Category: Opinion

 

Ibn Sina, also known as “Avicenna”, is the best known persian and Islamic scholar in Medicine. His medical treatise, the ‘Canon’ was said to be the standard textbook on Medicine in the Arab world and Europe in the 17th century. He was a philosopher, physician, psychiatrist and poet.

The famous scholar once conducted a medical experiment. Avicenna put two identical lambs, both in weight and health, in two separate cages, and placed a wolf in a third. The wolf could only be seen by the lamb in the second cage and the other was placed out of sight.

Both lambs were kept under the same conditions and fed the same meals. But months later, the lamb that could see the wolf died out of sheer stress and fear, though the wolf did not physically go near or pose any threat to the lamb. The other lamb that had not seen the wolf lived on healthily and even added weight.

While one of the lambs was perceiving her condition through the cage and the care giver, the other was seeing her fears, the wolf, next to her, about to take her life. The constant visualization of the wolf which is an imminent threat to her life, diminished the quality of life of the second lamb and consequently took it.

How are you perceiving the numerous constraints and challenges you are facing right now? As a wolf waiting to devour you or through the view of your loving care giver? With the exception of politicians, almost everyone in the country is living in constant fear and internal unrest. Unrest about where the next meal or bill will come from. That is the prevailing trauma as the social media exacerbates it with fearporn and gaslighting.

You have to accept that there is actually no day, no matter how bad it promises to turn out, that will not come and go. The wolf in the next cage isn’t going to kill you. It only depends on how you view it. If a paraphilic mind views a naked body from a balcony, the physical sexual organs are immediately aroused but an artist will view same and see a perfect image that expresses the sensuality of nature. If you bump into someone you are holding malice with, there is a sudden surge of adrenaline into your blood streams that lasts until that person is out of sight, but a self-effacing person will use the opportunity for amends and protect his or her nervous system from adrenalin poisoning.

Many times, as we coddiwomple through the web of life, the challenges are the same for most of us, the difference is how we react to them individually. While some of us see wolves about to devour us, others see calm in the midst of the storm. The country is indeed very tough at the moment for most people. But we have to be tougher. The concept of mind over body is that through the power of the mind and its thoughts, whether through specific exercises or our everyday thoughts, we can make our body do things that we would otherwise view as incredibly difficult or impossible. We can defy limits imposed by our bodies. Like the two experimental lambs of Avicenna, what we decide to see in our tough moments, will eventually determine our fate. Stay strong!

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

 

There is nowhere in the world where elected officials have been emboldened by the electorates and elevated to venerable status like we have in Africa and Nigeria in particular. Either wittingly or unwittingly, somehow or anyhow, out of our own volition, by our own doing, we have convinced those who are supposed to be our servants that they are now our lords. Consequently, servants are now riding on horses and those who sent them are trekking on empty stomachs. That’s why a lawmaker will say on TV that, it is a N160million luxury car purchased with public money, that is befitting for their assignment.

Even in the US where we copied our democracy from, members of Congress may lease a vehicle for official use within the Congressional District. Only the Member and full-time staff with valid driver’s licenses are permitted to operate the vehicle. Not even their wives or family members are allowed to use the vehicle unless they work with the member full time. Lease payments in excess of $1,000 per month cannot be charged against the Members’ Representational Allowance (MRA). You pay the balance by yourself.

If we cross over to Europe, the situation is a lot more frugal. Majority of the countries in the EU, which are far richer and stable than us in Africa, do not have official vehicles for members of parliament. Yet they make laws that govern their countries.

In Britain, members of the House of Commons get transportation, IT and communications allowances to the tune of 10 percent of their gross salary. For official functions, the UK systematically contracts the services of a taxi company for the exclusive use of the Clerk of the Parliament and the Chairmen of Committees who can use the Government Car Service to and from the airport when attending an international conference and occasionally for other official functions. When committee members are making official trips, they will have their transport expenses reimbursed.

In France, National Assembly members only claim expenses of up to 5,837 euros per month for transport, rent for second homes in Paris, entertainment and clothing. There are also benefits in kind like free travel in first class on the national rail network SNCF, 40 free return flights per year between Paris and their constituencies, and six free return flights per year on itineraries of their choice within mainland France.

In Spain, members of parliament from within Madrid get 870 euros a month in expenses, while MPs with a constituency out of the capital get 1,823 euros a month in expenses including transportation. The Spanish parliament also allows the use of a contracted government transport service for certain categories of members and staff.

In Germany, lawmakers are allowed to use office cars for trips within Berlin, get free train travel across Germany and are reimbursed for domestic flights used in exercising their mandate. Certain categories of members of the Upper House, (Bundesrat) are however allowed the use of official cars.

In Sweden, members of parliament living more than 50km (31 miles) from the Riksdag are entitled to reimbursement of up to 7,000 Swedish krona a month, for transport and overnight accommodation in Stockholm. No one is entitled to an official car.

In Belgium, only Bureau members are entitled to official cars.

In the Czech Republic, only the Vice-chairmen and Chairmen of parliamentary committees and chairmen of political groups have access to official cars.

In Luxemburg, only the President and Vice-President of parliament have access to official cars.

The Polish Parliament authorizes the use of official cars by the Heads of the Senate Chancellery, Directors of the Senate Chancellery offices, staff (clerks) of the Senate Chancellery in general, when working after 8 p.m.

The Romanian Parliament offers the use of official cars to the institution’s Secretary-General, departmental heads, directors, advisers and experts.

Austria has a system of reimbursement of parliamentarians for regular journeys on production of invoices.

In Estonia, there is a fixed monetary norm of €205/month, for travel expenses for parliamentarians.

But return home to Africa and gasp for breathe. A blessed continent so mismanaged and riddled with poverty, you will wonder what our leaders want to prove with their appetite for luxury wheels. The scandalous lust for these automobiles cuts across the continent, but let me list a few.

Ugandan MPs got $30million in 2021 to buy luxury cars. Each of the 529 lawmakers got $56,500.

The 418 Kenyan Parliamentarians, including both Speakers, are entitled to car loans and a free vehicle known as car grant. In 2022, the 12th Parliament of Kenya, budgeted Sh11.7bn for luxury cars.

War torn and poverty ravaged South Sudan, spent $16million on luxury cars for MPs in 2018.

In 2021, the Ghanaian Parliament approved a $28million loan to buy luxury cars. Each of the 275 MPs received $100,000 for the purchase of a vehicle.

MPs in South Africa are allowed to purchase one car for official use in Pretoria as well as one in Cape Town, making two, which could value up to R1.68 million each. Earlier this year, it was reported that the Speaker of the South African Parliament, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, took delivery of two new 5 series BMWs costing R1.5 million.

In Nigeria, NASS members are entitled to car loans not exceeding 400 percent of their basic salary. According to RMAFC records, a senator gets an annual basic salary of N2.02 million, while Reps earn N1.9 million. Therefore, they are entitled to a car loan of not more than N8.1 million and N7.9 million respectively. How they arrived at buying N160million vehicles is a question that will wait for Godot.

The most disturbing addendum to all of these is that, this appetite for exotic cars by our lawmakers is also foreign tailored. It doesn’t matter to them that several African countries are already manufacturing automobiles and there is a need to strengthen these manufactures and retain capital. All the luxury cars they purchase are foreign brands from outside Africa.

We can go on and on, but the very rare example here also is President Hichilema of Zambia who recently rejected a proposal to buy cars worth $1.8 million for his entourage and asked government officials who needed high-end cars to purchase them with their personal cash. We can hold on to his glimmer of hope and continue to preach that other Africans who hold leadership positions will come to that light too and reorder our priorities for the benefit of this continent.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

Nigeria, What Are You Doing About It?

Nigeria is really getting tougher by the day for those who lack access to public funds, either directly or by proxy.

And there are no quick fixes around the horizon or so it appears.

The trends are clearly inviting despair but a resilient nation is absorbing the tremors and trudging on with haggled hopes.

Events continue to happen and fade away. Events that should have steered our nation to fruition.

They continue to come and go, but the nation itself is neither coming nor going.

Interestingly, even in the midst of the cavilling about hard times in the country, from the towns to our remotest hamlets, a broke citizenry is still gnashing and hewing the streets in search of a glimmer of succor.

Many have ditched their fate in the nation and have set sail yonder in pursuit of what our nation has denied them.

Though they swell in pain on those sojourns, the hope of gain sustains their toil.

But why have we not toiled gainfully in our own land?

Why has our land returned barrenness to our effort?

Why have the seeds we bury on our land refrained from springing up?

Why has our land delayed the harvest of our labor?

Why have the springs of our mountains dried up in our winter?

Why has the rain refused to fall on our vineyard?

Is it our land that has locked its womb or is it we who have planted amiss?

Has our land conspired to perpetually fling our toiling to sheol?

Are the ruins of our hopes fanning the garlands of the high and mighty?

As every new leader takes over, the country accelerates to a new level of hardship. When will this cycle be reversed?

How long does a nation take to provide security and opportunities for her citizens to thrive?

If you are a leader in whatever capacity in Nigeria, do you frankly think you have done well enough or doing well enough to create a prosperous nation?

If you are a citizen, are you satisfied in your heart that your activities are suitable and acceptable for the stability of a prosperous nation?

Just be honest!

Whatever are your own answers to these questions should be able to rattle something inside all of us. Our conscience!

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

 

Continuum in life is nature’s way of taking a huge risk and hoping it will pay off. Everything in life is a continuum. Things happen in perpetuity. Nothing in life ever really dies or comes to an end. Things only change forms. We learnt that in elementary science. That matter exists in different forms. Solid, Liquid and Gaseous and even more. All forms of matter transform but none is lost.

If a bush is gutted by fire for instance, all the flora and fauna including the minutest life forms may be consumed by the inferno and look all dead. But the drop of rain and the passage of time, will usually produce something better. Even if it were a nuclear disaster, it will only take rain and time for new life to blossom again. The new life is the ghost of the former. They only changed from flora and fauna to ashes, due to the application of heat, and then changed again from ashes to flora and fauna, due to the application of oxygen and hydrogen, (H²O) from rain, over time.

The farmer must also preserve and plant a seed that will ‘die’ in the soil and wait for rain, to spring up a new plant from the carcass of the old. Even the abandoned harvest will fall to the ground, get rotten and die in the soil and wait for rain, to blossom in new form. None of the forms is permitted to be permanent because that will usurp the order of things. So things have to be this today, and that tomorrow.

This sequence serves to remind us all that, even if you are a President, a Governor, a General, an MD, CEO, DG, PS, GMD, Minister, Senator, Rep, Union Leader, VC, GO, IGP, Monarch or any other such important person at the moment, take a nap and count how many persons have worn that crown, position, title, rank or privilege, before it got to your turn and how many more are on queue to get there as soon as your time elapse. It is because nature wanted to take a risk on someone else, that is why you got to that position and that risk taking doesn’t stop with you. The list after you is endless.

In fact, those who nature has favored with privileged positions in society have either attained or about to attain the end of their rising ladder, whether they rose through the rungs of the ladder slowly or suddenly. Privileges abound more at the top. And if you are already at the top, you are near the exit, so that mother nature can take the next risk on another person, like she took on you.

Finally, remember that the ladder has two ends; up and down. And like reggae legend, Lucky Dube sang, “Be good to the people on your way up the ladder, coz you will meet them on your way down.” That’s just the way it is.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

 

If you buy land or buy a house, you have only paid rent for the remaining years you have on Earth. None of them belong to you.

If you buy a car, you have only paid for your transport for the period the car will last or for the period you will last. It doesn’t belong to you.

If you marry a spouse, you have only got company until circumstances or death do you part. No one owns the other.

If you have children, you have only fulfilled the demand of continuity of life until death comes. You don’t own them. That’s why the State still dictates how you bring them up.

If you have money, you have only amassed value to purchase what you want, for your remaining number of years on Earth. The notes belong to the Central Bank.

If you work and retire, your pension is only for life. After your life, it stops.

Even if you eat and get filled, the food in your belly isn’t yours. You must defecate it back to Earth.

The body itself which you cherish so highly, doesn’t belong to you. The Earth will certainly reclaim its bits, when the loan is due.

Even the life we live is borrowed, and surely will be returned.

So let us not be afraid of losing anything in this life, because we do not own anything here. Two things will surely happen; we will either be taken away from everything we think we own or everything we think we own will be taken away from us someday. It is that day that none of us know.

We boast about our body, our houses, our lands, our money, our wives, our husbands, our children, our parents, our everything. But that’s where it ends. Boasting! Ruminate intensely and it won’t be difficult to find out that, we do not own any of those things. We are only availed of them to mitigate the necessary constraints of our sojourn here.

So never lose your head or your cool or your temper or your values or your vibrancy, whenever you think you have lost something because nothing was ever really yours. Not even….

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

 

Is Feminism just about advocacy for the assimilation of western female taste or advocacy for women’s rights per culture?

Whether it is “genderized” or not, as far as the issues of rampant abuse and lack of equal opportunity for women and the girl child is concerned, it is clearly a human right issue. No human being, whether male or female, should be abused or denied any opportunity based on gender or culture. That is encompassing enough for me and should be in the front pew.

But the flagrant disregard for cultural variations and even personal taste of a section of women, in the pursuit of the broad feminism agenda is plaguing the movement. It appears that the Western feminist band, who also bank roll the advocacy, are more bent on assimilating their own feminist ethos on their playing field, to the isolation of the culturalist women who also desire feminist rights without losing their culture.

The persistence with which the western feminists present the taste of the western women as the preferred standard for every woman or what should be the ideal standard for every woman, is menacing. This particular hoard of feminists I am addressing are not mindful of the fact that, there are Yoruba women in Nigeria for instance, who want and fight for all the women’s rights but want to preserve their cultural value of women taking a knee to greet elders and men. That there are Igbo women in Nigeria who want and fight for all the women’s rights but still want to teach their female children that it is a wife that should cook for her husband. That there are Hausa women who want and fight all the women’s right but still want to be inside “Kule” and be pampered by their husbands.

That there are Banyankole women in Uganda who want and fight for all the women’s rights but still want to respect their age long cultural rights to have their aunties taste the sexual agility of their husbands on their marriage eve. That there are Zulu women in Southern Africa, who want and fight for all the women’s rights, but will want to preserve their cultural pride of chasity to flaunt their breasts bare and carry a rid. That there are Muslim women who want and fight for all the women’s rights but still admire and welcome their husbands into marrying four wives as their religion allows. That there are matrilineal Meghalaya women in India, who are in control of their communities and they love and want that system to remain the way it is. That there are tribal feminists around the world who still find it romantic to get their aging husbands a new maiden as their customs allow.

The insensitivity of the Western feminists to these cultural nuances and their straight line prescription of Western standards as an across-the-counter pill for global women’s rights is something that must be challenged. Why should these hoard try to make it look like, if western styled models are not embraced, it is not feminism? Are they fighting only for women who want to become like women from the Western world or they are fighting for women who want their rights within their cultural freedom? Are they perpetrating foreign culture on other people or they are suffering to liberate women from forces limiting their progress?

Everyone who believes in humanity and love will not tolerate abuse or injustice, whether it is perpetrated against a male, female, stranger, acquaintance, family member or even a pet. The abuse and denial of women’s right is a crime and all people of goodwill must seek redress wherever it is happening. But the substitute is certainly not an imposition and assimilation of western feminist taste. That is the lie that is now shoved down our throats and methinks it is pertinent to raise these concerns openly to safeguard the mental health of many young women who are being misguided into this venture in ignorance by bitter renegades who are on vengeance missions.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.