As N’Dour made clear as he announced his candidacy for President on his own TV channel on Monday, he views as a real problem attempts by the elderly incumbent, 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade, to stay in power. Under Senegal’s constitution, Wade is not allowed to serve a third term. Wade argues, however, that he should be allowed to stay on as President as the constitution did not exist in its current form when he was first elected. When Wade tried to change the electoral rules in his favor last June, riots swept Dakar in which 100 people were injured. The violence was the culmination of years of frustration, said N’Dour during his announcement on Monday. “For a long time, men and women have demonstrated their optimism, dreaming of a new Senegal. They have, in various ways, called for my candidacy in the February presidential race. I listened. I heard.”

Culled from Time Magazine

WHAT IS THE SINGULAR IMPROVEMENT IN NIGERIA SINCE THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES?I think probably the fact that we now have more people who can be described as having gone through an educational experience that makes them better able to relate to their situations that should enable them to take some meaningful initiatives in helping to add some value to situations. We have people who are now better developed, better prepared than before, not just in numbers which is one thing but also in quality of preparation and that is a fact and this is one way Nigeria has improved but then am not saying that we have realized the fruits of that improvement, am just saying that this is a fact of life.
WHAT DO MEAN EXACTLY BY FRUITS?
ALL right when people actually develop, when they grow in their capacity for doing certain things, now that is a plus, it is an advantage but it is an incomplete plus because what you are looking for, is for them to be able to apply the capacity that they have now developed so it is in the application of that capacity, of that potential that you can begin to look at the fruits of the process of development, what am saying is that we have not managed to bring people to a place where they feel that they must apply the capacity they have developed.
WHAT ABOUT AREAS THAT HAVE NOT IMPROVED SINCE THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES?
The most singular area in my view is in the area of acknowledging and expressing corporate identity as a nation. The term Nigeria is the name that is used to describe a geographical location, geographical entity but that gives you only what I call a country. Now if Nigeria is going to improve, if Nigeria is going to do well then we have to move from being a country to being a nation. To be a nation means we have to identify what our shared interests are and agree on the terms on which we will try to pursue those interests for the achievement of the most beneficial results, now that is what I call corporate identity. We have not yet developed a corporate identity that helps us to get the best advantage from our being together.
WHY IS THIS SO?This is so because after the colonial days when we actually now got sovereignty for some reasons the first crop of political leaders because they were the ones that brought us through the fight for independence were able to keep Nigeria, the nation in their focus very soon after that if you remember the military came into governance and unfortunately the military were not prepared for governance, they did not know what being a nation really meant. They believed that the best way to govern was to play to the narrow interest of individuals or small groups and that was the best way to get people to respond to their leadership and you shouldn’t be surprised about that because in the army in any of the armed forces the relationship between leadership and followership is not one that wants to get the followership to band together in one psychological entity rather they want each soldier, each person to respond to authority on the basis of you do this or else. Therefore people in those forces tend to play to their leader on the basis of I know this is good for me if I obey this man.
When you come to the governance of a nation, people who are not under any obligation to obey you when you give an order, people who in fact in expressing their democratic status should be able to challenge you if they think you are making a mistake, should be able develop their own initiatives, add their own value, now you couldn’t bring that about under military governance because they just didn’t not have that system, unfortunately we were under military governance for about three decades and that is a long time so people who were born into that period came into that system and that is why they have found it so difficult to return to the concept of nation where you are prepared to fight for the common good because you know that if our corporate existence is positive then you own individual interest will be protected. Whereas if you pursue your own individual interest alone the corporate one may never happen, that is the situation we are in.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE TO CHANGE THE MENTALITY?
Right, the thing that can be done is that first of all as a human beings, when you find yourself in a position that is negative and is not yielding the right results, the first thing you do is to stop and ask yourself some questions, where did I go wrong, what am I doing that is not right, and so on, you have to identify why the situation is like this. Today because the constitution that we following now in the nation was handed over to us by the military we are finding it difficult to express nation therefore most people have not identified the problem and you cannot even begin to solve the problem unless you know what the problem is so what can be done I believe we should go back to the educational endeavor of this nation and get our young people to learn what actually makes a country a nation. I will give an example; it is not possible to have a vibrant nation unless each of us is willing to make some personal sacrifice in order to help to realize the corporate objectives. Now, you will find that today most people want to pursue their own interests and they are not prepared to make a sacrifice to get the nation to work well that is why you have ethnic conflicts, religious conflicts, all kinds of conflicts are turning up because people are sitting in the position of defending their own interests, now you need to get young people educated to see how negative and sterile that is for the future, it will not produce any results, that is item 1.
Item 2, is that we need to review the systems we have put in place for bringing people into management of responsibility, again let me illustrate this, look at the companies in the business sector, most of them are doing very well , most of them report to shareholders every year and you can see the results they are achieving why because they have set up systems that put the focus on company results rather than individual results, now if we borrow a leaf from that, we will see that it is important for us to come back to situation in which people understand that if Nigeria is unwell then any individual that appears to be in good health can be deceiving himself so that is why I say go back to the young people and start teaching them and also go back to how we give people responsibility. In this business sector companies that am talking about, if you want to appoint somebody your chief financial officer for instance, you don’t just go and pick someone you like or someone that says Yes sir to you every day, No!, pick somebody who has the right qualifications, who has the right experience, who can demonstrate a track record of success in what they have done before you say to them this responsibility is now yours and you also give yourself the opportunity of monitoring how they perform, if even in one year they do not perform well , you say to them at the end of the year I cannot give you an increment in salary because you have not fulfilled your objectives and indeed you know if you have another year of that performance I may have to send you away altogether, now that is the system that works with human beings but if you now bring somebody into a position of responsibility whether as a member of the national assembly, as a governor , as a president and you do not set up a system that is similar to that, it will not work because people need to know that they will be called to account effectively for what they do especially when they are using the resources that belong to the nation, they will have to account, if you are not sure or if you are sure that nobody is going to call you to account or they call you to account and so what, then you do not have the encouragement to perform well and basically if you came into that position with inadequate preparation then of course anybody who complains when you do badly should ask himself what else should we expect so those are the things I think we ought to do we ought to learn to set up systems that respond to basic human behavior. If somebody is not ready for a position do not let them get there and if they get there and they are performing badly set up a credible system for separating them from that position. We do not have either.
ACCORDING TO THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, TEN MILLION CHILDREN ARE NOT IN SCHOOL, WHY?
First, ask yourself why those ten million children are not in school because it is not an impossible task for us to set up enough schools, train enough teachers that would teach our children and make sure those children go to school so why are we not doing it. You see a minister of education actually says ten million children are not in school and he or she is the minister of education and so you are waiting to hear what he or she has decided to do about it, have we got it No! because the handling of that responsibility is wrong, not only are those children not in school, the ones who are in school are performing badly and if you look at some research information that I have seen where even on the African continent the performance of our children in educational exams were ranked number 22. If you have that situation somebody must take responsibility for getting us out of this mess but do we have people who have sufficient experience and who themselves know how to handle the situation, handling a responsibility is not something that anybody can do, you have to have the right preparation, you even have to have the right level of interest, commitment and passion for what you want to do. This must not be just another job for you; it must be a calling, a commitment so that you say to yourself until I get this situation right I will not rest. Is that what our leaders are like?
WHY DO OUR LEADERS NOT HAVE THAT LEVEL OF COMMITMENT?The manner of entering into leadership does not call for commitment. If you read the constitution, I think section 62 which says if you want to become President of Nigeria, you have to be 35 years old at least, you have to have passed school certificate or its equivalent and you need to find a political party who would sponsor you, no mention of anything you have done, no mention of any experience you have had, no mention of the fact that we want to see what you have managed successfully before we are going to give you this entire nation to manage. How can we get good leaders when those are the provisions we have made and tell me something, if we know that under our political system you do not have to be a person of good character to be successful in politics and I am not guessing am just going by evidence that is available, you do not even have to be a person of good character to succeed in politics so if you as an individual are a person of good character, why would you want to expose yourself to that. Anybody who is looking at Nigerian contemporary history should see that when people of good character have offered themselves for political leadership they have ended up with their noses in the dirt. Who wants to expose himself or herself to that kind of life, so you see we have to set up a system in which we are saying in this school, in this university we will never appoint somebody dean of this school unless they have shown us clear evidence that they could handle the responsibility and that they were the best of the people we had for handling that responsibility. This is not a matter of politics, it is a matter of leadership, it is a matter of responsibility and what we seem to have forgotten in Nigeria is that a position is not just a title and not just the siren or allowances. A position has been created so that certain responsibilities can be managed and if the person that we are looking at for that position has not demonstrated clearly and visibly the requirements for that position why should we put them there. Therefore, what am saying is, let us agree that this is the problem and let us create a system where even political parties will be forced to look at certain things before they would offer us a candidate.
In this country we have this thing called the quota system, federal character, you want people from different parts of the country but we did not state in that policy that if you, from your state or from your zone are going to offer us a candidate for this position, these are the qualifications, these are the requirements, this person must have done the following things, we do not say that, we simply say send us somebody from your zone so who are you going to send? You are going to send somebody who is your political friend, somebody that you feel comfortable with, most people will feel comfortable with somebody who is not as intelligent as themselves.
YOU ONCE SAID THAT AS MANY CHURCHES AND MOSQUES CONTINUE TO SPRING UP IN NIGERIA; CONFUSION WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE WHY? WITH SO MANY CHURCHES SPRINGING UP IN THE COUNTRY WHY ARE MORALS GOING DOWN? Ok! What really is a church? A church is an association of people who believe in Jesus Christ, a mosque is an association of people who have decided to follow Mohammed but that is where the thinking seems to end. Now, the thinking should go beyond that and say so what does Jesus Christ represent, what does Mohammed represent, why am I following Jesus Christ, why have I decided to follow Mohammed. Therefore if I get it right I do not actually need a church in every other house on my street because Jesus Christ is only one and Jesus Christ’s principles and standards are clear. Of course, now we set up denominations and one denomination will tell you that what the others are doing is not right or inappropriate. I say let us maintain the oneness of the body of Christ, the oneness of the Muslim faith and let us understand the principles and the values that Jesus Christ or Mohammed taught us to begin with. If we were to do that, we would understand that for instance if somebody of another faith disagrees with me or something, I have to approach that disagreement from the point of view of what my leader has taught me and you will not find in either the Bible or the Koran that it says that I should go and kill him or burn down his house. So, you see with churches and mosques springing up all over the place, we have actually diversified to the extent that we now believe that it is all about us but of course, it is not about us. It is about Christ and it is about Mohammed.

The Christian religion is the one to which I belong and Christ actually says when I have a disagreement with my neighbor I should first tell him that he has done something to me that I don’t like and seek ways of resolving this peacefully, nowhere does he tell me that it is right for me to go and attack him physically, treat him with violence and I believe that it is also true for the other faith. So, what are we practicing? springing up of churches, are we creating just human organizations? That is why I said if we focus just on springing up one church here one mosque there and so on and so forth, we are missing the point because we now identify that this is Pastor so and so’s church. It is not about them it is about the body of Christ or the body of the Muslim faith.
IN NIGERIA CAN THE CHURCHES ADDRESS THE CRITICAL ISSUES AT STAKE AND HELP SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS?The same problem we have with political leadership has now infiltrated the churches and mosques. How do people now become Bishops and Archbishops, what system do we have in place for making sure that these people are actually servants of Almighty God. They are not just the leader of some faction or the front man for some movement. The moment the leader of a faith becomes more popular, more visible than either Jesus Christ or Mohammed he has lost it because he is representing those people, he is a representative and a servant of God through the Christian faith, through the Muslim faith. As long as you see yourself as a servant, a steward of God’s resources on earth, then your focus must always be on your principles and say what really does God require of me here, as a human being I will have my faults and weakness but God will help me to put those away so that I Can serve him properly so if our leaders in the different religious movements forget that this is all about Jesus Christ or about Mohammed or about who ever their leader is then of course it does not work, that is why morals are going down because we are not relating our behavior to the real thing. In the Bible Paul warned the people, I think it was Corinth some times, some of you say I belong to Paul, I belong to Apollo’s, he says it is not about us it is about Jesus Christ.
HOW CAN NIGERIANS DRAW THE LINE?That is where you go back to the basics of religion. Fortunately or unfortunately, your faith is a personal thing. It did not start as a mass movement. You are either a believer as yourself or you are not. Therefore, if you are a believer for whatever

I hope the widow gets justice. Notwithstanding the proliferation of churches in Nigeria, this report from Emmanuel, a Guest blogger is one of the reasons corruption, prostitution and other vices are rife in the country. A church that demands anything from you before prayers or says blessings from God cost a certain amount is not a genuine church. 

Okafor Okolie, a self-acclaimed pastor and founder of God’s Covenant Ministries, Ejigbo, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, has just being released on bail from police cell, where he was detained for days.All things being equally after police investigations, Okolie may be charged to court for allegedly defrauding a widow of cash, properties and land valued at millions of naira Checks revealed that the build- up to this latest mess by Okafor began in 2009, when his wife, who claimed to be Prophetess Ngozi Okolie, got in contact with a widow, identify as Theresa Onuoha, through one Evangelist Emmanuel Nonso Ike.Forty three years old Madam Onuola told our reporter that she experienced hell on earth as soon as her husband of fifteen years marriage died three years ago.According to her, the family of her husband were making things pretty difficult for me even inheritance as my husband left behind cash, landed properties, car and other possessions valued at millions of naira. In addition to the in-law angle, the widow said that the loneliness she experienced, couple with the fact that her business was not booming at that point in time made me to be desperate in my search for spiritual succors. The desperation appeared to be her greatest undoing as the widow further disclosed that on getting to Prophetess Ngozi Okafor Okolie, after listening to me on the peculiar problems I was passing through at that point in time, the prophetess prepared a concoction from salt, water and olive oil for me in 2009 and ordered that I should drink and bathe with the concoction for seven days. From then onward, I lost my senses and was possibly under the spell of the pastor and his prophetess wife, who hypnotized me and were the enforce controlling me like zombie. Onuoha told our reporter during parade of the police. The widow further lamented that from 2009 the pastor and his wife used brain washing, sugar coated tongue, God and the bible to succeed in collecting about N550, 000cash, suitcases containing clothes, household items, a Mercedes benz car, under the guise that God revealed to the prophetess that the late husband of the widow joined occultic groups, while he was alive. Therefore, according to the widow the early possession of the man should be brought to God’s Covenant Ministries located at No 3, Brethren Avenue in Iyana-Ejigbo, Lagos, as an appreciation for being delivered from occultic powers. I was given an account number by Pastor Okafor Okolie and asked to sell landed property of my late husband in Anambra State valued at N1.8 million and paid the money into the Oceanic Bank Account of the church, Onuoha said, insisting that her sister stopped her from carrying out the pastor’s instructions. Speaking on behalf of her husband during the parade, Prophetess Ngozi Okoli admitted that she prepared a concoction for Onuola, but quickly said that there was nothing satanic or devilish about the concoction. She further explained that the widow in appreciation for deliverance after three months of marathon prayers and fasting willingly gave out her family inheritance, which includes: 10 suitcases containing clothes, rugs, Mercedes Benz car, etc. to the church of God for use by the priests.But, Samuel Jinadu, Lagos police spokesman said that based on report to the police by the widow, her properties were recovered from the apartment of the pastor and handed over to her. Jinadu, a deputy superintendent of police however assured that Pastor Okafor Okolie and the wife, Ngozi will soon be charged to court for alleged fraud.He explained that though police do not belief in juju, voodoo,witchcraft or magic, the matter will eventually be decided by competent court where Okafor and the wife will convince the court on why they should not be prosecuted for alleged fraud.

Emmauel Udom

An article written in theRoot  discusses the growing attention young adults are giving to pornography and how much they aspire to be involved in the market. It says several young men and women from Nigeria,  Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Morocco, South Africa are trying to join the pornographic film industry in Africa and abroad.  As i read the article i was totally stunned at how much our society is now been influenced by the west. What happened to African values?

I have been dreaming of becoming a porn actor since a very young age. I live in the Ivory Coast and I am looking for a producer or a director to sign a contract and to be in a movie … I am relying on you to make my dream come true. This is the advertisement that André (not his real name), a 21-year-old, posted on the Internet with his email address and cell phone numbers. This computer science student in Grand-Bassam — a town some 25 miles from Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast — is not unusual in Africa. Hundreds of young men and women in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and elsewhere are all trying to join the pornographic-film industry in Africa or abroad. The world pornography market (adult video networks, pay-per-view movies on cable and satellite, websites, in-room hotel movies, phone sex, sex toys, magazines and DVDs) is estimated to be tens of billions of dollars, according to Dan Miller, managing editor of XBIZ Premiere,
a trade publication for the adult entertainment industry. Warning that exact numbers are difficult to acquire because the vast majority of companies in the sector are privately owned, Miller says, “America’s market is by far the largest in the world in terms of scope and revenue. It far exceeds the market in Europe. Based on the
information we have, I would estimate the market in the U.S. to be in the neighborhood of $7 billion.” A Small Industry in Africa By contrast, the largely Web-oriented African market is small but emerging. The leader on that continent would be South Africa, which hosted Sexpo, a public expo focused on all aspects of sexuality, in
the second half of 2010. “The size of the entire adult industry in South Africa is said to be worth 60 million rand ($8.9 million), but that cannot be independently verified. It is probably the biggest in Africa. Nigeria should be worth about half of that,” says Tau Morena,
co-founder of Sondeza (“Bring it closer” in isiZulu), an African adult online network with more than 39,000 members (almost half of them South African) and an average of 7,000 unique visitors daily. Why hasn’t the African pornographic sector taken off? Morena blames
video piracy, which he says that most governments are not really interested in curbing: “In South Africa in the ’90s … about a million units were sold per annum, but now with the onslaught of piracy, roughly 150,000 units of all titles are sold on average, and
the numbers keep declining.” Another brake is legislation. Producing — and sometimes even possessing — pornographic material is illegal in several African countries. And yet pornographic content is increasingly available in Africa, mainly because of greater access to the Internet and to
foreign channels that broadcast adult movies. A Growing Market That content is also increasingly sought after. “There is a strong demand from the lower and upper middle classes that have equipped themselves with communication and video equipment (PCs, modems, webcams). There is also international demand: Nigeria, home to one of
the world’s largest domestic film-production industries, “exports videos and makes different types of content it later puts online on Internet portals,” says Philippe Di Folco, the French author of the Dictionnaire de la Pornographie. Foreign demand explains why “African actresses become specialized in
different forms of pornography in Europe,” says Cameroonian activistAmély-James KohBela, who monitors the pornographic sector. She identifies two porn-film companies, Concorde and Maeva, as the top providers of “special black” pornography that floods the Internet. In the meantime, the underground amateur African pornographic sector keeps growing. More than that: Koh Bela says that three major cities in her home country (Douala, Yaoundé and Kribi) have been turned into
porn-filmmaking centers where some actors boast about what they do for a living. Alex (his name has been changed) has long been proud of his job. The
young Cameroonian with an Afro hairstyle directed a handful of movies and founded a company he called Sexe Images Nature Africaine to “create jobs and fight local prostitution — less profitable than pornography.” He also starred in two short movies and was paid 1,500 euros ($2,100) for both by a producer based in France. This was all before he retired from the business because he “found God.” “Super sexy cute South African porn star” South African Palesa Mbau is not likely to be retiring anytime soon. The 23-year-old auditioned for a movie cast through Sondeza.com about a year ago. “The idea of creating a local film was inspired by our members, who asked us to produce something 100 percent local and relevant to our market,” says Morena, who produced the film. “We asked for members of the website to come forward and be part of this experience, as there are no professional porn stars in South Africa.” There were more than 1,000 candidates (mainly men) from all walks of life. Mbau was chosen, along with four other amateurs — two women and two men — for Mapona ["naked" in Sesotho], Volume 1, which has sold some 5,000 copies since its release last September. “I am getting proud because it is a black [pornographic movie],” says Mbau. “That is raising black empowerment because the porn films that you [commonly]
see in South Africa are all white.” Is Mapona a turning point in the pornographic career that she started three years ago for “personal reasons”? One thing is for sure: The
light-skinned actress, who met high-profile representatives of the adult industry at Sexpo, is determined to get somewhere in the X sector. “I have a full-time job in a call center, but I see my future over there. … I do not have any problem saying that,” she says. Mbau has already tagged herself “super sexy cute South African porn
star” on the Facebook fan page she opened at the end of 2010, and where she today has some 2,200 fans. The woman with a teenage voice from Midrand, in the northern province of Gauteng, is using the page to make a name for herself and share sexual feelings and jokes with her fans.She is also building a reputation with her website, where she posted some explicit pictures of herself and where she sells private shows to “high-class clients.” For instance, the rates for “personal photos and video — additional” range from 500 to 1,000 rands (from $75 to $150), depending on whether she has to provide a cameraman.

Exploitation, Human Trafficking and Health Risks

No wonder, says KohBela, that some African youths see pornographic actors as examples of success — all the more because some manage to earn far more money with one film than the average African does in a month. What these young people do not always know, though, is that big money is rare in this sector. Besides, the threat of human trafficking the third most widespread criminal activity worldwide, according to the United Nations — is worrying in some countries. Around 5 percent of the victims of human trafficking identified in Western and Central Europe are of African origin, mainly coming from”West African communities, in particular Nigerian women and girls,”
according to “The Globalization of Crime — a Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment,” (pdf), a report released in June 2010 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. “Studies of Nigerian victims report that acquaintances, close friends or family members play a major role in the recruitment of victims. … The vast majority of West African women and girls are exploited in street prostitution.”
Are the victims exploited in the pornographic sector, too? “When a child is caught in a network, the human trafficker exploits it in every possible way,” states Anne-Sophie Faysse, project leader at the French branch of ECPAT, an international network fighting child sexual exploitation. “You can find cases of rape; prostitution, which is much
more visible; and pornographic-material production. In this last case, this is almost exclusively cyber pornography [photos, movies].” Adults  women, for the most part — may also be trapped.

Koh Bela, who is president of Mayina, a French association against human trafficking, indeed warns that human traffickers do not hesitate to force some victims into extreme forms of pornography, such as bestiality. “Some young women or mothers of victims told us thatWestern tourists, for the most part, rented villas where they organize private parties,” says Koh Bela. “They make the girls drunk and drug them before giving them to the dogs for hours of sexual intercourse. At the end of the party, the girls can earn 150,000 FCFA [about $325].” Like some of their Western counterparts, African actors are also exposed to serious health risks. The use of condoms is often not allowed during shoots, and HIV testing is not always compulsory. Thiscan add to the AIDS burden of Africa, where 22.5 million of those living in sub-Saharan countries are already infected, according to the latest Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) global report. Tau Morena insisted that the use of condoms be visible in each sex scene of Mapona and in his next movies, including Mapona, Volume 2, which is scheduled to be released in a few months. “Better” Opportunities Beyond Africa? The Ivorian André does not really think about the risks. He is still focusing on building a career that he believes will get him and his family out of poverty. Fela shares the same motivations. A native of Benin and mother of a 5-year-old girl, she says that she earns $200 to $300 a month when business -organizing special events in nightclubs is good, and sometimes as little as $100. So she has decided to combine business and pleasure.”I love all that goes with eroticism,
sex and seduction,” says Fela, who lives in Lomé, the capital of neighboring Togo. “It is like second nature. My friends circulate amateur sex videos of me free of charge, and I hope that one day, someone will pay attention to me and call me for a shoot.” Hers may not be the best approach. “I spoke several times by email with so-called directors who had seen my ads,” says André. “In the end, they asked for pictures of my penis. I sent them and never heard from them again … ” Diana, 28, has managed to avoid such tricks. Just like Fela, she is a single mother struggling to make a decent living for her 11-year-old child. Just like Fela, she wants to work in pornography “for pleasure and money.” Still, the Cameroonian, living in Bata, the second-largest city in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, is determined to wait for a better opportunity — and it may not be in Africa. “I remember an Ivorian film shot in the bush,” she says. “Everything looked dirty. There were flies everywhere … Western movies look classier to me.”

Koh Bela, who is the author of Mon Combat Contre La Prostitution (“My Battle Against Prostitution”), confirms that observation. She has reviewed hundreds of African sex films, some of which are sold in Château Rouge, a neighborhood of Paris with a strong African presence. “The rare movies with African actors that have good production values have been directed by European producers — among others, French, Dutch and German,” she says. “After having flooded the Internet, these movies are finding a place in the DVD market, while African-produced movies are usually so poor at every level that big producers will never distribute them.”

This may explain why some youths attend informal pornographic classes. “There are initiation circles in Douala and Abidjan,” Koh Bela reveals. “In dedicated apartments, young women watch movies to learn every kind of caress, sexual positions and Western-style pornographic techniques. The ‘teachers’ do not hesitate to show the girls how to do things right. … They also test men’s and women’s abilities.” Is this the best way to enter the sector? Not necessarily, according to Philippe Di Folco. “The amateur quality is what buyers want,” he says. “Today, consumers value the effect of realism because it is like they are voyeurs of private scenes, present in the bedroom or in the
spot where the sexual intercourse is taking place.” Meanwhile, André relies on the visual experience he got perusing movies and magazines. He also counts on luck. When he shares his aspirations with his male friends who also want to become porn actors, they find hope in their fellow Africans who have had the opportunity to perform in adult movies in France.

Habibou Bangré is a freelance journalist based in France.

Then an industrious Nigerian, Anthony Fatai Williams became a victim and in the days to follow, the country was brought face to face to the full reality of al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden’s deadly operations.  

Anthony’s’ mother Marie was traumatised emotionally and she made a deeply emotional speech during the search for her son at Tavistock Square where the suicide bomber struck.

“My son Anthony is my first son; my only son; the head of my family. He’s the love of my life. I am proud of him; I am still very proud of him. What did he do to deserve this?” she asked.

This occurrence that left sullenness against the terror network in the minds of Nigerians was not the only reminiscence of the group’s leader and his organisation to this West African nation.

Astonishingly, some Nigerians have some sort of admiration for him, probably because of his then seemingly invincible nature.

In the North, there were some massive increase in the number of baby boys called Osama and it was reported that at a particular hospital in Kano where there was celebration after the 9/11 attack, seven out of 10 babies were given the name.

There was also the case of a Christian woman from Calabar in Cross River State who sought divorce from his Northern Muslim husband who insisted on naming his new baby Osama.

She feared that her baby would follow in the footsteps of the al-Qaeda leader and take innocent bloods.

“Osama Bin Laden is a criminal with an inclination towards shedding innocent blood,” she was quoted as saying.

But her husband, 36-year-old Sadiq Ahmed, sees bin Laden in a different light as a hero rather than a villain.

“He is a hero who taught Americans the lesson of their lives.” the man said, adding that bin Laden had proved to the world that only “Allah is invincible, by exposing America to shame despite its claim of being the strongest nation on earth”.

When the tides and waves of Shariah legal system blew across Northern Nigeria in the early 2000, youths saw in the al-Qaeda kingpin a hero to copy hence the wearing of T-shirts with his image and name at various venues of the launch.

Coincidentally, in 2002, bin Laden urged Muslim faithful in Nigeria and some other countries to overthrow their governments.

In 2004, the Federal Government arraigned a Nigerian who claimed to be running an al-Qaeda network in court.

Forty-year-old Mohammed Ashafa faced a five-count charge of receiving monies in foreign currencies from Talha and Na’deem (al-Qaeda operatives) of the Tabliqh headquarters, Lahore, Pakistan for the recruiting and training of terrorists whose main intention was to attack Americans living in Nigeria.

This followership notwithstanding, former Inspector-General of Police (IG), Mr Mike Okiro, made a startling revelation in 2008 that bin Laden was planning to bomb Nigeria.

Okiro, who was intimating senor police officers at Obudu, Cross River State, did not give locations, but said the security reports he received indicated that the impending attack was real and could happen anytime.

“The Al-Qaeda network has threatened to send time bombs to Nigeria. The AIG Surveillance should intensify surveillance, while the CP Airwing, CP Border Patrol and the CPs of all the commands should be on the alert and ensure that these items (bombs) do not pass through their end,” Okiro said.

Of recent, incidents of explosions have been reported mostly in Maiduguri, Borno State where a group, Boko Haram, that preaches against Western education has been killing politicians and security operatives almost on a daily bases.

Several bombers caught by the police have confessed to having received training in Afghanistan on bomb making and they’ve often fingered al-Qaeda as the trainers.

However, no other case dragged the name of Nigeria into the murky waters of terrorism than the December 2009 attempted bombing of a United States airline by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Bin Laden claimed the botched Christmas Day attack and threatened further strikes on US targets. He made the comments in an audio statement broadcast Sunday on Al-Jazeera television.

“The message that was conveyed through the attacked plane of the hero Umar Farouk (Abdulmutallab) is to stress earlier messages delivered to you by the heroes of the 11th September attack on the United States,” he said.

“That message is that America should not dream of security until we enjoy it as a reality in Palestine,” he added.

Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up a Northwest Airline flight on Christmas Day but he was thwarted by fellow passengers who pounced on him.

On the presence of his terror network in Nigeria, the al-Qaeda leader confirmed this as early as 2003 when he warned his audience that he would no longer speak in public as often: “We have many other things to do… our silence is our real propaganda.”

He revealed that the new members of al-Qaeda who would speak for him had trained in Iraq, Chechnya, the North Caucasus, Southern Thailand, Mindanao, Kashmir, Afghanistan and also in countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Northern Nigeria.

In summation, despite his legacy of terror, bin Laden was not able to get followership within Nigeria who are willing to blow themselves up on regular basis like what is obtainable in the Middle East.

Culled from This Day Newspaper

His story brings to mind the Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who tried to rule the most populous country in Africa, Nigeria, but never attained his dreams. Awolowo, Nigeria’s first premier who introduced free education and established the Western Nigerian Television in 1959, the very first in Africa was a politician, a trade unionist and a statesman. The late premier was so intelligent that Winston Churchill once said he could rule both the United Kingdom and Nigeria. His portrait is on one hundred naira notes in commemoration of his service to the nation. Even the Biafra war lord Emeka Ojukwu described him as the “best president Nigeria never had”

Then came Chief MKO Abiola, he won the elections of June 12 1993. It was cancelled by Ibrahim Babangida. Abiola died in detention while trying to reclaim his mandate.

If truth be told, Dr Good luck Jonathan is lucky because God has favored him. His rise from obscurity to limelight can only be described as divine intervention.  When he joined politics, he did not nurse the ambition of been Governor, as Governor he did not nurse the ambition of been president. Finally as Vice president, he became President amidst claims that the Presidency was zoned to the Northern part of Nigeria. “We live by hope, but a reed never becomes an iroko tree by dreaming” African proverb. Nevertheless, will Buhari be a reference point in the history of Nigeria? Time will tell.  However, one sure thing is the now apparent divide between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.