Saturday, July 13, 2013

The Great Telcomm DIS-Service


A lot of Nigerians have been complaining about the telecommunications companies in Nigeria-and I am one of them. At the moment I have MTN, Etisalat and Airtel modems and all of them have failed to achieve their purposes. This time I need to fill an important form in my career. This is the same situation with bloggers,writers, researchers and ordinary citizens who use these modems and as much as a lot of these complaints are being aired on Facebook, twitter and other social networks, it seems the telecommunication companies don't give a damn. In similar circumstancies, telcom networks have not fared well in delivering quality service even in their place of core competence-phone calls. A vivid example for you- You make an Etisalat to MTN, AIRTELL or even to an Etisalat call thatjust called you and the report you get from the telecom's computer is that the call that just called you "does not exist". There is also an "exceptional" yanking of Nigerian's money without any reason at all. A chat with couple of friends show that the South African firm, MTN yanks money from (some of) its clients without substantiated service-and if your phone is an andriod, a single email will yank a 200Naira credit from your phone. As for Globacom, it's a mess-It's nothing towrite home about.I have placed my Globacom sim under my pillow for months now and I hope that a lot of Nigerians can follow me in doing so. In fact, I am going to stop using my MTN for a month-If all Nigerian, or a fraction of Nigerians (say Lagos state) boycott their MTN sims for a month, telecom companies will realise that it is not about flashy adverts, it is not about brand endorsements for artistes-these are supposed to be icing on the cake-the cake of quality service. It is important to note that some states boast of quality service than other states and these telecomm services are fast becoming likethe Power Holding Company of Nigeria, where some individuals may enjoy good delivery in Ikoyi while other subscribers wh live in places like Oshodi, Ijegun, Ijesha, Alagbado,etc may be groaning under the weight of disservice. So what is the solution? The NCC may be boasting that it has taken an important step in curbing corporate bullying by introducing the "Porting system" but I strongly disagree with such notion. The Porting initiative is a failure right from inception and will remain so.The NCC must re-engineer it's resoluteness to serve the Nigerian people by constantly monitoring feedback from the Nigerian citizens about these telecom organisations. It must also be strong carrying out the existing national laws guiding the operation of these companies. For now, it seems the NCC is simply a cat in the comapany's bag as sanctions from the body are scarce-in order words, Nigerian telecomm sector is perfect? Anyway, the solution starts from these blog. Nigerians should begin to become consumer conscious and should take charge of these corporate injustices. We all can co-sign a petition to the NCC about a particular network. And if we feel strongly that the NCC have been compromised, we all can boycott the network for an agreeable span of days or month.We cannot just fold our arms and complain about these poor network delivery. An important thought here. Although boycotting a network you're known with might be difficult, I will advice you owned more than one telcom sims so that when you decide to join the boycott, you can rely on the other. I am a blogger that is particularly not keen on getting adverts for Goofwatch because I have noticed that people have stopped saying the truth to corporate powers. I can bet with my life that Etisalat, a company with corporate origins from the Arab world and MTN, the South Africa, and Airtel, the Indian owned firm, cannot provide such irresponsible service to citizens of their home countries the way they have done in this country-and Globacom too, I am disappointed. I have lost my boastful"Nigerian owned" flair for the company. DONT GIVE US CRAP, DON'T JUGGLE OUR MINDS WITH CRAZY ENDORSEMENT DEALS-GIVE US QUALITY SERVICE.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Facebook Fraudsters on the Prowl, Impersonators of Revd Dr Chris Kwakpovwe



Many people will love to associate with this man of God and publisher of Daily Manna devotional, one of the most read devotionals in Nigeria and indeed West Africa. The insights in the interdominational devotional has blessed people's lives with deep insights to the word of God and with instructions that will lead them to the perfect will of the father.

Unfortunately, fraudsters are on the prowl and are set to destroy the good will and race of Revd Father Chris Kwakpovwe. They have created numerous Facebook pages in to to swindle innocent individuals of their money and to tarnish and representation of Jesus Christ. This has greatly disturbed the man of God who has decided to inform all friends, family, colleagues and all lovers of the gospel of Christ to remain suspicious of claims from any Facebook page. (See Facebook pages).

"Earlier on, it was uncovered that Dr. Chris received a text message threatening that he would be blackmailed on the internet if he fails to part with 250million Naira! He was also advised to get in touch and not inform the police. This is coupled with the burglary at their national headquarters and OVER 9 FAKE FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS IMPERSONATING HIM and defrauding innocent people!" read a statement delivered to the press. 

Please beware of request and emergency demands from money from any suspicious Facebook pages.




Organization · 2,909 likes
Church/Religious Organization · 82 likes
Public Figure · 185 like




Sunday, July 22, 2012

Human Rights Breaker Nos 1: The Nigerian Police

It is a pity that those who are supposed to be our guardian against physical assaults, armed robbery and threats are the bastion of those things they are supposed to guard against.It has been a long time that the police has created a bad profile for itself in Nigeria. When it comes to human rights abuses-in our nascent democracy, they are champions of taking your rights away from you and piling up trumped up charges. I was arrested some months ago by some policemen over a charge called "rudeness". I have never seen that in the books but for whatever reason, I was arrested when I was going about lawful business of delivering some of my friends and author's books to a bookshop at Lekki, Nigeria. I had reported myself to the security post near the gate and had moved on when all of the sudden I was summoned rudely by three policemen who were "gisting" on the porch-very far from the post. I didn't understand why I should report myself to policemen who were not in their posts when I did the right thing. I became the prisoner of three Hausa-speaking law enforcers (I could call it kidnap if I wanted) who charged me to offload the contents of my bag, show them my ID and also that I was coming to the station with them. I had gotten very angry. It was not my first time of coming to the Hub at Lekki and the procedures were not new to me. One policeman says he has a right to confiscate any property within his juridistion and I began to wonder whether his father built The Hub. It was getting late. I lived on the other side of lagos; Lagos Mainland, and with the traffic I couldn't afford to argue. Ofcourse, I gave them some arguing that made them wonder whether I was a lawyer but I stopped when a policeman told me that "listen, young man, this is Nigeria and here there is no human rights". I understood what he meant. I could end up being televised the next day with guns and ammunitions in front of me as king pin of a lekki gang. I could disappear, my body thrown in the Lagos ocean without any qualms. I could be the victim of a tragic story at Punch Metro that my journalist friends writes. So I just began to plead. Let them win and let me go-It wouldnt matter. I tried to get the codes of the policemen and it got me into another round of troubles. Another flaw of mine was that I didn't understand Hausa. They spoke it to hide their dealings. They had seen the money in my purse and I suspected they wanted a piece of the pie. My eyes were red with anger and I was sure they knew I wouldn't give them anything without a fight. I didn't give them anything. After a long rigmarole of threats. I took it that the worst that could happen was being shot. At that point, I waited for the Hausa speaking goons to conclude. They set me free after making sure they had wasted my time. It's pretty hard for the Nigerian police nowadays. Since they have been authorized to stay off the highways where they have been addicted to extorting motorists, ordinary citizen like myself, who don't own a car becomes the next prey to pounce on. That night, I looked into the sky and wished that Boko Haram had an activist's face and attacked those they were supposed to attack instead of killing ordinary citizens.That night, I laughed at Nigeria and said " So it means that I cannot be safe in my country? So it means that the Nigerian Police is saying I have to wear the Agbada and become as rich as Dangote before they can accord me my human dignity? That Night and from then on, I stopped caring finally about the country. I had moved on to the people, the young, vibrant and artistic ones who I hope will find accommodation through the institutions my team were creating out of the Nigerian chaos Servio Gbadamosi, Ife Akala and myself had built artmosphere, a music, poetry and arts event in Ibadan,Nigeria. We had gone further to form alliances and started a collective for the creative mind. Furthermore, I had set up Fairchild Media to promote and manage creative music acts, writers and to connect writers to their publishing dreams. For me those where the things I will forever turn my heart to and when the country comes to a tipping point, I will only hope that my efforts had changed lives; even in the barest minimum circumstance. I hope you don't join the Nigerian Police because if you do, I will blacklist you.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Shakespeare wrote a Novel



Shakespeare wrote a Novel

Journalists should be the most set of informed of people in the society because they are supposed to inform the rest of the populace. Don’t be surprised some journalists don’t know crap!

GoofWatch.com was at a certain venue and one of the lead speakers said one cannot ascertain sanity. For him, there is a thin line between sanity and insanity, even those who claim that we are sane may be insane. Our reporter remembered Shakespeare's Hamlet and decided to have a pep chat with a fellow colleague.


“oh, I have read something like that in Shakespeare Hamlet”

“Yes I remember, that interesting Novel”.

I bet shakespeare must be angry in his grave. For God's sake, all my life I have only read shakespeare's drama and poems.

வேல்கோமே, President of a Failing State and a Failed Speech



Welcome, President of a Failing State and a Failed Speech

October 1st 2010

Today, Nigeria's independence day, President Goodluck Jonathan almost lost his grip on his audience at the Independence day speech. The first problem was that they wanted to copy America's President style-that kind of garden speech.
The mics that our president was using in bad shape, they were like some old Anglican Church mic. Also, they also were cracking. Beyond that the president had a problem with clarity so he began o pick his words one by one like a babe just getting to speak.

The former lecturer was so furious about this that he picked up the papers and began to read directly when the screen he was reading from was given him some difficulties.
To cap the barrage of tragedies. a certain plate satellite, I don’t know what it really was just slammed on the president’s mics. The national TV had to adjust the camera in order to quickly salvage the dismal occurrence.
Jonathan’s speech was boring. filled with the characteristic promise that Nigerians were tired of hearing. The only thing that he sad that was laudable was that one could chose to see the challenges or the promising potential that the country has to offer.

In addition, the 50th anniversary match past was superb. We have joined Bolivia and other disturbed counties by witnessing a bomb blast. According to Associated press, it killed 7 people .

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Dayo Adeniyi Goofed on the National Dailies


This is my rejoinder to Mr Dayo Adeniyi's news report on the Nation Campus Life. He has displayed what I may call intellectual amnesia, given the judicial constraints that characterize the NASELS elections.

Re: Controversy Trails English Election
Sir/Ma
With all due respect to your knowledge base, your experience in journalism and the initiative behind Campus Life; a column that reveals the happenings in our tertiary institutions, I must state my displeasure. I must without constraints state a fault in the operations of your column. It is being used largely by some individuals to perpetuate evil, to insight and to insult the sensibilities of law, ethics and others, on all its journalistic insincerity.
This assertion is due to the News Article written by one Mr Dayo Adeniyi, titled Controversy Trails English Election which was published on Thursday, 4th of February, 2010. The article can be best described as ventilation of mischief coupled with cognizance of inveigling implicatures.
It is true that Mr Buraimoh Folajimi ; the young man who lost to Mr Olalekan Kayode expressed his displeasure at the tables of the Judicial Committee of The National Association Of Englsih and Literary Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University (NASELS) claiming that blackmail was used against him by Adeleke Adeyemi; the associations incumbent who supported the other candidate, It also true that Mr. Buraimoh begged the committee to declare him the President-elect of the association. The ruse in the article however is that Mr. Olalekan Kayode has probably not declared that he authorized the incumbent to probably use the tool of blackmail against his obviously defeated opponent. Also, giving the circumstances that the matter is still pending under the Folarin-Dipo Kazeem constitutionally structured Judicial Committee; a body set up to investigate, question and ascertain the possibilities of Mr Folajimi’s claim, It is not yet a matter of certainty on whether the incumbent president engaged in tete-a-tetes with NASELSITES, where he played the role of a blackmailing publicist. Therefore Mr. Adeniyi should have at least given the judicial committee a chance before allowing his linguistic ego to precede underlining judicial ethics. This move further undermines his personality not only as the already established supporter of Mr. Folajimi’s candidature, but as a young man who wants nothing close to the peaceful co-existence of students of the Department of English. A man who has established a disreputable public image for the association based on farce. This is also a wild attempt to be judgmental when the decisions of the constitutionally enabled committee have not even begun.
Having served as a campus journalist for five years and as a immediate past Editor of a campus based media group; The Megaphone News Agency, Obafemi Awolowo Univeresity, I posit that such misinformation was caused by inadequate editorial pursuits of Miss Florence Nwozo, who I am made to believe did not confirm such sensitive news from reliable sources like The Association of Campus Journalists , Obafemi Awolowo Unversity (ACJ), seasoned campus Journalists like Ayodele Obajeun, Akingbola Yemisi, Oni Afolabi, Oluwalano Bankole,Hannah Ojo, Eyinade Tobi, to mention but a few.
It is also important to postulate that the editor of Campus Life in person of Miss Nwozo would have taken the news as an information that is not conclusive, as a report that in all journalistic confines should not be published based on the fact that The case is still pending in what can be best described as an election tribunal, a court; as the committee functions in that capacity.
I hereby call on the Editor of the column; Campus Life to pay serious attention to the objectivity of the works being sent to her by all asserting aristocrats; writers and not journalists; politically cunning ‘pen prostitutes’ so that readers will not be made to read fictional works in place of news.
I also call on the general Editorial board of the Nation Newspapers to continue to engage in political discourses as they have always done. The great minds in Obafemi Awolowo University are proud of your journalistic pursuits. Nevertheless, such unnecessarily incitement and ventilations of selfishly orchestrated factions such as this should be curtailed on Campus Life.
I also would want to use this medium to call on the Head of Department of the concerned department to use his office to call students to caution. He can also use his office to resolve this leadership quagmire in the departmental association before there is a further tarnishing of the department’s name. The Department is known to have produced leaders in media, education, business, and so on, not media arsonists. This unfortunate precision should be quickly nipped in the bud before it becomes a battle of words, letters and perhaps later punches, lynches and slaps.
The International Conference of Students of English and Literary Studies (ICOSELS), which is to be held in OAU is around the corner and it is a pity that the national president of the Association; Mr. Dayo Adeniyi is not willing to publicize the conference through the column, instead he is quick to unsheathe his swords when all aggrieved students are keeping their positions under covers so as to achieve a successful conference.
I Thank you for the space.

Femi Morgan, 400 level student of the Dept. of English, Obafemi Awolowo, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, A JOURNALIST, AND COPY EDITOR.