Benue welcomes KiddWaya

Posted on October 10, 2020

The Benue people came out en masse to recieve their son, KiddWaya – “President”. It was really a show of love and affection from Benue people. As a person, I am not a fan of BBN because I feel there are areas where the young people should channel their energies in salvaging this country from the hands of our unscrupulous and unpatriotic leaders. This is my personal thought, anyway. I, however, joined my wife to watch the reality show. She likes it just like other young people.

Even though I am not a fan of BBN, I understand that one must not force others to like what he likes since we are all free beings. Those who watch it are not immature and irresponsible, they have their reasons. Some watch the BBN show for the following reasons:

1. It take away their minds from the normal Nigerian problems that are capable of leading to high blood pressure and hypertension.
2. Others is for entertainment like Zeeworld and English premiere league.
3. To others, it is a social experiment where the subjects were kept in the house for 71days to study human behaviour in a controlled setting. We saw the normal betrayer, schemings and counter schemings, backbiting and bond that occur in our normal day-to-day life. A journal paper can be written from the experiment.

One of the personalities that caught my attention was Kiddwaya. I read about his father about 20 years ago as one of the richest men in Benue who brought limousine to Gboko in the early 1990s. This was even long before he celebrated his flamboyant 40th birthday in London. His son, Kidd is a very intelligent, charming, handsome, mature and humble young man. His personality in the house overshadowed the house, as people we say, “he was the show”.

As someone from Benue, I must say I was proud of his personality and his composure. He knew the right answer to every question. Of recent, apart from Tuface Idibia, I don’t think any other person from Benue has caught national and international attention as Kidd. In fact, he got his first endorsement with Eko Hotels & Suites just a week out of the house. He is now the face of young people in Benue State, an Ambassador! He will now play a major role in selling Benue to the world. He already started it in the house, Africa and the world now know that there is a tribe called TIV from BENUE, and a town called GBOKO. In the person of Kiddwaya (if well packaged), Benue can market her Kwagh-hir, Swange dance, Ogrinya dance, and our Agricultural produce etc in the growing world of products and knowledge economy.

This is not the first time that young people that have done well are celebrated in Benue State. When I came back from the UK after obtaining a PhD in Computing, young people in the state raised up to One Million Naira to host me. Those that feel KiddWaya shouldn’t be celebrated should look at the positive side of his fame and what we can gain from it. It took only Bob Marley to make Jamaica a popular island. The Jamaican nation are still benefitting economically from Bob Marley’s entertainment exploit.

Finally, to Kidd’s father, Terry Waya, this goodwill shown by the Benue people to his son should be a source of reflection for him, that will make him come closer to his people, for life can not be well lived if it is not lived for others.

Enjoy yourself in Benue and have fun, Kidd!

Averting Crime in Nigeria through Information Gathering

Posted on October 5, 2020

The trending hashtag in Nigeria now is #EndSARS. The creation of SARS is a fallout of our long years of military rule with its lingering effect. We believe so much in force and less intelligence. We focus more on fighting crime than averting it. The government has failed to channel her resources in averting crime through job creation for the youths and information gathering. As for job creation, that is a story for another day. On information gathering, we can do the following:

1. Harmonise all databases into a National Identity database and all citizens must register with their biometric and personal information collected. Those who fail to register within a given period should be arrested and prosecuted. Information from the database can be used for facial recognition, forensic examination at crime sites and criminal profiling.

2. All Vehicle Plate numbers should have an electronic chip such that Law enforcement officers can use a device to scan it and all the information of the car and owner will appear on the device, including whether the licence has been renewed or whether he/she has valid papers.

3. DSS and Police should recruit the very intelligent among the citizens. First class and 2.1 graduates should be considered first for the officer cadre.

4. Informants and spies should be massively recruited. At least two for every polling unit and one for every tertiary institution to aid community policing. The recruitment should be done with the highest level of secrecy. Each traditional ruler in every hamlet must present one spy and only he, the spy and the DSS should know. The informants must swear to an oath of secrecy, and failure to abide by the oath should lead to firing squad. Same punitive measures should be administered to saboteurs within the Police and DSS. The informants should be paid a minimum of N200, 000 every month.

5. Special drones should be used for surveillance in incessant crime areas and CCTV should be installed in all our major towns.

6.The National Orientation Agency should sensitize the people on the need to put the country first above the imperialist countries in the Middle East who are holding their brains to ransom in the name of religion. Those who prefer the borrowed pre-medieval laws of anarchy above the laws uniting us as a nation can go to the Middle East and live or commit suicide and meet whatever God that created those anti-African laws.

7. National Orientation Agency should sensitize those who are bent on forceful expansion and subjugation that we are in the 21st century where domination is achieved by ideas, innovations and technology, not pre-medieval approach of bloodletting and conquest.

8. The Niger and Chad republic boundaries should be completely closed till we tackle our security problems.

-Stephen Akuma, PhD