20 Facts About David And Faith Oyedepo’s Marriage That you Should Know.

By Bisi Adewale.

1. She met him at a Motor Park.

2. She was a university student – GREAT IFE while he was only a Polytechnic student in Kwarapoly (Remember the discrimination) – she could have snubbed him – but she responded.

3. His friends complained that he was carrying Christianity too zealously as if he was the only Christian – she became zealous too.

4. He took her to church in 1976 and made her sign an agreement (SAILING UNDER SEALED ORDERS) to marry and follow him whether he becomes blind, lame or handicapped… she signed.

5. Just before he married her, he told her God had sent him to LIBERATE THE WORLD (while he was still hopping between jobs) and went on to resign his job; his elder brother lambasted him, she stuck to him.

6. He told her God had shown him the key to prosperity – she believed.

7. He told her they would build a 50,000 capacity tent and preach the gospel from private jets-she believed her dreamer lover.

8. He was too ‘buoyant’ to afford a hotel room on his wedding eve, he slept in his rickety Volkswagen Beetle – she married him.

9. During a moment of insane faith, he ordered a mad man to be put in his car alone with her while she was
pregnant; she remained.

10. She saw she was dripping blood while pregnant and explained to him that she had a miscarriage, he shouted “It CANNOT Happen, Can I have my food please” – she served him food.

11. She just had their first baby and there was no food or money at home. He refused to borrow or ask or take church money and they were drinking/eating “CERELAC Baby food’ for 3 days – she ate with him.

12. She came to church one day and saw him so excited with few members while waiting for service to start; he explained to her that service was actually over – she laughed.

13. People kept praying for her and her husband as they seemed to be crazy and needed deliverance-she kept faith.

14. He announced a new Bible school and she knew there was no facility; she asked him and he replied “Is it your school”? She kept quiet. IT DOESN’T END THERE!

15. She didn’t know they were going to be flying in customized jets round the world.

16. She didn’t know he will pastor and she, co-pastor the largest church auditorium in the world.

17. She didn’t know he will be a father to millions all over the world.

18. She didn’t know he will be hosted by Presidents and Heads of States of nations.

19. She didn’t know he will be a Chancellor and Pioneer of one of the best Private-owned Universities in the
world…..and six others.

20. She woke up one day on her sick bed in the USA and unexpectedly saw her hubby who had flown in quietly from Nigeria and had refused to wake her up….. he was kneeling on the floor by her legs and crying ‘Lord, heal her and prove that you sent me”- She got healed miraculously… …TWICE!. She didn’t know. she saw was a Man with A BIG GOD inside him. Her name is “FAITH”!

It is sad to see that many ladies of these days can’t stand by a man with purpose and vision like this today.
Most ladies want a man that has ’arrived’ but forget that most men that walk with God need to grow in Him even as they
 (The ladies) grow with him (The husband).

Some of our mothers married our fathers when they had nothing to their names and together they grew to where they got to.
Sadly, some of those parents will not accept a spouse that doesn’t have much to his or her name when their child wants to be joined with one. Who upturned our values? Who said you need to ‘arrive’ before taking a helping hand and obtaining blessings from God?
Hey, marriage is not an achievement like one of your degrees or acquisition like a car or landed property.
Some marriages bring the completeness a man or woman needs. Let’s get our priorities right.

http://www.familyparliament.com

Enough Of US Domination Of World Economy By Vojislav Zigic.

Dear Mr Ayomide

I am a Serb (Srbin), born in Belgrade/Serbia (Srbija), who now lives in Australia.

I read your article: "Emmanuel Ayomide-Praise: Political lessons from the world’s largest democracy". I respect people from Africa and other not rich countries, like you, who are trying to find the truth about successes in other countries as is India, and apply it to Nigeria. However it can be done ONLY if people see the through reason for, in this case, Indian success.

Indian country economy growing up so fast has nothing to do with "democracy".

The reason is the same as, for example, in China, which is not self-called "democracies": The reason why Indian economy, as well as China's, is: the  large companies in those countries are owned by government, not by individuals, as is the case, for example in USA and Western Europe. whose economies are stagnating or are contracting.

If you are interested I can explain: why it is so and how it works.

I find it strange that people in the world, particularly in the Third World,  are so much influenced by Western propaganda or opinion, without using their own brain.

It is not the case only with "Indian democracy", but also in many other cases.

For example, so called "Arab's springs". Not having enough goods, jobs etc has nothing to do with not having democracy. Have you heard anyone explain how the so called "democracy" will make their fields bear/produce more: wheat, more corn, more food..!? If their land doe not produce more food they wil still not have enough food on their table. And, if anything, a so called "democracy", which often means chaos,  is not the solution, but a strong discipline, and it is not democracy.

The main reason for people in Arabic countries not having jobs, enough food and alike is: demography, they are having too many children, more then they can feed. In some countries there are almost 50% of population under 30 years of age.  

I would like to draw your attention to the following that, I believe,  could be of interest to you:

US Domination of the World: consequences, solutions

USA, draws it's power by making the people of the World  work for them through their currencies.

Remove the source of USA power, which is US$ as international currency/ as the reserve currency, and you will remove USA domination of the world..

By using US$ in international trade other countries are working for USA
In my opinion, by using US$ as a currency in international trade, the world is working for America/USA, the wealth of the world is going, flowing into
America, building America, including it's military.

All that USA does is: print US$ that costs them nothing. While the rest of the world has to buy the same dollars.

If any country, for example, wants to buy petrol it needs US$, so it has to buy it, pays a lot for it. That way the wealth of other countries in the world, including from your country, is transferred to USA.

That way, the world, including from poor countries of Asia & Africa and other countries: India, South Africa, China, Russia, Brazil, Nigeria etc are financing USA to build: roads, industry, rockets, warships, bombs... etc.

I was watching, on TV, ex-USA governor of USA Central bank, talking about a huge American debt. If I remember correctly he said something like this:

"What debt. All we need to do is: PRINT $" and there will be no debt.

Someone else sad that US owns 100% of US$ and can print US$  as much  as it wants.

I would like to say again and underline the following:

USA/America draws their strength, their power by making the people of the World, including Nigeria, work for them through their currencies.

That means, when America says that they are giving an aid to a third country, say Egypt, for example, $100 millions of American money, it is not true. They are, in fact,  giving to Egypt just the part of the money which they took from Egypt. In other  words they are giving back to Egypt, Egyptian own money, claiming that it is an aid from American taxpayers.   

Remove the source of USA strength/power which is US$ as international currency, and you will remove USA threat to other countries and the American exploitation of other country.

The best, the just solution would be to have international currency, not controlled by any single country, but maybe by UN. Or, use a currency which does not belong to any country or bank. Like, for example, "Bitcoin". That way we will have a more just world.

I believe, BRICS countries are strong enough to make a new currency which would replace US$ in international trade. Other countries, including Nigeria, should join BRICS, particularly Russia and Chain, in making new currency which will replace US$ as the world's reserve currency.

2008 financial crisis ... printing US$

In my opinion, the financial crisis of 2007–2008, also known as the global financial crisis and 2008 financial crisis of USA financial institutions/banks did not happen because of bad loans and alike, as they say, but because America spent more money in Iraq, Afghanistan and in other ways, then the world could absorb if they print new US$. USA can print only as much US$ as the world can absorb i.e. buy. Otherwise if USA prints more US$ then the world can absorb/buy, it causes financial crisis in America and other Western countries.

The true nature and the aim of US$ being used in international trade is: to rip-off the rest of the world of their wealth and the domination of the world by USA: militarily and economically...

China

My impression is that China realizes that US$ is the cause of problems in the world and that the replacement of US$ could be the key to solving problems and protect Chine from USA threat. Unlike other countries, China is still doing something about it:

* Making contracts  with some countries, not to use US$ for paying, but to use their own currencies.

* Also in the official Chinese Government newspaper "Xinhua" (October 13, 2013), Liu Chang writes: "...introduction of a new international reserve currency that is to be created to replace the dominant U.S. dollar...".

It means that China realizes that the main reason for American domination of the World is the US$ as the reserve currency and that a new currency should be made which will replace US$ in international trade.

Accordingly to what I know, Russian leadership has came to the same conclusions and are now doing the same:  USA is using US$ to force Russia and other countries to work for them, and that therefore it is in Russian interest, as well as in every other country in the world, including Nigeria to stop using US$ and  replace it with their own money or other currencies.

I would like to say again and underline the following:

In my opinion,  BRICS countries, particularly China & Russia, should make a new currency which will replace US$ as the world's reserve currency. Other countries should join them.

My assessment/forecast

My assessment is that USA and Western Europe financial crisis will continue. There are more indications that they will never recover from it. If this my forecast is correct then we can expect more and more troubles in the world caused/made by USA:  wars, invading other countries and killing their people and alike.

It is very likely that the World War III will be caused by USA/America.

We have a saying: "A wounded beast (wild animal) is very dangerous".

My assessment is:

The Centre of The World Power is moving from USA to BRICS, particularly to China & Russia.

Hoping that this my letter will be of some help.

Regards

Voyislav Zigich,

Email: zvoy39@gmail.com

Regulating The Use Of Digital Currencies In Nigeria.

By Emmanuel Ayomide-Praise(@eapthecolossus)

How did digital currencies or online payment instruments, creep into the Nigerian cyber space and have remained unnoticed and absolutely unregulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria and other financial monitoring and regulatory institutions? While this question still remains a little difficult to proffer answers to, digital currencies first began showing up in Nigeria sometime around the early or mid-2000s through online network marketing schemes (call it scams) as well as various get-rich-quick ventures or high-yield investment programs (HYIPs) which were mostly fraudulent and often disappeared online after few months of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

These digital currencies, such as e-gold and later liberty reserve, became the preferred online alternative for Nigeria’s budding cybercrime underworld as against direct bank payments or wire transfers from overseas which may have to go through the required regulatory scrutiny before such payments could be cashed.

Thus, Nigeria became an important conduit for the receipt and movement of funds through digital currencies and unregulated global internet payment systems. With many online network-based marketing programs such as 22usd, Get Away Club, Holidays And Cash and many others with funny names that I can no longer remember showing up online claiming to be from places such as Australia, USA, Canada (a trick in itself to fool unsuspecting Nigerians) and promising huge payouts, Nigerians came into these programs in droves bringing their friends and loved ones along.

Since traditional forms of international money transfer such as bank wire or foreign draft were not accepted, many Nigerians who came into these programs had to join the online payment, call it, digital currency train by opening accounts with companies such as e-gold, liberty reserve and the likes. Thus, an illicit system of online money transfer was born; open an account with e-gold or liberty reserve, look for anyone with the currency in his or her account, pay in naira and get the equivalent currency of the e-gold or liberty reserve in dollars. In those days, if one dollar was worth 140 naira, one liberty reserve digital dollar will have exchanged for 165 naira.

In the same vein, an exchange system for the cashing and funding of online digital currencies and payment mechanisms begin to spring up in the country with many online exchangers showing up willingly to collect your naira and give you the digital equivalent of your preferred currency or to buy your digital currency from you and pay into your naira account instead. Both ways, the margin of exchange was at least 10 naira in difference. So, if you bought digital currency at 175 naira to a dollar, you were sure to sell it back at 165 naira for the same dollar. A convenient exchange and online money transfer system was born and many millionaires were also raised in the process!

While it could be said that most of the programs from outside Nigeria which accepted or used this system of online payment or digital currency were not very credible, not all the purposes for which digital currencies were used, exchanged or sold, were in themselves illicit or fraudulent. For example, during this period, forex trading also crept into our national financial system and it was considered to be mostly legitimate. While the bigger forex brokers did not accept Nigerian traders, the few who did used digital currency such as liberty reserve and Nigerian traders were thus forced to open that type of online bank account.

Thus began the flow of Nigerian cash into digital currency equivalents in sums of millions of dollars. However, these digital currencies were illegal, unregulated and unlicensed online money transfer systems that were under close scrutiny of financial regulators and governmental agencies such as the FBI in the United States and not long after, many of these currencies were prohibited with their cash reserves and assets seized by the United States government. First, it was e-gold and later liberty reserve. In the process of the asset confiscation, several millions of dollars belonging to Nigerian users of these unlicensed digital payment instruments were lost. My question is, in all of these, where was the Central Bank of Nigeria and financial monitoring and regulatory institutions? They were nowhere to be found!

The case of liberty reserve clearly highlights the misuse of digital currency for illicit online financial transactions and fraud and the need for financial regulatory authorities in Nigeria to develop a regulatory framework that ensures that online transactions and the instruments through which those transactions are carried out are adequately regulated and properly monitored. 

Liberty reserve was a Costa Rica based centralized digital currency service that billed itself as “the oldest, safest and most popular payment processor, serving millions around the world”. The site had over one million users, including thousands of Nigerians, when it was shut down by the United States government. Prosecutors argued that due to lax security, alleged criminal activity largely went undetected, which ultimately led to them seizing the service.

Founder, Arthur Budovsky, who was originally an American citizen who denounced his citizenship and took up Costa Rican nationality, was charged by the United States along with six others for money laundering and for operating an illegal financial transaction company. Liberty reserve, also known as LR, is alleged to have been used to launder over $6billion in criminal proceeds during it’s history. No efforts were made by the site to verify identities of it’s users making it an attractive payment processor to scam artists. Deposits were often made through third parties using credit card or bank wire transfer, among other options. No limits were made on transaction sizes and the company itself made money by charging a small fee, about 1% on each transfer. Liberty reserve also offered shopping cart functionality and other online merchant services.

In addition to alleged criminals, the service was popular among forex brokers and multi-level marketing companies. According to Forex Magnates, a specialized forex news service, LR was the leading payment channel for traders in emerging and frontier markets. After a multi-year investigation by officials in 17 countries, a sealed indictment was obtained by the US government in May 2013. 

Budovsky was arrested by Spanish authorities at the Barajas International Airport, Madrid, as he attempted to return to Costa Rica, where he was based. The LR site was taken offline on 24^th of May 2013 and was replaced with a notice saying that the domain had been seized by the United States Global Illicit Financial Team.

In Costa Rica, a court order was issued to seize the financial products and services of Budovsky and his allies. There was a Nigerian connection, as well, as Nigeria was mentioned in the same breath as with countries such as Russia, Malaysia and Vietnam, in terms of inflow and outflow of liberty reserve transactions and directly accredited currency exchangers. 

It is significant to note also that LR had about 200,000 customers in the United States alone, making it probably the country with the highest number of users in totality.

The indictment against LR was handled and secured by Manhattan state attorney and US public prosecutor Preet Bharara who stated that the case was probably the largest international money laundering case ever brought by the United States. 

Although Bharara later said that LR users who lost their funds to the asset confiscation could contact his office to ask for a refund of their seized deposits, it is doubtful if any legitimate Nigerian depositors with LR actually contacted him to effect the retrieval of their funds and if so how many succeeded in that attempt.

In view of the foregoing, it may be safe to conclude that several millions of dollars of Nigerian money may have been lost to the confiscation and seizure of LR funds by Mr Bharara and the US government. Some of these funds may have been legitimately earned through forex trading or ecommerce. Assuming that there had been some sort of regulatory framework in Nigeria guiding the use and exchange of digital currency, it would have made it easier for a central financial regulatory body like the CBN to contact Mr. Bharara and the US government in order to help Nigerians achieve a retrieval of their lost funds from LR’s accounts.

Going forward and in order to prevent a re-occurrence of these types of incidents, it behoves on Nigeria’s financial monitoring and regulatory authorities such as the CBN and others to set up a framework for the monitoring and regulation of the use and exchange of digital currencies as well as other online payment systems in Nigeria. 

It is important to note that after the prohibition of LR worldwide and the seizure of the company’s assets, it has become business as usual, again, for many Nigerian online traders as they have turned to other digital currencies and payment instruments and the exchange and trading of these currencies in Nigerian online markets have continued unabated.

These days, I hear of funny names such as Perfect Money, Payza, Epay, and Bitcoin, amongst others. You would think that a lot of Nigerians, having lost money in previous years to companies such as e-gold and liberty reserve, would have learnt their lessons and desisted from illegally trading in these currencies or in using them for the purpose of online payments but again such exchange and use of these currencies continue with reckless abandon in Nigerian online markets.

 Many Nigerians actually seem to have bitten the Bitcoin bug as this digital currency is becoming increasingly popular, not only in Nigeria, but also in many countries of the world. Already, the company seems to be under intense investigation of US authorities such as the FBI and the exchange of this currency and it’s conversion into local currency in China has already been prohibited.

It is therefore the responsibility of financial regulators to holistically look at the movement, use and exchange of digital currencies and online payment instruments, especially as they affect Nigeria, and come up with a policy framework for the regulation and monitoring of these currencies and exchange systems to ensure that any of such currencies acceptable in Nigeria would first have

gotten some form of direct or indirect licensing to operate within our shores and that in the case of a future prohibition, seizure, closure or asset confiscation  by global regulators, as it happened to e-gold and LR, any Nigerian funds with such currency operators could be legally recovered.

Emmanuel Ayomide-Praise is a Nigerian journalist, blogger and TV/Radio host. Email:eapgold@gmail.com. Twitter:@eapthecolossus, http://ayomidepraise.blogspot

Political Lessons From The World's Largest Democracy.

By Emmanuel Ayomide-Praise(@eapthecolossus)

What political lessons does Nigeria, being Africa’s most populous democratic nation have to learn from India, the world’s largest and most-populous democratic nation and perhaps one of a few nations in the world to have maintained democratic rule from her inception as an independent nation and a republic? I think that Nigeria has a lot to learn and implement by studying and conscientiously examining India’s rare example of a successful democratic republic.

India, a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic nation that is also the world’s second most populous independent nation with population statistics of about one billion two hundred million citizens based on her 2012 census, gained independence from Britain in 1947 through a non-violent struggle for national independence led by the great Mahatma Gandhi, who  was regarded as one of the most influential human beings of the 20^th century. By 1950, India had become a full republic, a parliamentary republic with a multi-party system. It has six recognized national parties, including the Indian National Congress (which was at the time of India’s pre-independence struggle led by Ghandhi), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and more than 40 regional parties.

For most of the period between 1950-when India first became a republic, and most of the 1980s, the Congress held a majority in the parliament. Since then, it has increasingly shared the political stage with the BJP, as well as with powerful regional parties, which have often forced the creation of multi-party coalitions (at the centre).

At the time of India’s independence, Jawaharlal Nehru, the political son and protégé of the Mahatma and heir of the Congress party leadership naturally became India’s first prime minister and ruled the nation from her independence in 1947 to his death in office in 1964. Nehru is considered to be the architect of the modern Indian nation-state, a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic. By the time he died in 1964, his only daughter, Indira, who had worked with him as chief of staff during his years as PM chose to support Lal Bahadur Shastri to assume Congress leadership and become PM, instead of having a go at it herself.

By January 1966, Indira, however, assumed party leadership and became India’s third prime minister, a position she held for a period of 15 years covering two major eras-from 1966 till 1977 and 1980 till 1984 when she was assassinated.

Indira’s first era as PM of India included the only bleak period in India’s democracy during what was known as the emergency which spanned 21 months between 1975 and 1977 when she unilaterally declared a ‘state of emergency’, suspending India’s constitution, in the process. She bestowed upon herself the right to rule by decree, prevented elections from being held, banned the press, curbed civil liberties, imprisoned political opponents and committed several other atrocities.

As a result of her highly dictatorial emergency rule, Indira lost her seat in India’s parliament in the elections of 1977 but later regained it in the 1980 elections and became PM for a second tenure. Shortly after this, her first son Sanjay, who played a major role during the emergency, and was said to be very ruthless, wielding unofficial power and political influence, died in a plane crash and Indira was left with no choice than to bring her reluctant younger son, Rajiv, into politics.

By the time Indira was assassinated in 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards as a direct consequence of Operation Blue Star (Operation Blue Star was an Indian military operation which occurred between 3rd-8^th of June 1984 ordered by PM Indira Ghandi to establish control over the Hamindir Sahib complex in Amritsar, Punjab and remove Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale and his armed followers from the complex buildings and it was mainly targeted at the Sikhs. A Sikh is any person usually from Punjab in India who believes in the existence of one Hindu immortal being or put simply one Hindu divinity as against the Hindus who believe in several divinities or immortal beings).Rajiv, being the leader of the Congress party at the time of his mother’s death, became India’s Prime Minister and ruled until he was voted out of power in 1989.He was later assassinated in 1991 by a suicide bomber in Tamil Nadu, India.

Rajiv was a different kettle of fish to his mother. A trained pilot by occupation, Rajiv was not your-run-of-the-mill politician. He seemed to have been someone who naturally disliked politics but had no choice but to fulfill his mother’s wish by taking over the leadership of the Congress party, towards the twilight of his mother’s era and upon the death of his older brother Sanjay, who was by far a better politician.

After the unfortunate elimination of Rajiv in 1991, India’s democracy evolved under the leadership of the Congress party and the BJP (in between) from 1991 down to 2014 with leaders such as PV Naramsimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee (the first non-Congress party leader to serve as India’s PM for a full five-year term from 1998 till 2004) and Manmohan Singh, a sound economist, whose two terms as India’s PM ushered in a new era of economic reforms and progress.

By the time I arrived in India in the middle of 2012 to spend the remaining half of that year and the following year (2013) on some personal projects, India’s democratic leadership that had been hitherto firmly under the control of the Congress party led by Sonia Ghandi (formerly Anthonia Maino, Italian wife of late  Rajiv Ghandi) as party president and Manmohan Singh as PM was already very shaky with parliamentary elections due to be called the next year (2014).

During this time that I lived in India, I noticed intense political debates in all forms of mass media and social interactions between everyday Indians that I either met or observed.The pre-election political debates were not just very intense but highly engaging and one could not do without noticing them and taking some form of keen interest, despite the fact that one was neither an Indian nor in any way connected to India. I noticed that many Indians were divided along party lines, especially with most of them either taking a stand for the Congress or for the BJP.

While the Congress under the leadership of Sonia Ghandi was seriously getting ready to field Rahul Ghandi, son of the late Rajiv and Sonia as it’s arrowhead  in the parliamentary elections thus paving the way for his emergence as the country’s Prime Minister, opposition party BJP was busy firing the Congress from all corners with all manner of political bullets while at the same time preparing to field controversial Gujarat Chief Minister (equivalent of state executive governor in Nigeria) Narendra Modi, as Prime Ministerial candidate.

Again, Modi is another different kettle of fish. He is a man who prior to that period had been banned from entering the United States of America, which is India’s biggest ally and US president Barack Obama showed no disposition towards lifting such ban. Modi was denied a visa to enter the US in 2005.It is interesting to note that during this pre-election year in India and as Modi’s political stock began to rise, especially with the general perception that the BJP was going to field him as their prime ministerial candidate, he was invited to address an Harvard University gathering in 2013 but was again refused a visa by the US Embassy in India. Was India therefore facing the possibility of having a Prime Minister who may not be able to legally enter the United States and may be ostracized by some sections of the international community for his perceived human rights record? Yes!

From all indications, it was clear that the BJP was hell bent on fielding Modi as it’s PM candidate in the  elections  directly against Congress PM candidate Rahul Gandhi, notwithstanding his perceived human rights pedigree which was not unconnected to the 2002 Gujarat riots, which claimed the lives of almost 1000 persons, mostly Muslims, and was reportedly an ethnic cleansing exercise. 

The 2002 riots was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Following the initial incident, there were further outbreaks of violence in Ahmedabad, the state capital, for three weeks. Statewide, there were more incidents of mass killings against the minority Muslim population for another three months.

The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002 which caused the death of 58 Hindu pilgrims and religious workers is believed to have triggered the violence. Some commentators, however, hold the view that the attacks had been planned, were well orchestrated, and that it was a “staged trigger” for what was actually pre-meditated violence. Till today, many political observers in India and the international community still hold the administration of Narendra Modi responsible for these acts of violence and ethnic-focused terror in terms of not adequately preventing them or having some form of culpability.

In 2012, Modi was cleared of complicity in the violence by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Supreme Court of India. However, those allegations of complicity, deliberate negligence or actual involvement in the violence still remain till today and it was in connection to this that the United States refused to issue Modi a visa in 2005. That same Modi is today india’s 15^th and current Prime Minister!

How was this possible? I am of the opinion that this feat was made possible by the fact that every declared election result in India is always a victory for the people, a victory for democracy! Indians were clearly disenchanted with the Congress party-led government in power and clearly determined to vote for opposition party BJP whose prime ministerial candidate was Modi without really caring a hoot about how the international community viewed his human rights record. Can the same be said about Nigeria? It is highly unlikely.

However, with the conduct of the just concluded 2015 presidential and gubernatorial elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) under the leadership of Professor Attahiru Jega in which opposition party (All Progressives Congress) APC candidate General Muhammadu Buhari defeated incumbent president and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer Goodluck Ebele Jonathan by a convincingly wide margin with Jonathan accepting the loss and congratulating Buhari, Nigeria may now firmly be on the road to true democratic development, the same path on which India has followed to become the world’s largest and one of it’s most inspiring democracies.

It has become very clear that in the same way that India has built her democratic institutions to such an extent that every election counts and all elections are considered absolutely free and fair, Nigeria also needs to do same to ensure that every election from now on truly represents an opportunity for citizens to effect their desires and elect leaders that they feel will protect their interests and make life better for them when elected. When was the last time that Nigeria truly had a free and fair election prior to the just concluded 2015 presidential elections? Virtually everyone agrees that the June 12 1993 presidential elections represented our nation’s freest and fairest political elections since independence in 1960 while the 2011 elections were also considered to have been conducted reasonably freely and fairly.

With Nigerians having just returned to the polls to elect their political leaders and also in the case of future elections, one can only hope that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which is mandated by law to conduct these elections into political offices is given the operational freedom and independence that is required to conduct elections, count votes and declare the truly elected persons winners of such elections without any form of intimidation and political interference.

The scale and magnitude of India’s 2014 parliamentary elections was such that it is still today regarded as the largest election ever conducted in the world with 814.5 million eligible voters, including an increase of 100 million voters since the previous general election in 2009.Running from 7^th April to 12^th May 2014, it was the longest-running election in that country’s history with a total of 8,251 candidates contesting for 543 seats in the Lok Sabha (Lok Sabha is the lower house of the Indian parliament).

In Nigeria, it is disheartening to note that out of a population of about 174 million citizens, roughly only 70 million people are eligible to vote. Worse still, millions out of this figure have been disenfranchised, having not been able to secure their permanent voters cards (PVCs), a prerequisite for voting in this year’s elections.

While tremendous progress has been made in our country especially by the current administration in initiating electoral reform thereby leading to credible conduct of elections into gubernatorial seats in several states of the federation within the last four years as well as the just concluded presidential and state gubernatorial/assembly elections in 2015, a lot still has to be done to ensure that Nigerian elections are free, fair and all-inclusive and that they meet the desired yearnings and aspirations of teeming Nigerians whose only hope is to see that they are able to elect their chosen leaders without any form of manipulation or vote rigging.

The 2014 parliamentary elections in India conducted by the Elections Commission of India (ECI) were so credible that by the time the results were announced and BJP was declared the winner having won 336 seats in the parliament and 31.0% of the total votes cast, even the ruling Congress party which lost woefully in the polls was one of the first political parties to congratulate the BJP on it’s victory. Then incumbent PM Manmohan Singh congratulated winner Narendra Modi on telephone while Congress party president Sonia Ghandi accepted defeat and congratulated the new government.

In all the elections taking place in Nigeria at state and federal levels in 2015, if the polls are considered to have been creditably conducted, would losers accept defeat and congratulate the winners or would they still head to the elections tribunal to seek cancellation of results or possible redress? This remains to be seen. But with the precedent set by president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in magnanimously accepting defeat and congratulating his rival Muhammadu Buhari based on the conviction that the elections conducted by INEC met all the indices for a credible, free and fair exercise, other political contestants who find themselves on the losing side even in the gubernatorial and state houses of assembly elections, should take heart, accept defeat and congratulate the winners, especially if convinced that the votes truly counted.

While I have used Indian democracy as a thesis for my argument, I am not unmindful of the fact that India, like every other nation on the earth, has her own fair share of challenges. She continues to face challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, inadequate public healthcare and terrorism. In fact, one of the major issues that worked against the Congress party in India during their 2014 parliamentary polls were several allegations of corruption which perhaps weren’t adequately dealt with by the leadership of Sonia Ghandi and government of Manmohan Singh.

However, it is important to recognize that India has a strong anti-corruption system in place that ensures that political office holders and public servants caught in the web of corrupt enrichment face the music and are made to bear the full brunt of the law. In addition to this, India’s constitution is considered to be a supreme document whose laws are sacrosanct and the rule of law and independence of various arms of government, such as the judiciary, are pillars on which the Indian democracy was built and on which they continue to thrive.

While it must be acknowledged that India uses the parliamentary system of government that is all-accommodating and socialism was the original concept of governance on which the Indian democracy was built, Nigeria, on the other hand, is a capitalist economy with a federal system of government where the executive remains very powerful. Irrespective of this, however, we must learn from the Indian example by continuing to build our democratic institutions, uphold tenets of democracy such as the rule of law, checks and balances, independence of the judiciary, strong anti-corruption mechanism, sound political ideology, non-negotiable freedom of the press and a strong opposition party system that ensures that even the party in power is left with no other choice than to perform and deliver expected socio-economic development and good governance or get ready to be booted out by the electorate.

It is only when we begin to put all these in place that Nigeria can then not only be considered as the “Giant of Africa” but as perhaps the continent’s strongest, most dynamic and most inspiring democracy, showing the rest of Africa the way to go, and setting the pace for the total democratization of the continent. God bless Nigeria!

Emmanuel Ayomide-Praise is a Nigerian journalist, blogger and TV/Radio host. Email:eapgold@gmail.com. Twitter:@eapthecolossus, http://ayomidepraise.blogspot

Ordeal of Nigerian Visa Applicants.

By Emmanuel Ayomide-Praise (@eapthecolossus)

I write to join several well-meaning Nigerians to protest the unfair and unjust treatment of Nigerian visa applicants by many foreign embassies and high commissions in Nigeria. Among the reasons why every country in the world has embassies and consulates in other countries are, among other things, to strengthen diplomatic ties with such countries, facilitate mutual trade and cooperation and easily enable the application, processing and possible issuance of visas to citizens of those countries. 

However, the scenario in Nigeria is the direct opposite. 

While many foreign embassies and consulates in Nigeria seek to strengthen diplomatic relations and encourage mutual trade and cooperation, it seems that there is also a conscious and deliberate effort to make it impossible for Nigerian citizens to obtain travel visas to their countries, even when they have legitimate reasons to do so and when all visa application requirements have been met, by putting all kinds of impediments to the issuance of such visas. 

A case in point, which I have experienced personally, is that of the Serbian embassy in Nigeria, located in Maitama District, Abuja. As a football agent and manager of aspiring professional footballers in Nigeria, I facilitated and received a letter of invitation(LOI) from a 2nd division club in Montenegro, Fudbalski Klub (FK) Zabjelo, Podgorica, for four Nigerian grassroots footballers. 

Because all Montenegrin visa applications in Nigeria are handled by the Serbian embassy in Abuja on behalf of the nation of Montenegro (Serbia-Montenegro was an independent nation until Montenegro got its full independence in 2006), we were asked to apply for the visas at the Serbian embassy, Abuja.

A copy of the LOI from FK Zabjelo (which is directly affiliated to the Football Association of Montenegro and consequently to FIFA) was sent by email directly to the embassy stating clearly that the players were being invited strictly for trials with the club and that feeding, accommodation and local transport were going to be provided by it. 

With this in mind, we asked the embassy for specific requirements for visa applications of footballers going on trials and these requirements were clearly stated thus: official letter of invitation from the club; supporting letter from the player's football federation; passport photos; visa forms fully-filled and N13,000 visa fee per person. Since the stated trial period was between June 24 and July 24 and the LOI having been issued on June 21, I rushed to Abuja to apply for the visas on Thursday June 23, 2011, trying as much as possible to beat the deadline. Since the specific type of visa was a non-appearance one, I was mandated by the four players to apply for the visas, submit and then pick up all relevant documents, on their behalf. 

All submitted documents were accepted by the embassy after thorough vetting and verification having also paid a fee of N52,000 visa fees for four persons. It is important to note that on the visa forms and receipts issued by the Serbian embassy as well as on its official website, http://www.nigeria.mfa.rs, nowhere was it stated that the visa application fees were non-refundable, like some embassies usually do. After submission of documents and visa application, a Nigerian staff of the embassy, who simply identified herself as Mrs. Mohammed, told me that the visas could not be issued immediately but that they were going to be issued after 10 working days. 

In the process of visa application and submission of documents, I noticed a rush by the staff of the embassy to receive the payment of the visa fees and to quickly issue a receipt. I noted the fact that perhaps a lot of foreign embassies look forward to receiving visa applications fees from Nigerian citizens while some others like the Chinese embassy in Abuja and Lagos will only issue you a receipt for payment of visa fee, after your visa has been approved and is set to be issued. 

A few days after the submission of the visa applications when I called the embassy on phone to enquire about the progress of processing, a Nigerian staff advised that we should call the inviting club FK Zabjelo in Montenegro to appear before the immigration police in Podgorica to clarify its position and thus obtain visa approval, suggesting that this will hasten the process of visa approval, which usually takes 10 working days. 

In obedience, I asked the Team Manager to make a date with the immigration police in Podgorica to clarify the position of the club and justify the basis of invitation, which he promptly obliged. Relevant approvals were sought from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro by the club while a call was also put through by the club's team  manager to the Consular of the Serbian embassy in Abuja, to clarify all issues, a move which the embassy itself acknowledged. 

I was thus taken aback when at the expiration of the stated 10 working days, I called the embassy to confirm the issuance of the visas, only to be told that the applications had been refused. Probing further to find specific reasons for visa refusal, a staff claimed no official reason was given for visa refusal stating only that the application had just been rejected outright. In addition, there was no written or official explanation stating reasons for visa refusal and possible grounds of appeal. I found this very unprofessional. 

For a country that says it is on its road to "strengthening its relationship with the Federal Republic of Nigeria," it amazes me that the same country's diplomatic mission in Nigeria will deny Nigerian citizens who have established legitimate grounds for visa issuance visas to travel to its country, without any logical or justifiable reasons. 

In the same vein, it has been noted that many foreign embassies and diplomatic missions in Nigeria seek flimsy and trivial reasons to refuse Nigerian citizens travel visas, even after all visa application conditions have been met and without any attempt to refund visa application fees of such denied Nigerians. I dare say, therefore, that many foreign embassies and diplomatic missions in Nigeria are nothing but business centres where brisk business is done through the purchase of visa application forms and payment of visa application fees, which are in most cases, non-refundable. 

It is expedient therefore for the Federal Government, as well as its Ministry of Internal Affairs, to look into the activities of foreign embassies, high commissions and consulates in Nigeria, as regards the treatment of Nigerian citizens in an unfair and sometimes undignifying manner. It has been severally reported how Nigerian citizens are made to queue long hours to apply for visas or stay under the sun continuously for days to submit visa application documents. I challenge the National Assembly to pass a law preventing foreign embassies from charging visa fees when such visa applications have not been reviewed, as this has become a veritable way of generating income by the embassies, ripping off many Nigerians in the process. 

(This article was first published in the PUNCH on Wednesday 20th July 20011). http://odili.net/news/source/2011/jul/20/802.html

Emmanuel Ayomide-Praise is a Nigerian journalist, blogger and TV/Radio host. Email:eapgold@gmail.com. Twitter:@eapthecolossus, http://ayomidepraise.blogspot

10 Golden Secrets Of Young Achievers

By  Emmanuel Ayomide Praise(@eapthecolossus)

They define to themselves precisely what they want to do.

• They set demanding but not unattainable time-scales in which to do it.

• They convey clearly what they want done and by when.

• They are prepared to discuss how things should be done and will listen to and take advice. But once the course of action has been agreed they stick to it unless events dictate a change of direction.

• They are single-minded about where they want to go, showing perseverance and determination in the face of adversity.

• They demand high performance from themselves and are somewhat callous in expecting high performance from everyone else.

• They work hard and work well under pressure. In fact, it brings out the best in them.

• They tend to be dissatisfied with the status quo.

• They are never completely satisfied with their own performance and continually question themselves.

• They will take calculated risks.

• They snap out of setbacks without being personally shattered and quickly regroup their forces and their ideas.

• They are decisive in the sense that they are able to quickly to sum up situations, define alternative courses of actions, determine the preferred course and convey to their subordinates what needs to be done.

• They continually monitor their own and their subordinates’ performance so that any deviation can be corrected in good time.

• They are creative.

 (This article was first published in the Nation Newspapers on the 14th of October 2007).

Emmanuel Ayomide-Praise is a Nigerian journalist, blogger and TV/Radio host. Email:eapgold@gmail.com. Twitter:@eapthecolossus, http://ayomidepraise.blogspot

Building Great Businesses In Nigeria:Lessons From Jimoh Ibrahim.

By  Emmanuel Ayomide-Praise (@eapthecolossus)

Nigeria is blessed with many outstanding capitalists and wealthy industrialists who own multi-billion dollar conglomerates with assets in excess of trillions of naira and who collectively employ thousands of Nigerians across their various business operations, thereby contributing remarkably to the size, scope and direction of our nation’s economy.

Notable among these lot are Aliko Dangote, founder and chairman of the Dangote Group, which holds large-scale interests in the commodities, agriculture, real estate and petroleum sub-sectors of our economy, and is now ranked by Forbes magazine as Africa’s richest man with a net-worth of US$20.8 Billion, as at November 2013, Otunba Mike Adenuga, the telecommunications magnate whose operations now span across the West African hub and who is worth US$4.3 Billion, as of March 2013, as well as the youthful Femi Otedola, founder and CEO of Forte Oil Plc, who was  ranked by Forbes in 2009 with a net-worth of US$1.2Billion.

However, among these enviable lot, none is as inspiring, for me, as Jimoh Ibrahim, the 47 year old lawyer turned oil baron from Ondo State, South-West, Nigeria, who himself is now said to be worth some hundreds of millions of dollars, and is the founder of a large conglomerate in Nigeria, which has interests in the insurance, hospitality, oil and gas and media sectors of the Nigerian economy.

Unlike Dangote or Otedola, Ibrahim is a man who had a humble beginning as he was born without a silver spoon and came from a very rough background with a lot of deprivation in his growing up days. Reportedly from a polygamous family, he managed to, against all odds, obtain admission into the University and eventually graduated as a barrister at law from the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University in 1991.

So while the Dangotes and Otedolas of this world had the privileges of being born with silver spoons (Dangote, being from a wealthy Northern industrial family and Otedola, the son of a former civilian governor of Lagos state), Ibrahim had no such luxuries but had an intense desire and a strong conviction to become successful in life, concluding in his mind that obtaining a University degree held the only promise to a better life and a rewarding future.

The story of this great entrepreneur is one that I think that every young Nigerian and aspiring entrepreneur must pay close attention to as it could serve as the much needed inspiration to giant strides in business as well as great accomplishments in life. After obtaining his Bachelor’s degree in law from OAU, Ibrahim saw that waiting to acquire working experience as an attorney by interning at an established law firm, as is common practice amongst many young lawyers in Nigeria today, could take many years so he decided to specialize on taxation, which was an area of interest to him during his undergraduate days and was even the subject of some of his dissertation papers.

With this wealth of information on the practice of taxation in Nigeria, Ibrahim, unlike many fresh University graduates in Nigeria, some of whom believe securing a paid employment first after graduating from school could be the only way to charting a successful future, set out by conducting trainings and workshops on taxation for local and state governments and later the federal government of Nigeria, becoming in the process a nationally acclaimed tax consultant.

Honing his expertise in the areas of tax administration, reform and financial management and later obtaining his Masters degrees in Public Administration and international taxation from OAU  and Harvard University in America respectively, Ibrahim was at one time chief executive consultant to the federal government of Nigeria on petroleum tax payment, collection and monitoring, member, Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, consultant to the IMF on tax reform in Croatia and Lithuania and also a key member of the team that designed tax reform for the state of Bangladesh.

Needless to say that by the time he turned 30, while some of his peers may still have been searching for jobs, Jimoh Ibrahim was already a multi-millionaire! So when he decided to set up his conglomerate in 2003, after failing woefully in an attempt to become Executive Governor of Ondo State on the platform of the old All People’s Party (APP), he was well armed with a rich experience of how business works in Nigeria, how government policy is formulated and implemented and how to raise sufficient capital to start a business.

For many budding entrepreneurs, what are the lessons to learn on building great businesses from the journey and strategy of Barrister Ibrahim? For me, one of such is that when planning to start a business, going out to raise all of the capital required may not be the most paramount thing and may even amount to putting the cart before the horse, sometimes. This is because, in a country like Nigeria, dreaming of raising capital to start a business using bank loans or debt equity, without having grown the business to a substantial state where sound financial management and ambitious growth plans can be adequately demonstrated to the financial institutions or angel investors, may seem like a mirage!

Looking at the phenomenal growth of some of Mr. Ibrahim’s business ventures, one is keen to note some of the principles which he has imbibed, which have contributed in no small measure to the growth of those businesses today. Some of these include sound financial management, persistence, short, medium and long-term planning, effective utilization of credit as well as prompt repayment of such credit when taken.

However, while his passion for building and growing large business organizations that would provide gainful employment to thousands of teeming Nigerian youths while positively impacting our economy must be commended, it remains to be seen what is the clear corporate social responsibility (CSR) thrust of some of these businesses and how they seek to create better lives and impact communities they operate in and the people living in them, other than by just creating employment.

It is interesting to note that while many large corporations and giant-sized businesses in Nigeria like those of Ibrahim, Dangote or Otedola make lots of profits through the patronage of the generality of Nigerians and even repatriate such profits home at little or no cost, as in the case of multi-nationals, only few of them do very little to give back to society through scholarships, schemes and life-changing programs that can benefit the whole of the populace. Very few Nigerian wealthy capitalists or industrialists like Ibrahim own notable foundations like the ones set up by Bill Gates, the world’s richest man and founder of Microsoft and his wife, as well as those established by remarkable American businessmen like Henry Ford or John D Rockefeller.

Another important point worthy of note amongst Nigeria’s most successful businessmen is a lack of a system or structure where adequate mentoring can be provided to build an ecosystem of great entrepreneurs and remarkable young businessmen in Nigeria. To this end, many budding entrepreneurs are often left confused about how to go about setting their own businesses, what tools to use and what to discard and how to tap into the brains of many of these great entrepreneurs that have gone ahead. It is through efforts like these that great Nigerian entrepreneurs like Ibrahim, Dangote, Otedola or Adenuga can leave a worthy legacy because as far as many Nigerians are concerned, the legacies of some these men still remain largely unclear if not outrightly unknown or undefined!

Emmanuel Ayomide-Praise is a Nigerian journalist, blogger and TV/Radio host. Email:eapgold@gmail.com. Twitter:@eapthecolossus, http://ayomidepraise.blogspot