Adeola Aderounmu. 

No, Nigeria is not for lease. Before you crucify me, I am not for the leasing of Nigeria to the Brits, not again! 

But if you want to know how this idea came about, you have to read the story here:

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/adeola-aderounmu/shall-we-lease-nigeria-for-a-10-year-pe.html 

I must say that I don’t understand why Nigerians cannot ask for decent people in governance. I don’t know why we don’t eliminate corruption or the corrupt people who are ruining our lives. It beats my imagination how thieves who called themselves politicians are living among us and destroying lives of the unborn generations. It is very pathetic that Nigerians have not been able to manage or sustain their pre-independence glory. 

Are there no good people in Nigeria?

Is everyone mad?

Is the curse of the talisman upon Nigeria? 

Please wake up Nigerians, remove all corrupt people in your midst, demand for good governance, demand for the prosecution of the likes of Obasanjo, Odili, Ibori, Igbinedion, Tinubu, Babangida, Adedibu…make the full list of the people who are destroying the system, ask them to refund our monies and petition the police/EFCC to investigate and bring to trial where necessary.  

Let’s make sincere judicial examples of some thieves, let’s see where we go from there, if there will not be positive change or not.

If we continue like this, our children will spit on our graves.

Wake up Nigerians, you are a great people, a blessed nation, get out of your hideouts and get hold of your future. The solution to all our problems rest on removing corruption and greed in our system. Once that is done, every other thing will fall in line. I am sure of that.

We do not have to lease Nigeria to anyone, there are men and women of honour and integrity among us, let’s find them and give them the tools to rescue us from the hands of the evil ones.

Adeola Aderounmu. 

Today, I decided I will not write about the problems created in Nigeria by the useless politicians and their accomplices. There is obviously more to life than what those morons and idiots are doing out there.

So, I am sorry to disappoint you if you are on my blog to find out how Ibori stole all the money as Delta State governor or how Obasanjo who had nothing 9 years ago can now boast of over 100billion naira worth of investments. I should also take a break from Babangida who stole more than 20 billion dollars from Nigeria. Today is not about how Mr. Lucky stole all the money in Edo state and left them with bad luck. When these men die, I will be utterly disappointed not to see them being buried with these monies. It will break my heart if they leave these monies, houses, cars and gold behind.

 I don’t have time for them today….

Now, I want to say a big thank you to my mother! Yes o! My mama! Today after more than a year, I decided to cook moimoi again. And for every step on the way, I remembered my mum. Just a few days ago, an Australian friend of mine asked me for the recipe for pepper soup. I gave him the version that would of course be sensible to come by in Sweden. And you know why he asked. Because I have served a group pepper soup when we watched a football game at my work the other day. They liked it, means I am good. THANKS  MUM! 

Let me share some intimate story here. When I was a little boy up to my teenage years, my mother made it compulsory for all her children to learn how to cook. You would have thought it was a punishment that my mother wanted you to be at home or in the kitchen with her when she was cooking. But it paid off when we left home. When I was in the University for my post graduate studies, I discovered that one of my friends could not cook any kind of food. This is not an exaggeration, Tunde cannot make tea, and he cannot fry an egg. If you ask him to make eba, that is more than a 4 unit course for my friend Tunde. He never did anyway. Tunde is a medical doctor and now lives in South Africa. I must ask him how he is surviving since he hasn’t told me that he is married. Does he still eat out? 

Anyway, I will come back to that another day. I must have woken up on the right side of my bed today-Dec 1. Just before frukost (breakfast) which was yoghurt and sandwich as usual, I found myself soaking 450g of beans in water. The idea was to get it soft so I can eat some beans for lunch or dinner. But immediately after lunch which turned out to be spaghetti and some spicy tomato stew (plus meat of course), I found myself pouncing on the soaked beans and converting it to moimoi. Ordinarily, I would have used the powdered beans if I wanted to make moimoi in Europe. I mean, who goes about in Europe soaking beans to make moimoi? This is the story… 

You can use brown beans or white beans depending on either your taste or which one you can lay your hands on.

Ingredients:

Brown or white beans

 Onions

Water

Pepper (fresh or dry), for fresh you will have to grind too and if you have a store of that in your freezer, then perfect!

Maggi cube or knorr cubes (Maggi cube is very Nigerian but knorr is found worldwide!-choose your preferred taste or brand)

Curry and Thyme (optional)

Salt (if you are a salt eater)

Egg (not compulsory you can have hard boiled eggs if you want to make the moimoi a luxury) 

_____________________________  

1. Find the beans! Soak in water.

In my case, I find it easier to buy the black-eyed white beans. My favourite African shop is not regular with Nigerian beans. So, I put my white beans (450g) in water, soak until such a time that it becomes easy or convenient to peel off the scales.

2. Remove the scales

Carefully, I removed all the scales which mean the black eyes are gone! This took about 1 hour. Other people could be faster in squeezing the beans to release the black eyes!  

3.Grind the beans plus Onions/change them to paste form

In Nigeria, we have grinding machines powered by electricity and if you have time, you can use the stony pestle and mortar. The latter takes time but it comes with fulfillment. Believe me, I did that many times on my knees! Thank you mum! You are the best! But now in Sweden, I have an electric grinder to do this in 5-10 minutes depending on the speed that I choose. One small or medium size onion is okay for 450g beans.

4.Add very little water to make fluid of the paste.

Don’t let it get watery unless you want to be too economical to making more out of less. It will affect the quality and taste.

5.Add all your ingredients!!

To the paste or fluid add,

Pepper to your desire

Two cubes of maggi or knorr

Salt to your own taste or desire

Curry and thyme if you like

  

6.Mix together by stirring.

My suggestion is not to do this with the grinder. Add the ingredients after you have grinded the beans and onions in the blender/grinder. Mix with spoon or something similar. At this point, if you have done everything right, you can even start to perceive the wonderful aroma of the food you are about to put on your table. 

Just before you add the ingredient, start the oven at 225 degrees. This is to give you 5 to 10 minutes of warming the oven before you put the uncooked moimoi inside it. This is of course optional. 

Set your clock to 1 hour, oven steady at 225 degrees, pour the preparations into small aluminum troughs. The troughs could be of any size but something that will go in your oven. Put pieces of hardboiled egg randomly in your fluid moimoi if you like to. This part is unnecessary but I do it sometimes.  

Leave the preparation for 1 hour, it will become thick and of course you’ll know when you are eating it if it was done or not. Don’t eat it when it is too hot. Let it cool down and it hardens more. Enjoy moimoi! 

Click this link to see moimoi made from beans

KITCHEN TIPS!

The kitchen can be a very stressful place to be in especially if you will be there for a long time

If you want to make moimoi, soak the beans well in advance. If you will have it for lunch, start the preparation immediately after breakfast. If you want it for dinner, start immediately after lunch.

Generally, when you want to cook, allow yourself plenty of time. This is the same you do when you are going to drive a car. Plan, have plenty of time. This keeps you safe and stressless. 

Before you start cooking anything at all in your kitchen, clean up first. Thrash the rubbish! Tidy up the stoves or heaters. Clean the plates, wash them if you have to and keep them away. Shine the sink top!  

Have plenty of space in the kitchen by keeping it tidy and neat before and after cooking. 

If you cook in a dirty kitchen, it is unhygienic and it adds to your stress. You’ll keep shouting on the kids or partner when it is all your faults! Plan! Ok! You must. And thank my mum for these tips. 

Imagine if you are a Nigerian and you have prepared to cook moimoi only to discover that you have no kerosene in the stove. Goosh, you’ll be mad and just drink garri only in your frustration or the food will be very late that everybody will be your enemy before it is ready. 

By the way, moi moi goes with many food. You can have it as extras on rice. Many people eat it with bread. The classic is to eat moimoi and drink garri with cold water with sugar. That’s what I did tonight in Sweden. It keeps me in touch with Lagos. Garri is dried grinded cassava.  Wao, that’s it! I am happy with myself. I will find time to tell you how I make peppersoup in Sweden. I will give you the recipe. I will also tell you how I make Egusi soup with dry fish and correct meat.               

Did anyone say that I was missing Nigeria? Yes, the sunshine, but not my favourite food/dishes. And who says I don’t like winter and a white christmas?

Thank you mum!

Adeola Aderounmu.

There are several Nigerians who will go along with this school of thought they we should divide Nigeria into several nations and there are millions who will not. Truly, the creation of a country such as Nigeria was a very abnormal amalgamation. That leaves us with a problem but what is wrong with overcoming this problem and transforming the diversities that exist in the entity called Nigeria into strengths? In my opinion, unity in diversity would be of monumental advantages to Nigeria and Africa. We must not forget that Nigeria earned the title of a giant a long time ago when she made so much money and didn’t know what to do with it. Many Africans came to Nigeria in the 70s and 80s to seek greener pasture the same way we herded in our migration in recent years to Europe and America. There was a time in Nigeria when the naira had more value that the dollar or pounds. There was a time in our history, we were told, when you arrived at Heathrow that the airport officials asked you “how long are you staying ma?” how long are you planning to stay sir?”

We know why and how we got to this point today that seeking self-determination or secession within Nigeria has become a major cry is several quarters in Nigeria. First, we allowed corruption to eat deep into every fabric of our societies. Secondly, we allowed and permitted autocratic governments in Nigeria. We allowed tyrants-absolute idiots and empty skulls, to rule over us. We did nothing to call to order the very undesirable elements in our midst. Rather we did all we can to encourage our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, sisters, uncles, nephews, cousins and neighbours to loot and destroy the system. Many of us were by-standers or chance spectators; we waited patiently to benefits from the gradual destructions of our nation or we didn’t have the voice to oppose oppressions as non-beneficiaries.

If Nigerians split up into several nations, what is the guarantee that these emerging nations will not have serious internal friction such that the subsequent splitting will occur and bring forth more problems rather than succor? We’ll never know until we allow the split anyway. We should not split Nigeria. Nigeria as a country represents the hope of many African countries. This unique country is not only an icon of a regional strength, it will come to symbolize a global power if we set our priorities right. If things didn’t get this bad, only heavens know the kind of paradise we would have gotten on our hands. We lost the paradise but the time has come to rekindle our hopes.

To move forward and make progress, Nigeria needs a drastic change. First we need a true and profound democratic government. The one bequeathed to us By Iwu and Aremu is a very serious disaster. Such cannot form the basis for the progress that we sought. This makes the call for genuine democratic dispensation very pertinent and highly desirable. Umaru should resign and go home! The kind of leadership we need in Nigeria is the one that prioritizes accountability and probity. We need a leadership that will immediately look into the immediate and remote causes of our retrogression and apply urgent measures to start curbing them. We need signs, we need answers to our problems, we need purposeful visions and plausible missions integrated. One major aspect of the steps forward is to demand for the immediate prosecution of all the people who have contributed to the destruction of Nigeria from 1960-2007. They should answer to crimes and shortcomings. That kind of procedure is a necessary ingredient to STOP the further abuse of a collapsing system.

Another way to move Nigeria forward is to seek by popular demand the utilization of the good brains in Nigeria. How have we as a nation benefitted from the likes of Achebe, Soyinka, Emegwali, Chimamanda, Nwankwo, Utomi, Odegbami, Okocha, Tuface, you, me, our good friends, our wonderful neighbors, our gifted children and wonderful scholars and professionals scattered around the face of the earth? The isolated positive efforts of the likes of Dora Akinyuli, Okonja-Iweala and Soludo can be harnessed and transform to a National trait. It is possible through our collective intelligence to fish out these men and women who can transform this great country back to glory. There are unused Ngozis, unused Doras and unused Soludos in Nigeria and in the Diaspora. Some of them are wasting away locally and internationally. Many of such people are waiting to be discovered and used. We have closed our eyes to intelligence and allowed nonentities to seize people and plunge our land into a state of economic depression and wanton hopelessness.

When we remove square pegs from round holes and put them in square holes where they truly belong, we will start to see and experience our movement forward towards the glorious paths that we derailed from. Then the groundnut pyramids will reappear in the North. The cocoa farm will come back to the South West; the coal in Enugu will be utilized. Ajaokuta steel will be run by our engineers, the people we trust. Agriculture will once again become the back bone of our economy. We will borrow less or not at all. Our banks will continue to be trailblazers not only in Africa, but worldwide. Our oil reserves will indeed become reserves and add to our wealth and success. We will eat and have enough to throw away or send to far away Ethiopia and next door Niger. There will be too much Ijebu garri from Ogun State and chicken will not come from one farm only. Yellow garri will come from Abia and Anambra. Egg will be abundant and yet avoided for fear of cholesterol. Milk will no longer be a poison but it will be given free to children. Out health sector will be first class in service deliverance and our life span will exceed 70 years with ease. We will bring back home as many as are willing from the Diaspora. Our educational institutions will be resuscitated to first class delivery service. As a country, we will make money again but this time we know what to do with it. We will not steal it! We will put it in use for common prosperity and posterity. Travelling abroad will once again be for pleasure. Our original naira and kobo will be back.

This is not a dream. The developed countries in the world today do not have super humans or extra terrestrial beings. Living with them has allowed us to see their mortality, their weaknesses and strengths. Ironically, it takes a handful of responsible individuals to build these strong nations just the same opposite way that it has taken a few undesirable elements in Nigeria to destroy our common heritage. It is possible that only one thing has changed from the time we were true giant to now that we are a sleeping giant. That one thing is mismanagement aided by greed, corruption and selfishness of the people we know so well. We must remove these people and their vices for all time as I have suggested above. The other things that have not change are the natural resources, the human resources, the intelligent pool, the intelligent minds, the abundant land for farming, the oil reserves, our creativity and all the other ingredients that we can put together again and use in the way they should be. My fear is that Nigeria should not allow external influences to continue to hamper her progress. It is to the benefits of the other great nations that we remain underdeveloped thereby posing no threat to the current world order. We must break away from this kind of yoke, this kind of burden. It is true that some of us in the South have never been to the North of Nigeria. The reasons are obvious. When we have created or re-created the Nigeria of our desire, the hindrances to free movement of association and trade will be removed. Nigeria can work. We have all it takes to make it work. We should all contribute our voices, actions, positive attitudes, courage, and everything that we have, no matter how little or big, that can make Nigeria work.

Finally, indeed the creation of Nigeria came with some obvious problems. At this point in our history we cannot solve those problems by the logic that supports our breaking up into several nations. We must live with these problems, solve them and enjoy the benefits that will accrue from the solutions. How can we start? Let us seek a positive and radical change. The orange revolution is a desirable reference point. In it, there was a non-violent persistent resistance by the people. They stood their ground even against external influences. The orange revolution in Ukraine rested power on the people. The people made a choice and Ukrainians are living today with the consequences of their actions, the choice that they made. Let us make our own choices, let’s see where we go from there. Let’s arise and take control of our lives and secure the future of our children! Let us try men and women of honor and integrity at the helms of affairs with the power to remove and replace resting squarely on the people. This will bring change and progress.

I believe!  

Adeola Aderounmu.

I am compelled to write today about Sweden. The nearest shopping centre to where I live is called Vällingby Centrum. This centrum is gradually becoming one of the biggest centrum in Sweden at the community level.

A section through Vällingby Centrum with decorations of Christmas Lights.  http://www.vallingbycentrum.se

It is amazing the degree of changes and construction that have been going on at this centrum since 2003/04. The construction and expansion will continue well into 2008.

I look at the changes, the investment and the transformation that have taken place right in my presence as I walk to this centrum daily-it is simply AMAZING. There is a big difference between when you just go to a place and find changes and when you see the changes taking place right there in your presence.

Another view of Vällingby

I love Stockholm, Sweden is great!

By Adeola Aderounmu.

LOOK AT Lagos State Primary Schools!

The Punch Newspaper has done it again. Giving us pictures that show the kind of governors that we have in Nigeria. Please look at the pictures of some primary schools in Lagos.

 All pictures are courtesy of the Nigerian Punch Newspaper, Friday 23rd Nov 2007.

Picture 1.

This is the inside of a classroom where knowledge is supposed to be given and taken. This is the 21st century and this is what Tinubu bequeathed to Lagosians. Outstanding lagacy! That there is still one school in Lagos or several of them that are under this kind of condition is a BIG Shame. Where was Tinubu? Who was the shameless commissioner for Education? Where is the new governor? Where is the new commissioner? Does Tinubu’s children go to this kind of schools? Is Fashola’s child in this school?

Picture 2:

Seeing this picture reminded me of what I went through in 1985/86. Just like this kids, I found myself becoming a carpenter overnight. I had to make my own desk and bench from broken woods scattered around my school then. In Festac Grammar School, the Lagos State Goverment hypocritically built the first storey building in the (then) Ojo Local Government. That was like in 1985 or 86. Afterwards, they abandoned Festac Grammar School and never built anything more. I am not sure that they have built any more storey building as I write this. If they have, it must be new. If they haven’t, true to type, dirty hypocrites!

If children spent their valuable time trying to make tables and benches, when do they learn? where is the motivation to learn? Can Tinubu or Fashola allow their own kids to make benches and tables? I mean, when it is not part of the Technology scheme, it is simply child labour!!!

Picture 3:

If you keep chicken in this type of a house, it is wickedness! But you know what, this is where some kids, the future leaders of Nigeria are being trained by the Lagos State Government. When it rains, it is worse than hell.

What kind of people are ruling in Nigeria??? Do they have brains? Do they think?