‘A Negative brand equity is a death sentence’; the Goodluck Jonathan Government should have been listening to Mark Ritson. More rightly put, it can lead to suicide. The #OccupyNigeria train hit Nigeria like a thunderstorm bringing to bear what Nigeria’s foremost humanright’s lawyer, Femi Falana calls Nigeria’s most powerfully organised protest. The #OccupyNigeria protests, which is the simultaneous response of the Nigerian people against arbitrary increase in fuel pump price and #Governmentwaste, is a similitude of the Egyptian and Tunisian protests but named after ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests. It has been a “deregulated protest” spanning Nigeria’s major Cities, Embassies and High Commissions around the world.
What trend is the #occupynigeria depicting for brands?

1. The other edge of Social Media Marketing has been officially activated

With so much talk about social media marketing and its impact to reaching out to social customers, little attention has been given to social media advocacy.If your business/boss has not been taking social media serious, the impact of social media advocacy will jolt you into action. There is no doubt that the ongoing social media revolution will have an enormous impact not only on the way consumers and brands communicate with each other but also the impact of consumer-consumer communication. For this reason, social media engagement and relationship management strategies are no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must have’ for marketers.
But marketing via social media channels is not as simple as it is through other channels because of its two-edged effects:
a. Consumers can publicise negative experiences and ideas very widely in a matter of minutes;
b. They can also publicise positive experiences and ideas very widely in a matter of minutes.

The impact of social media as a rallying platform for #occupynigeria cannot be over emphasised. The announcement of the venue of the Lagos rally which cascadingly gathered close to 2 million people in its third day was announced though social media platforms (Blackberry, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other instant messaging platforms).
The ‘unlike President Jonathan day’ (featured on CNN) and ‘the most cursed president’ (ranked on Google) campaign was widely impressive with CNN and Google helping to hype its veracity. With the tools to quickly rally people around a cause readily available, its time to watch it!
The days of poor customer service and treating clients/customers like thrash are counting.

2. Never Violate Trust – It’s the Currency of Brands not Prices

Brand Equity (the strength of a brand) is derived from the goodwill and recognition a brand has garnered over time as a result of fufilling its brand promise. This translates into higher sales volume and profit margins against competing brands. This is the reason why some brands command high patronage even if they charge premium for their products – it is the intangible asset of all promotional efforts.
In an unprecedented manner, the docile and unconcerned Nigerian populace have been jolted alive – thanks to access to information. The total breakdown of trust between the Nigerian people who ‘massively’ voted for the Jonathan Government can be attributed to the widely spread information available on Government’s spending habits, budgetary allocation and money politicking among its high ranking officials.
It is an important lesson to learn that you cannot gain equity by increasing product cost before improving its funtional attributes.

3. Be Ready to Cope with Impersonation

Especially if your business has no officially identified presence in the digital and social media space, or your boss is one who thinks Blackberry is a popular fruit; you now need to prepare for uncertainties, impersonations, rumors and ‘company leaks’.
Some organisations had spent considerable time and enegy refuting claims that they ”ordered people to resume or face sack” during the Nationwide strike declared during the #OccupyNigeria protests. Brands with extensive and original Twitter and Facebook pages quickly responded while traditional businesses looked for avenues to calm misconceptions. The official Twitter handle and Facebook page of the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala came alive in response to claims that she had threatened to resign from office if Nigerians eventually win the battle of the reversal.
Brands now have to think of ways to guide employees’s social relationships, have a policy and chief responsibility officer in preparation for crisis, and consistently stamp their voice online to crowd out impersonating pages and conflicting handles.

4. Social Media can no longer be left to that junior staff

Brands now know they need more than the ability to read and write to assign social media engagement to anyone. Whether to outsource to a social media agency or assign an employee to handle the platforms. The Social Media Manager is not necessarily for the Senior Manager; the appointment into this position requires a new way of thought. It is important to appoint someone with a natural flair for meandering and communicating through different platforms; someone with tact, intelligent, temprate and intelligent enough to engage a wide and varied number of issues and tempraments.
Improper handling of these platforms can backfire and the ripple effects cannot be directly measured until it impacts on the bottomline. The story of how a Fan Page moderator became intolerant when people began to complain on its Facebook about the use of non-renewable palm oil in their production is already a global case study on how not to speak on Facebook.

5. Listening to these Social Media ‘rants’ is now critical

Citizen’s blog posts , comments, social media and Blacberry discussion trends . . it is no more enough to hear about them, it’s time to listen. The emotional and connectedness between brands and their teeming customers can quickly translate into hate and social media mass action if you are not listening early enough and reponding appropriately.
Sustaining Brand equity is a valuable asset which companies invest huge amounts of money to develop; social media listening is now an avenue to maintain and sustain that social reputation.
The web is awash with various tools to help brands listen and respnd appropriately. Brand equity refers to the intangible value that accrues to a company as a result of its successful efforts to establish a strong brand

6. Despite its uncertainties; there lies the power to raise a tribe

SApart for an avenue to execute a highly targetted online marketing campaign; social media is established as a veritable tool for building brand loyalty.
The best way is to think of it as a party. The same wisdom that applies to any social situation also works with social media: Just be yourself and talk to people. Anyone following your brand is also following his or her family members, friends and colleagues. If your brand fits in with a customer’s personal social network, there is great potential for that person to build an emotional attachment and loyalty for your brand the same way they would for a friend. And when a customer thinks of you as a friend, you have a loyal customer.

There is no doubt that the ongoing and fast-developing social media revolution is having an enormous impact not only on the way consumers can communicate with other consumers, but also on the ways in which consumers and brands communicate with each other. For this reason, social media engagement and relationship management strategies are no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must have’ for marketers.

We have dissipated our time and energies in coordinating our communal efforts to develop our nation –we have gone to orphanages and convalescent homes to help others, we have supported the work of inept governments when we repaired our damaged roads, but we can only do so much. We have taken to the streets when we have been pushed, deprived and beaten to the wall – only to say enough is enough. How many people die when hospitals shut down because of strikes? How many people meet untimely death simply because the person in charge feels some other personal agenda needs to be serviced? We cannot afford to sigh.

If all we do is to succeed in spite of the system, we may be paying a heavy price for negligence of the fate of others and the society. If we can afford to buy good cars for bad roads and generators for candle electricity; we cannot build refineries to supply fuel for our cars and generators, or can we then raise our kids in body armour? Some go to school with kids who have no idea what tomorrow holds for them. It is time we rolled our sleeves and got working. If one conscientious leader becomes your Local Government Chairman, Governor, even President then our lives will be fuller, safer and richer. Everyone who desires the interest of Nigerians must not be spectators; we must be part of the solutions. Our sighs must be a reward of our committed labour.

Where am I going? We need 300 people. Will our members everywhere, those interested in the rallying around a cause strong enough to push Nigeria forward come together? If we were to look back in 15, 20 and 30 years from now, if our children asked us the single moment for would have loved to change, will it be now, when we have a chance, not only to vote, but to vote for results that matter. I don’t want to join the company of people who will look back and sigh to ourselves – we could have done better!. God, give us great leaders, give us great men!

Register now here

I delivered the message titled “My letter to Idris – 10 lessons to an undergraduate”. I spoke extensively on these lessons as they relate to life, leadership, academics and relationships. I enjoyed myself while sharing personal examples and principles that I learnt the hard way, the easy way and the ones I learnt after the fact. I intend to post the presentation once I finish sorting out the technical issues involving my website.

But going through the Ife – Lagos highway, I could literally point out potholes before we got there even after not being on that road close to a year. I thought about the numerous accidents I saw, the countless number of lives lost and families in grief because some people refused to execute their responsibilities. I thought about our challenges of power supply which have defied all possible approaches. When people rise into leadership in Nigeria, do they become helpless or conscienceless?

We need men in power, men and women with courage and a conscience; people who have come to understand leadership as a call to destiny and not one of the necessary rites of life. When the right people don’t show up by election day, people will vote for the ones available, and if we don’t show up to vote, some people will vote on your behalf. Will the next president please show up early enough?

We don’t have to vote for experienced incompetence.

There are few times you get this kind of feeling after watching a great football match like the Arsenal- Barcelona match. It was a mixture of explosive and classical football. Though I think Arsenal was outclassed by the rampaging Barca team, they still held their bit against the more experienced side. Apart from the fact that the two captains are going to be missing in the next leg of the match, I think the match will still be something to watch. The exhilarating feeling reminded me of the Save Nigeria Group Summit last Saturday. It was me meeting with hope; hope was what the ambience of the meeting venue smelt of- it was intoxicating.

I got in just as Pastor Tunde Bakare was just rounding up on the spirit and tribe of the new Nigeria. As my eyes quickly got adjusted to the setting, I could quickly make out my people and other guests; Jimi Agbaje, Mike Iginni, Joe and Yinka Odumakin, Deolu Akinyemi, Gbenga Sesan, Steve Enada and of course Pastor Tunde and his wife, Laide Bakare. One of my first thoughts was truly, we had one tribe and the battle for the liberation of Nigeria was not between Christians and Muslims, neither was it against the obstinate North and the progressive South. The present quagmire was not created by solely northerners. The ruling party, the Presidency, the Cabal and the widely condemned INEC have enough people from the South, the disenfranchised people of the South also need to ask their leaders what they do with the allocations given to them. But Tbaks has just been wonderful; I admire the charisma and gusto he had brought into social mobilization especially at a when activism seemed gagged.

While I will address issues with people who believe pastors should live in Church Island, I saw a different tribe come alive in that hall. It was a new tribe of Nigerians- uncolored, detribalised and promising. Then that upcoming fiery lawyer Mike Iginni spoke especially about the need for everyone to continually push the boundaries of political imprisonment into liberation. While charging youths to use their competence for political liberation, he urged everyone to stand now so that we do not have to do that later in life. A musical group, the Niger Delta Christian Youths had a presentation on saying goodbye to the old Nigeria.

There was nothing young and cool about the next speaker whose experience as being the president of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYC) for 15 years came to life as soon as he opened his mouth. Alhaji Yerima Shetima Usman declared that to assume the end of the struggle is near is to hide our heads in the dust like the ostrich. He quickly agreed in principle with Mike Iginni about our recycled leaders. Certainly people who brought us into trouble cannot be allowed to out us on another cycle of misfortune. To say this was reassuring coming from a strong Muslim from the North was strong enough to say the agenda and the dream of a new Nigeria is not regional.

Modupe Oyekunle of the International Center for Reconstruction and Development (ICRD) was one bullet that unleashed at the event. Starting simply, she did not shy away from the fact that most of us are the people allowing less than 2% of the population to subject us into years of misrule. I remember a quote which said bad people rule because the good people sat by and watched. Some may even not watch, but because they are not concerned, the have a way of working the system, they’d rather maintain criminal murderous silence while the political carnage sweeps away dreams.

Deolu Akinyemi arrived late while rushing in from a meeting in Port Harcourt; he spent the few minutes of his presentation dealing with the silent, youthful majority. He started by welcoming us all who criticize all our leader and are quick to condemn the recent happening things in our nation, but we are of the team of a large majority of Nigerian murders who permit death on our roads (which are more like human traps), failure of our students and the sticky fingers of our scallywag leaders all by our collective silence. He narrated an experience where he sat and watched the life of a relative literally hang on the residual power of an inverter attached to a life support machine after lights went out- this one fraction of things that happen when good men keep criminal silence. One quote I won’t forget in a hurry is “peace is what we discuss when we have the capacity for war”.

Jimi Agbaje

The governorship aspirant of the DPA during the 2009 gubernatorial elections for Lagos State did not mince words with the audience. He adapted another speakers’ story where instead of a father helping a child who could not see beyond a particular fence, the father began to tell the child what he is supposed to see. Moral of the story? We’ve been leaders of tomorrow for too long. I remembered a text I got in the wake of the Obasanjo’s third term saga “Obasanjo came to Ife in 1978 and said the students are the leaders of tomorrow, in 1999 he came again when he was contesting to say and said we are the leaders of tomorrow, now he wants to use the third term. He has eaten our father’s future, our future and now he is demanding for our childrens’- say no to third term. ”

He rounded up by mentioning that only strong institutions can build an enduring democracy. Even the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) needs to be an institution and not about individuals.

Joel Odumakin

“After all said and done, we may forget the shouts of our enemies, but we will never forget the silence of our friends” was a quote by Martin Luther King and mentioned by this woman who has assumed the face of activism in Nigeria. She charged every Nigerian to stand up and step out of those who maintain criminal silence.

It was a great programme and I particularly liked the interactive session where we had to split into groups and discuss the next line of action as regards social mobilization. The future depends on the few, those who will act and persist until Nigeria fufils destiny.

The future started yesterday, we are already late.

The effect of the Global Economic Crises is closing in on Nigeria gradually. A recent report predicted that 18 percent of Nigerians would further be classified as being poor in 2009. That mean the gap between the poor and the rich will get wider still. But then, it is said that if the riches of the world were shared between the rich and the poor, in 30 years, those rich would still be rich and the poor would have returned to their normal position. Apparently, the poor and the rich seem to have habits that consistently make them remain in the same position. These habits would be analysed based on assets and liabilities. What is an asset? An asset is whatever you acquire that gives you money to maintain you and your purpose on earth, while liabilities are things you have that require more money to maintain them.

Those called rich are the people whose assets are more than their liabilities, while poor people have more liabilities than assets. What do the poor do so exceptionally well?

1. Value liabilities more than assets.

If you value liabilities more than assets, it is likely you would be poor if you are not already. If all you seek or aspire to have are all liabilities instead of assets, you are most likely poor. It is notable that more students and poor people use more good looking phones than rich people. Cars, clothes, phones are all liabilities and these are things most poor people aspire to have as a status of being rich.

2. Acquire liabilities with income.

Supposing you use your hard earned cash to purchase a car, don’t doubt it- a car is a liability, if we follow our previous definition above- except if you have a mobile shop. If income is directed at obtaining liabilities which requires more money to maintain them, then you have just bought a pipe through which all your hard-earned income would be drained. The issue with rich people is that they earn faster than they spend.

3. Spend income maintaining liabilities.

Definitely once the money is spent on acquiring liabilities, you would require more money to maintain or continue to use them. Poor people spend a large part of their earning maintaining the liabilities they have. Imagine having four cars, it requires more money to maintain the four cars, while assets make more money for you.

4. Spend and try to save leftover.

The spending pattern of the poor is also evident in the fact that once they earn some money they spend them on liabilities and save the left over. After expending all the money on liabilities, the little money saved would be used to settle the debts or costs incurred on maintaining the liabilities they have bought.

5. Save to expend on liabilities.

Poor people may have excellent saving culture, but they may spend it on liabilities. Imagine spending time and life going to work, and saving only to buy a car to use to go to work. A car may not be bad when you have assets in excess of the money you earn in a year.

When saving towards anything, be sure it is towards an asset that may bring more money into your pocket, rather than a liability that would take more from you.

6. Play today, pay tomorrow.

The mindset of delaying gratification is only found in the dictionary of the rich. A poor man/woman would prefer to enjoy the pleasantries of life as soon as some cash enters into their pocket, only for them to regret those decisions in years to come.

If you find a seventy year old woman begging on the streets, what readily comes to mind is to ask what she has been doing? There are too many cases of “have beens” in the earth, who are worth nothing today.

7. Their children inherit debt.

The thirst to acquire more and more might even drive some people to take loans from banks. Other people love to admire such; flashy cars, houses, glamorous clothes and accessories only for them to die and put their children in line for paying back debts owed or for credit card abuse

This is intended to x-ray our behaviours as we position ourselves on the way to the future. We should look at our habits and choices and have no doubt where we hope to end up.

free video poker how to play backgammon no deposit bonus online casino 888 no download casino play roulette craps game black jack download american roulette play video poker baccarat free casino game no download online casino free money on line casino wagering roulette online online casino betting free online casino slots free craps best casino roulette gambling internet casino gambling uk best casino online full pay video poker no deposit casino code best craps game black jack tournament best online casino site craps online game newest online casino free slots no download play blackjack online free dueces wild video poker black jack gambling online video poker game free casino cash no deposit video poker tutorial play free video poker how to win at black jack casino roulette casino guide how to win at roulette rules of craps casino game online real money backgammon baccarat casino online free video poker game play free video poker video poker odds video poker tournaments The events of the past few weeks in the polity are enough to make any patriotic Nigerian lose sleep. More noticeably is the palpable anger with which Nigerians are giving up on the direction, in which the nation is going especially when in 4 months time; we would be hitting the 50th anniversary of our nation.

Ekiti people have proven once again they are the fountain of knowledge, (I jokingly call it – state of emergency). I see the dramatic events of those days being a message written to every other state, the electorates, contestants and particularly for the coming 2011 elections for which so many governors had previously abandoned governance to campaign for.

I would like to share lessons in form of messages, which the Ekiti re-run has taught us all.

Olujide sent you a message.
——————–
Re: Good people, Great nation
Hi Deola,
I have always enjoyed reading your write-ups since joining this group. I am a Nigerian but presently in the UK. I could recollect the feeling of anger, of shame, of frustration , and of disappointment and betrayal that assailed me when I first entered London airspace. The disorder of the Nigerian experience of governance suddenly became tangible to me standing judged by the order I was seeing even before landing. I felt betrayed. That our leaders have gone far and near, have seen that the greatness of a people necessarily consisted in the leadership…and yet we’re still where we are in the squalour of political mismanagement that has left many raped of their natural sense of patriotism.
I have severally wondered, how can a nation possessing such rich culture, history and religions remain so long in this abyss? I really wish I could pretend brilliance and give a one-cure-all solution to that. I wish our shared situation was this simple requiring just a single answer-renovate governance. And I wish all muscles of effort would not be geared towards replacing leadership only to find out that a new set of individuals that have long waited to ascend the ‘throne’ for selfish gains have just come…
I was once in a taxi ( I think in 2007) in Osogbo and some middle-aged women at the back were as usual running a baleful commentary on our leadership problems. They lamented how bad and evil it was for someone in governance to abuse the office to his/her own selfish advantage. And then one of them rounded-off by saying a prayer, that her children too would get there and would have the opportunity to so dishonestly enrich his/her folks.
Sad huh? Well while this singular experience may not represent every well-meaning individuals I believe not many people will find it difficult to believe that there is a dearth of the  stuff leaders are made of even in the governed. But reading people like you and listening to people like Tobi Oluwatola and some other friends  have suggested that quality still resides in some hearts.
I have come to realise that corruption and abuse of nationhood thrives where the ‘good’ people are silent. A near-holy hush still resides in many towards the affairs of our leaders; this results from a thoroughly suppressive military regime. This is a grave neglect and betrayal of our national duty-this decorum. Leaders are nothing but a mere reflection of the followers, after all that’s how democracy has been aptly qualified…a government of the people by the people… Our dailies and media are filled with publicity of gross under-performance…A governor donating bags of rice to fire victims, the Federal goverment increasing NYSC ‘allowy’ to N26,000, another government commissioning a one-kilometre road that’ll soon be swept away by rain the next season. And what do we do? We either shrug and say,”At least he’s better than last one” while some people actually come out dancing to meet the prodigal son that we have elected.
But where are the very people to call these men we voted in to accounts? Where is the insistent voice that publicly demands an answer from a government that seems comfortable with the pomp of giving rice bags to fire victims instead of providing a vibrant fire service that should have stymed the disaster in the first place? Where are the people that should ask the Federal Government why he’s increasing Corpers ‘allowing’ just days after our promising youths were murdered in Jos in the trust of the very people that should host and protect them for a year?
Really the failure of the government belongs more to us, for where the ‘good’ man will not talk then evil will go unchecked in the leadership.
We are the check.A corrupt goverment is like a cancer cell, it only becomes damaging and lethal while healthy cells fail to call it to order.
We are the goverment, the healthy cells needed to maintain sanity.
We should together destroy this evil culture of decorum. All is not yet well. Let us explore means to speak up, to question how we are being governed…It’s our business, after all we are the governed the direct recipient of all actions and inactions of the governing. Speaking up needn’t be so costly, and if it is we should understand that the journey of a thousand miles needn’t start with a step but with a decision.
Thanks Deola Kayode. I pray we’ll see in our time the Nigeria that we desire, the Nigeria that we deserve. And if not many people reckon this vision as pertinent let the few people who see the light at the end of the tunnel make their voice strong for there is yet hope. With time by God’s grace others will wake up too. In any case the night is long over it’s time to wake.
We will.
Count me in.
Jide Olubiyi
London.

RE: Brilliant Jide. God will one day, along with us acting right, turn Nigeria  into the country of our dreams

It’s no more news- Nigeria needs a reformation, and will not come by cosmetic rebranding. I always like to liken branding as a deliberate incision (a tribal mark) that is deep rooted such that even make-up artists cannot hide the true origin of the person. That is different from mere cosmetic brushing. As a brand practitioner, I believe “Brands are more than just logos, names and clichés- they are a groups of values that provide a basis for bringing about better appreciation of the people, thus resulting in either change in behaviour or a guaranteed distinct perception among its‘ peers.”

But how can we rebrand as a “good people, great nation” when the electoral reform committee report that will allow us achieve this aim is being stifled. A corrupt or bad Government can NEVER yield good people and a great nation.Ok, without politics and any political sentiments. People are now more conscious of a clean environment in Lagos . . . eko o ni baje (Lagos won’t spoil). This is because the brand values are being expressed in the leadership of the state. Dora has a difficult job of selling a product with both a bad image, and a terrible product. To deal with the image first, is to put the cart before the horse, and when we do that, we are not stagnant, we are moving backward. Even after President Obasanjo went 160 countries in the first two years of his tenure, he had to settle down to improve the economy. But having worked as an intern in NAFDAC, and seeing the way she pulls her way through, I think I’ll agree she likes trouble. As much as I will like her to succeed, the factors that will determine success are not in her hands- making decisions that align with the essence of the brand.

Some do not believe good Governance and by extension politics should not be our primary drive, they think entrepreneurship is. Some even believe education should be our major point of focus, but then the challenges are so much that generating areas to address them might become a problem itself…wisdom calls and simply, which one area can we address that will immediately resolve the myriad of challenges we face as Nigerians and as a people? Governance.

“Good governance will think of the interest of the man in the street. A respected political leader will ensure that people don’t die of hunger. Leadership in the hands of a correct man will ensure that when you come to the hospital, it is equipped with modern equipment that can diagnose problems and the people have access to the most modern treatment on earth. Our ruling class becomes sound when we don’t pick dead bodies on the road as a result of accidents caused by bad roads.

We have a good government when everyman who want education will get education-and nothing will limit them. We have a sound country when leaders use the wealth of the nation to promote the interest and welfare of the people. The people will be good because they won’t treat others with frustration, a great nation will emerge because we work hard.

Our vision is to see people get into positions of authority on the sheer strength of character and not how much they can fling around during campaigns.

I’m seeing a nation where character and not money is legal tender.

I am a Nigerian,

I believe in the true future of Nigeria, and I will deliver that future.

WE CAN, WE MUST, WE WILL.

Whenever a football team excels in a tournament, credit is usually given to the players while they only acknowledge the efforts of the coaching crew. They are usually forgotten in the joy of the moment. If there is one man who Maurice Iwu has given sleepless nights in a battle to restore stolen mandates and votes, it is this man. If there is one man who has been crossing the nation to ensure that the records of our electoral process are straightened, it is this man. While I have reservations for the appeal case he won in the Supreme Court over President Yar’Adua’s case, I cannot but salute the legal prowess of this legal luminary. Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), who was lead counsel and won in the electoral cases where he represented President Musa Yar’Adua, Governors Babatunde Fashola of Lagos; Theodore Orji of Abia; Adams Oshiomole of Edo and recently Dr Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo state. By tomorrow, he would so be awaiting the judgement of the Supreme Court in the cases involving Senator Ajimobi, his client against Governor Alao Akala.

Though at times I think he won because he had good cases to prove, it is important to know that a man’s skills is at it’s best when he has great tools to work with.

I just wanted to salute hhis courage and tenacity, and the ability to stay true to issues of professionalism and its ethics.

Kudos, more power to your elbow.

NB: – I also quickly must share a little information about Adams Oshiomole, the Governor of Edo State and former Prime Minister of England, Tony Blair.

§ Tony Blair and Adams Oshiomole were both born in 1953.

§ Both of them studied at Oxford.

§ Blair was leader of the Labour party while Adams Oshiomole was President Nigerian Labour Congress.

§ Both Blair and Oshiomole’s wives have their first names starting with C- Cherie and Clara.

§ Blair slugged it out with Saddam Hussein a military dictator born in 1937 and Oshiomole slugged it out with Olusegun Obasanjo former military dictator dessribed then as a civilian dictator and also born in 1937.

The weekend has been a busy one for me, but then I had to be at my church programme. I attend Latter Rain Assembly, a church where my passions had found its nest for the past six years. The Latter Rain Assembly is one place that is definitely passionate about Nigeria than any other Church I know in Nigeria. Legacy Youth Fellowship is the name given to the youth arm of the Church, and they had previously launched a campaign whose mission is to carry out the message of the new Nigeria to all the nook and crannies of the nation using the instrumentality of the youths in collaboration with other youth organizations and Churches. Though I have been a very silent participant in the programmes, I became keenly interested when they gave expression to these passions by organizing an open discussion,” Obama: is it possible in Nigeria? ” . Of course, if the Obama fever has not been given interpretation in your country, then it will soon be. I even heard some Irish individuals have even claimed ownership of 13% of him by saving there was some Irish blood in his lineage. Talk about success having so many fathers.

The speakers included Dare Babarinsa, of Tell Magazine, Gbenga Sesan of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria and Fela Durotoye CEO Visible Impact. In a compelling manner these speakers presented informative, apt and incisive presentations

Without giving a doubt about the depth of his knowledge in the fight for democracy, Mr. Dare Babarinsa began by critically asking if really Obama was a black man. Yes, He was skin-black by birth, but nurtured by white people. So what really made him the kind of person he is today? His nature or nurture? He also acceded to the fact that the progress of the American state has been made possible because of the contribution of Africans and blacks in general.

He began to challenge the notion and idea of Christians’ non-participation in politics. He said we want change, but not participation. We’d rather go to the expressway to pray for change than to join the dirty water of politics; therefore since wise people find it difficult to join politics, fools will rule them. I’m sure he is sending a message to his hometown in Ekiti State where intellectualism and thuggery are trying to find definition. He called for three different armies in Nigeria; an army of hard working people, an army of intellectuals and an army of educated Christian rulers.

Fela Durotoye moved in for the kill as he stepped in. he brought a different perspective to it by introducing the fact that what Obama has done is already imaginable, and therefore can be countered. But then it becomes a launching pad for what another person will/can do to actualize their dreams. God has told us we will do what eyes have not seen therefore, there is capacity in the gathering such that a greater than Obama is here. While trying to illustrate that in tackling our obstacles we should realise we only need to find the way through the obstacle thereby giving rise to the key (vision), handle (passion) and hinges (action) of the door.

He declares that the vision determines influence and nobody will reward us for having a dream (neither will God reward LRA for having a prophesy) we must deliver the dream. He declared he had never seen an award given to someone who wanted to do something. The people we call extraordinary people, are ordinary people who believe in their dreams, follow their dreams and achieve their dreams. He challenged everyone to deliver the future so that we can start achieving the future in little steps.

By the time Gbenga was coming up, everyone was already fired up by a multimedia presentation on our expensive democracy. Gbenga in his characteristic manner gave a parable of a boy who told people in his class he could walk on water. After days of saying this, his classmates dragged him to the seashore to try what he had always promised, after succeeding in the test they asked him how it became possible, and he told them that while he was saying that, he would go to the seashore and throw stones into the water. He moved on to ask us where we are throwing stones today because of our dreams tomorrow, he asked if we were actually reading books to build the future, or reading to pass time. He charged us by saying; anyone can walk on water, if you know where to step.

As if I knew he won’t forget, he mentioned how his education, his teachers and his background tried to limit him giving examples from his various schools. He ended by saying any one can change this country, change their destiny, if they are angry enough to take action, to do something.

Pastor Rotimi of the youth fellowship finally rounded up the meeting with lessons and prayers.

It was a good one but I think a lot more needs to be done. We have spent too much time thinking and talking of what we need to do and the things we have left undone. Even people who were asked to ask questions had more to add to what the speakers have said. These discussions are already going on in our offices, rooms, bus stops but then some people are already doing things to ensure that our dreams will be mortgaged. Some people are already ensuring that the next elections will not bring surprises like the Obama movement rendered the Clinton machinery powerless.

We need ideas; we all need to dance to the same drum beats in every language. Who will reach the agberos and NURTW officials who are the potentials weapons at a price? Who will educate our populace on what true electioneering means and not exchange their future for money at the polls. How will we tackle some demagogues in power who will stop at nothing to ensure the populace are suppressed in hunger, depression and a desperate battle for survival while they feed fat on the nation’s resources?

We have too many people believing this dream already. It took less than 500 foot soldiers to capture Nigeria. It took less than a 20-man committee to ensure he Obama fever spreads to every nation; it took Jesus 12 men to “torch” the world. It’s true; we have never lacked ideas of how we should solve our problems. The problem is like the house where the community of rats in a house have decided to bell that cat, but then, who will?