Nigeria: Hope of the Past, the Future not so much.

It becomes insanely difficult to retain the attitude of “suffering and smiling”. Suffering and smiling, the mantra every Nigerian has come to live by. It sounded novel at the time the phrase was coined. We beamed when Nigerians were found out to be the happiest people in the world. We relished the feeling of happiness in squalor. We loved the recognition. We never saw it as an expose. We never knew the world was laughing at us.

We’ve been taught never to forget the invasion and cruelty of the British: “Forget not how they bound your forefathers in chains and carted them off to cotton fields and plantations. Forget not the gold and silver, the artwork of bronze and copper they stole from us and continue to exhibit them in far away lands”. We cannot blame the British forever. Misfortune befell us when our forefathers sold their brothers their own people off as slaves just for a few shiny objects. This greed haunts us till this very day. Current Nigerian leaders have consistently carted Nigerians off to the world. They have sold us to poverty. They have sold us to shame.

Being a Nigerian has become hard. There’s nothing to foster patriotism except your parents. Hard. How does a country that’s wealthy in natural resources still rank high in corruption? Believe me being a growing country has nothing to do with it. It is a classic case of servants riding on horses as the princes walk. Nigerians with dreams for Nigeria have either been killed or had their voices drowned out. When a nation has no vision, the people perish. No jobs. Electricity is as constant as water in the desert. Food prices rocket. Fuel prices rocket. There was such a time in Nigeria when the Naira was on par or more than the American dollar in value. There was a time one could just walk into the Embassies of several nations without waiting in line for an average of 6 hours and not get denied a visa because your bank statement looked “suspicious”. There was a time you could get into a higher institution by merit. There was a time Nigeria glittered. Of course these are stories from my parents. I was born into a time Nigeria had begun its slow descent to the  abyss. I witnessed as the educational system crumbled. I witnessed the death of dignity. Every man for himself as they call it. I witnessed the death of a community.

Nigeria has become synonymous with online scamming. My stomach begins to convulse as I see people in the tech industry I so admire cackle about that “Nigerian prince” in the email they received yesterday. A broken system will always drive its citizens to insanity. This time the insanity is believing you have to steal to survive.If the country only made education of its citizens a priority again and gave them places to utilize those skills. Nigerians have made it so easy for other nations to assume a pseudo identity to rob people of their savings. They have chosen to be Nigerians at their convenience. A country is a brand. It takes business savvy leaders to see it as such. Once a brand has a flaw, everything in the product pipeline suffers from that mishap. Nigerian leaders let these cancers eat at its brand without an iota of care now its citizens suffer the “blowback”. Hell you’re with a green passport, you’re singled out for triple checks. Say you’re a Nigerian, people begin to walk away. Painful bad branding. Consequences of a broken system. The Chinese came in slowly paying off officials to win contracts whilst doing incredibly mediocre work. Striking deals with certain people to dip their finger into our resources. Killing us as our officials swim in their lake of gold coins. Appalling.

As a child, I have prayed for Nigeria in distress. I have lived with people who still believe the country will get better. I don’t believe that any more. Our problems cannot be solved by some divine intervention. Our problem is our mindset. Everyone wants to get into office and fatten their pockets no one cares for Nigeria anymore. I remember in secondary school classmates of mine paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln’s democracy quote  “A government of the people, by the people, for the people”. Now it’s a government by certain people for certain people.  We’ve become voiceless citizens hoping the darkness will someday wash over us. We’re desperately digging through our walls of despair with our spoons of “one day it will get better” but the walls become thicker each passing day. We have become a nation that now shuns dreams as the country withers. The solace of stagnation is more profitable. A nation of complainers. Life is only as hard as one intends it to be. Nigerians have chosen only to see it as spine breaking thanks to an ineffective government. Hope, that mistress we yearn for continues to elude us. Truly the children do bear the sins of the father.

There are many wonderful, brilliant, and talented people languishing in Africa looking for an opportunity to let their stars shine. No one is giving it to them. Africa does not need the benevolence of visitors. Africa needs accountable governments. That is the single best thing the international community can do for Africa. The aids will only remind the people of the inhuman state of life their governments have carved for them. It is a painful reality.

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The Renaissance, Thanksgiving, and Startups

My new article on entrepreneursunpluggd.com . I talk about how businesses can benefit from using a theme to sharpen their focus. Give a read and let me know what you think.

Make Love To Pirates And Fans.

Over the years we have watched Hollywood and the music industry go after the throats of people for falling in love with their products. It has been bloody and senseless. Instead of love, people have come to resent Hollywood and the music industry (especially) as that predator that will wring every penny from a fan that got their product ” illegally”. Hell hath no fury like a maltreated fan. Such behaviour encourages more piracy. I’ll propose pretty simple suggestions that might curtail piracy and perhaps make hollywood and the music industry look like humans.

Make Content Universally Available: Grant access to these products so people can access them. People outside the U.S dread the message ” This content is restricted and may not be viewed in your area” or ” the content provider has blocked viewing in your area”. Lower the prices to an affordable level. People will watch a terrible cam than wait a month. That’s how bad they want to see the movie Let’s do the math, if an original DVD sells for $150 and some bootlegger sells the same movie of about the same quality for $5 where do you think the individual with a lower income will go? This is the case in my country.

Appeal To People With The Stars: Get the stars to go around appealing to the good nature people. People aren’t that difficult once a star can see the world through their eyes. Let them hold ordinary gatherings with fans. Even if you charge the fans a buck, they won’t mind as long as they get to speak to the stars for a few hours.

Let the DVDs Play Content Immediately: That infernal DVD menu, get rid of it. Only if the DVD has 2 movies above, we don’t want the bloody menu. When we push play, we want it to play.

Region Coding: A friend went to the United States and got a bunch of DVDs without knowing anything about region coding. These were rare DVDs according to him. He couldn’t watch them. He had a region 2 player and the DVDs were region 1. Disappointing. Don’t make us think we want it to just work. Take regional coding out.

Digital Rights Management: Here’s the argument “I bought this album for this amount, can’t I do whatever the hell I want with it?”. The answer, “why the hell not?”. When fans put up those songs on Youtube doing their best bit of a cover then it means the song / artist is loved. Take down notices are infuriating. Stop them. For an industry that mostly gets most of its acts from folks who cover other songs it seems like a contradictory move.

Get the Artist To Release Their Songs In Bits: People are impatient. The old way of releasing albums is OLD. No one wants to wait until a certain release date. Get the songs out. Sell them those songs. Let people rock them. Then you can sell an album later with something special. Makes it feel like a collection and makes owning it feel like a privilege.

Cinema And Online Simultaneously: Please don’t make me walk to the cinema. My couch/ bed is better. I can eat whatever I want plus I don’t have to hold my urine in cause I don’t want to miss a bit of the film. Cinema is torture. A place rife with any kind of distraction. From the dude who keeps farting to the couple doing unspeakable things right beside you. I use my computer most of the time. A week after the movie is released is fine. Then I still can make time to watch it instead of going ” Fuck this!! The bloody movie is probably not worth it!”. This way the movie remains fresh in the minds of people and hollywood will make more money when everyone can watch it. Don’t make me wait a bloody month or two.

Let Fans Become Involved In Production: From the ideas for the script to poster designs to every bit of marketing within a controlled environment of course. People spend their time coming up with parodies or fan made films for a reason. Some of them are really good. The best part is people will do it for free.People are bloody creative when it comes to something they love. Embrace the opportunity. The directors, producers,artistes, e.t.c should leave their ego at the door and listen. People defend stuff they help create.

Make Love NOT War: Play nice. Quit the SOPA or whatever agenda you have up your sleeves. Stop lobbying congress. Look human (at least pretend). When you maltreat people they’ll often put you in your place.

There Will Always Be Bad Eggs: Some people are naturally repellent to good behaviour. Let them be the good outnumber the evil. Focus on the good and the evil might just convert. Use the good ones as your evangelists.

Learn from Steam: Gamers love Steam (Valve)  for a darn good reason and hate E.A for a good reason too.

Game Based Movies Hurt Our Feelings: They suck!! No offence to the artist who slave over them but they suck. Take your time, plan out a game, make it and while you’re at it change the story. I think a lot of studios would be happy to pen a great story and come up with terrific game mechanics if they’re just given the time. Arkham Asylum / Arkham City make fan boys gush.

Make Fantastic Movies and Music: These days if you watch the trailer of a movie then you’ve probably seen the best bit of the movie. These days the music industry suffers from ” samesoundness”. If you hear this album then you’ve probably heard the other. Double down on creating great music and films. Originals are a killer. Leave the sequels and prequels alone. You could hurt an already healthy franchise. While we’re at it, not every book, video game, comic, or cartoon is motion picture adaptable. Let them be.