A lot of people don't understand the meaning of Democracy...the essence of it. Voting is only a byproduct of democracy not the substance.

Democracy is rule of law, ideas, balance of power, accountability and justice.

Democracy is not a popular candidate/party or elections! Democracy is rule of collective will not popular candidate. How does collective will occur?

A short story will help.
A group of 50 traders meet from Poorland on their way to Richland. From their conversations they learn they're all headed in same direction and become a caravan.

In Nigeria this is how politics is done.
Dorne has severe food problem and many might just relocate to find food. Elections are in 2 weeks.

Ned of socialist wolves - you see, my people, the capitalist lions are the cause of our problems. They are corrupt. Ned continues - we will build, a road, build a bridge and build classrooms.

Harald of the capitalist lions - let no one deceive you, the wolves are the problem, they are a group of corrupt people. We will build 5 classrooms, 7 toilets and hire 2000 youths.

There should largely be an approach/ideology/worldview guiding politics...most societal issues really.

In the absence of that, you'd have too many randomly disconcerted actions.

There are many ideologies but for the sake of this thread, let's keep it simple. Capitalism - private ownership and control of wealth with limited govt.

Socialism - limited private ownership, limited control of wealth, large govt intervention on public issues - health, education, etc.

For quite some time the #Democrats have maintained that Russia meddled in the American elections of 2016 which brought in @realDonaldTrump as #POTUS.

Trump denies the allegation and the reports to make his election culpable of influence have not been as decisive.

Thread. I'm starting to believe they were not wrong. In fact, recent developments suggest a conspiracy of epic proportions.

This is my theory:

Russia - a declining power has become the lackey to China. Putin made personal favours to Trump in that build up.

The state capitalist model of the Chinese CP has worked thus far. In fact, it's a wonderful model to be frank. It's lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. It would lift more.

But ambition drives China. It desires to be the dominant and most important country in the world. The West is moving to clean renewable energy and doing all it can to have a cleaner earth. China doesn't like where that's going because it's a threat to its output on time and deliver model.

This would mean the Western brands who use China as a factory might look elsewhere.

I warned in '14&'15 against electing Buhari (may we never see his type again). We're officially in an abyss of economic decline, worsening insecurity and bitter ethnic tensions.

GMB represents all that's evil and wrong with Nigeria - contributor yet aloof to corruption. But there's no point rehashing the obvious. It's best to proffer solutions:
Mass demonstrations to demand his resignation.
Mass demands on lawmakers to impeach him.
Mass demonstrations to jolt an elected elite who assume Nigerians are perfectly sympathetic to incompetence.

As I see it, there's still a war at Milan albeit a non tense one.
Maldini and Boban hired Marco Giampaolo. He failed. They got Pioli and before he could even get confirmed, we all on Twitter opposed.

Gazidis began to move not trusting Maldini and Boban. Soon, the man favoured by Gazidis a certain Rangnick began making the headlines leading to Boban's departure and a strained relationship with Maldini.

Well, it turns out Pioli is a very good coach and from January, was able to turn things around.

I see Wenger trending and it pleases me. I've long advocated that: managers need not spend a fortune on the "best talent" to stay competitive.

Wenger for the bulk of his stay at Arsenal kept the club profitable yet elite and competitive. Management is much like business say a bakery - be able to sell bread at less than the cost it takes to make bread.
I love Pep's ingenuity and tactical genius yet, I do not like today's transfer fees and wages.

I have come to respect managers like Gasperini, Wenger

In a conversation with an acquaintance years ago, I told him a certain governor was doing badly and he insisted otherwise. I then asked: what was his basis for so saying and what made a good governor...

Prompt Payment of Teachers, Doctors, Workers, Contractors, Pensioners ... He said. I encouraged him by asking only? He added building of roads, schools and hospitals.

I told him, it's high we started electing Accountants and make them hire governors.

I don't know who protects the BVN database but it has been breached or perhaps someone gave unauthorized access to a local fraud.

Someone called me this morning claiming to be from @StanbicIBTC ~

Your DOB is a mismatch with your BVN please correct it. He then reads out my BVN and then asked for my card which I produce. He said my card has been deactivated on account of the BVN/AC DOB mismatch and that I should provide my card details so as to reactivate.

Yesterday's PKM thread hurt some feelings. I have read the thread again and conclude that Selective Comprehension is a growing concern on these streets. PKM's charge may have been flawed for the self absolved choice of pronouns but his message was clear.

A brief recap Complaints about marginalization
Nigeria needs a grand bargain b/w ethnic nationalities
Ndi Igbo need to shed victim mentality
Address the disadvantage of selfish political elite
The need for strategy with other ethnicities
The need to deal with the civil war atrocities

Truth is quite tenuous to grasp and absolutely difficult to make plain. This is because we often confuse it with facts which are only a subset of truth. Opinions are also misconstrued as truth.

In the final analysis, God alone knows the truth. Facts are visible, audible and verifiable yet subject to interpretation which becomes opinion and opinions are either subjective, objective, biased and on occasion neutral.

Truth however, is above and beyond this inconsistent state of presentation.

A new version of php has just been released. ChineseVirus19 is still ravaging. Private companies and communities are making efforts to ensure wider inclusion.

Nigerian Twitter: revelling in 1966 orgy, and blame trading while a mentally retarded dotard and his cronies feast. To make progress, the western world thrives on issues/ideological approach. They predominantly treat people as individuals, not ethnic ambassadors. Far from perfect but working.

We're busy revising history but omitting the lessons while politicians scheme away at state capture.

Fifty years later, Awolowo and Ojukwu are still trending. Millennials of the internet age who should have learnt the lessons from history and ensured not to make the mistakes of their fathers are busy rehashing, blame trading as though it were still '66. Ethnic tensions won't be eliminated, they'll always be there. But the true mark of progress is the ability to treat people as individuals and not ambassadors of a tribe, to judge people based on their character and not that of a shared ancestor.

I'm glad with the theme of speaking against materialism, the end justifies the means.
For too long we let the lust for money blind our collective psyche.
We honoured thieves, celebrated fraudsters and worshipped corrupt politicians.
Like a wild fire, we can't control it now. Songs celebrating fraud were national hits. Generous Scammers paved way for its easing into legitimacy. Scammers, politicians and drug dealers could fund our religious and community projects, and get celebrated.
Get rich and get it quick became an unspoken motto.

Customer Service delivery is dwindling these days if we ever had it. The "I don't care and I will still sell my market" attitude is quite pervasive in far too many sectors.

Seller or Service provider - do very well to ensure customer walks away content if not happy. Poor customer service is affecting your business. That you finished your stock abusing some customers is no proof of business success. Excellent customer service will cause you to double your trade time and volume. It will increase your word of mouth potential.

How deep in debt are we to China? I mean Nigeria. Does anyone have a proper idea?
Something is not right. Debt Trap Diplomacy & Covid19 are part of China's global economic agenda.

It's scary yet staring us in the face. China will buy up anything from corporations to countries. China cultured this virus. They didn't create it. They then leaked it and lied about its H2H nature. Before now they've been advancing aggressively on the South China Sea, granting strange loans with clauses to take over assets like ports and airports.

Prof Soludo is right. We have to #liftthelockdown. But I would say 1 week extension first. This 1 week should be used to plan, teach and model how we can safely return to activity with minimal exposure. It will also be time to teach the procedures to leaders across board... On face masks, crowd size limits, hand washing, markets/public place dis-infectation and daily cleaning. This is the time to have a new model of collective, communal cleanliness communicated and bought into by every leader all over the land.
Leaders must also enforce same.

#Innovation not Imitation is an essential key to prosperity. To keep innovation up and flowing, you reach out to many people - #Inclusion and to keep the them innovating, you keep the #Incentives up. To protect and keep this system agile, you need strong #Institutions. Societies that have grown prosperous have relied on this model. I deliberately started at innovation, truth though is: the institutions create the incentives for innovation which then ensures to take an inclusive path.

@DrJoeAbah's #GovernancePuzzles on corruption got me thinking. Soon, I watched @EfosaOjomo Ted Talks on corruption where he posits brilliantly that investments would prove an antidote to the panacea of corruption. Here's my take. To overcome the problem of corruption creatively, countries must take a proactive approach, looking to prevent it rather than waiting for the deeds to occur. For starters, we must define corruption and clearly lay out its parameters else we would be everywhere.

The world is at war. The Chinese began a subtle war to take over the world years ago. Unfortunately, America only found out few years ago and needed to be certain.
Today, without firing a shot, the Chinese have colonized nearly a third of Africa, some European countries and Crumbled the economy of America. Europe is altogether at Chinese mercy. There's almost no stopping them. They're doing it without direct military means. Their end game is to promote Chinese type socialism, control and influence.