ABUJA (11)

Dear Abuja, aren't you in panic like Zaria, Awka?
I bring you saltwater shake, warm
For while men slept, #Ebola flew by night

*Poem was inspired by the recent 'salt water bath' rave which left Nigeria stricken and confused on the cure and prevention of the deadly Ebola virus

Aboki And The Rest Of Them All

As usual, I woke up one other morning, and picked up my career defining noise-making habit on twitter from where it left me off, when I sprawled on my bed and dozed off the night before. Not that I have a set schedule or agenda, but noise naturally comes to me, so I'm able to easily make them. And today, it was about derogatory words used on each other by Nigerians. Of course, the #Haiku, #OOMF and #Soliloquy hashtags will come along, sprinkled on the timeline before the end of the day, usually away from dedicated time for #EventWorthAttending, and other business-based tweets. It happened that I stumbled the ability to educate, entice, stimulate, inform and sensitize those who have given me the honor of a follow, of diverse issues, brands, products and what-have-you.

This country ehn? It is big. We are so big that my native Niger has 300 documented tribes, yet even most Nigerlites can only identify as few as can be counted on one finger. And so, when I hear that Nigeria comprises 350 tribes, I give off a sarcastic chuckle, as I known that the oyibo who did the counting, must have evaded 'mosquito-infested areas, and promptly rounded up the numbers.

Well, #ThatsNoneOfMyBusiness. The idea today, was to make noise to a level that I could start engaging people in long exciting conversations, and it wasn't long until my timeline went burst in flames. An added humor of threatening to block everyone who used the words on me, promptly brought succor to the recalcitrant whom every now and then, seek satisfaction in seeing me hurt like some 'overlords' whom rather than drinking ice-cold water, will rather block or engage in twitfights. That was how one handle died a natural death. Well, I mean, after dissing Yoruba boys (and most of what the handle said, were usually true). Anyways, RIP @Songhainese. Not the 'Kendra' behind the handle oh, but the handle.

So, the aftermath of it all was that I learned -- yet again, of more derogatory words used on Nigerians by Nigerians, and the apparent disunity, reference to Nigeria's 'major' tribe brings. I blame whoever categorized Nigeria across tribal lines, with Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo as major. Anyways, by the time it was 11am, aguru/ebi/yunwa dawned, and I trudged off my bed in search of breakfast. Thank God I found bananas in my neighbor's fridge, for the rest now, is history.

ABUJA (10)

Abuja, thy wetness amazes me...
See how Father Sky slips into you with ease?
Not a whimper of winds, lightening or thunder.

ABUJA (9)

Abuja is wet again
My bed is never spared
Whenever her demons are here again.

Localization of Search and the Proliferation of Mobile

My penultimate assignment in the course Understanding Media by Understanding Google on Coursera centered on the localization of news, books, politics, heroes, etc based on the convenience of generation Y and Z, to easily access them on their mobile. Thus, because a lot of people today are finding it harder to let go of their mobile devices (%75 of Americans are with their phones for up to 20 hours daily), there's that debate whether if peering in to phones in the middle of a task, is beneficial and deepening that original task because the person is engaged; or it is a distraction from the original task, because the individual is bored. Find my argument below:

Owen Youngman posits, that the new "local" will no longer be defined by physical attributes, but by convenience and ease or the use of less effort, especially in accessing news, or relevant information via digital media; albeit the ease that comes on our mobile devices. However, more than often, because we feel that "local" can go around with us in our pockets, mobile could begin to define "multi-tasking". I disagree with this growing notion, therefore, I opine that if someone instinctively and repeatedly picks up a mobile device to consume media (or conduct Google searches) while engaged in another activity, he/she is bored and seeking to be distracted from the first activity.

Before completing this assignment, I had not totally taken a look at all relevant course materials for the week, because I had a hashtag conference project, and had to do the reports before the end of the financial year, today. Thus, moving from one article, to watching Joe Kraus' video and then unto Youngman's seemed like a man seeking for answer from all materials at the same time -- "multi-tasking" like Joe Kraus said in his video. However, after four hours of that plus taking breaks to look at my tab, reply tweets, watch some Mexico vs Netherlands battle it out in Brazil, I had just written the first paragraph of this assignment, albeit, with the other assertion that "I was being engaged, and seeking to enhance and deepen the first activity".

But there could not be any better example to buttress my point than my own very experience, because after taking 45 minutes out to read Nicholas Carr's "Is Google making us Stupid" and another 20 minutes in keenly watching Kraus' video, I am now able to drop the report writing for my assignment, knowing that I'm not really multi-tasking,but distracting myself from accomplishing either tasks. Thus, because I feel that switching from one article to the other could quickly help me reach my answer faster, achieving "efficiency" and "immediacy" like Mr. Carr writes, results in me achieving nothing in the end.

The conclusion is that I have had to abandon the report for my assignment, and I'm glad to say that after 2 hours of reading and watching the course materials, I didn't only get better grasp of the question, I am able to complete my assignment before deadline, after which I shall now pursue my report writing in earnest.

The Googlization of Everything- Good or Bad for Books?

Recently, I enrolled for a course, Understanding Media by Understanding Google on Coursera andmy first assignment was to put up a write up. less than 350 words, explaining whether the digitization of books is good or bad. This is what I thought: 

The golden age of books “…was slow to take shape, suddenly glorious...”[1] but certainly not over. Perhaps the age of glamorous bookstores and museum-sized commercial libraries – built on rigid capitalist business models – is but, “quickly over”[2]. [What happened was that] the nature of the product expanded.”[3] This paradigm shift, has not just affected news, or newspapers or books. It has affected everything. Digital media explosion is changing the panorama and how we do things.
Thing is, the rules have changed. Today, “customers are in charge”[4]. People are eager to delve in to the new world of advanced technology, and their needs are increasing by the day. Digitizing books by google is good, because this means that a book sat in a New York or Milano Library but relevant for a researcher in Colombo, can now be available for rent or purchase within minutes. Thus, “instead of an economy based on scarcity, today’s is based on abundance”[5].
It is however, bad for Unions (who are said to 'dig holes' in the pocket of authors unnecessarily) and large bookstores – which have initially caused a dry up of local ‘indie’ libraries – as this affects their business models. With advanced technology and the interconnectivity that it affords, “people can find each other anywhere and coalesce around you or against you”[6]. And it is these people whom it has coalesced against, that Eric Thomas was referring to, when he said, “We’ve never been able to see what the Internet adds, we can only see what it subtracts”[7]. “It’s [perhaps then] tragic that the Internet hasn’t destroyed our tendency to paint with such a broad brush”[8].

[1] Warsh, D. "The Golden Age of Newspapers: A Short History," 8/12/2013, http://www.economicprincipals.com/issues/2013.08.12/1528.html

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

Where's His Dream Gone?

I have a brother
Gone away with the winds -
Jos, where he tickled the skies
And dwelled between warm jaws.

We - the house and I will loathe
And curse his luck, his fate
For with lofty dreams they yoked him
And ushered him like a sheep.

Don't they slay on mountains high,
Sheep for wanton sacrifice, worship?
His blood mingled with a multitude
Dreams, nightmares, fantasies.
As they merried between boulders.

Sadly, when his blood let go,
His identity went with it in the wind;
Didn't you see the whirlwind above the hills?
Stirred by the wrench from beneath?

A thousand rains are now lined,
Father sky will blot the trace
Then his blood will cry
From beneath the soil where his dream went.

JOS

Dear Jos, of three scars whipped...
I heard, tore into your back again.
My darling, who'll save thee?

WHAT DO BABIES DREAM OF?

What do babies dream...
Of? lily petaled valleys
And flowing cisterns that water them?
Of streams that in ensemble,
Sing to the forests, and
Calms the pupae that spins the silk?
Of a land plush in panorama
Cast in front of a sinking sun,
Red, tired and a reminder that life's in a circle?

What do babies dream of?

OUTSOURCING NIGERIA'S YOUTH

I recently signed up for the Budget 2014 Jam with the Minister for Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, an attempt to get young people involved in the budget process of the Federation. It is an all inclusive virtual interaction. I wrote up a post, which I intended young people to deliberate on. Kindly find the post beneath. I hope you will find time to sign up, and join in the discussion. It is about Nigeria, outsourcing its youth, amidst youth bulge and increasing competition for limited jobs.

"Nigeria has an abundance of youth. In fact, based on the recent UN Youth report, which highlighted youth bulge and a lacking strategy by governments in Africa to come with the sudden rise in youthful population amidst dwindling jobs, amount hugely to restiveness and conflict in Africa.

However, while lots of Africa countries suffer from a seemingly educational gap between the older generation and the youth as regards modern realities and paradigm shifts, Nigeria has taken the lead in the opposite direction. Our educational institutions might not be the best around, but some youth manage to get decent enough education to compete averagely with their international peers. Most recently, private hands have taken the issue in their hands, and even though a part of government budget is still assigned to scholarships, private sector funding in seeking overseas education for Nigeria's young population is massive.

By private sector, I mean parents, guardians, corporate sponsorships, and massive remittances that in 2012, accounted for more than Foreign Direct Investment, in AID trickling in to Africa. Today, Nigerians seek education all over the world, to stay abreast with the ever increasing competition for millennial jobs, and jobs of the future.

However, the growing gaps in neighbors, mean that they continue to suffer conflict, and these conflicts will threaten the peace and sovereignty of Nigeria. In years past, there has been a Corps Programme for professionals to live and work in selected countries in Africa. While I will argue that these professionals are best needed back in Nigeria to support in nation building now that there is massive inroads with infrastructural development, I support a programme where Nigerian youth are encouraged to take up short term job opportunities in other countries, in selected sectors, including education, development, medical services, transport and maintenance, manufacturing, etc; as are required in building the skills and regional understanding of the Nigerian youth.

While work abroad experiences have been proven to contribute massively in developing managerial and leadership skills of young people including their adaptability to new cultural and work environments and understanding how to manage culture shocks, the experiences become massive once these youth return home to Nigeria, where the experience they have gained, help them fit in seamlessly in to vital sectors of the economy, including social enterprise.

Like the internship positions with the various international organizations like the International Financial Corporation, ECOWAS, African Development Bank, etc, I believe developing a Youth Work Abroad Scheme will provide a means for young Nigerians to have a first travel experience, understand culture shock, and adapt to increasing changes in the atmosphere and demands of the work place."

Follow the thread here