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Nigeria Quotes

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Nigeria Quotes

“After you've created value, the next part of building wealth is being a good receiver. In the same way that a good phone must be able to receive wi-fi frequencies, a good person must be open to receive the frequencies of wealth. It is good to give, and it is also good to receive.”

“We need to change how we do things. We should choose the best people for jobs not just our friends. We should not ask people to pay us bribes to build roads. We should not ask people for extra money to get their land certificates. They should only pay the right amount. All if these actions are types of corruption.”

“به تماشای بچه ها مشغول شد. آنها با بی حالی روی جمن به دنبال هم مبدوبدند، از تکه چوبی به عنوان تفنگ استفاده میکردند و با دهانشان صدای گلوله در می آوردند و با دویدنشان توده ای از خاک به هوا میفرستادند. مشغول جنگ بازی بودند. چهار پسر. دیروز پنج نفر بودند.”

“A husband, a wife and some kids is not a family. It’s a terribly vulnerable survival unit. I met a man in Nigeria one time, an Ibo who had six hundred relatives he knew quite well. His wife had just had a baby, the best possible news in any extended family. They were going to take it to meet all its relatives, Ibos of all ages and sizes and shapes. It would even meet other babies, cousins not much older than it was. Everybody who was big enough and steady enough was going to get to hold it, cuddle it, gurgle to it, and say how pretty or how handsome it was. Wouldn’t you have loved to be that baby?”

“I wish I could write their individual stories in the book of our lives with indelible ink, because we cannot compel the world to share our affliction, but we still have the duty to honour our dead. Tina said it: all it takes is for one person, just one, to burst into grief for the others to take up the song of mourning. That is our mission. That is our duty as survivors. We are all survivors in this country, to varying degrees. To survivors, the Lord, in His languid Mercy, grants unending years of contrition. This, at least, is necessary; otherwise, where would the salty water in the oceans come from?”

“This season is a leveler. The 'shege' is right in your breast pocket. I know families in this country (Nigeria) who have no access to justice, simply because they cannot afford the bills. This is a grim form of inequality we have not had enough conversation about. The scarcity of money is threatening both law and society. The affluent wax stronger, but the rest of us…Jack London calls The People of the Abyss.”

“The Yoruba terms obinrin and okunrin do express a distinction. Reproduction is, obviously, the basis of human existence, and given its import, and the primacy of anafemale [anatomical female] body-type, it is not surprising that the Yoruba language describes the two types of anatomy. The terms okunrin and obinrin, however, merely indicate the physiological differences between the two anatomies as they have to do with procreation and intercourse. They refer, then, to the physically marked and physiologically apparent differences between the two anatomies. They do not refer to gender categories that connote social privileges and disadvantages. Also, they do not express sexual dimorphism because the distinction they indicate is specific to issues of reproduction. To appreciate this point, it would be necessary to go back to the fundamental difference between the conception of the Yoruba social world and that of Western societies.” “… I argued that the biological determinism in much of Western thought stems from the application of biological explanations in accounting for social hierarchies. This in turn has led to the construction of the social world with biological building blocks. Thus the social and the biological are thoroughly intertwined. This worldview is manifested in male-dominant gender discourses, discourses in which female biological differences are used to explain female sociopolitical disadvantages. The conception of biology as being ‘everywhere’ makes it possible to use it as an explanation in any realm, whether it is directly implicated or not. Whether the question is why women should not vote or why they breast-feed babies, the explanation is one and the same: they are biologically predisposed.” “The upshot of this cultural logic is that men and women are perceived as essentially different creatures. Each category is defined by its own essence. Diane Fuss describes the notion that things have a ‘true essence … as a belief in the real, the invariable and fixed properties which define the whatness of an entity.’ Consequently, whether women are in the labor room or in the boardroom, their essence is said to determine their behavior. In both arenas, then, women’s behavior is by definition different from that of men. Essentialism makes it impossible to confine biology to one realm. The social world, therefore, cannot truly be socially constructed.”

“The perpetual rate of election prostitution in Nigeria is appalling and worrying for the future of our democracy. Nigerian politicians don't have the nation's interest at heart; they care less about loyalty to the nation, their party systems, and the political structures, but instead, all they care about is winning by all means, either legal or illegal, to the detriment of losing themselves in the process.”

“Everyone knew Ava and her wives. They were the model household for the community, one every husband cited when his wives disagreed. Ava was a tall, rather light-skinned woman who was . . . the senior of five wives. . . . She saved up 40 or 50 shillings (about $55 to 67 in 2020 values) every few years, searched out an industrious girl of congenial character, and presented her to her husband: “Here is your new wife.” Ava’s husband always welcomed her additions to his household and he always set to work to pay the rest of the bridewealth, for he knew perfectly well that Ava always picked hard-working, healthy, handsome, steady women who wouldn’t run away. Many men envied him.”

“Wars have been waged over millions of square miles, significantly larger than the British Empire at its peak. Historically, Islamic conquests stretched from southern France to the Philippines, from Austria to Nigeria, and from central Asia to New Guinea. The Muslim goal was to have a central government, first at Damascus, and then at Baghdad, later at Cairo, Istanbul, and other imperial centres. The local governors, judges, and other rulers were appointed by the central imperial authorities for far off colonies. Islamic law was introduced as the senior law, whether or not wanted by the local people. Arabic was introduced as the rulers’ language, while the local languages frequently disappeared. Then, two classes of residents were established. The native residents paid a tax that their rulers did not have to pay. In each case, these laws allowed the local conquered people less freedom than was given to Muslims.”

“It cannot be denied that the principal cause of this misery in Nigeria lies in the actions of the leaders themselves, who, through their corruption, have ensured that wealth remains in the hands of a small elite, while the masses wallow in abject poverty”

“A good investment is like a good fruit tree. From its conception, it grows exponentially larger consistently and reliably. It’s required input in a small percentage of its output. It regularly gives back to the broader ecosystem, helping multiple other lives to prosper. And it produces an abundance of fruit for the enjoyment of its owner.”

“There's organized confusion on African roads while driving in the cities. If you want to mess up Afican Cities very easy, just fly in 100 Americans put them on the road and tell them to drive.”

“Even adults who were stiffened by the starch of their miserable lives, for whom breaking the stony discipline of austere and judgmental intolerance was usually off the table, melted in the magical luminescence and energetic charm of the pre-pubescent Ruka.”

“The regular choreography, entrances and exits of blooms in stages such that the garden looked like an ever-evolving carousel of swirling rainbows and radiant butterflies, seemed condensed. All of the flowers still obeyed some silent urgent command to make their debut. But this year, it definitely unfolded more quickly, as if racing to meet a new compelling deadline.”

“It was the fundamental bifurcation of the masses of human meat into two starkly opposite classes: the haves and the have-nots. The have-nots had barely anything. The haves had it all. The haves had everything except concern and compassion for the have-nots, who they regarded as little more than cockroaches.”

“There is a lot of money in Africa. There’s a lot of value being created by the people of Africa, from Egypt to Ghana to Zambia and everywhere in between. Ideas are flowing from African minds, innovations are emerging from African intellect, African businesses are providing solutions and valuable products and services. We are seeing it now and we will see it even more as the century progresses. As an investor, I’m putting big bets on Africa.”