[kictanet] Practical "Ndemo" Talk Show?

[S.M. Muraya]

Intellectual and Practical Talk show for Bw.Ndemo?

Intelligent Debates on how to deal with Corruption hindering/resisting
Transparent more Automated Governance?

Regards

Murigi / Stanley Muraya
On Oct 10, 2013 8:15 AM, "waudo siganga" <emailsignet at mailcan.com> wrote:

> This is a well written article Daktari. Your power of observation and
> penchant for detail are an indication that you have other talents
> outside ICT. I like the irony that when you start off your speech with a
> joke about Okonkwo, most of the (Nigerian) audience appears not to know
> who or what you are talking about. Then immediately linking this as a
> metaphor for the death of intellectualism in Africa is brilliant.
>
> Otherwise congratulations on your honorary chairmanship and best wishes
> to attaining the set goals.
>
> Waudo
>
> On Wed, Oct 9, 2013, at 11:54 PM, Bitange Ndemo wrote:
> > Three days in Nigeria
> > Standing outside Abuja Airport in the soaring temperatures you get amazed
> > on how similar to Kenya Nigeria is.   This is Africa's most populous
> > country.   People idling around and women talking animatedly with their
> > hands akimbo and they are larger than you can see in Kenya.  I had missed
> > the person who was to pick me up.  Oga! Those who walked by me remarked.
> > I assumed it was some greetings to a brother.  Colours of their clothing
> > is similar to ours and perhaps the only difference with Kenya is that
> > more
> > men wore multi-colour kanzus.  Open shoes, Akala type are more prevalent
> > here.
> >
> > I walk towards the taxis.  They are gentler than I have read in Nigerian
> > literature.  They were honest too with the fare to the cities.  I had
> > begun to settle down and give Nigeria the benefit of doubt but my mind
> > takes me back to Odili, the narrator in Achebe’s 1966 novel, Man of the
> > People.  Also not forgetting the many stories told about Nigerians.
> >
> > For a while I savor the beauty of Abuja scenery.  Green everywhere.  It
> > must be within the rain forest.  Land is expanse and untilled.  I turn my
> > attention to my driver Oku Moses.  An affable young man perhaps in his
> > early 30’s.  I tell him I am from Kenya and in Abuja for the CTO
> > conference.  He smiles broadly and asked me what I thought of Nigeria as
> > if he had read my mind.  I said so far so good and immediately I divert
> > his train of thought to football.  I tell him Nigeria is the main
> > hindrance to Kenya’s quest to get to World cup.  We became friends
> > instantly as he opened up to tell me more.
> >
> > You see that road, he says it leads to nowhere.  Corruption is the only
> > problem here he adds as his tone begin to sound angrier.  I calm him down
> > and tell him it happens all over Africa.  The 50 kilometer super highway
> > from the airport to Abuja is as good as it gets, actually better than
> > Nairobi Thika highway.  The Hotel I am headed to, is called Chelsea,
> > named
> > after the English league team Chelsea.  Oku is a fan of Arsenal another
> > English league team.  He knows all the players.  He asks which team I
> > support and when I tell him none, he then says that is why you will never
> > go to world cup.
> >
> > At the hotel Oku bids me farewell and hands me his card.  Call me he
> > says.
> >  I will show you the best of Nigeria.  It is still hot and my room was
> > steaming with heat.  This three star hotel does not have a centralized AC
> > but I could do with an old cranky stand-alone cooling system.  As I
> > cranked it up, it made more noise that I could not listen to news on TV.
> > Then suddenly the lights went off – blackout!!.  Outside it was raining
> > heavily.  I said Geez this is home but soon some generator boomed just
> > outside my room to bring light.  I wished they had shut it down.
> >
> > Dinner time I joined other colleagues, Sonia, Karin, Robert and John for
> > Dinner.  Me and Sonia were the vegetarians and so requested for pasta,
> > the
> > only vegetarian dish on the menu.  Alas! when the food came there was
> > chicken on pasta instead of tomato.   The young waitress tells me she
> > decided on chicken since there were no tomatoes.   After a few exchanges
> > she seems to remember something and says I can make it vegetarian.  Wala!
> > like magic she comes back with pasta alone.  I said thank you but as I
> > start to eat, I discover or rather the waitress had forgotten that the
> > base was chicken and she had only removed the toppings of chicken.  She
> > meant well and wanted to do well but she missed the point.
> >
> > As I watched Nigerian channels that evening, I say to myself, Nigeria is
> > Kenya and Kenya is Nigeria.  We were colonized by the British.  We
> > attained independence at about the same time in the 1960s.  We have new
> > constitutions with devolved powers.  Just like Kenya, Nigeria continues
> > to
> > experience longstanding ethnic and religious tensions.  Although in
> > Kenya’s 2008 as in Nigeria’s 2003 and 2007 presidential elections were
> > marred by significant irregularities and violence, but both countries are
> > experiencing relative peace interrupted by the Al-Shabab and Boka Haram
> > respectively.
> >
> > On Nigerian TV as in Kenya politicians complain that they need more power
> > to states and counties.  They seem not to understand that they are the
> > ones with the power to change legislation and so when they complain, the
> > masses have no representation.  They also need more money yet they are
> > the
> > ones who appropriate resources.  They complain about soaring crime yet
> > they are the ones who have the mandate to bring better security
> > legislation.
> > On the roads, motor bikes ride on the assumption that every motorist
> > should watch on them.  Careless and dangerous like in Kenya.  If you
> > admire the cleanliness of Abuja while driving, you will for sure hit one
> > of them.  Public places including hotels are guarded by armed policemen.
> >
> > In my speech at the conference I said I was glad to visit Nigeria, land
> > of
> > Okonkwo from Umuofia (one of a fictional group of nine villages in
> > Nigeria, inhabited by the Igbo people).   Only a handful of the people in
> > the audience who knew that I was referring to Achebe’s 1958 novel, Things
> > Fall Apart.  Later Funke, a prominent Nigerian businesswoman and friend
> > tells me that intellectualism died in Nigeria.  There was a time in
> > Nigeria prominent writers were the role model of society.  These were the
> > people who put our oral history on paper but we decided to chase them
> > away.  It is sad that Achebe had to die in foreign land alone without his
> > people.  I tell Funke, it is so strikingly similar to Kenya that our
> > prominent writers are getting old and wasted away in foreign lands.
> >
> > Haruna is driving me back to the airport.  He like Oku is polite but with
> > much better intellect than an ordinary driver.  His grasp of African
> > matters is excellent.  Out of the blue he tells me, you worked with
> > government.  I tell him yes and I quickly ask him why.  No I just wanted
> > to know, he says.  Then he tells me that he is driving a car (VX Land
> > Cruiser) that he will never afford to buy in his entire life. I note the
> > ambition in him and tell him that if you know then you are capable of
> > buying the car.  I am not in government, he says.  I tell him you do not
> > need to be in government to buy the car.  You see I was in government but
> > I still cannot drive such a thing.  He looks at me then he says, it is by
> > choice on your part.  I tipped him $20 and bade him farewell.  He was
> > stunned.
> >
> > I leave Nigeria with many fond memories.  It was three days but enough to
> > grasp the dreams of other people.  Their desires.  Their hopes.  We are
> > all the same and hopefully one day we shall change the stigma of
> > corruption by improving the fortunes of our Africa.  God bless Africa.
> >
> >
> > Ndemo.
> >
> >
> > University of Nairobi
> > Business School, Lower Kabete Campus
> >
> >
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> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
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