Akinbode's BLOG on Faith, Politics, Science, Engineering, Education and Health

After seven grueling years (instead of five, time was prolonged due to lecturer labor unrest) of college/university education as a pioneering student at Lautech, it is exactly 22 years ago that I was deployed to serve the fatherland in Cross Rivers' state at the Obubura NYSC camp. It was a mixed experience of being swamped by multiple of mosquitos at the camp, to almost drowning on River Cross in a canoe on my way to my primary place of assignment - a village called Abijang after Ikom near Republic of Cameroon border, and that of friendship with fellow Nigerians from across every corner of the nation and locals in the surrounding villages where I was to serve. The relevance of NYSC has been argued over the years. It seems the program has outlived its usefulness without any reform since its inception in 1973. We are as divided today as we were 46 years ago. NYSC program was supposed to foster unity, development and nation building. Instead NYSC has been used as a

The reality of uncertainty and hard time ahead for Nigerians in the next four years is already within everyone's glare even before Buhari's second term inauguration. I was very engaged on this platform for one year leading to the election, with the hope to sensitize friends and family about the danger of perpetuating an unproductive leader in office, many called me names and questioned my rationale and effrontery to comments on Nigerian matter when I do not reside there - that I am clueless because I live abroad, they have forgotten I am still a Nigerian and I know the country like the back of my hands. My response was that people like me who have left home could see the decay in our nation better because we see the stack difference every time we return home, whereas those who daily witness the decay are unconscious of how low the nation has reached. The nation is on the verge of a big crisis if nothing is done to salvage what is left. At the core of Nigeria&