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

  I watched this video with amazement... and I cast my mind back to the 1990s, when the culture of first-name calling infiltrated the new-generation banks then. One of those banks was co-founded and owned by a 34-year-old man. His name is Tony Elumelu . A lot of the staff from top to bottom were young guys; some were older. Everyone from the cashier to the CEO, Tony, called everyone by their first name. What I heard from those who applied for jobs in those banks then was that the last person you interview with was Tony Elumelu. He would insist you call him by his first name, or TOE if you could not stomach calling your CEO by his first name. Tony called many people of his father's age by their first name then. What changed for Tony? When Tony Elumelu interacts with people outside the shores of Nigeria , they call him by his first name... why insist you are called by a title at home? Maybe cultural perception at home front, and again, Mr. Elumelu is older now, with a few chieftainc...

The suicide of Prof. Jason Arday speaks to the larger issue of modern-day lynching of minority in a European-dominated world... The story is the same everywhere - U.S., Canada, EU.... The door is often closed on you because of the color of your skin... They frequently talk about meritocracy, but underlying bias fuels reasons why many people of African descent are ignored in top positions. Before you open your mouth, you are already being second-guessed. I face this daily in my job here in the U.S. on many fronts - they never believe you are fit for your position, you are excluded from opportunities deliberately, you are talked down at, you are ignored when you seek support, and the worst of it is that you are SCRUTINIZED all the time... You are told to your face you are not good enough... This is in the face of your unmatched outstanding RECORDS that transcend just one unit or organization that prove otherwise... the records do not matter; you have to do it over again all the time th...

I give credit to President Tinubu for not illegally interfering in the Osun State governorship election that held yesterday - maybe they are under pressure from influential people like Davido , who used their platforms to draw global attention to the election. Or maybe because of a pact between the two - a second-term ambition that removed "do or die"... I just saw a video where Governor Adeleke endorsed President Tinubu for a second term. Whatever, the election appears to be generally fair with a few skirmishes here and there. If we continue to practice democracy this way, the people (at least during general elections) will be able to choose their leaders... Politicians will start to behave in office when they realize the power to win an election belongs to the people and not them through intimidation, rigging, and vote manipulation... I hope he will let the Oyo governorship election go the same way next year... I was having a conversation with my 15-year-old son yester...

I was a young lecturer at Lautech when GSM was launched in Nigeria in 2001. I could not afford one immediately because of the cost of purchasing a phone and the rates. It cost ₦ 50 per minute to make a call... Many blamed the cost of licensing the telecom providers - Econet , NITEL , and MTN - which was a whopping $285 million. To put the call rate in perspective, the minimum wage in Nigeria was ₦ 5,500 then. If you had one line, speaking for 10 minutes could cost you 10% of your salary. Fast forward to today, the rate is ₦13.80 per minute, a 72% drop since GSM came in 2001. Unlike in 2001, when there were no per-second rates , Nigerians can now make calls for a few seconds without being charged at a per-minute rate. There are also several options for consumers at cheaper rates on the surface - data plans of all kinds, combos of call and data, pay-as-you-go, etc. Many attribute these options and lower rates to technological advancement in the GSM space, including the proliferatio...