Nigeria's occupy Nigeria must inspire Africa

When Mandela intuitively said that, “there is light at the end of the tunnel,” he was a man standing on top of a pedestal he could see further than yonder and new for sure what lay at the end of a tunnel. We sub-Saharan Africa’ stands on the age of a precipice, we have been walking in darkness, in the tunnel, trot by trot towards the light. We have reached at the end of the tunnel, we can see what a beautiful world we have been missing, the rolling hills, the beautiful greenery, the milk, the honey. The promise lays within touch. We take the first tentative step into the light. But! Wait a minute! Stepping into the light ain’t that easy, the forces that tag us back into the tunnel are a bigger than the drive that pulls forward, that though does not mean that we should stop tagging ourselves forward into the light.
In not saw vague terms sub-Saharan Africa did not know independence, well at least political independence until Ghana started fumbling her way towards indipenence. Similary Africa, has never known coherence in government policy, the only a consistent policy and by far the most popular policy with governments and policy makers has been the ‘loot and grab policy’.
Well, not any more, something has given in the African continent. The Occupy Nigeria movements illuminates the path forward. The citizenry are beginning to demand government expindiency, nil mismanagement of public resources, economic as well political responsibility and this, this my fellow brothers and sisters is the birth of a movement that will emancipate us from the shackles of enfeebled dreams.
The Arab awakening was triggered by the self immolation of Mohammed Bouazziz, we are not going to burn ourselves though, neither are we going to burn tiny little bits of paper where we had engraved and our dreams and aspirations. The only things that are going to burn are; rotten government, parochialism, ethnicism, kleptocracy nepotism, and other terms that almost entirely carry negative connotations and that are most likely than not synonymous in Africa. Kenyans on the blogosphere, on social and other fora rant about what ails in the Kenyan society, and the ranting more than anything else will get us forward.
The Occuppy Nigeria movement epitomizes Africa’s new grace, the 2ND of January, 2012 marks the day that our ineptness as a people were burned and buried, the day in destiny that we as people took the right to decide our destiny for us.
For If had that chance small chance to write a letter to Nelson Mandela, I would tell him; “ Baba, we have been in the tunnel, we have saw the light, we walked towards

MORE GOVERNMENT= MORE POVERTY: THE CURSE OF BIG GOVERNMENT.

A few years back right in the heat of a utopic moment I and other
Kenyans voted almost unanimously for a new constitution. At that
moment nothing else mattered but Kenyans were giving a thumbs up for a
blueprint of laws that would emancipate Kenya from its social economic
and political underdevelopment. Key among the issues Kenyans wanted
sorted out was the respect of the rule of law. However without the
benefit of foresight we Kenyans did not foresee an increased tax
burden occasioning from increased levels of government.
Fast forward, today it is beginning to dawn on most Kenyans that the
new constitution will not deliver heaven. Of great concern is the
colossal size of the post 2012 bi-cameral legislature. Previously
Kenyans did not of a parliament with Senate and a lower house. The
2010 constitution allows a burgeoning lower house of parliament with
290 Members of Parliament up from 212. In addition the Senate, which
in my opinion serves little legislative purpose and is another cash
cow for senior retired elites to extract from the state, shall consist
of 60 senators. These in addition to 47 county governors form a
significant tax burden on the Kenyan tax payer.
Now more than ever and with the benefit of hindsight we need to call
for leaner government, only the can the choke and yoke on the Kenyan
taxpayer be released to allow enterprising Kenyans to flourish.

THE Al-SHABAB, BOKO HARAM QUESTION.

THE Al-SHABAB, BOKO HARAM QUESTION.
A few months ago I ranted well, to anybody who cared to listen that Kenya was getting her feet in what water for getting her troops into Somalia in chase of Al-Shabab. Seventy odd days later, apart from the media fest that ensued, with camera trotting journalist trailing the Kenyan troops for news nothing in the form of strategic victories for the troops or any headway in dealing a debilitating blow on Al-Shabab. At the heart of the moment we listed to our hearts rather than our heads and rushed our troops into Somalia.
The Fact of the matter though is this; Al-shabab is an insidious and an amorphous enemy, the tenets of its existence rest on some murky ideological bedrock, it lacks geographical nor political locus. This in its sense means that fighting Al-shabab in the conventional ‘gun trotting, obliterate the enemy way is almost impossible.’ Indeed you need to know your enemy and his ways before you begin plotting his destruction is this.
The Kenyan government and the Nigerian government have tried to solve Al-Shabab/Boko Haram by ‘shooting too much’. Fighting a battle with ideological character with gun and barrel has never had novelty in itself. The USA in its unending war on terror, China in its war against Tibetan Budhism and English Protestantism in Northern Ireland can attest to that. Closer home in the republic of Tanzania, Kijikile Ngwale provided an exemplar into panaceas of ideological conflicts. Whereas his magic water was a disaster militarily, he had helped his people sail against the head winds of a colonial supremacist ideology. Military and security policy makers have overlooked the ideological character that is the axis of Boko Haram and Al-Shabab.
The mere existence of such groups, is in itself not coincidental but is in itself an inference of a crumbling social, economic and political fabric of a nation. It calls for a re-evaluation of national values. Kenya for instance needs to address massive disparity in terms of infrastructure availability in Northen Kenya, Kenyans need to appreciate and be cognizant of the fact that North Easterners come from a far different cultural environment, that though does not make them aliens.
A re-examination of Kenya’s values would be in order, national integration and a tone down of ethnic and fundamentalist rhetoric. That said and done the war against militia is not lost. A snake is killed easiest by cutting its head off. Al-shabab in can be can be debilitated by going after the funders of Al-shabab, those who profit politically or in any form from the conflict or starve of Al-shabab from the sapple and gullible young men of Somali origin from all over the world and mostly in Western lands who are deceived into joining the Al-shabab. For the only way to immobilize a squid is by cutting off its tentacles.