Dear Dad,

Very soon, the Niger Delta problems will begin to open up to sustainable solutions. My optimism is based on the fallouts from the collapse of the vexatious "Third Term Agenda", TTA.

Those who sold out will be brought to account, especially if they collected the bribe-for-votes largesse. Those who lied are now in panic. Those who were opportunists have themselves to blaim. We hear the communities are now taking stock. It is hot!

As for me, the real treat is that this weeding process will eventually, perhaps finally, point us to better electoral engagement towards 2007. We may now be better able to pick the right persons who will represent our interests, rather than political prostitutes and fraudsters. If our elected politicians do not know it, we must show them that our votes be sacred. This, therefore, is the beginning of political wisdom in representative democracy.

We must, however, promptly appeal to our aggrieved compatriots NOT to resort to any violence in this matter. No need. No need at all.

Just vote them out. Period. When we get the next set of leaders (the right set from this lesson) we must monitor and hold them to account, without the old divisive sentiments and tribalism that now punish us. No more "divide-and-rule"! And our future leaders must unravel the past. People must account for their deeds or misdeeds. Honour the heroes. Punish the villains.

With justice and fair play, our region will soon fly high. Very soon.

Dad, pray for us o!
Dayo

Mama,

This note is a sweet one. I was thrilled when some of our politicians received a knock today - from the president. He said those who have been accused of bribing or receiving bribes, on the Tenure Elongation saga, are being investigated. Considering that his people and party chieftains are rumoured to be arrow-heads, this promises to be "exciting".

The sweetest part of the happenings is his total and complete "disowning" of the Third Term crusaders! The president said he knows nothing about it! Wow!!

So, all those adults who have been behaving like spoilt babies, and carrying on like overgrown kids, will answer their fathers' names very soon. It seems many of them lacked mothers like you, Mama, who drilled discipline into us. Watching them during these harrowing months of tirades, debates and an unwholesome misadventure, I can only sigh....and say a huge THANK YOU. Yes, for being a mom and a teacher. Many of these folks need to return home for real training, moral rearmament, culture grooming, and value re-injection into their spiritual fibre. You get such from great mothering. And communual responsibility.

Once again, Mama, thank you. And God bless you forever.

Love
Dayo

Dear Dad,

Last night I was wondering how you were, and how it would have been a pleasure to chat with you face-to-face. So much to share. Here, on earth, we're advancing on several fronts. Yes.

There is this phenomenon called INTERNET which is reinventing our world. Joys and jitters, jobs and jabs, are in bountiful measures all round, all around! Thrilling. Grilling.

To start with, that's how I'm now able to communicate with you on the World Wide Web. Hoping that the celestial courier will pick things up regularly, and find you at home when notes arrive! It has turned publishing and broadcasting into some of the most liberalised endeavours ever. Which is why I'm now able to test out my humble skills in communication, and can look forward to putting out some of my works on the world stage - the global market and its very forgiving malls. The audience - readers and listeners - are beholden to no stereotypes, are free of them gate-keepers! We have our chance, and our time, in this wide marketplace of six billion!

Now you can make free calls - phone, video - and send photos plus files INSTANTLY. You can do so "in conference" by adding or linking several other persons online. I can easily find all sorts of information on the "net", which is a short name for the Internet. Shopping couldn't be more fun; just a few clicks away. And then the electronic mail (email) facilities. It is such a ball. Cool.

Okay, the low points: CYBER-CRIMES!!! Plus PRIVACY ABUSE!!! And others...

On the whole, however, we are better off. That is my take. Phenomenal.

Stay well
Dayo

Dear Dad,

When you hear the word "negotiate" or "settle" or "arrange" be careful not to recall your teaching days. This is not the time to go for that Oxford Dictionary or Advanced Learner's one. You will find these words, but not their "acquired & accrued" meaning and connotation these days...in Nigeria! So, Daddy, welcome to a crash programme on "Getting By" in our times. It is a short course, and an interesting journey into the inner workings and recesses of our minds - both leaders and followers!

The military midwifed the "Culture of Settlement". This meant "pacification through some form of inducement", usually material or access advantage. Some sort of political privilege. So when you hear people backing government policies or actions, the first temption is to suggest that they have been settled! Of course many were so-settled, including labour and community leaders, traditional rulers and religious personages. But not everybody has a price; some true
patriots genuinely supported government activities out of conviction or necessity.

Things have since spiralled out of control. If you owe bills, you are likely to continue to enjoy service once you "settle" the operatives of the utility company/corporation. That was how government businesses were run, and ruined. Some still are. You could "negotiate" contracts, "import/export" tariffs, petroleum tax, etc. as long as you know your way, by paying persons to cook the books. Bank debtors "settle" bankers rather than repay the bank. Lawyers can "arrange" to arraign ghost defendants or obtain ludicrous and real outlandish judgements from cash & carry courts! You can obtain all sorts of titles/honours, including religious, academic and national awards, by "negotiation & settlement". The list is endless.

Now, two particular ones worry us. Kids are getting their parents or guardians to "settle" teachers and examiners for good/high grades. That is hot! People are "settling" journalists and media houses to promote them or pollute others. That is fire!

The ultimate concern is with the security agencies, especially the police. Every Inspector General has promised to stamp out this "settlement stigma" from their ranks. We are still waiting. With the arraignment and conviction of a former IG on monumental frauds against the police, not many people see an early end to the wait!

Give the devil his due, the Obasanjo Administration has made some in-road into fighting this corruption monster. They have canned some high profile deviants, and have been deservedly praised. We wish them more success.

End of Lesson
Dayo

Our Dearest Mother,

It will be Mothers Day again on the 26th. Not many take it to heart and very many take it for granted. I was watching satellite TV the other day and could not believe how many souls lost their soulful links with home, because they lost bond or touch with their moms. Moms? How could you lose such soul? In all ways, almost all days, mom is home and home be mom. It will never change!

Growing up under your wings, especially after Papa's passing, was a blessing and a tale. SOONday, I will do fuller justice to the tribute. Our meetings in dreams with you speaks to the bond. How we also managed after you left us in '79 tells part of the huge legacy you left with us. But the mother of all gifts is the Human Touch everyone knew of you, and which I humbly attest to today.

Mothers house and give the milk of human kindness as a biological, philosophical, physical and metaphorical function/reality. You gave. And the goodness follows us till this day. Mothers are teachers. You were both home teacher and school teacher. But your lesson notes were so real they reeled out chores as life, and riled crookery as daft. It was strange, stern and sublime. But you always insisted that only substandard, stinking souls stab others to get on or get by. The skies are wide and open enough for ALL to fly! You celebrated competence, and showed the way.

So, this Mothers Day be for you, Dearest Mother, for a golden gift that all mothers are made to give, but so few do. Especially now.

Kids from around the world now cheat in exams, parents now bribe for their wards to be awarded high grades, husbands now loot national and corporate treasuries for family pleasures, wives now demean their womanhood (if you know what I mean!), and traditional/religious titles now go to any purchaser in line. Your time was not crime/corruption free, Mama, but if you were ever on a visa to visit any part of our planet today, you will...em, em, oh Mama...simply FAINT! Knowing you, you may actually refuse first-aid, so you can awake in your yonder blissful realms! No surprise.

Of course there are good homes and nations, and there are concerted efforts worldwide to redeem things. It won't be cheap, though cheapness got us here. It will cut and hurt, but it will be done. There is a new rise in youth-faith these days that need to be harvested. That, Dear Mom, was the anchor you handed us, and the assurance you knew of. We your children and all your grandchildren know nothing else, trust nothing else, but PRAYERS of FAITH. And, bless you, Mom, it works.

So, on this Mothers Day 2006, may the Peace of the Good Lord be upon YOU. Amen.

With all our love,
Dayo

Papa,

You know what, one day I'm going to have to ask why you and mama came from the Niger Delta! Relief, sir: Not today! But, honest, I go ask una o.

First, the update. Sent a memo to mom already...finally breaking your long standing monopoly... hahaha. Point is she understands (mothers!) and I imagine she enjoys our more regular rendezvous in my dreams. Yes, she is a virtual constant....want your share of the turf? Then you must negotiate, dad, it is now the in-thing in Nigeria and around the world. Mama and I are liberal, and you know it. So come to the table soon. You will always be dear to us. At 52, I should be trusted (and I will cherish!) chairing the confab...hahaha. Your boy is grown!

Back to negotiations. The militants in the Niger Delta are currently negotiating with several interested parties regarding the oil workers hostage saga. Remember that such things never happened in your time? Yes. But that was because the economy then was based and run on agriculture and solid minerals - both of which have been criminally and conveniently neglected, even today. Too much trouble, I guess, for our own leaders. So, without meaning to depress you, dad, I'm sure you won't like to know that we now import palm oil (yes o, red palm oil!) from Malaysia (oh papa, no frown now: na the same Malaysia wey dem come here come collect our seeds for 1960s!). Our people now go there to negotiate mouth-watering import deals, creating jobs and huge plantations for the wise malaysians. Our lands are lying waste and fallow, while our foreign reserves from high global oil prices are brimming over in foreign banks/lands. Stranger than fiction.

The whole world is now going for cassava for animal feeds (to avoid foot & mouth disease), starch, drugs, cosmetics, nutrition, etc. Nigeria is the world's largest producer, as we once were and should be for palm oil. Instead of creating huge Farm Settlements (like Pa Awo did in your time), our government people and their hangers-on are going all over the globe negotiating marketing and supply deals! No-one is negotiating how to grow the crop, with our legions of idle hands and unemployed youths . To justify the expenses and such blatant incongruence, they have been raiding and commandeering the domestic stock. With all sorts of committees (oh, you'll hear about that someday: the virus of committees, and their obsession with it!), associations that are dominated by elites rather than actual farmers, as well as numerous middlemen and political jobbers, garri and all other local cassava-based staples have become scarce, pricey consumables. It's a pandemic!

Negotiations are also going on for and against the tenure-extension saga termed 'Third Term". There are allegations and counter allegations as to whether or not pecuniary and material inducement is at play. There are denials and there is defiance. We wait.

Negotiation. That term, dad, is not a layman's term, or an ordinary word. These days, when people hear it , they take cover! George Bush will soon be talking to the Iranians, he claims, over Iraq. See? He says it will be a narrow mandate/agenda for his negotiators at the meeting: Iraq, and no more! No, there must be no talks about the nuclear issue. Not important enough. He has more time-bound stuff to clear with Congress, Dubai, the opinion polls, and post-Katrina souls. Anyway, the US will now negotiate or talk with Iran. They are currently negotiating with North Korea. Soon, there might be full light negotiation with Syria. So you can see what I mean, can't you?! No, I won't speculate, daddy, on whether that profound theory has been renegotiated: that ''Axis of Evil" coinage. That frenzy? It's usually a question of politics, period.

Next post, if nothing more negotiable intrudes, I will educate you on the numerous meanings of the term negotiate in both official lexicon and political terminology.

Stay well, dad
Dayo

Mama,

In this week and season of International Women's Day celebrations I have a perfect excuse to link openly with you. My siblings of four female one male (so we dare not vote on anything gender!) are okay...coping as we all must. Now, it may amuse you that the whole world is agog or buzzing with this whole issue of women development/empowerment....since you never had any such handicap. Indeed, as a high princess you were the first example of girl child education, when your royal father sent you off to the nuns in that mission school in Akure....way back in the 1940s. I was very humbled and renewed when one of your cousins (a customs exec) proudly showed me an old Nigeria Magazine report of a british journalist from the colonial office going all the way to Ikorigho/Ugbo (now oil-producing zone of Ondo State) to interview Baba, our grandfather, and you. Never knew I had such a rare gem for mother before then!

Since you left us in 1979, I have come across several elders from your Ilaje ethnic heritage who testified to the furore and alarm that swept through their land/kingdom when you made the "taboo" decision to fall in love with, and and marry, a "kobokobo" (foreigner)! Worse still, your royal-blooded father agreed....despite your coveted/trophy status!! Choice. And you made yours. These days, dear mom, not many nations guarantee this basic freedom. Even in free nations!

I'm sure you'll be alarmed that violence against women (this year's thematic focus) has now assumed new and even renewed dimensions/proportions...across the world, across classes, and across cultures. It is no hysteria. It is real.

The other day, harmless Nigerian Mothers peacefully protesting the loss of over 60 children from one of our best mission schools in an aircrash, coming on the heels of several previous sourly-handled ones, were tear-gassed and molested by the police! Among them, can you believe, were Professor Jadesola Akande (yes, mom, the former VC ) and Marie Fatayi-Williams who lost her first son in the recent (July 7) London bombings!!!

As I write, Nigerian Mothers are struck by a strange upsurge of cooking fuel (kerosene) scarcity. It is hyper-expensive and unavailable. And, yes Mama - stop asking! - we are still the world's No 5/6 in OIL and No 1/3 in LNG exporting. Oh yes, they are still flaring the oil-field gas...we are No 1 in that. Both our government and the oil companies are determined not to stop the wasteful and injurious practice. So mothers and children soak in the acid rain...and dehydrate in the Niger Delta Region. Your Ilaje nation has also joined in enduring same despoliation. Uncle Robert, your brother, was part of the vanguard for redress when Chevron came to Ilajeland earlier on. They got little headway! Everything is unduly governmentised everwhere. So let's thank and support the UN for such annual global attention to women development. Things are tough for women and children worldwide. Very tough.

Hey, let me not overly depress you...I know you - Madam Worry! It is not all bad news. The Obasanjo Administration has been generous(?) with female appointees. Women leaders are everywhere in government. The Economic Team is led by a woman. And Nigerians are eternally grateful to Prof Dora Akunyili who superintends our Foods and Drugs administration (NAFDAC). She is making waves around the globe for her sterling excellence and courage. I should be talking to you about her soon. Meanwhile, for her protection of Nigerian Mother & Child, kindly beg ALL the Heavenly Hosts to help us protect her. Like you, dear mom, she is a rare gem. Truly rare.

I must get back to dad. And a few other dads! See you...

Love
Dayo

Dear Dad,

Since you left us in 1963 a million things have happened. And you know most. You also know that my Notes To Daddy book on the military dictatorship years is maturing in its vault. Right now, the Internet makes it possible to share with you our secret conversations in open communication. By a combination of double genius and a deservedly loaded purse, I found the offerings of Google and Blogger the right tool. And signed.

I will blog (that's their term). I will audioblog (their vocab). And I would eventually mobileblog (their lexicon, I swear). This way, the guys are determined to keep us in touch. Such soulful conspirators! Oh, and they won't charge me a dime. Indeed, if our conversations make sense, Google AdSense will post ads to the site, and post cheques to me...when they sell!

Since Mama passed on in 1979, I had decided to keep most thoughts to myself...except in some of my poems. Not anymore! From this platform, you will both hear from me.

In consonance with your known community spirit and giving, I shall also be conversing with dads and moms of the world...around the world.

Both for you up there and us right here, this experience won't be funny at all. It will have its sweet and sour bumps, but we will endure and preserve the good for all. We are now in a Global Village that lacks a village square! Yet it is great being around, contending and reporting. Yes.

Parting shot: Pray for Nigeria. It is giving Africa and our friends goose pimples, right now! See you soon. No, tomorrow!

Dayo