GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Monday, April 7, 2014

NIGERIA, NOW AFRICA'S ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE?

Icheoku says to many a Nigerian, the news coming out of the world's financial headquarters about their newly minted bragging right status as Africa's number one economy, must be very balmy indeed? However before you start spending that your life's savings hoping to make many more in a now new "buoyant economy", please pause and ponder what it is exactly that occurred. The gist of the matter is that Nigeria's productivity ratio (Gross Domestic Product) has now surpassed that of South Africa; BUT remember that no one ever said that the purchasing power or standard of living (Per Capita Income) of Nigerians ever saw the finish line before that of South Africans? This is very important since it is very possible for a country to produce more while the expectant income or return on labor does not percolate or trickle down the populace. Sometimes it is hijacked or cornered by the top 1% elites, living the general 99% populace holding the plate. That corruption, nepotism and cronyism help in maintaining this societal disequilibrium is also without a doubt. 

Therefore for Nigeria to be truly atop of the pyramid or literally cross the poverty index in the strict sense of it, the policy makers must devise a more equitable way of distributing the country's resources in such a way that it percolates down to the masses or what redneck Americans call the "policy of redistribution of the Obama government."  That way more purchasing power can be handed to the people who really do the purchasing because their needs are many and vast. These Joeys and Janes of Nigeria need literally everything but have no bargaining power because they are cashless or cash-strapped. This economic silver-bullet has been tested and proved to be very decisive:- a very rich man can buy a $600,000 Rolls Royce but thousands if not millions of ordinary (not so rich) men can each buy a $25,000 Prius and you do the math and see who impacted the economy more? Whose purchase kept more hands busy in the factory and it translates from there into more mortgages, more refinancing, more investments, more savings etc. Real economy is all about earning and purchasing (spending) powers, period. When the masses are financially empowered, it becomes a real boost to the economy and more people can buy more things while sellers and producers(importers) can now produce and sell more things. Conversely, the society's standards of living will improve resulting in overall health of the economy which translates to high Per Capita Income ratio. 

Moreover, Nigeria's population far exceeds that of South Africa and with so much mouth to feed, it is going to take a lot of economic and social re-engineering to bring millions of Nigerians out of the poverty index hounding them. The street-level example is:- take a case of two families herein referred to as Family A and Family B. Assuming that Family A is making 100,000Naira monthly and is married with ten kids thus leaving twelve mouths mulching on the 100K. Then Family B is making a modest 65,000Naira a month and is married BUT instead has only two kids. So query:- whose standards of living is better at 10,000Naira per mouth and 15,000Naira per mouth respectively, despite Family A earning more than Family B? This is also the reason India is one of the poorest countries in the world with over 700 million of their 1.3billion humans living below poverty level. China has also come around and is beginning to address this problem by trying to empower its exponential population of 1.6 billion humans trying to arm them with purchasing power. This is what has kept Western countries' standards of living higher than most other geographies - low birthrate and planning and distribution. 

Icheoku posits that the United Nations and other agencies are right when they say that Nigeria is a poor country, notwithstanding the 20,000 plus heavy hitters (Nigerian millionaires and people doing well ) therein, 138 of who own private jets and 26 who own private yachts. So ask yourself at about .025% of the 160,000,000 humans that call Nigeria home doing extremely well, what fate befell those remaining 99.075%? Statistics do not lie and if in doubt, check how many people you are directly responsible for or personally supporting in one way or another and then configure the rest. So what the latest GDP index recalculation did to Nigeria, if they will imbibe the message, is to encourage them to do more. It is just like cheering a marathoner on the sidelines to urge him/her to push the extra mile for the finish line. 

Like one commentator chided, "possibly it is because the West wants something from Nigeria that they did the sudden recognition?" Icheoku says YES, the West wants new markets for their products and Capitalism runs on MONEY; so if there is money to be made from anywhere including Nigeria, why not. Finally, Nigerians must demand from their leaders to do more for and by them - translation, invest more in the goose that produce the golden eggs and let the gander not be too greedy BUT learn to share what belongs to all. Meanwhile Icheoku congratulates all those hands in the tiller that made this milestone possible; what a welcome relief from all these Boko Haram infested stories that Nigeria has become about. More grease to those elbows that engineered the feat. Congratulations.

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