ADEREMI'S NOTEBOOK

— Open Democracy’s Ron Singer interviews Wole Soyinka, who recently published his memoir, “You Must Set Forth at Dawn“. #

IBB for President? (4)

AllAfrica.com interviewed Alex Akinyele, a former minster who believes Ibrahim B. Babangida (IBB) should run for President. IBB headed a military government from 1985 until August 1993. The interview confirms some of the problems Nigeria is still facing in the very short term, only ex-military men will run the country for sometime. When Akinyele was asked about Obasanjo’s performance to date, he had this to say:

If an ordinary civilian was president, the military could have come out of their barracks about four times, because there were times when the government did things which the military would not have favored.

I agree with him on the fact that corruption is at an all time high in Nigeria with privatisation issues going on in Nigeria, however I found his comment on IBB and corruption astonishing.to say the least. (please bear in mind that he was the sport minister during IBB’s regime)

Babangida as a person is not corrupt. Corruption has come to stay with us in Nigeria for quite a long while. Babangida was not the one who introduced corruption to Nigeria.

I can’t help but feel he is suggesting that all Nigerians are corrupt, inherently IBB must be corrupt. I mean there is nothing wrong with that right. It is already in the blood.

Again he does speaks some true words:

Nobody could have given Nigeria political stability outside President Obasanjo. But after political stability, we need economic stability. We need social stability.
…
Ours is not the politics of philosophy or ideology. It’s “from where does Akinyele come?” After that, it’s “what is his religion?” These are the things that destroy political leadership in Nigeria. Some people in Nigeria now say that the Yoruba man who does not support Obasanjo is a fool. He is a traitor. That is the nature of our politics. Until we can get that out of the way, we cannot get the best for Nigeria.

I can only agree.

— Help translate Google into Yoruba; google.ngr (coming soon) (1)

— Prof. Wale Omole’s Site Olashore International School trustee. #

Native Yoruba Speakers wanted (0)

This should have been posted earlier but it is never too late. Please contact the company if you interested.

I am contacting you from Language Services Ltd, a subsidiary company of the Institute of Linguists in London. Currently we are seeking to increase the number of Native Yoruba Speakers on our panel of freelance linguists for projects in the coming months. In particular we are looking for Native Yoruba Speakers with examining experience, preferably to professional/post-graduate level. If you know of any one who might be interested please pass on my contact details to them or pass their contact details on to me. A response by Monday 15th March would be appreciated. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Claire Harrison
Client Liaison Executive, Language Services Ltd
Tel 020 7940 3147

Ko Yoruba (Learn Yoruba) (18)

Inspired by the Mental Acrobatics’s Christmas greetings in more 50 languages, I decided to introduce my local language, Yoruba. It is a beautiful language (I would say that).

From Wikipedia, Yoruba is a sub-Saharan language. It is the native tongue of the Yoruba people, and is spoken among other languages in Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Sierra Leone, as well as by small communities in Brazil (where it is known as Lukumi) and Cuba (where it is called Nago). It belongs to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family, and has nearly 30 million speakers. Yoruba is a tonal language with subject-verb-object (SVO) syntax just like English and French.

Introduction
Brief Introduction to the Yoruba Culture
Background info Yoruba language.
Photo Essay on Yoruba - Quite a long article, scroll to the end to see the photos.

Learn
The alphabets in Yoruba.
Yoruba Fonts
Abeokuta’s Basic Introduction
The Yoruba Dictionary in Working progress
Internet Living Yoruba Dictionary - The project is based at the Center for Africana Studies at Georgia Southern University.
Learn Yoruba at Rutgers.

Music
Gbedu (gbedu means “music from radio or tape”)
Nigerian Music
Radio Abeokuta
Radio PalmWine