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media present at the venue. Other artists who were signed also include Obesere, KCee, J Martins, Kas, Phyno, Yinka Best, Mr Raw, Juke Box, Da Beatz and Obesere, KCee, J Martins, Kas, Phyno, Yinka Best, Mr Raw, Juke Box, Da Beatz and Crystalz.
This year the musical event will span 10 weeks and take place in 10 cities across the country namely; Aba, Abeokuta, Agege (Lagos), Asaba, Enugu, Festac (Lagos), Lokoja, Nnewi, Owerri, and V.I (Lagos) and will kick off on Saturday 8th June 2013.
particular society; behavior in terms of duties, obligations and functions as a citizen. Also, citizenship denotes a link between a individual and a state, under international law, citizenship is synonymous to nationality although the two have different meanings. A person who does not have citizenship of any state is regarded as being stateless. However, the term ‘citizenship’ could also be applicable at sub-national levels. It could entail an identity and such identity could be defined in multiple terms: a member of a nation-state, a member of an ethnic group or a member of a communal group within an ethnic group. All humans ought to be active citizens of the community in which they find themselves as the concept is identified with membership of a political community or a particular country and carries with it, rights to political participation.
Historically, many states limited citizenship to only a proportion of their population, thereby creating a citizen class with political rights, superior to other sections of the population. Full citizenship which meant not only civil rights under the law but also the right to vote in elections and stand for parliament was originally limited to a privileged minority of the population. Citizenship in the modern state should not only be based on what legal rights citizens have what they can expect from their government, but should also be based on citizenship as an active political role. In some western countries, residents from other countries having met some laid down requirements are entitled to political rights such as the right to vote in local and national elections and in some cases even the right to stand for elections. Citizenship in its modern form consists of three essential and central propositions: the notion of individual and human rights, the idea of political participation and the principles of socio-economic welfare. The entrenchment of these basic constituents of citizenship will go a long way in resolving the dynamics of conflict in any political community. Also, in a modern state structure, the acceptance of ethnic and cultural groups that are not indigenous to the majority can represent one of the greatest challenges, yet this diversity could be an enormous asset if these differences I identity, culture and values are treated as an advantage that can strengthen and enrich them, not as a threat.
National citizenship in Nigeria is far from being resolved and this inability is due to the fact that various ethnic groups that compose the Nigerian nation state have conceived different attitudes to Nigerian Citizenship. In the Nigerian system, there are ways of acquiring citizenship. According to chapter 3, section 27 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria [1990], a person is a Nigerian by birth if the parents or grandparents belong to a community indigenous to Nigeria even if given birth to outside Nigeria so far as the parents are Nigerians. A person can also be a Nigerian through registration. A British woman who is or has been married to a Nigerian becomes a Nigerian through registration. To qualify for this, the individual must be a person of good character, must have shown a clear intention to be domiciled in Nigeria, the individual must have taken the oath of allegiance. A person can also be a citizen of Nigeria through naturalisation if the person has; resided in Nigeria for a continuous period of fifteen years. To qualify for this, the individual must be of full age and capacity, must be of good character, must have shown the intention to live, the Governor of the state he resides in, must certify him acceptable to the local community he is to live in permanently, must be a person capable of making useful contribution to the progress of Nigeria have taken the oath of allegiance. Though there are other forms of citizenship such as dual citizenship and honorary citizenship, Nigeria majorly recognizes the three mentioned above. Nigeria does have identity differences which have heightened to the point of political significance bringing about the incidence and outbreak of conflict in the country. The Nigerian state promotes indigenity, it does not promote citizenship. The term ‘indigenity’ is coined from the word ‘indigene’ which means a person who is not pat of a particular sect or ethnic group of a particular country or nation state. Indigenity is simply a segregational term commonly used in the Nigerian state to distinguish between the indigenous or native of a state or locality and those who are referred to as non-indigene or settlers. It is a common way of being hostile to complete strangers who come to live in that community. In Nigeria, the success of a particular region to hold onto power since independence due to an erroneous belief in the strength of its geographical and numerical size ha succeeded in generating a sense and feeling of alienation and marginalization on the part of other regional groups. Where minority groups are divided in an ethnically diverse community especially where a majority group is in control of power, they find their citizenship status threatened and as such, this sense of relative deprivation has the tendency of breaking into conflict especially with the ethnic group in power For example, a Urobo woman who comes to live in Osun State in Nigeria, might have problem with the indigenes of the community because of the language barrier. Her language is foreign to them, while their language is foreign to her. In some cases, she may not be able to go to the market to buy things also because of communication barrier but majorly because people are not willing to help because she is an “alien”. This in turn can make her live the place dejected and go back to the place where she came from. This can cause a dangerous ethnic conflict that can result into war because, if she goes back to her place in Urobo and tells her people what she suffered in the hands of the other ethnic group, this breeds some kind of animosity to the ethnic group. As a result of Nigeria’s history of electoral fraud, elections often have been associated with political tension, crisis or violence. Inter-ethnic/regional tensions and conflicts are also on the increase. Unfortunately, in the 2011 elections, southern politicians were exerting pressure to retain power, while northern politicians insisted that power should revert to their region. This has made every successive election progressively worse than the ones before it. However, the 2011 election is widely believed to be better in terms of integrity; there was an impartial or balanced system of conducting the elections and verifying election results. There were politically independent and trained election officials, there were party representatives overseeing the electoral processes, there were accessible polling places, secure ballot boxes and transparent ballot counting. There were also legal mechanisms ad processes to ensure that elections were conducted properly and tribunals to see redress where the parties are dissatisfied with the result; yet, the presidential election divide the country along ethnic and religious lines. This also applies to people who come to reside in the country or in a particular state is segregated and left to sort themselves and this same 1999 constitution states that every citizen of Nigeria has full rights and privileges so far as he is domiciled in the country. But, so far, it has been noticed that not all Nigerians have the full pledged rights of a citizen. Also for example, the 1999 constitution limited the guarantee of property rights with the incorporation into the constitution of the Land Use Act which began in the 1979 constitution. The land use act of 1979 abolished all private ownership of land and transferred it to the state free from any obligation to pay compensation to whoever is affected, but it is still in this country that someone still claims the land a foreigner or a non-indigene wants to get as his inheritance from his father or great-grand father. It is in this same country that no law enforcement official comes to the aid of this foreigner. Is it that the constitution is no more valued or is it that people are now more powerful than the law that they are not bound by it and can freely do what they want and get away with it? It is still in this country that you see a Hausa man who resides in a local community of the Ibo tribe and immensely contributing his quota to the development of the community and also Nigeria but is still being denied fundamental rights such as the right to vote and be voted for, though he might have lived in the place for more than fifteen years, he also may not be able to speak in some gatherings or attend some functions because he is still not regarded as an indigene of that community. It is also applicable to foreigners who come into a country and have lived in the country for over a space of time. Some are not able to vote and be voted for. In The United States Of America, Barack Obama who was a black man, from Kenya, became a president after residing in the country for over a period of time. This is because their constitution still binds and no one is above the law.
In a modern state structure citizens join political parties and campaign for the candidate of their choice they accept the fact their party may not always be in power. Aristotle saw the citizen as a political being who took turns in ruling and being ruled. However, Nigerians resort to religious and sectarian discourse while campaigning and this could be dangerous as such a discourse could and has led to violence. Politics ought not to have any link with religion or ethnicity. According to Femi Taiwo, Nigerian citizenship is merely geographical, it is without a moral ideological content – part of what typifies citizenship, especially in the modern state is de-emphasizing of geography and other natural facts in its composition. The freedom to locate anywhere outside the boundaries of one’s geopolitical zone is inherently non-existent in Nigeria. This is why a citizen of Nigeria who resides in a state other than his state of origin, no matter how long can still not take part in the political life of his state of residence. Citizenship in Nigeria is only operative at the home land level. The Nigerian constitution makes no distinction between the rights of a citizen and of inhabitants of a political community who are not indigenous to that community; so there ought not to be discrimination and thus rivalry. The people of Nigeria may have various over-lapping identities based on such factors such as religion, race, ethnicity and social class, yet the single identity possessed by all citizens is a civil identity – it is the tie that holds us together in a single democratic political order and thus we all still remain citizens of Nigeria, regardless of which par of the country we find ourselves in. ever eligible Nigerian citizen should be allowed to take part in the political life of the country and of his state of residence irrespective of his state of origin. Nigerian citizenship should stop being operative at the home land level.
In conclusion, I am of the opinion that on a theoretical level (letter), the concept of Nigerian citizenship is meaningful but on the practical level of the ways things are being carried out, it is nothing to write about. Certain examples have been given above to show the laws binding citizenship in Nigeria and also to show how the country has failed to follow the constitution. I would implore that rapid measures be taken to follow the constitution before it gets worse than this. A nation that does not carry out her own duties to her citizens should not expect the citizens to in turn serve the state.
Michael Caine was answering a question when Morgan Freeman fell into a deep sleep...but woke up moments later and fully joined the interview.
After the video went viral, Morgan released a statement to E! News saying:
"I wasn’t actually sleeping, I’m a beta tester for Google Eyelids. I was merely updating my Facebook page".
#LOL!!! He was actually sleeping, the statement is just a play off with Google Glass, a device which is supposed to allow users to update their social networks through a pair of glasses and access the internet through voice commands.
The late icon's body was then flown to Enugu aboard a private plane en-route his hometown, Ogidi, Anambra state, where it was received by Achebe's elder brother, Chief Augustine Achebe, other family members and state govt officials. This is in preparation of his burial ceremony to be held Thursday May 23, 2013..jpg)
What do you think pals?
The 27th of this month of may is a month set aside for total reminiscence, but most people take time out to either reflect or merry!
Once in our lifetime, there comes a stage that is so inevitable, that we never can escape from, this stage is tagged or mostly called the Childs stage.
Once in our lifetime there comes a memory that we do cherish and never want to do away with and that we never want it to fade away. That memory is what we call children memory.
I am very sure those of us who are adult and have misplaced our cherished photos of our childhood, will be ready to pay over a million dollars to retrieve them…..
HAPPY CHILDREN DAY TO ALL CHILDREN OF THE WORLD…
This period that is aforementioned is a very vital stage in every human's life. It vital because it plays many roles in shaping the future of human person, I will love to make myself clear as much as possible. To great extent, our association as children, our environment our foundation our parent play major role in determining our destiny our future and our later life.
We ought to remember this that children are gift from God, no matter the shape or physical features they are born with; they are real gift of mercy from God. Another basic thing that parent ought to know is that, the tomorrow they clamor for is determined by how they treat their children or wards. It is our basic responsibility as a government as parents and as adult to develop these children in a godly way that they should grow.
In the world today, there are million of children roaming the street without no clear and elusive future or destination all because their predestination has been ridden off or influenced by many factors affecting our community. It is with pain however that I write this piece dedicated to all children of the world, especially the motherless babies, the young teenagers who have been forced into all sorts of crimes and prostitution. I really love them and feel their pain, they should never give up rather they should be strong and use their challenges as ladder to the apex of success and zenith of fulfillment.
Spirituality and violence are two terms that find themselves very close, on the contrary; they are like two sides of a coin. In recent times, violence as always been linked to spirituality, I am not saying that spirituality can be replaced with violence, but all I am saying is that most violence in the world today is due to some spiritual difference and misunderstanding among different race of people this is not to say or suggest that human being have a violent nature but to make know the extent at which religious violence has changed man into a great beast that will go extra miles to kill so as to convert an alien from his/her religion.
Before commencing my paper or article on the gravidity of spiritual or religious violence, I will like to conceptualize the two terms, spirituality and violence. Spirituality according to Merriam- Webster’s Dictionary, means something that in ecclesiastical law belongs to the church/Mosque or a clergy, it also mean sensitivity or attachment to religious value. Spirituality can also be taken to mean the quality or state of being spiritual. While violence on the other hand according to the same dictionary is define as; exertion of physical force so as to injure or abuse or an instance of violent treatment or procedure, it can also be taken to mean an intense, turbulent or furious and often destructive action or force on people. Violence can be caused from political, social or religious difference. The cause of violence that we are concern about in this article is the violence caused out of religious differences.
In the world today, there are diverse religions being practice by different people. Some of the religions that are being practiced by different people in the world today include; Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, African Traditional Religion (A.T.R), among others. In recent times, people who practice these pluralistic religions engage in violence against each other. Spirituality in the Islam settings is taken to mean living a godly life according to the doctrine and teaching of Islamic law. While according to the Christian setting spirituality is taken to mean leading a godly life in a Christ- like manner that aims at worshiping God. Knowing fully well that spirituality as to do with ones relationship with the Supreme Being or ones way of showing homage to God, it is not far from certain hence to note that people worship God or the Supreme Being in their own like manner and in their own cultural understanding. These diverse way of relating to the Supreme Being or worshiping God has lead to diverse violence that we face in the world today; as it is linked to one race or set of people trying to impose is own way of relating to the supreme being or worshiping God on another set of people. The truth is that; the sacred texts of revealed religions may be eternal and unchanging, but they are understood and applied by human beings living in time.
Consequently, in this piece of writing I will like to use two set of examples to illustrate the trend of violence in our world today. One set involves the Muslims and Christians while the other trend as to do with Christianity and Judaism. Digging deep into history, we shall find different account of violence that has erupted due to Christians and Muslim clashes; an example of such account is the recent Jos crises in Nigeria, where Muslims attack Christians faithful in Jos the northern part of Nigeria. The clash or difference between the Muslims and Christian faithful is an age long phenomena that as resorted to many bloody violence. Recently, in Nigeria, there was these crises that erupted in Jos, Nigeria; a set of Muslims known as the Bioko-Aram attacked Christians, this thus, lead to several killings, about five hundred people were reported to have been dead in that crisis. In one of his article, Chris Ngwodo writes this in effect of the religious crises in the northern part of Nigeria:
…in Northern Nigeria, religion, ethnicity and politics are intimately bound up in ways that Nigerians living south of the Niger may find difficult to understand. This is compounded by deep rooted animosities that date back two centuries. In Northern Nigeria, Islam is the religion of the politically dominant Hausa and Fulani peoples little wonder we see violence go bang from such a location.
It is the religion of the Fulani Jihadists from the far north who once plundered the Middle Belt for slaves and then subsequently dominated hundreds of ethnic minority groups in the area. Stories of wars with Hausa and Fulani Muslim invaders and of people taking refuge in the hills endure in the cultural memory of many Middle Belt tribes. For these ethnic minority groups, Christianity is the faith of emancipation, liberty and progress. In these parts, religion is as much a badge of cultural, political and social identity as it is a form of spirituality. Consequently, churches and mosques are not simply places of worship; they are talismanic symbols of identity charged with immense cultural meaning. This explains how a political fight or a marketplace altercation quickly degenerates into a religious war with churches and mosques being torched. The number of Muslims and mosques or Christians and churches in a community informs its socio-cultural character. When looking at the differences between Judaism one will not stop to wonder. Judaism is a religion practiced by the Israelites also known as Jews, they so much hold to this believe that their messiah is yet to come this is in contrast to the Christian believe who see Jesus as the messiah of the world. Christians believed not only that the Jews had misunderstood Scripture, thus justifying the Christian reinterpretation of Jewish Scripture, but that all of Jewish Scripture had to be understood as containing only partial truth. The whole truth was comprehensible only when Jewish Scripture was interpreted correctly, in what Christians called a “spiritual” rather than merely a “carnal” manner. In the 1100 period, there emerged what some historians have termed “chimeric” anti-Judaism, the conception of the Jew not only as ignorant of spiritual truth and stubbornly resistant to Christian preaching but as actively hostile to Christianity and guilty of ugly crimes against it, such as the ritual murder of Christian children and the desecration of the consecrated host of the mass. This form of anti-Judaism resulted in massacres of Jews, usually at moments of high social tension within Christian communities. One of the best documented of these massacres took place at York, Eng., in 1190.
However, one way we can cub these violence here and there is by understanding ourselves and by having numerous religious dialogue in most of the state and cities that are violence prone. Though it seems hard to achieve serenity in an ethno-religious community like Africa or the world at large it is still possible to cub out this violence erupting from religious clashes or differences.
Richard oluseye Anthony
University of Ibadan Nigeria.
By: Richard Oluseye Anthony
university of Ibadan, Nigeria
“The system is good on paper, but its implementation is bad, is it not the same system that America is using and it is providing efficient results even the constitution we use in Nigeria is been practice by other countries like USA and it is giving a good result contrary to the inefficient”, this were the words of a secondary school teacher in one public school.
The 6-3-3-4 system of education, gives every Nigeria a chance to contribute his worth to the nation’s development at the level commensurable to his mental ability. The seeming unanimous acceptance of the introduction by the highly critical Nigeria public, I assume, resulted from the potentiality of the system to ensure a streamlined admission process while ensuring that every Nigerian is educated according to the dictates of his cognitive, psychomotor and affective ability.
In practice, the system means that the child aged three to five is educated prior to his entering primary school. Primary education is a 6 year affair. Secondary education is also a 6 year period divided into two parts: junior secondary and senior secondary. The junior secondary is made up of JSS1 to JSS 3, while the senior secondary is made up of SSS 1 to SSS 3. The third tier of the system is the tertiary level which is, 4, 5 or 6 year depending on the course of study. At the end of the first six years of elementary school, the candidate or student is expected to enroll in a secondary school of his choice after he must have written and passed the national common entrance examination. The junior secondary certificate examination is taken at the end of three years of junior secondary. It is prescribed that those who passed the examination should proceed to senior secondary at the same institution or an institution of their choice. The senior secondary school examination is written at the end of SSS3. The general certificate of education (GCE) is conducted as a supplement for those students who did not have the required credit from their SSCE. Candidates who are able to have the required credits can proceed to the tertiary school of their choice. one puzzling question that one is forced to ask after looking at the well articulated and laid system of education borrowed from the Americans, Nigerian students in the tertiary school according to Professor Soji Amire, “finds it difficult to understand what they are taught and so become aggressive, ready to intimidate lecturers to extract pass marks from them.” one would further wonder if the fault is inherent in the system of education (6-3-3-4) or its implementation. Again, why is the Nigerian trained professional treated as an outcast internationally while his counterparts from other part of the continent is seen as pure or base? As Adewale Dada puts it in his article: Reinventing Education In Nigeria, “with all the pictures of poverty from India and many of our uniformed perceptions of Asians as lacking the intellectual capacity to compete in the global marketplace, it would do us reasonable justice to know that many Americans are considering the option of studying in India mostly technical courses, because of the reputation their universities have garnered over the years…” when will a Japanese, an American or a British citizen want to come to Nigeria to study a course because of the impression and expertise the course has imbued in the world as a result of how seriously and thoroughly it has been handled in Nigeria by Nigerians?
Sincerely, it will be an understatement for one to claim that the system of education being implemented in Nigeria today has lost the quality of 6-3-3-4, looking at the handful of Nigerians who, through dint of hard work, still reflect the indices of being educated. This discourse aims at unraveling the root-cause of the decay that laid a destructive siege on the system of education in Nigeria.
