[kictanet] Fwd: Re: Three days in Nigeria

[Warigia Bowman]

Habari Mwalimu

This is a very well written piece. It is quite compelling.

Kind regards, Warigia


On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 10:42 AM, Brian Ngure <brian.ngure at gmail.com> wrote:

> I agree with Lizette. Each to his/her own. Plus, I am of the generation
> that grew up with A Man of the People, so I can really relate :)
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 6:37 PM, Lizette Kraft <lfkraft at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: "Lizette Kraft" <lfkraft at gmail.com>
>> Date: 10 Oct 2013 18:34
>> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Three days in Nigeria
>> To: "John Masiwe" <jmasiwe at bluegate.co.ke>
>> Cc:
>>
>> Hello!!!!! Can we not read someones experience and narrative ( Daktari
>> wrote beautifully) without commenting on how or what he should have
>> referred to. Everyone to write and refer as he pleases. What is with the
>> culture of critising when there is no need!!! Please!!
>> On 10 Oct 2013 15:31, "John Masiwe" <jmasiwe at bluegate.co.ke> wrote:
>>
>>> Daktari,
>>>
>>> This is good prose. You should seriously consider a platform for this
>>> kind
>>> of writing where you weave a narrative with personal observations during
>>> formal engagements. A welcome break from your usual policy-style
>>> writing. As
>>> a parting shot, maybe you should have quoted the more contemporary
>>> Chimamanda Adichie instead of Achebe. :)
>>>
>>> John Masiwe
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: kictanet
>>> [mailto:kictanet-bounces+jmasiwe=bluegate.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
>>> Behalf Of Bitange Ndemo
>>> Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 11:54 PM
>>> To: jmasiwe at bluegate.co.ke
>>> Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'
>>> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Three days in Nigeria
>>>
>>> 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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>>
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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.
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>
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> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
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-- 
Dr. Warigia Bowman
Assistant Professor
Clinton School of Public Service
University of Arkansas
wbowman at clintonschool.uasys.edu
-------------------------------------------------
View my research on my SSRN Author page:
http://ssrn.com/author=1479660
--------------------------------------------------
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