A Decision I Once Took

I started an affair with Facebook last month and was thrilled and amazed at the number of friends i had lost contact with that i was able to meet there. I was still basking in that euphoria when i accidentally saw one of the few remarkable people i met in the university. I couldn't help but go down memory lane and i smiled, i wondered and i smiled again. I smiled because i remembered.
A couple of years back in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, i had just won the Student's Union Presidential elections against all odds. I had to choose some competent hands that were going to work with me in the Presidency and of course, i had no problems filling all the positions except one.
Who was going to be the Attorney General of the Student's Union Government? A position that was so sensitive and so coveted that every senior law student worth HIS salt could do anything to have it. As i did not have to search on Yahoo or Google, i had only the law faculty to choose from, i consulted with some bright minds around me and


at the end of a very conscious and meticulous assessment of the most likely candidates; i was forwarded with a list of four names. I was to choose one from among the four but since i wanted the best, i had a very serious problem staring me in the face. It was either i went for the best and faced the consequences or i compromised for less.
I settled for the best of the best but it was decided that i had commited an abomination and thus emerged a conspiracy that finally took roots in the Student's Union House of Assembly; eventuating not only to the non ratification of my candidate for the AG, but to my impeachment. I stood my ground and kept telling the House, the opposition and whoever cared to listen that it was going to be the candidate i presented or nothing. The political weather was tense and the impasse went from days to weeks and before we knew it, it had gone to a month and still counting.
The qualifications and qualities of the my candidate that were like some unbelievable lyrics to the ears did


not matter to the opposition. They insisted that what i wanted had never been done and would never be. What was my candidate's crime? Her sex! My little known candidate was a girl and nobody probably saw the strength of either Sarah Pallin or Hillary Clinton in her. She fitted perfectly into my maps for a successful leadership and so, i refused to bulge on my decision and eventually, the power of superior arguement won and the House ratified her position and Ada Okwor became the first and only Attorney General of the Student's Union Government of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.
I smiled and wondered what it felt like then and i smiled yet again as i looked at her picture on Facebook.
Merry Christmas to you.

Obama Vs The Nigerian

I love the Nigerian spirit; the spirit to identify with and appreciate good things and good tidings. Such has been exhibited in all nooks and crannies of Naija as Barack Obama became the first black and the youngest president of the US. It was unbelievable but it happened through the tenacity of purpose, dream and doggedness of this young man. I’ve heard calls for us to replicate the Obama phenomenon in Nigeria. To believe in our dreams and make them happen. How can we do this when we don’t even have a Martin Luther King? The Nnamdi Azikiwe that we had has had his ideals buried and reburied because they do not have room for personal aggrandizement but rather, to build a better indivisible Nigeria and the rest that tried to Martin Luther us to greater heights had their voices shut before they became clarion calls. We shouldn’t judge Nigerians too hard especially, the younger ones. Obama has made history; there is no doubt about that but nobody has really made mention of the fact that he grew up in a society that has met the BASIC NEEDS of her citizens, a society that prepared and equipped him for this epic battle, a society that doesn’t expect to be praised for providing BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE like road and electricity, a society that respects the socio-political aspiration and rights of her younger generation and women and it wasn’t out of the ordinary for them that Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin- a state governor made their marks as presidential and vice presidential contenders respectively. Our first female governor via a miscarriage of law was celebrated for God sakes! Young Nigerians dream and they dare. That's the reason you have not experienced total anarchy in our beloved country. They are taking chances that are not allowed them and they are surviving. I never knew we were even ready for a Speaker as young as Bankole. We will continue to dare and we will also make history: that's the soul song of the Nigerian youth. 

As we call for our people to emulate the Obamamania, our government should also see his society and circumstances such as quality education, provision of basic infrastructure and the likes, a situation worthy of replication in Naija.