ADETOKUNBO ABIOLA

WHY AFRICANS EMBRACE MOBILE PHONES

2011-03-10T11:09:00.000-08:00

By Adetokunbo Abiola

Not unlike Europe, Asia and South America, Africa has embraced mobile phones as an important communication device. According to research by RNCOS Industry Research Solutions, the number of mobile subscription in Egypt will touch ninety million by the end of 2012, with penetration exceeding 100%, comparable to Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Ghana clocked fifteen million subscribers recently, with the number expected to rise. Nigeria added a whooping 22 million mobile subscribers in 2008, with the level of penetration exploding. Even in tiny Rwanda, according to its technology minister, Romain Murenzi, cell phone revenue will reach $1 billion by 2012. Similar development takes place in Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and others. A report from the London Business School stated that over the last few years Africa has witnessed faster growth in mobile telephone subscription than anywhere else in the world.

More surprising is that much of the development is because mobile phones are applied to innovative tasks on the continent. In the last few years, South Africans in Western Cape trigger their supply of electricity by using text messages on their phones. Vodacom Tanzania subscribers pre-pay for their electricity via a mobile payment service. Ugandan handyman Jackson Mawa bought a solar-powered mobile phone to cope with unreliable electricity supply.

Much of the explosion in mobile phone users can be attributed to other innovative uses such as cash transfer, commodity price monitoring, weather forecasting, health research and medical diagnosis. In Ghana, MTN introduced Mobile Money in partnership with nine banks to provide people with a way to transfer money through mobile phones. In South Africa, Wizzit, a cell phone banking facility, evolved a system where customers can use any cell phone to deposit cash into their cell-based account in any post office, branches of Amalgamated Banks of South Africa or the South African Bank of Athens. In Zambia, Celpay allows businesses to pay for services and receive payment via mobile phone accounts. In Kenya, M-Pesa, a joint product of Vodafone/Safaricom mobile phone company, the Commercial Bank of Africa and Faulu Kenya, a microfinance organisation, allows for deposits and receipts of money through phones. In Rwanda, MTN, like in Ghana, introduced a mobile phone money transfer service. "The service has been quite successful in its uptake," said the Head of MTN Mobile Money in Rwanda, Albert Kinuma.

Africans use the phones for interactive purposes. In Uganda, people spend almost $600,000 last year to send greetings to their friends and relatives over the Christmas/New Year season. In some countries like Zambia, Ethiopia and Namibia, households devote as much as 10% of their income, compared to 3% in developed countries, to communicate with friends and family members through mobile phones. According to Synovate, a research company, South Africans, not unlike Europeans and Asians, save their contact information, birthdays, addresses, photographs and others in their cell phones and cannot live without them. ”With mobile phones, you also have the opportunity to be more interactive," said Andries Lombaard, Synovate's Clients Services Director.

Though low income and poor telecommunications infrastructure keep many Africans from using the internet through the computer before now, cellular protocol technology letting mobile networks offer inexpensive internet access is changing this. Internet protocol allows phones route all types of calls, whether they be voice, text messages, or mobile internet surfing sessions, as small packets over the network. According to MTN, around 80 to 120 million Africans, attracted by this last year, accessed 3 G mobile, many of them never having used the internet for web surfing and/or e-mails. To drive mobile phone internet usage upwards, MTN slashed data transmission costs in South Africa in April, reducing the cost of one megabyte of data from $8 to $0.33. MTN plans to cut the mobile data costs for users of its network in other African countries it serves, including Swaziland and Nigeria.

The growth of mobile phones can be attributed to another factor - mobile advertising. According to InMobi, an ad network, mobile advertising acceptance is highest in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world. InMobi's survey, done in partnership with Digital Marketing Intelligence Agency and ComScore, also found, after 2,500 customers were interviewed in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, that Africans are among the most progressive in the world when it comes to mobile advertising. . "With advertising space shrinking in Zimbabwe newspapers," wrote Stanley Kwenda, a Harare-based journalist, in Mail and Guardian, "companies are making use of SMS to advertise. Their advertising has become one of the most lucrative businesses in the country for the thousands seeking to flee the country."

To remind patients to take their medicine and warn them if they are about to make a mistake, a doctor in South Africa, David Green, developed a cellular-enabled pill bottle. The Rwandan Ministry of Health unveils a new technology using mobile phones to support public health. IntraHealth International launches a partnership to provide mobile phones to African health workers who offer maternal and child health services, safe deliveries, obstretic consultations, HIV prevention and treatment.

Other major users of mobile phones are farmers and fishermen. According to New York Times, farmers in Niger Republic use cell phones to find out the market that gives the best price for their products. Amos Gichamba, a Kenyan, created a text message-based system allowing farmers to query dairy companies so they know how much farmers can charge for their cow milk. Many fishermen in Zanzibar, according to a BBC report, now carry mobile phones while they are at sea, using them to check market prices.

Just as internet connects large areas of China and India, mobile phones do the same in Africa. It reduces the transaction costs of financial services for the poor, especially those who do not have access to banks in the rural areas of Rwanda, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. City dwellers send money to relatives living in rural areas` through the same process. "Users do not need to have a bank account to use the service," said Carl Ashie, a mobile phone specialist at Zain, one of Africa's leading telecoms companies. South Africans often paid couriers the equivalent of $30-50 to deliver cash to relatives, now such transactions cost only $0.50 through mobile bank networks. "The greatest impact is in rural areas," said Beyers Coetzee, a rural community officer for Wizzit.

As in Asia, Europe and South America, the phones appeal to the need for expression and individualty among the younger generation. According to many surveys, people use them as alarm clock, camera and instrument to download music. According to a research by Synovate, almost a third of South Africans send and receive e-mail through mobile phones while 46% use them for internet browsing. Synovate research found out the phones are also used for social networking, instant messaging, video viewing and, to a much lesser extent, watching television.

Nowhere in Africa is the use of mobile phones more prevalent than Nigeria, which has the fastest growing mobile phone market on the continent. In Lagos, a megalopolis of 18 million, their use is as common as in New York or Mumbai in India. Sales of mobile phones have soared, and it seems everyone is tied to them in one way or the other. Everybody has one - people in public transportation, private vehicles, on the streets, in restaurants, etc. They are talking 24 hours a day. "It has really enlarged my business," said Mabel Ogunleye, selling crates of soft drinks and dealing with a customer on phone. Other parts of Nigeria experience the same phenomenon. Market women and bus drivers are not left out. Both the young and the old are in the game. "We're all connected and fully integrated into the information world, thanks to GSM," wrote a Nigerian blogger. "If your thing is mobile phone accessories and you're looking for a ready market, Nigeria is it."

Not just in Nigeria alone. The number of mobile subscribers in Rwanda hit 2.6 million in a country of 10 million, and the figure is projected to rise this year. With rapidly improving mobile infrastructure and intense competition among operators, the number of consumers will grow by 14% between 2010 and 2013 in Nigeria. The number of mobile subscribers in Kenya will grow by 15% between 2010 and 2013.

Businessmen and ordinary people are so optimistic about the mobile market they plan big for the future. Wizzit hopes to reach 16 million South Africans in a country where some 60% of the population do not have bank accounts. David Bangirana, a village leader in Uganda, sees potential in using a network of community leaders armed with mobile phones to educate and collect key data in remote places. Celpay, Safaricom and MTN are convinced the mobile telecoms sector has changed the lives of millions of Africans, catalysed economic development and strengthened social tires. "It means unprecedented, substantial change for ordinary people," said Lauri Kivinen, head of corporate affairs for the Nokia Siemen network.

Still, questions remain about the ability of mobile phones to catalyse development. Despite their prevalence, critics say the extension of mobile phone networks and services in recent years have been 'sub optimal'. Jenny Aker and Isaac Mbiti in Boston Review argue the promise of economic development in Africa cannot be realised merely by the use of mobile phones. Other questions concern universal access; inadequate investment in physical, financial and human capital and refusal of cell phone banking facilities to give credit to their customers. But these have not debarred Africans from buying into the industry. Like other continents, Africa's patronage of mobile phones cannot be easily overlooked, and it is indicative of a brave new world where people still find a way to forge ahead.

MOBILE TELECOMS: Why Africa is Experiencing Growth

2011-02-16T03:18:00.000-08:00

By Adetokunbo Abiola
Though Africa remains at the very frontier of emerging markets, the expansion of its mobile telecoms industry sometimes surpasses growth elsewhere. A report from the London Business School stated that over the last five years Africa has seen faster growth in mobile telephone subscription than anywhere else in the world. The continent's mobile phone use during the period increased at the rate of 65% annually, about twice the global average. Africa is reported to be the first continent to have more mobile phone users than fixed line subscribers. The continent is rated as the fastest growing mobile telephone market, faster than in the economies of India and China.

Much of the boom in the industry is driven by a burgeoning domestic market, the largest outside India and China. Although a modest middle class made up of government workers or others tied to the ruling elite has been present on the continent, it expanded in recent years with private sector employers. This growing segment of the African population is upwardly mobile, low-to-middle income consumers. The new class could number as many as 300 million, out of a total population of 1 billion, according to development expert, Vijay Majahan, author of the 2009 book Africa Rising. It includes secretaries, computer gurus, teachers, journalists, lawyers and others who by virtue of education, geography or luck have benefited from economic growth of 6% annually in such countries as Ghana, Uganda and Kenya and around 8% in Rwanda. According to Bloomberg Business week, the household spending of this class and others in Africa totaled $860 billion in 2008, more than that of India or Russia. What's more, Africa's consumer markets in the last few years grew two to three times faster than those in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.

The growth in Africa's telecoms industry can be attributed to other forces: trade liberalisation, strengthening the rule-of-law, improved legal and support institutions, better governance, improved transparency, better transport and economic reforms. At least 17 countries have broad-based privitisation programmes in place. Some 25 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa transferred all or part of their telecoms ownership from the state to the private sector. Countries that privatise such as Ghana, Mozambique and Uganda attracted significant foreign direct investment, allowing profits to be repatriated freely or offering tax incentive and similar inducements to foreign investors. Often changes are deliberate and domestic. Inflation has been cut by half to 11% since 2001. "Most importantly, we've seen regulatory changes and this begins to open up a door to long-term investment," said Obiageli Ezekwesili, Vice President, African Region, World Bank.

Despite Africa’s reputation for sit-tight leaders, pointless wars and corruption, a substantial chunk of the continent is experiencing change. Many countries embraced democracy, freedom of speech and political reforms. Spurred by their citizens, African governments, like in China and India , deregulated the telecoms sector and developed infrastructure – gone are the days of central planning and public sector-driven growth strategies. The political situation reflects a free flow of information and a parallel rise in expectations. During Kenya ’s recent political crisis, members of the middle class, who were losing money, reportedly pressured the country’s warring leaders into a compromise. Change has translated into boom for the telecoms sector.

Urbanisation has increased at the same time, making Africa a potential source of substantial consumption and production in the years ahead. Today 40% of Africans live in cities, a portion that is close to China and continuing to expand. This segment of the population accounts for 80% of the total GDP, according to UN Centre for Human Settlements. Apart from this, the continent already has 52 cities with population greater than 1 million - equal to Western Europe - and is projected to add 32 by 2030. One in five of the planet's young people will live in it by 2040, and it will have the world's largest working-age population. Already, the continent boasts of the world's highest rate of urbanisation, which jump-starts development and growth through industrialisation and economies of scale. McKinsey and Company estimates that over the last 20 years three-quarters of the continent's increase in GDP per capita came from expanding workforce and higher productivity. As in countries such as China, India, Brazil and Mexico, urbanisation created jobs and increased demand for telecoms goods and services.

Not surprising is that urbanisation is also lifting income and fuelling consumption. According to Bloomberg, the number of households with discretionary income has grown and is projected to expand by 50% over the next 10 years, reaching 128 million. While few African households have the kind of disposable income found in Asia and the West, they are driving up demand for goods and services, particularly mobile telecommunication products. For instance, while households in developed countries devote only 3 % of their income to telecoms use, those in some African countries such as Namibia, Ethiopia and Zambia devote as much as 10% . Though unemployment is high and something needs to be done, the surge in private consumption of telecoms products seems likely to continue.

According to a study by a World Bank program, the Africa Infrastructure Diagnostic, improvements in African mobile telecoms infrastructure have led to growth. Nowhere is this relationship between infrastructure and potential growth more apparent than in the multimillion-dollar Glo 1 submarine cable being laid across the West coast of Africa between Nigeria and the UK. Having a length of 9,500 kilometres and a minimum capacity of 640 Gbit per second, the submarine cable is set to rival the South Atlantic cable (SAT-3), which has been enjoying complete monopoly in the West African sub-region. The arrival of the submarine fibre-optic cable will boost bandwidth, cut costs, and stimulate businesses that rely on technology. "Africa has been able to leapfrog from having the most backward system to taking advantage of the latest technologies," said Vanessa Gray of the International Telecommunications Union.

Many experts believe growth is also driven in part by the fact few Africans own computers or can access the internet. So mobile phones are applied to tasks such as health research, cash transfer, weather forecasting, commodity price monitoring and others. Often users themselves conceive such adaptation of the intended functions to meet everyday needs.

Safaricom, Kenya's biggest telecoms company, is one of the firms cashing in on Africa's mobile telecoms boom. Incorporated in 1997, it had only 20,000 subscribers when its chief executive Michael Joseph arrived in 2000. By Nov 2010 when Joseph left the company, its subscribers base grew to 20 million in a country of 40 million. Its peers are now Pan-African giants such as Orascom and MTN. Its 2008 initial public offering became the biggest flotation on an East African stock market, and surpassing it may take some doing. It posted $262 million in profits at the end of its financial year in March 2010, attracting investors into the Kenyan economy.

Econet Wireless is another company that cashed in on the remarkable growth of the mobile telecoms industry in Africa. Founded by Strive Masiyiwa, it began operations as a cell phone provider in 1998 in Zimbabwe. It soon expanded its operations into Botswana by establishing Mascom Wireless, which is one of the spectacular success stories of the African telecoms sector and currently enjoys a market share of over 70%. Econet Wireless then put together a consortium that later dominated MTN in the Nigerian market before winding up its operation. Econet Wireless has expanded into such countries as Lesotho, the United Kingdom, Kenya, Burundi, New Zealand and several other countries.

As a result of all this, Africa's mobile telecoms growth story cannot be easily overlooked. The continent's telecoms revenue increased at a compound annual growth rate of 40% in the last few years, achieving the highest profit margin in the industry worldwide. Swedish-based world's leading supplier in telecommunication, Ericsson, benefited with sales soaring up to 400 million Euro this year alone, its highest ever sales. With recovery in Western economies still looking fragile, Africa continues to be the destination of choice for firms seeking expansion and growth, as countries such as China, India, Japan make forays. Telecommunication firms signed up more than 400 million subscribers since 2000 - more than the total United States population. For example, Nigeria added over 22 million mobile subscribers in 2008. Though the level of penetration in Africa went up from 0.8% in 1998 to 33% in 2008, ample room exists for more foreign direct investment.

While many experts believe Africa, with its expansive base of consumers, may very well be on the verge of becoming the next India and China in the telecoms industry, challenges remain. Alison Gillward, Director, Research ICT Agency (RIA) said: "The extension of networks and services in recent years have been 'sub optimal'" Other problems include inadequate governance arrangement, corruption, absence of institutional capacity and some regulatory incompetence. To be sure, there remains serious problems and risks to growth to any individual country, but if recent trends continue, Africa will play an increasingly important role in the telecoms industry. Like China, India and Brazil, countries getting all the headlines for their prowess in the telecoms sector, Africa has the potential for more growth in an industry that aims to bring the continent's widely dispersed people in closer contact with one another.

Of Agbada, Babanringa and Other Matters

2010-12-06T11:27:00.000-08:00

Of Agbada, Babanringa and Other Matters
By Adetokunbo Abiola

Everybody wants to wear suits and ties. Bankers, teachers, businessmen, lawyers,
managers – they all believe in the craze of moving with the latest in Western fashion. If
you do not believe in it, you are cast away like a leper – and they’ll say, as my teacher
used to say, "He doesn’t belong."

This craze for suits and ties is becoming too much. The other day, I went to the park
where people boarded buses for Lagos. Lo and behold, I saw an Agbero (a motor-park
tout) wearing suit and tie. He was strutting around as if he worked in a first generation
bank, unaware of the contradiction of his situation. What has gone wrong with our
people?

Even Okada riders (commercial motor cyclists), like people who have taken too much
local gin, have adopted this dangerous and alien fashion. I saw one of them last Sunday
(his plate number was OD 2561 A) wearing a coat torn at the armpit (yes, torn at the
armpit!). If my father rises up from the grave and sees this, he’ll say: "What is Nigeria
turning into?"

Suit is not part of Nigerian culture. The same thing applies to jeans, ties, shirts, skirts and
others. When we wear them, we become Judases to our culture, and a traitor to our
tradition. It is time we turn away from forty pieces of silver.

Why am I talking like a town crier who has drunk too much palm wine? You see, like a
thief in the night, Christmas has crept on us once again (did the last one not seem like
yesterday?), and we have to buy clothes for our children, brothers, sisters, wives, aunties
and friends; if not our children’s children, our brothers’ children, our sister’s husband or
our sister’s grandchildren.

We should forgive ourselves for the mistake we made last Christmas. We did not know
the implications when we bought those symbols of Western civilization for our
dependants. We were misled, like men dazzled by too many beautiful women, and we
acted in error. This Christmas, we have the chance to act like Barnabas on the cross, and
our sins will be forgiven. In essence, we must celebrate Nigerian culture and fashion.

I know the question you want to ask – what do we mean by Nigerian fashion? I mean
fashion created from materials like lace, jacquard, Ankara, Adire (my personal favorite),
"tie and die", Aso Oke, George, Hollandaise, Akwete, Nigerian wax, etc. They are unlike
those bought from America and Britain; they do not make us sweat like fowls in the
afternoon. After we buy them, they make our wives say to us: "Darling, I’ll cook sweet
ewedu soup for you this afternoon."

For those of you who don’t know – I mean non-Nigerians reading this piece – men's
materials are styled in the following pattern: a wide-arm, flowing piece of clothing; a loose-neck shirt; pants or trousers and a cap. The Hausa man calls the combination Babanringa. The Yoruba man calls the wide-arm piece of clothing Agbada, while the Hausa man calls it riga. Both of them call the loose-neck shirt Buba (pronounced Boo-bah) , while the Igbo man calls a variation of it Isiagwu. The Yoruba man and the Hausa man call the pants Sokoto, while the Igbo man calls the
variation of it Akwa.

Mention must be made of the Agbada or riga . The first type (according to our
classification) is called small Agbada, the second medium Agbada , and the third big
Agbada. As the name suggests, small Agbada is not very big. It is worn by thin and
skinny men, and fat men who want to look slim. Medium Agbada is the average type. It
is for those who are not thin or fat.

The last, big Agbada, is not only the largest, but it is worn by all manner of very
interesting people. The first among them are important men such as kings and chiefs,
using it on important occasions such as funerals and weddings. The second are those
seeking political offices. It makes them look extremely powerful and ‘majestic’, and they
can fold their garments like Very Important Personalities (VIP).

The third users are those who regularly attend Owambe parties. It makes them stand
out among a multitude of people. The fourth are extremely fat people. It hides
their big bellies so young girls won’t know how fat they are. The fifth are thin and skinny
men who want to look rich and powerful. They are rumored to pad their bellies with
pillows, belt them up and put on the big garment.

Beyond the Agbada and Buba, we have the informal Danshiki (men's shirt), used by both men and women. The Danshiki and Buba differ in that the former is boxy and baggy with a straight bottom, while the latter is fitted with a curved bottom,or baggy with a V-shape bottom.

As for caps, the Yoruba man calls it Fila or Abeti-aja ("eye of a dog" in English translation, a triangular-shaped cap). The Igbo man calls his matching cap Opu Ogudu. It is rare seeing a traditional Igbo man without his cap (some say more rare than a leopard without its spots).

Irrespective of what materials are used, the fundamentals of a Yoruba woman’s apparel
are four. They are Buba (a blouse going a little below the waist), Iro (pronounced E-roo,
the bottom part of the outfit that goes to the ankles), Gele (pronounced Geh-lay, a
matching headpiece), Iborun or Ipele (an extra scarf piece) and Kaba (a one-piece dress).

Mention must be made of the Gele (no Yoruba woman will tolerate any man who
trivializes her Gele). Indeed, the Gele is a crucial element when the Yoruba woman
wants to dress. Some people tie Gele for a living. Some photographers feed their
children through Gele. For the person who ties Gele and the wearer the moment of truth
is when others see it. The only barometer for further contractual agreement is how much
the wearer is admired by other women. If the person wearing it is admired by all and
sundry at a party, the person who ties it is guaranteed a ‘meal ticket’ for a long time to
come. If the contrary happens, the person who ties it will never be forgiven.

Some people go as far as say love alone cannot guarantee the Yoruba woman marries a
man. What does the trick is how much you admire her exquisitely tied Gele. That is why
Lagbaja, the masked musician, sang praises of the Gele in a hit album a few years ago
(yet some women say his praises were not enough!).

When it comes to the style of Gele, it depends on the fabric used, the shape of the head of the woman and face type. A style that fits a person may not look good on another. This is why customized Gele, like a customized car or customized wristwatch, is stored in
special places, ready for use at customized occasions where Yoruba culture is exhibited
(and there’ll be many of such occasions in the fast approaching Christmas).

However, after a Nigerian woman dresses up, other things are added (these are the salt
and tomatoes added to soup to make it tasty). In other words, women, to portray our
culture, need to make their hair. A typical Yoruba traditional woman weaves her hair into
styles such as Adimole, Suku and Shade, as well as makes tattoos on her skin (Faze, the musician, did not know what he was singing about when he said Nigerian women do not have tattoos).

The accessory of women from the Edo tribe includes the lavish use of beads, called Ivie,
on their bodies, with a wrapper tied around their breasts and waist. Tiv women, apart
from wearing dress made from fabric called Anger, Viav, and Tyo, also weave and thread
their hair. The local fabric makers, like good wine, become experts at making these
fabrics with time. The Igbo woman not only plaits her hair with thread, she uses
traditional make-up (Uri, Angele and Uhe) to beautify her face.

Generally, wise husbands, to prevent World War Three with their wives and a breakdown of law and order at home, obey a simple law: "Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give women hat belongs to women."

The importance of dressing in Nigerian fashion cannot be overstated. Is it an
overstatement to say it impacts on national unity?

I will tell you how. From experience, when we wear Buba, Kaftan, Agbada, Danshiki,
Agwa, Isiagwu and other assorted clothing of the ethnic tribes in the country, we are
slapped at the back, accepted by people who wear these styles and catcalled. If all of us
do this, will it not promote unity and oneness than contraptions like ‘federal character’,
football, ‘zoning formula’, ‘even development’, ‘quota system’, the National Youth
Service Corps and all other what-not?

There is another reason why we should go traditional this Christmas. When we wear a
Euro-American two or three-piece suit, or put on blouse and a skirt, no matter how smart
the clothes are, nobody bows down for us. As far as Nigerians are concerned, we are a
lost lizard (a white man in black man’s skin).

When a Nigerian puts on a Kente dress from Ghana, or a Boubou from Senegal or
Guinea, or a Blousa from Algeria, no matter how smart and rich he looks, his
countrymen will give him only little respect, perhaps just half a bow. As far as they’re
concerned, though he has identified with Africa, he has still lost his way by not wearing
a Nigerian attire (hence the half- bow).

But when we put on an Agbada, Isiagwu or Babanringa, and we have just a little money
to spend, everybody will bow down at least eight times for us. Some people will add an
‘extra ration’ of respect by prostrating and rolling on the ground. As far as they are
concerned, we are the ‘sons of the soil’ (men of ‘timber and caliber’ who, like wise
philosophers, respect the culture and tradition of the people).

Pop culture and folklore demonstrate the importance of wearing Nigerian clothes. Thanks
to Nollywood films, we know dresses such as Akwa, Isiagwu and the Opu Ogudu play
vital roles in Igbo culture. In a musical sequence titled Akwete, Sir Victor Uwaifo extols
the beauty of our traditional cloth material with exciting guitar work.

No doubt, Western fashion is out, what about those of nearby West African countries?
For instance, Ghana’s Kente. I bought one on a recent trip to Accra. Its colours were so
strange in Nigeria, I felt like a fish out of water (may God never let me feel like that
again). The Cameroon Boubou? I saw one on a colleague in Togo. It was as big as the
Agbada, and looks just as impressive. But if I wear the dress, I cannot say with pride:
"I’m a Nigerian." Togolese and Guinean dress? No! I prefer the Nigerian Adire any day.

Can I wear the fashion of other African countries? For instance, the Moroccans have the
Takhita, a two piece ornately decorated dress. It does not have the flow and comfort of the
Agbada. What about the Shuka from Kenya and Tanzania? It cannot protect me from the
heat of the sun. Ethiopia’s Habesha quemis? It does not have the motifs of Nigerian dresses. Somalia’s Sarong? No, no! I want something uniquely Nigerian.

My dear reader, our traditional fashion, like oxygen, is very important in this country. We
win and lose out on contracts because of fashion. We marry or divorce because of
fashion. Even a two-year-old girl, already a professor of our culture, will tell you:
"Fashion makes the woman." Our federal government (yes, our federal government) does
discuss the merits of our fashion and culture every time (and with so much big grammar
– far more than on politics and economics - spoken in the process).

So this is my Christmas message to you. In these perilous times, when our culture is in
danger of going to hell, Nigerian fashion is the answer to cultural survival. But I’ll not
overstate the point like a man who loves speaking too much. Just disregard what I say,
and you’ll discover you’re on your own. We must love our culture and tradition so we
can make Nigeria an enviable place for us all.

2010-12-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

The Power and Glory of Naija Music
By Adetokunbo Abiola

When Peter and Paul Okoye, popularly known as P Square, wanted to push their fourth album titled Danger into the market, they did not go to any recording company for a deal. Instead, they did what they had been doing for years.

They contacted a reputable marketer and struck a 50 million naira deal for the marketing, duplication and the distribution of the album. P Square got a 40 million naira cheque upfront, and the album was in the market.

P Square symbolizes the new trend in Nigerian music. Unlike in the past, the new musicians are cutting million naira deals in Nigeria and Africa , bypassing record companies and government structures. In the process, they have become celebrities and naira millionaires, the role models of many Nigerian youths.

Previously, they were considered drop-outs and rejects because music was not considered a respectable profession. But today, many musicians have braved the odds and now dine with kings, who would not deign to glance at them in the past.

The Nigerian music industry has exploded. The days when investors lost money in the sector are gone. Stereotyped music boundaries in terms of message, genre, instrument and sound have broken down. No matter what genre appeals to the listener, in whatever local language, the Nigerian music brand satiates their taste.

It is largely a story of young men and women overcoming incredible obstacles to display their talent. Some of them were unemployed, while many were underemployed. Some dropped out of school to pursue music, while many went through school and came back to music. Others dropped whatever they were doing in Europe and America and came home, while others dumped professions such as veterinary medicine, law, business and became musicians.

Despite the large number of music recorded in the 70s, 80s and 90s, Nigerians listened more to foreign music, particularly from the United States . This was because foreign record labels like Polygram, EMI and others did not know how to reach the grassroots. However, the duo of Junior and Pretty, emulating Nollywood by using local recording companies and marketers, released Monica, a vernacular rap tune in the late 90s, and things began to change. The Remedies and Plantashun Boyz followed soon after with chart-topping albums, and the floodgate was thrown open. Since then, thousands of albums have been released. All a musician need do is record songs and meet the marketers, who have become kings

Tu Face Idibia, formerly of Plantashun Boyz, released African Queen in 2004 and opened doors for Nigerians on the international scene. Along with him, artistes such as Style Plus, D’Banj, P Square , Faze, Tony Tetuila, Eedris Abdulkareem, Paul Play Dairo, Slam, Ruggedman, Pastor Goody Goody, Black Tribe, Blackface and others recorded hit songs.

The rise of contemporary Nigerian music is a landmark in commercial and cultural terms. The use of pidgin English and vernacular make it purely Nigerian and accessible to the teeming masses on the streets. Musicians like Timaya who are authentic and cultural are in, others like Ras Kimino and others who sound Jamaican are out. Says Blaise (Funke Martin Luther), a singer: “As I’m feeling, that’s how I’ll be speaking through my songs. It’s my story as a woman, growing up in Nigeria , in Africa .”

Many of the new musicians sing about cultural themes. Many sympathize with the ill, the poor and the less privileged in the society. Others extol Nigerian values towards marriage, womanhood and city life. Some promote good neighborliness and denounce negative tendencies such as witchcraft, ill-will and prostitutes. Others celebrate Nigerian and African pride and heritage.

Nigerian music has however been criticized for not having an established method of production and distribution. Marketers have offices in Surulere, Idumota Market and Alaba Market in Lagos , Onitsha and other cities. Recording companies bring studio work from all over the country to them and are not responsible for marketing and distribution. This is why Efe Omorogbe, spokesman for the Nigerian Music Industry Coalition, says: “The system has failed to structure itself in such a way that people are compelled to pay musicians.”

But a Nigerian-born South African based filmmaker/musician, Tosin Igho, says the marketing and distribution problems does not mean the situation is hopeless. He says: “The Nigerian music industry is far better than South Africa in terms of making money off your music. They have better structures in South Africa , but they favour record labels, and it is not profitable for artistes.”

The impact of the Nigerian music industry in the past few years has been dramatic, and thousands of singers, session men, producers, marketers and others have been employed. Ordinarily, these people would have been without work and contributed to the population of militants and criminals in the urban areas and Niger Delta region.

Musicians have used their new-found popularity to pick up major awards. Tu Face Idibia and D'Banj won MTV Europe Best African Acts in 2005. Tu Face also won the best African Musician Award at Britain 's Music of Black Origin Awards in 2007, and was followed by 9ice, another Nigerian singer, in 2008. MI, P Square and Tu Face Idibia won awards at the 2009 MTV Africa Awards.

At the fifth edition of Channel O Music Awards this month at Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa, Nigeria’s General Pype, P Square, D’Banj, TuFace Idibia, Naeto C and Mo’Cheddah mounted the stage six times to clinch different awards. P Square became the African Artiste of the Year at the 8th Kora Awards, going home with the one million dollars.
Most of the musicians make a lot of money from concerts and shows. P Square could be rocking Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania , while D'Banj performs in Accra ( Ghana ). Tu Face Idibia could be in Nairobi (Kenya), Naeto C and Ikechukwu in Johannesburg (South Africa), while musicians like Timaya, Terry G and KC Presh are holding forth at home in Lagos.

With the music industry breeding naira millionaires on a daily basis, the lifestyle of musicians has undergone radical changes. Some have houses in the choicest of places in Lekki Peninsula (a rich neighborhood in Lagos ) and drive luxurious and expensive cars. Others leverage their wealth by owning world-class music studios and offering better deals to assist upcoming artistes.

Record sales, compared to the situation of yesteryear, have shot up. According to reports, P Square has sold an estimated 17 million copies of its second and third albums, Get Squared and Game Over, becoming arguably the greatest selling Nigerian artiste ever. Faze, a former member of the Plantashun Boyz, has sold over five million copies. Artistes such as Timaya, D'Banj, Tu Face Idibia, Eedris Abdulkareem and others have sold millions in record sales. They have all outsold Nico Mbarga's Sweet Mother, for many years the best selling album in the country.

Apart from this, many of the musicians partner the private sector in music and product promotion. Coca-Cola, Globacom, Zain, Nigerian Breweries, MTN, and others use them for billboard advertisement and radio and TV commercials. P Square reportedly got over 100 million naira to endorse Globacom, the telecoms giant. Tu Face Idibia reportedly got 22 million naira for endorsing Guinness Extra Stout a few years ago.

Nnenna Ezeakune, an artiste, sums up the situation: "It's like there's an explosion going on now.”

Despite the explosion in the sector, many stakeholders feel there is no industry yet. They claim the sector is plagued by piracy, promotion and distribution problems, refusal of radio stations to pay royalty to artistes and other challenges. The problems seem so daunting OJB Jezreel, a producer and singer, says: "I think the Nigerian music industry is really growing big and making waves. The only problem is that I'm scared that the blowing up might change a lot of things."

But Lanre Lawal of Blarque Brotha Entertainment and Media is not afraid of a blow up. "There have always been rumours that the Nigerian music household is an ungovernable madhouse,” he says. “With certainty, efforts are on a grand scale to restore sanity on all fronts. You can join the campaign by cultivating the attitude of BUYING ORIGINAL ALBUMS rather than the pirated ones."

Weird MC, who stormed the scene a few years ago with a monster hit titled Ijoya, is also optimistic about the future. She says: "It's evolving into something really exciting. There's more quality than quantity. Artistes are putting out great material."

The gold fishes of Nigerian music, underground for so many years, have emerged from their hiding places, thrilling the world with their teasing and titillating tunes.

2010-10-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

Global Climate Change Comes to Lagos with A Bang
I thought we in Nigeria could ignore global climate change.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m aware of the increased rainfall over the past few years, the shorter dry season, the small span of Harmattan, the uncertain weather. But I still thought global climate change was not a major problem – at least not in our corner of the earth.

Not anymore. You need to witness what happened in Lagos, our commercial capital, over the past three weeks. It’ll make you a believer. Global climate change is real!

What happened. The Ogun River overflowed its banks continuously for two weeks. At first, experts thought it was because a dam on the river collapsed under pressure of increased rainwater. But as the days rolled by, they knew the situation was not as simple as this.

Then how does global climate change come in? Not such a tough a question to answer.

At first, global climate change was not linked to the issue, but investigations revealed it may be part of the problem. Ogun River drains into the Lagos Lagoon. However, the water level of the lagoon had been rising due to global climate change over the years, making it higher than the level of Ogun River. Due to this, water from the river, unable to get into the lagoon, flowed back into the surrounding plain, flooding it.

The result is not pleasant at all (and statistics confirm it).

* Areas such as Ikorodu, Ketu, Mile12, Thomas Laniyan Estate and others flooded, while people, like fishes, swam to their houses.
* Immediate relocation of 681internally displaced persons, including 405 children, by the Lagos State Government (it reminds one of a civil war)
* Over 1,000 people rendered as homeless as broad daylight
* Hundreds of pupils evacuated from schools, while parents, like camels, evacuated from their houses.
* Canoes (yes canoes), rather than cars and motor-cycles, became the means of transportation. * Thousands of men, women and children got trapped in their homes.
* People became afraid of home collapse due to flood weakening the foundations of their houses.

You must have heard bad news begets bad news. Well, same is true in this case. With this effect of global climate change, there were some unexpected consequences. Here is what happened (and you won't find this in any book):

* Because the flood chased away security officials, hoodlums, the new lords of the streets, took over the situation and attacked people in their homes, stealing mobile phones, money and other valuables
* Women trapped by the water at home got raped, as well as innocent girls coming from schools
* Workers who did not come home anything earlier than 8 p.m. (and it is difficult to so in Lagos) stayed outside so they won't get attacked and raped by hoodlums.

Assuming the dam on Ogun River collapsed, global climate change still had a role to play. It increased the water level of the Lagos Lagoon, preventing the water from Ogun River to come in.

The global climate change is real (and it doesn't have to come to your doorsteps before you recognise this). If the effect could happen in Lagos, it could happen anywhere, anywhere, in the world.
The global climate change, when it comes in full force, will have unexpected consequences!

LINKS http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5629200-146/story.csp
http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/news/15993.html
http://thewillnigeria.com/general/6215-Jonathan-Pledges-Support-for-Flood-Victims-Lagos-Ogun.html
http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2010/10/11/lagos-to-evacuate-victims-of-flood-disaster .

Long and winding road
ADETOKUNBO ABIOLA - Oct 18 2010 08:27
(First published in South Africa’s Mail and Guardian newspaper

We had just settled down to enjoy the journey to Ouagadougou.

We were over the bumpy part of the road outside Accra and the luxury bus was air conditioned. But it wasn't the long distance ahead of us that began dampening my spirits. It was the driver.

When he got to a shopping complex near a town called Nsutan -- just 50km out of Accra -- he slowed down, turned off the road and stopped.

I did not know it was common for luxury buses to stop for passengers to refresh themselves during a journey. And even if they had to stop, I felt it was too soon. But the driver and his assistant got down and went into the complex, the passengers following on their heels.

Thirty minutes later, the driver came and announced: "Let's move on."

I was at the beginning of my journey to Ouagadougou to attend a conference of international journalists, which was starting the next morning. I did not want to be late and we still had more than 720km to go.

After the passengers got back into the bus, the journey continued. Buses like the one I boarded abound everywhere in the West African sub region.They are supposed to be comfortable, slow to break down and quick to get to passengers' destinations.

But things were not going as they should have. At Kumasi, 200km from Nsutan, the driver drove the bus to a filling station and stopped once again.

When I asked why he could not just go on, he snapped: "If you're so desperate to get to Ouagadougou, why didn't you take a plane?"

It was clear that this was going to be a tiring journey.

After the driver finished refuelling the bus, we headed for Tamale, a town more than 200km from Kumasi. As the bus crawled on, the driver stopped briefly at Tetina to pick up passengers.

I discovered this was normal practice for drivers along their routes. I wanted to ask him whether the money would go into his employer's coffers but I did not. Like bus drivers everywhere, the driver would oppose anyone who questioned his behaviour.

A few hours after we left Tetina, we encountered another bad piece of road. There were gullies, potholes and loose stones in and on the highway. To cope with them, the driver slowed down.

After two hours on the bad road, the bus got to a transit spot called Sawara in Katanpon, about 96km from Tamale in northern Ghana. The driver, who had been behind the steering wheel for 12 hours, stopped the bus, got down and sneaked into one of the joints in the place.

After 30 minutes, he emerged, refreshed. His assistant took his position behind the steering wheel. This too, I discovered, was standard practice.

Now that it seemed we were making progress I felt better disposed to appreciate the buses. A 40-year old Ghanaian acquaintance told me in Kumasi they had been around since he was a young boy. He told me a luxury bus could make as much as 35 00 cedis (more than $20 00) from an Accra-Ouagadougou return trip.

Our bus was typical of thousands of luxury buses that ply their trade in the region. They provide employment for drivers, ticket issuers, managers, clerks and canvassers, rescuing many young men and women from unemployment in the villages or from perpetrating crime in the cities.

Besides, when the buses stop at transit points, they are besieged by hawkers, who offer passengers all manner of goods for sale. The buses also carry traders and their goods around the region. They provide a reliable, regular service and so boost business.

By 8am we had crossed the border. When we drove into Po, a small town in southern Burkina Faso, the driver slowed down and stopped. He said that armed robbers were fond of attacking buses a few kilometres further up the road. He would not continue unless escorted by policemen through the area.

An hour later policemen escorted us past the trouble spot and we closed in on Ouagadougou, thinking there would be no more problems. But there were -- the bus hit an enormous pothole just before a narrow bridge some kilometres from our destination.

I hit my head against the window, bruising it. But the driver steadied the bus and crossed the bridge.

He stopped the bus at the Ouagadougou International Bus Station at 12 noon, 29 hours after leaving Accra. I was late for the conference, but I nodded to the driver and he gave a thin smile. As I moved towards a street, I sighed. It was the longest journey of my life.Adetokunbo Abiola is a prize-winning Nigerian journalist and author

LINK
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-10-18-long-and-winding-road

2009-08-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

CHAT ME UP
ADETOKUNBO ABIOLA - Aug 12 2009 06:00
As infectious as yellow fever, internet chatrooms are the new Nigerian craze. Students, pastors, politicians, journalists and business people log on 24 hours a day offering cyber-romance or business deals.

Nigerians have wised up to the scamming spammers such as 419 practitioners, the Yahoo Yahoo Boys and the Night People.

Now they're crowding into chatrooms such as Hi Nigeria, nimsanigeria, Online Nigeria.com, UK Chatterbox, Lagosmeet.com and Nigeria Chat Room to look for kindred spirits and do business with them.

For some African women, chat-rooms unshackle them from the requirements of traditional modesty. Shina 247 signed up to Nigeria Chat in April, writing: "I'm a nice lady. Looking for hot sex and fun. My email address is ..."

Sugar-mummy lovers -- young men who can't keep their fingers off the bodies and money of older women -- join in the chatroom mania. One wrote in Online Nigeria.com recently: "I'm a 21-year-old young guy who is looking for a sugar mummy to cater for his needs. My number is ... I am in Ejigbo, Lagos, and I promise to be good to that woman."

Many use chatrooms to express their love for their girlfriends or boyfriends. Analechukwu Nwachukwu, a student, wrote on Online Nigeria.com: "Baby, ur baby boy is missing u so much. Just have it in your mind that I can't do without u."

But it's not all about love or cybersex for Nigerians. Online entrepreneurs use the chatrooms for schemes that aren't quite scams but are close. Tidestring 80 had this proposition in Lagosmeet.com: "I have discovered a new secret that can help anyone browse the internet for free. You can use your MTN card. And as a loyal member of this forum I'll be willing to teach you for free." When you contact him -- as I did -- you'll learn that Tidestring 80 won't tell his secret for free. He wants money.

Chatrooms aren't free of embarrassment, though. A journalist who logged into a chatroom in March was confronted by a fellow Nigerian who wrote: "I'm in Port Harcourt. A u a g?" When the journalist learned that "a u a g?" meant "are you a gay?" he promptly logged off. He didn't know how to cope with a situation he was experiencing for the first time -- meeting someone who admitted being gay.

Adetokunbo Abiola writes for The Hope Newspaper in Akure, Nigeria

Source: Mail & Guardian OnlineWeb Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-08-12-chat-me-up

First published I2 August on Mail and Guardian, Africa's first online newspaper

New Currency of Romance

2009-02-04T02:02:00.000-08:00

(First published in South Africa's Mail and Guardian)

My friend Thomas Alo had two problems. Though he had been friends with Juliet, a colleague, for years, he hadn't had the guts to tell her that he loved her and wanted to marry her. His second problem was that he had refused to buy a cellphone. One day, I sat him down and told him that if he had a phone his problems with Juliet would be over. He asked me how. I told him that he could send her a text message, telling her he loved her and wanted to marry her. He said love affairs were not conducted through text messages.

Later I put pressure on him for a while; he eventually decided to act on my advice and went to buy a cellphone. Rather than face Juliet, who worked in the same office as him, he sent her an SMS declaring his feelings and requesting a date.

Thomas had thought she wouldn't reply, but she did. After three days of exchanging text messages, she agreed to a date. Three months later, Thomas proposed, not directly, but through an SMS. Last December, at the grand old age of 38, Thomas took Juliet to the altar and they were married.

Here in Nigeria, text messages have come to define the nature of romance. Young men and women search for soulmates and marriage partners through radio programmes such as The Matchmakers every Saturday. The host reads on air the SMSes sent in by listeners: "Murphy (30) civil servant, wants a young, well-behaved girl for marriage. She must be between 22 and 24, God-fearing, Benin by tribe, beautiful, dutiful, ready to settle down, 5 to 6ft tall, slim, educated, have a well-paying job and must be a good Christian."

Newspapers are another popular vehicle for lonely-hearts text messages. You can also SMS your love problems to a newspaper's relationships' counsellor for advice.

Young women carried away by the performances of Nollywood actors send their favourite stars hot text messages. Many a Nollywood actor has complained that their marriages are put under pressure as a result of their wives reading the messages sent by female fans.

Greeting-card sellers who once did a roaring trade during festive periods are also complaining because young lovers and friends no longer buy their ready-made love notes, preferring text messages.

SMSes have another, less happy Cupid's role: they provide clues that lovers use to detect whether their partners are cheating on them. Suspicious partners simply pick up their mates' cellphones, which -- unlike old-fashioned love lettersare not hidden or locked up -- and read their text messages.

Others have seen a business opportunity: they write books and pamphlets suggesting romantic words that lovers can use in their SMSes. One such entrepreneur is Femi Emmanuel, who wrote Touching the Heart through Unforgettable Text Messages. A suggested message reads: "H for Happiness, O for Orderliness, N for Natural Woman, E for Everything and Y for Yuletide. HONEY! You're my honey forever and ever."

Still others coin sexy words for text messages, post them on websites and invite people to make free use of them.

A typical message reads: "Did u dream of me touching u last night? … I dream of u here with me with nothing on but our imagination … Can u come over here and give me a good rubdown?"

Some old-fashioned people complain that text messages are transient, too casual and can't be kept. One man told me he still had a love letter his wife sent him 30 years ago. But for millions of mobile-crazed young Nigerians, text messages are the new currency of romance.

Adetokunbo Abiola, a prize-winning journalist, works at the Hope newspaper in Akure, Nigeria

Using Internet to Conquer Poverty

2008-06-30T13:25:00.000-07:00

Nigerians have new places to hangout on the internet. Many no longer visit the net only to browse the profiles of government agencies, the latest result of the English Premier League, and free websites such as Google and Yahoo for information and sundry activities. The young ones are not only browsing the websites of educational institutions to search for admission requirements or to pay the fees which these institutions may demand as a requirement for starting the school session.

The days may be ending where many Nigerians merely use the net to open their boxes to send and to receive e-mails or to contact people abroad in order to swindle them of their hard-earned money through one scam or the other. Many people may be shifting from sending photographs, addresses, and the like to attract foreign women to persuade or trick them into marriage.

The places many Nigerians increasingly visit are thousands of websites dotted here and there on the internet where there may be prospect to make some honest money. They became aware of these websites through seminars, word-of-mouth, workshops, training programmes, and random browsing. These websites are designed by nationalities of other nations, but they are being increasingly being designed by Nigerians who do not want to be left out of the boundless opportunities that are present on the web...

After spending years being indoctrinated on the impossibility of survival without gainful employment, many of these Nigerians are shaking away this dogma. Taking a cue from their contact with others on the net and the stories they hear about the experiences of citizens of other nations, they are seeing the economic importance of the web through honest work.

Statistics are scarce, but there is a lot of evidence to show that the way Nigerians use the internet is subtly undergoing a change as many are increasingly seeing the medium as a means to generate income in order to tackle the perennial problems of poverty, unemployment, underemployment, and other economic problems that afflict a sizeable number of people.

“Sincerely, there is virtually no information that cannot be obtained from the internet,” said Ajila Abitogun, an e-commerce businessman. “Surfing the internet can make you to get a new skill or business opportunity.”

These days a lot of Nigerians are agreeing with him. Those who are not deriving income directly from the net use it as a gateway to be trained to get one skill or the other to enable them to make money. Some others see the internet as a source to get the machinery, the training, the savvy, the information, and the know-how for a purpose which will enable them to generate an income. Still others provide service that enables them to earn an income directly from their knowledge about how the internet was built.

The internet was not always used this way by many Nigerians, who first saw it as a way to dupe foreigners. This led to many youths to visit the thousands of cybercafés that dot the country, contacting foreigners, telling them that there was a large of amount of money to be transferred to their accounts if they were willing to pay some money upfront, invariably duping them when the upfront money was advanced.

But when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) started to raid cybercafés, arresting many suspected to be engaged in cyber crime, clamping them in cells, and releasing them only after paying large sums of money for bail, many started to have a rethink about using the net for cyber criminal activities.

Along with this development, many Nigerians, especially graduates, would spend many years trekking the streets in search of white-collar jobs and getting none. The oil economy that had propelled prosperity in the 70s and the 80s was no longer dynamic enough to absorb them. Their certificates, once a passport to a comfortable middle-class existence, a car and a house, was now irrelevant in the scheme of things. A new approach had to be focused on if the battle against poverty and unemployment was to be won.

"With the help of the internet, I have learnt that so many businesses are in existence which are unique and different from the run-of-the-mill ones," said Abitogun. "I got the idea for my business from the internet. I didn't have to travel abroad. Having made an order for the machines, I paid for the cargo, and it was brought to my doorstep." During the course of investigating this story, this reporter learnt about former office typists, dissatisfied with the amount of money they earned as salary, acquiring the skills to function as web designers and increasing their wages. Graduate degree holders in physics dropped their certificates in their cupboards and engaged themselves in website multimedia design businesses. Unemployed graduates were checking through the career links of online companies for information about vacant jobs and applying for them. Others were attending courses on the internet in order to apply for job slots which needed computing
skills. Still others upgraded their skills through the internet in order to clinch choice jobs during interviews.

Many Nigerians insist that rather than the internet to be seen as a negative medium where hundreds of people are duped of their money, it should be perceived as a means to solve the economic problems of the teeming army of the unemployed. Said Gbenga Ojo, a web designer: "First, I went into hardware engineering. I was doing network and wireless networking. Later, I discovered that I was better in graphic designing and programming and that is what I do now." Another Nigerian, who prefers not to have his name on print, stated that he was encouraged to start browsing through the internet because of the tales he had heard about the job opportunities which existed on it. After four years of browsing and not making any breakthrough, he stumbled on the fascinating idea of using internet marketing to sell products which a lot of people needed. "I bought the e-book for beginners, where I was taught the step-by-step method of how to use the 'forum system' to
discover peoples' needs, create them, and deliver it to them," he said. Instead of abandoning the e-book in one corner to gather dust, he set about using the idea to create products and to market them, and he has been in that line of business ever since. Others traced their present positive outlook of the net to the fact that they were able to get connected to online outsourcing websites, where they operated as programmers by writing articles for internet marketers, online companies, website owners, and others. Said Tunde Adebimpe: "I write for scriptlance.com on a regular basis. People who have projects for execution send them out so that we programmers can bid to do the work. The successful programmer in the bidding process gets to do the project. I have been doing this for some time now." Some other people visit the internet to search the database of online companies for vacant jobs and apply for them. Said Okonkwo Emmanuel, a manager of a company:
"In 2004, I heard about Jidaw and I enrolled. After the A+ computer and network engineering training, I became a professional techie. I then applied for a job on Jidaw's career link. The interview was conducted online, and I was the only successful applicant." Investigation by this reporter show that a number of people attend seminars on online foreign exchange trading and at the end of the course become involved in the business. Another way by which many Nigerians combat poverty and underemployment is by having websites designed for them so their presence on the internet can attract business to their companies. Said Phillip Obin, a businessman: "Many people will be persuaded if they learn a little more about you, your company, and products without having to call you or to meet you in person." He said that through an online means a company can easily be accessed for contact information, employment opportunities, product announcement, and investor
information just by visiting its website. Some Nigerians increase their income by undertaking to design websites for companies and being paid for the service. Kehinde James, a web designer, said he undertook some training before he could get involved in this line of business. He said:"One attribute of this job is that it does not require a huge capital to start it."

This reporter's investigation reveals that the use of the various resources of the internet has impacted on the lives of many Nigerians as it has enabled them to cope with many of their economic problems. The internet marketer who didn't want his name on print stated:” I decided to act on the e-book I bought. I used the 'forum system', and my online income increased from an average of $50 daily to over $2,100 in the first week."

Those who are involved in carrying out writing projects that are outsourced on the internet say the experience is worthwhile from an economic viewpoint. Adebimpe says: "I've already started to make some money. When I get some track record of successful job completions, the sky will be the limit. I definitely will leave my full-time job."

For those who access the internet for job vacancies and get trained by it to enable them to get their choice jobs, the story is no different. Okonkwo said: "I got to where I am by the grace of God, as I'm now the manager of a company called Central Link Nigeria Limited. And I'm so glad that Jidaw's e-solutions and training made the difference."

A few people access the internet as a medium to get ideas to start their business. "I got the idea of my business from the internet," stated Abitogun. "I also got the machines through the internet too."

However, a lot of Nigerians are sceptical of the view that the internet can play a part to enable people to tackle the problems of poverty and unemployment. "It's not a reliable way of making money to survive," said Chukwuma Ibezute, a publisher. "If you're looking for a job, do something practical about it."

But some who see the potentials of the internet as a source of job creation scoff at this view. Said Abitogun: "A lot of our people fear too much. Some people even fear the internet. We seem to be carried away by job hunting and cannot think of creating jobs for ourselves. We must create time to think and learn new things."

Other critics see the internet as a medium to open people to be duped by all sorts of scammers. Asks one critic: "How do you prevent yourself from being duped by 419ners? I see the internet as a place where you have job scams, where 419 people operate. It's better not to take risks by going to the internet."

But online companies with career links are aware of the risk of people being duped through job scams. "Don't pay money for getting a job," stated a warning on the website of Jidaw Systems Limited. "Don't disclose your personal/financial information to people or organisations you don't know. No responsible employment agency will charge or ask you for money."

Many Nigerians have not only learnt to take this advice, they have also found a way to get past job scams and dubious projects that are being posted everywhere on the internet. As more and more people begin to wise up to the idea that full employment may not be the solution to their problems of poverty, unemployment, and underemployment, they will hang out more on sites on the internet that will solve their problems. On these sites, they will discover that it is not the degree they possess that counts but the talent they have to display to millions of people the world over who use the internet.

FICTION

2008-02-06T01:10:00.000-08:00

LATE REPENTANCE
By Adetokunbo Abiola
She smashed his set of plates against the wall and pushed his television set to the ground. She had flung a pot of soup against the table and the chunks of meat in it lay strewn on the rug. She had turned a plate of rice and beans to the floor and kicked at the trash can, garbage spilling out. All around the room the stink of beans and rice mixed with trash. She also scattered the chairs and tables and stools. The relationship was over with this bout of madness.
Standing in the doorway, Thomas remembered the quarrel of yesterday.
"I've told you I can't marry you," he told her. "I love Patience."
"You jilted her two years ago," Josephine said. "You denied paternity of her baby. Do you think her family will allow both of you to reconcile?"
He'd stormed out, only to return this morning to find her letter and this outrage. It was good she ended the relationship, he thought, he was free to pursue Patience. The chain with which Josephine fettered him for the past year was broken.
He spent hours cleaning up the flat. When he finished, he walked out of his abode to Julius' apartment in the same building. They sat facing each other in Julius' living room.
"I'm going to Patience's house," he told him. "I'm bent on reconciling with her."
"Is that possible?"Julius asked.
"It is. As a matter of fact, she's always wanted it. Her family has been the obstacle."
"In that case I wish you luck," Julius said. "Goodbye."
Moving towards his Volkswagen parked in the garage, Thomas sauntered out of the flat. He entered the car, started the engine, and drove out of the compound. The March sun beat down on the vehicle as it moved into the Benin City street.
Big gates screened Patience's house from where he parked on Oziegbe Street. He remembered that last year when he called the ground in front of the one storey building stretched to the road. Trees and a lawn sprawled round the compound when he left the car and stood by the gate. He noted that previously dirt surrounded the building, rubbish littered the steps. New sheets roofed the building when he walked by the lawn, fresh paint scented into his nostrils when he approached the house. He recalled that last year rusted sheets roofed it and it smelt of cassava, fried eggs, and dust. But the greatest change he found was not the gate, trees and paint: Patience and her family had packed out.
He heard someone chattering around the corner and the breeze blew a whiff of perfume into his nostrils. Following this, the cry of a child reached him. A woman and a child must be around me, he thought.
He marched in the direction of the cry, passed a gate, and emerged at a courtyard. He saw a woman in skirt and blouse with her hair tied in pony tail. She sat on a chair and cuddled a baby. He stood in front of her.
"Where can I find Patience and her family?" he asked.
The girl gave him a cool look, assessed him, and waved her hand in the direction of a bungalow down the courtyard. Thomas frowned at her manner but swaggered towards the steps leading to the building. Reaching a door at the head of the steps of the bungalow, he knocked forcefully at it. It opened and a man came out. He wore a scowl on his face.
"I'm looking for the new home of Patience Aghahowa and her family," Thomas said.
"Must you break down my door to find out?" the man asked and hissed, but he brought out a notebook from his shirt's pocket and stared into it. After a while, he said: "Go to 65 Iyobosa Street. You'll find them there." And the man banged the door against Thomas' face. "Useless man! How arrogant!" Thomas heard him say from behind the door.
He grinned and knew his forcefulness had unsettled the people in the compound. The reason Patience's family detested him. He promised to be less aggressive, but he swept past the girl on his way to his car.
At Iyobosa Street, Henry, Patience's brother, sat in a bar in the building, anger on his face. Unopened bottles of beer and stout stood by his feet. He glared at the glass in his hand and his eyes dropped on the bottles. He cursed and got up to his feet and swiped the counter with his palm, searching at the lockers with his eyes, looking for something. He didn't find it, his face sank, his shoulders drooped. He sat on his seat and scowled at the glass and the bottles. He lifted the glass to his lips and licked the drops of drink from it and stared bleary-eyed at the bottles. He grabbed one of them and held its top against his teeth. He was trying to pull off the bottle cover, trying to get at the drink, but his teeth suddenly let go of the bottle, and he squirmed his face.Straightening himself on his seat so he could put the bottle in his mouth, he looked up and saw Thomas, and he instantly got to his feet. The predator was about to vent his anger on a victim.
"Haven't I told you to leave my sister alone," he said without preambles.
"You've told me, but..." Thomas started.
"I'll tell you again and for the last time," he said. "Leave my sister alone!"
Thomas backed away from him and turned and looked around. He saw two young men dancing under a tree and a girl in a vest clapping and cheering at the top of her voice. She threw back her head and laughed. A girl like this would be more than a cheerleader, Thomas thought. He gestured to her and when she saw him she came over.
"I'm looking for Patience Aghahowa," Thomas told her.
"Tell him where she is and I'll bust your jaw!" Henry, who was watching, shouted at the girl.
The girl stared at him and then at Thomas. She hesitated. She mumbled something under her breath and moved back.
Shrugging, Thomas looked around, but froze when he heard Henry calling him. Thomas looked at him. Henry smiled and beckoned at him. Perhaps he had decided to be sensible, Thomas thought. He walked up to him.
"Come close," Henry said. "Don't be afraid of me. I won't hurt you."
"I know you can't hurt me."
Thomas hesitated, but he moved closer to him. Henry lunged forward and grabbed the pockets of Thomas' trousers. Thomas stumbled and tried to wriggle free, but Henry tugged and shouted at him and rammed his paunch into him. The sound of one pocket tearing cut through the air and a slap and a punch and another slap landed on his face. He staggered, stumbled against the wall of the bar, straightened up and crashed to the ground. He cursed under his breath.
"That'll teach you to stop jilting women!" Henry yelled. "Next time I see you here I'll blow off your head."
Thomas climbed to his feet and felt people gathering near. A sound buzzed about his ears, and he spat out saliva, sand and blood on the ground. As if from afar, he heard people condemning Henry and the latter shouting: "He must leave my sister alone! He must leave my sister alone!"
Thomas staggered to his car and sat in it, staring through the car windshield at the street and the sky. Should he forget this business about Patience? he thought. He remembered his conversation with Julius, and nasty women like Josephine, and he hesitated.
The girl in the vest stood by the car window. She frowned at Henry, hissed, and concentrated on Thomas.
"Patience told me about you," she said.
"Where's she?" he asked
"She's with her mother at 28 Legema Street. Off Lawani Street. Go to Mission Road Market and ask for Lawani. But she also told me she may be traveling out of the country."
Through his pain, Thomas thanked her and drove off.
He found the Mission Road market teeming with men, women and children while behind the stalls traders called in raucuous voices. He saw customers haggling with some of those selling and a man and woman fighting with a small crowd cheering. The smell of tomatoes, pepper and raw meat rose into his nostrils and the blare of giant loudspeakers, honks of car horns and growl of generators deafened him. He felt his spirit lift with the buzz and life around him, and he began to bounce with each step.
He bulled his way through the people in his path and bore down on a man standing idle in front of a music store.
"Where is Lawani Street?" Thomas asked, tapping him on the shoulder.
The man frowned.
"Lawani Street?" he asked. "What's my business with Lawani Street? And must you tap my shoulder?"
"I didn't tap to offend you," Thomas said. "I only wanted you to help me."
"I don't want to help you," the man snapped and turned away. Through the din the man complained: "What an arrogant man!."
"Go down Mission Road," said a man standing nearby. He was elderly and his hair all white. "Lawani is the eighth street to the left."
Thomas nodded and pushed his way through the people around him and went to his car. He sat for several seconds, staring through the car windshield at the street, bunching his face streaked with particles of sand, gritting his teeth white in the afternoon sun and clenching his palms placed on the top of his laps. Now that he was going to the house, he thought, he had to control his arrogance.
Getting to the house at Legema Street, he slid out of the car. He expected a tenement flat, crowded courtyard, music blaring, the smell of dust and dirt and children playing football and table tennis. He thought this was the kind of house that suited Patience's mother's temperament. But when he looked over the fence he saw a bungalow fronted by an empty courtyard, trees, a packed car and he smelt the scent of pop corn and bread wafting from the compound.
Thomas moved towards the house and knocked at the door.
It opened and Patience's mother stood in the doorway.
When he saw her, when he saw the anger and venom in her eyes, he moved back from the doorway, watching her hand clench into a fist. His eyes opened wide, his cheek twitched with fright. Ahead of him, he saw her lips curl with a hint of contempt. A tremor ran through him, but he smelt the scent wafting out of her clothes, heard the pant sounding out of her heart. He saw her eyes run over him as he stood: over his shirt, over his trousers and over his shoes. In the tense atmosphere, he felt like crawling into a hole and burying himself, burrowing into a hole and covering himself. Her stare arrested him as he held his hand to his mouth and coughed. He cleared his throat and tried to speak. The sound of her voice, sharp as a knife, stopped him.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded.
In a flash, Thomas bent down. He had appeared from nowhere at her door, rousing her from whatever work she was doing in the house. She had come to the door to find the man who jilted her daughter at the threshold, market stink rising from his clothes, to see the man she banned from her house come knocking at her door, anxiety rimming his eyes. She would scream and shout at him, swear and bang the door against his face, unless she heard a penitent voice. He spread out his palms, his eyes pleading, and fell to his knees.
"I'm sorry, mother," he blurted out.
"Sorry for what?" she said. "For jilting my daughter?" The door moved towards him, about to close against his face. .
"I made a mistake," he told her. "I shouldn't have done that. I did because I feared I wouldn't be able to cope with her and the baby.".
"And you came today because you think you can cope now."
"Yes, mother."
"Your repentance comes too late."
He crouched on the floor and rubbed his hands together and raised his head and tears sprang out of his eyes.
"Its not too late," he insisted. He crouched again and said with great feeling, "Forgive me, forgive me. Let me reconcile with them. Let my heart be at peace."
She stared at him, holding onto the door. Thomas saw the struggle within on her face. Finally, she sighed and she swung the door open for Thomas to enter.
He sat down on an armchair in the living room but sensed the approach of impending disaster. Patience wasn't around. The music turntable, usually switched on at Iyobosa Street, was silent. The air hung thick in the flat. As Patience's mother sat opposite him on a sofa, she shook her head sadly.
"You wanted to speak with Patience, isn't it?" she said, shaking her head again. "Unfortunately, she left for the United States yesterday. She took my grandson along with her. She has gone to start a new life. I couldn't stop her. That's all about Patience." She stared at him and her face hardened. "She left because of your behavior. You were arrogant to me and her brother. Humility, the cheapest commodity in the market, you couldn't give. All she got from you was being jilted. And the paternity of her son denied."
Through the stream of her words, Thomas processed only one clause: left for the United States. If he had come for reconciliation, he didn't see how he could get it: he didn't have the money with which to pursue her to the United States . Patience, whom he truly wanted, was now out of reach, perhaps forever. Patience, jilted by him because he didn't have the money then, forced to cry when he denied paternity of the child, denied before her family: he had forced her to flee the country.
"I'll give you a piece of advice," continued Patience's mother. "Show your repentance quickly next time. Then, perhaps, something like this won't happen again."
Stumbling, he moved to the door and opened it and stepped outside. He had bungled everything, he thought. He slid into his car and drove home, entering his flat and collapsing on his bed, falling asleep. When he woke up, he thought about the visit to Patience's house, his child, and the relationship. He beat his hand on the bed and shook his head. He had been wrong to jilt Patience. He had been wrong to deny paternity of the child. He had been wrong not to show humility to the family. He had been wrong about everything. As he lay his head on the pillow, he muttered: "I was wrong. I was wrong"

First published by Flask Review (April 2007)(http://www.freewebs.com/theflaskreview/abiola.htm)

2008-02-06T00:19:00.000-08:00

OF INTERNET, ELECTIONS, DEVELOPMENT
By Adetokunbo Abiola
In 1999, when Donald Duke contested for the governorship position of Cross Rivers State, he didn’t make use of the internet as a tool to campaign. According to a source, he used the traditional media of the typical Nigerian politician: taking advert slots on television, radio, and newspapers; pontificating on the soap box; and taking part in rallies organized in most of the towns and villages in the state.

In 2007, when the same man wanted to contest as president of the federation, things had changed. As in 1999, this reporter learnt, he took adverts in the traditional media of television, radio, and newspapers. He also mounted the soap box and took part in political rallies. But he added another medium to spread his ideas. He went to the internet to develop a website and a blog to enhance his campaign rhetoric and to hold intellectual debate with selected voters.
Welcome to the world of the internet and the 2007 elections. As stories about that election continue to unfold, this reporter’s findings show that the resources of the internet played a role in the conduct of the campaigns, public discussions, and debates by candidates, voters, public commentators, and other stakeholders.

The conduct of elections in the country has changed as thousands of Nigerians search for good governance, transparency, and accountability in order to ensure the political development of the nation.
In the last poll, according to researchers, many who were internet-use inclined expressed their ideas through blogs. Those who did not use blogs used websites to campaign and to debate on national affairs as pertinent to the polls. Those who did not use websites or blogs contributed through list serves. Ndansanjo Macha, writing on Global Voices Online, said: "Nigerians used the internet to state what was taking place during the campaigns and on the election day."

Nigerians, this reporter gathered, did not previously make use of the internet and other information communication technology (ICT) resources to participate in an election. Experts say it became an option when the nation experienced a dramatic increase in the number of those who accessed the internet as a tool between 1996 and 2007. According to researchers at Open Net Initiative (ONI): "The number of internet users grew from under 10,000 to 1.7 million."
In the last elections, say researchers and bloggers, Nigerians from different strata of the society used the internet as a tool for advocacy and campaign. One form through which it was used, this reporter gathered, was through the platform of blogs. Macha stated: "Blogs that were covering the Nigerian election are African Spritis, Grandiose Parlor, Black Looks, Yomi Says, One Notes, True Days, Chxta, Naija Blog, The World According to Adaure, Olumiyi David Ajao…"

Findings by this reporter show that another set of internet users during the election campaigns were politicians seeking public office. Investigation reveal that candidates such as Donald Duke, Olusegun Mimiko, Pat Utomi, and others belong to this category. Further findings by this reporter also show that civil society groups such as the Freedom of Information (FOI) Coalition, Zero Corruption Coalition, Krazitivity , Naija IT Professionals, and others fall into the latter group.

The result of this change in political behavior, this reporter learnt, was that international attention was focused on Nigerian bloggers and researchers. Bill, author of a blog called ‘Jewel in the Jungle’, said: "I cannot think of any group of people from an African country that have been more influential and active in the blogosphere in the past three to four years than the Nigerian blog authors and their readers worldwide. There’re many good online authors who hail from Nigerian and write extensively about Nigeria." While investigating this story, a number of blogs authored by Nigerians were seen on different web pages, as well as comments made by Nigerians on them. Along with these were blogs authored by candidates seeking office; some of them had websites as well, while those without both used list serves. Many of the blogs, such as Nigerian Election Hotline, were specifically developed to publish stories on the 2007 poll that might not reach Nigerians. According to its home page, "Nigerian Election Hotline is an effort to publish stories on the 2007 poll that might not otherwise reach the reading public." Nigerian internet users who did not use the above media , this reporter noted, used wikis, podcasts, and other social networking tools.

The manner Nigerians used the internet, researchers say, were many and diverse. "Apart from providing socio-political content and writing critical commentaries and analysis, local bloggers shared their experiences and stories as bloggers," said Macha. Along with sharing experiences about the campaign, he said, Nigerians also published videos, audios, and text to illustrate their debates and discussions. "Greenlight Nigeria publishes audio, video, and text from contributors on the ground," said Macha. "It also used Eroca to allow readers to leave text contents." Macha said that apart from vocal Nigerians, candidates were also involved in the phenomenon. "As a communication strategy, Olusegun Mimiko, a governorship candidate in Ondo State, started a blog," he said. "The blog contained campaign photos, and election reports." Apart from him, Macha said, Donald Duke started a website as well as authored a blog. "Before he pulled out of the PDP Presidential primaries," said Macha, "Donald Duke started a website donaldduke4president.org as well as a blog."

Investigation reveal that list serves were used as well to conduct discussions, debates, and campaigns. A source said that before Pat Utomi, the presidential candidate of African Democratic Congress, came to the public to announce his presidential ambition, he sounded out the minds of the members of the FOI list serve. "We have to get out of our comfort zone," he was reported to have said.

Findings also show that while the campaign was on, ordinary Nigerians were busy holding discussions, debates, and analysis on the campaign and the candidates jostling for public office. Along with the list serves, researchers say, groups such as the Stakeholders Democratic Network, sprang up and used the internet to comment on the campaign. According to its author, the group was formed to "to use several network tools and the power of the web to get the people talking about the elections and democracy in Nigeria." The Nigerian Election Hotline, this reporter gathered, also strove to make sure that Nigerians had access to information to enable informed choices to be made during the campaigns. It stated in its home page that the initiative is "an effort to make sure that Nigerian voters have access to the information they need to make informed choices at the polls."

Though it may be an overstatement to say that the use of the internet by Nigerians during the 2007 election campaign significantly influenced the course of events, there is no doubt that the trend made an impact. Researchers say that the blogs added new voices and perspective to the elections. Macha said: "Considering the election related posts and comments in the Nigerian blogosphere, it is safe to say that Nigerian blogs added new voices and perspectives in election coverage in Africa."

Internet use, this reporter was informed, also created greater awareness about issues that defined the campaign. Researchers say the awareness creation through the use of audio, and video testimony on the blogs and websites were inspiring. Said Tobias Engen, a blogger: "Greenlight Nigeria.org has been inspiring by monitoring with audio and video testimony posted just about daily."

The campaign coverage on the internet also enabled opinion to be formed about the issue of transparency in the exercise. According to researchers, this was brought about through first-hand account of the elections. Experts at Open Net Initiative (ONI) stated: "Nigerian bloggers are overwhelmingly affluent and urban, and are hardly a representative population. Nevertheless, they offer important first-hand account of the election."
The use of the web also brought to the fore fundamental questions about accountability, transparency, and good governance. This reporter observed that Nigerians on the list serves posted comments pertaining to these concerns. Political experts say this is a continuation of a trend which may lead to the political development of the country in the long run.

Generally, experts, researchers, bloggers, and readers alike posit that the use of the web resources to cover the election is worthwhile. This reporter gathered that the trend is being encouraged. Said Ugo Daniel after reading Funmi Iyanda’s blog about her election experiences: "An eyewitness account like this is worthwhile. I hope the contributor would be writing more on this blog."

Despite the impact of internet use on campaigns and elections, this reporter learnt that there were limitations. Bloggers expressed concern that the whole exercise did not stop political violence. Eigen stated: "I did an internet search, and while there were some bloggers discussing the election, I did not see any clear effort to use blogging specifically to prevent violence during the elections."

The limitations of internet use during the campaign, researchers say, can also be seen
in the use of it by candidates. This reporter gathered that the main presidential candidates ignored web resources during the period. Macha said: "None of the main presidential candidates, Atiku Abubakar, Umar Yar’Adua, and Muhhammed Buhari, had blogs."

The fact that there were problems with candidates that used the internet was also an issue. This reporter learnt that Donald Duke had to invite voters to his blog to debate with him. Macha said Donald Duke had a blog, but one had to be invited to get into it.

Can the internet be embraced by Nigerian politicians on the same level as done in the United States? Will the internet become as influential as pre-internet campaign media among Nigerian politicians? Omodudu, a blogger, gave this injunction: "Snap a picture, make a video, write a comment." If candidates obey this injunction directed to the entire Nigerian population, there would be more Donald Dukes in election campaigns in Nigeria in the foreseeable future.

THE HYENA MEN OF NIGERIA

2007-11-19T12:21:00.001-08:00

'The Hyena Men'Adetokunbo Abiola
Abdullahi Ahmadu was 15 years old when he joined his father's business in the small town of Malumfashi in Katsina State, Nigeria. This meant that he had to acquire his own hyena, as his family made their living as entertainers accompanied by hyenas, snakes and monkeys, in addition to selling the fetishes and herbal medicines that are popular in Nigeria.
Abdullahi's grandfather, Nalado Ahmadu, taught him how to catch and control the animals, and introduced him to the charms that help subdue the creatures and protect their captors from harm.
Today Abdullahi is an experienced animal handler in his early thirties, who travels across Nigeria as part of a troupe of entertainers including his younger brother, Yahaya, and other members of his extended family. Together they work with three hyenas, two rock pythons and four baboons. According to Abdullahi, this is a tradition exclusive to his family, and only they are taught the secrets of how to trap and take care of the creatures.
The first time I met up with the hyena men, as they have become known, the group was staying in a ramshackle three-bedroom apartment in Dei Dei Junction, a suburb of the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The animals were housed in specially constructed boxes. Every member of the party had sores and scars on their faces, legs and hands - legacies of times when the animals suddenly turned hostile and pounced on their handlers with their teeth and claws.
'We use a heavy stick to hit the hyenas on the head when they misbehave,' Abdullahi said. 'We knock them down on the ground. All of us hold the sticks in case the animals become aggressive.'
However, Abdullahi's daughter, six-year-old 'Mummy', played with the animals with no sign of fear. She even rode a hyena as if it were a miniature, slope-shouldered pony. 'She cannot be harmed,' said Abdullahi. 'It's the same thing with the snakes and monkeys. She has taken a potion of traditional herbs and has been bathed with it. So her safety from the animals is guaranteed for the rest of her life.'
The animal handlers make use of herbs, concoctions, powders, amulets and esoteric incantations to catch and train their captives, protect themselves against harm and build up their own confidence. Amulets are also placed into 'akayau', metal rings tied around the men's ankles, to enhance their dancing skills. The handlers believe that humans are capable of transforming themselves into animals such as hyenas, hence the need for powerful voodoo charms and incantations as protection.
When setting out on an expedition to capture a hyena, Abdullahi and his partners drink a protective potion and also bathe themselves with it. They travel to the caves and forests of northern Nigeria accompanied by hunting dogs which assist in sniffing out the animals. The young men use a powerful torch to light their way through the darkness, believing that the potion they drank has made them invisible to the animal. At the entrance to the animal's lair, they chant incantations and blow clouds of white powder, a traditional African tranquiliser, at its face, rendering it senseless and easy to subdue. Sometimes, the powerful light from the hyena's eyes might damage the bulb of the torch, but the men eventually have their way.
'After bringing the animal out of the cave,' said one of the handlers, 'it will fight, since it's not familiar with humans. A traditional medicine is administered to its body so it automatically becomes obedient to us. It begins to obey all our commands.'
The animal is subjected to one or two months of training. It must learn to live alongside other animals and humans, and to engage in different kinds of play without becoming violent. In return, the handlers feed the hyenas with scraps purchased from abattoirs (a goat every three days or so helps prevent the animals becoming aggressive). Maintaining good relations with the animals, said Abdullahi, requires both skill and tact.
'They're alert and the slightest sound keeps them awake,' he said. 'They hate hot environments so they're kept in a cool place. When necessary, cold water is sprinkled on their bodies to comfort them. They're very sensitive creatures.'
Galadima Ahmadu, who controls a hyena named Jamis, explained that the handlers wear 'bante' dress and charms. 'If we give onlookers the charms, they can play with the animals as well and they won't be harmed,' he said. The concoctions sold to the public are meant to protect against snake, hyena or monkey bites, while the charms and amulets shield people from the antics of witches and wizards, which many Nigerians believe are responsible for their misfortunes.
The animals are good business. The family has sold traditional potions and charms for many years, but trade increased dramatically after the acquisition of the hyenas and other creatures. 'We parade the animals on the streets,' said Mallam Mantari, the owner of a 13-year-old hyena named Mainasara. 'They can be very funny and the public showers them with money.'
As unemployment and poverty continue to bite in Nigeria, youths in particular must devise inventive ways of making money for survival. 'I've been in this business since childhood,' said Abdullahi Mohammed, a quiet young man who is responsible for a baboon called Frayo. 'This animal has helped us. The money we make gives us food every day. This runs into a few thousand naira.'
I travelled with the group from Ogere-Remo to Bar Beach at Victoria Island in Lagos, and watched as scores of fascinated people were entranced by the spectacle of the hyenas, monkeys and snakes being paraded through the streets. Commercial buses and private cars stop, causing a traffic jam, while passengers gape at the animals as they perform their tricks. Within seconds people start to gather and a crowd forms, everyone staring in wonder.
Yahaya Ahmadu explained how they operate: 'When we get to a place, we make the baboons do somersaults, jump on the back of motorcycles and shake people's hands. Those watching are impressed with our animals. Before you know it, naira notes start to fly here and there. Some throw them at the baboons, others give directly. The baboons bring the money to us and we put it in the common till.'
Important members of the troupe include the drummers, Nura Garuba, Abdulkarim Lawal and Sanusi Ahmed. They follow the hyena men as they travel from city to city, beating the traditional Hausa drums that are the signal for the baboons to start dancing.
Others in the group are traditional healers. According to Yahaya, 'They make herbs to take care of snake bites, scorpion stings and other animal problems. We also have herbs for spiritual problems, and illnesses such as typhoid fever, malaria and syphilis. When we get to a market, street junction or public place, people gather to watch us. We use the opportunity to sell these herbs to them.'
In addition to street shows, the animal handlers take part in film projects and make money from the sale of wild animals. 'Any animal that people want, we can get for them,' said Yahaya, who claims that they have supplied hyenas, pythons and other animals to zoos in Nigeria, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Benin. 'A mature hyena is sold for one hundred and fifty thousand naira, but a cub is more expensive at two hundred and fifty thousand naira. This is because a cub can be trained. An adult baboon goes for fifteen thousand naira, a young one for eight thousand. A python goes for eight to ten, depending on the size.'
The hyena men use the hunting dogs that accompany them to trap smaller animals for food. Konyami Murtala, who handles a baboon called Mora, said the dogs catch rabbits, grass cutters, antelopes and other small animals in the forests surrounding their camps. These animals are skinned and eaten or offered for sale.
People who benefit indirectly from the hyena men's business include the bus drivers who transport the animals from town to town. According to Lekan Fabuyi, who plies the Ogere-Remo/Lagos route, the drivers charge higher than usual rates for carrying the wild animals, making the animal handlers their preferred customers.
Other beneficiaries are the provision store owners and food vendors who locate their small businesses at the outskirts of towns, where the hyena handlers usually set up their makeshift wooden huts amid abandoned houses, cluster of shacks and the inevitable cattle markets. Store-owner Biola Adekumi said: 'When they're around we sell more. Also, they give us fun, especially the younger ones. Their animals make us laugh and feel lively.'
Not everyone views the hyena men in such a favourable light. Although they have licenses to operate their business from a number of states in Nigeria, officials occasionally harass them and prevent them moving their animals about. One official commented: 'These animals are wild. No matter how you handle them, an animal is always an animal. Tame an animal for ten years and one day it'll behave like an animal. For instance, if a hyena breaks loose it can attack and kill people. I don't think these people should be allowed to carry these animals about.'
The entertainers have also been accused by the Nigerian police of using the animals to threaten or intimidate members of the public into parting with money or possessions. In June 2004 a report in Lagos newspaper This Day claimed that an armed 'gang who used a hyena and a monkey to rob their victims' had a shootout with police. The paper reported that two gang members were killed and four arrested, while a policeman ended up in hospital after being bitten by a hyena. The hyena and a monkey were shot.
Abdullahi Ahmadu gives a different side of the story: 'We refused to stop at a police checkpoint, so the police opened fire on us, killing two hyenas and two fellow policemen. To protect themselves, they fixed a charge of armed robbery on us. Thank God, the case has died a natural death.'
The bus driver, Lekan Fabuyi, defended the hyena men, saying: 'They eat by taking these animals around. Stop them and they take to criminality. Those criticising cannot give them another job.'
Indeed, the troupe's diverse activities generate enough money for their daily survival and to establish maize and yam farms. Abdullahi Mohammed, for example, owns a farm in Danja in Katsina State, and Yahaya said the group has plans to establish a cassava farm in Ogene-Ofada in Kogi State.
After three days of following the group, I was preparing to leave when the hyena men brought their menagerie of animals to the side of a road in Lagos. The drummers struck a beat and the baboons pranced about and jumped. Passing cars stopped and their passengers craned their necks through the windows and gaped. Motorbike riders parked at the fringe of a gathering crowd and stared in fascination. The handlers shouted at the baboons and they somersaulted and performed several acrobatic movements. Before long naira notes started being thrown at them. As one onlooker commented, 'Though their way of making money is odd, these people are in real business.'

Dieting to lose weight

2007-11-19T12:19:00.001-08:00

DIETING TO LOSE WEIGHT
These days, your best choices are lean meat. Choose "loin", "round " and "extra loin". Try to avoid dark meatasit contains twice as much fat as white meat. Use skinless chicken variety. In the alternative, remove the skin off the chicken before cooking, or before serving to eat. Also, say no to chicken fingers, nuggets, and franks.Say yes to cooking chcken stuffing separately. Make sure turkey fat does not soakm into dressing. Use lean margarine or butter to prepare the stuffing.

COOKING METHODS
Keep in mind that to cook healthy meat roasting, baking, grilling brasing and broiling are time-tested methods.As in turkey, to prepare avoid oil, butter or margarine.Cooking sprays should be used in the alternative, also use non-stick pans.As in meat, choose broiling, roasting, baking or steaming when preparing chicken.Avoid butter and margarine during process. Use cooking sprays in the alternative. To save calories, choose light turkey meat over dark. Skim off the fat of the gravy.

SECONDS
Choose a diet version of white bread, if you must eat bread. However, use whole grain as your bread choice. For seconds, choose vegetable over bread-based dishes. Avoid casseroles or those topped by butter or cheese.By choosing this option, you'll be adding more fiber to the body rather than extra calories. Try evaporated skim meat or powered variety when baking rather than milk or cream. Fondue, fruit cocktail, yogurt parfait, fresh piece of fruit are good for dessert. Avoid pie, sweets or cake.

SUBSTITUTES AND DESSERTS
For children, use sugar-free ice creamor non-fat frozen yogurt. Don't top sundaes with chocolate or caramel syrup. Instead, try an all-fruit spread and serve less ice-cream in smaller dishes to control portions. Keep in mind to try fat-fighting baking substitution. Use unsweetened cocoa powder to repalce unsweetened chocolate; choose graham crackers to pie crusts. Substitute ice-creamwith non-fat frozen yogurt; oil desserts with unsweetened applesauce; egg with egg white.

Miss World Contest

2007-11-19T12:17:00.001-08:00

Miss World Contest Deepens the Nigerian CrisisBy Adetokunbo Abiola
The proposed holding of the Miss world contest and the Arrival of the beauty queens in Nigeria as well as the Violent protests which followed the contest have revealed deep cleavages which if not properly managed could lead to a permanent split in the West African country. When the Miss World contest was first broached, the predominant Muslim North was against it as it felt the event was not a priority to the Nigerian economy and that the spectacle of girls parading themselves in semi nude attires and prancing to an ogling audience is against the tenets of Islam.
Alhaji Lateef Adegbite, the Secretary General of the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (SCIA) has another reason for the Muslim opposition to the contest when he said it was an affront to Nigerian Muslims for the contest to hold in the month of Ramadan.
Other Muslims were not for it because Amina Lawal, the young woman slated to be stoned to death for having a child out of wedlock, was supported by a number of the beauty queens who vowed non-participation in Nigeria if Amina was executed. Says Ibrahim Khamil, an unemployed youth in Kaduna, scene of the scene of riots when informed about the comments of the queens: "To hell with the contest. Nigeria does not need it. And we will make sure it does not hold here." But for the predominant Christian South the event was an opportunity to showcase the tourism potentials of Nigeria and to enjoy some benefits through improved infrastructure, massive hotel revenues, television coverage etc. For instance, Rivers State, a co-host of the event, spent the sum of four million dollars on logistics while it lost the sum of seven hundred million dollars from the rescheduling of the event to London.
Contractors, understandably, were enthusiastic about the event as many supplied various items booked for the pageant and lost millions more as a result of the transfer of the contest to England. Cross Rivers State, another co-host, was happy at putting its internationally famous Obudu Cattle Ranch in top condition but lost all its investment and expected revenue as a result of the shifting of the event. Investigations revealedthat prior to the hurried departure of the beauty queens from Nigeria all the top hotels in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city, had been fully booked in anticipation of the beauty festival taking place in the most populous country in Africa.
The shifting of the contest, sparked off by a bloody riot over a report in the Nigerian daily, Thisday, deeply grieved the Christian South which expected another Nigerian success following on the heels of that of Agbani Darego, the immediate past Miss World. The riot spread from Kaduna to Abuja and led to the burning of houses, shops, the vandalization and burning of vehicles, the breaking of curfews imposed by authorities and the murder of people suspected to be Southern Christians.Investigation revealed that over two hundred and fifty people Died as a result of the riots, three thousand five hundred wounded and over a thousand people arrested over the issue. The writer of the Thisday report, Miss Isioma Daniels, the publisher of the newspaper, Nduka Obiagbena, as well as the editor, Eniola Bello, had the fatwa put on them by Zamfara State, the first Nigerian state to adopt sharia in the advent of the new Nigerian democracy. Reports have it that the state's acting Governor, Alhaji Mamudu Shinkafi, declared on November 25 at a frenzied rally in Gusau, the state's capital,that the writer of the purported blasphemous article as well as her editor and publisher should be beheaded. Isioma Daniels had to flee Nigeria for the United States while Mr Obiagbena had to resort to a series of daily apologies to Northern Muslims in the hope that the fatwa will be lifted. However, the action ofMuslims have angered the Christian South and there are talks herethat there should be a national conference which will serve as abasis for the future essence of the country.
Tired of the violence on the South by the Muslims Christians in states such as Abia, Imo, Anambra and Enugu protested and contemplated reprisals until they were stopped by security agencies. They were following Northern Christians in Kaduna neighborhoods such as Murmin, Gwari, Nasarawa, Trikaniya, Gori, Gora and Sabon Tasheb who attacked the Muslims as a reaction to being killed over the years by Islamic fundamentalists.
Says John Olatunde, a statistics student at the Yaba College of Technology in Lagos: "This country does not belong to Muslims alone. What is happening is that the Muslims are infringing on the other Nigerians. The people in power are not capable of putting their house in order. If you don't stop them now they will tell you the clothes to wear in public." For the Afenifere, a South West socio-political group, "the incidence of the riot is deep as it borders on the unity of the country and the sustenance of democratic practise in Nigeria." The Islamic fundamentalists have had their way in shifting the Miss World from Nigeria to London, but could this have been Achieved by widening the already deep cleavages in Nigeria? Events in the coming weeks and months will tell.
Copyright © 2002 Adetokunbo Abiola, Nigerian correspondent to Earthhope Action Network

Cancun Economic Summit

2007-11-19T12:16:00.001-08:00

The Rich Set to Reap in CancunBy Adetokunbo Abiola
There is something seriously wrong with the international institutions that govern globalization. This was why Professor Joseph Stiglitz, the former economic adviser to President Bill Clinton, said: "The developed world needs to do its part to reform the international institutions that govern globalization. We set up those institutions and we need to fix them." Fixing these institutions is imperative in the backdrop of the Fifth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial conference which is taking place in Cancun, Mexico today. The main task of the conference is to take stock of the progress of negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda. The agenda, needless to say, is one of the few deliberations to take the interest of the developing countries at the centre of a broad and balanced working programme. Before and after Doha the WTO has been beset by a number of criticisms. It has been accused of being undemocratic and non-transparent in its decision making prcess. This enables the rich and powerful developed countries to prevail over the developing countries, making globalization to benefit the former. Though the WTO is meant to promote free trade, the fact that a few advanced countries manipulate its decision making machinery defeats the purpose of why the organization was set up. The manipulation has led to massive subsidies in the agricultural products of the few rich nations, hurting farmers in Africa and Latin America, since their produceis no longer competitive in the world market compared to those from the EU, the United States, Japan and Canada. Indications are that Cancun could suffer from the tradition of decision making process of the WTO. In the preparatory months to Cancun, the informal and non-inclusive nature of the decision making and drafting which the WTO has been accused of having reared their ugly heads. A few weeks to the conference, there was noi draft text for the ministerials and developing countries members did not know when the text would emerge. This was a deliberate ploy. Deprived of the draft text, developing nations would have little time to respond to the document and co-ordinate among themselves towards a common initiative. The possiblity of inadequate time forced a group of developing nations to call for orderly procedure that are well accepted in concave or organizations of sovereign states. Apart from this, the process of negotiations in the count down to Cancun was unknown. For instance, modalities on the agricultural negotiations were meant to be agreed upon by the month of March, but this had not been deliberated upon in July. There was no agreement in sight, as well as decisions on whether or not to initiate negotiations in investment, competition, transparency in government procurement, trade facilitation and other key areas. This engendered surprises on the part of devloping nations as the ministerials drew near. The latter states were put on their back foot, forcing them to react to situations rather than to control them. Months after the start of the "offers" round, when nations indicate sectors they are willing to liberalize, the rich nations were not forthcoming and the WTO had no mechanism, or did not see the need, to control the situation. The fall out of this is that the most important decisions by the ministers of the developing world will be taken right there in Cancun. And their handle on the complex technical details of the issues cannot match those of trade experts who should have been privy to the deliberations. Furthermore, there will be no fundamental change in the voting rights in Cancun. The trade ministers of the industrialized world will head the WTO meetings. This, of course, hampers the effective participation required from representatives of the Third World. Seen wiothin the background of the expected push of the EU, Canada and Japan for a WTO investment agreement, this could prove to be suicidal. An investment agreement in Cancun means the advancement of the corporate agenda of the rich countries to create new opportunites for expansion of their multinational corporations. It will also give these entities sweeping powers in the countries they invest, including the ability to control the environmental, social, natural and local laws and regualations of these nations. The decision making apparatus of the WTO needs to be overhauled. The negotiating process should be agreed upon by all deligates for the preparatory phase of WTO conferences. All members should be given the chance to express their views on the draft agenda drawn up, as well as be given sufficient time to study the documents to facilitate proper consideration by and consultation with their capitals. Finally, representatives of develpong nations need to head WTO meetings too in order to promote effective participation. Since these features are not in place, it will be business as usual in Cancun. The rich industrialized countries will get in proposals which will make them richer, while at the same time forcing poor countries to become poorer.
Copyright © 2003 Adetokunbo Abiola, Nigerian correspondent to Earthhope Action Network

Okpella Oil Spill

2007-11-19T12:13:00.000-08:00

Oil Spill Devastates Niger Delta Community
By Adetokunbo Abiola
OKPELLA, Nigeria, October 17, 2002 (ENS) - The Niger Delta town of Okpella in Nigeria's Edo state suffered its second oil spill in three years when a pipeline belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, a state owned concern, ruptured and spilled an as yet undetermined amount of refined crude oil into the environment.
The incident took place in late September, and threw the more than 20,000 inhabitants of the town into confusion. Local residents responded slowly to the disaster in the face of belated official initiatives to prevent the spread of the spill.
The spill took place in one of the villages that constitute Okpella, 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) from the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The refined crude oil seeped into the underground water supply and then into a stream which provides the villages with water.

Spilled crude oil and burned grass blacken the ground around the cement top of a well. This well, along with more than 50 others, were polluted by the oil spill. (Photo courtesy Adetokunbo Abiola)Investigation revealed that more than 53 wells in the town have become polluted as specks of refined crude float in the water. The villagers have abandoned these wells as they now consider this water unfit for human consumption.
Jumeh Ibrahim is a native woman of the town, a farmer who lives 20 meters (65 feet) from the burst pipeline.
"We have lost a lot of goats from the problem," Ibrahim said. "They die when they drink the polluted water. There are now many cases of dysentary and malaria. Some people have ignored warnings and drunk out of the polluted water."
The oil spill has also affected the farmlands of the community. Crops are now visibly withered due to the presence of toxic materials in the soil, a major blow to a population that depends on farming for its survival.
The inhabitants grow plantains, yams, cassava, coconuts, groundnut, potatoes and other crops, but most are destroyed and drying up in the aftermath of the spill.
Kayode Olowu, a member of the local committee set up to look into the problem, said, "Trees are beginning to die. The wildlife is affected. So are the farms. The damage is so serious that we need immediate response to the problem."

The town of Okpella is about 250 miles south of Abuja, in the Niger Delta near the Gulf of Guinea. (Map courtesy U.S. Energy Information Administration)The Environment News Service has learned that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company laid the pipelines in 1973 and has not replaced them since. Now they have become rusty and prone to burst underground, in the backyards of Okpella inhabitants.
After an inspection, oil company officials acknowledged that the spill was a result of equipment failure and was not due to sabotage. Company officials presented two plastic water tanks to this community of thousands of people who are struggling to deal with contaminated water.
Okpella residents complain that this is a grossly inadequate compensation for the devastation visited upon their community as a result of the spill.
.

LONELY World of Kerosine Victims

2007-11-19T12:08:00.000-08:00

Lonely World of Kerosine Fire Victims
By Adetokunbo Abiola
On the evening of Jan 21, 2001 Christian Ekeluba,a motor cyclist, turned his motor bike into the AP filling station at New Benin, Benin City. After waiting for ten minutes his bike pulled up beside the fuel pump and he bought ten litres of kerosine. Satisfied with this, he whistled under his breathe as he manouvered his bike through about six cars that parked in the station and then rode home. He was not to know that the kerosine he bought would irrevocably change his life. When he got home, as usual, the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) had switched off power at the New Benin Area where he lived.So Christian gave the small gallon of kerosine he bought to his wife to pour into the lantern so they could have light in their one bedroom apartment.
Pushing the four year old child that clung to her away, Mrs Ekeluba dutifully poured the kerosine into the lantern and took out a stick of matches from its box, struck it and held out its flickering flame against the wick of the lantern. Instead of light, there was an explosion of fire. No one in the room was spared the consequences. Before Mrs Ekeluba could jump from the fire, it blazed through her right hand. Her daughter, who was nearby, got to her feet and ran but the fire reached out to her and burnt her at the back of her neck. Chibuzor Ekeluba, the four year old boy, was too bemused to run.
The fire lashed at him and burnt him from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. Christian Ekeluba did not know when he rushed the boy out of the house for treatment at the Owen Clinic, Upper Mission Road of New Benin.It was from here that his problem began. He spent about one hundred thousand naira in the six weeks Chibuzor was admitted at the Own Clinic. When he was referred to the Central Hospital, Sapele Road for treatment, Christian had to provide money for board, feeding and drugs for Chibuzor. When doctors at Central Hospital referred him to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital at Ugbowo, Chibuzor had to raise the hard cash alone to pay the bills. Three years later, broke and his motor bike sold in order to raise money to take care of his son, he is bitter:"Up till now, the Edo State Government has not done anything for me." While Christian Ekeluba made this declaration on March 7, 2004, other people had the same conclusion. They are saying the government led by Chief Lucky Igbinedion had done nothing for the kerosione explosion victims. Left to take care of situation anyhow they deemed it fit, bread winners have faced financial ruin in saving their children and wives from the effects of the kerosine explosion, with most of the victims still in pain and sorrow. Angry at the response to their plight, some of them have formed themselves into a pressure group to fight government indifference to their problem. On June 19, 2001, hundreds of people in Benin City and its environs bought kerosine from filling stations or from retailers who bought the product from filling stations. The filling stations got the product from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company depot in Benin City. When the kerosine was poured into lamps the following and subsequent days, and then lit up, explosions occurred. The explosion fire burnt through the flesh of women and children, scouring out muscles into bloody patches of scarred flesh, leaving faces, legs, stomachs disfigured and rotten with stink within a few days : 200 people died from the explosions, while over 1000 others were hospitalized. Mrs Eki Igbinedion, wife of the Edo State Governor, said on visiting the hospitals:"I feel so bad, that words are not enough to describe what I have just seen. Its so sad to see many women and children badly burnt." A week after the explosions donations started coming in. Church organizations, civil society groups, and individuals brought money, food and medical materials and presented them to government which served as trustee for victims.
The Nigeria National Petroleum Company, Standard Trust Bank, All States Trust Bank, Union Bank, Delta State Government and others donated drugs and food for the victims as well as cash for them.Officials of the health ministry later said the money got trapped at the Savannah Bank and victims ended up buying their own drugs. A few days after the tragedy broke out, following accusations that it was responsible for it, the NNPC set up a team to look into the situation. The team found out through standard analysis of the kerosine that it had a flash point of 27 degree centrigrade. The team also discovered that this was within the flashpoint for petrol, which is between 25 to 30 degree centrigrade. However, the NNPC did not hold itself responsible for the situation. Ndu Ughamadu, the Public Relations Director of the company then said:"The petrol came from people who vandalized NNPC pipelines, diluted it with kerosine, and sold it to customers as kerosine." About two months later the Edo state Government set up the Akomolafe Wilson Judicial Enquiry into the kerosine fire issue. The panel was to determine the overt and remote cause of the kerosine fire explosions. It was also to determine who was at fault and so be responsible for paying compensation to the victims of the tragedy.
Thirty six months later, say kerosine victims, the result of the investigation and the recommendations of the panel are not out, even though the panel submitted its findings to government. Three months after the Akomolafe Panel was set up, the House of Representative Committee on Petroleum held a public sitting in Benin City. It took memos from kerosine victims, civil society groups and government officials . It summoned staff of the NNPC Benin Depot, whose negligence many believed led to the killer kerosine problem, and questioned them. It sat for two days. Kerosine fire victims say the result of the committee's sitting has not been made public two and a half years after. The abandonment of the kerosine victims to their fate has made many of them to be very bitter. Beatrice Imafidon, 38, who lives at NIFOR, five kilometers away from Benin, is one of them. She had bought the killer kerosine from a filling station near NIFOR on January 22, 2001 and when she used it for her lamp it exploded and burnt her right down from the breast to her navel. "It would have been a different thing if I had gone to vandalize a pipeline and got this," she says, "But here I am, a poor housewife, who went to a licensed filling station to buy kerosine which I thought was normal, getting burnt. I bought sorrow and tragedy with my money."
The experience of victims and their families has been that of financial ruin and emotional collapse as a result of abandonment which came with the crisis. "That Jan 21 2001, there had been a blackout,"says Mr Johnson Owie, a father of a victim. "I sent my son, Osagbanka, to buy 20 naira kerosine from a neighbour who works at the NNPC Benin depot. My brother's daughter then struck the matches after the kerosine came. It exploded. She threw the lantern on my son who was lying on top of a well. That was when the problem started." Since assistance came from nowhere he bore the brunt of the problem alone "I had to borrow fifty thousand naira with an interest of fifteen thousand naira per month so I could take care of my son. I used the approval document of my house as a surety. I could not pay the money lender. I lost the approval document to him. Right now, I'm very confused." As if his son's tragedy was not enough, another came as a direct result of his son's condition. "As we were running around for my son my wife became worried. She then developed hypertension over the issue. My problem became compounded. I was running around for my son, I was running around for my wife. I was spending money for my son and I was spending money for my wife." Johnson Owie has six children, three of them in schools.
When the double tragedy occured, and he was spending money for his wife and son, the remaining children were also affected. "I had no money to continue to keep them in school so I withdrew them. Right now, the three of them are at home because there is no money to sponsor them to school. Conditions have become so bad that eating a meal a day has become a problem." This is not the only problem victims and their families go through. A number of them want their children to be as they were before the tragedy occurred. Johnson noted that the only way this is possible in Nigeria is through skin grafting at the University of Benin teaching Hospital or at the UCH, Ibadan. "We took our children to the University of Benin," Johnson says, "We noticed that all the children taken for skin grafting did not survive. They all died. So I refused to take my son there." The best option is to take the boy out of the country for surgery and this will cost hundreds of thousands of naira, which he cannot afford. Another issue that rankles victims and their families is education. "My son cannot go to school because his body is deformed," says one of the parents of the victims."He cannot play with the other children in the street. He used to attend Bethel Nursery and Primary School at Upper Mission Road before the incident.When he came to resume school, the other children did not accept him. Our children no longer fit in with others." As a result, they have to stay at home. The Edo State Commissioner for Health denied all the charges against the state government. "We care for the victims," he insists. "Their money got trapped at the Savannah Bank, we sourced for some other money and gave some of them.
The Akomolafe report is out. We have done everything we can do but a few of them remain trouble makers." Three weeks ago, victims say, the government seems to be doing a rethink as it sent feelers to the Kerosine Fire Victims Association (KEVA), the radical arm ofthe victims, for meeting with government to solve their problems. But government rethink after three years might not assuage them. "We want the government to publish those who donated money it received on behalf of victims," says Tony Erha, coordinator of LifeTag, am NGO which fights for victims. "If this is not done the public will feel further donation will be embezzled as others have been." The victims also want the government to publish the Justice Akomolafe Wilson Judicial Panel report, which they say greatly indicted the NNPC. If this happens, says Tony Erha, victims will have a chance of getting compensation from the NNPC and also be willing to meet with government for discussion. This, however, is not all. Christian Ekeluba, apart from having his family scarred by the fire explosionis also an executive member of KEVA, and he wants some things done by government. "We are aggrieved and we want all serious victims taken abroad for surgery because it can't be successfully done in this country," he says. "We are asking government that if the children who are victims are their children, can they accept them like that? If the women are their wives, can they accept them like that?" The victims would want a few other things before they can cooperate with the government. They want the committee set up by government to look into the issue to be expanded to include victims, since they are directly involved. Many want compensation from those responsible for the killer kerosine and free education for all those children concerned. "If they refuse our demands," says Christian, "We will go ahead and take the fight to the whole world. We are ready to fight and lose our last bloodas far as this issue is concerned." Back in January 2001, Chief Dan Orhih, a politician,. when speaking on the kerosine issue, said:"Honestly speaking, I am disappointed with how this issue has been handled."
After three years of badly scarred faces, arms and legs oozing stinking pus a result of wounds left untreated due to poverty, a lot of the victims have long come to similar conclusions.

The Hyena Men of Nigeria

2007-11-19T08:48:00.001-08:00

THE HYENA MEN OF NIGERIA
"This business helps us make money," said Yahaya Ahmadu. "We use the money to help our families. It rescues us from poverty."

You wouldn't have guessed that Yahaya's business is taking about wild animals such as hyenas, baboons, monkeys and snakes round Nigeria and surrounding West African countries for shows on city streets. The business has been quite sustaining also. It has attracted many other young men from the northern part of Nigeria to the south, building camps on the fringe of towns and cities, making living in 'no man's land' a way of life, making money to keep body and soul together.

When Yahaya dropped out of secondary school a few years ago, and with scarcity of jobs due to the economic depression in Katsina State, his home state, carrying wild animals about became an option, especially as it was a family tradition. The same with his brothers, cousins, uncles and other members of the extended family, who all see their work as a way to beat crushing poverty. Today, all have their hands full.

One Sunday at Ogere-Remo in Ikenne Local Council of Ogun State in Nigeria, Yahaya and his relatives earned about twenty six thousand naira from being hired for a photo session for three hours by a photographer who had come to town just to capture them in his lenses,

Yahaya and his brothers were elated by the money. But they also made more from a cut from the drivers they contacted to help convey the animals for the session, as well as from others enthralled by the antics of the beasts and were only too pleased to part with their money.

As youth unemployment continue to bite hard in Nigeria - along with the associated poverty - many are using their talents to devise whatever ways of making money for survival. Hyena handlers told this reporter that apart from street shows they also take part in film projects. Some money is also being made from selling some of the animals they carry about. As they move from city to city in their itinerant life, they carry herbs for sale.

"Its not easy doing this kind of thing at all," says Abdullahi Mohammed, "A quiet young man of about twenty five, who is responsible for a baboon called Frayo. "But we have to do it. I have been in it since childhood."

They were initiated into the business, they said, by Nalado Ahmadu, the family patriarch, who began about twenty years ago to take them to the caves and forests of Northern Nigeria to catch the animals, along with teaching them how to control them, as well as introducing them to charms that helped in subduing them.

Concretely, this reporter gathered that they drink a protective syrup and use the rest of it for bathing before they set out on an expedition to capture the hyena. Taking along with them hunting dogs to assist them in sniffing out the animal in its hideout, they move to caves and forests in Gombe, Bauchi, Taraba and other places where the prey can be found. When the dogs sniffs out the hyena, the young men enter the cave or forest, holding a powerful torch to light way through the darkness, believing the charm they drank earlier makes them invisible to the animal. On getting to it, they chant incantations and blow a profuse amount of a white powder on its face, rendering it senseless and easy to subdue and then chain it. After a struggle which might take days, they succeed in taking out their prey to their settlement, where it is taught how to familiar with human beings

"The animal has helped us,\" says Abdullahi Mohammed. "The money we make gives us food everyday. This runs into a few thousands of naira. We use some of the money to establish maize and yam farms in our place. I, for instance, own a farm in Danja in Katsina State." While this reporter followed them from Ogere-Remo top bar Beach at Victoria Island in Lagos, scores of fascinated people could be seen entranced by the spectacle of the hyena, along with the baboons and the snakes, walking along the street. When for instance the baboons dance and execute somersaults or jump on the back of a motor-cycle at any stop on the street, onlookers are mesmerized. Commercial buses and private cars stop, creating a traffic jam, while passengers gape at the animals as they perform their tricks. Within seconds, people gather, and a crowd is formed, everyone staring in wonder, and some of the brave ones shake the outstretched arms of the dancing baboons, those not brave enough scampering away.

At Ogere-Remo is a menagerie of two hyenas, four baboons and snakes which the handlers insist helpes them in their struggle against poverty and unemployment. "This business is a family one," states Yahaya, the only one in the lot who can speak fluent English. "All of us are members of the same extended family. It is only those in the family or selected friends of the family who can join our group. All of us learnt it from Nalado Ahmadu, or grandfather." Eloquent and suave, Yahaya tells how the animals enables them to generate money: "When we get to a place, we make the baboons do somersaults, jump on the back of motor cycles and shake peoples' hands. The people watching are impressed with our animals. Before you know it, naira notes start to fly here and there. Some throw them at the baboons. Others give them directly. The baboons bring the money to us and put it in the common till." Yahaya tells of another source of making money through carrying the animals about: "Among us are traditional healers. They make herbs to take care of problems such as snake bites, scorpion attacks, and other animal problems. We also have herbs that take care of spiritual problems of people. We have traditional herbs for ssuchn illnesses as typhoid fever, malaria, syphilis, and others. When we get to a market, street junction or public place, people gather to watch us. We use the opportunity to sell these herbs to them." Another racket which the men are involved in is the direct sale of the wild animals. "Our business is to catch wild animals. Any animal that people want we go to the forests and caves for them. But they must pay an advance for this. When this is done, we supply the animals when we get them," Yahaya says. He told this reporter that through this process they have supplied hyenas, pythons and others to zoos in Ikorodu, Port Harcourt, Jos, Maiduguri, Kano, benin and others. "A matured hyena is sold for one hundred and fifty thousand naira but the cub is higher at two hundred and fifty thousand naira. This is because while a matured may not be trainable the cub can be trained. A baboon goes for fifteen thousand naira, while the young one goes for eight thousand. A python goes for the same price and might get to ten, depending on the size." This business of selling wild animals to zoos is not limited to only to Nigeria. According to Yahaya, zoos in Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Benin republic and others patronize them. He says they have had to nationalise in these countries so they can go about their business there. "Lastly, we survive by taking part in films," says Yahaya. "Not the Nigerian Nollywood, which does not understand us, but in Benin republic. Sufiya telescope has given us big business in that country. We're hoping to get such opportunity in Nigeria." Through making money from diverse activities such as these, these reporter gathered that they are planning to invest heavily in another line of business. "We're planning that when we really make big money we'll establish a big cassava farm. We're going to locate it at Ogene-Ofada in Offa Local Government Area of Kogi State. We want the farm here because the soil is good for cassava production. We'll pay money to the villagers there to farm for us, as a large parcel of land has been given to us by the community," Yahaya says.

The hyena handlers told this reporter that the hunting dogs that accompany them in their search for wild animals are also useful in another direction. Konyami Murtala, who handles a baboon called Mora, says the dogs are used to trap rabbit, grass cutters, antelopes and other small animals in the forests surrounding their camps. The killed animals, Murtala says, are skinned and eaten or offered for sale to generate money for the group.

The hyena men are not the only ones smiling from making money from the fringe. Others connected top them directly or indirectly are also smiling.

To transport their animals from town to town, a variety of commercial bus drivers are needed. Some of these say the risk involved in transporting the animals has meant the rates being charged hyena handlers are different from those charged ordinary passengers. Says Lekan Fabuyi, a driver who plies the Ogere-Remo - Lagos route: "Normally, because of the wild animals, they pay higher than others. It is to their advantage because no bus driver would carry them except us. The increased price is also to our advantage. We're making money."

Another group of people at the margin of society who benefit are the provision store owners, food vendors and others who locate their small businesses at the outskirts of towns, where the hyena handlers usually set up their wooden, make-shift huts amidst abandoned houses, clusters of shacks and the inevitable cattle markets where Hausas mill about.

Says Biola Adekumi, a store owner :"These people are our customers. They buy things from, us. When they're around we sell more. Also, they give us fun, especially the younger ones. Their animals make us laugh, make us feel lively."

Unemployed youths, beating traditional Hausa drums, are part of the group. As the hyena men move from city to city, carrying their animals around, the drummers follow. This reporter noted that their job is to beat the drums so that when the baboons hear they start to dance.

"We're part of the group," states one of the drummers. "At the end of the day, when money has to be shared, they put us in the picture. "This is how we make our money."

The hyena men complain that though they have licenses to operate their business from many states in Nigeria people harass them and prevent them moving their animals about. "Since we started this business twenty years ago," says Abdullahi Ahmadu , "No animal has escaped from our hands. We've got papers to operate from Kaduna, Bauchi, Katsina, FCT Abuja, Kano and others. We have also had to get papers from zoos and veterinary doctors. This is because officials always call for these papers and when we give them they stop disturbing us. But despite this, forestry people in some states like Ondo State disturb us. In some other cases, those who have no business to do so always want to disturb our business."

officials in Ondo state contacted declined comment but one official gave insight into why hyena handlers who come to the state may be prevented from carrying their animals from place to place unhindered.

"The official said: "These animals are wild. No mater how you handle these things an animal is always an animal. Tame an animals for ten years and one day it'll behave like an animal. For instance, if the hyena breaks loose it can attack and kill people. I don't think these people should be allowed to carry these animals about."

But those who profit from the business claim that such talk shows insensitivity to the hyena men. Lekan, the bus driver, says: "They eat by taking these animals all around. Stop them and they take to criminality. Those criticising cannot give them another job." The handlers argue that they have been able to completely tame the animals. Even if they escape, according to Abdullahi, they have been inoculated while the jaws of the hyena has been clamped together by having a matting pushed about it.

While this reporter was preparing to leave after three days of following them about, the handlers brought their menagerie of animals to the side of a road in Lagos. The drummers struck a beat and the baboons pranced about and jumped. Passing cars stopped and their passengers craned their necks through the windows and gaped. Motor-bike riders parked at the fringe of a gathering crowd and stared in fascination. The handlers shouted at the baboons and they somersaulted and performed other acrobatic movements. Before long naira notes started being thrown at them. Says an onlooker: "Though their way of making money is odd, these people are in real business."