In the Grandiose Parlor…

AfricanLoft has a featured article on the Obama Nigeria Initiative being spearheaded by the legislator. Hon. Onibiyo Adelabu, the President Obama Nigeria Initiatives, is shown answering reporters’ questions at the press conference in Lagos.

If the Lagos State Legislators have assembled to pool and use their resources to advance a common social cause in their state, I would have been ecstatic. But they chose to gang together to support Obama, thousands of miles away from where the action is, and I’m confused!

I think those resourceful men of the parliament have found ways to deal with boredom by creating a website for Obama, going about recruiting volunteers and hosting press conferences. They are even asking for donations!

If you can come up with any logical reason why this initiative is necessary, or even reasonable, please have you say, here, or on AfricanLoft.

• Africa Unchained: Another Africa is Possible!
  “It is unwise to presume that the poor, be they illiterate, are bereft of inherent skills, experiences and talents that can be useful in building our communities. The same people are our heroes who daily create better livelihoods for their children. They fought colonialism and resisted slavery. How can we suddenly ignore them in our new struggles?…As we begin to fathom a new Africa, let us remember the wisdom of Albert Einstein that ‘the significant problems we face cannot be solved with the same level of thinking we were at when we created them…”
  

• Ruud Elmendorp: Poverty? or Savings?
  …Capturing the wealth at the bottom of the pyramid in Kenya – milk for loans?
  

• BBC: African amputees’ cup kicks off
  Africa’s first amputee football cup starts in Sierra Leone.
  

• International Herald Tribune: An African bishop pleads for acceptance of gays
  Njongonkulu Ndungane, the Anglican archbishop for southern Africa and successor of Bishop Desmond Tutu pledges for gays.
  

• Jewels in he Jungle: Black History Month in Europe?? An introduction to the Invisible Ones
  The author, an African American resident in Germany, presents an interesting piece on the history of blacks in east Europe.
  

• Nigerian Village Square: A Bolekaja Presidency (7)
  Reuben Abati, one of Nigeria’s top-notch columnists discusses the continuing face-off between the Nigerian president and his deputy, quoting an opposition party in the country: “If President Obasanjo succeeds in coercing INEC [Nigerian electoral commission] to disqualify Alhaji Abubakar [Atiku, the deputy president], the unfolding scenario will result in consequences that will be too grave to contemplate, and the end result of which no one can predict”. Well, according to newspaper reports earlier today, Nigerian vice president Atiku has been disqualified by INEC…Does this disqualification mark the end of the face-off or simply shifts it into another gear?