[kictanet] Three days in Nigeria

[Kivuva]

Can easily be converted into a book

On 10/10/2013, Mark Mwangi <mwangy at gmail.com> wrote:
> @Dr. Ndemo I suggest you start a blog and pen down these thoughts for
> consumption by the public. KICTANET is a great platform but limited in
> users. I would be the first to subscribe and engage you in the comments
> instead of filling up peoples mailboxes. Please consider this. It would be
> an addition to the local content pool (wink wink)
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 8:14 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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>> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
>> 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.
>>
>> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
>> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and
>> bandwidth,
>> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
>> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Mark Mwangi
>
> markmwangi.me.ke
>


-- 
______________________
Mwendwa Kivuva
twitter.com/lordmwesh
kenya.or.ke | The Kenya we know