Earlier this year, I published a short essay, “The ABC of a Nigerian Joke for Western Audiences”, that is surprisingly still travelling and acquiring mileage online, especially in spaces of Africanist cultural scholarship in North American academe. Every now and then, I receive an email from a doctoral student or a colleague who has only just stumbled on it and requires some clarification. The said essay was inspired by some White Western Facebook friends who inboxed me, wondering what the fuss was all about as Nigerians and other African nationals cracked up after I had posted a joke that only cultural insiders would understand.

Here’s a recap of the joke. A policeman arrests a guy for urinating in a place displaying the commonplace “Do Not Urinate Here” sign in Nigeria. The cop fines the offender five hundred naira. The guy brings out one thousand naira and asks for his change. Says the policeman to the offender: “urinate again. I no get change.”  I wrote “The ABC of a Nigerian Joke” to explore the postcolonial cultural locatedness of this and other jokes. I made the case that humour is the most difficult thing to translate; it’s very untranslatability making it one of the most reliable ways of gauging cultural integration in immigrant and diasporic communities.

Let me explain. I believe that Africans hardly find Oyinbo people’s jokes funny and vice versa. You therefore know that your African friend has truly integrated if he attends one of those gatherings where Oyinbo people serve cookies, muffin, slices of pizza, celery, and dip, all displayed beside three jugs of regular coffee, decaf coffee, and hot water for tea respectively, and laughs at the appropriate decibel level when he hears jokes that aren’t funny because they are not immediately translatable into his own modes of cultural apprehension.

Appropriate decibel level is very important. If he laughs at the exact decibel level and at exactly the same time as the rest of the room, he is thoroughly acculturated. He has become an African oyinbo man. The jokes of the host culture are genuinely funny to him. After one muffin, one piece of carrot, one piece of celery, and a Styrofoam cup of decaf coffee without sugar, this African may even rub his belly, yawn, and exclaim to his neighbor in the room: “wow, I’m bursting. There’s so much good food here.” And he means it. He is genuinely full for even his belly is now Canadian – or American as the case may be – and no longer requires the heavy work out of kenkey, fufu or pounded yam to be full.

However, if his own burst of laughter comes a couple of seconds later than the rest of the room every time something funny is said; if his laughter constantly bursts out a tad louder than the rest of the room, then he is one of those Africans who remind you of the proverb: a tree trunk may spend twenty years in the river, it will never become a crocodile. He is just laughing like an automaton in order not to be the odd one out. The jokes ain’t funny. And he is starving as hell. He is merely struggling to blend in that room, cramming muffins, celery and dip into his mouth and wishing he had taken the precaution of eating poundo and egusi soup at home before leaving for that oyinbo people’s party.

“The ABC of a Nigerian Joke” made it to Professor Toyin Falola’s famous pan-Africanist listserv, USAAfricaDialogue. One of the party chieftains of that listserv, Professor Ken Harrow of Michigan State University, one of the most significant Africanist thinkers of our era, a man whose work is my melody in the business of theorizing African literatures and cultures and whose praxis thoroughly inspires, wondered aloud why he laughed on encountering the Nigerian joke about the policeman. Are you for real, I thought, as I read Ken’s reaction.

Something would be seriously wrong, I thought further, if Ken Harrow, a vieux routier of Africa, encountered an African proverb and didn’t find it funny. After all, he got to Africa before me and has never really left. I thought he had forgotten his own African insiderhood, earned over decades of meticulous and thorough scholarly labour in the cultural vineyards of the continent. Ken, it should be obvious to you why you laughed, why you found that joke funny, I thought, as I made a mental note of waiting for an inspired moment to pen a follow-up essay – this essay - in his honour.

Midway into a handsome bottle of Beaujolais to celebrate a particularly good news today, December 6, 2012, my brain finally receives the creative bang she has been waiting for in order to undertake this essayistic excursion in popular culture in homage to Ken Harrow. Beyond the earned cultural insiderhood which would open up Nigerian, nay African humour to an Africanist vieux routier like Ken, making him laugh at the joke about a Nigerian policeman and the politics of “change collection” in the postcolonial atmospherics of the checkpoint, there are contact zones and meeting points of the collectively human which, in hindsight, my initial essay, focused on cultural particulars, does not adequately address. As culturally hermetic as humour is, such sites, zones, and spaces of the universally human offer many opportunities for her to cross borders without passport and visa requirements.

The bottle is one such location of the universally shared. I had mentioned the bottle and a London pub in the earlier essay as indices of integration if an African found the jokes there funny. I now hold a different opinion. An African may find jokes in that particular location funny for the reasons I am about to explore. There are universal modes of human sentience organized around the symbology of the bottle and its contents. I am not talking about the bottle in your living room or other private spaces. I am talking about that object in its public life-world; in spaces where its phallic posture on the table is generative of sensations, experiences, lore, and cultures that can combine seamlessly into narratives of the universally humorous.

In the American/Canadian corner Bar and Grill, the Irish/English pub, the French bistro or brasserie, the southern African shebeen (originally Irish), the Ivorian maquis, the Nigerian beer parlour, burukutu, paraga, ogogoro, or shepe spot, the bottle stands as humanity’s singular answer to the eternal question of Babel. No deity can create Babel within the cultural actuations or the bottle. In the domain of alcohol, the human experience tells Babel: we are one people, one voice, one language, one humour. Indeed, I am yet to encounter experiences and narratives of the bottle and drunkenness in one culture that cannot be translated to and carried by the idioms of another. In the domain of the bottle, humour is transculturally and transnationally funny.

Indeed, in its very defiance and transcendence of the curse of Babel, the bottle becomes demiurge, creating art - universal art, transnationally funny art - in the figure of the rambler. In country music, the character of the rambler is a player, an irresponsible figure who breaks girls’ hearts and never stays. Don Williams calls him a “rake and ramblin’ man” in his song of the same title. Don Williams’s rambler knocks up a girl and refuses to accept responsibility:

You know I’m a rake and ramblin man
Free as an eagle flies
Look at me now and tell me true
Do I look like a daddy to you?

In Zac Brown Band’s super hit song, “Colder Weather”, the rambler is as irresponsible as his elder brother in Don Williams’s song. The heartbroken girl who is left behind in Colorado says to the rambler in “Colder Weather”:

You’re a ramblin’ man
You ain’t ever gonna change
You got a gypsy soul to blame
And you were born for leavin”.

If country music condemns the rambler as a patriarchal breaker of female hearts, the bottle redeems him as an archetypal lone figure, a singular human habitus of the universally funny who harms no one. All he does is enact a personal drama of redemption from alcohol – or of redemption through alcohol consumption. Whether he is running away from or towards the bottle, the alcoholic rambler is generative of narratives and experiences which carry humour across cultural and transnational boundaries. In America, we encounter the rambler as the redemption-seeking persona in Tom Paxton’s classic folk song, “Bottle of Wine”:

Bottle of wine, fruit of the vine
When you gonna let me get sober
Let me alone, let me go home
Let me go back and start over

Ramblin' around this dirty old town
Singin' for nickels and dimes
Times getting tough; I ain't got enough
To buy a little bottle of wine

Notice the self-identification as a rambler at the beginning of the second stanza. Now, why does generation after generation of French citizens go about in France believing that this funny, all American rambler is French? It speaks to the translatability of the idioms and humour of the bottle. Graeme Allwright, a New Zealand singer who moved to France in 1948 and subsequently became a famous French singer, translated Tom Paxton’s song to French and released it in France as “jolie bouteille.” It became and still is one of the greatest hits of French folk tradition. What got lost in translation – wiped clean from French memory – is the fact that “jolie bouteille” is a mere adaptation/translation of an American original by Tom Paxton. In essence, the American rambler has been so seamlessly appropriated by the French, who converted him to a “flâneur” and sent him on errands of redemption from the bottle, with zero trace of his American origin. If only Tom Paxton had thought of making the rambler drink Budweiser instead of a bottle of wine!

Why is the transition from rambler to flâneur so easy? The answer is simple. One may be a consumer of cheap and inferior California wine in America while the other consumes superior merlot in France, their narratives and experiences of the bottle generate humour that can find a natural home in any culture. Hence, we encounter this alcoholic rambler in the Yoruba imagination. Also a loner like his American and French booze-cousins, he is however not seeking redemption from the bottle. He is defiant. His redemption lies in claiming the bottle like the portion of the Nigerian Pentecostal Christian. He is wealthier than his Western cousins in America and France and does not need to sing for nickels and dimes to be able to afford his booze. Thus, the Yoruba rambler gets to boast in Kollington Ayinla’s song:

A f’owo mu oti ki ku s’ode
Gere gere, ng o dele mi o

(He who pays for his own booze
Is not condemned to the outdoors
Somehow, I’ll stagger drunkenly all the way home)

Ebenezer Obey’s rambler ups the ante. Like Kollington’s, he is also wealthier than the American rambler and the French flâneur. He is not seeking redemption from but through the bottle. He is not sure that alcohol consumption is legal in heaven; hence, he evinces the imperative of the earthly precaution:

Haba ma muti l’aiye nbi
Ma muti l’aiye nbi
Boya won ki mu l’orun
Ma muti l’aiye nbi
Boya won ki mu l’orun
Ma muti l’aiye nbi

(I’ll drink my fill here on earth
Just in case they don’t drink alcohol in heaven
I’ll drink my fill here on earth)

Obey’s rambler does not doubt the ability of hedonism here on earth to take him to heaven. His only problem is the fear of the unknown: will there be alcohol in heaven when I die and go there? However, he is not going to travel to that celestial destination via the way, the truth, and the life proposed by the Christian Bible. In his humoristic transgressions, Obey’s rambler is clearly a man who could easily earn an OBE from the Queen of England in recognition of the earthly Eucharistic gloss he has placed on drunkenness, that very English of national traits. Speaking of English drunkenness, Elizabeth Renzetti writes in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper:

“The English have more words for drunk than the Inuit have for snow, perhaps because it is as much part of the landscape. On a given night, you might be bladdered, legless, paralytic or rotten with drink…I thought I’d heard them all until British Home Secretary Theresa May used the phrase “preloaded” on Friday to announce her government’s war on binge drinking. Preloading refers to the act of getting hammered before you go out to get hammered – that is stocking up on cheap booze from the grocery store in order to be good and wobbly by the time you hit the bars.”

Now, why am I in stitches reading Renzetti’s description of the English? The Canadian is making this Nigerian laugh by describing the English in registers that are brokered by the universal signifyin’ of the bottle. If she makes me laugh, I am sure she is immensely capable of making Ken Harrow, the American, laugh with precisely the same registers. American, Canadian, French, English, Nigerian: the bottle speaks only one language but we can all understand it in our respective languages. The bottle is not Babel. She is Pentecost. We all hear her speak in our respective languages.

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The Story is from the Punch Newspaper.

Billions of naira of taxpayers’ money have been expended on the foreign trips of President Goodluck Jonathan despite his January promise to cut down on such trips.

This newspaper’s findings show that the President and his entourage have spent not less than N3.354 bn on foreign trips since 2010.

Our correspondent learnt that in the first 11 months of 2012, the President had travelled out of the country at least 20 times, including his trip to Sierra Leone in October and the D8 Summit he attended in Pakistan in November.

In September alone, Jonathan travelled out of the country four times. He travelled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a two-day visit on September 1 for the burial of late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Nine days later, he went to Malawi and Botswana in a cumulative three-day visit for enhancement of bilateral relationships.  The President ended the month of September with another trip to New York, United States for the United Nations General Assembly

From February, 2010 when he became the Acting President to December 2010, Jonathan              spent N970.891m on foreign travels.

Although the 2011 budget was silent on the expenses for the President foreign travels, investigations showed that about N1.7bn was spent on foreign trips.

According to the 2011 budget, N1.145bn was budgeted for Vice-President Namadi Sambo’s foreign trips.

In 2012, N N684.74m was budgeted for Jonathan’s foreign travels and he had travelled out of the country 19 times.

Although the 2013 budget recently submitted to the National Assembly by Jonathan suggested that N2.6bn would be spent on his foreign trips next year, investigations have shown that much more than the quoted figure will be spent and is being spent judging by the expenses the country incurs during such trips.

The expenses incur include and are not limited to airfares for members of the President’s delegation who will travel on commercial flights, cost of procuring travel visas for them, estacodes for members of the delegation, fuelling of the presidential jets as well as other logistics.

Only the President and his very top aides fly on the presidential jets.

Industry source told one of our correspondents that airfare to and fro any European countries in the Economy category could vary from N110,000 to N150,000 per person depending on the timing and the destinations.

She added that for the Business class, the fare ranged from N600, 000 to N700,000 per person depending on the category of the Business Class (there are three categories), the timing and destination.

Prevailing exchange rate at the time of purchase is also said to be a factor.

The source added that corporate purchase like Aso Rock would do, could also attract discounts.

The President was said to have jetted out to different destinations in Africa, Europe, Asia, North America and South America during his Presidency.

Jonathan, in 2011 alone, visited several countries including United States, France, Uganda, Australia, Ghana, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and Ethiopia among others.

The size of his entourage varies depending on the country he is visiting and the purpose of such visit.

While top aides and officials of the Presidential Villa are regular faces on such trips, ministries relevant to the purpose of his overseas trips also send delegations.

Lately, the President had also resolved to always go on foreign trips with two members of the National Assembly (one from each chamber) who serve on the committee related to his purpose of visit.

State governors are also on the entourage.

For example, an online news site, Saharareporters, had in June reported that Jonathan travelled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the United Nations’ Earth Summit with 116 government officials.

Although the Presidency faulted the number, it did not offer the exact number despite a request made by the news site.

The breakdown of the delegation was given as 25 personal aides, 18 aides of Mrs. Patience Jonathan, two members of the National Assembly, five ministers, two state governors, and 63 officials from the Ministries of Environment, Foreign Affairs, National Planning and Petroleum Resources.

When the President visited Brussels for the World Customs Conference in the same month, the same medium reported that he went with about 57 people, including 26 aides, three ministers, eight members of the National Assembly, and 20 other government officials.

The same month, Patience Jonathan was in Maryland, United States, to attend a UNESCO First Lady’s “Youth Infusion” Summit and was reportedly accompanied by 36 people: 18 aides, four wives of state governors, and 14 friends and associates.

Investigation showed that in September 2012, Jonathan jetted out of the country four times. He visited Ethiopia   Malawi, Botswana and New York, United States for the UN General Assembly.

He had reportedly visited Trinidad and Tobago earlier with a 70-member delegation.

Jonathan had said in a national broadcast in January, “I have directed that overseas travels by all political office-holders, including the President, should be reduced to the barest minimum. The size of delegations on foreign trips will also be drastically reduced; only trips that are absolutely necessary will be approved.”

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The Leadership  Newspaper has reported that a sum amounting to about N2.1billion of newly printed N1,000 notes have gone missing and remains unexplained. This is what was reported on the Leadership newspaper page.

The board of directors of the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC) met yesterday over the scandal that rocked the establishment where it was revealed that a whopping N2.1 billion of newly printed N1,000 notes have mysteriously gone missing.

The board meeting, chaired by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, decided to expand the investigation and audit the production of other currency denominations to ascertain the quantity of money that has actually gone missing over the years.

LEADERSHIP had exclusively reported that an acting managing director, Ahmed Bamali, had been appointed to head the Mint company while Ehi Okomoyon, who was the chief executive, was asked to proceed on indefinite leave.

A source with insider knowledge of what transpired at the meeting told LEADERSHIP that the suspension of Okoyomon as managing director on an indefinite basis until all investigations have been concluded was reaffirmed.

The head of security at the NSPMC, Emmanuel Bala, has also been asked to go on compulsory leave by the board of directors of the company. The general manager, management services, Obi Igoban is expected to write him the letter of suspension today.

LEADERSHIP also gathered that the board faulted the suspended MD for failing to disclose to it that such amounts of money had gone missing even though the company had set up an internal investigation after a mint staff was arrested in Lagos for being in possession of unnumbered bank notes.

The board meeting, which reportedly started at about 10am, did not end until 3pm. Other than the initial audit report, the board also discussed routine and budgetary issues.

The CBN had to set up its own audit team, whose findings were put to the board yesterday, and a unanimous vote affirmed that Okoyomon should continue on indefinite suspension.

Part of the CBN audit team’s investigation is to unravel why the management of the Mint company has consistently refused to place Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) in its Abuja and Lagos factories, and why other security measures were deliberately set aside.

The audit team had, however, established that the theft of printed bank notes could be traced to security lapses and security personnel who take custody of newly printed bank notes, and when there were shortages, they were never reprimanded. The entire security department is said to be directly under the supervision of MD.

LEADERSHIP also learnt that this would be the second time that Okoyomon would be going on suspension as he suffered a similar experience in 2007 for three months when Charles Soludo, who had appointed him in the first place, was CBN governor.

After seven and a half years on the job, Okoyomon has been the longest serving MD of the NSPMC, with previous chief executives spending an average of five years in office.

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1.                 Economists are armed and dangerous: Watch out for their invisible hands.

2.                 Economics can supply it (invisible hands) on demand.

3.                 You can talk about money freely without ever having to make any.

4.                 You get to say the word ‘melt down’ with a straight face and no down feeling.

5.           Tiger Woods and Arnold  Schwarzenegger both studied economics and look how they turned out. Sure you can go anywhere.

6.                 When you are in the unemployment group, at least you will know why you are there.

7.            When you get drunk, you can tell everyone that you are just researching the law of diminishing marginal utility.

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A Honda Humanoid Robot

The Project: A Prototype of the Humanoid Biomimetics Project.

THE PROJECT

A 400l student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) has built an amazing humanoid Robot using locally-sourced materials. The student, Ukah Okechukwu, an Electrical/Electronics Student is said to be naturally talented and started building electronic devices from his primary school. Here is the Robot which replicated an existing industrial robot by the right. The Economist (TE) thinks such efforts should be encouraged in our Ivory Towers for maximum productivity. Only productivity drives economic growth and development in real terms. Kudos to Mr. Okechukwu.

The Student wrote this on the project:

HUMANOID ROBOT: AN APPLICATION OF BIOMIMETICS

INTRODUCTION

The ingenuity of man has enabled him to harness the potentials of nature to an incredible degree. This resulted in him bringing the functional systems of his environment under his control. He accomplishes this in the different fields of Engineering where he scientifically analyses different natural phenomena and intuitively applies the principles in solving his day to day problems.

THE URGE

Following the same line of thought, I felt the urge to come up with this my masterpiece. However, as an undergraduate, my aim is not to present a professionally designed machine but to share with friends the joy of practical engineering. My childhood dream of innovating technology will hopefully prove realistic as the Almighty God (the source of absolute wisdom) gradually removes the scales from my eyes.

FEATURES OF THE PROJECT

Light detecting systems, alarm system, mobility system, touch sensors and automatic direction finding mechanisms.

WORKING PRINCIPLES

The light detecting system consists of an arrangement of lenses, optic sensors and sensing circuit to replicate the human vision system. The switching mechanism has an array of interconnected relays which I classified as the master and slaves (copying the human endocrine system). The master relay receives signal directly from the sensing circuit, it then activates the appropriate slave relay for an action to be taken. Subsequently, the slave relay holds the signal and sends a command signal to the mechanism that will carry out the action. When the action has been taken, the mechanism sends a feedback signal to the slave relay, and then the relay withdraws the signal and waits for another cycle of operation. For instance, when it moves about, it can detect an obstacle within 150cm away and steer clear from it. This happens as follows:

Within this range, the image of the object is formed (focused) on the optic sensors (retina). This brings about change in light intensity on the solar cells hence an electrical signal is generated. The sensing circuit detects this signal and activates the master relay. In turn, the relay sends a triggering signal to the slave relay responsible for steering operation. The slave relay in turn activates the motor that drives the steering mechanism. By virtue of the relay’s ability to retain the signal (memory), the motor continuously steers the wheel until it dodges the obstacle; then it sends a feedback signal to the relay. Consequently, the relay withdraws the signal and normal motion is restored. The other systems employ the same principle.

Meanwhile, ideas are being incubated and plans underway to upgrade the capabilities by incorporating more circuits (transceivers) and mechanisms for more smartness and usefulness.

INDUSTRY APPLICATION

When fully developed and upgraded and equipped with modern electronic devices, this machine can prove useful in manufacturing industries for routine inspection task and more especially in entertainment industries where it can be used to relay human speeches and thereby simulate human-machine direct interaction.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE YOUR ABILITIES

Technology, what can we do without it; Help develop it….

                                                                                             Okechukwu U. Joseph

                                                                                             E-mail: ukah_joseph@yahoo.com                                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                             07038786197 

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Transparency International (TI) has ranked Nigeria the 35th most corrupt country in the World.
In a report released recently, Nigeria scored 27 out of a maximum 100 marks to clinch the 139th position out of the 176 countries surveyed for the report.
The country fell behind sister African countries like Togo, Benin, Mali in the ranking. The Economist(TE) thinks this is a setback to the fight against corruption in Nigeria.

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The goods market

The members of the Honorary International Investment Council (HIIC), a group of prominent global investors that provides expertise advice to the federal government on investment drive has hinted that the Nigerian economy would hit the 5 trillion economy mark if the current tempo of economic growth in Nigeria is sustained. The Economist (TE) thinks this is a good development for the country but only on the condition that the anticipated growth becomes more inclusive. Or what do you think?

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Professor Christiana Okojie, Professor of Labour Economics and Development Planning, University of Benin.

Professor Christiana Elizabeth E. Okojie is an accomplished Academic. A mother and a role model to many, in this interview with The Economist (TE), she gives her take on burning national economic issues and leaves the reader inspired.


TE: May we meet You ma?

Prof: I am Professor  Christiana Okojie of the department of Economics and Statistics, University of Benin. I joined the department as a Pioneer Staff in 1975. I have retired but currently working on contract basis. I am from Edo state, Ekpoma to be precise. I have been married for 43 years to a wonderful husband and we are blessed with two sons and three daughters.

TE: Please tell us about your educational background?

Prof: I had a very good education in a sense because my father was a Teacher and School Principal at  Government College, Ibadan. I attended Queens School, Ede, also a government school. You know Government Schools were like the best those days. I had my first degree in the University of Ibadan and went to do my Masters in Leeds University in England and later went on to do my Ph.D. in the University of Ibadan.

TE: Ma, why study Economics?

Prof: I think I studied Economics  because of my Dad. My Dad didn't get the opportunity to go to the university but he did his HSC and studied Economics. It made me interested and at the HSC level, we had a teacher who encouraged those of us who wanted to study economics. In fact, from my class, about seven of us wanted to go to U.I to study the course.

TE: what are your areas of specialisation?

Prof: I wanted to do Public Finance at Manchester University and Development Economics at Leeds university in England. But Leeds university was closer to my husband, so I chose Leeds. I did my masters in  development economics but my Ph.D was in the area of Labour economics because it was on labour supply of women. I tended to focus on gender issues. When I went to do my Ph.D, I had a mentor then, Professor Onitiri who was the Director of the National Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), who is also an in-law. I had already decided to focus on local government taxation and was already working with the late Dr. Ruwa who was an expert in that field. When I went to register, I met my mentor and he asked what I wanted to register for and he told me there were already experts in that field that I wouldn't make much impact there, and he said I should choose a new area like women and development. Initially, I refused but I told him I would think about it.

     At that time, there was very little information about that field of study because it was relatively new. So, I started writing to various universities. I had to do a proposal to the department of economics in University of Ibadan that I wanted to do labour supply of women under labour economics. It was later accepted after many hiccups.

    In the course of my writing letters, I wrote to the Population Council for a book. I had to justify why I wanted to get the book. I was sent the book and the woman who brought the book told me that FORD foundation was ready to sponsor Researchers on Women issues. She linked me up after a chat at lunch, and that was how I got my first research grant on gender.

TE: So how would you say your career has been so far?

Prof: Like I said during my inaugural lecture, I have no regrets. I have won so many research grants, many consultancy jobs. I have been all over the world, free tickets on business class flights, lodgings in five-star hotels, so I have no regrets. It has been a very rewarding and challenging career academically and financially.

TE: Alright ma. At your inaugural lecture, your focus was on gender. Why gender issues?

Prof: It was because that is what I have been working on. I have worked on different aspects of gender - Gender and poverty, gender and education, gender and health. Unlike before, most fields have incorporated gender issues into their curriculum content today. Policies can only thrive or have the desired effects when they are focused on how they can help women, children and  the men as well. So, at that lecture, I just decided to review how much progress we had made on the issue of gender after talking about it for so many years.

TE: What is your take on the recent cashless economy policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria?

Prof: The cashless policy makes sense. When you go abroad people don't carry cash about, there is a limit to how much you can withdraw at a particular time. Carrying cash in bulk encourages corruption. It also fuels social vices like armed robbery. But it requires confidence to use such other alternative payment platforms and this is the area I would like the CBN to work more on. If the cashless economy policy is adequately implemented, it will help to reduce the incidence of corruption in the country.

TE:  Do we have the enabling environment especially basic infrastructure necessary for this policy to thrive?

Prof: The policy has been introduced, it is time to work hard at it. I do not believe we have to wait for all the pre-conditions to be met. We have to start somewhere. I believe the infrastructure needed to run the policy would evolve as the policy becomes more popular.

TE: the Nigerian vision 2020 is about eight years away from the target date of achievement. But We do not seem to be meeting up with the important benchmarks. What could be responsible for this.

Prof: It is good to have an ambition at least something to aim at but that is where it ends if you do not put the right modalities in place to ensure effective implementation. To me, it is not possible to exhaust all that is contained in the vision 2020. However ,we could achieve some at least. But with the current insecurity problem in Nigeria, investors would be discouraged to put their money in the economy. Again, you look at the power situation;To start a business now ,you have have to buy  a generator and maintain it. This raises the cost of production and stifles national productivity which is critical to achieving the NV 20: 2020 blueprint.Until the government provides the enabling environment,the country would not be able to achieve the vision 2020. 

TE: You were in the committee set up to draft the NEEDS 2 during the Olusegun Obansanjo dispensation, what would you say about the NEEDS?

Prof:  The NEEDS was aimed at ensuring poverty alleviation, increasing employment. It has almost the same focus with the vision 2020. Both blueprints were just saying the same thing in different ways but like I always say,  it is not about the policy; it is about implementation.

TE: we would like to know the various national committees that you have been part of and the various professional services to the Nigerian state.

Prof: What I am doing currently is rendering service(laughs). Ok, my major focus is on human capital development. I have produced several graduates you know. I have worked with many agencies as a Consultant especially in the area of poverty, gender and other salient economic issues. I have worked for the African Economic Research Consortium. I have also worked for the African Development Bank (ADB). I have worked with the federal ministry of Women affairs and Social Development. I was the Chairperson of the special interest committee for Women under the NEEDS 2. I have been a facilitator at several workshops for different agencies like the National Centre for Economic Management and Administration (NCEMA ). I helped to facilitate training programmes for public servants. I have worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA ) and many more. 

TE: Ma, please, tell us - what is the role of an Economist in national growth and development?

Prof: Well, when we were young, we used to read that the economist was to advise - that you analyse the situation and based on your analysis, you give your own policy recommendation. But most times, politicians could have their own selfish interests and if your recommendation does not tally with their interest, they would do away with it. But still, we cannot over-emphasize the role of the Economist in national development. However, as a good economist, you must always give an objective assessment of the situation and not a sentimental one.

TE: How would we reconcile politics with  Economics?

Prof: Politics and Economics are like Siamese twins. They would have to be reconciled for national transformation to take place. Unfortunately in Nigeria today, both realms are very antithetical to each other. This is unlike what is obtainable in some other climes where sanity exists. I hope with time, we would have better quality Politicians who are really interested in transforming the system. Of course, we can only achieve that when we get our democracy right.

TE: Ma, you have been a staunch advocate of women emancipation. However, official records suggest that women contribution to national GDP is still quite low, what do you say about this?

Prof: You could be right about that but the issue still remains that the contribution of Women to national GDP is still grossly under-estimated, and that is why we are advocating that We should start measuring Women contribution outside the labour market. It is only the contribution of those in the labour market that is currently being accounted for but the ones we are advocating for are those referred to as unpaid labour. The housewife who is not working in the labour market is excluded from the GDP but current research suggests that the unaccounted unpaid labour of Women could be as high as one-third of GDP.

TE: Ma, when we talk about gender equality, what exact picture are we trying to paint?

Prof: There are various interpretations of the concept of gender equality.  It is not that a woman is equal to a man. What we are campaigning for is equal opportunity devoid of discrimination. Women should be given equal opportunities as men. Women should be empowered to seek elective positions and to take up key appointments in government.

TE: Ma, if you were not an Economist, what would you have become?

Prof: Well, I do not really know what I would have studied but I had always wanted to study Economics but I know I would have been a Scholar somewhere because I loved to read books (smiles).

TE: Ma, would you tell us what you do for relaxation?

Prof: I hardly have time to relax nowadays but I used to belong to the University Choir those days. I love singing but am very busy these days. I get to really relax only when I travel out.

TE: How supportive has your husband been over your professional career?

Prof: My husband has been very supportive. He does not restrict me. He understands me. We learnt to accommodate each other. As a husband, you should pull your wife along as you climb up the ladder of success. For a woman to have a say in her home, she must contribute to family upkeep.

TE: How did you manage to strike a balance between family and career?

Prof: I took my time and pursued my career gently. I made sure I gave time to family life when my children were younger and when they became Adults, I had more time to pursue my career. Today, they are all doing well and responsible.

TE: Finally ma, what is your advice for young people especially students?

Prof:  The first and most important thing is to work hard. Be organized and set your priorities right. Whatever you want to do, always give it your best.  As I would always say, whatever your name will be attached to, do it well because you do not know who would have access to it tomorrow.

TE: It has been wonderful speaking to you ma. Hope you would oblige us the next time we call?

Prof: You are always welcome.

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• 45% of Nigerians live below the poverty line.
•      Nigeria pays 17.8% of its GDP as public debt
•      Her manufacturing sector is the 3rd largest in the African continent.
•      Her GDP more than doubled from $170.7b in
•          2005 to $374.3b in 2010(excluding the informal          sector)
•      She produces about 3.3% of the World's supply
•          of oil.
•      Out of the eight MDGs, she has advanced efforts to provide universal primary education,
•     protect the environment and develop global partnership for development leaving behind other goals.
•     In September 2005, Nigeria , with the assistance of the World Bank began to recover $458million of illicit funds that had been deposited in a Swiss bank account by Abacha.
•     She is ranked 147 out of 180 countries in        Transparency International's Corruption perception index.
•     She has an estimated inflation rate of 15.6%.
•     It ranks 25th worldwide and 1st in Africa in farm output.
•      It ranks 44th worldwide and 3rd in Africa in factory           output.
•      The types of crude oil exported by Nigeria are  Bonny light oil, Forcados crude oil, Qua Ibo crude oil and Brass River crude oil.
•     It provides about 10% of overall US oil imports and ranks as the fifth largest source of US imported oil.
•      UK is Nigeria's largest trading partner.
•      The stock of US investment in Nigeria is nearly
•          $7b mostly in the energy sector.
•      Exxon mobil and Chevron are the 2 largest US corporations in offshore oil and gas production.
•      In April 2006, Nigeria became the first African country to fully pay off its debt owed to the Paris Club.
•    In 2005, she had $26billion trade surplus/ positive current account balance of $9.6b.

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Columnist: Daniel, Uzoigwe Chimezie

           The World's political and economic system could be divided into the West and the East. The West is more or less regarded as the economic regions of North America, Western Europe and Japan. On the other hand, I would use the East to represent the economic regions of Asia, India, the Middle East and Africa. However, the polarization of the globe is not just on geographical basis, there is a stronger contradistinction. While the Western nations are highly developed with a high level of inter-dependency, the Eastern nations are better described as underdeveloped (or to be fair, 'developing') nations with every attribute characteristic of underdevelopment. Surfeit it to say that Japan, while geographically situated in the East is better aligned with the West because of its parity with that region, development-wise.

               Many years of recorded history show that the West has virtually ruled the World through the instrument of colonialism, imperialism and a biased globalization process. Of course, the West gains a lot from this hegemony while the East picks the crumbs, and this has continued for decades.

                But it was the Ephesian philosopher, Heraclitus who said 'All is flux . . . nothing stays still.' Recently, it appears there is a noticeable drift in the configuration of the international system and it threatens to become a major one with time. It seems power is slowly changing hands in favour of the East. This change is largely driven by China, India and other emerging economies like Singapore and Indonesia.

This shift in the international system has attracted a lot of attention with many appreciating it and others dismissing it. On several occasions, the 21st century has come to be described as the century of Asia. In fact, Robert Payne in his 'The Revolt of Asia' insists that 'the major task of our generation is the understanding of Asia, for Asia represents potentially the mastery of the World in manpower and resources.

                Even the Western power blocs have come to appreciate this new phenomenon. The United States Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton was quoted to have said 'some in the region and some here at home see China's growth as a threat that will lead either to cold-war style conflict or American decline. . .we reject those views.' Even students of International Politics can no longer concentrate on the Western state system to the exclusion of the rest of the World. The new slogan for the West at the moment seems to be 'ignore the East at your own peril.' For the East, it is a 'revolution of rising expectations.’

                Evidence of the shifting balance in the global landscape abound. Recent events show that the World is moving beyond the times of Western dominance. The West has become easily prone to economic crises and bubbles with which it infects the rest of the World. In the last three global economic downturns, China has driven global economic recovery by providing a growth boost to the World economy multiple times what the West failed to do. At the latter part of 2010, China overtook Japan as the World's second largest economy. Analysts predict that if China maintains a steady growth path, it may overtake the US in ten years' time.

                Professor Danny Quah of the London School of Economics (LSE) speaks of 'The Great Shift East.' Building on calculations (by Jean-Marie Grether and Nicole Mathys), Prof. Quah asserts that 'the flat-World map animates the World's economy centre of gravity and that the rise of China and India since the early 1980s has shifted the World's economy centre of gravity 1800 km  1/3 of the planet's radius- deeper into the Earth crust, away from the US, and towards the East. The transition accelerated in 1991 and 2001, each time the US was in recession.'(http://dq6bn.blogspot.com/2009/05). He concludes that the World's economy centre of gravity has really shifted in favour of the East.

                The so-called shift in the global economy centre of gravity is not a mirage. Already, China and India are becoming more entrenched in many economies around the World. These two Countries are fast rising in technological and nuclear prowess. Some accounts show that China already consumes half the World's output of refined aluminium , coal , and zinc; and uses twice the quantity of crude steel as does the EU, the US, and Japan combined. According to Prof. Quah in an article 'Global Governance: the Great Shift East', 'in the last 30 years, China has lifted over 600 million people from extreme poverty: this is double the population of the US or the EU, ten times the population of the UK . . . a large and rapid improvement in the well-being of humanity unprecedented in the history of this Planet.'

                With these facts, it appears that while the Western system will not collapse, it will however decline. Civilizations rise and fall only to stabilize again. This may be the case of the West led by US. Professor of Economics, Jeffrey D. Sachs in his article, 'A World of Regions' asserts that 'recent events in the Middle East and Central Asia . . . clearly reflect the decline of US influence and that America's failure to win any lasting geopolitical advantage through the use of military force in Iraq and Afghanistan underscore the limits of its powers.' America's budget crisis would ensure that it takes measures to limit its international commitments especially militarily. The limited commitment of the US in the ongoing NATO campaign in Libya is a case in point. At the same time, it is obvious that the US played little or no role in the political upheavals in the Arab World of Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia etc. and according to Prof. Sachs, ' and still has not demonstrated any clear policy response to them.' The Euro zone itself has come to be continually associated with series of intractable crises. These are all traits of a declining West and does not speak well of the Western hegemony.

                To save themselves, the US and other Western nations may have no other option than to cut aid to developing nations. However, this may only end up exacerbating the Western decline as other regions of the World would respond by exploiting the benefits of integration. They would have no choice but to rally round themselves to secure their own future just as the EU did. Already, Africa is proposing an African Economic Community (AEC) by 2025. Africa holds a lot of promises and just needs focused and purposeful leaders to make its voice heard in the new international system.  At the same time, the push for Arab economic unity will be heightened. In the Middle East, I hold the view that the US/Israel alliance would soon experience a major crack as Israel cannot continue to fight its neighbours. The Middle East Countries including Israel may soon get weary of conflicts and seek integration, which will be value-enhancing for the region. These efforts at integration will greatly accentuate the Western decline.

                China and the whole of Asia (particularly, East Asia) will be the greatest beneficiaries of integration and greater regionalism. It would be expected that Asia led by China will rise to play a more active role in World politics, a role more commensurate with its size and population, and its potential might. Recently, in a key note address at the London School of Economics (LSE) China Development Forum 2011, Ambassador Lui Xiaoming, actually recognized the belief by many that China is ' hiding its capabilities and bidding its time' before pressing forward to dominate the Asian region and ultimately thef recorded history show that the West has virtually ruled the World. Through the instrumentality of colonialism, imperialism, capitalism and globalization, the West has ensured that it remained entrenched in weaker nations and indirectly controlling the socio-political and economic dynamics of  World. China's ability to maintain a steady growth path will see the World's fastest rising power to seek hegemony since this is the only reliable way to sustain its long run national interest; and since it is more or less a zero sum game in the global political and economic landscape, the rise of the East would mean a decline of the West.

The East has not yet arrived. It still has a great distance to trek. No doubt, the West may continue to dominate the World for more decades, but there is no doubt that the bargaining power of the East is rising astronomically.

                However, Humanity must be careful not to devastate the World further by pushing the East and the West into confrontation. No one says that the pursuit of national interest is evil (after all, charity, they say begins at home) but all regions of the World should co-operate effectively to bridge the gap between the developed World and the developing World. It is our collective duty to work towards a more prosperous, peaceful and even World where more people will have access to a more quality life. With this, the question of whether the East beats West or the West beats East would not arise.  

Note: The Author depended largely on Professor Danny Quah's analysis in his epic East beats West lecture at the London school of Economics (LSE)

Uzoigwe, Chimezie Daniel is an Author and Social Commentator. A final Year Student of the University of Benin. E-mail: Uzoigwechimezie92@yahoo.com.  08179741950

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From wikipedia

He has a Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979). He is also the former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank. He is known for his critical view of the management of globalization, free-market economists (whom he calls "free market fundamentalists") and some international institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

In 2000, Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD), a think tank on international development based at Columbia University. Since 2001, he has been a member of the Columbia faculty, and has been a University Professor since 2003. He also chairs the University of Manchester's Brooks World Poverty Institute and is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Stiglitz is an honorary doctor of Durham Business School, an honorary doctor at the Charles University, an honorary professor at Tsinghua University School of Public Policy and Management and a member of the Executive and Supervisory Committee of CERGE-EI in Prague. Stiglitz is one of the most frequently cited economists in the world.

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