Black Panther

At 74 degrees Fahrenheit, it looked and felt more like spring than winter in Maryland. Even on a great day, the question lingers; can anything good come out of Nazareth? Yes. And if you're in doubt, read along.

The Nigerian ladies debut in Pyongyang early this morning and our flag fluttered delicately like a new butterly in an unfamiliar meadow. It was sobering for me. We may not win any medal but our sudden appearance is already changing our narrative both as a nation and as a race. Resonating  around the world is the “I can” message the ladies brought to the venue, and the youth are starting to believe again,and find role model not in our leadership but within themselves.

Currently, Norway leads the medal pack with USA at a distant six, though the game is not over yet, but the reason Trump will rather have immigrants from Norway rather than “shithole countries” is now obvious.

I felt the tingle of the alarm on my wrist, it was time for BP. Not Blood Pressure but Blank Panther. It is black history month and I can't think of a better way to round it up than by going to the movies to see an almost black caste movie.(Chadwick Boseman,Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Danai Gurira, and Daniel Kaluuya co-star). No excuse(not even racism) will suffice for not watching either the Olympics with black representatives or see a black produced movie!

Up till I stepped into the Cinema, the movie has grossed $462.3m, yes. If you cannot wrap your head around this mind boggling figures, it is because it is indeed phenomenal. But let me help you, forget the calculator. Imagine the value of the whole Nollywood industry, add it to the copyrights infringement proceeds, divide your answer by 350 and you're still no where close to the $72m Black Panther grossed around the world on Tuesday alone. I will attempt a synopsis in a paragraph, but the story trancends race and boundaries. It is the essence of us told in graphics, diverse and gorgeous cast of formidable characters mired in unbelievable high-tech.

The plot started from Sambiza forest, ploughed through USA, stopped over in South Korea and finally docked in Wakanda kingdom, somewhere in the Southern part of fictional ancient Africa., King T'Challa returns home to the reclusive, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve as his country's new leader. However, T'Challa soon finds that he is challenged for the throne from factions within his own country. When two foes conspire to destroy Wakanda, the hero known as Black Panther must team up with C.I.A. agent Everett K. Ross and members of the Dora Milaje, Wakandan special forces, to prevent Wakanda from being dragged into a world war. Sounds familiar? Well, that's the movie in a nutshell, sorry in 3D.

Like our forefathers, I was almost getting carried away with spontaneity and exhilaration of the movie before I realized that the harsh truth that belies the make belief story needs to be told until it sinks. If the colonizers and imperialists knew we were capable of self destructing as a continent, maybe they wouldn't have embarked on exploitative expeditions that raped our culture,looted our inheritance, impinged on our freedom and made Killmonger’s quote at the end of the movie so powerful: “Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors who jumped from ships, ‘cause they knew death was better than bondage.”

The full import of the movie didn't get to me until I got home. If only I knew that the message all the while has been in the mirror!

Winter Olympics

My faith in humanity, sorry black race was rekindled last week at the Opening of the winter Olympics in South Korea. The bobsled team — composed of made in America -Nigerian athletes Seun Adigun, Akuoma Omeoga and Ngozi Onwumere — and Nigeria’s history-making skeleton athlete Simidele Adeagbo are the first to compete for the country and indeed Africa at the Winter Olympics.

I watched the opening ceremonies with some of my American friends and it was thing of a pride to jump up when Nigeria made her entry garbed in the reminiscent green and white. And since they are black and will be riding on white (snow)at the games, I psychologically felt an advantage. But it wasn't long before my American friends noticed that the Nigerian team do not speak like me! In other words, I have accent; they don't. Cheeky Americans.

They couldn't have been heavily accented like me. Simi Adeagbo was born in Canada but spent all her formative years in Nigeria with her parents before she moved to USA at the age of six. There, she became four time NCAA All American and triple jump record holder for the University of Kentucky. Equally, the rest of the four delegates share similar background with Simi, in the sense that they were all born in the USA. If you graciously leave out the place of nativity, these atheletes are all imbued with the Nigerian spirit, though they do not have our tongue.

Simi didn't get to touch a sled until November last year, and the rest athletes have to make do with wooden bobs for training. Winter sport, especially the skeleton and sleds are very expensive sporting equipments. The team had to do a crowd funding for $74,000 online within 14 months as they put their individual life on suspension to pursue their and our Olympic dream. So, their arrival at the game alone was an arduous task. As audacious as winning may sound in their first attempt at competing at the highest level in sub zero environment, I always bet on black! And so should you.

If you ever think for a minute that this is not a  big deal, consider the percentage of blacks that are  involved in winter Olympics,(Out of nearly 3,000 athletes, black athletes make up just 1.45 percent of those vying for medals)  add that to the number of times you have planned and finished a private project,and you will know that it is easier for a python to swallow money, than for black to break barriers in any human endeavour. Especially, when operating from home.

This is a story that may not inspire our youths nor motivate our leaders whose political careers will be hurling down at the same speed with Simi’s sled for both groups are materialistic for different reasons. And if you are indifferent to a story of some black ladies making history in ice cold Pyeongchang, remember that Bill Gates may not be able to identify mosquito if he sees one, yet he continue to spend sizeable amount of his wealth in eradicating malaria in Africa. It is about humanity.

Receeding Recession

At last, Nigeria is out of recession. Don't say amen, it's a statement of fact and not a prayer of faith. Nigeria has been out of recession since July 2017 according to Data published by the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS)which shows that the economy grew by 0.55% in the last quarter of the year in review. This information shouldn't be difficult for those who studied economic as a science, but for those of us who laboured through economics class as a social science, I hope this piece will aid our comprehension of it.


To the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a recession is defined as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real gross domestic product (GDP), real income, employment, industrial production and wholesale-retail sales".


Simply and beyond the fancy words, recession is the increasing price of foodstuff and other commodities, without a corresponding increase in pay. If you already know inflation, then you must be familiar with recession because they are first cousins. So, in a recession, businesses cease to expand, the GDP diminishes for two consecutive quarters, the rate of unemployment rises and housing prices decline. If these factors are still noticeable in our economy, then be wary of official reports.


There are text books factors for recession: inflation, deregulation, drop in GDP, deflation, rising unemployment, assets bubbles and so much more. But, we need not worry about all those because they are not directly responsible for our recession, and so, they are suspects that can be released on bail. Instead,horrendous leadership and gullible followership are to be held accountable for Nigeria economic recession.


Since the time of Babangida, the economy of the country has defied all logic and it will take the insane to take it back. The low prices of oil, the volatile state of oil production in Nigeria, bad debts gathered over time and corruption has led to lower purchasing power and foreign exchange scarcity.  We need to be more demanding on our leaders in not just accountability, but also in terms of policy formulations and executions.


It may be immediately dangerous to want to cut back heavily on spending both at macro and micro level, but the truth of the matter is that if exuberance spending is not curtailed, we may have a prolonged recession period that will germinate into depression. That is if we have not moved into a state of economic depression already. Between recession and depression,time is the defining factor.


While at it, you may want to adopt South Africa’s quick fix  approach to ending their own recession not just on papers but also in real life by doing the following: This would be the worst time to take a loan, invest in a risky business expenditure, or buy a new car or acquire a new wife. This may also be the wrong time to stand surety for someone.


Austerity measures didn't work the last time we practiced it because according to John Maynard Keynes  "The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury." In other words, there is absolutely no point in buying what you don't need to impress people you don't like. Spend responsibly.