Be inspired

The whole world watched the London 2012 Olympics and made it the most watched event in history and whilst the UK suceeded in exceeding its Medal targets for the games and inspiring a generation, Nigeria suceeded in breaking our hearts, bruising our ego and tongue-tied.

However, as a people we are used to disappointment so it doesn't matter how much the olympians or our government break our hearts, we will keep striving for the best and that could never have been done better than any group of people other than our Paralympians. They are currently excelling in London 2012 and have indeed won more medals than any Nigerian Olympic or Paralympic team. Good job folks.

If you guys have not watched any of the paralympic events, I urge to go ahead and watch at least an event and I promise that you will never have been inspired like that before.

Personally, I don't do sport or any other form of physical activity except that I recently started working on my abs and body. However, watching the paralympics has moved me to tears and has made me question and re-evaluate so many things about myself and mostly to challenge my aquaphobia and actually learn to swim.

Aside from the Paralympians, over the last one year, I have been inspired by an amazing woman named Moira Kelly. Thinking about her life makes me cry sometimes and sometimes it just motivates me to live selflessly. Moira Kelly is the humanitarian who gave life and hope to Emmanuel Kelly and Ahmed Kelly. She is also the Legal guardian to Bangladeshi twins who were conjoined in the head at birth. Emmanuel Kelly was a X Factor Australia contestant who Yoko Ono praised for a beautiful and emotional rendition of John Lennon's Imagine and his brother Ahmed Kelly is a Paralympian Australian swimmer with no limbs who came fourth in the 50metres breaststroke SB3final.

Moira Kelly is one of those women who have given their lives to charity and humanitarian causes and the fact that she has given life to these 2 amazing human beings who are doing great exploits has moved me andhas given me some direction in life.

I encourage you all  to google Moira Kelly and read a little about this amazing gift to her generation and you can watch Emmanuel Kelly's emotional performance here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W86jlvrG54o make sure you have tissue with you though.

Be inspired people and try to change your world however you can.

Much Love,
Tola Elesho

Follow me on twitter @tolaelesho

NIGERIA AND THE IRONY OF ITS DEMOCRACY.

Am sitting here trying to put a write up on Nigeria and I find different emotions running through me from bewilderment, disdain, anger to that of fear. At a time when nations are progressing despite the multitude of problems facing them, Nigeria is retrogressing faster than any other nation under heaven.

Since I have had knowledge of my surroundings and particular my nationality, I have known that Nigeria has never been a safe place to live as armed robbery and the likes displaced families and marred that season with their actions. Years have gone past and we have moved from that face of armed robbery to greater issues of terrorism happening within our borders and to establishing a democracy that is an irony of itself.

Looking back at my teenage years, all I can ask myself is "How did our Nigeria get here?" At some point in our national history, people were imprisoned for their social activism and political affiliations but these days, people are murdered on a weekly basis for their religious beliefs and I wonder when it became a crime to practise Christianity in the Northern Nigeria. I thought freedom of religion was a fundamental human right guaranteed by the country's constitution..maybe I am wrong. I also used to think that though our tribe, tongue and religion may differ, we would stand in unity and even though our leaders may be robbing and playing us for fools, we will all stand together. I guess am wrong as usual.

One of the primary reasons why the U.S and UK Armies are present in Afghanistan is to protect its citizens from terrorist acts as we all know that if these governments do not tackle the said terrorism, Britons and Americans will be more susceptible than ever to terrorist attacks. Whist power starved and/or drunken individuals keep fostering terrorism in the country, our dear government has decided to take these issues in its stride like those dying are not its citizens and the government is sending troops to Guinea Bissau in an attempt to play the big brother like our own security is not enough for us to deal with.

I have seen a trend in GEJ's government, which makes extremely apprehensive of Nigeria's future and indeed the so-called democracy we have. I have also been forced to ask myself if we weren't better as a nation under the Queen's government than we are now. The question then becomes, Has independence done us more good than harm? I may be young, naive, un-intelligent, not properly schooled or even lack the finesse of a skilled writer/observer, but I am yet to see the benefits of Independence and/or democracy.

During the peaceful protest against subsidy removal by the GEJ government, I watched with shock as GEJ dispatched army officer's to ban Nigerian citizens from exercising their human rights. Also, in more recent times, GEJ announced the change of name of UNILAG to MAULAG and the news did not go down well with at least 80% of the Nigerian population, which resulted in protests by the students of the institution and an uproar from a considerable number of alumni and other well meaning Nigerians.

Like the previous time, GEJ's government announced that it will not rescind its decision and after the Nigerian populace had educated the government that the purported name change was void ab initio, GEJ and his cohorts sent a bill to the senate, which was unanimously passed.

These two events stand in my heart and makes me question what Democracy means to GEJ and his Senators, I thought "...it was a government for the people" and if government decision was unpopular, it will be reconsidered and most likely rescinded because power lies with the people.

However, it has finally dawned on me that GEJ might just be another Bashar Al-Hassad who got into government with a fake and properly doctored popularity and who once the populace demanded re-instatement of civil rights, political reforms, end of state of emergency and some other measures of accountability turned on the said populace and has up till date killed about 14,000 Syrians with violence.

It seems to me that if Nigerians had continued the protest against subsidy removal or protest against any government policy the Army would also be used to suppress Nigerians as done earlier and if need be open violence on citizens to get the desired result.

I sincerely hope this does not become the plight of Nigerians and I also hope that the spate of bombing does not move to other parts of Nigeria and whilst it becomes a thing of the past in Northern Nigeria.

Not trying to be an unpatriotic citizen with my reasoning in this post and particularly with Nigeria's independence just trying to analyse issues objectively.

p.s. On the Farouk Lawan and Femi Otedola  saga, I never knew Nigerians could be so comical.

Yours Always,

Tola Elesho

Integrity will preserve us as a nation.

While we were celebrating yesterday with the Queen of the United Kingdom on her Diamond Jubilee reign over the country, news filtered in at around 3:43 pm of a Dana plane crash in Nigeria and the news has since saddened our hearts, brought tears to our eyes and indeed changed our lives.

The realities of the world we live in is that there is no integrity in the hearts of men and particularly Nigerian office holders. From the news that has gone around, it has unfortunately been confirmed that the Dana Aircraft that crashed and killed all the passengers and crew members on board has a history of having faults in the past few weeks and beyond that, a history from its manufacturers and previous owners (Alaskan Airlines).

In July 2011 News of the World became involved in a phone hacking scandal and  in the wake of the allegations, the Chairman of its Parent company James Murdoch announced that due to the increasingly damaging allegations against the paper which are shocking and hugely regrettable, the paper would be closing down. It is rather noteworthy that at the time the Chairman made the decision, they had not been indicted by any committee or court but the organization took responsibility for its actions, closed its 168year old business with integrity and tried to right its wrong.

In 2007, a Chinese national named Zheng Xiaoyu, who was the Director of the Republic of China's State Food and Drug Safety Administration was executed for accepting bribes in return for approving medicines with deadly side effects.

Last week in Ghana, while a march was on at the National Stadium, there was a power outage, which affected the stadium and the Regional Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana was instantly fired for the lights out.


It is rather unfortunate that "someone, somewhere" certified that Aircraft air-worthiness and allowed its commercial usage in Nigeria's airspace and they are yet to take responsibility and vacate office neither has the president sacked or asked someone to resign.

We do not want our leaders to cry, we need some of them to vacate office and allow competent individuals to take the position.

I need everyone who thinks public officers should be held accountable and who agrees with me that Nigerians do not need to die needlessly because of people's negligence and failures to go and sign the petition on http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/call-for-resignation-of-the-director-of-ncaa-and-the-ni.html

Thank you all,

Tola Elesho.

Paying tribute to the one and only M.K.O Abiola

M.K.O Abiola was a popular Nigerian from the yoruba ethnic group and he was known in his lifetime as an aristocrat, successful businessman, publisher, social activist, politician and most of all a philantrophist who supported the causes of human needs and social development. Even in death, Abiola's legacy speaks for itself and it is a pity that his businesses have not lived on and just like every other Nigerian entity, they die in their prime and have never succeeded a generation but I sincerely hope this jinx will not affect the new generation businesses and corporations.

M.K.O Abiola is mostly known by my generation as the man who won the 1993 Presidential elections in two-thirds of the states in Nigeria and even won the election in his opponent's (Bashir Tofa) state. That election has been declared by both national and international observer's as the freest and fairest election that has been conducted in  Nigeria. However, as fate and my countryman Gen. Ibrahim Babangida will have it, he annulled the election and in other series of events, Gen. Sani Abacha took over government and imprisoned Abiola on grounds of treason. Whilst Abiola was detained, the international community lobbied the Nigerian government for his release, and his release was premised on a condition that Abiola should renounce his mandate which he refused to do. Consequently, Abiola died on suspicious grounds while in prison on the day he was due to be released.

It is a great idea to honour and seek to immortalise such a man who had the morals to stand, and died for what he believed, in a society where we have gone bankrupt in character and morals. However, the problem with this strategy is that neither the day he won the elections nor the day he died has ever been declared as a public holiday by the federal government. The federal government has also not erected a statue in honour of M.K.O as done in honour of Martin Luther King (Jr) by the United States government. Every year, Martin Luther King is honoured and celebrated by his countrymen for his service to the nation and in my opinion, this is what the Nigerian government needs to do.

Renaming a great university like The University of Lagos after him will only, set back the only university that can rightly be tagged "The only pride of Nigeria". It is not only sufficient to say that the university has succeeded to build its name, brand, goodwill and standards, but it has given Nigeria its greatest products. Renaming the university will only set it like a 100 years back and I honestly hope that the legislators will not amend the Act seeking to change the name of the university.     


Moreover, let us not forget that there is already an educational institution in the south-west named after this icon of social activism. Also, there is M.K.O Abiola Park/Gardens and M.K.O Abiola Stadium in the south-west. It therefore brings to my mind that renaming a south-west university after Abiola seems to relegate the man to being an icon for the south-westerners only to the exclusion of other parts of the country to whose mandate the man believed and held onto till his death.


I believe that since it is 'Democracy' we are celebrating, then the voice of the masses should matter and this renaming...ish will be boycotted and laid to rest.

p.s. Mr President, we are waiting on you to tackle other substantial issues which affect our livelihood and live the mundane things alone. The dead will bury the dead.

Ciao,

Love you all.

Tola Elesho

Hey you all,

First of all, a big thank you to everyone for reading my blog. I see the statistics and it is mind-blowing (makes me really happy). I appreciate your time and I will like you all to get more involved by clicking on the "join this page" link to the right hand side of my blog, post comments and in coming weeks I will give opportunities to people who want to write on different issues to do their write-up on my blog. Thank you all again and do not despise the days of humble beginnings.

Ok people, there are several issues affecting us as individuals and citizens of particular countries that I want to talk about and "Accidents in Nigeria" is one of them. Some people may wonder "what is the purpose of discussing this on my blog" but the truth is that I made up my mind a long time ago not to live in regrets and/or to keep complaining like everyone else does but rather contribute my quota to human development. So to everyone in a place of authority in Nigeria or to that Special adviser or that member of the legislature or that person aspiring to get there, here are tips on what you need to consider.

It is a known fact that statistics are not readily available in Nigeria and even where they are, you cannot trust those statistics as evidenced in the disputes following the last country wide census. However based on what I have been able to gather, Out of 193 countries, Nigeria has been ranked second highest in fatality rates arising out of road accidents and according to the Nigeria's Health Minister, out of a 100,000 Nigerians, 162 are lost to road accidents and like every other thing that puzzles me about Nigeria, it is still not properly regulated.

A family friend of mine died recently in a car crash and the police officers informed my brother that he was driving drunk and I am still amazed at how the officers arrived at that conclusion when they obviously do not have any equipment to test if he was driving under the influence of alcohol. I think it would be useful to Nigerians, if police officers at road blocks had breathalyzer's and they could administer alcohol level test on driver's and for that to happen, we need to set the acceptable standard of alcohol consumption for driver's.

If am not asking for too much, I guess Nigerian police officer's too should be able to determine the driving speed of driver's on streets, one carriage ways, dual carriage ways and highways with the necessary devices.

To tackle this issue, Nigeria needs to utilise other transportation options and move from just motoring to other forms of transportation which had always existed, whilst ensuring safety. As usual, the different legislative houses need to review our laws(they need to be compatible with this age and time) we need to stop living in the 60s and 70s.

To everyone reading, determine to be a part of the solution and not the problem, "Do not drive under the influence of alcohol".

You all should have a great day and more thoughts coming.

p.s. to those in the UK, what are you all doing for the Queen's diamond jubilee (please invite me for street parties n bbqs)

Cheers,

Tola Elesho

To lawyers and others, take a decisive action today!!!

Hello Everyone,

How has your week been ? Still on the last topic of discussion NIGERIA: MY DEAREST COUNTRY and our attitude/ what we are doing to make the situation better.

One of the reasons why America is one of the sanest places to live is because of the high rate of legal actions against government, corporations, private persons and the correlating damages been awarded by the courts.

As a people, we need to hold the Nigerian government (State and Federal) more accountable through the law :  the next time someone dies in an accident caused by a parked/broken down truck on the highway lets sue the government...when someone trips on the road for a pot-hole which the government ought to fix and has a broken leg or whatever just sue the government. When the government pays out large chunks of money in legal actions, then they will take decisive actions about some of these issues and regulate them. We can even sue the government over failure to protect its citizens with the ever increasing bombings of Boko Haram. the law provides for different avenues of holding the Nigerian government accountable and we just need to explore them.

This goes out to the lawyers and others who have the wherewithal to sustain my proposition, take up a case that you can hold the government accountable for some of its failures as a Pro-Bono case and to those who have the wherewithal, pay a lawyer to sue the government today for some of the failures.

I know my idea seems a little bit far-fetched, but we need to do something and while we fold our arms in silence because danger is not near you, remember the more people it gets to, the closer it gets to you. Remember that judges have children and relatives that have been killed by some government inefficiency and they are counting on citizens to do something.


p.s. I drafted this post a week ago and i just heard Fashola sacked 778* doctors *(figures not confirmed by me) for embarking on an industrial action. This is appalling and I wish we all can assert our rights and make this power drunk officials accountable.


Cheers everyone,

Tola Elesho

Nigeria, my dearest country

Ok everyone, one of the issues that is on the front burner and personally affects me is that of Nigeria...yes I know that has been an issue of all times and I know that people have trashed and discussed all the issues that affects Nigeria but what puzzles me about it is that we all are pointing fingers and no one seems to be  doing anything. However little it be to change the plethora of issues and decadence affecting us.

For starters, I want to encourage everyone, particularly the young Nigerian adults to kindly stand for what is right. According to Rosa Parks, "Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today's mighty oak is yesterday's nut that held its ground" If there are any issues confronting you in the workplace, your home or anywhere for that matter, try to do what is right. This is a battle I fight everyday of my life and it simply isn't easy but the truth is that the longer you stand, the easier it gets (I know that sounds like an irony but it is the truth).

Make a difference in your workplace starting from today and let everyone know you as the truthful and honest colleague.

To those who are determined to continue in the rot and loot the country when they get the opportunity to, I promise you that we will get there as a nation and when we do, we will be putting you behind bars.

Have a good day people.

Much love,

Tola Elesho

Hello everyone,

I know its been like ages that i was here last and i am so sorry for going MIA. Its just that life keeps going in cycles and sometimes makes it difficult for you to keep up with everything around you.

Have been through the good and the bad this past months, got engaged, in and out of jobs and currently searching for another but the only constant thing is God's unchanging love and grace.

Am happy to be back and i hope to keep the fire burning. To those who encouraged me to come back and keep the posts coming particularly Kemi Oyatoye, thanks abunch and you all will hear for me soonest.

Sure it has been a good week for you all as it has been for me.

Cheers for now,


Tola Elesho