Market, Kaberuka, Turn Up: Here’s my #MINDS Day One Recap!

So, today was day one of the Regional Training Workshop in Civic Education on elections and governance organized by MINDS.

I started an abs challenge this morning, bestie and I; sides are burning seriously but I see cropped tops in my future so werk! As in near future!

I forgot to mention that yesterday; we went to a little market in the town. For me, it was absolutely necessary, for a number of reasons. One, I needed cash and two, I needed an adapter! Let’s start with needing money. Before I left Abuja, I thought the dollars I had in a bag were ‘reasonable’, it was the morning I was supposed to leave I realized it was like $150, and then lots of $1 bills! And of course there was too much going on with the yellow card I was looking for, etc. to hazard going to the bank to get some more.

Then I got to Addis and because they’ve buried my umbilical cord in the perfumes section of their Duty Free stores, I spent all but $9 there! Why I didn’t pay with my card I still cannot explain satisfactorily to myself, but bottom line is I got to Abidjan with the princely sum of $9! About the adapter, I have like three of the Cote D’Ivoire friendly ones back in Abuja, I remember reading the logistics note that specified what adapters to bring, but in my wisdom and uniqueness, I had to bring the one from South Africa! Sigh. I can’t be any more special.

By the way, I feel like ‘okrika’ (second hand clothing) is big business here; either that or this market had a healthy helping of sellers. we bought some delicious boiled corn too, and we took incredible pictures eating corn on the streets of Abidjan! Can’t find the photos now, still looking!

Here’s something else – the time difference yesterday was crazy sha! In Addis I was two hours behind Nigeria, in Cotonu it was one hour ahead of Addis, and here in Abidjan it’s one hour behind Nigeria. I’ve given up on my devices giving me different times and am now content with just asking when I need to know the time.

Back to today, their tea cups in this hotel are an aberration. Kai! What is this?

Look at the size of the tea-cup compared to a tumbler or bottle… Sigh…

And they’re not just for espressos or anything, this is what we had for tea as well! For people like me who love a nice brew of like three teas, it was just super frustrating. Arrgh!

On to happier things! We were told they had a surprise guest for us, and interestingly, first place my mind went to was that Nelson Mandela was coming through (he founded this), then I remembered he’d passed, and then I wasn’t really excited about whoever it was. Till the facilitator, Cecile (that’s a very nice name by the way) said we had to stand up when the person came in, she was really excited, etc.

Turned out our surprise guest was Mr Donald Kabureka, former Finance Minister in Rwanda and outgoing Africa Development Bank boss. He sat opposite us in a swivel chair (interesting point to note because as he answered questions he would sway from side to side, lol) and the question and answer session started.

Here are a few things he said

* Being young doesn’t confer on us any special legitimacy or entitlements but responsibilities based on the very things we use to feel entitled; age, strength, and numbers.

*Young people the world over have reversed John F. Kennedy’s saying – it is all about what the country/world can put into our hands rather than what we can do for our countries/the world.

*Technology means that whether it is a discussion about climate change, terrorism, agriculture, etc, young people no longer think in the context of their countries alone anymore. Thoughts and intending actions are global.

*Youth participation in politics must not necessarily be about electing/appointing young people into positions of power; there’s a lot more to it.

Interesting fact from the discussion about economies in Africa and leadership – 92% of Tunisians own their own homes. So, only 8% are renting. Incredible!!

Personal thoughts about the man? Obviously after 10 years of leading Africa’s premier bank and interacting/negotiating with Heads of States on a daily, you must have pretty much seen everything there is to see, right? Perhaps that was the reason for the hint of a little too much confidence he wore, I don’t know.

In answer to a question about ADB creating jobs for young Africans (I swear I cringed as this person was mouthing the very words), Mr Kabureka said, “jobs are not created by the ADB, or the EU, or any of those bodies. They are created by the public/private sector, with the government providing the enabling environment for those businesses to thrive.”

The ‘Anglophone group’ working on a class task… Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia, Cameroon, Liberia, and Sierra Leone represented!

Then he talked about the Africa Guarantee Fund Bank which provides funding for entrepreneurs with better rates than regular banks. He also said the ADB had periodic grants people could access, details on their website.

Back to his thoughts on leadership, he said there were three qualities any leader had to have.

1. They must have abilities (not necessarily acquired through formal education, but an expandable mind is everything)

2. A set of values.

3. Moral courage to make ‘hard’ decisions.

Of course there was time to talk about his achievements as ADB boss in the past ten years 🙂 and he mentioned the bank had spent $27bn in 10 years on infrastructure on the continent. This figure according to him is 40 times more than had been spent on infrastructure before his time.

Then he mentioned that in a meeting with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2005, Mr Blair described Africa as “the scar on the conscience of the world”.

In 2014 however, in another meeting, the same Blair said, Africa was “the most exciting continent in the world because of the opportunities available”.

K.

We took photos, Mr Kabureka left, and then it was time for tea, or lunch. Don’t really remember which. But I’m going for whatever it is, and I can’t write there!

PS: Come back for part three tomorrow.

 

RE giveaway: The books are here, and there’s a little something you should see first!

Hello good people of the world,

Good news! If you’re Nigerian and you’re used to Pentecostal churches, you would be clapping now. Otherwise, just clap anyway.

So, I had a giveaway, put out things people would need to do, and the deadline they’d need to send their entries in by.

Only one person sent in answers, IVY BEN, and so automatically they became my winner! She placed her order (remember the deal was books only), and the books came in on the weekend!

The books are here, next thing is to send them to Nigeria this weekend, and ship them off to her!

PS – A lot of comments said they didn’t quite understand the rules of the competition. I sincerely apologise, and I will make it good (by organizing another giveaway soonest). In the meantime, the first six people to leave a comment get one of the following books given to me (and this cause) by my friends.

1. Preside or lead: the attributes and actions of effective regulators by Scott Hempling (three of this)

2.  “Democracy and prebendalism in Nigeria: Critical interpretations. Edited by Adebanwi and Obadare

3. Rewire: Digital cosmopolitans in the age of connection by Ethan Zuckerman.

4. The Message Bible. I mistakenly ordered two instead of one and so instead of returning one, I’m going to give it to one lucky person. Lucky because this Bible is so beautiful!

Mention the book you want in your comment so the next person sees that it’s already been taken and I don’t have the Solomon issue of dividing one book into halves to satisfy anyone (lol…)

Have a good week!

 

 

My mega winner! Giveaway winner announced!

Ladies and gentlemen, drum roll please! 

A week plus ago I said I’d be doing my very first giveaway, and I was pretty pumped about it. Then I did another blogpost with the giveaway details, and the deadline when I had to get the answers by. 

The task was to: 

1. Open the last twelve posts on this blog

2. Pick the 5th word of the 6th paragraph in each post

3. Use these words to form a sentence.

Simple! The deadline was Tuesday the 18th of February, and I haven’t updated on this because I’ve had to do quite a bit of traveling in the past week.

I got many messages saying they were working on the answers to the one question @HL_Blue had, but one person took the time to actually do it all, and sent it in before the deadline. So, I have a winner!

My winner is IVY BEN! Congratulations! You get to use up ALL the prize money (on books), and you get one copy each of the books donated by my friends!

Email dfairygodsister(at)yahoo(dot)com with the list of books you want, and even though I’m in Nigeria at the moment, I’ll place the order for you, and we can start waiting till you get them!

ANSWERS TO THE GIVEAWAY ASSIGNMENT (from IVY BEN)
1) Happy birthday to my darling Aunty Pat
And: AND God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering of the water He called sea.

2) My first ever giveaway!!
Idea: IDEA is the singular form of Ideas.

3) For Danny Danosaur
Everyone: EVERYONE should take their seats please.

4) Another one bites the dust
Family: FAMILY always comes first with me.

5) The right solution for the wrong problem
Window: WINDOW blinds come in different materials and designs.

6) For Sylvester – words are not enough
His: HIS (Nelson Mandela’s) biography, ‘A Long Walk To Freedom’ is a must read!

7) #PraisewithCC! This is why we’re here
Very: VERY few christians practice what they preach.

8)The quest to renew my Nigerian ‘pali’ (Part
Two)
As: AS long as there’s life, there’s hope.

9) Separate yourself from unnecessary pressure
We: WE are heirs of the Father, we are joint heirs with the Son.

10) The quest to renewing my Nigerian ‘pali’ (Part One)
To: TO whom much is given, much is expected.

11) Rev E.A Adeboye on “Overcoming Mountains”
Children: CHILDREN ought to be sent to school and not be used for child trafficking.

12) Breaking news: I changed two bulbs today!
Thinking: THINKING of you gladdens my heart and makes me yearn for your return.

Congratulations again IVY BEN! Get in touch!

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“I’m thankful for stability” – Saratu #31days 31writers

Day 6, and the whole world is paused at the death of the icon Nelson Mandela; I drew up a list of ten things you should know about the legend earlier today. My heart weeps, because there is no one waiting in the wings to take his place. Africa is littered with leaders who have buried their umbilical cords under their Presidential lodgings and so must die there. Sad. Shame.

We celebrate Madiba today (and forever), and today I also celebrate my friend Saratu!!

What I am most grateful for: Stability

My name is Saratu. I am a Nigerian and I work in civil society.

The year began suspended in the air, and ended with feet on the ground. At the start of the New Year, the non-profit I moved to Abuja to work for had just lost funding. I packed for home in Lagos with the largest of my suitcases, downloaded my e-ticket and confirmation number onto my iPad, preparing to be gone for months. I was weary at the thought of looking for work again, just a year after I had secured employment. I had begun to rue an opportunity I had turned down a few weeks before at another non-profit that was smaller than the one that I worked for then. The year loomed ahead, like a Transylvania mansion with dark tinted windows and no sign of who or what was inside. January felt much longer than just a few weeks.

In retrospect, I can see that this instability was a running feature of my year. I did get called back for some contract work for two-weeks at a time, and had no idea what I would be doing at the end of each month. For this I went back to Abuja in February, and tried not to worry too much about the fact that rent would soon be due in an apartment that was cheap but afforded me little privacy. A man who I was hoping to work for at some point made aggressive and unwanted sexual advances at me in his office at two o’clock in the afternoon when I went for an appointment; this was to happen two more times with two other men within the space of a few months. There were so many times this year that I felt unsafe and unsure of my future and my worth. I have thought often of how easy it was for me to no on all three occasions, and what opportunities I passed up each time. There was one thing that I knew for a fact, however: I am incredibly lucky for the privilege to afford my principles and morality.

Mercifully, the uncertainty did not last as long as I feared. I did get another job, and the first day fell on my birthday in June. I did not renew my rent at my old apartment; instead I moved to an apartment down the road from my new office that was bigger, in a better location, and wholly mine. Before I moved, though, I stayed at friends’ houses for about six weeks while the estate managers completed their renovations. To think that all these people were new friends who I knew for no more than a year makes them all the more incredible. Half the year had gone before I felt the ground beneath my feet had stopped shifting.

Stability, I feel duty-bound to add, is never permanent, and I am not even desirous to make it so. Happiness and sadness are also not permanent feelings. It is important to acknowledge the value of progress and the heat that moves us, to anticipate the next level in which we will find ourselves. But today, I write unashamedly in praise of the peace and quiet, that beautiful moment of silence when all the generators in your neighborhood have been turned off. I will move again, perhaps even soon, but there is nothing better than looking around and seeing that nothing is missing, that everything is just as it should be.

I’m well!!

Notice what formed the background? This is an incredible picture!!

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HOPE

As children, my parents always gave us stuff to look forward to, sometimes with conditions; for example “if you place first in your class I will buy you a bicycle”, and other times, just for the fun of it, dad or mom would promise to buy us a gift, or take us somewhere on a certain day. That always marked a turning point in our behaviour/carriage for that period; we would become extra obedient, extra helpful, extra helpful, extra clean, pick up our toys, stellar wouldn’t even scratch the description of what we would be become! Watching my five-year old nephew re-enact that ‘overzealousness’ when I promise to take him swimming or to Wonderland amuses me greatly, and I think, ‘jeez, were we really that obvious back then’?

There’s nothing like hope, trusting that someone will deliver on what they’ve said they will do. And even when sometimes from the word go you know those people won’t deliver, human nature dictates that we ‘hope against hope’. Then we get disappointed, feel hurt et al but give us the same scenario and we’ll do the same thing all over again. Why? Hope.

The perfect illustration for that would be me trying to train Izzie, my late Italian Shepherd (14^th June 2006 – 19^th December 2009) to sit. Every time I tried, saying, ‘sit’ in English, French, Italian, Yoruba, Ibo, even Hausa, that’s when my darling doggy would swear she would die if she didn’t jump, climb my back, or just stand and stare at me. Funny thing was, even after getting frustrated and leaving with all the treats I got her, next day, yours truly would be back at her kernel again! Why? Hope!

Look at Nigeria too, since the elections that produced Chief MKO Abiola of blessed memory were annulled, we’ve been striving (without success) to hold credible elections; you know, elections without Michael Jackson, Nelson Mandela and Jamie Foxx being Nigerian!

From 1999 we’ve moved from apathy to hope, to disappointment, and back to apathy. And now, just when everyone is ‘gingered’ to participate in the April polls, the fear that we might be disenfranchised is staring us in the face! It’s been reported severally that some registration centres up till now have still not been manned, some of the officials cannot use the equipment, others don’t have ink to print the data recorded, etc. yet every day we continue to troop to the sites, trusting that maybe today, stuff will go right. Why? Hope. By the way, if you still haven’t registered, where is your swag? If you don’t know the closest site to you, check http://yrn.me/maps, http://yrn.me/sng, http://yrn.me/nec, or http://yrn.me/clp; you should find maps, and directions. The registration ends on the 29^th of January, so you don’t have a lot of time left!

Most of the time we hope/put our trust in things or people we know from the get go will not come through for us; have you ever stopped to wonder why that God never fails us? He does things we don’t even expect Him to do, yet funnily he seems to be the hardest person for us to hold on to?

How many of us sleep at night hoping to wake up the next day? None of us, because we just know that we will, and that our lives will continue. Do we hope that when we breathe in, our lungs will expand to receive the oxygen and then retract to let the carbon dioxide out? No, for us it just comes naturally. By the way, my doctor sister would be proud of that sentence!

If the foundation of our existence is taken care of on a daily basis by God (and without fail), what is that thing you can’t seem to be able to trust Him for? Sometimes I imagine if it were humans in charge of ‘switching each other on’ every day. Trust me we wouldn’t be having any issues with over population anywhere in the world! I imagine that some people would ‘forget’, and God help you if you fight with the person in charge of your switch!

My pastor talked about not giving up this Sunday, for me it was timely, and just what I needed (isn’t that how the Word of God always is)? He said that sometimes God tells us yes, and rushes off to give us what we’ve asked for, says yes but wants us to wait just a bit maybe because He’s seen that we’re not ready for it yet, and He should know! Other times He might say no because He knows what we want at that time will destroy us. Ditto for my nephew asking to drive the car, not with me o, but alone! I even saw an avatar that says that sometimes we ask God for stuff and He’ll probably be thinking, “you’ve got to be kidding”!

A good example would be Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast praying to God that all the local and international attention/pressure for him to cede power to Alassane Outtara (who’s the rightful winner of the elections) will go away. Are you for real Sir?

Good people, keep your hope alive. The Bible says “cast not away your confidence…..” especially in the One who doesn’t tell you He’s unable to sort you out because He’s too busy, is having a bad day or is on a vacation to the Caribbean’s. Keep your hope in Him alive, that’s what’s up!

P:S – Day 2 of one chronicle a day this week!

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