Gbagbo! Respect the people's will

Cote d'Ivore has been in the news recently, particularly for the fact that Mr. Laurent Gbagbo has refused to concede defeat in the recently-concluded elections in the country.

He is claiming there were irregularities with the polls and hence, he must continue to be in power as the President of the country. His choice however, has pitched him against the Ivorian masses, and against regional, continental and international communities.

ECOWAS, AU, UN, EU as well the United States and other concerned global entities have all voiced their displeasure against the way and manner Mr. Gbagbo is clinging to power even when he has become unpopular with his own people.

The Ivorian masses are dying by the day. Anarchy is gripping every facet of the country's life.

The country now have two 'sworn-in' Presidents; One President is operating from an hotel, the other, from the state house.

The Ivorian masses are unfortunately at the receiving end. All manners of sanctions are flinging in from every quarters. An unpopular leader has failed to respect their will.

The world again is witnessing a situation where a single individual's ambition is plunging a whole nation and generation into chaos.

Hundreds or thousands of children, women and men are again going to suffer for the sins they never committed. They are going to be refugees in places they never thought of going to. They are likely to be treated like unwanted guests and given uncomplimentary attentions. Their new homes will now be tents and they would have to be in-line to be fed. Their dignity is going to be eroded once again.

Gbagbo! Please think of posterity and let peace rule in Cote d'Ivore. Ivorians have seen too much of troubles already. Don't force yourself on them. They want to heave a sigh of relief. Please respect their will.

Dynamics of Organizational Control

The events and changes being experienced world over in every facet of human existence have been reported to come with enormous and varying degrees of complexities, uncertainties and challenges in which managers and leaders of our world have had to evolve and develop new paradigms, styles and approaches to the management of people, processes, systems, organizations and nations.

In today’s business and management environment, organizational resources are disappearing, competition is escalating, and value-demand is skyrocketing.

This development has therefore led to organizations being more and more determined in being vision-focused, goal-oriented and performance-driven and the concepts of planning, organizing, leading and controlling has taken more strategic dimensions.

Of great importance is now the need for tasks to be clearly defined and assigned and performance standards set for expected results so that organizational objectives can be realized. This role rests on the shoulders of managers and a tool for achieving this is an effective control system or procedure.

WHAT IS CONTROLLING?

Controlling, as defined by the Longman Active Study Dictionary is ‘the ability to decide what will happen in an organization or place’. It is also said to be ‘the ability to make someone or something do what you want, or make them work in a particular way’

Controlling, as it relates to management is a part, and the last of the four cardinal functions a manager is supposed to perform in an organization. A manager is expected to plan, organize, lead/direct and control.

Controlling is the process through which standards for performance of people, processes, systems and structures are set, communicated, and applied. It involves measuring and correcting individual and organizational performance to ensure that events conform to plans. It is to ensure that deviations are put in check, below-standard results are stepped-up to expected performance level and processes that lead to the attainment of plans and objectives are reinforced and improved-upon.

There are different types of control. Time, budget, equipment, cost, quality management, materials and operations could all be controlled and there could also be systems put in place within organizations to check and synchronize these different types of control.

Control systems are usually designed by (strategic) managers especially after due consideration has been given to factors internal and external to the organization. The main goal of control systems however, is to align organizational resources (people, process, capabilities, assets etc) towards achieving the objectives of the organization.


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Culled from my write-ups as a Management Strategist.

The UN in a changing world

Our world is changing, ideologies, needs and expectations are also changing. Individuals, groups, communities and nations are placing new demands, opinions are constantly differing, interests are clashing, the spirit of togetherness is being threatened. Something must be done, and an organization must have the responsibility to manage all these issues.

The United Nations has being a formidable force in managing the numerous challenges of our time and its role is more and more needed especially as we now face several unprecedented troubles and complexities across the world.

Global economy presently is being disrupted; the tendencies towards inequality are growing. Poverty and hunger, climate change and a host of other environmental, social and political uncertainties are the realities we have to face today.

The United Nations with its core focus of ensuring sustainable development, helping to maintain peace and security across the world and working to create equality among nations must re-strategize across all its organs, arms and agencies to be able to stay on top of the new demands.

The role of the United Nations is so crucial now than before. Firstly, with promoting sustainable development, the United Nations has to work assiduously to ensure that while some nations are complying with environmental, economic and social regulations and standards aimed at reaching the sustainability goals, poverty does not deepen in these countries. Already, gaps are widening in north-south relationships and the developing countries are at the losing end in several bilateral and multilateral agreements aimed at sustainably developing our world. Developing countries should not always be made to comply with processes and procedures that their institutions, infrastructures and capacities do not support. Sincerity has to be at the centre of all planning.

Secondly, with maintaining peace and security across the world, more attention has to be channelled towards disarmament and prevention nuclear proliferation. More effort must be directed at roundtable negotiations to resolve existing crises and conflicts. Small arms proliferation must be discouraged. Nations must be made to comply with existing treaties and conventions. Militarily-strong nations must be discouraged from encroaching on the territorial integrity of weaker nations.

Thirdly, the principle of equality among nations must be reinforced. Double-standards must be discouraged. Existing socio-economic gaps must not be a basis for subjugating weaker nations. Every voice must be heard no matter where it is coming from. The participation and inclusion of developing countries in matters that concerns all must be encouraged and improved.

In all, the United Nations must stay poised to play it crucial roles across the globe, facing new global realities with new strategies.

Thoughts about Nigeria and its people

Nigeria is a wonder!

It is a geographical enclave with a rare assemblage of incredibly ingenious and courageous beings - one hundred and fifty million at home and over twenty million abroad.

Nigeria is a country synonymous with defying all forms of established theories and principles. Too many pundits and 'prophets' have lost their credibility trying to peg or soothsay events in the country.

It’s a country that should have just being a different continent or planet.

Nigerians are different!

They are tough, real, determined and resourceful. They are men and women with unflinching resolve to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people that matter and in the places that count. Black, bold, brilliant and beautiful they are.

They are barrier-breakers and trend-setters. You ignore them to your own peril.

Nigerians love life and God.

Western donors; know your boundaries.

It’s a common saying that he who pays the piper dictates the tune. The government of many African countries have lost their bearing owing to the beggar approach they adopt in relating with donors from the western hemisphere. We have been inundated with how the tool of ‘conditionality’ has been used to scatter the very social structure that characterizes the African life and distort the principles of simplicity, decency and community that Africans enjoy.

One of such appalling and misplaced donor gesture is now been demonstrated in Malawi. Western donors are now putting the government of this southern African nation under pressure for its prohibition of homosexual behaviours in the country.

This is coming at the wake of the conviction of two male Malawians, who got ‘married’ recently, by a court of the land. The court declared the behaviour of Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, as grossly indecent and their acts as unnatural.

Malawi, a deeply religious country in the coming days will have to either swim against the current of western encroachment or sink in the sea of the withdrawal of donor dollars or Euros.

Human right is good but human decency should sound more presentable.

In systems where homosexuality is legalized, how has this unnatural practice contributed to the development of these systems? Should we compound the problems of nations grappling with poverty with a breakdown in their social values?

Homosexuality, to me, is a ‘subtle’ attack on the family, the very fabric of all progressive societies.

Sexual perversion is not African. Africans are decent. From my last check, South Africa is the only Sub-Saharan African country where the law of the land backs homosexual acts. Indeed, there could be some traces of this perversion in some cultures and countries of Africa, the truth is, we must not encourage anything that supports a man ‘marrying’ a man and a woman ‘marrying’ a woman even if it means losing all the donor supports in this world.

As Africans, we should show love to people with this perversion and counsel them to see life as it should be, but we should condemn this act in all its manifestations and furthermore tell western donors to know their boundaries.

Wonders shall never end

Nigeria is a wonder. As a matter of fact, some people have opined that by some acts of tectonic movements or some cosmic re-compositions, the country should have just being a different continent or planet.

With daily happenings in the country defying all forms of established theories and principles, I can tell you that Nigeria is indeed a country of wonders and wonderful men that the world is constantly paying special attention to and regularly placing in special sections of human history.

This attention is not only because of the numerous epoch-making and enviable feats that the name of the country and men of this country are synonymous with, but also for some unbelievable abnormalities that also make news with a few of its aberrant citizens.

How do you understand a man who pushes out a 15-year old ‘new-to-pubescent chassis’ in exchange for a 13-year old 'recently weaned yoyo'? Shouldn’t that tell anyone that we are already seeing Act 1, Scene 1 of absurdity?

Shouldn’t we also fear that we might gradually be getting to a point where some dysfunctional men will start wrestling babies (girls) away from their mother’s breast even before such babies are weaned all in the name of culture?

Nigeria na wa. As we dey put out one fire, another one dey gather smoke again.

I have always thought that an advocate of morality should not also be the proponent of impunitous acts; acts that fall short of acceptable societal norms. I think I have been proven wrong.

Well, what can I say? Can I ask the man who now find solace in the arms of his ‘newly-paid-for’ toddler not to enjoy his catch or what clout do I have to tell the girl’s parents that their behaviour comes across more like greed and disservice to the girl?

I can only hope that those who sin against the Nigerian and African youths will be made to answer for their sins someday.

Wonders shall never end.

Nigeria and Nigerians, Carry go.

Who says Nigeria is not important? George Bush, Tony Blair, Condolezza Rice in Nigeria.

Interesting.

Could this be a platform for some kind of strategic meeting on how to wriggle out of the different panels of enquiries they are facing on their involvement in the Iraq war?

Well, we were told they came to grace an anti-malaria campaign and also to attend a THISDAY newspaper event.

Whatever the truth’ is, thanks to OBJ. The Baba himself.

While you really may not agree with all he does and stands for, you sure cannot fault his tactfulness. He knows the language of global power broking and he is a master at the game of political permutations.

Of course during his tenure as the president of Nigeria and the Chairman of the African Union, Bush and Blair were instrumental to the debt relief Nigeria and other African countries enjoyed; so why would he not facilitate a meeting of these western icons even it means inviting them to talk about Malaria.

In all of these, one thing is sure, Nigeria is an important place and will continue to be an important place no matter the challenges it is facing today.

It is a nation that has a lot to offer the world positively. A geographical space with a rare assemblage of incredibly ingenious and courageous beings.

One hundred and fifty million at home and over twenty million abroad; men and women who have an unflinching resolve to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people that matter and in the places that count. Black, bold, brilliant and beautiful. They are too important to be ignored.

I am glad i hailed from Nigeria. I am a proud Nigerian.

Nigeria and Nigerians, Carry go.

A Saviour needed - the Story of Adam and Abdulmutallab

Adam (the first man) and Abdulmutallab (the suspected Christmas-day airplane bomber) both have lot of things in common. They both erred and plunged their generation and nation respectively into turmoil. They both had a rare opportunity of living in luxury but blew it up.

Adam was the CEO of ‘Garden of Eden Inc.’ a glamorous, enviable and highly-rewarding position but within a short while, his misdeed made him jobless and he became a labourer and a wanderer. Abdulmutallab was a graduate of Engineering, tutored in the best of schools and given the best that life could afford but his ‘unpopular and weird’ belief has secured him a place in the US prison, in chains, where he might be for the rest of his life.

For Adam, there was Jesus Christ who came and died to rewrite all wrong appellations that plagued humanity for generations but for Abdulmutallab, it is not clear who the Nigerian nation will be relying on to clean the handwritings of negativity that have been scribbled on her.

The US has placed Nigeria on a terrorist watch list alongside countries like Yemen, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia etc. What a terrible list to be!

The US disregarded Nigeria’s clean history of international terrorism and the fact that Abdumutallab’s father made heroic and concerted efforts at notifying the US authority of suspicion about his child’s extremist views and possible affiliations. Whilst the US authorities did little to share this information (an indication of systemic failure, using the word of President Obama) the brunt has to be passed on to every 150 million Nigerian at home who tries to travel to the US or the 20 million living in Diaspora who show up at security/immigration points of every airport in the world.

I had a share of this brunt at the immigration point in Agadir on my recent travel to Morocco. The first time I had to explain extensively what my reason for travelling was.

Well, some say putting Nigeria on this list is a smoke that has some fire under it – adducing reason like it is to mount pressure on the country to renew the oil exploration licenses of US companies operating in Nigeria and particularly provide more opportunities for these US companies as opposed to Chinese companies others say the US is at liberty to protect its citizens from any form of aggression or people deemed threatening to the peace and security of its populace.

Whatever the speculations are, Nigeria has to get its heart right. The destiny of this great country is lying in the wait and there is need for a Moses, a David or a Nehemiah to lead it to its promise land.

Nigeria needs a Saviour; A Saviour not from any political enclave or aristocratic construction. A Saviour sent from God that will understand the demand of leadership and have the Spirit of God to carry it through.

Adam got a Saviour, Abdulmutallab must have a Saviour.