Something is definitely wrong with Nigeria. A country where everyone is given a title once they have a few pennies to their names irrespective of the source of the money. The self serving bofoons are now Asiwaju, Balogun, rather than contend themselves with being called ordinary thieves, sorry chiefs!.

Take the case of D-Banj, a musician of 4 years. Last week, Governors and others with little or nothing better to do lined up to award him every award possible on the bases of three albums, most of the songs not heard outside the country. Can you imagine how many awards he will get after 10 years?.

What about the rubbish being shown as Nollywood films. These films are no better than some thoughless nonsense that a five year old can put together. Somebody needs to tell these guys they are doing a disservice to the country with their trash.

Let's take our stupidity one step further, take the case of a chairman, who needed a juju man to get rid of his CEO, not contended with using charms, he resulted to burning money (£2 million of stolen money) and using its ashes to bath. Or the Governor who was caught half naked because his juju man insisted its the only way to win an election.

How in God's name do these people manage to get to such positions?. Where a judge, instead of determining cases based on the evidence, preferred the oracle to do the job for him. It makes you wonder, if these are our educated people.

As Nigerians, we love to use the names of those who have achieved. If there is anything we love more than award ourselves with titles, its to attach to and name drop. A man opens a small shop in Peckham and a few months later, he travels home to boast about his new supermarket store in the 'heart' of London, before he could say, "I love my country", he had been awarded a doctorate in business management from the university that refused him entry a few years earlier. Now the guy calls himself a Doctor, forgetting its just an honourary title. This is not the first time Africans have done this, Zik and Nkuruma did this as well. In time, its difficult to know who is who?.

There is now a proliferation of compound names, children desperately trying to ride on the back of the names created by their parents rather create their own names.

So, instead of saying "do you know who i am"?. Its better to say, "do you know who my father is"?.

Its like a bully who struggles to get his way on the play ground asking for reinforestment from his father to beat up other kids. Why win an election based on policies, when you can on the basis of your name or who you know.

You are rarely expecting a saintly behaviour from the son or daughter of a thief?.

In time, a plain Mister with simple surname will become a rarity, well, i can only hope.

I find Nigerians the most colourful people ever to grace the world. So, our country is in a mess, we are all scattered across the world like headless chickens. At the first sign of trouble, we run to church to pray for deliverance. Even the scammers, the drug peddlers, the embezzlers all run to the same church as the victims to ask for protection.

Every idiot now has a church, what is more worrying is that we have even bigger idiots donating to those mushroom churches to make the pastor richer. Starting a church is big business, especially if you can convince the mugs into donating 10% of their earnings, a case of the pastor growing richer, whilst the congregations starve.

Can this people not see the wood from the tree?

The Pastors are now like coaches and personal trainers, most of these guys run the churches like businesses. In years to come, we will all find out that the greatest legitimate scammers are the pastors who are able to charm your money out of your pockets. Wake up and smell the coffee, unless you are doing good business in the church, get the hell out of the place. You probably know the bible more than the poor soul at the alter.

By the way, who is solving our problems and developing our nation whilst we all seat down in churches for endless hours. The same people then spend all their hard earned money on some stupid parties to be shown on BenTV.

As a group, Nigerians attend churches more than most people, yet the country is riddled with anti social behaviours, because we would rather someone else solves our problem for us than tackle them.

How can we claim to be so educated and yet to dumb?.

It is said that the best way to develop a country is to develop the people. Every developed country has done so because the people of those nations have been willing to take the baton to develop from their governments. Governments have a role to play in providing the fertiliser to help to germinate the seeds of development. The citizens must be willing and ready to drive forward and help the country.

Don't let anything stop your dreams. The world is full of people with the potential to be anything they want to be, but we rarely achieve our dreams because we let other things divert our attention from our goals. Break down your goals into manageable chunks, tick them off and set new goals when you accomplish one goal. Have fun, but keep focus. Worry less about what people think of you, but most importantly, take every obstacle as a challenge that you need to overcome. Dream and have fun, you only live once.Dont back down when people say no to you. You just have to keep going. Success is about hardwork and perseverance.

Will the real Nigerians please stand up, please stand up.

Yesterday I was with a group of friends. As usual, the issue of our country and what we can do to improve things became the hot topic. It is obvious that we all know the problems with Nigeria, we even know the solution to those problems, but as always none of us is willing to take any actions. The actions are for the others to take, but to be honest, we dont really want any outsiders to sort of the problems, especially not the chinese, the Koreans, definitely not the Brits, the Americans, not even our fellow Nigerians. We want the problems to go away without any of us doing anything. We want electricity to be ubinterrupted, we want our roads to be clear of congestion, we want our government to be incorruptable, but we dont want to pay tax or even stand up and be counted if things dont go to plan.

The real Nigerians are the ones who stand up and be ready to be counted. They are willing to do things to help their fatherland, complain less, but look for solutions to help develop the country. See problems as opportunities and a chance for improvement. They seek public offices for the services they can offer, not the benefits they can reap out of the people already suffering in the hands of their fellow men and women in power.

So, will the real Nigerians please stand up!!!. I am waiting!!

Many people strive and dream of starting their own businesses, to many its the freedom of being able to do their own thing when they want. To others, its a dream of earning alot of money. Whatever the reason, starting your own business takes a lot of hardwork and dedication.

Here are a few tips.

Plan ahead, make sure you have enough money to take you through the initial few months when you are likely to earn less. Be realistic of what you are going to make. Start small, if possible. Have a passion for what you are doing, so that when the goings get tough, you are at least still enjoying what you are doing, its more fun than a chore. Have patience and give it your hardest shot, so don't quit too early just because things are not going to plan. Ask for help from the experts if need be.

I welcome others with some experience to share them with us.

Best of luck

Many times I get asked if there is any hope for our dearly beloved country.

Many have written off the country. When you read some articles, it seems the Nigerian Obituary had been written even before indepedence, but like a terminally ill patient on life support, the machine is still keeping it alive, but only just.

I personally believe that there is hope. In the life of a country, 47 years wasted is not too bad, but we need to change the way we do things. Infrastructure is a must; electricity, good road, pipe borne water, all the essentials that we currently lack, but most importantly, we need to change our mentality as a group

We must turn from consumers into producers, we need enterpreneurs, must stop the blame culture and take responsibility for our actions. We must stop making excusses and grab the 'nettle by the neck'. Nobody will build Nigeria for us, yes, we lack leadership, but most countries do not have good leaders to develop look at China and India, they are growing despite not having the best governments in the world. It is the private sector and the majority of the citizens that will help to drive the economy forward.

Nigeria is now being carved out to the Chinese, Malaysians and the Koreans.

So, whilst we are struggling to make a living across the world, don't let us forget to keep an eye on the events at home. Let's plan to make the trip to look for the opportunities. There are the negatives, but if that service is crap, you can make it better. Let's join forces with others to become a formidable force.

It is surprising how many people turn up for parties, but very few turn up to discuss investments in the future of our country, yet most of us believe that we could run the country better. But nothing gets done without a lot of hardwork and investment.

No more passing the buck, the buck stops with us

Your comments are appreciated

Hi everyone,

This is my first time at blogging, but I intend to have a good time. The last couple of weeks have been a roller coaster. On the 7th of June I presented a paper about the Economic development of Nigeria, a week later, my friend of 35 years passed away, aged 46. He was a trouper, a man who would not hurt a single soul, he was pleasant and polite. May his gentle soul rest in peace.

I am grateful though for reconnecting with him having lost touch a few years ago. 18 months ago we attended a get together party at his house and since then we have all enjoyed going back on the good old days.

The reason I am telling you all this, is that life is too short to hold grudges, bitterness consumes our good sells, so live with passion, dont put things you can do today until tomorrow, because tomorrow is not for you to decide.

As a minority group in many new countries that we live in, we are faced with many challenges, descrimination, bad publicity etc. We must use those negatives to drive out the positives. Those things make you stronger, they make you want to go the extra mile.

Let's decide to make a difference to the lives of those that we come across. Let's live with passion. Write that book, say those loving things to your children and partners, get better education, dream big, live as if there is no tomorrow, but plan for tomorrow just in case. Give generously, connect to old friends, don't be afraid to make new ones. When you get a rejection look at the reason, but work even harder next time. Don't let the buggers get you down.

Now, lets the slagging match begin.

So, tell me about yourself and lets get it going.