Leke Alder Profile picture
19 Oct, 19 tweets, 10 min read
1. My dear son, when I was young, I used to hear the phrase “fejerun”. That was a Lagos slang. They came up with it same way your generation came up with #sorosokenodeydisguise. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
2. It’s the picture of a man manually powering a bike strenuously uphill. Unlike a motorized bike, it is said to run on human blood, hence “fejerun”. “Eje” is blood in Yoruba. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
3. To me that’s the picture of Nigeria. We’re powering uphill, and the reason Nigeria is a strenuous effort is because we like to turn logic on its head. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
4. Take this example. When our underinvestment in social services became embarrassingly glaring with the advent of COVID 19, - #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
5. - a government parastatal so far removed from health services like the east is from the west decided to pick up the gauntlet and build hospitals all over the federation! When you hear such things, you sigh deeply. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
6. Your generation is going to need to create strategic logic for the nation. To do that you have to come up with certain pillars. Then you translate those pillars, use them to develop policies. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
7. In searching for pillars, I happened upon those four words on our coat of arms – unity and faith, peace and progress. If only we mean those words. We can of course substitute them with words that fit modern imperatives. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
8. I think the word “justice” should be a pillar. It’s so fundamental to Nigeria, and you’ll see why; but let’s even work with these four. How do we translate them? #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
9. If you want unity in a diverse, multi-ethnic nation there must be a sense of fairness & justice. Opportunities and admission policies must reflect fairness & justice. There can’t be a bicameral approach to justice. That won’t augur well for cohesiveness. #NigeriaNotes #EndSARS
10. If you want young people to have faith in the federation, they must have a sense the country is going somewhere. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
11. “Hopelessness” and “youth” CANNOT coexist in the same sentence. We must ask the right questions. How do we create a future for our kids? They are the majority. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
12. We MUST concentrate our energy on creating opportunities for them in technology, culture, finance, agriculture and real estate. They’re VERY STRONG in those areas. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
13. We need to create programs that make it easy for them to function in those competences, so they can export their services. We have to solve the Nigeria image challenge for them internationally. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
14. As per peace we must create jobs. It’s even much better to create job creators. Artificially creating jobs by bloating the civil service only worsens the burden on the state. Bureaucracy and corruption will thrive. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
15. Too many hands fulfilling a small number of roles creates an agbero mentality in the civil service. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
16. Of course, we must also strengthen our security services, especially the interface agencies. The police readily come to mind. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
17. If we want progress we must deploy intellect. No strong nation emerges accidentally. Grey matter is deployed. And Nigerians are so brilliant. What we seem to lack is strategic coordination, and political will. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
18. Don’t accept the nonsense Nigeria’s problems are intractable. They’re not. We’re just wearing the wrong caps – traditional caps instead of thinking cap. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
19. Your Dad, LA. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS

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More from @LekeAlder

20 Oct
1. My dear son, today I want to address a fundamental issue. It’s so fundamental it’s affecting our approach to governance. You see, we have a choice. It’s either we run a country, or we run a nation. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
2. Running a country is about administrative chores – files, bureaucracies, meetings, parastatals, memos, departments, mindless directives... Running a nation on the other hand focuses attention on the people. There’s empathy. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
3. You can run a country and not a nation, and we seem to have a predilection for ablutions of governance to the detriment of concern for the people, whereas it ought to be about the people. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
Read 26 tweets
18 Oct
1. My dear son, let me tell you your main advantage over my generation. You’re digital natives, we’re Neanderthals. There’s a digital divide, a middle wall of partition separating my generation from yours, to use a Pauline-speak. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
2. To build the future of Nigeria you have to bring digital tools and digital thinking to the game. It’s how Elon Musk changed the game in the car industry. He replaced the dashboard in the car with a tablet, brought Silicon Valley thinking to car manufacturing. #NigeriaNotes
3. Technology creates culture. Our political culture needs radical change. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
Read 24 tweets
17 Oct
1. My dear son, I was very proud you took part in the demonstration yesterday - very proud you didn’t consult me, you and your sister. She’s at the barricades in Lagos. #NigeriaNotes #EndSARS
2. I was discussing with my law school set on our WhatsApp platform the other day and I told them our generation just witnessed a phenomenon – we just watched our kids take over from us. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
3. My generation doesn’t exactly get it. There’s no visceral connection. That’s because we’re used to taking another road to fight these issues, and we’ve gone too far on that road to appreciate your approach. We’ve invested our lives. But we identify with you. #NigeriaNotes
Read 19 tweets
14 Oct
1.Perhaps the real issue in the #ENDSARS campaign is the capital word, IMPUNITY. It is the belief in the exemption from the rule of law, a thug's definition of the use of power. #EndPoliceBrutality #ReformPolice
2.Impunity permeates our society - from the brigandage in our political system, to the Okada rider who rides against the traffic knowing he can pay off the law cheaply, to the use of convoy as a weapon of brutalisation, etc. #EndPoliceBrutality #ReformPolice
3. It would seem that in Nigeria, power is not a means but an end. A power-defined society ultimately becomes a wicked society. #EndPoliceBrutality #ReformPolice
Read 8 tweets
11 Oct
1. When I was five or six years old – I can’t remember the exact age - I had a profound experience. I was transported to a place called Golgotha - the skull-shaped hill where Jesus was crucified. #Illuminare
2. I do not know whether it was in the body or out of the body, to use an expression of Paul. It was Good Friday. The sky had turned willowy gray, pliant, like a dough mix. And I found myself at the scene of the crucifixion. #Illuminare
3. I saw those Roman soldiers, saw the two thieves on either side of Jesus, saw Jesus hanging on that tree, suspended between heaven and earth. He was in a limbo. The earth had rejected him, heaven had forsaken him. And then I began to cry. #Illuminare
Read 44 tweets
4 Oct
1. Growing up in Lagos I heard the song of the beggars. It was a placatory sing song. Often in pairs, and sometimes in triplicates the beggars would pause in front of my grandfather’s house, begging for mercy. #Illuminare
2. The principal beggar, who was often blind led the song. His counterpart doubled as eyes and guide. He handled the one-word lyrical refrain, Babianla. Efun mi kobo, Babianla. Efunwa sisi, Babianla. Olorun ab’ashiri, Babianla. #Illuminare
3. The session would end with a prayer – Akoba, adaba, Olo’un maje ari. That roughly translates as, May we not be located by enterprising evil; and may we not accidentally bump into one. #Illuminare
Read 52 tweets

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