Soul - Vibing AKON

Been listening to AKON.
He does soul like I just want it. And with the contemporary fusion of a substantial dose of hip-hop from a guy who initially detested the genre.
The delivery on "Ghetto" is simply splendid. The rootiness in the swinging vocals and the lyrics is just perfect. Atimes there is so much of it that I think the song is a rehash of some ol' tune a la Wyclef style.
Yet to lay my hands on the CD though. Just snippets here and there for now. So once it hits this shores, my collection swells.

New Father

It's been cool awhile. Really cool.

Rigours oftentimes

Highs intermittent

Set to feel over a distance again
Exit transit into a birth
The pain, the wait
The silence in the white corridors
The first cry
The hugs, the backslaps
He's done it
She has done it for my guy
The pride, the highs
The heir
We got a new father here...

We are all fathers this side

Bankerworm?

This article was forwarded to me by a friend of mine in the banking sector. Sure it makes interesting as well as informative reading.

As a banker, I was naturally dismayed when I saw the back page of the PUNCH of 28th July 2003. As I scanned the page, my emotions turned from dismay to anger and then disgust. A man presiding over the most corrupt country in the world (Transparency International) where 90.8% of the population live on less than two dollars a day (Human Development Report) and inflation of 19.4% (FOS) has just figured out the problem with the economy-banks.

I will begin by saying what Nigerian banks are and what they will never be unless the country changes dramatically. Nigerian banks are some of the most competitive work place on earth. Our work hour is humorously referred to as 5 to 9 instead of the traditional 9 to 5 and is usually true. These banks hire over 50,000 Nigerians in direct employment and many more in their subsidiaries and affiliates. We also create jobs for all the ancillary workers from doctors, architects, lawyers and restaurateurs. We generate a significant part of the domestic GDP in this country and we pay tax! We pay our PAYE tax (I dare say we pay more tax per capita than any other industry except, perhaps, oil and gas), we pay company tax and we pay education tax-all in the billions. And every year, we publish our contribution to government-approved charities. That is what Nigerian banks are-employers of labor, taxpayers and socially responsible institutions.

Nigerian banks are not 100% free of the charges of corruption against the country. Banks are known to have taken advantage of the system to engage in FX frauds and paying brokerage to government officials, and to a lesser extent engage in money laundering. Nigerian banks have not financed long-term projects and have fairly inadequate investments in the productive sector. Nigerian banks (most of them are less than 20 years old) are not western banks with centuries of experience and no decree on earth can make that happen. When our per capita GDP reaches US$9,120 (Malaysia: 2002 per capita GDP), we can then hope to become like Malaysian banks.

And coming down to the business of lending, I want to make this very clear; banks can only lend what they get. If we receive overnight money (current account, call deposits) we put it in treasury bills and other liquid assets. If we get 30-day money, we seek for 30-day assets. A bank's primary obligation is to ensure that it is able to pay depositors on demand and that can only be achieved if your balance sheet is structured to ensure that your obligations (liabilities) do not fall due before your loans (assets). Sir, the banks will become distressed if they use short-term funds to finance long-term manufacturing and agricultural projects. You might ask; why cant Nigerian banks attract long-term deposits? The whole country is built on political inconsistencies and policy summersaults! In the last Monetary Policy Circular, the government gave the banks till December 2005 to meet the minimum capital requirement of NGN2billion. Six months later, the most respectable bank chairmen and CEO's in the country (admittedly a few scoundrels were present) were assembled by the CBN governors and told, in fairly rude terms, that they must cough out NGN25bn, merge or be liquidated! And they were not to ask why. And you expect people to place money in banks for one year?

It is on record that the government does not respect tenure contract signed by parastatals when withdrawing government funds. If a bank had lent that money to a manufacturer, how will that bank terminate the existing contract and repay? According to the President, banks charge 25% in a 19.4% inflationary economy. If we pay depositors less than 19.4%, their investment will have a negative real yield. Yet the maximum lending rate is 19%. Bank deposits attract approximately 3% reserve (CRR), liquidity (SLR) and insurance (NDIC) costs. Add this to your inflation figure and you get 22.4% as the break-even deposit rate. Assuming investors expect their money market funds to grow, in real terms, by 5% and you get 27.4%. Add the banks' cost of business (Say 5%- considering the state of infrastructure and security) and you are at 32.4% without any margin. And, I forgot to mention the 10% withholding tax!!! Please sir, how can this add up to a profit?

Banks are expected to lend at 19% yet government parastatals places funds with banks above 20%. Mr. President wants banks to provide equity funding for companies but not have control over these entities. That is what the capital market is for. By their very nature, the money markets attract tenured funds, which banks, as custodian, cannot invest in equity without the consent of the depositors. Everybody complains of interest cost and blame banks for the woes of manufacturers. When are the manufacturers going to put in their own equity and recapitalise instead of depending entirely and perpetually on bank loans? If their business proposition is profitable and they are willing to dilute their shareholding, let them go to the capital market.

Maybe it is time we re-evaluate the cliché that manufacturers are not making money because of finance cost. The prices of manufactured goods, as represented by the consumer price index (CPI), tend to rise faster than the maximum lending rate. So if a manufacturer takes a loan and buys inputs at today's price, in three months, the goods will be sold as fairly higher prices than is represented by their input cost. Besides, there are lots of manufacturers that are not dependent on bank loans but the fortunes are no better. Nigerian manufacturers cannot compete because Nigeria, as a country, is not competitive. Our labour laws are archaic, our infrastructure non-existent, energy cost exorbitant and our bureaucracy expensive. This is no way to compete in the global economy and zero finance cost will not help.

Mr. President, I would love to say 'let there be light' but what will the 38% of Nigerian without access to sustainable water supply say to that? Mr. President, you rule over 140 million people travelling by foot, donkeys, camel, horses, bicycles and cars. No other country of this size lacks a viable mass transit system (trains, trams and passenger boats) and expects to manufacture profitably. I hear all the people that ran down our educational systems are not only sending their children to schools abroad but are now queuing up to build private universities (I hope it is not with bank loans). I also know that we do not have a single hospital in this country that is good enough to cater for our cabinet ministers (even for basic check-ups). We are begging white Zimbabweans to save are agricultural sector (good thinking) but thank God our banks are holding their own. It is interesting that not a single bank chief has been jailed for all the rent seeking and FX round tripping. It is regrettable that 11 weak (or is it distressed?) banks are allowed to continue to operate, some with negative equities!! If banks supervision was allowed to function efficiently, these institutions will either be fixed or liquidated, not allowed to operate side by side with efficient and safe banks.

And If I may ask, why is mercantilism so attractive? Why does the system allow merchants to prosper while farmers and manufacturers suffer? Why is it cheaper to import petrol than to refine it? I tell you something-banks are victims of their own success. Everybody knows that oil company workers earn far more than banks and that telecom has all but overtaken banks in compensation. And where does this money go? If you earn one million in Lagos, consider the following: Rent N200, 000 (two bedroom flat) Transport: N183, 000 (at N500 per day) Tax: N150, 000 (or 15%) and office lunch N130, 000 (N500 per week day). That is a whooping N663, 000 and yet the price of medical and clothing, school fees and energy cost, water and security has not been accounted for. You see, the banks are not the one killing the economy, our rulers already did that. And until we have a leader that can stand up publicly and confess that they have failed the people over the decades instead of giving national awards and hosting expensive sporting events, we will continue to look for people to blame. And bankers make very nice fall guys.

Abubakar Suleiman

Lagos, Nigeria

NaijaWood

So we should talk about "Nollywood". Yes their "Nollywood". There's been so much hue and cry about this choice of a name for the fledgling Nigerian movie thing. Trouble is I dont quite agree that it is an industry per se, may be "business" is a more appropriate adjective to use. An industry is to me a more serious state than what we've got running now. No doubt the practitioners are sure trying to make the best of what they've got, but in my perspective most are really more businessmen and women than professionals. That is why it is not an industry. That is why we can not even coin a more unique i.d. for a name.

Why "Nollywood" for Chrissake? I take it as just one man's inspired but restricted attempt at creativity, most likely the feat was achieved in the middle of a banter over drained bottles of the Shine-shine brand under a tree in God knows where in the woods. But as the quality of the products we currently market in the movie market does not actually inspire more than the name does, I infer that the quality (or rather non-quality) of the name  "Nollywood" is actually reflective of the current state. If the best that Nigerian movie makers can do to create an identity for what they do is to languidly chip off the 'H' in 'Hollywood' and replace with our good old Nigerian 'N', then we still have a long way to go before we get a movie industry. Then we will still continue churning out goof-ridden caricatures of box office Hollywood movies even when we haven't got the resources required to achieve such feats.

Do we ever marvel at "Wazobia"? How was "Mbari Mbayo" coined? Good examples abound. Were these pure artistic ingenuity? Is there any genuine talent in "Nollywood"? Please stand to be counted as it is high time we make good our journey out of the woods.

Faka... fìkì...

Faka...Fìkì...

It's an expression in Yoruba, the generic language of the Yoruba people of South-West Nigeria. I chose Yoruba cos that's one of those things that's stuck with me all through. And as a language it's damn rich.

Faka... fìkì... like a locomotive.

Faka... fìkì... like sex.

It represents the two sides of a coin; in... out...; life... death...; up... down...; fast... slow...; come... go...; war... peace...; good... evil; create... destroy...; begin... end. The list is endless. Simply put, it represents the 2 basic extremes which never let go of each other like a quarrelsome siamese.

And that's what I am.

Can I say that's what you are?

Can I say that's what we were all meant to be?

Explaining Fakafiki

Fakafiki Productions