Plane Racism? - A PR crisis all the same

I'm not a PR man, but I don't need to be one to recognize a Public Relations crisis when it happens.

Is Atiku still the VP?

Yes, according to President Yardy's photographer. The words in black are from Aso Rock's website

PRESIDENT YAR'ADUA RECEIVES CHAIRMAN OF EXXON-MOBILMar 29, 2008, 13:51

FROM LEFT, VICE PRESIDENT ATIKU ABUBAKAR, PRESIDENT UMARU MUSA YAR'ADUA, MR. REX TILLERSON, CHAIRMAN/CEO EXXONMOBIL AND ALHAJI RILWAN LUKMAN, HONOURARY SPECIAL ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT ON ENERGY DURING MR.REX'S VISIT TO THE STATE HOUSE ABUJA ON FRIDAY.

Let's hope they notice this error in time.

Henry Okah: Connections in High Places

Following the Nigerian Government's decision this week to charge the Niger Delta freedom fighter/rebel/arms dealer (take your pick) to court, my curiosity has led me to find out a bit more about him and his network might be wider than initial media reports have suggested.

My search has been made easy because news about him pops up everywhere you turn. They've ranged from the interview with his wife, Azuka which someone described as "saying very little yet painting enough of the objective picture". ( 'objective' in that quote is very subjective if you catch my drift). His brother has also been speaking. Even his children haven't escaped this PR blitz to let us all into his private world.

But all that didn't satisfy my curiosity, so the search went on. Global Guerillas even ran a revealing profile on him. But the Financial Times have today pointed in the direction of my suspicions by suggesting a link with Arms Dealer Extraordinaire Viktor Bout, who was arrested in Bangkok yesterday

"Most recently, he[Johan Peleman, an arms trade expert who works for the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo] added, law enforcement agencies had been investigating possible ties between companies associated with Mr Bout and militant groups in Nigeria, whose sophisticated weaponry has made it difficult for the federal government to re-establish control over the oil-producing Niger delta." (FT, 07/03/08, page 8)

If their claim is established, then Henry Okah might have to provide a more water tight alibi than what is presently making the media rounds.

The day after our own whatever-you-call-it Tuesday

So now that the Nigerian version of Super Tuesday has turned to Black Tuesday, most folk are just focused on getting on with their lives after the intrusion of the live broadcast from the Abuja court room.

The words of Solomon Emifa in today's New York Times seem to capture the mood.

“For us to gamble on another election is not what we are willing to take right now. We have in the back of our minds what is taking place in Kenya, in Somalia, Chad. No one here wants to have that kind of experience. No one wants to die because of a political crisis. Because at the end of the day, these guys are very rich, so we are the ones who are really going to suffer.”

What is your Nigerian Age?

While watching the Liverpool v. Inter game on Tuesday with a friend, he reminisced about what could have been if he took to playing football rather than study for a university degree. During that conversation the idea of him still considering the football option came up, all he needed to do was shave off a decade from his actual 28 years of age.
Everton Football Club's manager, David Moyes has now voiced what many have always thought but wouldn't say.
That many Nigerian and African footballers are actually older than they claim to be.
Moyes had this to say about his striker Yakubu Aiyegbeni -
"What people don't appreciate is that he’s only 25, albeit a Nigerian 25, and so if that is his age he’s still got a good few years ahead of him,"
This same allegation has come up before and something tells me it won't go away quietly.

Can He be Nigeria's Obama?

While weighing up the possible fall-outs of Yar A'dua's election being voided, Sonala Olumhense wraps up his column in today's Lagos Guardian with these words:
"Pat Utomi: In 2007, he was the outsider who could have engineered a fundamental difference. He found, however, that Nigerian politics had not left the realm of money and rigging. Since then, however, a young man called Barrack Obama has emerged. His terrain might be the United States, but globalization has made him an international and Nigerian subject. If anyone is to benefit locally from Obama's emergence and message, it is Utomi."

Will his 'insurgency' have any chance of survival this time around?

Who else do you think fits the bill? - comments welcome.

photocredit - kwenu.com

French Democracy mirrors Nigeria's

In the closing paragraphs of his piece last Sunday , Lagos Guardian's star columnist, Reuben Abati situated The Barack Obama Phenomenon currently sweeping America against the reality of politics in Nigeria.

Here are his words: "In Nigeria, party primaries are a charade. They provide an opportunity for party chieftains, self-appointed Godfathers and their band of thugs to impose candidates on the party and the people. Here, the voter is callously discounted and abused."

He might as well have been speaking about the Parisian suburn of Neuilly. According to the blog - Certain ideas of Europe, the elections for local mayor there "reads more like the machinations of a tin-pot republic than those of a serious democratic municipality"

Nicolas Sarkozy is allegedly playing the Chris Uba role in this instance. The drama playing out is "filled with late-night telephone calls, last-minute press conferences and statements cooked up on street corners, exposing all the elements at work in the Sarkosphere".

With elections holding next month, we'll know then if Sarkozy truly pulls it off. Whether the swanky people of Neuilly let their former mayor get away with it is another matter.

photocredit - Reuters

Putting Lagos on the Spot

Watching Channel 4's evening news yesterday, I was particularly interested in an extended piece they did on Lagos as part of a wider discussion on the growth of urban centres in the developing world. The film was presented by Keme Nzerem and you can see it here

In an interview with Jon Snow straight after the film, our man in London - Ambassador Dozie Nwanna gave good diplomatic answers , he however appeared sketchy on the specifics of the plans being put in place to address the serious challenges in a city that has grown from 3oo Thousand in 1950 to 13.4 million in 2004 and is estimated to reach 25million in 2015.

I thought he would have detailed more aspects of the plans being worked on between President Yar'Adua and Gov. Fashola's governments. Or did Aso Rock and Alausa not brief him? Maybe they are still secret as Lagos newspaper - The Champion reports it here.

This question of explosive growth in Lagos needs some serious answers. We need to bring them forward quickly.

Can SMS Novels save our Reading Culture?

In the early years of GSM Mobile phones in Nigera, many were numbered among the Association of exclusive flashers, texters and recievers.

My attention turned to the texters among them when I came across this story on how their Japanese Associates are driving up Novel sales.

Maybe the efforts of the likes of Bibi Bakare and Mukhtar in unearthing Nigerian authors and encouraging reading could be helped by these texters. It might take time to catch on, but it might be a useful way of channeling some latent talent to a useful purpose. Or it could all just be for the fun of it!

Even Kenya refuses us Visa

"I am made to understand that the Kenyan High Commission has been the most difficult embassy in recent years for the purpose of getting a visa. Yes Kenya, the same Kenya! Why would Kenya discriminate against Nigerians? They probably have their reasons. Recently I learnt that Sao Tome and Principe, not to talk about Equatorial Guinea are usually afraid and reluctant in granting visas to Nigerians! Our people must search themselves and ask why everybody is against us."

-Prof. Jide Osuntokun - Columnist, The Nation, Lagos - 07.02.08

I Hope that Someone gets my Message in a Bottle

The heading of this post has come about largely because a song of that title by 'born again' music band-The Police, has been ringing in my head all day. I've even had to download the song on to my mp3 player this evening and I've been inflicting its sounds repeatedly on my eardrums.

But before I caught the 'message in a bottle' bug, I read an article in today's Lagos BusinessDay that brought back the memories of an idea that might lead to other concrete answers to Africa's power situation.

In the article, Funmi Omogbenigun of the telecommunications company MTN was reported to have said that they had spent 12billion Naira on Generators and the diesel that fuels them over the last year. Vast amounts you might say, especially if you multiply that by the four Big Telcos in Nigeria. The scale of these sums become more boggling when seen on a continental scale. It is without question that Africa is Mobile Telephony's remaining Klondike Gold Rush territory and the MTNs of this world are jostling for every inch of space.

But back to the idea I spoke of earlier on. A certain Big Brother of mine once suggested and I agreed with him that a good number of Generators in Nigeria did not operate at full capacity. Many generators in homes and companies generate power that ends up not being fully utilised, yet the power situation across Africa remains dismal.

With companies like MTN running mini Power generating 'subsidiaries', isn't it time that we begin to think about ways of harnessing some of this spare capacities and feeding it into the power gird for distribution. In the first instance, distribution could be channeled to the immediate areas surrounding the Generators. An incentive for the companies/ homes who own the generators could be in the form of diesel rebates or direct payments for electricity they generate.

These are just my initial thoughts about a 'half-bread being better than none' solution in the interim before he Bretton Woods + Private Finance Initiative on reducing energy poverty comes to stream.

The song is still singing in my head......

I'll send an SOS to the world,

I'll send an SOS to the world,

I hope that someone gets my

I hope that someone gets my

I hope that someone gets my Message in a bottle!