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

A lot of people say Toyota vehicles are very good. They mention its reliability, durability, and affordability. The reason for this is that Toyota Auto Co. embraced the culture of quality decades ago. At the center of their trade is continuous improvement. Coincidentally, the Japanese who brought that culture to Japan learned it from the Americans. It is a major part of the American organizational system. The public system in Nigeria needs to embrace the culture of continuous improvement for it to thrive. Nigeria has yet to attain a level of quality that is productive and profitable. When we do, for these to be sustainable, we must find a way to evolve to meet new challenges that a world that is constantly changing will force on us. We cannot continue to do things the same way without consideration to changes that we have and are experiencing. We have a lot of these within every public system in Nigeria, especially the public university system.   A major bane to development in ...

The suspension of Senator Ningi for outing his colleagues shows top Nigerian politicians are unrepentant. They continued to siphon our commonwealth, and the one who had the courage among them to speak out about the injustice was suspended for 3 months - they had wanted to make it one year. When you watch how the Senate President, Akpabio presided over the session, you see a man without conscience... There was no way to know if the motion to suspend passed or failed... there was no count, it appeared to be based on loudness or yay or nay. Akpabio's constituency alone was appropriated over N21 billion for silly projects, which obviously shows that these are meant to steal taxpayers' money. Akpabio has demonstrated this callousness since his election. He has not hidden the fact that he wants it to be business as usual in the Senate... This is why it is difficult to see the hope of change in Nigeria... These people are not ready to relinquish the pump that is supposed to draw and d...

It was early morning in Nigeria on this faithful Sunday - around January 2004. That day was important because it was the deadline for me to pay my application fee for graduate admission to McGill University, Canada. I already had the nudge of my prospective advisor (supervisor) to go ahead and apply. There was no proliferation of credit cards then. All-night efforts to get a company to help pay online failed. I placed a call to a former high school mate and a dear friend in Atlanta US. He and his wife spent the entire afternoon trying until they were successful. Without that payment, I probably would have lost that admission that year and the trajectory of my life could have been different... After the admission was granted, I needed to pay for the Quebec Acceptance Certificate (CAQ) to complete my visa application. Another friend was the one who helped me. He paid my CAQ ($100 CDN) fee without asking me to refund him. It was a lot of money from the type of job he was doing then. He wa...