ready for Valentine

"Forward Nigeria" is about to pause

"Forward Nigeria" on "Pause"

Nigeria Presidential Elections have been postponed by 6 weeks: from Feb14th to Mar28th. The official reason is to allow time to build a multi-country military coalition to defeat Boko Haram who was threatening to disturb the elections through attacks and, in the area they control, to bar the vote from happening.

The postponement was actually pushed by the PDP, party in power, after it realized it was going to be defeated if the elections took place on Valentine's day. It seems the opposition has been very effective in churning voters' opinion with the speech of change and this despite the fact that none of the candidates are really appealing. The opposition party, APC, was against the postponement.

Now there are two interesting factors at play which are not really discussed locally:
- is the Nigerian Army is in a position to defeat Boko Haram in 6 weeks in a context where state coffers are nearly empty and army staff has probably low morale as a result of not having been paid for a (long) while? And if it was in a position to defeat it, why not, then, have started earlier to be able to stick to the elections timetable?
- another point is that after the postponement of 6 weeks, it is unconstitutional to postpone the election again. This means that should conditions not be met to hold the elections on March 28th the only way out of it would be to declare the state of emergency until further notice and therefore leaving the government in power until then. An interesting option for a regime not prepared to give up power anytime soon.

A colleague, supporting PDP, was of the view that the delay would provide ample opportunity for PDP to shout about their achievements which a majority of Nigerians have apparently failed to notice.

Good news, we'll be able to celebrate Valentine's properly

A driver is of the view it was rather a good thing to postpone the elections that were scheduled on Valentine's day so that it can be celebrated properly :-)

thanks JO for allowing a quiet Valentines celebration

Thanks Jo for the upcoming free Valentine

Thank you too, I like your hat

Comments

The Ogiamien family in Benin City: about wood and history

Roland Ogiamien in his wood-carving workshop Wood Roland Ogiamien is a renown wood carver. He is now retired in his home town of Benin City and is now in his 80s. We met him in his simple workshop, a barn opened on the surrounding greenery. A part of the studio is used to store wood pieces and make sure they are well dried. He is using a collection of german ustensils to carve and polish the wood. He spent most of his career working out of Lagos before relocating to Benin. Roland was explaining that the wood he uses today is different that the one he worked on in his early days. Ebony has become rare and wood carvers have had to switch to other types of wood. Traditional heritage is a large part of his inspiration which he translates on wood with his own particular style, exploring various techniques for the finish of his pieces. Roland Ogiamien and two of his favourite masks History Ogiamien is the name of an important royal family in Benin Kingdom. Towards the end of the ...

The mysterious stones images of Esie

turned into Stones Chief J. Agbo Ooye had been waiting in the shade of a large tree, in front of the National Museum of Esie, dressed in ceremonial costume with a velvet hat incrusted with crystal beads sown in the shape of his title and his name. He was sitting next to his wife on a bench, expecting our arrival. His wife, he would tell us later, was his best friend and she was actually demonstrating it by guiding his frail body from one place to another and guiding his hand when it came to sign autographs of his books. Chief Agbo Ooye is the author of two booklets on the Esie Stones. The first one, called A Personal Account of the Esie Stones is giving an overview of the differences between the scientific and the traditional interpretation of the Esie Stones. The second one is called the History of Esie and gives a brief account of Esie's history from the early settlement of Yorubas in various groups (Esie, Oro, Eku Apa, Igbonla, Edidi, Igbesi, etc...) to the present...

Iragbiji, the town of Chief Muraina Oyelami

running up the hill Iragbiji is a small but lively town, in Osun state, surrounded by hills made of curvy rocks emerging from the plain and partly patched with green. It is part of Yorubaland, about sixty kilometres East of Osogbo . The heart of the town is the palace of the Oba (King of the area) next to a yellow multi-storeyed central mosque. The Oba is a muslim. the Oba of Iragbiji Chief Muraina Oyelami , a versatile artist born in 1940, is residing in Iragbiji. He is both a talented talking-drum player and a painter. He welcomed us in his house for a talk on Yoruba culture especially about the talking drums which evolved in shape overtime to the modern form of goat skin cylinder whose sound can be altered by squeezing the ropes that are tied along the circumference of the drum to produce tons and therefore allows to emulate the Yoruba language through rhythm and tonality. three sets of Yoruba drums There are actually three types of drums each playing a specific ro...

Nigeria, the land of plenty

Search This Blog