik Abdu Rahman Ahmad, Chief Missioner, Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, who said “those who craved to amass wealth for themselves would give account to God on the Day of Judgment. “Often times, we forget about death and think of how to acquire properties. How foolish and unmindful have human beings become to remember the futility of life because death will come whether you are ready or not. “There will be no SSS and dispatch rider, all the paraphernalia of office will be lost and you will be caught up in a serious traffic. Every leader will be brought in chains on the Day of Judgment. It is not the number of years we live that matter, but how well we live; we should always live according to Allah’s wishes and impact positively on the lives of others while alive.” August 29, is the Annual Remembrance Prayer for our departed souls: A family ritual that started 59 years ago. Starting from the two progenitors of the Jose clan who were sold into slavery; first to Whydah in Dahomey and later to Bahia in Brazil from where the surname Jose was derived. And there is no doubt they deserve our prayers and supplications to Allah for the repose of their souls and their admittance to Jannatul Firdous. But for the prevailing condition wroth by the Coronavirus pandemic, we would not be able to gather in the traditional manner, hence this admonition. It is therefore important that we should offer prayers for the departed as this is the only way that their transgressions can be forgiven as Allah is most forgiving and compassionate. May Allah accept our prayers and forgive us our sins. Barka Juma’at and happy weekend Babatunde Jose +2348033110822

ALLAH’S POST OFFICE All world religions preach charity as an essential ingredient for salvation. Charity has always been seen as a way of bringing social justice to the world where the haves get a disproportionate slice of the bounties of life, leaving the other halve to wallow in poverty, misery and want. Islam and other religions therefore, call upon followers to reach out with open hands and give charity as a way of life. In the Quran, charity is often mentioned along with prayer, as one of the factors that identify true believers. The Quran frequently uses the words “regular charity,” which implies an ongoing and consistent activity, not just a one-off. It is a general understanding that society can flourish only if the members spend their wealth not only to serve themselves but also in helping the needy. Islam suggests charity should begin from home. So for any person, after fulfilling the needs of the family, it is necessary to serve people nearby them in any way possible. Charity provokes the feelings of well-wishing and kindness which are considered a true essence of living. Giving nourishes our souls and triggers our concerns for others and their well-being. Islam also places an emphasis on feeding the needy and is considered as one of the best acts in Islam. By giving from whatever we are blessed with, we realize that all that we have belong to Allah and must be used for the well-being of others. Giving in no way reduces our wealth neither does it diminish our possessions. We must learn to give and to share with others. Helping others today will never leave you helpless in your bad times. Therefore learn to give and learn to share the blessing you are given. Your riches are not the result of your doing but the grace and benevolence of God. The sage said: mimose t’Oluwa ni, aimose t’Oluwani’; getting it right is by the grace of God and not getting it is the will of God, the will of God shall always prevail. See also ZECHARIAH 4:6 “Not by might, nor by power . . . . .” This is where my late father comes in, when he opined that the gift of riches to the wealthy is not for his self aggrandizement but for him to act as ‘Allah’s Post Office’ for the redistribution of the blessings to less endowed fellows. It is therefore in furtherance of this that people set up foundations and philanthropic organizations. Thus it is because of the poor and less privileged that Allah blesses the rich. The rich man was created because of the poor. Failing to lend them a helping hand and spread the joy amounts to selfishness, which is an act inimical to the wishes of Allah. Hence, he might not make Jannatul Firdous. There is no doubt we all come with nothing and will go back with nothing. Which brings us to the story of the rich man as told by late Yussuf Olatunji, ‘Baba Legba’ of blessed memory: There lived a rich man that God blessed beyond imagination. He not only had money but was wealthy more than the proverbial Qarun. He had wives and numerous children. His barn was well stocked with food and his stable had many horses which were usually adorned with ornaments when he was going out. But, and that great but, the rich man was more miserly and stingy than Silas Manner. He refused to neither share nor help the needy. His countenance when he had a visitor was always so depressed and morose because he did not want to entertain his visitors. But, as all things ‘bright and beautiful’ must end one day; the rich man died. On getting to heaven, he found himself in the Lord’s vineyard. God, the owner of Heaven and Earth, the giver of all riches approached and welcomed the rich man to His domain. He asked; what did you bring for me? The rich man was perplexed and humbled. He had no answer for God as he had returned to his maker the way he left for the world; alas, he spread his palms and told God: ‘See my palms Baba, I have come empty.’ This incidence exemplifies our fate when we die. Both the rich and the poor will go back with nothing. We come to the world with nothing and will return with nothing; Allahuakbar! Why not do good deeds and earn reward that would be counted in your favour on the Day of Qiyyama? No doubt, ‘Charity obliterates sins just as water extinguishes fire.’ Tirmidhi. The Prophet said: “The believer’s shade on the Day of Resurrection will be his charity.” And Allah said; “O believers! Donate from what We have provided for you . . . . . .. . . (Quran 2:254) ‘A man giving a dirham as sadaqah (charity) during his life is better than giving one hundred dirhams as charity at the moment of his death.’ - Abu Dawood There are men worth emulating for their kindness and acts of charity towards their fellow men. This is not the place to name them. They know themselves and we pray that Allah will use their acts of charity to extinguish the wrath of the Lord for their minor transgressions. The Messenger of Allah (SAW) has said: “Every single Muslim must give charity every single day.” When asked who would be capable of doing such a thing, he replied, “your removal of an obstacle in the road is a charitable act; your guiding someone is a charitable act; your visit to the sick is a charitable act; your enjoinment of good to others is a charitable act; your forbidding of others from wrongdoing is a charitable act, and your returning the greeting of peace is a charitable act.” "Worship none but Allah. treat with kindness your parents and kindred, and orphans and those in need; speak fair to the people; be steadfast in prayer; and practice regular charity" (2:83). "Kind words and the covering of faults are better than charity followed by injury. . . . . . . . . . . " (2:263). See also (2:264). "If you disclose acts of charity, even so it is well, but if you conceal them, and make them reach those really in need, that is best for you. It will remove from you some of your (stains of) evil". (2:271) May Allah teach us how to seek his benevolence; Amen. Barka Juma’at and happy weekend Babatunde Jose +2348033110822

Nowadays, any responsible person could be easily offended by the increasing atrocities in the world. This is particularly true for Africans as the continent is suffering from various terrible misdeeds and mischief. The major cause of all existing wrongdoings in our beloved and resource-rich continent is primarily poor leadership. Indeed, many people in Africa do not have trust in their leaders. This is because most often than not leaders tend to abuse power for various reasons. It is often said by many that African leaders put their personal interests above anything else. It is obvious that their self-interest may not be the interest of the public at large. Corruption, nepotism, egoism and abuse of power are the major characteristics of African leaders. Leadership has been defined in many ways: as a matter of personality, as a power relation and as ‘the process by which groups, organizations, and societies attempt to achieve common goals’. Leadership is essential to the human condition and is both current and timeless. The research field on leadership is filled with contradictions: One of the foremost U.S. scholars on leadership, James McGregor Burns writes in his book, “Leadership”(1978), that “one of the universal cravings of our time is the demand for compelling leadership”. Yet leadership is an ambiguous concept; Thomas Wren writes it is “one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth”. Thomas Cronin echoes Burns, that leadership is a ‘mysterious’ concept which is poorly defined and not well applied. Thus there is no coherent theoretical ‘school’ of leadership thought. The fundamental crisis is intellectual; we have failed to set the necessary intellectual and scientific standards to measure good leadership. The definition of good leadership often depends on which side of the political divide you are. Political affiliation often determines which leader is good or bad. Last week, Prof Adebayo Williams in his piece: The Evolving Dynamics of the Nation-State Paradigm, opined: "The current global crisis of the nation-state paradigm offers Nigerian visionary statesmen the most compelling impetus to creatively tinker with, or completely do away with, the nation-state paradigm they have inherited from their colonial overlords." However, on further interrogation, the Prof went on to elucidate: “Finally when I speak to Nigerian visionary statesmen, I am not thinking of the current dismal and pedestrian in our assemblies or executive mansion. These lots cannot visualize not to talk of visioning.” The question therefore arises; how do we conceptualize leadership under the current circumstance? How to lead a group of followers effectively is debated within leadership theory; one strain of thought is the idea of the “transforming leader” who literally attempts to change the mindsets of his followers. For many scholars, history is shaped by the leadership of great men. A sudden decision by a great man could change the course of history and reinterpret historical situations in times of uncertainty. These leaders are effective because they keep the fundamental political values of their time up to date. A transforming leader stimulates enthusiasm and moves the nation when his goals are goals that the followers wish themselves to attain. He can do this by appealing to the best in the followers. Political leaders can be transforming by articulating a shared moral purpose to the citizens. This purpose may awaken dormant needs and values that would be accepted once awakened. The political leader succeeds only when the compelling political purpose is accepted. However, most politicians are not transforming. Both constituents and leaders focus on short-term goals, but a short-term perspective is not the most effective way to lead. More statesmanlike leaders will arouse and direct a democracy toward achieving longer term goals. This appeal to longer-term goals instead of short term goals is found in the conceptual distinction between ‘the politician’ and the ‘statesman’. There is no doubt what we have had over the years are politicians and not statesmen. Our leaders cannot even practice democracy, even in its crudest form. There is lack of leadership in Africa. In terms of the ecological situation of leadership, it has to do with the socio-political environment, in which we have three key players namely, the leader, the follower and then the environment. Leadership responds to the environment, the same way followership works with leadership. In other words, there is a quintessential interface between leadership and followership, and the social space or environment. In Africa, all we have seen is rulership or at best “managership”. Such rulership or misleadership often carries along with it the excess baggage of more innocuous problems for the continent. Any impassioned person about the continent, capable of reading the context of the African dilemma and analyzing it, it is same story of one leadership ineptitude or the other. Leadership has not been oversubscribed to as the problem of Africa, contrary to how some scholars have argued in recent times. It is contended in that line of thought that there are other dire straits in 21st century Africa that tend to render leadership to a secondary matter as they defy leadership. However, it is pertinent to note, leadership is an intervening variable in modern governable society as it increases or decreases the rate of the crisis, depending on policy choices, decisions and implementation. There are three types of leadership challenges at the generic level in the 21st century, namely, the contextual, the personal and the changing paradigms. At the contextual level in the case of Africa, the historical, environmental, diseases, poverty, wars and political instability, infrastructural and general underdevelopment are the turbulent issues. At the personal level, observation has shown that there is low drive or motivation towards self development on the part of Africans (leaders or followers), absence of leadership and general performance skills and a warped educational system, which started dying with the advent of unfocused military rule and political instability. The third is the challenge of whether Africa is responding well to changing paradigms such as globalization, world perspectives, technology, international speed of events and democratization. It will be proper to be quickly reminded of many other challenges of the 21st century that we already know, which are either engendered or got, that have exacerbated by failures of leadership. They include: Economic poverty; infrastructural underdevelopment; urban decay; economic dependency upon western nations for financial aid, loans, technical assistance, and technical expertise; external indebtedness; misappropriation of public funds; embezzlement and financial mismanagement; prebendalism; money laundering; contractocracy; cyber fraud; poor economic, including agricultural policies and poorly implemented social engineering programmes. Social problems include ethnicity, irredentism, ethnic violence and genocide and civil wars; sectarian or religious violence; sectionalism and communal violence; widening social disequilibrium and injustices arising from escalating economic misfortunes; unemployment and underemployment crises; anti-social activities, including rape, prostitution, robbery and a creeping culture of violence among the idle or unemployed youths; declining educational quality and collapsed university system; food insecurity and general social insecurity there from. Add to all these crisis of political identity and you have a situation of perpetual political instability. The Nigerian situation is more critical. Thus, its response in the 21st century to leadership challenges is not far from prognosis. Our leaders have failed to live up to the challenges of post colonial political arrangements. They treat the problems associated with the evolving nation state with levity that promise to have dire consequences for the corporate life of the republic. For those of us in Nigeria, the future lies in restoring sovereignty to the autochthonous nationalities of what is called the nation-state and arranging for either a peaceful break-up of this nation-state, or, some confederal arrangement. Unfortunately, the leadership has been found wanting in this regard. Yet, any failure to act now, to break-up the existing nation-state, or set up some confederal arrangements, is supposed to inevitably lead to the intensification of ethnic conflicts, to civil war and possible ethnic genocide. The Swan song will then be, ‘to thy tents O Israel’. That is why we need the ‘Leadership Now! We need a Moses! This essay is dedicated as a birthday tribute to our amiable Professor Adebayo (Mukaila) Williams who recorded another milestone on Wednesday 9th September. A prolific writer and literary genius, Williams is a passionate student of post colonial political institutions and the Nation State paradigm. We wish him many happy returns. Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend Babatunde Jose +2348033110822

Arguably the most balanced opinion on the US- China Imbroglio - Kayode Oshin Culled from The Guardian Friday 11 September 2020 4:00 *Opinion* Could the US and Chinese economies really 'decouple'? By Isabella Weber University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA The buzzword makes it sound as if disentangling the world’s two largest economies were simple Talk of a new cold war is everywhere. Yet the economic context of the confrontation between the US and China is fundamentally different from the days of the iron curtain. The US and the Soviet Union had created competing globalisations, dividing the world into separate economic blocs. The two sides of the present divide are tied together as one “Chimerica” – with China as the global “workshop” and the US as the tech “headquarters” of the world. The old hope that this economic interdependence would prevent political conflict has been shattered. Instead, deep economic integration has increased the stakes: the core of the world economy could fall apart. US v China: is this the start of a new cold war? Today’s global economic order is still inscribed on the back of every iPhone: designed in California, assembled in China. Both parties in the race for the US presidency pledge to put an end to this arrangement. The promise, this time on both sides, is to bring manufacturing home. President Trump’s campaign proclaims that it will “end our reliance on China”. Joe Biden for his part is trying to out-hawk Trump and promises a future of “Made in America”. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping proclaims “dual circulation” as China’s new economic strategy, which promises more focus on the domestic sphere rather than reliance on the rest of the world. It is true that one part of this dual approach is to signal that China’s door remains open. Xi has personally written to the CEOs of foreign firms assuring them of a favourable business environment. The Chinese government has announced plans to transform Hainan island into a gigantic free trade port and China has opened its financial and insurance markets at a pace that international fund managers had not dared to hope for. On the other hand, China is preparing for a falling-out with the US, emphasising the goal of self-reliance in critical sectors such as food and technology. “Decoupling” has become the new buzzword to describe the possibility of an economic break-up between the US and China. Trump, too, has recently added it to his rhetorical arsenal. Decoupling makes it sound as if the disintegration of the world’s two largest economies could be done in one simple step – like disconnecting the coupling between two wagons of a train. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In 2012, Barack Obama asked Steve Jobs whether the iPhone could be produced in the US. Jobs answered with a plain no, and the difficulties likely remain in place today. Chinese government institutions, local business partners and multinational corporations have built supply chains in China since the late 1980s. Production sites are sustained by gigantic infrastructure developments, and draw from China’s roughly 300 million migrant workers, many of whom live in dormitories at the edge of the assembly line. When we talk about “decoupling” from China what we really mean is a complete reorganisation of a large chunk of the world’s production. As a result of the trade war, China’s share in global supply chains in computers and tablets – the most affected sector – shrank by about 4 percentage points. Still, China produces 45% of global exports in this sector, and 54% of all phones worldwide. For furniture, clothing and household electrical goods, the shares are 34%, 28% and 42% respectively. To the extent that foreign businesses have tried to pull their production out of China, reports tell a worrisome tale for the prospects of a quick decoupling. Foxconn is relocating some of its production to Vietnam and India, yet about 70% is bound to remain in China. Even when aided by China’s unique capability in rapid infrastructure development, moving major production facilities around takes time. A previous relocation of Foxconn’s factories within China to the inland city of Zhengzhou was several years in the making. As a result of the massive costs involved, the business community is in fact largely reluctant to follow politicians’ calls to pull out of China. While the world remains dependent on China’s manufacturing infrastructure, China cannot do without foreign technology. In the critical computer chips industry, China is still years behind the industry leaders and remains tied to US knowhow. Thus, recent sanctions that cut Huawei off US-made chips have been billed a “death sentence” for China’s most successful tech company. And although China’s Covid-19 stimulus package is focused on long-term, high-quality development and targeted at innovation, the country faces a major uphill battle on the technological frontier. “If the US further hit key areas of the Chinese tech industry,” a Chinese executive warns, “the impact would be devastating.” The realm of finance looks ominous as well. China has long aimed to add the RMB to the ranks of the international reserve currencies. The country also continues to command the largest foreign exchange reserve of US dollars. At the same time, Chinese researchers and officials increasingly worry about an all-out “financial war”. Yu Yongding, an economist and former adviser to China’s central bank, warns that China is dependent on the US dollar system and Chinese banks could be severely harmed if shut out by sanctions. According to Yu, the US could go as far as to seize China’s overseas assets. Such financial sanctions could set off a dangerous spiral of retaliations with nothing less than the global production system at stake. The end of communism might be the closest analogy we have for the prospect of rapid decoupling – it was the last time a cross-border production network was dismantled, as “red globalisation” was cancelled in one big bang. The result from this “shock therapy” in Russia was a violent experience of deindustrialisation paired with a mortality crisis beyond previous peacetime experience of industrial countries. China averted Russian-style shock therapy in the 1980s by a whisker as the highest level of political leadership had been getting ready to implement this policy. The gradual reform prevailed that laid the foundations for the country’s economic rise. Hope remains that a big shock in US-China relations, too, can be avoided. Global challenges, from the pandemic to climate breakdown, continue to mount and require Sino-American collaboration. After the US election, a window of opportunity might open for a careful renegotiation of the relations at the heart of the world economy. Devising workable strategies of reconciliation is an urgent task on both sides of the divide. • Isabella Weber is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the author of the forthcoming book How China Escaped Shock Therapy

Jide Akinbiyi at 87: A senior citizen’s travails on Nigeria at 60 Banji Ojewale A man will turn over half a library to make one book-Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English lexicographer, essayist and literary critic. Senior Citizen Edward Jide Akinbiyi is reaching out to the long stretch of his eventful past and turning over more than half of the libraries he has visited worldwide to tell a story. The retired TV journalist, administrator and Afenifere chieftain is plodding along on a book to relate the narrative of the project called Nigeria. It’s a land he believes in, despite a host of crises threatening to pull down the house. We need history, he tells his younger friends, to enable us know why we fell, so we can stop our cyclical trips into the abyss. When Nigeria turns 60 on October 1 and her officialdom rolls out celebratory drums, Akinbiyi won’t be in the troupe; he will be miming a dirge. At 87 on August 29, 2020, this Nigerian nationalist will be mourning for Nigeria. He will be ruing the death of a promise, the dearth of principles and the darkness over the polity. 27 in 1960 when Nigeria freed itself from colonial servitude, Akinbiyi was in the throng that charted a trajectory of hope and glory for the world’s most populous black country. It wasn’t an unreasonable expectation, given what he beheld in the regions that formed Nigeria even before Independence. A robust federal structure was in place that denuded the centre of overarching powers. The arrangement was liberal with the autonomy it gave the outposts of administration. No ‘big brother’ glance from the central government. Akinbiyi believes these are undeniable features of a functioning federation. He says their absence begets the reign of anarchy, that their absence is responsible for what he describes as Nigeria’s ‘’de-structured polity’’ which must be ‘’restructured’’. Young Akinbiyi noticed how the system engendered jet-bursts of all-round development at the grassroots, the regions. His case study was the Western Region. He watched at close quarters the history Premier Obafemi Awolowo was making in the area. Free education had been introduced, the first in the country and in Africa. Sports had also attracted international attention to Nigeria following the provision of an Olympic-standard stadium in Ibadan, capital of the region. Again this was the first of its kind in the country. Finally, the much eulogized Western Nigeria Television Service, WNTV that lit up Ibadan in 1959. It was the first in Africa. At a time most of the advanced countries of Europe, Asia and the Americas didn’t have this index of civilization and progress, the regional government of an African country still under colonial watch had beaten them all to the punch, storming the scene with an ‘Eighth Wonder’ landmark. Akinbiyi was part of this historic feat located in his hometown, then the largest urban settlement in West Africa. He was drafted from the Ministry of Information to be among the key pioneer staff of WNTV, First in Africa. This affinity with the station remains Akinbiyi’s evergreen contribution to the pomp of the past that WNTV represented. Pa Akinbiyi is linked to two more achievements in the annals of Nigeria’s electronic media. Three years after WNTV, the federal authorities under Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa established Nigerian Television Service, NTS, Victoria Island, Lagos. It was carved out of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, the radio station located at Ikoyi, Lagos. Again, Akinbiyi moved there to pass on some of the tricks that have earned him solid ground in history. A greater accomplishment was to follow during the heady days of the Second Republic in the early 80s. Lateef Jakande, LKJ, was the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, governor of Lagos State. Awolowo was the leader of the party, which had ‘lost’ at the presidential ballot. But the UPN was firmly in charge in Lagos State and in all the successor states that followed the dissolution of the sprawling Western Nigeria into five states, famously called LOOBO states by fiery critic and educationist, Tai Solarin. Like Awolowo his mentor, Jakande had dazzled Nigeria with a lot of ‘firsts’ that not only fetched him acclaim, but also won political capital such that he was touted as the next presidential candidate for UPN after the great Awo. Now, LKJ moved to scale another height, the creation of a state TV. It would be the first state-owned station following the takeover of the regional WNTV in 1976 by the military junta of Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo’s action destroyed the traditional concept and dynamics of the TV as a mass-based tool for enlightenment and development whose ownership therefore must be liberalized, rather than be monopolized. Monopoly chokes, chills and chars. That’s what left the TV industry trammeled until LKJ with Akinbiyi and his team acted. LKJ reached out to Akinbiyi for the tall order of breaking the federal yoke on TV. That led to the advent of Lagos Television, LTV8. Akinbiyi, a prince of Ibadan, offered the mammoth experience of the WNTV era to outwit the federal might which repeatedly also threw a wrench in the works to prevent the station from birthing and existing. One of the weird clogs was the jamming of LTV channel. But the new baby wouldn’t die. It defied the odds, surviving nostalgically in the WNTV renaissance spirit. Rapidly, other states set up their own stations. The ignoble and tedious federal hold on Nigeria’s airwaves was sent packing, never to show up again. LTV8 has remained the forerunner of the crowd of private TV stations in the land today. Akinbiyi is linking these sublime personal and national successes to the ambience of his day. He says he will argue in his book that the glory of Nigeria evaporated when the military putsch abolished the federal arrangement in 1966, the same way the sun set for TV when, the soldiers, in the manner of the Barbarians’ deadly onslaught on the Roman civilization in the 5th Century, pillaged WNTV with a takeover decree that led to its death. But he doesn’t belong to the unbundle-the-union camp. He doesn’t accept the ‘decease’ caused by the military rulers and sustained by their political collaborators is irreversible. Akinbiyi sees Nigeria as a modern-day Lazarus. It can be recalled from its death-slumber. The giant may be in the throes of extinction, an anguished Akinbiyi says. But it’s not over for her. So what’s to be done? He suggests restructuring of the nation to take the country and its people back to its golden era of the early years after Independence. Each region had its governing machinery that moderated its boundless resources and human endowment. The process unleashed the equally limitless growth and development Akinbiyi is proud to be part of. His words: ‘’It was the true federal structure we operated that let our potential. It was the magic wand. But the system has been de-structured. And that has caused the destruction of the country. What the military bequeathed us has trapped the geniuses in us. I don’t subscribe to the breakup of Nigeria as some extremists are saying. What we must do is to restructure this de-structured country. Otherwise, the extremists would have their way by default…I think that in real terms, Nigeria is just existing for the various categories of looters under its so-called presidential system. It is not existing for its suffering masses. It seems we are simply waiting for Armageddon…These are the grounds my book will address, God willing, before I pass on.’’ English poet and scholar of the 17th Century, John Milton, wrote his sublime work, Paradise Lost, in old age, in blindness and in emotional distress. But according to Samuel Johnson, Milton’s ‘’vigour of intellect was such, that he was not disabled to discharge’’ his duty. He said that Milton was ‘’weak of body, and dim of sight; but his will was forward, and what was wanting of health was supplied by zeal.’’ Pa Akinbiyi can also feed on his abiding passion for the unity of Nigeria and on Heaven to help him deliver on his promise to chase the book out of the closet to the market. Happy Birthday, Baba Jide Akinbiyi!

US politics ‘DemExit’: virtual convention aims to create US leftwing alternative" The Movement for a People’s Party believes Democrats and Republicans will always choose profits over people, and 12,000 have signed up to hear more David Smith in Washington @smithinamerica Sat 29 Aug 2020 11.49 EDT Joe Biden’s acceptance speech at the virtual Democratic national convention made one reference to “middle class” and one to “working families”. It never mentioned the word “poverty”. Although Democrats put on a formidable show of unity, there are still refuseniks on the left who see little distinction between Biden and Donald Trump or the parties they lead. Some will gather at 4pm on Sunday for a virtual convention of their own. More than 12,000 people have signed up to attend the People’s Convention, streamed live on social media and featuring the Hollywood actor and activist Danny Glover and the former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura as well as two of the more quixotic Democratic primary candidates, Mike Gravel and Marianne Williamson. They will vote on forming a new political party “free of corporate money and influence” to run candidates in the congressional midterms in 2022 and for president in 2024. “A choice between Biden and Trump is no choice at all,” said Nick Brana, 31, national coordinator of the Movement for a People’s Party (MPP), which has nearly 100,000 members. “The Democrats and Republicans have made it clear that they will always choose profits over people. So we’re going to replace them.” The convention revives an evergreen debate on the left: whether to follow the likes of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and reform the Democratic party from within, or to conclude that it is irredeemably beholden to corporate interests and walk away to create something new. The MPP, founded by a variety of Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign staff, delegates and volunteers, embraces the latter approach. The party’s website has a page headlined “#DemExit” that declares: “Dear DNC: This is our Declaration of Independence from your Corporate Party.” The former Democratic presidential candidate author Marianne Williamson will be one of the prominent names to feature at the virtual People’s Convention. The former Democratic presidential candidate author Marianne Williamson will be one of the prominent names to feature at the virtual People’s Convention. Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/AP In Brana’s view, poor people were erased from this year’s Democratic convention as it competed for Republican votes. “We believe that the Democratic and the Republican parties, as long as they’re financed by corporate money, will never represent working people,” he continued. “You cannot simultaneously be financed by Wall Street oligarchs and billionaires and massive multinational corporations and represent working people. You cannot simultaneously have corporate lobbyists on your national committees, as both parties do, and simultaneously represent working people. We do not believe that the Democratic and the Republican party can be salvaged “That’s why the key here is that, in order to have true representation in government, a party has to be funded by its people – crowdfunded just like the Bernie campaigns were, $27 at a time. So we do not believe that the Democratic and the Republican party can be salvaged.” Such perspectives appear marginal in 2020 as Democrats of all stripes agree on one thing: their hatred of the US president. Sanders, the democratic socialist senator beaten by Biden in the party primary, told the convention that defeating Trump must be the overriding imperative, quelling fears of a repeat of divisions that festered with nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. And whereas the Green party candidate Jill Stein arguably cost Clinton some crucial votes in swing states, opinion polls suggest that protest votes for third-party candidates will have less impact this time. Even so, Democrats will be anxious that Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, provide sufficient motivation for disaffected progressives to swallow their objections and turn out. Brana said: “We’re encouraging people to vote their conscience, whomever that is, but the really important thing is that we never find ourselves in this position again. For decades now, the Democratic and Republican candidates have been getting worse together and that’s the cycle that we need to break.” Although America prides itself on giving consumers freedom of choice over everything from television to ice cream, it does not boast the type of multiparty democracies seen in Europe and elsewhere. The MPP contends that the current duopoly will never deliver single-payer Medicare for All, higher education as a human right, a solution to the climate crisis or the dismantling of mass incarceration. That’s why I’m speaking at this convention: that yearning that some have to form another party Others speaking at the People’s Convention, however, are reluctant to give up on the Democrats altogether. Nina Turner, a co-chair of Sanders’ primary campaign in 2020 and member of the Democratic national committee, said: “I support the movement and I am very clear that there are some progressives who want to ‘#DemExit’ but there are some progressives who believe, ‘It’s my party, I can cry if I want to and I’m going stay inside and push’. “I support both of those forces because I think at the end of the day, even though they might be going down slightly different roads, they are parallel and the end point is the same. That’s why I’m speaking at this convention: that yearning that some have to form another party, and also I do recognise and support those who say that they’re gonna stay inside the Democratic party and give ’em hell and keep pushing them to the left. Both of those forces are needed. I consider those yin and yang.” Thousands of supporters attend a campaign rally at Queensbridge Park in New York for Bernie Sanders in October 2019. Some see Sanders’ campaigns as a model for a left alternative. Thousands of supporters attend a campaign rally at Queensbridge Park in New York for Bernie Sanders in October 2019. Some see Sanders’ campaigns as a model for a left alternative. Photograph: Peter Foley/EPA Turner, a former Ohio state senator, does not believe there will be a significant leftwing rebellion against Biden in this year’s election. “The majority of progressives, including ‘Berniecrats’, voted for Secretary Clinton in 2016 and I see that same thing happening in 2020. This will be more of a vote against President Donald J Trump for most progressives than it will be a vote for Vice-President Biden. It’s a binary choice.” But if Biden is elected, the progressive movement will not give him an easy ride, she added. “We are a fire and the fire is burning and making it very clear that business as usual is not going to be accepted. We’ve got two dragons to slay as I see them for leftists, and that is to slay the dragon of neo-fascism and then slay the dragon of neo-liberalism.” It doesn’t look like the Democratic party will be ever an institutional vehicle or serious force for fundamental change Speakers at the People’s Convention also include Chris Smalls, a former Amazon worker fired in March after staging a walkout over unsafe Covid-19 protections at a Staten Island warehouse, and Cornel West, a philosophy professor at Harvard University and leading member of Democratic Socialists of America. West said: “You never say never because history is unpredictable, but the evidence doesn’t look like the Democratic party will be ever an institutional vehicle or serious force for fundamental change in America. The big money has colonised too much of the party. Wall Street and the military-industrial complex are just too strong when it comes to any progressive change. We saw that with Brother Bernie in two primaries now.” West says he voted for Stein in 2016, which he does not regret, but will vote for Biden this time “because I consider myself part of an antifascist coalition to push the gangster out of the White House. But a vote for Biden is in no way an endorsement of the neoliberal disaster that his policies will produce. It’s just a way of preserving the condition for the possibility of any kind of democratic practice in the United States.” • This article was updated on 29 August after the lineup of speakers was changed

How should Europe respond now its American ally has turned hostile? By Simon Tisdall As trusted friends join the ranks of predators, it could be time to take a tougher line – soft power is no longer enough Sun 30 Aug 2020 03.30 EDT Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email Making his celebrated return from exile in April 1917 to take up the reins of the Russian revolution, Vladimir Lenin caught a ferry to Sweden from Sassnitz, a small Baltic coastal town in north-east Germany, before taking the train to Finland station in Petrograd, the city that became Leningrad and is now St Petersburg. Sassnitz’s moment in the historical spotlight was fleeting. Now, thanks to Donald Trump’s blundering buddies, it’s back there again. A trio of Republican senators – Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and Ron Johnson – are threatening to wreak terrible punishment on Sassnitz, its elected officials and residents who make their living from the port. Luckily, Trump’s three stooges seem unaware of Sassnitz’s role in propelling the Bolshevik leader to power. Their beef concerns its present-day dealings with Russia and the almost-completed Nord Stream 2 Baltic pipeline project. In an extraordinarily high-handed letter this month, the senators claimed the pipeline, which will import Russian natural gas to Europe via Germany, posed a “grave threat” to US security. If Sassnitz did not immediately halt its involvement, it would incur “crushing legal and economic sanctions” that could prove “fatal” to the region’s economy, they decreed. Sassnitz companies, shareholders and employees would face US government-ordered asset freezes and travel bans similar to North Korea and Iran. Trump has gone out of his way to avoid upsetting Russian president Vladimir Putin, to whom he seems in thrall The US has long opposed Nord Stream 2, arguing it will increase Europe’s dependence on Russia. Berlin has long resisted such claims, saying it alone determines national policy, in conjunction with the EU. What the feet-first intervention of Cruz and his arrogant cronies has done is turn the issue into another full-on US-Europe confrontation. The reaction in Sassnitz and beyond is predictably furious. The Americans are accused of treating Germany more like an enemy, or a colony, than an ally. Foreign minister Heiko Maas said such behaviour reflected basic “disrespect” for European rights and sovereignty. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, expressed “deep concern at the growing use of sanctions, or threat of sanctions, by the US against European companies and interests”. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s relations with Trump were already icy after years of presidential insults and, more recently, his perverse decision to cut US troop numbers in Germany – a key part of Nato defences against Russia. Now the row risks rekindling broader resentment over Trump’s tariff wars, climate crisis denial, and efforts to divide the EU by wooing conservative eastern states. America’s increasing resort to bullying and intimidation of old friends in place of reasoned persuasion was highlighted by another showdown last week, over Iran. US secondary sanctions have hurt European companies trading with Tehran but have failed, so far, to break the joint German-French-UK commitment to the 2015 nuclear deal jettisoned by Trump. So when the US sought to reimpose sanctions on Iran at the UN, it was roundly rebuffed. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo submits a complaint to the UN security council this month, calling for restoration of sanctions against Iran. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters Secretary of state Mike Pompeo reacted with a classic Trumpian tantrum. Europe was “siding with the ayatollahs,” he snarled. Kelly Craft, US ambassador to the UN, was every bit as offensive, absurdly accusing America’s most steadfast allies of “standing in the company of terrorists”. The fact Trump’s Iran policy has demonstrably backfired, pushing the Middle East closer to war, and Iran closer to a nuclear weapon, does not seem to matter. Spare a thought at this point for put-upon Dominic Raab, Britain’s foreign secretary. Raab was in Jerusalem last week, bravely attempting to put a two-state solution for Israel-Palestine back on the table following the best efforts of Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bury it. Instead, he got a humiliating public dressing-down from Netanyahu and fellow ministers over Iran. This was rude and disrespectful. Sadly, their uncouth behaviour reflects Britain’s growing irrelevance. Achieving a two-state solution is another big area of US-Europe disagreement. Yet similar difficulties arise on other key issues. Despite its desire to “save” Europe from the Russians (and sell it expensive gas from Cruz’s home state of Texas instead), Trumpland has shown a dismaying lack of concern over the plight of Alexei Navalny, the poisoned Russian opposition activist. Be it the conflicts in Ukraine, Syria and Libya, or the uprising in Belarus, hands-off Trump has gone out of his way to avoid upsetting Russian president Vladimir Putin, to whom he seems in thrall. These are important matters affecting Europe’s security, prosperity and principles, yet scant solidarity, and often the exact opposite, is what it has come to expect from Trump’s America. What to do? EU leaders can hope Joe Biden wins in November. But what if Trump triumphs again? Europe can expect more sanctions, selfish stupidity and brutishness where US foreign policy used to be. It would face a second-term president hostile to Germany in particular, contemptuous of the EU in general, and free to indulge his destructive instincts to the full. Nato and the transatlantic alliance might finally implode under the strain. Even if that’s avoided for now, the possibility of such a nightmare in future is a compelling argument for strengthening Europe’s shared security, military and technological capabilities – and its protections against Sassnitz-style economic and financial blackmail. French president Emmanuel Macron urges greater EU integration, ambition and urgency, but Merkel and others are wary. Yet as Sophia Besch of the Centre for European Reform argued recently, Europe must be able to defend its geopolitical interests. Call it “strategic autonomy”. Or simply call it survival. In a world where once trusted friends join the ranks of the predators, soft power is not enough. Europe will not curb the depredations of major global players until it becomes one itself. Europeans must stand together. What an utter tragedy that Britain chose this dangerous moment to fall apart.

Ottoman Empire 2.0? Across the Balkans, relics of Ottoman glory and decline, such as mosques, bridges and hamams, exist in various states of disrepair. Can they be brought back to life? Alev Scott | Published 05 September 2019 The First World War brought the Ottoman Empire to its knees. The sultan’s alliance with the kaiser had gone horribly wrong. British forces held the capital Istanbul; most of the territories had fallen and Greek troops were ravaging the west of Turkey. But east of Istanbul, a maverick general was masterminding a resistance from the arid Anatolian steppes. By October 1923, the last Ottoman sultan had fled on a ship to Malta, the British had left Istanbul and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had founded a new Republic of Turkey from the city of Ankara. The fall of the 600-year old Ottoman Empire marked the end of an incredible period of diversity. At its zenith, the Empire stretched from Mecca to Budapest, from Algiers to Tbilisi, from Baghdad to the Crimea, connecting millions of people of different religions and ethnicities. An Ottoman subject was an Eastern Orthodox Christian from Odessa or a Jew from Mosul, a Sunni Muslim from Jerusalem or a Catholic Syriac from Antakya. The sultan, who was also the caliph, leader of the Islamic world, allowed non-Muslims to organise their own law courts, schools and places of worship in return for paying ‘infidel’ taxes and accepting a role as second-class citizens: a system of exploitative tolerance that allowed diversity to flourish for centuries in the greatest empire of early modern history. Today, Turkey is a comparatively homogenous nation state and its former diversity can be sensed almost as a palpable absence. It lies in shadows and silence, in obsolete place names, faded inscriptions and a surplus of antiques. The fates of Turkey’s minority communities were tied to the demise of the Empire. When Atatürk created the republic, the aim was clear: it was to be for self-identifying Turks only. Such a dramatic reordering of what remained of a once vast empire was necessary for its survival, but the stiflingly nationalistic atmosphere of the new republic forced many of the remaining communities either to leave or to relinquish their real identities so as to pass as ‘Turks’. Minorities became even more invisible as the decades passed and their cultural impact dimmed; the families and congregations who remain have a proud but sad attachment to the past. Some Turkish towns near the Syrian border, on the edge of the Arab world, still echo the centuries of life that existed before Turkey ironed everything out into homogeneity. In their synagogues, mosques and churches, congregations are tiny but still congregating. The towns of Antakya and Mardin, for example, are still home to both Christian and Jewish congregations. A large signpost to HALEP (Aleppo) on the road from Hatay airport to Antakya serves as a reminder of the proximity of Syria’s devastation, 20 km away. Antakya lies north of the port of Iskenderun on the Mediterranean coast. Its surrounding province of Hatay used to be part of Syria and existed as an independent state for one year in 1938 before being subsumed into Turkey in 1939, a sore subject for Syrians ever since. Refugees from the Syrian civil war have been pouring into Hatay province since 2011, many of them Sunni Muslims fleeing the Alawite regime of Bashar al-Assad across the border, though some are also fleeing the Sunni rebels in nearby villages; the divisions between the two groups mean that, increasingly, the refugees leave for the relative urban anonymity and safety of Istanbul. Those who live in Antakya like to compare it with prewar Damascus and the town does have a Middle Eastern feel, particularly the ancient warren of the medina: baking sandstone houses, souks, narrow streets overhung by fig trees and vines, criss-crossed by the odd chicken or goat and children darting through heavy wooden doors open to the hurly burly of family life within. In shops and cafés, Arabic is liberally scattered through conversation and the Turkish has the harsh aspiration of the south-eastern accent and Arabic mother tongue. I visited in May 2014, at a moment of tension between local Alawite and Sunni populations. On my way to the Catholic pilgrim house where I would stay the night, a meandering walk led me via the smell of warm caramel to a tiny atölye (atelier) making stewed walnuts and pumpkin slices, bubbling away on little stoves in sugar water. I passed Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic churches and a synagogue, which attracts only a handful of elderly worshippers. The old faithful attend their services doggedly and narrate the centuries-old histories of their communities with undimmed enthusiasm. When they speak of themselves, however, it is usually with a melancholic bent, conscious that they are literally dying out. The Jewish man showing me around the empty synagogue looked bowed down by sadness. At one point in the tour he stopped and turned to me: ‘I sometimes worry that when I die there will be no one left to bury me.’ The energy of the medina seemed to dissipate in this echoing testament to past faith. Much of the religious and cultural richness due to the empire’s proliferation of minorities has disappeared in its former hubs. In cities which have kept that richness, serious tensions have grown over the last century, of nationalism and sectarianism, particularly in the Middle East. Beirut, Damascus and Jerusalem, all of which were under Ottoman control until the end of the First World War, are the most obvious examples, but in the Balkans, too, there is a legacy of conflict, particularly between Muslim and Christian populations, that speaks of the damage caused by the Empire’s rupture. In certain parts of the Balkans – particularly in Muslim-dominated places such as Bosnia and southern provinces of Serbia and Kosovo – the current Turkish government has made attempts to resuscitate the faded Ottoman glory. The violent Yugoslavian history of Mostar, for example, in the south-west of Bosnia, has now been overshadowed by its Ottoman history as tourists flock to see the reconstructed Stari Most bridge, built in 1566. In the centre of the town, the twisted alleyways are packed full of souvenir stands under the eaves of striped black and white Ottoman houses. Most of the tourists wandering around are mildly adventurous middle-aged Turks, bussed in from Sarajevo to the north. After their excursions, they sit in restaurants by the river, eating kebabs and marvelling at the legacy of their ancestors: ‘Isn’t this wonderful?’, they gush. I witnessed a lot of this nostalgic tourism at play in the Balkans, a strange tour of inspection of former territories by modern Turks; a collective basking in reflected historical glory. From the 14th century onwards, the Balkans made up the core of the Ottomans’ western territories; most of Greece had come under Ottoman control by the end of the 15th century and Suleiman’s Balkan conquests of the 16th century stretched to the gates of Vienna in the west and eastwards to Odessa in southern Ukraine. This regional dominance lasted until the early 20th century, when the emergence of the nation state inspired rebellion among people made aware of ‘Bulgarian’ or ‘Greek’ identities. Greece was a trendsetter, rebelling in 1821 and establishing itself as an independent state in 1830. Nearly a century later, Bulgaria, Crete and Bosnia-Herzegovina declared themselves independent in 1908. Sultan Mehmet V fought desperately to keep these territories in the First Balkan War of 1912 and lost. It was the beginning of the end. Today, mosques, bridges, caravanserais and hamams existing in various states of disrepair across the Balkans are physical relics of Ottoman glory and decline. The bridges have survived best; the Stari Most bridge in Mostar is one of the most famous, but is surpassed in grandeur and cultural legacy by the Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic Bridge in Visegrad, subject of the 1943 historical novel Bridge on The Drina, by the Bosnian Nobel Laureate Ivo Andric. Surprisingly, the Communist authorities oversaw the building of new mosques in the 20th century, but many of these and the existing Ottoman ones were destroyed in the Balkan wars between 1992 and 1995. Turkey has come to the rescue, flexing its regional muscles after a century’s rest. RELATED ARTICLES Best of Enemies: Europeans in the Ottoman Elite Timsah Arena, Bursa. The President's New Stadiums In the past 16 years of Erdoğan’s rule, his government has been busy building new mosques and rebuilding Ottoman mosques and hamams, with millions of euros of taxpayers’ money. A few hundred yards from the Stari Most bridge is a perfectly restored 16th-century hamam, oddly sterile, and in Skopje, capital of Macedonia, the entrance hall of the 15th-century Çifte Hamamı has been transformed into a modern art gallery. To give an imperfect Western analogy, this spending pattern is the equivalent of the current Italian government single-handedly restoring Roman ruins across Europe with a view to promoting both Italy’s imperial past and, by extension, its current standing in the world. The Balkans are a historical twilight zone, unforgiving on first-time visitors confronted with its chequered imperial chronology. As I travelled around the region, I was looking for the legacy of the Ottoman Empire in all its forms – architectural, political and social – and found it in the dungeons of Sarajevo’s burnt library, the cafes frequented by Turkish-speaking car mechanics in the Kosovan countryside, old tea gardens in Skopje and haunted wooden mosques in Bulgaria. The Balkan landscape is dominated by mountains, rivers and forests, a jagged terrain notoriously difficult to govern, even for the Ottomans. Like the rest of the Empire, the Balkan territories were controlled as vilayets, or administrative regions, which were divided into smaller districts called sanjaks, ruled – theoretically – from hundreds of miles away by Constantinople. The government of these districts was entrusted to local pashas, who were expected to keep an eye on both the Muslim and more numerous Christian and Jewish subjects. To tackle the challenging mountain districts, the Ottomans chose powerful men to rule their own; two dozen Grand Viziers were chosen from modern Albania alone. In the aftermath of the USSR, the decline of the European Union and the rise of religious tensions, the Balkan states are trying to define themselves in the 21st century. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Bulgaria, half-completed buildings are everywhere. This unrealised construction boom mirrors the semi-constructed, aspirational state of the countries themselves. The region is ripe for more powerful states to carve out influence; Russia and Turkey are gaining on the ebbing influence of the EU and NATO in the former Yugoslavia and its surroundings. Bosnia-Herzegovina is a study in modern, ‘soft’ imperialism; while 500 years ago the country was occupied by Ottoman forces, it is now occupied to a surprising extent by Turkish money, poured into schools, media, construction and cultural projects in an attempt to recreate some approximation of past influence. I visited Mostar on a sweltering day in July 2017. I passed over the Stari Most bridge to the east bank of the Neretva, where a magnificent orange-striped building flies a Turkish flag; this is the Yunus Emre Institute, a governmental organisation set up by then-Prime Minister (now President) Erdoğan as a kind of cultural centre franchise in 2007, with branches all over the world. The single staff member on duty in the Mostar branch – a burly man who spoke Turkish with a strong Bosnian accent – looked astonished to see me. The building was empty, the walls plastered with Turkish language charts (‘B for Baklava’, etc), pristine classrooms awaiting phantom hordes of eager Bosnian students. Despite boasting only 12 Turks, Mostar also maintains a Turkish consulate. Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, was founded by the Ottomans in 1461 and is a painfully beautiful city of cemeteries, surrounded by hills occupied by Serbian paramilitaries less than 30 years ago and still haunted by trauma. Every slope within the city hosts a swathe of white tombstones, many of them the graves of those killed in the recent war, others clearly Ottoman, with the turban-like headstone of the Sufi Bektashi order. Signs of the war are everywhere: the restored town hall was once a library, shelled by Serbian forces in 1992. In the fire that resulted, one and a half million books, many Ottoman, were burned; in the underground archive space, once used as dungeons, only black-and-white photographs of the collection remain. On the floors and walls of the building itself, almost too perfectly restored, the replicated Jewish star of David and Islamic-style calligraphic art reflect the multi-layered history of the city, visible today because of punctilious archaeologists paid by the EU. A Muslim cemetery near the National Library in Sarajevo, 2015. A Muslim cemetery near the National Library in Sarajevo, 2015. Erdoğan and his AKP government have always been aware of the political advantages of resurrecting influence in the Balkan region, especially for trade, but there is a more emotional impetus behind this: Erdoğan identifies as an Ottoman leader in troubled modern times and his self-belief has translated into a strange reality. Sometimes he signals his Ottoman credentials with heavy-handed symbolism, sitting in his newly built, 1,000-room White Palace in Ankara with all the trappings of a modern sultan and other times explicitly, such as when he lamented the precise loss of Ottoman territories at the fall of the Empire in 1923: In 1914, our land covered two and a half million square kilometres. Nine years later it fell to seven hundred and eighty thousand square kilometres. ‘Our land’ is the key: Erdoğan and his fellow founders of the AKP both assume and actively promote a political continuum between the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey which does not exist; nearly 100 years has passed since the Empire’s collapse and much has changed since Atatürk founded a new nation state. During the liberation of Mosul in 2016, Turkish state TV broadcast maps of an enlarged Turkey encompassing northern Iraq, an old Ottoman territory – an explicit sign of imperialist pretensions. If the Balkans were as vulnerable, perhaps the map would include those territories. As it is, the Turks are playing it softly in the West. There may be no political continuum between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey but there are social and cultural ones. In Turkey itself, the heartland of the empire, signs of the diverse life of the country’s Ottoman past are still there, in the people, language and architecture, and the same goes for many countries that once formed part of its sprawling empire, from Lebanon to Bosnia – if you know where to look. Alev Scott is the author of Ottoman Odyssey: Travels Through a Lost Empire (riverrun, 2018). The article originally appeared in the March 2019 issue of History Today with the title 'The Empire Strikes Back?'

EDO: dancing naked at the market square Of course, we have all heard of that ancient phrase, “The king is naked!” haven’t we? The phrase is as old as the hills, rendering its accompanying anecdote as variegated as there are colours in the rainbow. One is now not certain about the trendy variants, but the version I am familiar with runs thus: Once upon a time lived an insufferably self-centered prince in a very powerful kingdom. Upon ascending the throne of his fathers’, the new king as soon became inebriated with power. As a prince he had learned that the one factor which distinguished the king from the rest of the royal family was the fact that no one ever questioned the words or the actions of the king. It was that singular fact that most excited the would-be king. He thus had secretly yearned to mount the throne even many years before it fell to him. Not surprising, therefore, closely monitoring the effects of his actions and words on his subjects became a cardinal past-time of the new king. At whim, he would command that beautiful young girls be sent to his bed-chambers. It made no difference to him whether such girls were betrothed or even married. At whim still, the king would appropriate large swathes of titled choice lands, all to the anguish of the victim-subjects. And, rather unbecoming of established tradition in those parts, the predatory young ruler would set aside his court’s considered verdict and put his accused subjects to the knife. But in spite of these glaring outrages the traditional reverence for the monarch still ruled the hearts of the subjects, to the latent amazement of the now egoistically venturesome king. What other actions or words would outrage his subjects? the king then began to wonder. He subsequently devoted a disproportionately large amount of his waking hours pondering that puzzle. As fecund as he was venturesome, the king’s restless mind finally came up with an altogether novel, if bizarre idea. A forthcoming kingdom-wide popular festival had winked the king the hint. How about a most provocative costume on that grand occasion? the king had then thought. So on the festive day, while royalties and subjects alike gathered at the expansive town square, the half-crazed king abided in his bed-chambers, alone, relishing his novel costume before a life-sized mirror. He remained in that attitude until he made assurance doubly sure that every other soul in the kingdom was at the square grounds. Without waiting a minute further the king made a bee-line for the town square. His steps majestically measured as he waved his spectre this way and that way, grinning from ear to ear. But the kingdom didn’t cheer; rather grave-yard silence suddenly enveloped the entire square with adults and discerning children discreetly averting their eyes. As demented as ever, the king presumed the deafening silence to be reverence, and proceeded to the richly-decorated platform. Amidst that prevailing pin-drop silence the piercing voice of a child rang out, “The king is naked!” And as though on queue, the huge crowd dispersed as if it were in a moment. Thus ended the reign of an overbearing king. Since that ancient king the world has witnessed countless other “naked kings”. This tribe of rulers has not merely increased over the ages but has, more so in the latter centuries, evolved into “dancing naked kings”; an evolution which had stirred a sage to aver that, “Those that the gods want to ruin, they first make mad”. A 21st century Middle Eastern sadistic ruler would bring that maxim into bold relief in his reckless abuses of power. Notwithstanding his many luxury mansions, that blood-thirsty ruler had danced naked until he became a borrowing creature. His life practically came to a horrible end in a barely ventilated hole! In our sub-region, a power-inebriated master sergeant had danced nakedly until his eyes were brutally plucked and fed to the birds. A glaring thread runs through all of these: persons in a very powerful position who allow themselves to become pathologically self-centered, the gods ultimately make mad. Interestingly, an empirical evidence of this presently unfurls in Edo state. Therein, in the unmistakably erudite words of the Iyase (traditional prime minister) of another ancient kingdom, a queen was recently delivered of a bouncing baby boy. In keeping with tradition, well-wishers have been thronging to the palace to felicitate with the widely admired royal family. As his wont, the very particular Iyase ensures that every session is fully video recorded. He would subsequently review the recorded sessions along with palace aides with an eye peeled on possible details-of-interest. According to the Iyase’s latest account, there is as yet nothing of special interest in the videos, not counting the king’s attention-arousing voice and the new-born prince’s piercing intermittent yells and screams. The Iyase was well used to the attention-arousing voice, what with his decades in office and his close personal association with the owner of that voice. But the Iyase thought there was an unusual periodicity in those sequenced yells and screams. It seemed to the gracefully aging but still mentally-lithe palace adviser that the princely baby was communicating at all the sessions(?) He then invited the king to the reviews. The accomplished diplomat didn’t need to listen more than once to fully decipher the infant’s unsettling message: A chieftain is dancing naked at the market square! Afam Nkemdiche; consulting engineer; Abuja. September, 2020.

Lending crucial to post Covid19 prosperity By Bayo Ogunmupe Contrary to the fears of many, Nigeria has only been mildly hit by the corona virus epidemic. However, normal, preventive measures to curb the virus shut the people out of the sources of their livelihood. Palliative measures to soften the devastating effects of the pandemic have not been far-reaching enough in many states of the federation. And to that many are complaining that they are yet to receive anything from the federal or state governments. Sadly, those who got something suffered the toil of long queues and the humiliation of being seen as poor. Palliative procurement and distribution have also been associated with corruption and nepotism. When the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs vows to have spent millions of naira in the procurement of these welfare packages we in the South see it as bare faced sloganeering. Even this septuagenarian journalist who has spent three decades serving in Lagos has seen no one been so honorable as to receive a palliative from any government be it federal or state. What we overhear in the newsroom are complaints that "when I asked I called a long time colleague now a press secretary to a governor, all he did was to send me half a bag of rice as if the rice will cook itself." But truly, people have become very poor with half wages and retrenchment from time to time. And without pension if even you have reached a pensionable age or not; no respite or relief packages from any federal or state agency. You can only beg or rely on primordial relatives. For job losses after weeks in isolation, companies cannot be blamed, for they could not do business because lockdowns have kept customers off the streets. many are not even able to cash their money from banks because bank officials only allow their cronies to withdraw money from their bank accounts; when the Automated Teller Machines are empty. The months of March, April, May and June 2020 were a period of immolation without respite in Nigeria. The people in government houses were unaware of the pains which was why they didn't spread palliatives for succor. For the post-Covid19 economic recovery and prosperity in Nigeria, our banks have crucial roles to play. Collateral and interest free lending will be crucial to a post pandemic recovery in this country. The Central Bank of Nigeria, the Presidential Economic Advisory Council and the banks are well advised to prepare for this if Muhammadu Buhari hopes to lift Nigeria out of the woods. Cash backed welfare initiatives are necessarily being channeled through banks around the world. Though some recipients are choosing to put these loans in their savings accounts instead of investing, still there is a consensus that banks would not be able to make as many loans as they did in unregulated times of the past. Like elsewhere around the world, the Central Bank of Kenya had already restructured $1 billion of loans by the middle of May 2020. Some other banks are even being surprisingly emphatic on loan restructuring. The Central Bank of South Africa even allows some of its customers to give leeways on loan repayments. In Germany, the government pays banks and private commercial enterprises to hold off on layoff plans, opting to cut salaries and work hours. Around the globe, banks have also ramped up loan guarantee schemes, adding incentives like cap on losses for banks to induce participation in these cushioning measures. Despite the challenges non interest loans pose on profits, government must impose as a matter of policy, new regulations aiding the post-Covid19 economic recovery and prosperity plan. Businesses depend on it to prosper and retain its workforce. Government should target labour intensive sectors such as agriculture, agro-allied industries and manufacturing as the Zenith Bank of Nigeria announced it would. Amidst all these challenges, banks are still the channel through any recovery from Covid19 would come about in the Nigerian economy. For the recovery plan to succeed, they have to give more loans. Thus, lending by banks is very crucial to post-Covid19 prosperity. Which is why they have to lend at zero interest rate like Islamic banks. Loan defaults, thinner margins and bigger lending would certainly be the lot of Nigerian banks in the next one year. They should not only participate in the loan guarantee schemes to be set up by the federal and state governments, but actively promote them to their customers. Difficult as it is, with meagre returns for their troubles, Nigerian banks must make deliberate efforts to help small and medium size businesses from now on. Consisting of at least 250 ethnic groups and about 500 dialects, Nigeria is a potpourri of tribal identities that has the outlook of a marriage of strange bedfellows. However, despite our diverse and contradictory legal systems, we've coexisted as a nation state for 60 years. Nigeria runs three legal systems: the Criminal Code, the Penal Code and the Sharia. These contradictions are pulling Nigeria in different directions. The lack of common identity has served to dampen efforts to forge a nationhood. Nigeria beginning with amalgamation of a weakened Fulani caliphate in the north; with Oyo empire and different forest kingdoms in the South west and Niger Delta and an acephalous Igbo ethnic group in the South east may have its perks, but the colonialist who created the marriage, did it for its own economic reasons. But Lord Lugard who created the contraption didn't think the union would survive this long. But observers avow that if Nigeria survived a civil war 50 years ago, it could survive anything. However, with each passing turmoil, this contrived union is being tested and stretched thin. With the latest uproar a fortnight ago, following the sentencing to death of a 22 year old singer in Kano by an Islamic Sharia court. The alleged blasphemy is yet another flashpoint in the life of the untoward marriage. The sentence has not been executed because the prisoner has the right of appeal to the Court of Appeal which is under Common Law which does not recognise blasphemy as a crime. While many Northerners applaud the sentence, majority of Southerners roundly condemned it, showing mistrust between the North and the South. When foreign businessmen ask for security in Nigeria, the ask questions about gangs of people going to burn down a man's house because of his opinion. For such arson was committed to the house of the father of the singer convicted of blasphemy. Which is why Nigeria sits at the top of countries worst to do business. Nigeria is among worst place in terms of security, because of these circumstances. So, we need to understand how these circumstances determine security and economic outcomes. Bandits operate with impunity in North Central states while Islamic insurgency ravages the North East; yet government punishes people who protest but grants amnesty to people who take arms against the state. Videos have gone viral showing ethnic cleansing against Christians in Southern Kaduna. These examples have portrayed Nigeria as a dangerous place to do business. Government should hasten the implementation of community policing to make Nigeria an investment destination. Thus, bringing Nigeria to the path of prosperity hinges on bank lending coupled with restoring security to the roads, the cities and every nook and cranny of the federation. Without being tough on security, government will continue to seen as hypocritical, insincere and incompetent.

Covid19: Chance To Reset World Economy By Bayo Ogunmupe We can emerge from the Covid19 crisis a better world, if we act quickly and jointly, writes the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Professor Klaus Schwab. It's time for capitalism's great reset. The changes we have already seen in response to the Coronavirus pandemic prove that a reset of our economic and social foundations is possible. This is our best chance to instigate stakeholder capitalism and here is how it can be achieved. Covid19 lockdowns may be gradually easing, but anxiety about the world's social and economic prospects is only intensifying. There is good reason to worry: a sharp economic downturn has already begun and we could be facing the worst depression since 1930. But while this outcome is likely, it is not unavoidable. To achieve a better outcome, the world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies; from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country from the United States to China, must participate and every industry, from oil and gas to the technologies, must be transformed. In short, there must be a great reset of capitalism. There are many reasons to pursue a Great Reset, but the most urgent is Covid19. Having already led to thousands of deaths, the pandemic represents one of the worst public health crises in recent history. And with casualties still mounting all over the world, it is far from over. This will have serious long term consequences for economic growth, public debt, debt repayment,employment and human wellbeing. According to the London Financial Times, global government debt has already reached its highest level in peacetime. Moreover, unemployment is skyrocketing in many countries, particularly in Nigeria. In the United states for example, one in four workers have filed for unemployment since March, with new weekly claims far above historic highs. The International Monetary Fund expects the World Economy to shrink by 3 percent this year- a downgrade of 6.3 percentage points in just four months. All this will exacerbate the climate and social crises that were already underway. Some countries have already used Covid19 crisis as an excuse to weaken environmental protections and enforcement. And frustrations over social ills like rising inequality- U.S billionaires' combined wealth has increased during the crisis- are intensifying. Left unaddressed, these crises, together with Coronavirus disease, will deepen and leave the world even less sustainable, less equal, and more fragile. Incremental measures and ad hoc fixes will not suffice to prevent stagnation. In entirety, we must build new foundations for our economic and social systems. The level of cooperation and ambition this implies is unprecedented. But this isn't some impossible dream. In fact, one silver lining of the pandemic is that it has shown how quickly we can make radical changes to our lifestyles. However, upon the decay and widespread suffering in Nigeria came the report that 39.4 million people may lose jobs. According to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo while delivering the report of his Committee on Economic Sustainability Plan, millions of Nigerians might fall into extreme poverty before Covid19 ends, as our Gross Domestic Product slides from minus 4.40 percent to minus 8.91 percent. Accordingly, the panel said the severity of the situation will depend on the strength of Nigeria's response to the economic downturn. The committee recommended a strategy hinged on President Mohammed Buhari's mantra, produce what we eat and consume what we produce. Further, the panel recommended the creation of new jobs, focusing on local production of our goods and services and the use of local materials. Sadly, Covid19 pandemic forced businesses and individuals to abandon practices long claimed to be essential, from frequent air travel to working in an office. Likewise, people have shown a willingness to make sacrifices for the sake of health care. In Europe, companies have stepped up to help their workers, customers and local communities, in a shift towards a kind of stakeholder capitalism to which they had previously paid lip service. Clearly, the will to build a better society does exist. We must use it to secure the Great Reset: a reset of capitalism for a more sustainable and resilient world. Each country must recognize there are essential services that must be provided in terms of healthcare, education, good governance and social safety that cannot be compromised through immunity for marauding herdsmen. The great reset agenda would have three main components. The first will steer the market towards fairer outcomes. To this end government should improve the coordination of tax, regulatory and fiscal policy. It would upgrade trade arrangements and create the conditions for a stakeholder economy. The second component of the reset agenda would ensure that investments advance shared goals, such as equality and sustainability. Thus, large scale spending programmes governments are implementing represent major opportunities for progress. The final priority of a great reset agenda is to harness the innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to support the public good especially by addressing social challenges. Rather than using funds, loans and investments from various entities and pension funds, to fill cracks in the old system, we should use them to create new ones that are more resilient, equitable and sustainable in the long run.

Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires By Bayo Ogunmupe Here is the road to achieving financial independence faster and easier than you ever dreamt. I gleaned it from a 77 page booklet by the American millionaire motivational consultant and trainer, Brian Tracy. The pamphlet is a testimonial of his life experience as a self made millionaire. It is the culmination of 15 years of research, teaching and personal experience on the subject of self made millionaires. The ideas and strategies presented are tested and proven. They are written in an easy to use format so that you can learn and apply them immediately. What I learned from the book was that in order to achieve success in life, you must become a special kind of person. In order to rise above the majority, you must develop qualities, skills and disciplines that the average person lacks. The most important factor in achieving greatness isn't the focus on money. it is the kind of person you have to become to earn that money and then hold on to it. These principles are so powerful that you can apply them to accomplish any goal you really want. Many of these methods and techniques are very familiar because they have been discovered hundreds of years ago but the snag is in the application. Many of you might have read about the techniques, it is only that you lacked the discipline and perseverance to apply them. But as you are reading this column, I know you are on your way to achieving your great goals in life, in order to realize your full human potential. These success principles, if painstakingly applied, will move you ahead more rapidly towards the wonderful life of abundance that awaits you in the future. Secret number one is that there is an iron law of human destiny: the Law of Cause and Effect. This powerful law says that there is a specific effect for every cause. For every action, there is a reaction. This law says success is not an accident. Financial or political success is the result of doing certain, specific things over and over again until you achieve the success you desire. The universe is neutral, the marketplace or our society does not care who you are or what you stand for. The Law of Cause and Effect says if you imitate how and what other successful people do, you will get the same results as them. One of the reasons for selling yourself short, for underachievement and your lack of success, is the conviction that successful people are genetically better than you. This is simply not the case. The fact is that millionaires have found out what other successful people do and they have followed them until they get the same results. When you think the same thoughts and do the same things millionaires do, you get the same results and benefits like them. Also, you should practice "back from the future thinking." This is a powerful technique practised continually by millionaires. Here is how it works. Project yourself forward five years. Imagine the five years have passed and that your life is now perfect as imagined in every respect. Create a long term vision for yourself. The clear your vision of health, happiness and prosperity, the faster you move towards achieving it and the faster it moves towards you. When you create a clear mental picture of where you are going in life, you become more positive, more motivated and more determined to make it a reality. This triggers your innate creativity which comes up with idea after idea to help make your vision come true. Human beings tend to move toward the direction of their dominant dreams, images and visions. Your dreams raise your self respect, and happiness. There is something exciting about dreams and visions that raises your self esteem, stimulating you to do great things. Think of one great goal you would dare to dream if you knew you could not fail. Write that goal down and begin imagining that you have achieved this goal already. Dreaming big dreams is the starting point of great achievement.

Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires (2) By Bayo Ogunmupe Developing a clear sense of direction through the crystallization of your dreams into clear, specific written goals is the second secret of success. The greatest discovery in human history is that: You become what you think about most of the time. The factors that, more than anything else, determine what happens to you in life are: what you think about and how you think about it most of the time. Great people think about their goals most of the time, resulting in their continually moving toward them. What you think about most grows and increases in your life. Here is a seven step formula for setting and achieving goals. You can use this formula to become a millionaire. First, decide exactly what you want in each area of your life, especially your financial life as a millionaire to be. Second, write down your goals clearly and specifically. An amazing miracle happens between your head and your hand which makes the goal indelible in your subconscious when you put your goals in writing. Third, set deadlines for each goal. Give yourself a target to aim at. Fourth, make a list of whatever you can think of doing to achieve each goal. Always apply creative problem solving in sourcing for ideas to achieve your goals. Fifth, organize your list into a plan of action. Determine the order of priority in the execution of your plan. Start executing from the most important. Sixth, take immediate action on your plan; never procrastinate. Seventh, do something everyday that moves you a step closer to your goal. This commitment to daily action will make you a big success in anything you wish to accomplish. For your action exercise: Always think on paper, that is to say, always write down your dreams on paper in order to impress them into your subconscious. Sit down and create your goals and your plans to achieve them. This exercise alone will make you a self made millionaire. Seeing yourself as self employed is the third secret of success. You are the captain of your soul and the master of your fate. Take hundred percent responsibility for what you are now and everything you will ever be. Never make excuses or blame anyone for your shortcomings and refuse to criticize others for anything. If there is anything in your life you don't like, change it. You are in charge of your life. The biggest mistake you can ever make is to think is that you working for anyone other than yourself. See yourself as self employed if even you are working for a company or government. When you see yourself as self employed, you develop an entrepreneur mentality, the mentality of a responsible self starting individuals. This is the mindset of the self made millionaire. He takes high levels of initiative and he is result oriented. The fourth secret of success is: Do what you love. Doing what you love is one of the secrets of success, because you no longer see your work as a burden, you see it as a labour of love. Doing what you love means you are engaged in a job that fascinates you, that holds your attention, that is a natural expression of your talents and abilities. Self made millionaires, if they won a million dollar cash, would continue doing what they are doing. They would only do it differently or at a higher level. They love their work so much that they wouldn't even think of leaving it or retiring. The great leader does what he loves as work and dedicates himself to it. Take Wole Soyinka as an example. He devoted his life to Literature, writing novels, poetry, drama, acting plays, translating folklore to English; he never applied to be vice chancellor of a university. When road safety became a distraction he resigned as chairman. Which was why he won the Nobel Prize in his field in 1986. James Peebles, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, USA, won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics after 55 years of teaching and research, whither such excellence and perseverance in Africa? That is my opening remark on the fifth secret of success: a commitment to excellence. The quality of your life will be determined by the depth of your commitment to excellence, no matter your chosen field or career. It is our lack of commitment to excellence that is responsible for our failure to discover a World Health Organization accepted cure for a human ailment since the beginning of time. Nor are we able to manufacture our own cars like Japan and India. Which is why you should resolve today to be the very best at what you do. Set a goal to join the top 10 percent of your field. Virtually, all great people are recognized as being extremely competent in their chosen professions. Here is a good code for success: Your life only gets better when you get better. And there is no limit to how much better you can become. There is no limit to how much better you can make your life. You cannot become good at everything. You must identify the one skill that can help you the most and then throw your whole heart into developing that skill. Working long and hard is my sixth secret of success. Self made millionaires practice the '40 Plus' formula. This formula says you work 40 hours per week for survival; over 40 hours for success. If you only work 40 hours a week, all you will ever do is survive. You will never get ahead. You will ever remain a mediocre. The average working week today is 35 hours. Self made millionaires work an average of 59 hours per week; many work up to 80 hours a week at the start of their careers.

Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires By Bayo Ogunmupe Here is the road to achieving financial independence faster and easier than you ever dreamt. I gleaned it from a 77 page booklet by the American millionaire motivational consultant and trainer, Brian Tracy. The pamphlet is a testimonial of his life experience as a self made millionaire. It is the culmination of 15 years of research, teaching and personal experience on the subject of self made millionaires. The ideas and strategies presented are tested and proven. They are written in an easy to use format so that you can learn and apply them immediately. What I learned from the book was that in order to achieve success in life, you must become a special kind of person. In order to rise above the majority, you must develop qualities, skills and disciplines that the average person lacks. The most important factor in achieving greatness isn't the focus on money. it is the kind of person you have to become to earn that money and then hold on to it. These principles are so powerful that you can apply them to accomplish any goal you really want. Many of these methods and techniques are very familiar because they have been discovered hundreds of years ago but the snag is in the application. Many of you might have read about the techniques, it is only that you lacked the discipline and perseverance to apply them. But as you are reading this column, I know you are on your way to achieving your great goals in life, in order to realize your full human potential. These success principles, if painstakingly applied, will move you ahead more rapidly towards the wonderful life of abundance that awaits you in the future. Secret number one is that there is an iron law of human destiny: the Law of Cause and Effect. This powerful law says that there is a specific effect for every cause. For every action, there is a reaction. This law says success is not an accident. Financial or political success is the result of doing certain, specific things over and over again until you achieve the success you desire. The universe is neutral, the marketplace or our society does not care who you are or what you stand for. The Law of Cause and Effect says if you imitate how and what other successful people do, you will get the same results as them. One of the reasons for selling yourself short, for underachievement and your lack of success, is the conviction that successful people are genetically better than you. This is simply not the case. The fact is that millionaires have found out what other successful people do and they have followed them until they get the same results. When you think the same thoughts and do the same things millionaires do, you get the same results and benefits like them. Also, you should practice "back from the future thinking." This is a powerful technique practised continually by millionaires. Here is how it works. Project yourself forward five years. Imagine the five years have passed and that your life is now perfect as imagined in every respect. Create a long term vision for yourself. The clear your vision of health, happiness and prosperity, the faster you move towards achieving it and the faster it moves towards you. When you create a clear mental picture of where you are going in life, you become more positive, more motivated and more determined to make it a reality. This triggers your innate creativity which comes up with idea after idea to help make your vision come true. Human beings tend to move toward the direction of their dominant dreams, images and visions. Your dreams raise your self respect, and happiness. There is something exciting about dreams and visions that raises your self esteem, stimulating you to do great things. Think of one great goal you would dare to dream if you knew you could not fail. Write that goal down and begin imagining that you have achieved this goal already. Dreaming big dreams is the starting point of great achievement.

Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires (3) By Bayo Ogunmupe Life long learning as the prescription for greatness is the caption of the rules encapsulated by the seventh secret of success. It means continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in your career. You must be both an authority and encyclopedia in your chosen field. Since an average person utilizes less than 10 percent of his natural ingenuity, you have an unlimited capacity in brains and intelligence to learn to attain excellence. There is no goal that you cannot achieve by applying the power of your mind to your situation. Your mind is like a muscle; it develops only with use. Just as you have to strain your physical muscle to build them, you have to work your brain muscles to build your mind as well. The good news is that the more you dedicate yourself to lifelong learning, the easier it is for you to learn even more. There are three keys to lifelong learning: First, to read in your field for 60 minutes each day. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Reading for an hour each day translates to one book per week. One book per week will translate into 50 books per year. Fifty books per year will translate into 500 books over the next 10 years. Since the average adult reads less than one book per year, when you begin reading one hour per day, one book per week, this alone will give you an incredible edge in your field. You will become one of the smartest, most competent and highest paid people in your profession by simply reading one hour each day. The second key to lifelong learning is to listen to audio programmes in your car as you drive from to place. The average person sits behind the wheel in his car 500 t0 1,000 hours per year. this is the equivalent of 12 to 24 forty hour weeks or as much as three to six months of working time that you spend in your car. This is the equivalent of two full time semesters at a university. Turning your car into a university on wheels turns you to leader in your field of endeavor. This is why audio learning has been dubbed the greatest breakthrough in education since the invention of the printing press. The third key to lifelong learning is to attend every course and seminar you can possibly find, making you great in your field. This combination of books, audio learning and seminars will save you hundreds of hours and thousands of naira and many years of hard work in achieving the financial success you desire. In deciding to become a lifelong learner, you will be amazed the effect this will bring to your career. Thus, lifelong learning is a major factor in your becoming a Nobel prize winner in your field or self made millionaire in business. An American millionaire, Clement Stone once said: Apart from earning to pay your upkeep, if you cannot save money, the seeds of greatness are not in you. That explains paying yourself first to mean saving money for the morrow; which is the eighth secret of success. In fact, if you save just N100 per month throughout your working life and you invest that money in a cooperative fund that grows at 10 percent per annum; you will be worth more than one million naira by the time you retire. This means an average worker if he starts early enough, can become a millionaire over the course of his working lifetime.

Habits of Self Made Millionaires By Bayo Ogunmupe Continuing from success secret eight of self made millionaires, developing the lifelong habit of saving and investing your savings isn't easy. It requires determination and willpower. You have to set it down as a goal to be followed meticulously. You must practice frugality in all things until it becomes your lifestyle. Defer every buying decision for at least a week if not a month. A major reason for retiring poor is impulse buying. When you buy things with little thought, you become victims of Parkinson's Law, which says "expenses rise to meet income." This means no matter how much you earn, you tend to spend so much more that you never get ahead and never get out of debt. If you cannot save 10 percent of your monthly income, start today by saving one percent in Jaiz Bank of Nigeria where they lend without interest and collateral. Live on the other 99 percent of your income. As you become comfortable living on 99 percent, raise your savings to 2 percent then 3 percent and so on. Within two years, you will be on your way to becoming a self made millionaire. Then, seize every opportunity to add more savings. Begin to study money and how to make it grow. Read books and journals by experts on the subject. never stop saving, learning and growing until you become financially independent. Becoming an expert on your subject by learning every detail of your business is the ninth habit of self made millionaires. When you become an expert in what you do,nothing can stop you from getting you paid more and promoted faster. The market pays excellent rewards for excellent performance. It pays average rewards for average performance. The Law of Integrative Complexity says the individual who can integrate and use the greatest amount of information in any field soon rises to the top of that field. Set a goal of becoming the very best in your career or profession. One small insight or idea can be the turning point in your career. Never stop looking for new insights in your profession. Identify new trends, acquire core competencies or key skills that you need to lead in your field in the future. You can get everything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want. Which is why dedicating yourself to serve others is the tenth habit of self made millionaires. Your reward in life is always in direct proportion to your service to other people. All self made millionaires have an obsession with customer service. They think about their customers all the time. Your success in life is always in direct proportion to the length of your extra mile; what you do after doing what you are expected to do. Always look for opportunities to do more than you are paid for. The company owners, your boss and coworkers as well as people who buy your products and services are your customers. One small improvement in the way you serve your customers can be a major reason for your financial success . Never stop looking for any little ways to serve your customers better. Today, customers value speed and accuracy than ever before. Whenever a customer asks for anything, answer him immediately. That's what he wants to hear.

Habits of Self Made Millionaires (2) By Bayo Ogunmupe Thought is the source of greatness, wealth and all material gain. All great discoveries, inventions, creativity and all achievement starts from human thought and imagination. And it is when you honestly act and follow your thoughts that you achieve whatever goal you set yourself. Which is why self honesty, or integrity is the eleventh habit of self made millionaires. And the most valued and respected quality you can develop is a reputation for absolute integrity. Winners are always honest in everything they do and in every transaction they perform. Thus, you must never compromise your integrity, your word must be your bond and your is everything when it comes to business or politics. Integrity is essential to greatness because business or political promotion is based on trust. Your success in life will be determined solely by the number of people who trust you and who are willing to support and work for you, give you credit, lend you money, buy your services and help you during difficult times. Your character is your most worthwhile asset and it is based on the amount of integrity that you practice. The first key to integrity is to be true to yourself in all things. Being true to yourself means doing whatever you're doing excellently. You must pursue excellence in whatever you are doing. Integrity is demonstrated internally by latent honesty; externally by quality work. The second key to integrity is being true to other people in your life. Live in truth with everyone. Don't say or do anything you do not believe to be true, right and honest. Refuse to compromise your integrity for anything. Always live up to the highest standard that you know. Single mindedness in the pursuit of priorities is the twelfth secret of self made millionaires. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways, therefore being single minded is the hallmark of successful people. When you create the habit of setting priorities and concentrating on them single-mindedly, you will be able to accomplish whatever you want in life. This strategy has been the reason for high income, great wealth and financial independence for many people. Your ability to determine your priority and working on that priority until it is achieved is the test and measure of your willpower, self-discipline and personal character. This is an important habit you should develop if you want to be a great success. This one habit alone will make you a self made millionaire. Developing a reputation for speed and dependability is the thirteenth habit of self made millionaires. Since time is the currency of the 21st century, everyone today is in tremendous hurry. Customers want their services or products delivered immediately. Impatience and instant gratification now rule the world. And for you to be competitive you have to deliver your products and services with the speed of light. Loyal customers will change to the fastest supplier in a twinkle an eye. So you have to develop a sense of urgency and a bias for action to excel. That is how to attract more customers. When you exhibit the ability to get things done quickly and accurately you move to the front in your profession. And a reputation for speed and action combined with climbing from one peak of achievement to another marks the fourteenth secret of success of self made millionaires. Winning isn't an one-off event. It must be continuous. Identify the trends and cycles in your business and adapt to these changes. And practice self discipline in all things. Self discipline is the ability to make yourself do whatever you should do, when you should do it, whether you like it or not. It is the ability to set a long term goal of becoming financially independent and then disciplining yourself to achieve your long term goal. Self discipline requires self mastery, self control, being responsible, and self direction. Everything in life is a test, the test is whether you can do the important things; keep your mind on what you want and where you are going rather than thinking and talking about what you don't want or problems you have had in the past. When you pass the test, you move to the next onward to becoming a millionaire. The greatest genius of all time, Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than facts." Which is why you should explore your creativity all the time. Since you utilize less than 20 percent of your brainpower and creativity daily; you should tap your imagination, creativity and intuition more often. Develop new ideas on your career, your creativity is stimulated by your desired goals, pressing problems and focused questions. The more you focus your mind on achieving your goals, the smarter you become and the stronger the muscles of your mind become. The more you use your brain creatively, the stronger and more resilient it becomes. You develop the muscles of your brain by straining them.

Habits of Self Made Millionaires (3) by Bayo Ogunmupe You will be the same person in five years except for the people you meet and the books you read. This is why you must make meeting and becoming friends with great people your priority. Researchers avow that fully 85 percent of your success and happiness in life is determined by the quality of friends and acquaintances you make in your day to day activities. The more people you know and who know you in a positive way, the more successful you will become and the faster too. At every turning point in your life, someone is standing there to help or hinder you. Which is why successful people make a habit of building and maintaining a network of high quality relationships throughout their lives. As a result, they accomplish vastly more than the person who goes home to watch television every night. Thus, it is not in Nigeria alone that success depends on who you know. It is a universal law of life that only those who know you that will promote you or nominate you to high public office. And such a reference group is defined by people with whom you habitually identify and pass the time. Humans are like chameleons in that they take on the attitudes, behaviors, values and beliefs of people with whom they associate with most of the time. So, make yourself a millionaire by networking with great people. And take care of yourself, you can only become great if you have good health. A former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt said: "The key to happiness is a sound mind in a sound body." In order to enjoy their money, self made millionaires aim to be centenarians. You too should make living a long life your habit. There are three keys to living a long, healthy and happy life. The first is proper weight, Set a goal to get your weight under control and remain lean and fit for the rest of your life. The mantra for this is: Eat less and exercise more. The second key is proper diet, and the key to diet is to eat fewer but better foods. Eat proteins, fruits and vegetables. Eliminate desserts, soft drinks, candy and sugary foods. Stop consuming excess salt, flour products and eat in smaller portions five times a day instead of three large meals. If you can control your eating, you will be able to control other habits in other parts of your life. The third key to a long and healthy life is proper exercise. This requires vigorous activity, long walks, joining a wellness or sporting club and keeping some fitness equipment in your house. One of the qualities of self made millionaires is that they think carefully before making quick and decisive decisions. They discipline themselves to take action, following up their decisions. Successful people are more decisive and try far more things than their less successful peers. According to the law of probabilities, if you try far more different ways to be successful the odds are you will eventually find the right way at the right time. Unsuccessful people are indecisive, procrastinate, they do not have the character to make firm decisions. As a result they drift through life and never achieve financial independence. Moreover, great people never accept failure to be an option. A journalist once asked the founder of International Business Machine (IBM), Thomas J. Watson, how he could be more successful and faster. Watson replied: "If you want to be successful faster, you must double your rate of failure. Success lies on the far side of failure." Though self made millionaires are no gamblers, they dare to go forward; they take calculated risks for their goals to achieve greater rewards. When you act boldly unseen forces come to your aid. Every act of courage increases your courage. Perhaps the best mantra from the movie Apollo 13 came from Eugene Krantz, head of mission control at NASA. When the people around him were agonising over losing the spacecraft and astronauts, he pulled them together with decisive action saying loudly: "Failure is not an option." And the quick actions taken saved the day. Finally, to become a self made millionaire, you must pass the persistence test. According to the 30th President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, "Nothing can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." Persistence is the lodestar of human character. Persistence is to the leader as carbon is to steel. It is absolutely indispensable to the attainment of greatness in any field. Always programme your subconscious for persistence by resolving in advance that you will never give up, whatever what happens. The courage to persist in the face of all terror is the one quality that, more than anything will guarantee your success. Remember, all life is a test. For you to achieve great success you must pass the persistence test. Recurring crisis is inevitable in life, so you must brace yourself up for war. Imagine every difficulty sent to you was to teach you a valuable lesson that you must learn to be even more successful in the future. And from this moment onward, always seek the valuable lesson in every setback or difficulty. This will help you in your quest not only to become a millionaire, but in your march to becoming a visionary leader. In conclusion, success is predictable. Success is not a matter of luck or accident. You must plan to successful before you can become great. If you are persistent in your pursuit of greatness, nothing in the world can stop you.

How Covid19 resets the world economy By Bayo Ogunmupe Many things will change forever after the Covid19 pandemic. As I see it, the worst of the pandemic is yet to come and the world has reached a defining moment. Which is why, in its aftermath, we must get the reset of the world economy right. The challenges are greater than previously imagined. And we must double our capacity to reset than we previously dared to hope. This is a report of the launch of Covid19: The Great Reset, the new book by the Founder and Executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret. It is on the Corona virus crisis and its impact on the world economy. To date only a few countries are effectively containing the virus, while in a majority of nations, Covid19 is either raging or resurfacing with local outbreaks. Already, in barely six months, the pandemic has plunged our world into chaos, in its entirety, bringing each of us individually into the most challenging times the First World War. The world will be dealing with its fallout for years, changing many things forever. It has wrought economic disruption and will continue to do so. It has created risk and volatility on many fronts, political, social, geopolitical-while exacerbating deep concerns about the environment, extending the pernicious reach of technology into our lives. No industry or business will be spared from the impact of these changes. Many companies risk disappearance and millions of industries face an uncertain future; only a few will thrive. For many individuals, life as they have always known it is unravelling at alarming speed. These acute crises favour introspection and foster transformation. The fault lines of today's world, notably- social divides, injustice,absence of cooperation, failure of national and global governance, leadership failure and the degradation of national assets-lie exposed, as never before with many feeling the time for reinvention may have dawned. A new world would emerge, the contours of which it is incumbent on us to re-imagine and re-draw. The sudden and violent nature of what coronavirus pandemic is inflicting makes the scale of this challenge overwhelming. This impression is due in no small measure to the fact that in today's interdependent and hyper-connected world, risks amplify each other. Individual risks or issues could create ricochet effects by provoking others like unemployment, fuelling social unrest, penury and triggering involuntary mass migration like Africans migrated via the Sahara and by boat over the mediterranean sea. These challenges play out as complex adaptive systems which share a fundamental attribute: being susceptible to matters cascading out of control and in so doing producing extreme consequences that often come as a surprise, for which we are ill prepared. Covid19 has already given us a foretaste of this. To a considerable extent, the sharp and dramatic rise in unemployment, the global wave of social unrest unleashed by the Black Lives Matter protests and the growing fracture between China and the united States wouldn't have taken place without the pandemic. At the very least, they were exacerbated by it. The occurrence and severity of these fault lines mean that we are now at the crossroads. The potential for change is unlimited, bound only by our imagination. Nations could be poised to become either more equitable or the opposite, geared towards more solidarity or greater individualism; favouring the interests of the few or looking for the needs of the many. Then, when the economies recover, they could be characterized by greater inclusivity but better attuned to global commonwealth or they could simply return to business as usual, which the pandemic revealed as untenable status quo. However, with enough collective will, we should take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to reset the world economy by making it more equitable, resilient as we emerge onto the other side of this crisis. The immediate post crisis period offers the window to rebuild by not wasting the $10 trillion governments around the world are investing to alleviate the effects of the pandemic. A recent policy paper to which the World Economic Forum contributed estimates that building a positive economy could be more than $10 trillion by 2030. In the short term, deploying about $250 billion of stimulus funding could generate about 37 million positive jobs in a cost effective manner. Indeed, resetting the environment should be seen as an investment that will generate employment opportunities. We must get the reset of the world economy right by starting now. The challenges before the world hold dire consequences, perhaps more than imagined. But our capacity to reset, is also greater than we can dare to hope. Let the Federal Government cooperate with the World Economic Forum for the reform of the Nigerian economy.

Buhari Offsetting Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan By Bayo Ogunmupe Recently, the World Bank published the Nigeria development Update. The report is part of a series assessing economic and social developments in Nigeria. The report provides in-depth examination of economic policy and analysis of Nigeria's medium term development and sustainability plan. The contents of the report is valuable information for policymakers, businessmen and members of the Presidential Council of Economic Advisers. Some of the report's forecasts are that the current recession will be twice as deep as the economic recession of 2016. Its projection is that the Nigerian economy would contract by 3.2 percent this year. It assumes a yearly average oil price of $30 per barrel. It also assumes Covid19 would have started easing out by the second quarter of 2020. This revised growth projection is over five percentage points below pre-Covid19 forecast of 2.1 percent. The forecast makes the 2020 recession the deepest since 1980. It shows Nigeria's sustainability outlook highly uncertain. Moreover, a more severe domestic outbreak of the pandemic and a protracted decline in oil price relative to World Bank's projections would deepen Nigeria's recession. However, the World Bank sees bold reforms as the only way out of the woods. Thus, in the near future, a coordinated fiscal and monetary policy initiatives will be necessary to ease the human and economic costs of the pandemic. Indeed, bold reforms represent the panacea for a robust and sustainable recovery from the recession. But Buhari's penchant for borrowing money from whoever would lend him is compounding and offsetting the economic sustainability plan. While dealing with the disruption caused by the pandemic a post Covid19 reform package should be in the works to overcome Nigeria's persistent economic challenges particularly her low level of productivity. Meanwhile, in the context of this pervasive policy and regulatory uncertainty, weakening demand and rising economic headwinds, net Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows fell in 2019 by eight percent from their already low level $2billion or 0.5 percent of Nigeria's GDP. Sadly, Nigeria's shift from FDI to foreign loans to finance national development exacerbates our vulnerability and is offsetting Nigeria's sustainability plan. Our net external reserves fell from US$42.1 billion in 2018 to US$37.8 billion by the end of 2019. That is equivalent to 4.6 months of imports and intensified pressure on naira exchange rate. These variables are markedly worse than on the eve of the 2016 recession. Government revenue as a percentage of our GDP to fall by 5 percent, this is expected due to the slump in the global oil price. The sudden fall in revenue comes just when our resources are needed to contain the Cocid19 outbreak, creating a financial gap that threatens to destabilize the economy. Lower government revenues are offsetting sustainability plan for the implementation of N2.3 trillion stimulus lined up to soften Covid19 wrecking of the economy. As response to the pandemic, the federal government has an opportunity to collaborate with Nigerians in the diaspora. In short term policy reforms, government could encourage skilled emigrants to return and perhaps attract foreign workers with valuable knowledge and advanced skills. But on its own part, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its own report of the future of the Nigerian economy. In its report titled: A Crisis Like No Other, it envisaged a further plunge in Nigeria's growth from -3.4 percent to -5.4 percent in 2020. It posits that Covid19 would wreak a more negative impact than anticipated. In 2021, global growth is projected to be 5.4 percent. The federal government launched the Economic Sustainability Plan with the objective of stimulating the economy by preventing business collapse, ensuring liquidity and using labour intensive methods to boost agriculture, facility maintenance and housing. However, the Central Bank of Nigeria is mitigating the holocaust by pumping money into the economy to contain the negative impact of the pandemic. By the same token, much of the external loans are already secured for either balance of payment support or for infrastructure have moratoriums effectively postponed for repayment obligations. More graciously, oil price is beginning to climb following compliance with production agreements coupled with the fact the economy is gradually being reopened. Moreover, the World Bank just approved Nigeria's long standing request for loan by releasing its first tranche of $750 million to support Nigeria's electricity sector. This fresh injection of credit will contribute to fixing CBN's beleaguered balance sheet. The fund which could rise to $3 billion was approved for the CBN as part of World Bank's support programme to ameliorate incessant lending to the government. The CBN has been giving unbudgeted credit to fund the power sector since 2014. The CBN last bailout in August 2019 was worth N600 billion. Government has spent more than N1.5 trillion since 2014.

What We've Learned About Covid19 Now By Bayo Ogunmupe Since 2019 that the Corona Virus (Covid19) broke out from China, the world has learned many things about the pandemic. The disease has not changed, but scientific understanding is evolving dramatically. The first scientifically documented case of Covid19 was from the United States in February 2020. It was after, that early warnings from U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that a very serious public health threat loomed. Then, health officials had only a rough idea of how the novel virus spread, who the disease affect most; and how best to combat transmission and provide treatment. Public messaging on the disease was at times conflicting and confusing, including the early advice declaring masks unnecessary. Now, scientists have a firm handle on how the virus spreads and what should be done to get the pandemic under control. Here are the nine things we know about Covid19 now. The virus is also airborne. Early advice emphasized hand-washing, disinfecting surfaces, and sneezing into your elbow. It was then assumed the coronavirus spread mostly through handshakes, contact with infected surfaces and through close contact with infected people within six feet. Now, after months of scientific discussion and study, the experts agree: The virus can become airborne-within tiny, suspended droplets called aerosols. They can infect people beyond six feet, in poorly ventilated indoor spaces where the aerosols are trapped and build up. After six months of mounting evidence, the World Health Organization has agreed with scientists on this point. The risk outdoors is lower but not zero. What this means is that Covid19 is still spreading, we can only avoid large crowds, observe physical distancing, wear masks inside and outside and continue vigilant hand-washing. Then, health officials held firm to the notion that the only recognizable symptoms of Covid19 were fever, cough and shortness of breath. Now, the science of how to stop or slow the pandemic has been settled for months; it settled that every health expert now recommends face masks. Face masks are crucial to the control of the pandemic. beyond masks, experts advise, prevent large indoor gatherings at non essential gatherings like bars; provide widespread testing with quicker results, paired with contact tracing, mandate physical distancing in public places; direct all these in coordinated fashion from the federal level. "We truly have great knowledge of how to control the virus," says Yonatan Grad, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University. What this means is that science has been largely ignored or applied half-heartedly in many states, and unless something changes, experts don't expect the pandemic to let up. Obviously, there are many political and economic pressures winning out over concerns about the health of the people. Moreover, we now know Covid19 affects the whole body, not just the lungs. Now, studies showed the virus caused body aches, nausea, and diarrhea in some people. Later came the news of anosmia, the loss of smell. We learned of Covid toe; brain infections causing dizziness and confusion, and severe reactions by immune system leading to blood clots, heart attacks and other organ failures. More recently, scientists avow, blood vessels are being infected. Few if any diseases cause such a wide variety of symptoms. What it means is that physicians need to think of Covid19 as a multisystem disease. There is a lot of news about clotting, but it is also important to understand that a substantial proportion of these patients suffer kidney, heart, and brain damage, says a resident doctor at Irving Medical Centre, Columbia University, Aakriti Gupta, MD. By recognizing all these, doctors can improve treatment and develop follow-up plans to see how people are doing, well after they've been discharged. We've also discovered that younger adults and children are attacked by the virus too. In the beginning, Covid19 was avowedly declared more dangerous for older people. It ravaged nursing homes, and long term care facilities, which have accounted for more than 40 percent of deaths as of June 2020. Then, that developed an impression that younger adults and children were not at risk. But now, the risk of death in children and teens is low, but it isn't zero. The risk rises consistently with age. Increasingly, doctors are noting more severe outcomes for children, teens and younger adults. What is all the more remarkable is that doctors are learning of the catastrophic consequences of this viral infection from strokes in young persons, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, cardiac and renal complications, and long lasting consequences of symptoms related to a post-Covid19 syndrome. What this means is: No age group gets out of this unscathed. And now with the perspective of time, it is becoming clear infections can leave people in any age group with chronic effects. Further, experts say, when the disease builds in younger populations, as it has been doing since May, it then inevitably infects more older people leading to rising toll of daily deaths as we now see. Moreover, we've now learned that the virus ignores seasons. Because heat and humidity reduce the virulence of influenza and some other viruses, slowing their spread in the summer, it had been speculated coronavirus might similarly subside. But outbreaks in March when it was warm, largely dashed those hopes. Rising case numbers across the sun belt in June and July provided abundant evidence that heat will not help the virus go away. It means a huge reservoir of infected people would build up, causing new infections to surge even more rapidly as cold weather forces people into more crowded indoor situations. Since science has been largely ignored at the government level in many states, experts don't the pandemic to let up. Also, we now know, Covid19 is far more deadly than the flu. It is 10 times more lethal than the flu we know. Covid19 death rate remains elusive as actual case count worldwide is 10 times higher than the official tally. We would expect one in every 200 infections to lead to death. Infection fatality rate for flu is about one in 1,000. However, the risk of death starts to tick up around the age of 50 and gets extremely high over the age of 70. Since there isn't any immunity in the population, the rate of death will continue to rise. We now know, the virus won't disappear on its own. Like the flu pandemic of 1918-19, the USA leads the world in Covid19 deaths, with 24 percent of the global total despite having just 4.2 percent of the world population. Lockdowns which were aimed to buy time to develop a coherent mitigation strategy, tools, and supplies were wasted at great economic cost. The number of infections has now spiraled beyond the point where voluntary mask-wearing and social distancing alone will get the pandemic under control. Meanwhile, nations have to develop testing capacity, and vaccines for turnaround times are too slow to sufficiently enable useful contact tracing and effective isolation of newly infected people. People spread corona virus unwittingly. Younger children are about half as likely to become infected in a contact as adults, only a little bit less likely to transmit. In recent weeks the spread has been led by younger adults crowding bars, and other places where the wearing of masks have been anathema. Experts think, about 80 percent of Covid19 infections are caused by about 20 percent of infected individuals. As children return to school this month, the extent to which they exacerbate the viral spread remains to be seen. Certainly, a vaccine is the solution. Several teams around the globe have been working towards providing its vaccine for months. Dozens of vaccines are in various stages of testing by different companies, research groups in many nations. Optimism was recently boosted when three separate groups- in China, at Oxford University UK and in the United States announced successful early trials, each generating an immune response to this novel virus and appearing to be safe. With each company able to ramp up production of its own vaccine separately, that would mean more total doses would be available sooner. For effectiveness, a vaccine needs to be just 50 percent effective to make it to the market. The other big question is when? Expecting a vaccine being delivered to the public by March 2021 isn't out of the question.

North-South imbalance: Nigeria in free fall to self-destruct By Michael Owhoko Praying for Nigeria’s redemption from its current woes is like asking God to prevent a building with defective foundation located in the Lekki area of Lagos from collapse. Even intercessions by best of prayer warriors cannot save such a building. As long as Nigeria continue with its current inapt political structure, its descent to self-destruct is definite. The ominous signs are there for any discerning mind to see except those with impaired vision and beneficiaries of the prejudicial system. If indeed Nigeria is a product of amalgamation of two separate “countries”, comprising Northern and Southern protectorates up till 1914, it infers there should be a balance between the two regions in the distribution and management of the country’s resources. This was the intention of 1963 Constitution. The 1963 Constitution was painstakingly negotiated and tailored to address the country’s heterogenous and multiethnic peculiarities for equity purposes, encouraging representatives of the regions to transfer part of their sovereignty to federal or centre at the time. Abrogation and replacement of the 1963 Constitution with a unitary system (Decree No 34 of 1966) was therefore a very costly political mistake made by General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi. Rather than reverse this anomaly, the counter coup by northern elements in the army that brought General Yakubu Gowon to power sustained this same inappropriate structure that was partly responsible for their vengeance. This is the genesis of Nigeria’s unending woes and steady free fall into abyss and self-destruct. No matter the inherent flaws of the 1963 Constitution, the features of federalism in the constitution guaranteed equity and would have been left to evolve. By now, Nigeria would have been a more stable country, offering leadership to the rest of Africa and enjoying global respect outside the continent. To have retained this unitary system till date through the current 1999 Constitution, is dishonesty and unhelpful to the country’s unity. This constitution which was indolently generated from the 1979 Constitution and foisted on Nigerians, was predetermined, draped in pseudo-federalism and inimical to a plural society like Nigeria. Indeed, the 1999 Constitution is not a product of serious negotiation as it was deliberately framed to put the Northern region at advantage over the South. It gives the North more opportunities in federal bureaucracy than the South through the application of quota system or federal character principle, a policy meant to hold down the South for the North to catch up. If this special waiver (quota system) deliberately imposed by this constitution was put in place to correct the educational and employment imbalance, among others, between the North and the South in public sector, for how long will this system be sustained? Is it in perpetuity? It has been in place even before 1960, and was given legal and official cover by the 1979 Constitution, and later the 1999 Constitution. For equity purposes, why was the quota system not applied to the Igbo at the end of the civil war to facilitate their reintegration into society, under the 3Rs of Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation. The Igbo were left to fight their way into economic, social and political relevance to catch up with the rest of the country. The North has obviously caught up with the South, and it is high time the country got the federal character principle reviewed, discarded and do away with. A system where Southerners with higher marks cannot get admission into federal schools while those with lower scores from the North are admitted cannot be a fair system, neither the recruitment of Northerners with lower qualification into public service while Southerners with higher qualification are ineligible on grounds of the quota system, is impartial. Besides the disparity in favour of the North, the 1999 Constitution is the root cause of corruption in the country. It concentrates power and resources in the hands of one man, promotes nepotism and encourages leaders to take total control of governmental instrument to pursue ethnic and sectional agenda. This explains the attendant desperation by the various ethnic groups or regions to capture power at all cost at the centre, making it practically impossible, for example, to conduct accurate census and free and fair elections, as they are incidental to power and resources. The unitary system is an aberration and provokes discontent within the polity resulting in national and diplomatic deficit. One of the consequences is Nigeria’s dwindling respect, influence and honour within and around the world. The country has been on a descent from its hitherto enviable height, indicative of system anomaly, institutional mismatch and structural failure. Even Africa countries which used to be Nigeria’s sphere of influence in foreign policy matters, now see Nigeria as a weakling and underdog. This was not the dream of Nigerians at independence when the structure and system of government guaranteed national equity with each region having the autonomy to grow at its pace through unique local administration that was suitable to the needs and aspirations of the respective ethnic groups and regions. It is the unitary nature of the 1999 Constitution that has given impetus for the entire organs of government, namely, the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary to be headed by Northerners, besides service chiefs and heads of strategic ministries, departments and agencies of government that are also dominated by Northerners. Even for a blind man, this is obviously an unfair system that leaves the other partner, the South, disadvantaged. Allowing the North to get away with this power sharing disparity suggests the North is the superior partner, and the South, the inferior of the union. Implicitly, while political and economic opportunities are shrinking in the South, the North is experiencing increase. This is manifest in recruitment pattern in ministries, departments and agencies of the federal government, among others. Thus, in response to dwindling prospects, Southerners now flee and migrate to other countries to take up demeaning jobs for survival, and sometimes, resort to all kinds of vices at home and abroad, including internet fraud and prostitution. Southerners prefer to be strangers in foreign land with sense of liberty than remaining in a country where dreams cannot be fulfilled through decent and legitimate process of hard work and honesty. Identifying oneself as a Nigerian has become a burden because of the negative public perception, particularly in transnational circles. Nigeria’s miseries are further compounded by prevailing political uncertainty and leadership vacuum fueled by the eccentric 1999 Constitution. Any country that is destined for greatness is known by the demeanor of those charged to manage its affairs. How far such a country can go in meeting the aspirations of its citizenry is determined by the quality of leadership thought process. When those thoughts are driven by narrow and selfish motives other than national interest, what you get is futility. Leadership from the bottom rung of the ladder to the top have veered the country from the course of greatness with no hope of attaining unity of aspiration. Who will the youths look up to as reference group when all you hear, see, feel and experience from those at the helms of affairs is theft, nepotism, insincerity and lies as encapsulated in corruption? Nigeria has become a metaphor for corruption and a country without direction. Citizens no longer believe in the country, as the texture of atmosphere in Nigeria reflects direct opposite of the country's national motto of "Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress”. Nigeria is currently disunited, faithless, tumultuous and regressive, and this also accounts for the unrestrained massive corruption going on in the country. Obviously, the 1999 Constitution does not encourage Nigeria to fulfill purpose of a united country devoid of prejudice aimed at transforming its human and natural resources into advantage for the collective good of citizens. Rather, opportunistic ideology holds sway. Get to power, screw policies in favour of your ethnic interest, particularly with projects and appointments, grab or steal as much wealth as you can, and get out. Leaders see Nigeria as a project with an expiry lifespan because of skepticism over its continuity as a country. This is why distribution of resources are flagrantly allocated inequitably to serve primordial, narrow, sectional and selfish interest. Rather than strengthen institutions to fulfill national aspiration and purpose, institutions are deliberately weakened in preference for strong personalities and personalized leadership to enable them control and distribute the country’s resources at whims. Today, insincerity has been elevated into a creed. There is no governmental agencies that functions transparently because of personal and sectional hidden agenda. In fact, there is complete system failure in all aspects of the country’s life. This has also left in its trail bottled up anger and tension in the land that is gradually snowballing into a dangerous proportion capable of consuming the country. There is no hope the country will ever recover or know true peace except the polity is rescued and restructured within the framework of the 1963 Constitution, otherwise, eventual disintegration is inevitable. Michael Owhoko is a journalist, author and public relations consultant who has mostly worked in the banking, oil and gas, and media industries. He is the author of The Language of Oil and Gas; Career Frustration in the Workplace; Nigeria on the Precipice: Issues, Options, and Solutions; The Future of Nigeria; and Feminism: The Agony of Men. He is also the publisher of Media Issues, an online newspaper that can be found at www.mediaissuesng.com.

How corrupt political class broke Nigeria By Bayo Ogunmupe Corruption and corrupt enrichment occupy prominent positions in the psyche of every Nigerian. This is because corruption is part of the culture of every Nigerian. Which is why the ingredients of the doom of every development project are there daily for all to see. For every Nigerian, what is in it for me is the rallying cry. In a nation without values, without ideology, a people to whom hypocrisy is a religion, corruption has become the new normal. A cartoon once showed a clergyman reaching into the folds of his robe for money in response to a veiled threat in the greeting of policemen at a checkpoint -Your boys are hungry sir. On the Corruption Perception Index, Nigeria ranks 146th out of 180 countries-meaning Nigeria ranks 34th among the most corrupt countries of the world. In 2019, about half of all who used public services paid bribes to someone in order to access those services. Corruption is so rampart that books have been written and doctorates have been awarded on the subject by universities. In 2018, a fellow of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Matthew Page, wrote a monograph entitled: A New taxonomy for Corruption in Nigeria. In the paper he attempted to categorize Nigeria's corruption as going beyond the general development in the World Bank's "Helping Countries Combat Corruption." Page breaks down Nigerian Corruption into two dimensions, Where it happens, and How it Happens. In its 'Where' Page takes Nigeria sector by sector, detailing types of corruption practices familiar on a day to day basis. In the 'How', he mentions tactics, techniques and the behavior by which corruption thrives in Nigeria. Matthew Page spared no sector, in the Press 78 percent of journalists in one year admitted to collecting brown envelopes. Other sectors highlighted are the judiciary, where election mandates are awarded by the courts, the power sector, the security sector, education and health. In hospitals you have to grease the palm of officials in order to gain an hospital bed for your patient. Otherwise, your ward could be left unattended to, with death being the consequence. Even organs of the Humanitarian sector are not exempted, with internally Displaced Persons having to pay in kind in order to get food; with many women refugees becoming pregnant thereafter. In the 'How' the author's taxonomy identifies bribery, extortion, auto-corruption, which includes, salaries and pensions fraud, along with the one much talked about lately- re-looting. Contract fraud, a malfeasance which involves government contracts. This is identified as the most common and most lucrative form of corruption in Nigeria. It includes staples such as unnecessary contracts procurements, unqualified or untrustworthy contractors which mooted Failed Contracts Tribunals in the Abacha era. This fomented manipulation, conflict of interest non performing contracts. Contract fraud is the big elephant of Nigerian looting today. A contract is awarded to a fake company, mobilization paid but the bidding is never executed. And the contract price is paid, all remaining only on paper. Yet, the commissioner, the governor, the minister and the president echo the refrain: war on corruption with unusual insincerity. Why then the outcry of war on corruption. And indeed, the contractors, the governors and ministers belong to churches and mosques. An example of a cesspool of corruption uncovered recently is the Niger Delta development Commission (NDDC). It involved legislators accepting contracts but never executing them. moreover, revelations from the investigations prompted President Buhari to express regret that some appointees, both in his administration and those of his predecessors have abused the trust reposed on them. Such comment from the leader of the nation indicates the level of the rot in the system. Also, audit queries from the Auditor-general circulated by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) revealed the true situation of things. The NDDC which is so rich that it can transform the Niger Delta to a Dubai if its works were farmed out to international management organizations; awarded contracts to thousands only for the contractors to disappear into thin air, though in reality they live in the neighborhood. Another Nigerian agency of government paid N28 million for the production of 300 copies of a procurement manual that was available free on the internet. Though the Procurement Act of 2007 is of international standard till today, friends of an incoming governor do become billionaires within weeks of his excellency's assumption of office as governor. Thus, the solution isn't in the law, the problem is leadership insincerity since Independence. You cannot give what you don't have. A bad people cannot get good government. However, the solution, if one can be found, lies in building strong institutions and structures. Let the best brains in the land, the Academic Staff Union of Universities devise and implement and monitor hands on due process policy at every level of public life. In addition it should enthrone a strictly disciplined, no exemption enforcement of the Treasury Single Account instrument. Such a process is the routine practised in internal procurements in the international oil industries and international organizations such as the UNO, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The system cannot be breached from the chief executive to the director of finance. In such institutions, punishment for infractions is swift. By the same token punishment for any red flags in Nigeria must be swift and severe from the minister to the messenger, without any sacred cows. Which is why we're waiting for the outcome of the Justice Ayo Salami Panel investigating the suspended Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Whichever way it goes, the fact remains corruption cannot coexist with economic prosperity and national development. Time has come for us to stop the wanton looting of the public treasury in Nigeria. We therefore condemn the brazen looting of our commonwealth by the political class. it is presently breaking Nigeria and might eventually destroy the country. Buhari must show commitment to his avowed crusade against corruption by rededicating himself to transparency in high places and by abstaining from nepotism.

How insecurity undermines SME growth By Bayo Ogunmupe In far away Bangladesh, Mohammed Yunus taught us how we can grant prosperity to our beleaguered nation. Bangladesh, a nation of 161.6 million people which got independence from Pakistan by revolution only in December 1971was lifted out of poverty in 1983. Yunus, that year established the Grameen Bank that granted loans to the poor without either collateral or interest. Fueled by the belief that credit is a fundamental human right, gave soft loans to develop small and medium enterprises which lifted Bangladesh to the prosperous middle income group of countries. Yunus, an economics professor noted how credit had lifted Europe and North America into prosperity. Through the Grameen- like micro-lending more than 100 countries worldwide have liberated their peoples from poverty and want but excluding Nigeria. As banker to the poor, Yunus was the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Peace. he has received numerous other awards for his creative ideas and endeavours, including the World Food Prize in 1994. Sadly, Nigeria is deeply into social unrest, to the extent that many call it full scale war with Boko Haram in Borno, Yobe and Taraba and with bandits in Sokoto, Zamfara, Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa states. Now, insecurity has caused the Beekeeping Extension Society to move the production of honey from Kaduna where full scale religious war is going on at the moment. The production of honey has been moved to Kano, Gombe and Bauchi states. The representatives of the UN in a press statement announced that it spends $1.5 billion yearly on the humanitarian crises in Nigeria. In the first half of this year, bandits have killed 1,126 villagers. A commissioner on the Federal Character Commission form Taraba state Alhaji Abubakar Armiyau, attributed insecurity to injustice in the polity. Herders and farmers have clashed at Orire Local Government Area of Oyo, rendering agriculture impossible to be practised, leading to food scarcity in the future. More than 78,120 farmers abandon farms in Borno with bandits abducting a bride and nursing mother in Sokoto. All these led the former minister of Agriculture and chair of Arewa Consultative Forum, Chief Audu Ogbeh to enjoin North to make peace among themselves or they will lose the North.This unrest has created palpable fear among farming families across the country, providing a major obstacle in the way of the agrarian masses in Nigeria. Upon the outcry, Nigerian troops just expelled terrorists in Toto Local Government Area of Nasarawa State with 410 suspects surrendering and bomb- making factory destroyed. Meanwhile, most rural dwellers in Nigeria, especially those from the North where these killings are taking place, are predominantly farmers. So, the most pervasive economic activity is being put on hold. Then, there are the bandits, a uniquely Nigerian terrorist group known for precision attacks even under curfews and lockdown. We can see internally displaced persons all over the place, where women use their bodies to beg for food and men and children are ravaged by malnutrition. We are victims of Nigerian terrorist groups who have taken up arms against the state. When insecurity destroys the livelihood of a community, its inhabitants die twice, first, they lose businesses which are the means of their livelihood, second, they physically die. Thus, internally displaced persons are waiting for their second death. Sadly, we are still running a country where people bestowed with public trust cannot be held to account. And this is where internally generated revenue grows from, without reference to its sources and how the collection impacts society, despite this being a trending index of good governance. Which is why SMEs are dying. Internal revenue officials are making life a living hell for small businesses. It is definitely wrong for a country to persist in conducting governance in this manner. Insecurity, be it communal or religious as in Southern Kaduna, have a negative impact on small and medium scale enterprises. It also has a deleterious effect on every level of economic activity and the most vulnerable among individuals. This is why public policy cannot just focus on physical reconstruction of conflict invested zones, but also focusing on the restoration of the economy of the area. Indeed, insecurity has driven many entrepreneurs to racketeering and organized crime or becoming accessors to bandits as a result of bad government policies. The implication of the above is that entrepreneurs who have expended their wealth in order to increase it, become poor and dangerous to the society if policy isn't directed to the common good. Indeed, insecurity is exacerbated, when rent seeking, which is usually the case of ineffective policy design and application, becomes the main driver of private enterprise, as it is in Nigeria of today. Presently, Nigeria uses ineffective institutions to curb such tendencies, which is why insurgency festers. despite concerted efforts to stop it. However, where personality cults determine the nature and direction of public policy, effective institutions are hard to build. But sold institutions are essential in directing the course of development in making sure economic agents behave in set order. The toxicity of public policy, often evident in zones of conflict, is responsible for the thriving of low entrepreneurship supporting the enemy. This is due to a lack adequate lending necessary for high investment to curb insecurity. This analysis of the present state of insecurity in Nigeria, and even the Covid19 pandemic has been largely at the macro-economic level. Growth projections and the incipient recession, inflation and unemployment are the implications of inappropriate policies. The impact of insecurity and the destruction of the middle class in the rural economy is yet to be appreciated. Recently, some states approached the federal government asking for money to shore up security in the states, in spite of amplifying their tax collection to boost resources. Sadly, rural tax is evidence of insensitivity to the plight of the rural poor worsened by the ravages of war. Government tax policy that ignores the negative relationship between insecurity and war inspired bankruptcy is the handiwork of neophytes. Taxes are for the living. A special tax policy should be evolved for the rural dweller in time of war or unrest. According to Amnesty International, so far, bandits have killed 1,126 and abducted over 400 Nigerians in seven states of Northern Nigeria. That meant so many thriving enterprises have been wiped out. Unfortunately, we are still unable to identify those behind Boko Haram, the killer herdsmen and the bandits with out DSS, NIA, NPF, DMI, and the Defence Intelligence Agency. Rebuilding broken bridges serves no respite without knowing the identity and the location of those who broke them. With some two term governors disclosing that they met ethnic cleansing in their states, it may well mean we are facing premeditated unrest in the country which we are loath to unravel.

Subsidy removal as panacea for economic prosperity By Bayo Ogunmupe, The most important lesson Covid19 pandemic has brought to the fore is the evil effects of subsidies on the Nigerian economy. After decades of corruptive spending, called petroleum subsidy by the Federal Government of Nigeria, it finally bade good bye to the ignoble policy, albeit unwillingly. The decision to jettison the policy, was due to the crisis precipitated by the slump in Nigeria's crude oil earnings. Though a most sagacious decision, petroleum and electricity subsidies were removed at a most inopportune time. The timing was wrong because it is in a period of corona virus pandemic when half of the adult population is unemployed. More so, the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress is contesting the governorships of Edo and Ondo states. The federal government has just given the opposition party the ammunition with which to win the election. But Nigeria, being a pre-literate society may not vote for the opposition which this unwise political decision portends. Subsidy removal ought to have been decided and executed last January, given the oil glut nigeria is experiencing then. In the circumstance, the subsidy removal ought to have been postponed till January 2021 in deference to the election. This government has left the economy primeval for too long, leaving the economy comatose since 2018. Though subsidy removal was inevitable, we commend President Mohammed Buhari for taking the courageous decision which every President had been loath to take for decades.Sadly subsidies have bred corruption and held us back from industrialization and economic prosperity. Such policies as petroleum and electricity subsidy, the creation of the National Youth Service Corps and a proliferation of ministries, departments and agencies have retarded Nigeria's growth. Such evil policies have rendered Nigeria unstable and insecure. For example, we know that political stability is a precondition to economic prosperity, according to their book 'Why Nations Fail', Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, argue that politics and economics interact in causing poverty or creating prosperity. However, the authors put politics first because while economics creates prosperity, it is politics that determines which economic policy to adopt. Thus, we must avoid making mistakes through formulating bad policies. Nigeria's preference for loans as against private capital investments is holding us back in generating economic growth and prosperity. Using loans to generate development builds expensive infrastructure, excluding mechanisms to recover costs. lacking understanding of how to generate growth in a market economy, it strangulates thriving industries to death. Using loans to fund growth, militates against inclusive trade. It forces government to shut borders, imposing import substitution in an economy where it is cheaper to move a container from Indonesia to Lagos than it is to move goods from Apapa to Abeokuta. Earlier this year the federal government secured a facility from the World Bank. The $750 million loan was for the ailing power sector. The condition for the loan is that government must stop subsidizing power and ensure tariffs guarantee commercial returns. But government has spent over N380 billion on electricity subsidies in 2020 so far; after bailing out operators with the princely sum of N1.7 trillion since May 2015. Since 2015, government has been burning over N1 trillion yearly to subsidize petrol while defunding healthcare and education. It maintains a dizzying number of workers to manage the business of the importation of refined petrol. Yet it spends a fortune paying the bureaucracy managing the three petroleum refineries that are even unable to produce enough petrol to power their own generators. From February 2020, Covid19 forced the closure of factories and airlines, causing the demand for oil and gas to crash. Prices fell providing the opportunity to remove oil subsidy completely. Instead of walking away, government dithered to fix oil pump price, announcing the end of subsidies. Though subsidy is untenable today as it was in 2011; then, $9.3 billion was spent in subsidizing imported petrol. This represented about 30 percent of our expenditure; 40 percent of GDP and 118 percent of the capital budget. In comparison, education got $2.2 billion; health-$1.32 billion and works : infrastructure $680 million. Sadly the Buhari that was swept to power on the wave of popular discontent over corruption still kept corruption laden subsidies. So the decision, though poorly timed to abolish subsidies augurs well for economic justice and prosperity for Nigeria. However, in order that our shameless leaders may not slip back through the back door, the removal of subsidies must be backed by law. Also the policies of keeping the refineries should be abandoned. The refineries should be sold out. However, government should retain 30 percent ownership in the refineries in order to ensure they're not used against the nation. Buhari has just borrowed a leaf from President John Atta Mills of Ghana who bowed to the inevitable by removing subsidy, arguing with all humility tat "subsidizing fuel is not sustainable and removing it is the right thing to do, so we can sustain our fiscal consolidation." Hopefully, organized labour wont go on strike the way they seduced President Umaru Yar Adua to revoke the sale of 51 percent equity stakes in the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries to the Bluestar Consortium for the sum of $721 million. Thanks to the dastardly broken Nigerian economy that cannot continue the subsidy regime, the government has done the only rational thing left: doing away with the subsidy. However, there is one more subsidy that needs to go. This is the foreign exchange subsidy. It has now supplanted fuel subsidy. It is worse than fuel subsidy in that it only subsidizes the rich passport holders who enjoy the pleasures of medical tourism abroad. Now, it is the largest source of corruption and the pilfering of Nigeria's commonwealth.

Achieving economic recovery after Covid19 pandemic By Bayo Ogunmupe The Great Reset of the World Economy will stamp out organized financial crime. The World Economic Forum teaches how to achieve a clean economic recovery that combats organized crime. Sadly, criminals have adapted to thrive in the economic environment created by the pandemic, exploiting the crisis to weave themselves into the legitimate economy. In the event of prosecution, only 2 percent of criminal assets are recovered. Obstacles to recovering criminal assets need to be removed so that ill-gotten gains can be repurposed for the good of society. A starting point would be to improve public-private sharing of financial information to fight financial crime across borders. This quick criminal adaptation undermines the economic recovery and will weaken public institutions. Given that money laundering is the engine of organized crime, if access to money laundering services was removed, criminals would not be able to make use of their profits. This offers a good lever to stamp out organized crime. The following recommendations from the World Economic Forum- supported coalition offer national economies how to tackle organized financial crime. The European Union (EU) has launched an Action Plan for a comprehensive policy on preventing money laundering and terrorism financing, to address the issue. The plan can support an economic recovery that works for citizens across the globe, rather than lining the pockets of international criminals. The timing of this Action Plan is the recognition that financial crime is pervasive and weaving its way into a larger number of economic sectors. At the start of the pandemic, European Police demonstrated in the ‘Catching the virus: cybercrime, disinformation and the Covid19 pandemic’ that cybercriminals were using the pandemic to target communities. Recent reports from the Interpol show this trend is global. Analogue criminals are ruthlessly exploiting new industry needs created by the pandemic with devastating effects on the wellbeing of societies and individual citizens. Thus, the fallout from the pandemic is the weakening of economies, and the creation of new vulnerabilities from which crime can emerge. Economic and financial crime, such as various types of fraud, money laundering, intellectual property crime and currency counterfeiting, is particularly threatening during this time of economic crisis. Unfortunately, this is also when they become most prevalent. These economic downturns create opportunities for crime. While a recession entails hardship for the legitimate economy, criminals are well placed to exploit the desperation of others. Lack of accessible loans and capital puts companies under financial pressure and can leave them vulnerable to infiltration or takeovers by criminals. In times of crisis, personal and public finances must be protected. The proceeds of bribery, corruption, fraud, narcotics trafficking and other organized crimes have all been implicated in the financing of terrorism, human rights abuses such as slavery and child labour, and environmental crimes such as wildlife trafficking, that have potential to trigger another pandemic. This has serious economic and social costs in terms of lost revenues to national exchequers that could be invested in social development, and in terms of the impact on individual lives. While many governments are responding to these threats, we are not aware of any actions or policies being put forward by the Federal Government of Nigeria in spite of the invasion of the country by Boko Haram guerrillas and bandits. For the EU, the Police has created the Financial and Economic Crime Centre to enhance Europol’s operational support to EU member states, forging alliances with public and private entities for tracing, seizing and confiscating criminal assets in the EU and beyond. The economic crime centre also relies on initiatives from Europol Financial Intelligence Public Private Partnerships. The latest Future of Financial Intelligence Sharing research paper charts the global growth of public private partnerships to fight financial crime. In recent times, there has been phenomenal growth of such partnerships throughout the world. Public- Private partnerships between law enforcement, regulated financial institutions, data providers and civil society organizations help identify criminal assets. They accelerate speed of asset seizure, preventing criminal funds from infiltrating the legal economy and damaging society. Since criminals can operate internationally with ease, Nigeria has to sign law enforcement protocols with police forces of her neighboring states to stop illicit flows of money being used to destabilize her. We know that cross-border partnerships of police forces, financial intelligence units and government agencies can thwart criminals. Europol’s Financial Intelligence partnership is a leading example of this. Cross border partnerships need to be sourced , Nigeria should take steps to improve the effectiveness of cross border information sharing including the use of privacy preserving analysis if she will ever overcome banditry and Boko Haram insurgency ravaging the country. It is the proceeds of oil theft and illegal mineral resources mining that are being used to finance insurgency in Nigeria. Information sharing holds the key to combating terrorism. Its value is beyond data. It fosters better discussions and understanding of risks by all involved and result in a real proactive and joint work on cases that protect citizens. Information sharing also enables you to recognize the complexity of combating financial crime. The pandemic has opened the door to new crimes. The digitization of retail banking, for example has created new vectors for fraud. Also, the implication is that money laundering can trigger the winding-up of a bank under the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive, allowing criminals to buy out a bank. Finally, financial crime knows no borders, therefore, Nigeria should protect herself by signing information sharing protocols with her neighbors.