I was doing housework while my Romeo watched TV. During a commercialbreak, he asked me to "fetch him another cold one." When I returned with his beer, he looked into my eyes and said, "How would ya like to do this full-time?" More >>

I once believed that capital was another word for money, the accumulated wealth of a country or its people. Surely, I thought, wealth is determined by the money or property in one's possession. Then I saw a Deutsche Bank advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that proclaimed: "Ideas are capital. The rest is just money."
I was struck by the simplicity of such an eloquent and forceful idea. I started imagining what such power meant for Africa. The potential for progress and poverty alleviation in Africa relies on capital generated from the power within our minds, not from our ability to pick minerals from the ground or seek debt relief and foreign assistance.

If ideas are capital, why is Africa investing more on things than on information, and more on the military than on education? Suddenly, I realized what this idea could mean for Africa. If the pen is mightier than the sword, why does a general earn more than the work of a hundred writers combined? If ideas are indeed capital, then Africa should stem its brain drain and promote the African Renaissance, which will lead to the rebirth of the continent. After all, a renaissance is a rebirth of ideas. And knowledge and ideas are the engines that drive economic growth. More >>

AFRICAN ARTS AND CULTURE PERILS

WE SHOULD BEGIN TO THINK
October 13, 2006
By Phillip Emeagwali

I once believed that capital was another word for money, the accumulated wealth of a country or its people. Surely, I thought, wealth is determined by the money or property in one's possession. Then I saw a Deutsche Bank advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that proclaimed: "Ideas are capital. The rest is just money."
I was struck by the simplicity of such an eloquent and forceful idea. I started imagining what such power meant for Africa. The potential for progress and poverty alleviation in Africa relies on capital generated from the power within our minds, not from our ability to pick minerals from the ground or seek debt relief and foreign assistance. If ideas are capital, why is Africa investing more on things than on information, and more on the military than on education? Suddenly, I realized what this idea could mean for Africa. More >>

ANAC LEADERS CALLS FOR MORE REVIEW OF "THE MANIFESTO"
As the Nigerian government releases Diaspora report.

Leaders of the All Nigerian American congress (ANAC) met over the weekend in the United States to discuss the step forward on the prepared manifesto by a group formed from within ANAC and other leaders within the regional Nigerian groups in the International communities, consisting of the Zumunta the diaspora organization that represents the North east, North west and North central regions of Nigeria in the international communities, the Omo Egbe Yoruba that represents the South western region, the World Igbo Congress that represents the five eastern states of Nigeria and the South South Niger Delta Consortium which represents all the six south south regions states of Nigeria in the international community. The document which is titled "The Manifesto, a road map to Nigerian Development" is a fifty more pages of practical solution and steps to revitalize the social economic fabric of the Nigerian society and push forward toward full na! tional economic advancement. The documents takes the view that the solutions are primarily moral social with economic strains and then subsequently political. Speaking at the session the leadership group which consisted mainly of the upper house delegates and chairmen of the different state chapters affirmed the document and praised the principal authors of the document. This was a well thought true and clearly articulated document. The principal authors of the document are Dshaik Izuchukwu, Chairman of the California chapter, Bright Aregs the Vice President of the House of Delegates, Akeem Bello the Chairman of the North Carolina State Chapter, and the Virginia State trustee and current Chairman of the Upper house Dan E. Austin M.D. The leadership group voted with little opposition to make the document more available to the Nigerian International community and the entire peoples of Nigeria. ANAC will be sending this document out to all Nigerians groups! in the international community and largely to the Nigerian press. More >>

UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS: Lecturer Docked For Racketeering
By Henry Ojelu, Lagos, Nigeria

A senior lecturer at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, Mr. Olalekan
Abiodun, has been arrested and arraigned before a Yaba Magistrate's Court
for allegedly collecting over N1 million from prospective students under the
pretence of procuring admission for them. The 40-year-old lecturer from the
Department of Engineering, was alleged to have collected huge sum of money
from seven intending students between January and February 2006. More >>

What Young People Are Going Through
By Reuben Abati, Lagos

Young people in Nigeria today face special challenges. They live in a
society that is morally disturbed, where values have been turned upside down
and there is so much uncertainty. They are bombarded daily by spectacles of
failure and dispossession, in form of bad roads, epileptic power supply,
absence of basic infrastructure, and widespread poverty. They are growing up
in the midst of area boys, okada cyclists, prostitutes in the neighbourhood,
gruffy artisans, armed robbers and pick pockets on the prowl; they are
surrounded by desperate compatriots who are involved in a rat race:
kidnappers, drug couriers, rapists, undisciplined motorists, corrupt men in
uniform extorting money from the public, callous landlords and land
speculators, treacherous public servants, with each and every one trying to
take advantage of the other. More >>

 By Wachira Kigotho

 More should be invested in Africa's universities because of their important role in alleviating poverty, according to a study commissioned by the World Bank. The report calls for donors to reverse their neglect of the higher education sector.

  It says wider access to university education would give many Africans a better life and stimulate economic development. David Bloom, a lead author and an economist at Harvard University, United States, says African countries lack the skilled personnel they need to compete in the global knowledge-based economy.

  He says about 50 000 Africans with postgraduate degrees - mostly doctors, engineers and scientists - work abroad, attracted by higher pay and better working conditions. The report says higher education in Africa has suffered because of a widespread and misguided belief among donors that improving education at school level, rather than in universities, was key to promoting economic growth in developing countries.

Nigeria: Inadequate Funding, Bane of Varsity Education

Hammed Shittu Osogbo

 Vice-Chancellor, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, (LAUT ECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Professor Babatunde Adeleke, at the weekend said for the nation's universities to measure up with world universities, there was the need for increase in funding and infrastructural facilties of university education in the country.

 Adeleke, in a chat with newsmen in Osogbo, said the country was blessed with a lot of human resources that could be used to develop the nation's university system, but inadequate finance on the part of the goverment has remained an obstacle.