Blair, Brown, disloyalty and Okija, female foreign ministers, recent reading and Isioma Daniel

The whole fuss around Tony Blair and his leaving date seems to have reached a new peak or trough(depending on whose side you are on) overnight. Only yesterday morning Blairites were insisting that it would be premature and damaging to set a leaving date and then by this morning, they were all over the place loudly saying that the Tone would be gone by next summer. Whether this had anything to do with the leakage of a planned triumphal victory tour of the country by the Blessed Blair early next summer was unclear but it was obvious that there had been an orchestrated message sent to the Blair loyalists to let rip. What was crystal clear to all observers was the hilt of the dagger sticking out of Gordon Brown's back....in all the interviews, the Blairites made it clear that there was no anointed successor and that the field for the succesion was open to all comers. While I have had my reservations about whether or not Gordon Brown can pull off the feat of leading Labour to a fourth election victory, I can't help but feel that he has been massively betrayed by Tony Blair who appears to have reneged on whatever formal or informal agreements they had had when Brown stepped down for Blair in 1994....Perhaps Brown should have considered dragging Tony to the infamous Okija shrine and made him swear there like some Nigerian politicians do to their acolytes, and then he wouldn't be where he is now....

For some reason I was thinking recently about Ngozi Okonjo Iweala and then my thoughts turned to female foreign ministers as she's since been replaced by another woman- Professor Joy Ogwu- and it then occurred to me that Nigeria, Israel, the UK and the US all currently have female foreign ministers- Tzipi Livni, Margaret Beckett and the delectable (!?!) Condi. Googling to see if any other countries did led me to this very interesting website http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/foreign_ministers_current.htm which has details of female leaders globally (complete with pictures)...

Just finished Atonement- Ian McEwan's novel published in 2001 which I had been meaning to read after I enjoyed Saturday. I was initially skeptical and unsure where the story was going but the ending definitely packed a punch- really great, thoughtful book. At the moment I'm reading what would probably be the equivalent of blogs from 1940s England- diaries kept by various ordinary people as part of the Mass Observation project http://www.massobs.org.uk/introduction.html now published in book form in Our Hidden Lives. It's very interesting to see what ordinary people made of the end of World War II, the Nuremberg trials and other historical events

I see Obasanjo has carried out another of his minor reshuffles exchanging the Ministers for Communications and the Minister of Works- what this really means six or so months to the end of his tenure, who can really say?

Meanwhile 7 months to the Nigerian presidential elections, there's a deafening silence as far as candidates putting forward their manifestos- perhaps they are still waiting for an anointing at Okija or whichever shrine has taken over as the anointing venue of choice for aspirant Nigerian leaders....

Finally, if like me you have ever wondered- "Whatever happened to Isioma Daniel? (the NigerianThisday reporter whose article on the Miss World beauty pageants in 2002 allegedly set off an orgy of violence) There's an update here- http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/isioma.html

Fighting colds, Blair's regret and critics on Adichie

Not a great weekend not least because I appear to be battling a filthy cold- i wonder if I picked it up on the plane. I hate colds because of their ambiguity-You know the feeling- you're not really unwell enough to completely drop out of life and yet you just feel like crap and like crawling into bed and staying there forever....

Tony Blair must be regretting the day he let slip the statement that he would not serve a full term following his reelection last year. Ever so often the UK media descends into a frenzy trying to speculate and get him to name the date. Brownites, acolytes of the taciturn Chancellor (the presumed anointed successor) leap into the fray and talk about how Blair's continued presence is a liability to the Labour party. The Tories watch, cautiously egging them on from the sidelines and rumours swirl of a final treachery in which a third party, a dark horse is anointed in Gordon Brown's place at the last minute. This morning, one of the leading contenders for dark horse- Alan Johnson the Education secretary was on the radio to talk about the new school meal standards Labour were introducing- away with deep fried food and semi-processed "meat" and in with fruit and veg- but all the interviewers wanted to talk about was whether he had any plans of running- like a true politician, he refused to be drawn, one way or another, simply repeating "I've made my position clear and I have nothing to add" in a rather unhelpful manner.

Stuck in bed over the weekend, I devoured the Guardian and was pleasantly surprised to see two Nigeria-related items in the Review section- one was Diana Evans' account of her reading tour of Nigeria facilitated by her publishers- Jeremy and Bibi of Cassava Republic and Naijablog fame http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1863011,00.html and the second was a distillation of two reviewers views on Chimamanda Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1862903,00.html Both reviewers were generally positive, but the Times reviewer was upset at the effeteness of the only major white character in the book, Richard whom I quite liked. The Telegraph reviewer however was upset that the book was not longlisted for this year's Booker Prize, a sentiment echoed by the Independent in an earlier interview http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article1219876.ece

Over the weekend, with my cold and blocked sinuses I yearned for some hot pepper soup, but a friend brought me the next best thing- beef chilli ramen from Wagamama- as I slurped the noodles, crunched the onions and chewed the beef, I could feel myself getting better. ....

One year on: Back from Canada, Loving Almodovar and Adichie, thinking of human rights & a silly restriction

Back in the UK now. The last three weeks have been exhausting, exhilaring and invigorating all at the same time. Great training time and now I feel ready to take on whatever challenges the future holds at work- great feeling. I'm desperately hanging on to that feeling as I go through the nearly two hundred e mails that were waiting at work. I used to look at people at work talking about how many e mails they had to work through as rather sad- a kind of "My e mails are greater than yours" kind of thing- but now I find myself indulging......

I kind of liked Canada- the bits I saw- it seems to have its heart in the right place- the people are generally warm and friendly in a way that I liked and appreciated and I fell in love with their governor general- the Rt Hon Michaelle Jean http://www.gg.ca/gg/index_e.asp after watching her on television- the petite Haitian-Canadian who only came to Canada in 1968- is an impressive asset. I don't think that she could attain a similar position anywhere else in the world.....

Monday went to see the new Almodovar film Volver (Return) starring Penelope Cruz and Carmen Maura. It's an amazing film rich in visuals, vibrant colour, humour and textures plus a quirky, subversive plot- all the hallmarks of an Almodovar film. I still can't believe that I had never even heard of Almodovar before I moved here. It was only thanks to a Mexican classmate that I went to see Talk to Her (Habla con Ella) when it came out a few years ago and then I got hooked. There is this one scene where Cruz is chopping red peppers and as you watch the shot of the grey blade of the knife biting again and again into the redness of the peppers, you can almost hear and feel the crunch. In another scene Cruz is washing up at a sink and there is this amazing shot from above framing her cleavage and the sink with the water running and swirling.......I'm no film sophisticate but Almodovar's films resound with the very essence of Spain- a country I'm growing to love more with each visit.....

I've just finished Half of a Yellow Sun- Chimamanda Adichie's new work and it is stunning - the broad canvas, the sweep of the characters, her exposition of a time and place- Biafra- that Nigeria and Nigerians have never properly exorcised are all remarkable. Now I understand why the phrase Dickensian keeps recurring in the critics reviews of the book. It's an amazing achievement- and quite different from Purple Hibiscus. I was initially skeptical looking at the heft of the book that it could keep me engaged but I was engrossed from page one to the very end.

I've also recently finished Geoffrey Robertson's Crimes Against Humanity: the Struggle for Global Justice- the tome written by one of the UK's foremost human rights lawyers-though dense and legalistic in areas was an illuminating and inspiring exploration of the evolution of internatonal human rights law. He is scathing on the African Human Rights Charter and I can only hope that in the 7 years since the book was published the new African Union has taken a new look at the charter in the spirit of the "African Renaissance"

On the flight back from Canada, no duty free shopping as far as spirits or perfumes was allowed- it seemed slightly silly that while the bottles were clearly visible on the trolley that the stewardesses pushed through the aisles, passengers were forbidden to buy in the spirit of the ban on liquids.....

Oh by the way, just realized it was the first anniversary of this blog six days ago. To everyone who's dropped by- Thank you

Crab cookouts and musing on African hippies

Yesterday we were invited to a crab cook out by one of the local staff here. I was not quite sure what to expect but it turned out to be something like a barbecue except that instead of meat being barbecued, it was crabs being cooked and served with melted butter. I'm not sure that the crabmeat, delectable though it was was worth all the work needed to crack the shell and the claws to get at the morsels....I did enjoy the salads though

After the crab cook out, we drove out to visit what would probably have been described as a hippy commune in the 70s, but is now probably referred to as a sustainable community- ecologically sound, environmentally friendly and awash with dreadlocked and multiply pierced surfer and alternative types. It struck me on our way back having enjoyed the organic smoothies and bran muffins that were on offer that I had never seen a hippy of African/black origin. Raising this in the car, my English colleague offered that it's because the whole hippy-surfer-alternative lifestyle is a specific rebellion against affluence. I wondered about this on the journey home- I mean I have African friends who lead what would be regarded as alternative lifestyles but their ethos is significantly different.....

The homeward journey begins tomorrow as we head to Toronto.....

Thinking of "home", thoughts of Canada and reading Upstate

Yet another snatched opportunity to blog. We are slowly coming to the end of our training and I honestly cannot wait to get back home to London- the concept of London as home is one I still struggle with...but as the youth here so eloquently put it- whatever!

Canada is a funny mix, a halfway blend between the US and the UK- it's evident in the language and the architecture and the food- fish and chips, that quintessential English dish can be found on just about any menu here, but then so can barbecued ribs and burgers and other solid American fare. Some parts of Toronto with their towering skyscrapers and perfectly laid grid street systems draw manhattan to mind and yet others with their red brick Victorian neighbourhoods leave you wondering whether you are in an English village. The Canadians are friendly- much friendlier than the reserved English, but not the over the top sickly sweet friendliness of their cousins to the South..... I could go on and on. Another thing I don't understand is why Canada is seemingly unknown/uncovered in the international media. I mean before arriving here three weeks ago, I did not know who the Canadian prime minister was... and I don't regard myself as poorly informed. But maybe I am!

One similarity between the Canada and the US is in the toilets- I've never understood why American (and now Canadian) toilet bowls have water levels coming up almost halfway to the top, as opposed to the UK and Nigeria, where the water is way down in the bottom of the pan. Is it part of the abundance of North America- they can afford to fill up their pans just that bit more?

I have just finished Kalisha Buckannon's excellent novel -Upstate- which tracks through a series of letters, the love story between two African-American teenagers in Harlem. I was sceptical at first, wary of what I felt would be sickly sweet sentimentalism, but it was a tightly written powerful insight into the lives of young urban African Americans in contemporary America. It had echoes of Random Family, Nicole LeBlanc's deep and moving account of the ten years she spent following the lives of a number of Latina women in New York.

Another snatched chance to blog, worrying about inflight entertainment and musing on liquid soap

Finally managed to get a few minutes off what is a punishing schedule to drop a few lines here. We're just outside of Toronto where the International AIDS conference is going on at the moment and each time I go into Toronto, I see lots of conference delegates wandering around. I've spotted quite a few Nigerians as well...no surprise there. The newspapers and television are filled with stories about the conference.

I hear you are only allowed one book on board UK flights and that has to be bought from duty free after you have checked in everything else. I'm frantically trying to work out which fat book I've been dying to read to take with me on the flight back in two weeks. the prospect of an eight hour flight with Air Canada's abysmal in-flight entertainment sends shivers down my spine. I can just see myself exploding in a rage of boredom induced air rage

In the hotel where we're staying instead of soap and little bottles of shampoo etc, there's a plastic dispenser on the wall with nozzles for shampoo, conditioner and liquid soap. I still can't get my head around the concept of liquid soaps and shower gels- I like the comforting heft of a cake of soap in my hand- perhaps a carryover from when I was a child and not allowed to bath myself - I remember the first time I was allowed to hold the soap myself- maybe that's why I miss my solid soap now...

I see there has been another murder of a governorship aspirant in Nigeria- I hope this is not what 2007 is going to look like..... and all the IBB EFCC shenanigans- what on earth is that about?

Ok, break over, back to work now...

A snatched chance to blog, terror and current reading

Finally, a snatched chance to blog in between what have been a very hectic few days. I arrived in canada and plunged straight into work. Hectic days, but very interesting. On the plane I read Marie Fatayi-Williams' tribute to her son, For the Love of Anthony and at many points found myself close to tears, I think the girl in the next seat must have noticed and so asked to see what I was reading. It's not fantastic writing, but in some ways, it is the homespun heartfelt nature of it that is it's greatest strength. In the book, she is particularly critical of the UK Police and the Government in their dealings with the families of the deceased and queried whether the government was doing enough to prevent a recurrence. By the way, fellow Nigerian blogger Molara Wood is quoted in the book, even if incorrectly she is referred to as Molara Woods.

This morning, I wake up to the news that the UK is at high alert following a discovered terrorist plot to blow up planes to the UK. To think that only yesterday I was strolling through Heathrow, dashing to reach the baggage drop off before it closed. I had already checked in online- but one of the problems with checking in online, is that it induces a sense of complacency- I found myself dashing to get to the airport on time, having dilly-dallied on a number of issues. At this time, the details of the suspected plot are unclear but if it is true that there were British Asian Muslims behind the plot, then I can't help but reflect on how they might be making things more difficult for the people whose cause they claim to be espousing. Only last week, the most senior Muslim police officer in the UK police said that the way in which the police were implementing anti-terror laws risked alienating young British Muslims. His comments provoked a flurry of debate, with some arguing that the police were only doing what they had to do, and if anyone was "collateral damage", then tough. If these allegations turn out to be true, then it will appear as if these hardliners have been vindicated....

Joe Lieberman has lost the Democratic nomination for the US Senate after receiving the "kiss of death" from George Bush. Apparently at the last state of the union address, as Dubya made his way out of the congress, he planted a kiss on Liebermann's cheek. Liebermann has paid dearly for "sleeping with the enemy" as Democratic activists upset by his closeness to Dubya's policies,especially his support for the Iraq war helped ensure that he was not renominated for the seat that he has held in the Senate for many years. It is suggested that he might run as an independent. Is the Democratic lion finally waking up from its slumber?

I'm currently reading Claire Tiffany's Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living which was nominated for the Orange Prize but lost to On Beauty. It's a gem of a book, the simple humour-inflected anguage evoking a different time and place is completely charming. Highly recommended!

Finally I note that Chimamanda Adichie's new book Half of a Yellow Sun is to be launched in London next Wednesday. I wish I could be there, but will be stuck here in Canada....

Last day at work and meeting visiting old friends

It's my last day at work for three weeks and I'm struggling to clear my desk. I'll be off to Canada on a training course and as I suspect I'll be very busy, I'll try to keep blogging but I suspect my blogging may be intermittent. We'll see....

An interesting weekend largely filled with visiting and meeting up with the various friends and relatives visiting from Nigeria in the usual summer holiday onslaught. thankfully this time, I haven't actually had to play host to any, but just getting around, catching up with everyone is quite a feat. It's a strange feeling, dashing half way across London to meet some old classmate or friend and their families, and then struggling to make the most of the couple of hours you have together before dashing off to the next rendezvous. How do you compress the events of the last two years into a hurriedly snatched hour, interspersed with buying rounds and pub lunches, with many of the visitors raring to get on with the shopping that is the high point of the London holidays for many of them.

Forget Trafalgar Square, forget the museums and galleries, forget the tourist attractions of London, for many of my friends visiting from Nigeria- Jermyn Street, Oxford Street , Liverpool Street and Finsbury Park markets are where it's at....

As I walk home on Sunday night to meet a pulsating rooftop party on one of the houses on my street, I reflect on how much I and my friends have changed, and how much we've stayed the same.......

Appreciating Okonjo-Iweala's achievements

Now that the news of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala resigning (or Okonjo-Wahala, as she half-jokingly referred to herself in an interview with the UK Guardian this week) http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1540043,00.html from the Nigerian cabinet has been confirmed, I think it's important to note her many achievements which are detailed in the Guardian interview. It is very sad that someone who had sacrificed so much and who had contributed so much could be discarded in the shoddy way that she has been. Obasanjo is obviously sending a clear message to Nigerian professionals abroad- come back home and contribute what expertise you can so we can use and dump you.

In some ways I'd seen Dr Okonjo-Iweala as a role model- she had travelled abroad for higher education, attained a position where she was INVITED home to Nigeria to contribute, and because she had been invited and was confident of her competence; and because she had not lobbied anyone for the job, she was able to go into office and take tough decisions and produce results. In 2003, the Nigerian rumour mills were agog with the story that she had resigned her job after President Obasanjo had reneged on their original agreement to put debt management firmly under her portfolio as Minister of Finance. As the story put it, she had already packed her bags and booked her flight back to the US when the President realizing she meant business, had to appeal to her octogenarian professor father to ask his daughter to reconsider. True or not, she did continue in the role of Finance minister and managed the enviable feat of negotiating Nigeria's exit from the Paris Club, the first African country ever to achieve this. Many criticized her policies and some suggested that the debt buy back was not the best deal that Nigeria could have negotiated; but all agreed that her practice of publishing revenue allocations introduced a level of transparency never before seen in economic management. It is also instructive that there has been no whiff of corruption around her person- even the rumours that have swirled have only extended as far as her wider family members- no mean feat in a country where her actions would have meant that many would have been keen to smear her.

Her financial and economic achievements have been widely acknowledged but I would like to celebrate a part of her that did not often get acknowledged- her simplicity.

In Nigeria where flamboyance is the order of the day, Ngozi's consistent dressing in simple ankara cloth often accessorized with simple beads or coconut shell jewellery sent a powerful message to the Nigerian public. She showed that you did not have to be swathed in yards of lace, silk or satin and draped in tonnes of gold to be an effective or powerful woman. Her blunt speaking and sharp mind made her an alternative role model for young Nigerian women everywhere and earned her the respect of the international community.

It is sad that some Nigerian commentators see her decision to resign as a sign of an ego problem. It is no such thing. It was an act of pride and dignity from a fulfilled, capable and self-aware professional woman. She was left with no other choice, following the humiliation that she had received in the last two months. Reading her resignation letter, it's interesting that while she quotes two reasons for her resignation- urgent family reasons and having completed her assignments, the President's reply only acknowledges the first- the family reasons.

When all is said and done, President Obasanjo has not been fair to Dr Okonjo-Iweala, who had borne the brunt of criticism that she and others like her were responsible for creating a veneer of credibility around a corrupt and intellectually bankrupt government.

Yesterday was another sad day for Nigerians everywhere whether we realize it or not. Some of us who were hoping some day to follow in her footsteps will now have to re-evaluate our strategies

Breaking News? Okonjo-Iweala resigns?

Just got an e mail from the intrepid Omoyele Sowore of Sahara Reporters fame (he of the Gbenga Obasanjo interview and other allied citizen-journalist coups) alleging that Ngozi Okonjo Iweala has resigned from the cabinet http://www.saharareporters.com/dn001.php?dnid=98 Hardly surprising, if it's true- seeing my earlier post today about her being removed as chair of the economic team while she was away in London negotiating further debt relief. Interestingly enough, another Nigerian blogger, Ayoke had wondered in what may now seem to be a prophetic post, whether the time hadn't come for madam Ngozi to throw in the towel.....

How will the international lenders react? How will the other members of the economic team react? How will the vast majority of Nigerians who have even if grudgingly accepted her achievements in the economic realm react? Will it mean that the coffers of carefully husbanded foreign reserves will now be thrown open?

We'll see what unfolds tomorrow...

Looks like it's true...there's a report from Reuters quoting the Nigerian government http://snipurl.com/ucfs

Cooler days, the complexity of radical Islam & what's up between OBJ and Ngozi?

It looks like the really hot days are gone now- apparently July was the hottest summer in the UK since records started being kept. It's been fun, but it's also good to be able to open the blinds in the office now and not worry about having hot, sticky, stinky feet by the time the work day draws to a close.....

I'm reading Jason Burke's book On the Road to Kandahar:Travels Through Conflict in The Islamic World. He's The Guardian's Chief Correspondent and the book is basically about his travels in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan over the last 15 or so years. It's not terribly easy to read, there seems to be something missing, something too dispassionate and structured about it. It doesn't work as a particularly engaging narrative and if its primary point is analysis, then why all the personal vignettes many of which really add little to the whole argument? Or to put it another way it simply smacks vaguely of a cut and paste job- putting together what I suspect are various articles that have appeared in print elsewhere- into a book. What it does offer are interesting insights into how the image of a monolithic, terrorist, radical Islam that is sweeping the world is false and belies the myriad subtle differences and complexities that make up the Islamic world in 2006. It's a theme picked up in this week's Europe edition of Time magazine which I've enjoyed tremendously- it has a very good analysis of why it's wrong for the US to lump Hamas and Hizbollah, who have very specific, fairly local agendas in the same broad terrorist bag with Osama and others who have more grandiose global agendas. And there's a section on the meeting of East and West, retracing the footsteps of Marco Polo, in beautifully written prose, including a bit on Sri Lanka by one of my all-time favourite writers- Pico Iyer. The East West theme is a recurrent one these days but what the TIME stories offer are beautiful insights and images of what it is like in the new boom cities of China.

So, Obasanjo fires Ngozi Okonjo Iweala as head of the economic team, while she is in London negotiating further debt relief, coming only weeks after she was removed from Finance to Foreign Affairs. There's obviously something deeper going on than we ordinary people are privy to- I wonder if my initial synthesis of all the rumours is true- ie Obasanjo holding something over the Amazon which is allowing him to act this way- It'll be interesting to see what the international reaction will be, especially in the light of madam Ngozi's credibility in Western financial circles...... At times like this, I wish I was still in Abuja where the rumour mills worked 24/7 in situations like this, but where often through the chaff you could sift out the fine kernels of truth.....

Still no takers on the immigration campaign, I see..... Or perhaps on the scale of the problems facing Nigerian women, people think the ability to get a passport is quite minor. Fair enough, I know the women in my village aren't clamouring to be given passports but I personally believe that symbols are also important and powerful.....

Scotland Yard's poisoned chalice, unimpressed by Londonstani and Alentejo Blue and a ridiculous requirement

Scotland Yard has just been handed a poisoned chalice. Detectives from Scotland Yard have arrived in Nigeria, at the invitation of the Nigerian government to help unravel the truth behind the assassination of Funsho Williams, the politician brutally murdered in his bedroom in Lagos last week. Call me a cynic but I suspect the motivation of the Nigerian governement in inviting them. Working in unfamiliar terrain, arriving almost 24 hours after the event and lacking the necessary infrastructure/materials (CCTV etc), I suspect they'll have their work cut out. And if they fail, I can just imagine the Nigerian government crowing "Well, even the experts from Scotland Yard couldn't crack it, so you can't blame us, can you?"

I finished Londonstani and my verdict remains- readable, insightful but not a great book. Not even the not wholly plausible last minute sting in the tale saves it from being an average read. And to think some people were actually talking about it being nominated for the Booker...

Ditto for Alentejo Blue, Monica Ali's latest book, after Brick Lane. It's beautifully written- great prose and vivid pictures, but there's just too much going on. As she attempts to chart the lives of the inhabitants of a Portuguese village in the Alentejo, it feels as if she's trying to cram in every snapshot, every vignette, every story thread that she's ever stumbled across in the Portuguese village where she apparently owns a house with her husband. She should probably have focussed on four major characters max, or as an alternative written a much fatter book to allow all the different stories play out properly.....

Two weeks ago, I had an e mail forwarded to me from a friend. Apparently the Nigerian Immigration Service had cancelled a whole bunch of passports and circulated the numbers without informing the passport holders. So some people had found themselves refused entry at airports because their passports had been cancelled. I was sent a link to the NIS website http://www.immigration.gov.ng/index2.htm to make sure that my passport was not on the list displayed there. Thankfully it wasn't but what I did stumble across was this list of requirements for obtaining a Nigerian passport , http://www.immigration.gov.ng/passportypes.htm which for married women apparently includes a letter of consent from their husbands. There is no similar requirement for married men. Not too long ago, Jeremy Weate of naijablog published a post that began "it's 2006 abroad but in Nigeria it's 1956". That post provoked a lot of angry comment. Methinks that as far as this ridiculous requirement stands it's the 19th century in Nigeria. Do Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Dora Akunyili and Oby Ezekwesili and the rest of Obasanjo's amazons know about this requirement? I sense an opportunity for a brief, effective campaign, any takers?

Some good news,reading Londonstani, musing on stubbornness and another callous murder

Had some good news last night, just as I was leaving work. My phone rang and I took it out, answering casually, lazily"hellloo?"..... Is that Uknaija? the crisp, clipped voice said- It's Y here from Company Z.... It took a while for the words to register and for me to realize that this was a very important telephone call and a company topshot at the other end of the phone. "I was just ringing to let you know that we thought your proposal was the most credible and innovative and we will be going with it? We'll be sending out detailed paperwork tomorrow but I thought I'd let you know" And then the voice goes on to ask..."Are you surprised?" Am I !!!! "I'm stunned" is my response. The timing couldn't be better as I'd had a bit of a blip at work this week.....

On to the library where I bagged two of the books that had long been on my hit list- Gautam Malkani's Londonstani about a group of British-Asian "rudeboys" growing up in Hounslow and Monica Ali's Alentejo Blue set in a Portuguese village. Both haven't had great reviews, but I'd read an excerpt from Londonstani in Prospect a while ago and was intrigued by the experimental language in which it was written- a mishmash of Cockney, African-Caribbean, South Asian and hip-hop gangsta slang. I'm about halfway through and can see why the reviewers weren't so excited. It's a great and original theme exploring what it means to be a young British Asian man in London in 2006, but you can't help feeling that the author's trying too hard to over-analyze and extrapolate and theorize at the expense of the credibility of the story and the characters. And you can tell that the author writes for the Financial Times-he litters the book with economic phrases and arguments, sometimes putting them in the mouths of his characters in a way that detracts from the story. Perhaps he needs to write another non-fiction book outlining his economic theories. Nevertheless, it's an interesting story so far and gripping enough to keep my attention and the insights into another immigrant culture are valuable. I'll finish it off over the weekend.

To celebrate my good news I went with a friend to dinner at this fab new restaurant- we had lobster, potato and rocket salad to start and then slices of duck breast with caramelized endive in a peppercorn sauce and turnip gratin. The main was fabulous with the bitterness of the endives cutting the rich duck meat but also softened by the caramelization process; and the peppercorn sauce providing a spicy counterpoint to the richness of the creamy turnip gratin. Washed down with glasses of cold crisp, white wine, sitting on a quiet terrcae high up above the city, it was another delightful summer

On the radio, a representative of Muslim Brotherhood declaring that Israel has no right to exist as a nation, despite several attempts to make him modify his assertion, he is adamant. Meanwhile Israel thanks the international community for "giving it permission" to go ahead with its Lebanon campaign, and declares that everyone still in South Lebanon must be a terrorist as they had long been given notice to evacuate the region. As if it were so simple. With attitudes like these, it's unlikely that there will be progress made in peace talks. Sad but true.

Even sadder and more depressing is the news of the brutal callous murder of Funsho Williams, the grey bearded affable engineer who had consistently for the past ten years made no secret of his ambitions to rule Lagos State. Stabbed several times and then strangled in his own home by unknown assailants in spite of a heavy police armed guard, the news this morning was an ominous portent for politicking ahead of the 2007 elections. The Inspector General of Police has vowed to track down those responsible, but I can't help thinking of the long list of unsolved murders- from Chief Bola Ige, the late Minister of Justice assasinated in his own home to Chief Dikibo, Marshall Harry- and how we were also promised that "the perpetrators would be brought to book" One of the prime suspects in the Ige case today sits in the Senate as a "Distinguished Senator". Until we entrench accountability, the principle that actions have consequences, into our national life, we will sadly continue to see brazen instances of murder such as this.

A dark day, musical memories and reading dark Shriver

It's going to be one of those days, when you wake up and you just feel like going straight back to bed and staying there- not eating, not sleeping, not doing, just being. Looks like it's time for a break from work. I've got one coming up in a couple of weeks, but I'll need a tremendous amount of willpower to get through the next few days.

Yesterday, walking past some houses, I overheard someone playing Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" and I was taken back instantly to the first time I heard the song (or maybe it wasn't the first time, just the one time it became etched in my memory). A darkened living room somewhere in the posher sections of Festac Town, a bunch of teenagers trying to feel too cool for school- the boys huddled in conspiratorial groups in various corners; the girls coalescing, laughing loudly- too loud, maybe to hide their nervousness, and then the first notes of this song blare out and the open space in the middle of the dance floor is packed with writhing bodies, and I am in the middle of it all......

Strange how some songs are indelibly associated with certain memories- Sister Sledge's Frankie will always conjure up memories of a "lit day"(Lit coming probably from the fact that these events usually happened under the guise of a Literary and Debating Society Day- though very little literature or debating went on) as our school social events were then called with three girls strutting in unison, rhythmically swaying to the sound. They were from the American styled private school, not far from us and were allowed to wear make up with their school uniforms, which made them seem incredibly sophisticated, and made them the object of hatred for girls from the myriad other schools around......each time I hear the opening bars, I remember those three girls, all respectably married matrons now in far-flung corners of the globe, strutting their stuff, snapping their fingers and swaying ever so slowly to the beat.......

I'm currently stuck in the middle of We Need to Talk About Kevin- Lionel Shriver's Orange Prize 2005 win. It's haunting and disturbing-tracing the life of a teenage mass killer through letters from his mother to his father. I've wanted to read it for a long time, especially because many of my friends who have children said they had found it particularly disturbing. I haven't been able to put it down- but perhaps it's partly to blame for my low mood today....

Impressed by Virgin, unimpressed by Yahoo and the delights of an English summer weekend

Not a bad weekend. Friday saw me at Heathrow, seeing off friends going back to Nigeria. They were flying Virgin Upper class and I was impressed by the service, the pick-up limo, the luggage whisked through check in, etc etc, especially as it contrasted so starkly with me seeing off a friend's father flying business class back to Nigeria on KLM recently whose treatment left a fair bit to be desired. Two of his three suitcases were overweight, which I grant was his fault but the disdain with which the check in staff treated him, as he struggled to repack and redistribute the weight was appalling. This is the second time I've been impressed by Virgin. The first was my last trip to New York when I was well-impressed by the entertainment system- each seat had it's own video/television which you could pause and restart as needed, without being held captive by a centrally coordinated film system. In addition, the array of new films they had was impressive. Sadly on the flight back, it was the bog-standard central system.

At a party Friday night I find myself chatting to this guy who works for Yahoo. I make a mock cross-sign when he tells me who he works for and he asks why. I cite the case of the Chinese bloggers and he responds by saying that what the media reports fail to recognise is that their China offices were stormed by gun-wielding Chinese police. I'm skeptical and make this clear, and then he makes a comment which I find worrying. After all, he says, people haven't got any choice- they'll need to keep using Yahoo and Google because they are the best available, no matter how much they hate their policies. For their sakes, I hope he doesn't work in strategy, because I think that while people may not have choices now, dissatisfaction with the status quo is a potential growth area and a potential chink in the armour of the big guys. The attitude of "You have no choice" seems shockingly similar to New Labour's laid back attitude and look where it's leading them......

Saturday I'm at a dinner party and our host has prepared the loveliest roast chicken with roast potatoes. We eat outside in the Zen influenced garden and for once, I can actually understand a bit of what the fuss about English summers is all about. The first course is an amazing Stilton ice cream- a juxtaposition of cold and savoury which is perfect for a summer dinner....

On Sunday, to Tate Britain to see the Howard Hodgkin retrospective- I'm skeptical when a friend invites me but the vibrant colours and the way in which he is able to convey moods through colours and brushstrokes has me glowing gently all day....

All through the weekend the Middle East crisis preys on my mind- and I am particularly touched by the plight of the Lebanese people- the grass suffering as it is trampled,caught between the elephants of Hizbollah and Israel.....

Cooler weather now but incensed at avoidable tragedy in Nigeria, reading Burroughs and watching a family

Yesterday was scorching hot and we actually had an e mail at work detailing that we could "dress down", reminding us that we should drink plenty of fluids and asking that we monitor the temperature in our offices as there are apparently legal limits to how hot it can be in an office....

Thankfully today there's still good weather but there are more breezes and it's not so brain-fryingly hot....

Sad to read in the Nigerian newspapers today of a collapsed building in Ebute Metta in Lagos in which twelve people were killed. Two things that incensed me were- first, the fact that the developer had apparently been given permission for a two storey building but had ended up building a four storey building; and second, the fact that the rescue efforts were hampered by the absence of the necessary heavy equipment needed to rescue those trapped in the rubble. In the end, equipment was borrowed from a construction company........the lack of value attached to human lives in Nigeria still haunts me....

And in a reminder that accidents happen everywhere, 25 people were taken to hospital after one of the game rides at Alton Towers, a major theme park here, malfunctioned. I've always been wary of these fairground rides- call it my Naija unsophisticated naivete- but the thought of being hurled high up into the sky by a contraption is one that I'm uncomfortable with. Now, now, I can hear you snigger- but you fly so often in planes- I know- it's perverse and illogical but it's me.

I finished Augusten Burroughs' Sellevision yesterday and I found it quite funny, in direct contrast to his two previous books- Dry and Running With Scissors which were touted as being very funny but which I struggled to finish.

Last night, having a drink in the bar with friends, there was this very interesting family-Grandfather, father and son and a rather glamorous woman of a certain age who I assume was wife/mother- they seemed to be Greek or Turkish and the two older men click-clacked on their worry beads the whole time they were there. Father, brash and successful in his sleek blazer and large gold watch downed Scotch after Scotch to the irritation of distinguished, dignified, grey-haired grandfather who vociferously upbraided him in their language. Wife and son, disinterestedly flicked through what looked like brochures for one of the local universities, as their husband and father scowled in resentment at his father's chastisement. With the scowl on his face, I imagined I could see him as a little boy being chastised like this by his father and putting on the very same scowl, which education, money and success could not erase.....

London is hotter than Abuja- who'da thunk it

Just realized, looking at the BBC website that it's 32 degrees here and only 29 degrees in Abuja today......but as my colleague pointed out, the difference is that in Nigeria it's normal and expected and so you're kind of geared up for it. Here, there's allegedly power outtages and computers freezing and roads allegedly melting....and there are predictions that the temperature may even reach 37 degrees this week. Now if that isn't global warming, tell me what is....

Still hot, eating at Nyonya, arguing about the Middle east and musing on the Natwest 3

The heat wave continues and so the weekend passed in a blurry haze of exposed bodies, the slap of flip-flops (bathroom slippers, as they were less poetically known in Nigeria) and invitations to barbecues. It was a restful weekend despite the heat and I was able to snare a couple of books that I had wanted for a while from the library. First on the list was Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin which won the Orange Prize last year. It's been so in demand at the local library that I've only just got my hands on it. I was also able to get hold of Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living which was shortlisted for this year's Orange Prize. I'll be reading them in the days ahead, while lying on my couch after work sipping margaritas or perhaps a menta fresca- a non-alcoholic cocktail of mint and apple juice whic I first tasted over the weekend.

Saturday saw me at Nyonya a very nice Malay Chinese restaurant near Portobello Road. I first went there about a year ago and it was good to see that it was still doing good business and that the Nasi Lemak was still as good as ever. Described as a hawker favourite in Malaysia, the meal consists of coconut rice served with a chicken curry, fried mackerel (fried crunchily bone dry like you would get on the streets of Lagos), groundnuts, half a boiled egg, cucumber slices and sambal( a hot, sweet peppery sauce a bit like a fiery Lagos stew). I've never been to Malaysia, but the meal did seem authentic- you could almost imagine the hawker deftly slicing the hardboiled egg in two and then sprinkling a few groundnuts over the top....it was a great meal, not like the usual Thai, Chinese or Indian to which my experiences of Asian food have largely been limited....and the restaurant is one worth checking out. Funnily enough it isn't miles away from Angies, my favourite Nigerian restaurant on the Harrow Road, the only place that does jollof rice with that smokey, burnt flavour reminiscent of Nigerian party jollof rice...

Now to more somber thoughts- the face off in the Middle East. I got into another argument at the weekend. A friend had condemned Israel's heavy handed rsponse and I had agreed but pointed out that it was unclear what Israel was supposed to have done in the face of the kidnapped soldiers. His response was that Israel should have in a mature way sacrificed the kidnapped soldiers by refusing to negotiate with the kidnappers and therefore undermined them. I wasn't so sure as I felt that part of the Israeli national ethos is that sense of every citizen knowing that the state will go to extraordinary lengths to secure your future, and perhaps this is what Israel was trying to maintain......

Speaking of states and their citizens, many of the commentators on the Natwest 3 got failed to get to the heart of the issue. The Natwest 3 are the British bankers who were allegedly involved in the Enron scandal and who, having unsuccessfully tried to fight extradition, were extradited to face charges in the US last week. They were extradited under a bilateral treaty between the UK and the US, which while it has been ratified by the UK Parliament, is yet to go through Congress in the USA. What rankles me (and I suspect many others) is not the question of whether these men are guilty or not and whether they deserve punishment or not. It is the knowledge that NEVER would the US meekly hand over its citizens if the positions were reversed......this is clear from the way they blocked any possibility of US citizens appearing before UN tribunals- this I suspect is at the heart of the public outcry against extradition which produced an unlikely coalition of human rights campaigners and City businessmen, driven, I suspect by different motivations.....

The day before, words versus headbutts, two arrests and making headway with Soyinka

Tomorrow is a big day work wise and so I am in that kind of place where everything appears anti-climactic; and sitting at my desk and looking out on to the sunlit square opposite with skimpily dressed men and women sprawled basking in the sun, I get the sense that I can hear the buzzing of the heat, as if the air is treacle thick, yet clear......

A few days ago on the train I fell into a heated argument over whether or not Zidane was justified or not. While I chanted my mantra, long honed in my childhood playground "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me", my friends were as resolute in saying that sometimes words could cut as deep if not deeper than blows.....as the temperature in the train carriage soared, so did our passions, as we slung our arguments back and forth....in the end we stopped as normally-reticent London tube travellers swung their heads in our direction.....I've mused on this, long and hard but still struggle to accept that the spoken word, no matter how hateful can be equated with physical violence, but perhaps this is coloured by who I am and my experiences........

This morning on the news, Tony Blair's tennis partner and confidant Lord Levy is arrested on suspicion of peddling peerages. Perhaps this cash for peerages scandal, innocuous as it seems may end up having more serious repercussions than we think......

Meanwhile, back home in Naija, Mike Adenuga, the multibillionaire Chairman of Globacom the telecommunications company who's alleged to have close links to Babangida was apparently also arrested and is now under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, just as the Vice President Atiku Abubakar's bank records are seized by "security operatives" Obviously the stakes for 2007 are rising, especially as Atiku and Babangida recently met to join forces towards 2007

Last night I stayed up late reading Wole Soyinka's "You Must Set Forth at Dawn" I'd tried a few months ago and lost interest, mired in the dense opacity of the first few chapters but yesterday lying on the couch, I went back to it and ploughed through, and once past the first few chapters am now enjoying it...as eclectic and inscrutable as the man himself

Miliband, an idea and Wiwa's new post

Rumours that the youthful David Milliband is being considered by the Blairites as a replacement for beleaguered hapless John Prescott. The idea is that he will fend off any potential disloyal Labour candidates or people from Gordon Brown's camp which could potentially weaken Blair.....

I'm instinctively distrustful of Blairites, as I am of most ideologues and yet there's something about the idea that's attractive. Labour needs someone young and fresh if they are to counter Cameron with his "hug-a hoodie" and "intelligently planned immigration is good for us" and "hey look I cycle to work" messages.....

It's sad but true, that in modern politics, image is pretty much half the battle won, and for all that Labour may snipe about Cameron's "content-free" policies, it's largely his image that's propelling his ascent in the polls. Gordon Brown will never be a match but perhaps a smart young Deputy might help. It doesn't have to be Milliband- just someone young, smart, articulate and media-friendly.......dare the Labour party think radical?

Meanwhile I see Ken Wiwa has joined the Nigerian government as a special assistant to the President on conflict resolution. I hope it all works out for him, that he isn't just being used to buy credibility.Plus, is he ready for the cut and thrust of Nigerian politics? I wonder what his uncle Owen who was long involved in the Ogoni struggle (before fleeing into exile in Canada) thinks.

Addicted to news

As a child in what was then affluent Nigeria, my parents subscribed to various foreign magazines from TIME magazine and Newsweek to Africa and West Africa. And so every Monday morning, the newspaper vendor who came by on his motorcycle would bring that week's edition of these magazines as well as a raft of local newspapers and magazines.

Looking back now I realize that in that vendor and our relationship can be traced the story of the Nigerian economy. For from him zooming round on his motorcycle, he stepped down over the years as the economy deteriorated- first to a bicycle and then -to peddling his wares on foot. Similarly we stopped buying the foreign magazines and then reduced our order of local magazines and then stopped having him deliver, only going to the stand where he had ended up, and buying when there was something particularly newsworthy. Otherwise, as a member of the Free Readers' Club (the jocular name given to those that could not afford to buy but who would hover around newsstands browsing and copping a free read), I would hover around and browse....until one day, even free reading was banned and Vendor (as we called him) brought in a new rule......even to browse, you had to pay a fee.....

Why I am remembering this just now, I'm not sure, but it only serves to remind me how precious my 24/7 access to BBC and Nigeriaworld and all the other news outlets is, or should be.....

Meeting Ken, a bit of NY in London, Italia,enjoying Emer McCourt and a rash ban

A funny old weekend. At the RISE anti-racism festival in Finsbury Park, organized by the Mayor of London I bumped into the man himself getting orange juice for his two delightful kids, who seemed to be having the time of their lives. It's funny how people look larger than life in the media, Ken Livingstone always comes across as this dapper, vibrant, powerful figure. Yet on Saturday in his old T-shirt and jeans, slightly wearied by the sun, he just looked like another middle-aged father frazzled by his toddler children.......The festival was fun and a great day out, and coming so soon after July 7, there was no better time to celebrate the theme : London United.......

During the week, walking down Cheapside near St Paul's in the City, as the traffic poured down the street, I suddenly spotted a yellow New York cab making its way down the street. Then a second and a third. I'm not sure what it was about, but it made me (and a couple of other bystanders I suspect) execute a double take. You know the kind of feeling where you're thinking "Am I dreaming or is it real? Where am I? New York or London?" Someone thought it might be in solidarity with London over the anniversary of the 7th of July bombings.....

Then last night, the World Cup finals which I watched in a local pub- I shouted myself hoarse with the bubbly Italians that seemed to swarm all over London in their blue Azzuri shirts and the red-white -green tricolore. I wondered if there were any French living in London at all. There was one lone voice in the pub who occasionally chipped in with a brave "Allez le bleues", but he was no match for the Italian contingent who sang, danced and were generally as over the top as all the stereotypes- witness the carryings-on by the team themselves when they went up to receive the cup. I was supporting Italy for two reasons- first because of their dazzling performance in the semi-final against Germany and second because I was incensed to read that some French people were not supporting Les Bleues because they were not white enough......with that I thought, if you can't all get behind the team, then you really do not deserve to win. I did feel for the individual French players though, who played with passion. Particularly Zidane and his moment of madness and Thuram who cried like a baby when they lost and Henry stoic in defeat......Now that the World Cup and Wimbledon are both over, what will occupy our minds and conversations, at work, on the train and in the pubs?

I just finished Emer McCourt's debut novel Elvis, Jesus and Me, about two siblings growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. It's written in a very humorous tone and yet there are deep dark issues that she manages to explore humorously without trivializing them....

On a final note, I understand the Nigerian video censors board has banned the film The Da Vinci Code from being shown in Nigeria, which is sad and symptomatic of the closed-mindedness that seems to be sweeping across my country. A faith that cannot stand questioning, perhaps needs to be re-examined......and by banning it, the Board has only given it more prominence, painting it with the attractiveness of the forbidden

A controversial question, being Italian and memento mori

Sunday was hot and humid and as I dragged my weary feet through the greenery of Hyde Park, wishing that I could strip off my shorts and shirt and plunge into the cool pool of water running through a shaded cove in the park, I came upon a Middle Eastern family on a similar stroll, the boys and men all dressed in cool white tobes, the women swathed in black abayas. At the risk of provoking controversy, I couldn't help but think "Who on earth decided that women should wear black, a colour that from my early physics lessons I recall, absorbs heat in soaring temperatures?" And that men should wear cool heat-repelling white? Convention, culture, religion? It did seem rather unfair to my ignorant simplistic mind......

It's official, I'm Italian now. After the dazzling performance of Italy in their semi-final match against Germany, I can't help but join the Italian fan team. I've already blogged before about how Wole Soyinka calls the Italians the Nigerians of Europe -from the flamboyance to the garrulity to the relaxed attitude to rules exemplified on my first visit to Italy by the two carabinieri I spotted smoking right under the no smoking sign in the airport, it's obvious we share a lot in common....so come Sunday I'll be screaming Italia with the rest of them.....

John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister has got himself in yet another muddle. Following quickly on the revelations of an affair with his diary secretary and an unfortunate photograph of him playing croquet on the lawns of the grand mansion that was part of his perks of office, comes the revelation that he had spent a weekend at the ranch of Philip Anschutz, a US billionaire who is hoping to get planning permission to open the UK's first super casino; and that Prescott (or Two Jags as he used to be fondly known because of his two official Jaguar vehicles) had held meetings with him no less than SEVEN times in the last two years. Allegedly they had discussed their shared fondness for William Wilberforce, the abolitionist who was born in Hull, Prezza's constituency. The reaction of the Labour Government to this new scandal shows just why they do not get it. How can they not see the incongruity of someone who made much of his starting life as a ship steward becoming so seemingly dazzled by the lifestyles of the rich and famous? It is the pure arrogance of power that has dogged their every step in the recent past. Perhaps it's inevitable, having been in power as long as they have. I think the Romans had it right, when they had someone walk beside conquering generals in their victory parades, muttering in their ear "memento mori- Remember thou art mortal" Perhaps that's what Tony Blair and Obasanjo need, a constant reminder of their mortality and infallibility.

Oh, by the way I read Cloth Girl over the last two days and it's a good read- it starts off in a slightly pedestrian way but it picks up and is particularly interesting in the way it explores Ghanaian and English cultures and attitudes in the 40s and 50s.The language and style may be a trifle simple, but it's a gripping story of two women, one English and one Ghanaian in colonial Accra and how their lives become intertwined......

I finally read the Nigeria story in Tokyo Calling and it's called The Flyover and is set near Balogun market, under the bridge- I think the author captures the sense of Lagos well andI was only sad that it was so short......

Next up on my reading list- two novels by young British Asians- Gautam Malkani's Londonstani and Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal's Tourism

Heartbroken over England's loss,trying to make sense from rumour & a saddening assault on free speech

Who would have thought that after my last post that I would be so upset by England losing to Portugal? But there was something about the heart with which they played with ten men against eleven that won me completely over. Aaron Lennon and Crouch were both playing with all their hearts and you couldn't but wish them well. Every minute from the 62nd when Rooney got sent off was a cliffhanging, lip-chewing one....and when it all ended in tears, I found myself with a lump in my throat as well....It was such a shame that Rooney fell victim to the provocation, but then when all's said and done, he is ONLY a 20 year old....I'm sure there'll be lessons for him in this. To add insult to my English friends' injury, France won THEIR match, going on to the semifinals. At the end of the England Portugal match, my friends had said, "Now we're supporting anyone but France"....Oh I said "Do you dislike the French more than the Germans then?" "Of course" they all spat with one voice, leaving me yet again bewildered by the hierarchical nature of these intra-European rivalries.....

Had friends visiting from Nigeria over the weekend with disparate rumours about why Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was moved from Finance. One school of thought was that it was to clear the path for building up a war chest for the 2007 elections. The other (less complimentary) was that it had to do with the brouhaha over commissions for the debt buy back. I've come up with my own theory- a middle ground combining both: in order to build war chest, commissions brouhaha is waved in the air to secure acquiescence...or perhaps there is no shred of truth in it all.....

Freedom of speech is under threat both in Nigeria and the UK. In the UK, Steven Jago was arrested under the Serious and Organized Crimes Act for carryinga placard and copies of a Vanity Fair article entitled Blair's Big Brother Britain outside Parliament. News of this led me to go out and buy Vanity Fair so I could read the offending article by Henry Porter, a columnist in The Guardian. I must say the picture he paints is quite scary, but what is even scarier is the deafening silence from the press and members of the public. Why on earth should demonstrations be banned within one kilometre of Parliament- a radius that very conveniently includes 10 Downing Street? Security measures are already in place and tourists are free to mill about so it cannot be about that. Or perhaps the police are worried about spontaneously combusting placards? The mind boggles......

Taking a leaf from our erstwhile colonial masters, the Nigerian State Security Service arrested journalists who questioned the safety and security of the newly acquired presidential aircraft were arrested and charged with sedition.

Since Tony Blair recently put in a proposal for a new executive plane, perhaps he'll be taking a leaf from his good friend Obasanjo if any dare criticize the move......

Disarming honesty, books to look forward to and echoes of 7th July

At the train station last week, I was in a hurry and so rushed to use the newly installed machines thinking I could avoid the queues that way. Precious minutes after, the silly machine spewed out my credit card with a signal saying "Sorry this transaction cannot be completed at the moment"....gritting my teeth I went to join the now even longer queue, certain that I'd missed my train. Sure enough I had and so I complained to the gentleman behind the counter. In a burst of extraordinary frankness he confided that the machines weren't always very good at processing transactions, and that he hoped that this state of affairs would continue because he would be out of a job when the machines started to work promptly and efficiently. Honest as he was I did wonder if it was wise saying this to a stranger, after all for all he knew I could have been a manager in the train company......

Browsing in Daunt's, a lovely oak panelled independent bookshop I stumbled across recently, I noted a number of new books which will surely keep me busy in the weeks ahead.The great thing about Daunt is that their books are arranged in geographical sections, so going to the USA section, you can find anything from the latest biography of Condi Rice to Philip Roth's latest novel, to a California travel guide.

In the Africa section, I saw Aminatta Forna's novel- Ancestor Stones. Having enjoyed her The Devil that Danced on the Water, a memoir of her father, one of Sierra Leone's leading early politicians, I'm looking forward to seeing her turn her gracefully eloquent hand to fiction. Also catching my attention was The Cloth Girl, set in mid forties Ghana, written by Marilyn Heward Mills who's half Ghanaian and half Swiss. It's not often we find contemporary books set in that era so am looking forward to it as well. Monica Ali's second novel Alentejo Blue which hasn't received great reviews, also caught my eye but I'm sure that after the runaway success of Brick Lane, anything that she produced subsequently would struggle with the critics......Finally Marie Fatayi-Williams who eloquently and courageously summed up the grief of many the day after her son Anthony was killed in the July 7 bombings has written a book explaining how she got through those dark days. Proceeds will go the Foundation set up in her son's memory. Anthony son of a Muslim father and a Roman Catholic mother, scion of English and Nigerian heritage was a potent symbol of the senseless killings of last year......

Disappointingly while the Nigerian section in Daunt had the Bradt travel guide and a few Chinua Achebe novels, there was no Soyinka, not to talk of Adichie, Atta, Abani, Afolabi, Habila. It made the shelf look a bit sparse which is such an unfair representation. Which maddens me- because let's imagine a book lover strolls over to Daunt's and thinks "Hmmm I'd like to read something Nigerian" and then saw the sparse offering they'd think nothing much was happening in Nigerian literature. Which of course is patently untrue. So when even an alternative, off the beaten track bookshop still struggles to stock popular, prize winning books by Nigerian and African writers, how are they supposed to make a name for themselves?

At the moment I'm reading and enjoying Rana Dasgupta's Tokyo Cancelled, a sort of contemporary rendering of The Canterbury Tales- several travellers are stranded at an airport when their flight to Tokyo is cancelled and they end up passing the time telling stories, there is a surreal, medieval quality to the tales which is compelling. I'm looking forward to the story set in Lagos.....

Our five days of summer are here and as I prepare to go and watch England play Portugal I wonder if the English will end up stumbling their way to the World Cup. Watching Brazil is sheer poetry, the fluidity of movement, the balletic passes, England always ends up getting there, but with only the occasional flash of brilliance. In any case I'll be flying my St George flag, got free with my evening newspaper yesterday..... I noticed the vendor hesitate before offering it to me, perhaps he wondered if I'd find it offensive- I didn't.....

Yesterday, half the London underground was closed suddenly at rush hour and as I tried to make sense of the conflicting reasons the staff gave, I hoped and prayed it was nothing more sinister.....

Lessons learnt, now loving Seth's Two Lives and an opaque shuffle

I keep my phone permanently on vibrate, because I've learnt I can't trust myself to remember to switch it off. I learnt this bitter lesson after a particularly embarassing incident when I was doing my postgraduate degree and a very distinguished professor had come to teach us. So we're sitting in this cavernous lecture theatre, and I'm stuck right in the middle of one of the rows.

Back then I used to keep my mobile phone in my back pack- now I carry it on my person always- except when I go to bed. So Distinguished Professor is just launching into a particularly elegant part of her discourse, when my phone goes. She smiles wryly as first, as does the rest of the class, and then as I scramble through the different pockets of my backpack looking for the phone, the smiles fade. Then there's silence from everyone except my phone which won't stop chirping.And I can't beat a hasty retreat as half the people on my row will need to stand up to let me pass. I finally found the phone and turned it off, but made two vows then- always to keep my phone on vibrate and never to sit in the middle of a row if I can help it.

I've finally got into Vikram Seth's Two Lives- I'm lugging it everywhere I go at the moment. His depiction of the lives of his Indian dentist uncle and the German (Jewish) woman he married is harrowing. I'm reading about his aunt in the immediate post war years and having to come to terms with the fact that her mother and sister were exterminated in the death camps while friends stood by and watched. Reading the letters from some of her friends describing the hardships they face in post war Germany, I feel like yelling- "Yes, but you're alive!" Seth writes searingly of how he becomes unable to enjoy his favourite German composers while he is going through material for the book- all beauty apparently tainted by the evil. My recurring question of what makes ordinary people, turn against their friends and neighbours, as in Nazi Germany and in Rwanda, continues to haunt me.....

The cabinet reshuffle in Nigeria bemuses me - so many theories, so many analyses. I'm pleased that the universally acclaimed Obi Ezekwesili is moving to Education- it's time we started putting some of that money we've saved to use in improving the education and health of the people. But she is to do that in addition to Solid Minerals? And Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala moved to Foreign Affairs, but "retaining headship of the economic team?" Nasir El Rufai is also running two ministries- what Obasanjo should be doing is finding more people to support his technocrats not devolving everything to a small team.....The saddest thing is the lack of transparency which breeds rumours and gossip. Or perhaps that's what this is supposed to achieve...I'll be looking forward to reading Ngozi's memoirs.....

As we approach the summer season and I brace myself for the onslaught of friends and family here on the annual Nigerian summer junket, the news that the Nigerian Government has issued a warning to travellers to the UK to beware of conmen seems to have ruffled feathers in the BBC who suggest it's a tit for tat thing. But it isn't. Anecdotally I know quite a few friends who've had bags and laptops stolen, and they've all seemed slightly perturbed by the fact that the perpetrators are white.....so I say to them did you think white people do not steal? A friend of mine, quite well educated and a middle level professional in Nigeria was shocked on his first visit to London last year to see white people begging on the street. When I see reactions like these, I worry about the lingering effects of what we used to call "colonial mentality"

David Cameron, having finished a fight with Gordon Brown about who was the real football fan,now uses the phrase "big up" in an official speech. Just a normal turn of phrase at Eton I presume....

Unfair summer clothing rules, drooling over Galvin and Vikram Seth's Two Lives

It's been a hectic few days dashing here there and everywhere and the summer doesn't really help- ever been on a busy train carriage with broken down air conditioning, with your feet sticking to the insides of your shoes and you wishing to kick them off but not daring because you fear the stench? I think women are a bit luckier as far as summer office dressing is concerned, they can dress down and even wear sandals without looking totally and utterly unprofessional. What I'd really love is to just wear shorts and sandals and a short sleeved shirt.....

Great meal at the weekend, at Galvin, the London bistro owned by the two Galvin brothers who have worked in virtually every top restaurant in London and which has been getting rave reviews. I had a delightful crab salad to start followed by confit of duck and they were both great. The simplicity that is the ethos of the place ran through from the unstuffy staff to the food and the wine and best of all the prices. I'll certainly be going back....

On the reading front I got into Vikram Seth's Two Lives this week. As an avid Seth fan- I've loved all his books, A Suitable Boy, An Equal Music and even The Golden Gate, his California novel in verse that I resisited for a long time because I couldn't imagine getting into a novel in verse. I eventually read it and loved it- it's witty and fun and literally unputdownable...but I must say I'm struggling with Two Lives. It's interesting but ever so slightly reportorial.....if there's such a word. But I'll keep going.....

Had interesting conversations with friends visiting from Nigeria over the weeknd...there does seem to be a sense that this time around we want a true leader, with a vision, not just someone from a particular area or religion or interest group......

Sad over a closing shop and swinging football loyalty

Walking to work this morning, I notice that the Korean/Asian deli/supermarket that opened just a couple of months ago on my regular route has closed. I looked through the window and it was empty, all the furniture taken out. It seems like only yesterday the shelves were bursting with exotic fruit and vegetables, and I was bound to catch a whiff of something as I power walked past its entrance....Seeing it closed made me feel sad in a way, not because I ever went in, but I just liked the thought that it was there and it was open and that perhaps one day I could pause and buy a Korean pear for my lunch.

To be honest, I'm not surprised it closed, even though I willed it to stay open. It was situated on a small lane not really near to anywhere- and there was no obvious immediate market... I should have guessed the minute the signs went up saying that they now did lunch- a tiny table was squeezed in and places with cutlery laid out along it, but it was too cramped, too small to tempt any of the office folk from around who on their lunch hour, liberated from their desks, want to luxuriate in space.....

Watched the England Trinidad match yesterday. At the beginning of this World Cup I'd promised myself I was going to support England- I live here,have friends and family here and Nigeria isn't playing this year; Plus none of the African teams particularly inspired my support.....and it worked well for the Paraguay match. I was able to yell with the best of them at "our" boys to raise their game.....and joined in the screaming as we celebrated our lacklustre victory...

But yesterday with Trinidad, I could not help it- I think it was something about my instinctive sympathy for the underdog- but even though I started out supporting England, a little bit of me thought- winning for the English team will be a so what moment,what with pundits predicting a drubbing for the Trinidadians. But for these boys, holding England to a draw would be truly magical- can you imagine the celebration?

And when it looked like the boys were going to hold England to a draw, and as England players lost chance after chance, my sympathy slowly swung towards the Trinidadians...sadly (or happily) the last ten minutes of the match turned the world back to rights with two goals pushed in by the English and the drream of a giant slain by a dwarf crumbled.... I hope the English team raise their game and inspire me to cheer them in the Sweden game

To make up, I tucked into Ayelet Waldman's Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, a tale of contemporary stepmotherhood set in New York (what's with me and this new New York love? I wonder) which was smart,daring, bold, funny and ultimately uplifting....Roll on the weekend!!

June 12 and railway signs and a Labour meltdown?

It was only after I'd put up my last post that I realized it was June 12 and I felt I ought to say a word or two about it. Thirteen years ago, on this date, Nigerians voted in what many agreed was the freest and fairest elections ever held in the country...I remember that day vividly and the excitement building up to it- who can forget the campaign jingle "MKO is ouuu..rrr man O! Pity that all that joy and promise was cut short by Babangida and his pals for reasons best known to them...which brings me to one of my frustrations with Nigeria- the absence of good quality investigative journalism.

Why thirteen years after June 12 do we still know so little about why that election was annulled?

Why is there no national monument to MKO Abiola, who (like him or loathe him) became the symbol; and a martyr for Nigerian democracy?

Perhaps it is because of our poor collective memory that we continue to repeat the mistakes of the past....

Saw a sign in a train station in Valencia at Easter. It read "Please be aware that not everyone in this station is a traveller. Take care of your belongings" or words to that effect. How much more elegant and restrained than London Underground's brash "Thieves and pickpockets operate in this station, please take care of your belongings"

It seems not a day goes by now without the announcement of some new New Labour government "scandal" or another- yesterday it was the scandal of tax credits being paid to immigrants who did not qualify for them, today it was about the Assets Recovery Agency set up to confiscate the assets of convicted criminals- but which turns out to have cost far more to set up and run than it has ever collected....I'm not quite sure if there is a vast media conspiracy dripfeeding these negative stories on a continuous basis, or whether the government is in such a shambles as it appears to be......whichever it is, I fear that this constant barrage will do the Labour government lasting damage.....are we perhaps witnessing the last days of a Labour government in Britain? I suppose the answer is that there's time enough before the next elections for things to turn around...but I'm not holding my breath...

Just finished Jake Arnott's truecrime and Sarah Waters' The Night Watch, so have been immersed in a London rather different from what it is now....but no less engrossing. I suppose that is one of the skills of a good writer, the ability to recreate a time and place so vividly it seems real...

Now reading Nicole Krauss' A History of Love- It's quirky and different and I can see why it was shortlisted for the Orange Prize

Pity none of the African teams at the World Cup have won their first matches so far, I can hear you say what did you expect, but hey we're all allowed to dream.....all eyes on Tunisia tonight to hopefully give Saudi Arabia a drubbing....

Second thoughts on NYC, not so summery feeling and Google trawling

Been away a while- in New York- which is slowly growing on me.

I didn't take to it the very first time, something about the vast numbers of towering buildings crammed into such a small place sparked off a claustrophobia-like feeling in me- hardened city lover that I am- But, following this, my third visit, NYC is beginning to grow on me.

Been back a while now but twice in the last month when I tried to blog, blogger was down...unfortunate timing..

Anyways...

The sun is out, real summer is here and everyone is as usual relishing it. In the square outside various bodies are sprawled in varying degrees of undress, united in the universal English ritual worship of the sun, a ritual you cannot understand until you live through your first dark, dank, winter. I must say I'm beginning to think summer's overrated, frankly- sweaty feet,the lethargy that the heat confers on you,itchy eyes, throat and face (if like me you suffer from hay fever)....the list goes on. I suppose it's the idea of summer that we love so much...not really the real thing

Been reading a prodigious amount. Of note were Rachel Cusk's In the Fold- a beautifully balanced English social commentary which is one of the successful examples of where a writer manages to convey a deeper meaning without distorting the beauty and pace of the story..., Leila Aboulela's Minaret which again successfully presents a sympathetic almost subtly proselytizing picture of Islam but because the story and language flow so well, it doesn't grate quite in the way that you would imagine the proselytizing might.

Also enjoyed Gerald Donovan's Doctor Salt, a kafkaesque commentary on many social issues, psychiatry, drug companies, contemporary American society- witty and spare- it read well....As did Romesh Gunesekera's new book The Match which is different in style from Reef his other book that I've r

Looking forward to reading Wole Soyinka's You Must Set Forth at Dawn, which (unusually for me) was the ONLY book I bought in New York....but somehow nothing elseseemed to capture my attention while I browsed in Barnes and Noble. Perhaps I timed my visit wrong- maybe this is the famine season for American literature. I did try to get two other books - Caine Prize nominated Laila Lalami's Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits and Emily Raboteau's The Professor's Daughter without any luck- they weren't in stock. I know I should just buy them off Amazon, but frankly I prefer doing my book shopping live, so I can browse through, flick through and dillydally before I finally decide to buy or not...call me Luddite if you like...

Over in Naija, the hustling for the now obviously soon-to-be-vacant Aso Rock continues apace - with even third termites (an apt appellation borrowed from Thisday's Simon Kolawole) who had sworn that no one else but Baba Obasanjo could rule Nigeria post 2007, jumping into the race....

And in the UK, I am beginning to fear that Labour might actually need to find someone else other than Gordon Brown to give David Cameron a good run post-Blair. The problem is as I see it, that everyone is disillusioned with Blair, and Cameron offers a fresh (even if blank and policy free) alternative. Those Labour supporters who have a strong historical aversion to voting Tory don't hold the deciding votes- it's the more easily persuadable middle of the roaders that do. And when it comes to a contest for the hearts and minds of these fairly fickle bunch between dour Gordon and smiley Dave, guess who's going to win.....

I notice Google's cofounder Sergey Brin has finally admitted that the company had compromised its principles by yielding to censorship in China.When I blogged on this a while back http://snipurl.com/ro5f , a nice anonymous person posted a link to an article which they claimed "provided some perspective". I remember marveling at what I immediately assumed was an exercise in damage control by some corporate bods- trawling the blogs, to find blogs critical of Google and posting helpful balanced links on them....Nice work if you can get it

"Home made" restaurant food and a dash of Naija politics

Oh, last week I also read the rather charmingly titled Is it Just me or Is Everything Shit? The Encyclopaedia of Modern Life. It had me rolling with laughter on the plane with its opinionated rants on various issues from Tony Blair to pre-washed vegetables to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera....and while reading I fell into the authors style of thinking. So when I walked into a restaurant in Venice and saw an item on the menu that said home made spaghetti, I thought to myself that's another abused word in modern life. You go into a restaurant and they have home made this or home made that on the menu- like the chefs prepared it at home and brought it in?? As the Americans would say gimme a break.....

I haven't talked about Nigerian politics in a while, partly because I'm still shellshocked at the way the Third Term brouhaha collapsed like a pack of cards. And as much as I was opposed to the third term, there's a bit of me that can't help thinking....now what? I know, I know...there are glimmers of hope what with talk of an Utomi candidacy and an Okonjo-Iweala candidacy, but I can't help but feel that at the end of the day, the small elitist cabal that has long held sway in Nigerian politics, unless the Nigerian people unite as the people of Anambra state did and resist all attempts to rig the 2007 elections. If Obasanjo can sort out a smooth transition to a credible successor, I promise to overlook all his failings henceforth....

On the subject of criticism, I get tired of people who suggest that all criticism, especially of "baba" Obasanjo is bad criticism. I am NOT anti-Obasanjo, I have no vested interests beyond my Nigerian citizenship and I acknowledge wholeheartedly what he has achieved- from securing a period of relatively peaceful civilian rule to paying off the debt, the GSM licences and so on. But to whom much is given, much is expected and Obasanjo had a whole lot of goodwill and could have done so much more....why for instance isn't there a similar health, education and science team to match his economic team?

Image is everything and a good library haul

Woke up this morning to the news that the Tories are leading Labour in opinion polls at the moment- no surprises there, but apparently for the first time, voters are rating the Tories higher than Labour on issues like health and education and not just their usual areas of immigration and crime. This brought to mind a conversation I had with a friend a few weeks ago. She's English, working class girl made good and has always been an ardent Labour voter, even though she's fairly high powered in the City....but two weeks ago, she told me she was going to vote Tory in the next elections. The question I asked her is the same one I would like to ask the thousand or so people polled last week:

I am as fed up with Tony Blair as any of you, but pray tell me what alternative policies the Tories have put forward beyond trying to be all things to all people? On health? On education? Even on the environment, beyond the cycling and arctic touring stunts, what? The numerous policy review commissions that Cameron set up are yet to report back, so on what is this sudden swing to the Tories based on?

The answer of course is image......in a media obsessed world, image is everything and it may well sweep the Tories into power at the next elections...

Have had a fantastic raid of the local library and have come away with Manju Kapur's new book Home which I just finished. Her depiction of an Indian trading family reminded me very much of the machinations that went on in a prominent Nigerian family who were friends of my parents....no decisions were personal- from who you married to how many children you had, to what car or clothes you bought your wife- all had to be sanctioned by the grand family council and the patriarch, otherwise you were cut off penniless, and isolated from the lucrative family business......

Other prized hauls this week include Romesh Gunesekera's new book, The Match, Freakonomics, Naomi Alderman's Disobedience set in an Orthodox Jewish community in North London and Vikram Seth's Two Lives.....

An interesting week lies ahead, reading wise

Apologies to Nigeriaworld

Have just realized the reason I wasn't able to get on to Nigeriaworld over the last few days was because of my office putting in a new firewall...so from PCs outside work I can access Nigeriaworld ok....pop-ups and all...

By land, rail, air and sea, a challenge for CNN and another oil-fuelled tragedy in Nigeria

Okay, I've got a few minutes in between workshop sessions, so I better drop a few lines. By the time I arrived in Venice last night, under a full moon, I had travelled by all the major means of transportation available to man, bar space travel. From a meeting outside London at noon, I'd taken a taxi to the train station, caught a train to London, got the tube to the airport, flown to Venice and taken the Alilaguna (waterbus) to a stop 5 minutes from the hotel where we're staying- we walked the last 5 minutes....

The first workshop sessions this morning have been interesting and there have been lots of opportunities for "networking", so it's all good. Apparently I got in too late last night to join in the semi-drunken revelry around the poolside that passed for the culmination of the welcome party...no great loss it seems, especially as I look at some of my bleary eyed colleagues struggling to stay awake this morning....

On CNN this morning, news of a pipeline explosion in which over 150 people were supposed to have died. The reporter had on a Mr Fagbemi (I think) from Amensty International, who spoke about the corruption that pervaded all levels of government. She tried to restrict it to the state and local government levels,quoting some unsourced statistic that 30 out of 36 state governors were corrupt but he insisted, rightly that all levels of government were involved-including the federal. Why the international press and community are taken in by Obasanjo's spurious anti-corruption war is still a mystery....Some questions I would like answered are- "Which companies are responsible for importing refined petroleum into Nigeria? Who are their shareholders? How do they get the authority to import? Is it through a transparent process?" I challenge CNN to provide us with this information...

In spite of attempts to lay the blame on criminals and conniving villagers for the explosion, the guy from Amnesty went on to lay part of the blame on the oil companies who have over the years refused to adopt what is standard practice for them in other parts of the world-burying their pipelines underground........ a practice clearly outlined and condemned in The Next Gulf:London Washington and the Oil Conflict in Nigeria....... I suppose Nigerian lives are cheap, and the Nigerian environment not worth protecting. So in collusion with their partners in the Nigerian government, they continue their rape of Nigeria's resources, while ordinary Nigerians pay the ultimate price....

The universality of football, villain of the day and a new discovery

From the office window I can hear the sounds of boys playing football in the alley next door. It reminds me of Naija- ever so often the ball slams into the wall with a thud, or the boys yell, and then I think football has no language- this could be anywhere in the world....

Nigeriaworld's still down and still no word on why....

The debates (or-stand-up-and-be-counted process) continues in the Legislature in Abuja. My villain of the day is Abdul Oroh, who was a "human rights activist" and a lawyer who was active in the coalition of civil society organizations that fought against the military who was reported as being among the legislators who to quote the Nigerian paper "dodged the issue". How someone can execute such a stunning volteface, only heaven knows. From human rights campaigner a few short years ago to apologist for tenure extension. Perhpas my old man's right-there must be something in the water in Abuja......

Stumbled across the frankest Nigerian blog ever- A Disillusioned Naija Girl- the posts are long but riveting. The author may come across as wacky, quirky, bitter or whatever, but she certainly qualifies for inclusion in my search for Nigerians off the beaten track....http://nijaoffspring.blogspot.com/
Over here, Tony Blair's attacking the ruling of a judge in a bid to appear populist merely underlines his desperation.....anything to connect with middle England...

Here's a message to Blair and his pal Obasanjo- it's time you both took a break permanently, you've earned it, and it'll do wonders for your increasingly haggard appearances.......(perhaps that's stretching it a bit especially in OBJ's case, but one can hope)....

Off to Italy tomorrow for work, will try and blog from there, but may be too busy...ciao

Deja vu everywhere, the misuse of anti-corruption laws and standing up publicly

I've written often in the past few months of the feeling of deja vu that I experience each time I read about what's going on in Abuja with regard to pushing through a third term for Obasanjo. I have drawn direct parallels to my experience in Abuja in 1997 when many of the same pundits pointed to the increase in Nigeria's foreign reserves under Abacha and the "stability" that the country had enjoyed to advocate why no one else but Abacha could or should continue as President. Today, many of these same pundits are rolling out similar arguments in support of Obasanjo. The truth is that no-one holds a monopoly on wisdom or good governance and if Obasanjo and his supporters put in half the effort they are putting into this ill-advised manouevre, to finding and preparing a credible successor, they would be a lot better off.....

But there is deja vu elsewhere, with Blair's current situation in the Labour Party being compared to the last days of Margaret Thatcher in the Conservative Party....

Meanwhile across the pond, the neo-con hawks are marshalling many of the same arguments they used a few years ago to justify going to Iraq against Iran...

It's amazing how we human beings fail to learn from history-even fairly recent history......

Today's news from Abuja suggests that because the Senate President has insisted that the legislators must vote openly in favour or against the constitutional amendment, all contracts awarded since he became Senate President are being investigated by the "Independent" Corrupt Practices Commission. It is this use of the anti-corruption agencies as a weapon of blackmail that breeds doubts in the minds of people like me about the sincerity of Obasanjo when he insists that he is committed to tackling corruption...

Personally, I think the idea of having all the legislators publicly stating their position on the 3rd term issue is fantastic. Each morning, since the debate started, I read through the list of Nigerian legislators who have spoken and see what line they have toed. I have had a few shocks- Tokunbo Ogunbanjo, an erudite and urbane lawyer who is now a Senator has spoken in favour of the constitutional changes....It's good that the debate is public so that the Nigerian people and future generations know exactly who has betrayed them.......

By the way, Nigeriaworld is still down for the 3rd day running....and there's no word on why...if anyone has got a clue, drop me a line and let me know

Missing Nigeriaworld, and musing on terrorist piss-taking

For the second day running, Nigeriaworld, arguably the most popular and comprehensive Nigerian news and current affairs website is down. It's strange how easily you become attached to a website. I'm used to going there first thing to read all the Nigerian newspapers. As it's down, I've had to go the individual papers' websites which is a whole lot less efficient. I wonder what the problem is. Initially when I tried getting into Nigeriaworld and failed and then tried the Thisday and Guardian websites without any luck, I wondered if it was some conspiracy related to the third term manoeuvrings in Abuja....but then I was able to get into the Guardian and Thisday websites and realized that nothing earthshaking had happened as yet. The inability to get any sort of information about why the site is down, is frustrating, as I'm sure it is for thousands of others. Plus, the owners of the site must be losing money judging from the inordinate number of pop-ups that littered the site when it was still up.....in any case I hope they're back online soon....(sans pop-ups)

On the radio this morning, lawyers for a man found guilty of terrorist acts in Jordan, but currently living in the United Kingdom, are reported to be fighting to prevent his being deported to Jordan as they say he is likely to be tortured or killed there. Even though the Jordanian government has assured the UK government that this will not be the case, his lawyers insist that the agreement between the two countries is not worth the paper it's been written on.

I kind of understand the sentiments behind the lawyers' arguments and the importance of upholding the rule of law and civil liberties, but even my best liberal instincts can't help but feel that someone, as the English so eloquently put it "is taking the piss"....

Weekend FT, current reading,dreaming of an ipod phone, and Blair's arrogance

I read the Financial Times this weekend- lots of my friends and colleagues recommend it as the UK paper to read for unbiased news- the other major papers take decidedly ideological viewpoints. I'm not sure I agree that the FT is unbiased if such a thing as an unbiased newspaper exists, but I do enjoy their Saturday edition especially the magazine and weekend sections. Good then to see in this week's Saturday FT two Nigeria- related stories, one describing a fashion show organized in Lagos in aid of the World Food Programme which featured Deola Sagoe of Odua Creations. In the article it said Will Smith and Oprah Winfrey are fans of her clothes.....I remember when she started designing not so many years ago and how she always made clear that her vision was global, not local- looks like her doggedness and commitment are paying off- more power to her....

The other was a not entirely-unsympathetic review of the latest volume of Wole Soyinka's memoirs- You Must Set Forth at Dawn http://snipurl.com/q6es . Having enjoyed his Ibadan the Penkelemesi Years, I'm looking forward to this....

At the moment I'm reading City of Falling Angels, the new book about Venice written by John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. As I'm due in Venice for work later in the week, I thought it'd be a good time to read it..so far so good. His earlier book partly inspired me to visit Savannah in Georgia a few years ago where I was stunned to discover that the book and the film together had led to a multi-million dollar boost in tourist business for the city..... Maybe I should write a book about Abuja....

At the conference I attended in the US not too long ago, I spotted lots of people with Apple laptops designed along the same lines as the iPod- that sleek white curviness....that has set me wondering- how come no-one's designed an iphone yet? A mobile phone designed along the lines of an ipod would be a market hit and would I suspect leave the Motorola V3 lying in the dust...but perhaps it exists already and I just haven't stumbled across it yet......

Blair continues to battle for his political life...... a friend asked me yesterday why I was so anti- Blair and I said it was summed up in one word- arrogance. I am under no illusions that David- I'll stand for whatever you want me to- Cameron will be any better, but Blair and his New Labourite chums cannot just continue taking the electorate for granted..... I hope they come to their senses soon...

Meanwhile Mark Oaten blames going bald at thirty and a mid life crisis for cheating on his wife with a rent-boy- honestly, what does he take the good people of Winchester, his constituency for?

Lost phones, coincidences and local elections

Two days ago I lost my phone. I had just got out of a taxi and as it drove off, I realized my phone had slipped out of my trouser pocket. Unfortunately I was too late to get the taxi details. I had been having an interesting conversation with the cab driver who was "of Asian heritage" and so I was pretty sure he would bring it back- if only he knew how. It's amazing how lost and disconcerted losing your mobile can make you. I'm far from addicted to my phone and yet I who as a child could reel off all the numbers of my nearest and dearest (plus a few more) now only have a few numbers in my memory- they are all in my phone memory- so I could call my parent's landline in Nigeria, but not their mobiles, I could call the office and one or two other people and that was it. To make matters worse I was involved in work that meant moving around a lot and so had to keep ringing the office to make sure I wasn't missing anythings while I obsessed about all the messages that were disappearing into the ether. I tried ringing my phone, but since it's permanently on "Vibrate", I was sure the taxi driver wouldn't notice....so reluctantly I rang up the police and my phone company to report the loss. I wasn't going to let the insurers weasel out this time.... a couple of years ago, I lost my phone and the insurance refused to pay saying I had reported it more than 24 hours after the event. It drove me mad, especially as I had tried cancelling the insurance and was told I was locked in for a year. Trust me,as a Naijaman, I made noise up to ringing the office of the Chief Exec of the phone company (found the number on the internet) and generally made life very unpleasant as aresult of which I was given a new phone gratis (as a gesture of goodwill) but it still rankled that the phone had not come from the insurers....call me obsessive but I hate rip-offs.....

Anyway all's well that ends well- had a call tyesterday morning from the phone company, the cab driver had handed the phone in at one of their shops and so I'll go and pick it up. Meanwhile the replacement handset from the insurers is on it's way- I've agreed to send it back once I receive it.... Funnily enough yesterday afternoon at the tube station I saw a mobile phone drop out of someone's pocket- I dashed after her and drew her attention, and returned the phone to the young lady who nearly kissed me in her relief...I said to her I know how it feels- It seemed like an odd coincidence...

Exciting times yesterday with the UK local elections. One of the "privileges" I've always appreciated is the fact that virtually as soon as I arrived in the UK, I was eligible to vote, courtesy of being a citizen of the "Commonwealth"... I voted nice and early for the Lib Dems, largely because I could not bring myself to vote Tory,no matter how charming and cuddly David Cameron appears and because I was disgusted with Labour's arrogance, insensitivity, and stubbornness. From Patricia Hewitt patronizing the NHS and members of the public to Tony Blair stubbornly clinging to policies that everyone is against and sweeping away all complaints,or requests to reconsider under the carpet of thoughtless opposition to reforms....Glad to see the massacre, perhaps it'll make the Labour party sit up and think. I think the Lib Dems did badly because Ming Campbell isn't on the radar at all- at least Charles Kennedy had a distinctive and constant media presence.....perhaps they'd have been better off with someone younger and more dynamic.....Talking of which, the photographs of the Camerons and the Blairs going to vote were a knockout blow- There's charming Dave and Samantha, laid back wearing shirtsleeves and a summery shift dress, looking like the ordinary Londoner (even if the average Londoner hasn't been to Eton and isn't the step daughter of a Lord) and there were Tony and Cherie all dolled up to the nines in corporate gear- and Tony wearing a BLUE tie- I'd noticed that the convention here is that on election day, politicians tend to wear their party colours- blue for the Tories, yellow for the Lib Dems and red for Labour. Cameron wore a blue shirt with folded sleeves, Blair, a blue tie with red spots- perhaps that's the real colour of new Labour- Blue with flecks of red.....