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Olaudah Equiano®

5 Dec, 10 tweets, 2 min read

Terrible things happen in Nigeria. We've lost the present and we want to lose the future.
I just left Transcorp Hotel Abuja, after my news analysis at Arise News TV. As I stepped to the lobby of the hotel, I saw a bevy of pretty young girls in their early 20s crowded in a corner.

There were all skimpily dressed as if there were commercial sex workers. The time was 10.30pm.
One of them rushed to greet me. “Good evening sir”. She was one of my students. I recognized her clearly because she had a slight disability and I paid attention to make sure she...

followed the coursework. I was shocked. I recognized three of those hotly dressed pretty young girls as fresh graduates of my department.
What are they all coming to do at this kind of Hotel at this hour and dressed in this manner? Of course, I think I know what it is.

A Nigerian politician or man of means may have arranged them for his pleasure, and those of his friends and acquaintances. Everyday, our girls are disoriented by these politicians who have neither shame nor conscience, because they have access to power and money.

We pride ourselves that we have a large youth population and that is a huge asset. But the truth is that we have a large hardware. The software is highly corrupted. Why do we intend to organize these adolescents into the life of immorality?

This reminds me of the experience I had as a special adviser to the Senate President. Once we went to open a new government house built by a Governor in one of the southeastern states. The Governor arranged a special reception for us.

When we got to the venue of the so-called reception, I was shocked. Tens of very young girls sourced from the nearby university; between 17-22 years, were already dancing with top government officials.
I screamed and accosted the majority leader of the State House of Assembly.

He boldly answered “Man Sammy, these adolescents are our counterparts”. Wow. What? I requested to be taken back to the hotel. That was the end of the reception for me. I couldn’t believe that someone will arrange first year students for an entourage that has the Senate President

and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education. We are finished.
These politicians have done more harm than you can ever imagine. They have destroyed the economy. They have destroyed infrastructure.

They have also destroyed the morality and the viability of our human capital. How can such young girls who are debased that early, rise up to be moral champions of tomorrow? How? Pretty difficult.’

SAM AMADI Ph.D

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More from @RealOlaudah

Olaudah Equiano®

@RealOlaudah

4 Dec

Now this!!!👇🏾
Some of the world’s greatest people faced the world’s greatest challenges, but they overcame them. Cripple a man, and you have Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in prison, and you have John Bunyan. Raise him in abject poverty, and you have Abraham Lincoln.

Subject him to bitter religious prejudice, and you have Benjamin Disraeli. Strike him down with paralysis, and you have Franklin Roosevelt. Have them born black in the society filled with racial discrimination, and you have Booker T. Washington, Harriet Tubman, Marian Anderson...

and George Washington Carver. Make a man the first child to survive in a poor Italian family of eighteen, and you have Enrico Caruso. Have him born to parents who survived a Nazi concentration camp, paralyze him from the waist down when he’s aged four, and you have the...

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Olaudah Equiano®

@RealOlaudah

1 Dec

Denials of reality doesn’t make that reality go away,
The war in Central Mali between the Fulani and the Dogons is reason for the outpourings of Fulani refugees from Mali, and reason for Buhari’s fraudulent attempts to hoodwink Nigerians with Cows Colonies, Grazing reserves,...

Ruga and consolidation of waterways ploys.
I’m aware of the ignorance of many Nigerians about these things, and will understand the position of those unaware of these maneuvers.
These issues started during the Goodluck Jonathan era as lots of Fulbes streamed into Nigeria from...

Central African Republic after an internal crisis there forced them into the bushes as they ran for their dear lives. Governor Suswan resisted occupation of parts of benue by these refugees, and the attempts on his life and other occurrences are now history.

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Olaudah Equiano®

@RealOlaudah

1 Sep

William Penn, founder of the British colony of Pennsylvania in 1677 (the U.S. state of Pennsylvania is named in his honor), formulated six principles for conversation: “(1) Avoid company where it is not profitable or necessary, and on those occasions, speak little, and last.

(2) Silence is wisdom, where speaking is folly; and always safe. (3) Some are so foolish as to interrupt and anticipate those that speak, instead of hearing and thinking before they answer, which is uncivil, as well as silly.

(4) If you think twice before you speak once, you will speak twice the better for it. (5) Better to say nothing, than not to the purpose. And to speak pertinently, consider both what is fit, and when it is fit to speak.

Read 4 tweets

Olaudah Equiano®

@RealOlaudah

3 Aug

Short thread: Challenges of FDI
You see, as a foreigner it's not easy to navigate the business terrain of Nigeria. Our terrain is filled with ditches, snares and land mines. Take inconsistent government policies for instance. The banning and unbanning of certain items by the CBN.

Take the difficulties encountered by investors in repatriating profits in our ever scarce foreign exchange regime. Corrupt dealings by staff of our local monetary institutions and the effect it has on investors. The double taxation, the issue of infrastructure and lack of power.

The erratic regime of our foreign exchange market and effect on disposal income of the populace is also a challenge. It's one thing to boast about a huge market in the country due to burgeoning population, and quite another to consider the pauperizing effect of bad policies.

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Olaudah Equiano®

@RealOlaudah

7 Jul

One thing I've observed about the debate on the effects or defects of the Trump presidency, is that majority of Nigerians in the diaspora, and a huge chunk of the African American population, have heavy anti Trump sentiments.
Thread.

They view him, rightly or otherwise, as a racist and white supremacist. On the other hand, majority of 'concerned' Nigerians at home, view him in an entirely different light, using an entirely different barometer of judgement.

Nigerians at home aren't as concerned about Trump's racist or white supremacist tendencies. They're more drawn to him by his unconventional type of politics, which is fascinating to them. His bluntness, lack of political correctness and more importantly, his apparent 'distaste'

Read 14 tweets

Olaudah Equiano®

@RealOlaudah

1 Jul

Lemme sew a short thread on my days as a young graduate banker, and an episode that happened to me. Peradventure someone may learn a thing or two from my experience.

When I was still a carless bachelor, I met this babe & fell crazily in love with her. I had just gotten a banking job in another city, away from home, but close to my best friend from University days, who was already running the uncle's business & had a car attached to his desk.

I'll close for work, my friend comes around after closing his, and we take off, first to my much talked about girl's house, where we will hang out, drinking in a neighborhood shop and later ending up in my crib. Life was great.

Read 15 tweets

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