Print this page
Wednesday, 05 April 2017 20:06

Muhammadu Buhari: Who shall you send to the Nigeria Low Commission in London with a winnowing fork?

Written by JOHN ODEY ADUMA, BRITISH CHEVENING SCHOLAR AND PUBLISHER, UNITED KINGDOM
Rate this item
(0 votes)

PART 6

SERIES: BUHARISM AND THE FIERCE URGENCY OF NOW

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance
and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.


Femi Fani-Kayode...the pretended and self-appointed advocate of the masses who loathes their humble trades and the philosophy of cottage thinking.

I must stress here that in my new thinking and new economy concepts, every common labour that all Nigerians and all Africans love to deride and look down upon is an economy: fish selling, brick laying, kerosine selling, selling pepper, pepper grinding, broom selling, cleaning jobs, doing secuirty, waste disposal, be those of human beings or others - selling vegetables/grocery, house keeping (house helps, but efforts must be made to make it a profession, attracting the national living wage (NLW) and not the sort of omo odo that it is right now, especially in Nigeria as house keeping and nanny enterprises are big, rewarding and very lucrative economies in the West), selling akara (baked beans), selling moi-moi, guguru (pop corn), mecahnics, vulcanizers, repairing bicycles, (please about Howard Measham), selling brooms, shoe shinning and mending, tailoring or to make it look cool, fahion design, dry cleaning, running a restaurant, (whether Mama Put/Baba Put or which ever type, B&B, selling meat, plumbing, hole digging, carpentry and need I let the reader know a female English carpenter by name NICOLA BUTCHER came to fix a new door in my house recently, her graduate friends are still looking for jobs, whereas, she who had the wisdom of taking to the so-called "lowly job" as carpentry is earning thousands of pounds daily in addition to having a work van, sophisticated equipment, all bought by herself and she is already carting awards upon awards all over Britain and the British media won't let her be!), selling suya, pap, being a bus conductor, electrician, etc, etc.

 Femi Fani-Kayode must learn that in life, it is not about one's family background, and if it were so, a generation of American Presidents born in wood cabins, would not have gone a million kilometres near the White House!


The roots of all families on earth began at the zero rung of the ladder, but all that was needed to nudge them up the ladder was one person in those families stepping out to make a difference and getting them out of poverty temporarily or permanently.


Abraham was a shepherd and a mere peasant farmer before God called him, established his covenant with and blessed him; Jacob was a shepherd; Joseph was a house boy and a prisoner before becoming a Prime Minister; David was a shepherd; Esther was a mere house girl (omo odo) before becoming a queen; Mordecai was a mai-guard (gate keeper or security guard) before his elevation to the palace of king Ahasuerus as a key official -Prime Minister; Peter was a fisherman; Matthew was a tax collector; Paul  was a tanner, Lydia was a seamtress (now fahion designer), etc, etc.


We know Jesus of Nazareth to be a carpenter, he probably was also a brick layer, although the Bible did not tell us so. Nevertheless, he could aptly be referred to as a spiritual bricklayer, a moral brick layer, a political brick layer, a cultural brick layer, a social brick layer, etc. So what counts is not where you are right now, but where you will be tomorrow; not what you are right now, but what you will become and it is not when you start, but how and where you end.


Unlike the children of other first generation of Nigerians, together with the countless very prominent families in that country, only Femi keeps disturbing the world for being trained in Oxford, an aristocrat, a member of the ruling elites, etc. But these are just a few of his many class hubris, borne out of a deep psychological inadequacy - evidences of the many manifestations of his abysmal level of immaturity and boyishness.


If Femi indeed, is a Born Again Christian, as also, he often likes to deceive himself, he should know God does not train people at City University, in Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Imperial, but in the wilderness at the famous WILDERNESS UNIVERSITY which is the most prestigious of all universities, whose products, not graduates, because no one, excepting the Lord, who wrote His Doctoral dissertation and entitled it thus: IT IS FINISHED had actually graduated from the Wilderness University!


At the Wilderness University, there is no formal matriculation or convocation, but challenges and trials are its very trademarks, leading all its students to at some point, whilst undergoing their 'training' to like the Lord cry out: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Or "Why me?" "Why me, Lord?"


But throughout the ages, one thing is certain - all who had passed through that great and the most prestigious university in the world, and allowed the Wilderness University to pass through them became the the pioneers of civilization!


Others set up charities to offer succour to the needy and hapless humanity; others like Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, Ghandi, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, etc rendered countless selfless services to their nations and the world and earned their people independence.


Still others became philanthropists - Henry Ford, Marie Curie, Dale Carnegie, our own very Sir Mobolaji Bank Anthony (Femi must on reading this take a trip to Ayinke House at Ikeja in order to reflect about life), and not from any distant past, but in our generation, the sacrifices and philanthropic gestures of the former drummer boy from Abeokuta named Moshood Kashimawo Abiola must not be lost on the likes of Femi Fani-Kayode in that country.
In order to attain sobriety and humility, Femi Fani-Kayode must read about all these avatars who came amongst us.


The mother of one of my office assistants in Nigeria sold vegetables at Gbagada bus stop to send him to a higher institution, a Polytechnic, to be precise - so nothing is wrong with common labour and nothing is ever wrong starting life very humbly.


The Holy and the greatest book on earth, even the Bible enjoins us not to scorn our humble beginnings. Therefore, all you lot out there in Nigeria, Africa and around the world daily knocking at NO VACANY OFFICES, must go out there: START SMALL AND GROW BIG! God bless you as you do.
Nothing is wrong with common labour. Those who do the so-called derided jobs are the world's gallant economic soldiers. Femi Fani-Kayode was appointed a minister of the Federal Republic twice by a former dish washer at the Baptist Boys' High School, Abeokuta, Olusegun Obasanjo, not on merit, but because of his father, Fani Power; so FFK did not know the man who call him to Abuja to chop twice and having over-chopped under a stranger(?), one Olu Obasanjo and Jonathan, hence he has been in and out of detention.


What a life!


Some of the officials at the Nigeria High Commission, who too like Femi are of this warped mindset probably benefitted from Femi Awolowo's tax relief on education, erroneously referred to as "Free Education", yet they did not know about Femi Awolowo, the firewood fetcher who generously gave the tax relief on education to his people and other Nigerians living in the then Western Region, from the Action Group days and through the whole of the Unity Party of Nigeria in all the then LOOBO States (Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Bendel and Oyo)!


Both Fani Power's boy and the officials at the Nigeria Low Commission need be reminded that all the great and first generation of Africa's modern leaders who gave their people independence and fought for civil rights for their people, including our brothers and sisters in the USA, the Caribbean Island, were all involved in one type of the so-called odd job or another - amongst such included: Booker T. Washington, who later built the famous Tuskegee Institute, Frederick Douglas, Marcus Garvey, Rosa Park, Olaudah Equiano, Ottobah Cugoano, Benjamin Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Kwame Nkrumah, to name, but a few.


So nothing is wrong with common labour and Africans, particularly pompous Nigerians like Femi Fani-Kayode, Nigerians at the Nigeria Low Commission and other Nigerians and Africans who hold this world view need be reminded all technologies across the various epochs in human history began humbly from the forge, foundry, cottage indudtry in Africa in the earliest centuries, but today's highly rotten and Westernised Nigerians/Africans look down on the blacksmiths, coppersmiths, goldsmiths and other such in their midst.


Nigerians love to shop at Tesco, M&S and a host of other giant retailers/supermarkets and top fashion houses in the West, but do not have an iota knowledge of how very humbly they all began, just as is common amongsts, Nigerians of Igbo extraction, who are very good in these trades, but had been ignored by earlier Governments before the ones FFK had served, yet they know nothing about their vegetable seller-founders, clothing traders, who only yesterday were in the coldest cold pushing these products on wheel barrows and wooden trucks!


This was how Jacob and later Jack Cohen in 1919 began the story of the now world's very popular and much loved supermarket in a hired barrow - Tesco's.
Marks and Spencer was started with just £5xx in 1884 borrowed by another then street trader of Jewish roots like the founder of Tesco's, Michael Marks, a stark Jewish illiterate boy who could neither read nor write, not speak English, nor was MM, a member of the ruining class - the so-called ruling elites to which Femi often deludes himself that he belongs.


One's natural/biological background is not an achievement, but merely accidental.


What about honest Abe, the skeleton-like Illinois lad? FFK needs to get himself a copy of Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Our youths - all school leavers and graduates roaming the streets of our Republic and all the streets in Africa currently, must be true to themselves and let their thinking be in tandem with the prevailing global reality; come down from their out of this world dreams - learn to embrace cottage thinking - starting small and growing big by selling fish, pepper, kerosine, pomo, pure water, vegetable, mending shoes, working as bus conductors, doing carpentry, bricklaying, etc or continue to roam the streets and and keep knocking at NO VACANCY DOORS; allow themselves to be deceived by the morally bakrupt, indolent, crooked and corrupt politicians in Africa, and consequently have their dreams shattered by them or by other persons, only to turn round and commit suicide afterwards or go into crimes - armed robbery, kidnapping, prostitution, hired killings, etc.


Africans do corrupt and crooked things because starting small and growing big is not only a hated philosophy, but a sort of taboo amongst them. This explains why Nigerians, other Africans and all persons of African ancestry are ruled by crooks.


A little over 30 years ago, Richard Branson was at Oxford Street in London selling records - arrogant Nigerians of the mindset of Femi Fani-Kayode would at the time deride Sir Branson as a mere record seller! Africa and indeed, Nigeria will continue to grope in the dark and wallow in poverty in a continent flowing with milk and honey for refusing to embrace cottage thinking (START SMALL AND GROW BIG) and respecting common labour.


The sooner we change our thinking in order to start humbly and grow big, the better, or we will perish like fools. It is only in Nigeria and indeed, Africa that people become billionaires with out a linear progression of business/trading/investment history behind them.


Lastly, for Femi Fani-Kayode's attention: The first generation of Africans that readily and willingly embraced western education and their then very much regarded strange ways of life including Christainity were not people of the so-called royal blood, but slaves.
Does this speak to the arrogant mind and conscience of Femi Fani-Kayode? Femi needs a copy of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and he needs to do a life study of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, but does this name ring a bell to Femi?


Also, Femi and other Nigerian's of this very dirty mindset need to get themselves copies of: Companies that Changed the World by Jonathan Mantle; How it all began by Maurice Baren; How Household Names Began by Maurice Baren; Smart Luck by Andrew Davidson; Golden Apples by Bill Cullen; Think Yourself Rich by Sharon Maxwell Magnus; The Master Key to Riches by Napoleon Hill; Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill; How to Win Friends and Influence People, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie; The New Art of Living, The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale and lastly: The Diamonds Are Here by John Odey Aduma.


Femi Fani-Kayode! Femi Fani-Kayode-o! Jesus Christ was not born in Aso Rock, but the smelly house of sheep - the manger.


Those whose palm kernels have been cracked for them by the benevolent spirit must not forget to humble themselves.


I dare say the officials at the Nigeria Low Commission are worse than their compatriots back home who have never crossed the Atlantic and have the benefits of living in a multi-racial society such as Britain.


*To be continued.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR


John Odey Aduma was formely Executive Secretary, Foundry Association of Nigeria; Southern Coordinator of President Muhammadu Buhari's pastoralists NGO - THE PASTORAL RESOLVE; Chairman, Editorial Board of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc; member, National Committee for the Nigerian Youth Festival, 1993; member, core Committee of the National Tecnology Summit and was the Summit's chairman for two of its sub-committees - Publicity and Exhibition, 1998; member of the Administrative Panel of Inquiry set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to investigate the illegal trade in and smuggling of endagered species of wild fauna and flora into and out of Nigeria, 2003.


He was the Chairman, Planning Committee of the General Murtala Muhammed Memorial Lecture for two consecutive years, 2001 and 2002 before it attained a Foundation status in 2002, having first been upgraded to that status in 2001. General Murtala Muhammed was one of Nigeria's former Heads of State and was killed in the abortive coup led by the then Colonel Buka Suka Dimka on February 13, 1976.


That same capacity saw Mr Aduma delivering huge succcesses during the Daily Times of Nigeria's 75th Anniversary (in which he raked in N6, 000, 000 into the coffers of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc) and also, playing a similar role in a similar capacity during  Dr Isma'il Babatunde Jose's 75th Birthday. Dr Jose, doyen of Nigerian journalism was Mr Aduma's personal mentor. That relationship was so close and solid such that whilst Aduma was leaving the shores of Nigeria for Britain in 2003, Dr Jose gave him N10, 000.00.


In 1992, Mr Aduma's contributions to journalism was recognised with  the awards of the Nigeria Media Merit Award as the Investigative Reporter of the Year and the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence as the Reporter of the Year, and also, the British Chevening Scholarship, which saw him studying International Journalism at City University of London in 2003-2004, with specialism in Environment.


Aduma is the author of the inspirational best-seller, THE DIAMONDS ARE HERE and the founder of Vigilance, the World's Leading Security Magazine and Scorpion News Corp, in addition to founding the Nationalists Unity Movement of Nigeria (NUMON).

*To be continued

God bless our Nigeria.

The Voice of One Crying from the Diaspora...

*Proudly leading the NATIONALISTS UNITY MOVEMENT OF NIGERIA (NUMON).

Read 1025 times Last modified on Friday, 07 April 2017 07:19