It is only natural for someone to feel passionate and emotionally attached to his/her native land. I am not exempt from this characteristic. I am a Nigerian, through-and-through. Nigeria was created and very well endowed by God. We are blessed with abundance of resources in whatever form -human, mineral, natural, and so on. We have wealth flowing above the ground, under the ground and in our heads. With our intellect, massive population and natural resources in the earth, you would have thought we would be up there with the developed countries of the world. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

People of different nations of the world, where Nigerians can be found, will attest to the intellectual capabilities of Nigerians; we are the eight largest oil exporting country in the world; with fertile and arable land; a population of over 130m people and with a land mass of 923768 sq. km (about four times that of the United Kingdom). You will agree with me that Nigeria is truly rich. Sadly, however, these seem to be statistics, merely. Arguably, the foundation for the country's greatness was laid from inception. What remained, to achieve that goal, was proper management of these endowments.

Just that. All resources have been provided for. All that our "leaders" had/have to do, was to effectively and efficiently harness these abundant wealth for Nigeria to attain her position amongst the mighty nations of the world. And, this is what they have steadily and constantly failed to do!

Why, you may ask? Funny enough, the answer is very simple and obvious -greed! The so-called "leaders" that Nigeria has been unfortunate to have, have all been myopic in their thinking. Instead of putting the nation first, they put their avarice before national interest. Immediately they assume that prime position of governance, they become monetary gluttons, corrupt "public servants" who serve their thieving inclinations rather than the people. I sometimes wonder if they think they can ever "eat" up Nigeria's wealth completely. By their incorrigible and rapacious dispositions, what they succeed in doing in bending the country to the knee; setting us back; retarding our development economically and industrially, with endless consequential spill over effect. Constantly, good brains that would help build up the country emigrate to other lands; further stripping the country close to bare.

We need to make a commitment to reject, fight and stamp corruption out. Until we begin to see the ramifications of greed and corruption; until we resolve to shun personal gain and imbibe nationalistic principles; and, until we are ready to make personal sacrifices for the popular good, Nigeria will not be actually great. It is high time Nigeria became a really great nation, not "potentially" great. We must change the existing political ideology and the level of educational awareness in the country. Though that is only a starting point, it is a crucial element to changing Nigeria for the better.

I have started to make my little contributions in various ways. I will gladly welcome any effort to lift Nigeria up. Let us form a coalition for the progress, economic and industrial development of Nigeria. Let us work together to make Nigeria great. Join me.

How great thou wouldst, Nigeria!
Translated into Arabic by: Steve
It is only natural for someone to feel passionate and emotionally attached to his/her native land. I am not exempt from this characteristic. I am a Nigerian, through-and-through. Nigeria was created and very well endowed by God. We are blessed with abundance of resources in whatever form -human, mineral, natural, and so on. We have wealth flowing above the ground, under the ground and in our heads. With our intellect, massive population and natural resources in the earth, you would have thought we would be up there with the developed countries of the world. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

People of different nations of the world, where Nigerians can be found, will attest to the intellectual capabilities of Nigerians; we are the eight largest oil exporting country in the world; with fertile and arable land; a population of over 130m people and with a land mass of 923768 sq. km (about four times that of the United Kingdom). You will agree with me that Nigeria is truly rich. Sadly, however, these seem to be statistics, merely. Arguably, the foundation for the country's greatness was laid from inception. What remained, to achieve that goal, was proper management of these endowments.

Just that. All resources have been provided for. All that our "leaders" had/have to do, was to effectively and efficiently harness these abundant wealth for Nigeria to attain her position amongst the mighty nations of the world. And, this is what they have steadily and constantly failed to do!

Why, you may ask? Funny enough, the answer is very simple and obvious -greed! The so-called "leaders" that Nigeria has been unfortunate to have, have all been myopic in their thinking. Instead of putting the nation first, they put their avarice before national interest. Immediately they assume that prime position of governance, they become monetary gluttons, corrupt "public servants" who serve their thieving inclinations rather than the people. I sometimes wonder if they think they can ever "eat" up Nigeria's wealth completely. By their incorrigible and rapacious dispositions, what they succeed in doing in bending the country to the knee; setting us back; retarding our development economically and industrially, with endless consequential spill over effect. Constantly, good brains that would help build up the country emigrate to other lands; further stripping the country close to bare.

We need to make a commitment to reject, fight and stamp corruption out. Until we begin to see the ramifications of greed and corruption; until we resolve to shun personal gain and imbibe nationalistic principles; and, until we are ready to make personal sacrifices for the popular good, Nigeria will not be actually great. It is high time Nigeria became a really great nation, not "potentially" great. We must change the existing political ideology and the level of educational awareness in the country. Though that is only a starting point, it is a crucial element to changing Nigeria for the better.

I have started to make my little contributions in various ways. I will gladly welcome any effort to lift Nigeria up. Let us form a coalition for the progress, economic and industrial development of Nigeria. Let us work together to make Nigeria great. Join me.

What you are seeing is the foundation of a huge resource outreach particularly geared towards ameliorating the deficiencies manifest in some parts of the world, with special focus on Africa -a peaceful continent with some unfortunate circumstances. Africa is blessed by God in many respects, but today it finds itself haplessly the victim of centuries of exploitation by both foreign and domestic elements. Presently, Africa's greatest challenge is education. As a result of lack of education, the inhabitants of this beautiful continent are ignorant of the endowment, and the rulers-instead of leaders-who are at the helm of affairs are not better off in this regard. The rulers themselves are misguided by their avaricious and covetous cravings. Essentially, Stephen Edetanlen Foundation has emerged as a centre to garvanize and aid the acquisition of academic knowledge, sensitization and sanitization of polity. We know this is a daunting task. We equally know that it is a necessary task, if Africa is to take her pride of place on the global stage. This is something that should have been done much earlier; but, we believe in the saying that "it is better late, than never". Be know there are several entities, people and organizations out there with similar thinking -whether or not, of African descent. We welcome such to join forces with us to rid Africa of the anti-developmental, retrogressive and destructive syndrome which is rampant in the continent. Let us make Africa a place of pride, peace and prosperity. Let us put Africa where it belongs. We welcome your comment and contribution. Please visit http://se-foundation.blogspot.com/

Dazed and weak is the only way I can describe how I felt when I received the heart-wrenching news. Dead, Fidel? My Fidel?

After having a little drink (mine was orange juice) and shooting some pool with some colleagues form work at a nearby pub, after work on Thursday night, I was a little bit light in my spirit on my way home. I was at London Bridge trying to find out from the display what time and which train to take, when my mobile phone start to ring. As usual, I was happy to receive a call. I looked at the number. It was a foreign number, from Nigeria, but not listed on my phone. Naturally, I answered the it, and the person on the other side said "it's me Omo". "Which Omo?" I asked. "Fidel wife", was the response. Then it registered. So I went on to ask how things were faring. I thought she was playing around and trying to be ironic when she said things were not fine. But that thought was short-lived by the next sentence: Fidel was dead. What?! Suddenly, I felt numb and speechless. My whole body, immediately felt weak. My interest in my surroundings was lost and my mind started racing. What does this all mean? I will never see Fidel on earth again? What about Omo, who he married less than two years before? And, the baby who is about 14 months old? Do I take the baby as my responsibility? Or, bring the mother overseas? Do I go back home? A thousand thoughts flooded my mind, as I became oblivious of my immediate environment.

God help us. I am so sad, even now. I did manage to ask her how he died. My one-syllable question was "how". To which she answered "stray bullet". It happened the Sunday before, on Fidel's way to work. That was on 15 April, 2007. All the way home, I was feeling very weak and listless. I got off the bus behind my house, walking home, I could not hold back any longer and I started to cry. I wiped my eyes of tears several times, but it kept coming. No single person saw me. I got home and my brother was in the kitchen cooking, I did not open the kitchen door and continued to my room upstairs. Still crying, I knelt down to pray, I could not. I sent an SMS to my other brother that I can not come to his house later that evening, as I have to sleep because I lost a "dear friend". I sent simple SMS to my fiance in Nigeria "Fidel is dead". They both called me, briefly. I wept, I prayed and I tried reading the Bible. I begged God to let Fidel wake up, because of Christ, me and God's mercy. Normally, I am starving when I get home from work. But I slept without eating that night. Fidel was gone.

Without doubt, I can say Fidel was my best and most reliable friend on earth. He was almost a brother. I told God this was my personal loss. Fidel was part of me. He would do anything for me, when I ask. He never tells me "no". A gentle and honest man, my Fidel. Oh God, what I loss for me. I thought if I had been in Benin (Nigeria), he would have still been alive! That was because I thought the stray bullet had resulted from the elections on that day. And, if I had told Fidel not to go out, he would not go out; or maybe he would come to visit me. But when I called his wife, for the first time since the sad news, she told me it was by a soldier's bullet. And now, also, I realize Nigeria does not conduct elections on Sunday. Now, Fidel is gone: dead. Typically, thee will be no enquiry and no disciplinary action will be taken against the gun-man (soldier). Why would a bullet be "straying?" I asked myself and later, by brother. What has Nigeria turned into? If there was professionalism and discipline, why would a serviceman's bullet stray? They handle their guns any way they see fit. They shoot indiscriminately. That is why.


Due to some irresponsible serviceman's callousness, I have lost a dependable and true friend. A young bride has been made a widow in her twenties. A little child will not grow up with the father; made fatherless. Oh God, please. Please, God, have mercy; raise Fidel up, I beseech You.

BY: EDETANLEN STEPHEN (ESQ.)

With the establishment of the United Nations in the last century, the world had hoped to have an organized global forum and pseudo-executive system within which the nations of the world would find some common grounds, creating a sort of fellowship and sense of oneness which when harnessed would prove a strong enough platform for meeting of the minds, trashing out militating differences in national policies of members and moulding a paradigm for enduring global peace and security. The paramount basis for this arrangement was the fostering of global peace and security, together with the enabling structural and logistical prerequisites. To be effective in its purpose, five principal organs constitute the UN –though the continued relevance of one is uncertain. These organs are the General Assembly, Security Council, the Secretariat, International Court of Justice, the Trusteeship Council and Economic and Social Council.

The objectives of this multilateral global organization, the UN, were very desirable and quite laudable, to say the least. For the successful realization of these laudable objectives, however, it is pertinent for the organization to enjoy the trust of, at least, its members. The organizational machinery has to be dependable, effective and efficient. It should be capable of being relied upon. Due to the national and regional dynamics of the membership of the UN, a minimal level of trust will guarantee the functionality of this world organization. With a multi-national organization of this nature as the UN, with its large membership each of which has some “national interest” to protect, maintaining trust amongst them requires a high level of transparency and accountability.

Of the primary organs of this gigantic organization, without doubt, the two most important are the General Assembly and Security Council. Necessarily, therefore, it is in these two organs that transparency and accountability, which are foundational for the requisite trust, are most imperative. A review of the works and actions of these two organs discloses gross deficiency of trust, which is more pronounced in the Security Council! A simple and generally recognized means of attaining and manifesting trust is the adoption of open and democratic processes in decision-making. By and large, democracy is synonymous with transparency and accountability. Due to the sensitive responsibilities and significance of the Security Council, it is very important that it be seen as truly focused on the peace and security concerns of the global community and responsive to the interests of all its members. The General Assembly, on the other hand, could pass for a democratic plenary body. The representatives, apparently reach decisions based on consensus of the majority. The same cannot be said of the Security Council. Unfortunately, the Assembly cannot make decisions that are mandatory or binding on the members, whereas the Security Council can. The poser is: can the Security Council afford to be democratic? This would mean acceding to the views of the majority, irrespective of the reasonableness, sensitiveness or otherwise of the question for determination.

Understandably, the founders of the UN did not think it wise to trust the maintenance of international peace and security in the hands of every member of the organization, nor subject the matter to the democratic deliberations of the whole body. Besides the necessity of efficient running and prompt decision-making, it was easier to trust global peace and security in the hands of a few allied powers that prevailed against the axis powers in 1945—nations which had proved their military might and share similar political ideologies. That may have been the case then. But the world has moved on since then. The leaders of the axis powers then, Germany, Japan and Italy, are now major players in recent peace and security initiatives. Indeed, Japan and Germany are second only to the United States, with regards to financial contributions to the UN. This goes to show that the dispensation of 1945 is much different from what obtains now. Furthermore, it is unthinkable that the founders of the UN intended for the decisions by the Security Council be reached for purposes other than the genuine maintenance of peace and security in the world. Sadly, this is often the case today. Instead of taking decisions based, primarily, on maintaining global peace and security, “national interests” of members of the Security Council are the principal considerations, with lots of lobbying, arm-twisting and manipulation being employed to attain selfish national goals. Tens of thousands of people could be perishing in a region or country and the Council will not lift a real finger, because the “national interest” of its powerful members is not threatened or affected. This is so even where the disturbing development has been extensively deliberated by the General Assembly.

It is not in dispute that the circumstances of this day are not the same as those prevailing during the formation of the UN. What is not agreed upon is whether this changed circumstances sufficiently necessitates altering the decision-making process of the Security Council. Naturally, leading the pack of the proponents of maintaining the status quo are the current permanent members of the Council. Whatever position may be found agreeable to individual or group intellectual or political leanings, a factor that cannot be disregarded is that the current procedure and process of arriving at decisions in the Council cannot continue. The reason for this is the gross misplacement of priority in Council deliberations by its members. The system must be reformed so as to be transparent. The UN was not founded, ex facie, to protect the “national interests” of certain nations merely, but for the peace and security of every nation of the world. The overly politicization of the decision-making apparatus of the Security Council is unacceptable. It must be open, transparent and made accountable.