Comments on naijablog: Dreaming of revolution..

"Everything is outsourced to God" unfortunately Go...

2006-03-07T18:57:00.000+01:00

"Everything is outsourced to God" unfortunately God doesn't do consultancy work. Sometimes i feel i'm the only Nigerian out here who doesn't buy into all this religious crap.If there are others out there please lets get together and free our people from 'religious bondage'.

The seeds of the revolution are indeed germinating...

2006-02-04T14:28:00.000+01:00

The seeds of the revolution are indeed germinating as we speak. If we have not noticed them, then that may be because we are looking in the wrong place. You see, this revolution will not be popular. This revolution will not driven by a proletariat, fed up with its cynical and duplicitous masters. Neither will it be characterized by mass protests, national strikes or a rainstorm of molotovs. No, this will be a quiet revolution – driven by the wonderfully antiseptic properties of transparency and truth.

Rumour is indeed a weak basis for revolutionary change. Not only, as someone suggested earlier, can it wound the blameless, more often than not it simply provides a cloak for the disingenuous. The perception that much of what we think we know is baseless allows the guilty to dismiss any accusation as the tittle-tattle of idle minds or “political enemies” (as our now not-so-fat-friend-from-Bayelsa would say).

A suugestion was made in an earlier blog that strengthening the media is the answer. Or, that alternative media, such as Teju and Jeremy’s blogs, can really catalyse change? Well, I guess I would agree… but only if they provide us with the right tools to turn ideas into action. We need hard data, facts, numbers, names as our weapons. So…. we believe that every member of the National Assembly is corrupt. But is this universally true? How do we really know this to be the case? We need information on names, amounts stolen, theft procedures and the like…. Admittedly, it is often difficult to get our hands on this info, but I believe that there are enough faceless consultants with access to sensitive information, willing to play their small role in smoking out each and every enemy of democracy.

I understand your feelings of frustration - totall...

2006-01-31T08:58:00.000+01:00

I understand your feelings of frustration - totally. But I also do believe that big changes are on the way. Right now, changes may be relatively small, sub-terranean and so not yet evident.

People are coming back from the diaspora, bringing with them skills and knowledge acquired abroad. They are also bringing with them and starting to implement new ways of doing things.

A small, but significant example, would be the improvement in the quality of customer service in many places of business today. I have called-up or visited several companies where I was very impressed at how quickly and efficiently I was attended to by someone who was knowledgeable about their product or service. Yes, I do remember your post from yesterday, we know that innovations tend to appear in privately-owned businesses for whom keeping the customers happy, and thus making good profits, is key.

Yes, improving business processes is crucial and many companies are starting to understand that and act on that knowledge. Although it would be great to wait on the government to institute change (and we do need policy that supports economic and social development), I believe that changes really come from businesses and individuals.

Pus and gangrene congregate.....hilarious.

2006-01-30T23:04:00.000+01:00

Pus and gangrene congregate.....hilarious.