[kictanet] Practical "Ndemo" Talk Show?

[Peter Wakaba]

Dr. Ndemo i would suggest you try get this published as an opinion piece.
And while at it get a regular column. Much better stuff that those wannabe
political and social pundits.


On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 2:11 PM, S.M. Muraya <murigi.muraya at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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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> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
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-- 
*
Warm Regards,

PETER WAKABA
AFRICA BUSINESS EDITOR,
CCTV AFRICA

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, It knows it must run faster
than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up,
it knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It
doesn't matter whether you are a gazelle or a lion. When the sun comes up,
you better start running.
- In "The World is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman.*
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