Correcting the misconception: An Election is Not an Excuse for Failure

There is an increasing noise coming from the camp of President Goodluck Jonathan's supporters that the terrorism and mass killings that Nigerians have been subjected to are a ploy to prevent him from contesting the 2015 presidential elections. Hence, they have conveniently forgotten that he is currently president and has the primary duty of protecting the life and property of Nigerians. It is unfortunate that the president and his supporters continue to exhibit a gross inability to govern effectively. They seem more focused on the perks of office and the great resources at their disposal and are not interested in stopping the wanton destruction of lives and property particularly in the Northeastern part of Nigeria.

A critical look at the major sources of insecurity in Nigeria indicate two major sources being Boko Haram and the conflict between Fulani herdsman and farmers in Northern Nigeria. In both instances, the parties involved have continually shown a lack of interest in politics particular the seat of President that Goodluck Jonathan is so covetous of even whilst he occupies it. Boko Haram have made it clear that they are against western institutions one of which is the presidency. The Fulani are well-known to focus almost their entire lives to their cattle, taking power from Goodluck Jonathan does not align with this objective.

Therefore, it is very dubious for the president and his supporters to seek to hide his failure as a leader to provide adequate security for Nigerians under the toga of an "evil" opposition. The president of Nigeria is also the Commander-in-Chief of its armed forces for a reason; to be able to deal decisively with all external and internal aggression. If he is failing, he should take responsibility for that failure rather than seek to divide Nigerians along partisan, tribal or religious lines.

Nigeria is bigger than any Nigerian and the country cannot and should not be plunged into anarchy because of the incompetence and failure of leadership of a single president.

Assessing Leaders: A key Function of Followers

A quick look at the headlines of any major Nigerian newspaper will convince any astute observer that Nigeria is suffering from a leadership crisis, if it is not Boko Haram killing tens to hundreds of people and ransacking whole communities, it might be Fulani herdsmen doing the same, schools are no longer safe as students can be killed, kidnapped and violated almost effortlessly by any groups that is sufficiently evil enough to carry out these heinous crimes. Perhaps more disturbing than all of these as serious as they are is the poor and many times shocking responses we get from those whose duty it is to first prevent and in the event that they fail in this regard, fight and curb such heinous crimes. We have heard and read statements that "educate" us that terrorism is a global problem and we should be prepared to bear our own portion of it as if there is some irresistable authority or power that makes it compulsory for us. What about other countries that have never experienced such? Do they have angels living and ruling there? Another example is the outright falsehood coming from the defence headquarters that only 8 girls out of those kidnapped in Chibok are still missing after the rescue of about 80 others.

The purpose of this write-up is not to lament Nigeria's many self-induced problems but to present a framework for we the followers to effectively assess our leaders and hold them accountable based on such assessment.

Leaders are not judged by efforts but by results. You will almost certainly not find a politician that will come out during campaign for election saying: "I will try to do this or that for you". What you hear them say is: "I will do this and that for you". Why do they say this? It is because they understand that people want leaders that will deliver and not leaders that will "make efforts". Based on this understanding, there is no basis to accept the explanation of many Nigerian leaders be they the president, governors or ministers that they are "making efforts" at achieving things when it is obvious they are not delivering results.

To make this easier to understand for some of my readers, I will use football as an example. Nigerians love football and the coach of our national team, the Super Eagles is almost always under pressure to deliver results. You can be sure that bad results will cost him his job regardless of any "efforts" he has put into it. Samson Siasia is a good football coach having brought talents like Mikel Obi and Emmanuel Emenike to the spotlight during his time as U-20 and Super Eagles coach as well as guiding Nigeria to the silver medal of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. However, he failed to qualify Nigeria for 2012 Africa Nations Cup and he got sacked as a result. Despite the fact that he is a good coach, he rightfully got assessed and fired on his result. His successor then guided the Super Eagles to win the Africa Nations Cup in 2013. From not qualifying to becoming champions in one year.

This example shows us as Nigerians how we should assess our leaders without sentiments and based on results. A government that cannot defend its citizens from insurgents under any guise has failed and should be truthfully assessed as such. There is still a huge problem with electricity supply in Nigeria, even Aso Rock, the official Presidential residence has a significant budget for running generators, this clearly indicates that the presidency does not have belief in its own capacity to have stable and constant electricity supply in the third year of a four-year tenure.

If Nigerians are to be honest assessors, President Goodluck Jonathan's administration is failing on the most critical things important to us; security and electricity. We should stop making excuses for this government and demand better performance in the remaining year it has left.

Guy gets kicked in the head whilst taking selfie

This is the new "craze" that is trending on the Internet, people taking pictures of themselves and posting it online tagged as "selfies". This man, Jared Micheal gets kicked by a train engineer whilst taking his "selfie" beside an oncoming train. Serves him right for being so thoughtless?

How to generate traffic to your blog with the 50:50 formula

There are hundreds of millions of bloggers around the world who blog for all sorts of reasons. However, I am yet to come across a single blogger that does not want to increase traffic to their blog.

How to achieve this is perhaps the most blogged about topic in the world. In fact, it is what you are reading right now.

I am introducing to you what I call the 50:50 formula to blogging success. It simply entails dividing the amount of time you have dedicated to blogging into 2 equal parts- the first part is for you to research and post quality content that people would love to read and share with their friends.

The second part is to engage in promotional activities for your blog. The list of such activities is almost endless; sharing your posts on social media like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and many more. Guest blogging, commenting on other blogs, groups, forums and other places where you have large numbers of people that might be interested in your content.

You should dedicate as much time between improving your ability to effectively promote your blog and creating fantastic content.

If you do this, you would be helping yourself generate more traffic and exposure to your blog at little or no cost to you and in a relatively shorter time than if you just focused on one of these activities to the detriment of the other.

Kindly share this post with your friends if you find it useful and interesting. I would also love to read your thoughts on it, do drop a comment.

DSS Spokesperson Speaks on Nyanya Bombing

Do you agree with her that Nigerians have not done enough to fight terrorism?

I feel that instead of using national media like the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) as tools to "campaign" for President Goodluck Jonathan even before such is supposed to start, they should be used to constantly educate Nigerians on the greatest security threats we face and how to work with the security agents to curb them.

It is irresponsible for any agency of government to blame citizens for such heinous crimes when the government itself has not done enough to empower us. Another case-in-point is the failure to install CCTV cameras throughout Abuja and the stalled project in Lagos. 

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'Blood Moon' Eclipse Has Many Spellbound in North and South America

A rare occurrence...

 

The moon seen in the time around a total lunar eclipse in Montevideo, Uruguay. However, sky watchers in northern and and eastern Europe, eastern Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia were out of luck, according to US space agency NASA. AFP

 

‘Blood Moon’ Eclipse dazzles sky watchers across North and South America

Night owls and early risers in North America watched the rare celestial event on Tuesday as the Earth’s sunset-hued shadow fell across the moon, shifting its colour to bright orange. Images of a total lunar eclipse in the Americas.

 View more pictures of  the 'blood moon' here.