ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the Opinion category.

Re-reading History

For the past few days, I have been reading Nigeria’s history (again), especially as regards military politics and the slow and significant steps that brought us to where we are today. The curious search began with a visit to Ilorin and Kaduna where I first heard of Ibrahim Taiwo road. Now Ilorin and Kaduna are both very distant places from each other and the Yoruba military man must have been significant to have had a major road named after him in two (perhaps more) states in Nigeria. I came online, and I was led from one relevant link to another until I satisfied my curiosity.

At the end of two full days of reading through a verifiable history that has also been written about in many other publications, I came to very many realizations. One of them of course was that the civil population never stood much of a chance from the beginning, especially since military tasted power. Ego, politics, greed and corruption took over and we have not remained the same ever since, nor has the players since independence really stepped aside for others or dialogued with alternative viewpoints, for the most part. We could say that much of Nigeria’s military history shares the stage with much of its political history.

There were very many complex stories many of which lent itself to interesting engagement. The first coup and its ethnic sentiments, the counter coups and military politics, the civil war heroes and villains, the players and the losers, and the very many incidental occurrences that read like stuff for movies or great literatures. General Gowon stands out with his far-reaching reforms, his engaging personality, and his position at a crucial time in history. In comparison, he is the only one of Nigeria’s leaders that could stand in Mandela’s image. At the end though, placed beside the reality on the ground where at fifty years we have not been able to supply electricity uninterrupted to all parts of the country, all the gallantry and “gentlemanliness” or the Nigerian military officers (who have interestingly all remained in the political and diplomatic limelight since then) all fade away into the murk of irrelevance. A waste.

Much of those stories can be found online at Dawodu.com. People interested should check here, here and here for detailed analysis of the first coups and how it changed the course of the nation’s history.

August

By some chance, I will return to school sometimes this month to become a student again, and there are a few chills that accompany that realization. The last time I was a full-time student in a University was more than five years ago and I have (almost) forgotten what that was like. I woke up at six, got prepared, went to school and stayed around the school area until evening when I’d finished all courses for the day. I had time tables, and there were oftentimes gaps between each course that I sometimes had to go back to my hostel, take a nap or complete and assignment, and return to school. The little memories I have of that says that it was a mixture of fun, frustration and stress. Add to that the chance of doing exactly whatever what one wanted.

In the intervening years between then and now, I had grown a beard, however little, lost (much of) my innocence, and become a teacher (of some sort), seen the world (or some of it) and grown pretty relaxed. What kind of student will this one make? Back in the University, my best way of being a sane student was to do exactly something else whenever I’m supposed to be studying. In this case, it was campus journalism, and it worked, and of course almost ran me out of my mind at different times. If I am to survive such another ordeal of learning in the University, I must develop a new past time. Blogging? Writing? Basketball? Swimming? Anything to take the mind off the stress of writing papers along with references. Now let’s see how that goes. Any other suggestions?

A Checklist for July

I feel guilty. I neglected this blog for much of the time this month, and that was because of two nagging issues: internet, and internet. I have concluded that Starcomms was actually a wrong choice of connection for me because I’ve been fond of using it at different places. Not having the connection spread of bigger networks like Multilinks and MTN, they charge more, and offer less. In my next life, or as soon as I find someone to buy this one off me, I will make a different choice. Starcomms is more expensive and offers less national coverage than the other connections. I’ve put this to test. In any case, there are still a few nagging things in my mind and I’ll try to say them before the month escapes from my grasp.

Just in case you haven’t noticed, July concludes my first twelve months of blogging on this portal. Alright, if blogs were babies, this one should by now have started mouthing “ba-ba-ba”. It is for this reason that I will also try to complete the pattern that has been the case since that auspicious night in Lagos in August last year when I made the silly decision to begin blogging :). It has been full of ups and downs. I’ve blogged sitting down on the dusty floor of a train station in St. Louis, on a delayed plane in New York, in a crowded bar watching the World Cup final in Ilorin, with a laptop battery on the verge of dying out in the absence of power, and even under the influence of several bottles of Satzenbrau in pleasant company. It’s been good. And let me confess, I have wanted to abandon it many times. But if I did, how would I survive it?

Now if this blog were a book, August 2009 would be the first chapter, titled THE ENTRANCE. The second month of September would be BLENDING IN. October would be IMMERSION while November would be DISCOVERIES. December was ADVENTURES WITH THE COLD and January SIGHTS. February would be tagged BREASTS & CHRIS, a whole dedication to the Mardi Gras in St. Louis and adventures with Chris, March would be CLASSROOMS, April would be LOSING RESISTANCES, May would be A FOOT IN TWO WORLDS, June would be BADAGRY, and July 2010 would be AROUND NIGERIA. Now that I think about it, it might make a thrilling read, if only a self-publication to distribute among friends, and not for the general public, just like that old one Drawing a Straight Line from Hamburng to Ibadan, never before seen by more than a handful of people.

I have not yet completely processed the lessons, the essence and the thrills of my short trip around Nigeria, perhaps particularly because it was so short and I’ve not yet giving myself the right reflecting space. No, no quasi-perfunctory visit would do next time. I may even need up to four to six months to have as much impact as I would have loved. Maybe volunteer in a local secondary school to teach the English language. Maybe teach them to act a play at their end of the year party. Maybe help construct a traffic sign of paint the zebra crossing at one of their community roads. I look forward in the nearest future to a longer immersion exercise in local communities in order to contribute in a more meaningful way to the lives of citizens. Jos is a special case, and as much as I tried, I was not able to reach the Red Cross officials this time. What have they been doing? How could one help?

All in all, it’s been a nice twelve months and I thank you for being there with me. I have just agreed to work with Nokia to promote their new product Nokia C3, so in the next couple of days, you will see Nokia related posts and quizzes one of which will earn one reader of this blog a Nokia C3 prototype to be presented at the launching in Lagos in August. (See this previous post.) From what I hear, this is open only to residents in Nigeria. So if you are interested, and/or you know anyone interested in winning the prototype, stay tuned to this page. All you would need to do is to be the first to answer a set of questions coming up in the next few days.

Well, happy end of month, when it comes. I am hoping that my last post for this month will be a poem rather than (or in addition to) the usual 10 reasons debate, but let’s see how that turns out. Let us look forward to August with peace. And who knows, maybe it will bring all required good.

PS: I’ve submitted two of my photos for a “Democracy Photo Challenge.” You may see them here and here. You may kindly leave a comment there too. Who knows what I may win for audience choice.

Writing a Book

I have broached this idea of writing a book from my experiences in the United States, or from some of the observations I’ve shared with you on the blog. I’ve been surprised by the poll responses and I thank you for taking the time, especially to those who left comments. All the poll options reflect my own thoughts and preferences, so thank you for pitching in, although I’d hoped that everyone would ask me not to write it. Now I have got myself in a corner :). Time to get myself to work.

The fun thing about a book is that you don’t really know what you’ll find when you open it, right? If you knew what you’d find, then it doesn’t make much sense, does it? My hope was to write something totally new on a particular theme, of the peculiar experiences I’ve had visiting places and the impressions they’ve had on me, not put the whole blog down into print, even thought that has crossed my mind before. So here it is, many choices as to consider. I do want to write something more than just an essay with ideas that will last for a while, and will contribute to thought.

And then, what about pictures? When I was young, like everyone else, I used to like books only if they had pictures. Growing up changed that, or did it? What is the place of photos – or maybe artistic illustrations – in a serious book? Well, it has to do with what kind of book, isn’t it? A travel book will have more pictures and less texts. A book of original random memoir-like essays will have more texts and less photos, isn’t it? Or what about just write many books, one of them just a photo essay book on interesting places of interest?

Random thoughts in my head, and July is already crawling out of hands. I guess it’s time to change the poll now. Thank you.

PS: Novelist Salman Rushdie has decided to write a novel about his days under the fatwa. I look forward to reading it, yet with a fear that he’s putting himself on the spot once again. I hope that he will be deft enough not to stroke any new fires this time. News is here. (Thanks Chris for the link).

Two Movies

Gone With the Wind and Glory are two sides of the same coin in the civil war history of the United States. Well, not really. One of them is a story that glorified slavery in some way, or at best treated it like just another part of life. The other was a feature on a real life event of an attempt to resolve the institution of slavery among other political differences in the country.

Gone with the Wind is a beautiful story of love, gallantry, bravery and honour. Bella loved Rhett, but Rhett loved Scarlett. Scarlett however loved Ashley, and Ashley loved his wife. Scarlett never got over her love until it was too late. A very moving ending to a story that spanned the period of the American civil war.

Glory is a moving story of honour, bravery, pride and a tragic military campaign of the first “coloured” regiment of the Union army in an attempt to take over the confederate Fort Wagner. Brilliantly told, the true life story never failed to rouse emotion at very memorable intervals. And Denzel Washington won his Academy Award as a supporting actor.

I can’t explain why I have been watching movies about the American Civil War in the past days, but I can say that it’s been worth it. It is filling a few gaps in my history lesson. And it raises a few questions too, why it was important to black men to enlist in the Union army to fight the confederates when all they would get was death, or at best a chance to kill. And how those capable of keeping slaves in servitude and fighting to entrench the evil system could be capable of gallantry, honour and love. Gone With The Wind manages to elicit my empathy for the Old South, and Glory managed to arouse my anger at slavery, war, and inequality. And all I learnt at the end of watching them both is the power of stories.

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