Artistes in collaboration against cyber crimes

R-L: Microsoft’s Serge Ntamack, ‘Gbenga Sesan, MI, Dr. Jummai Umar-Ajilola, Citizenship Lead, Microsoft Anglophone West Africa and Project Initiator, Ohimai Godwin Amaize shortly after MI’s recording at Cobhams Asuquo’s studio

The Most Incredible MI couching his lyrics moments before his recording at Cobhams Asuquo’s studio

R-L: Miss Queen (NEXT), Ohimai, Cobhams and Femi Ogunyomi

R-L: Templer Olaiya (The Guardian), Femi Ogunyomi, Omawumi, Modele, Sokleva, and Cobhams

MISSPIN Music Project Initiator Ohimai Godwin Amaize welcoming Banky W to the first artistes roundtable which held on 25^th August, 2009 at the Microsoft office in Victoria Island, Lagos

A typical B.L.I.N.G. teaser

Banky W, Omawumi, Modele, Rooftop MCs, MI, Wordsmith and Bez are teaming up in the studio of Cobhams Asuquo for the recording of an anti-cybercrime musical collaboration. The artistes, who started voice recording during the week are working hard to release before Christmas what may be termed Nigeria's first unofficial anthem against cybercrime.

A recent report by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (ICCC) ranks Nigeria third (after the USA and UK) in the global list of countries with the highest rate of cybercrimes. But in a bid to provide a credible response to the challenge of cybercrimes, popularly referred to as yahoo-yahoo, Microsoft and Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) is partnering to launch the anti-cybercrimes musical collaboration.

Initiated by Ohimai Godwin Amaize, one of the Microsoft Internet Safety, Security and Privacy Initiative for Nigeria (MISSPIN) ambassadors under the supervision of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN), the MISSPIN song project is quintessential of Microsoft Nigeria's long-standing commitment towards improving Nigeria standing on the list of the countries with the highest rate of cybercrimes.

The song will be projected across relevant media platforms via B.L.I.N.G. - an acronym for Brilliant. Legitimate. Inspired. Nigerian. Great. B.L.I.N.G. is a pop culture strategy designed by Ohimai Godwin Amaize specifically for the MISSPIN campaign.

According to Microsoft's Citizenship Lead for Anglophone West Africa, Dr. Jummai Umar-Ajijola, this project means a lot to Microsoft because it will help ensure that everyone has access to the tools and contents they need online to achieve their greatest dreams.

"It further demonstrates our commitment to making the Internet a safe place to work, learn and play. This strategic project also demonstrates our commitment to Nigeria as an important country as it seeks to support the government in its rebranding Nigeria campaign. We are grateful to the highly talented artistes, the renowned producer and Paradigm Initiative Nigeria who have volunteered to work with us on this non-profit campaign. We look forward to more of such collaboration in the future to the benefit of the Nigerian people," Umar-Ajijola added.

The MISSPIN campaign is premised on Microsoft's resolve to redirect the energies of young Nigerians from cybercrimes towards productive alternatives on the Internet while ensuring a safer and more secure cyberspace in a world of increasing cyber insecurity. The precursor of the B.L.I.N.G. strategy was the launch of the MISSPIN campaign, on Saturday, October 25, 2008, at a red carpet event hosted in Lagos. At the event, Microsoft Nigeria and PIN inducted 24 young Nigerians as ambassadors of the MISSPIN campaign. Ohimai Godwin Amaize was one of these young men who made a commitment to take the anti-cybercrime message to his peers.

To Ohimai, "This musical collaboration is a big dream come true. Indeed, this is unprecedented not just in the music industry, but in the entire history of Nigerian pop culture. With this new song, I see young Nigerians reawakening to the realities of harnessing their God-given potentials for positive exploits. Gone are the days when we listened and danced to songs, which glorified criminality. This is a new beginning for Nigeria and we would be glad to receive more collaborative support from other music artistes in the near future."

The Executive Director of PIN, 'Gbenga Sesan, believes that the collaboration demonstrates the willingness of various stakeholders to support the need to redirect the energy of young Nigerians towards positive ideals। "We are extremely glad to be working with some of the music industry's best hands on this campaign, and are delighted that they have added their brand value to the campaign against cybercrime. Microsoft and PIN look forward to working with other partners in delivering the objectives of the campaign," he added.

Culled from The Guardian Newspapers

2011: Our Time is Now!

It is said that "There are three kinds of people; those that
make things happen, those that watch things happen and those who don't know what's happening." Which one are you?

OUR TIME IS NOW!

2011 will mark a redefining moment in the history of our nation. If we do not register to vote, we cannot bring about the wholesome national transformation that we seek. If we cannot identify our leaders now and begin to mobilise support for them ahead of 2011, trust me, I need no prophet and no soothsayer to foretell that we are set for one of the biggest generational setbacks of the century!

Yes we may hold conferences and seminars; yes we may inspire the attitude of change in hundreds of our young people; yes we may continue the talking and I say yes, all that is good. But pray, what is the future worth without the desired CREDIBLE LEADERSHIP that will propel our nation into the heights of national greatness?

Today's so-called Asian Tigers were not known for talking too much. They took ACTION! America, the world's greatest democracy has a long history of national greatness anchored on ACTION + ACTION + ACTION! Go ask the Washingtons, the Franklins, the Lincolns, the Roosevelts, the Kennedys...go ask Martin Luther King Jnr...or if you choose, ask Obama!

What then is the problem with us? Why have we remained in our comfort zones? Should we wait till our nation becomes a pariah nation like Somalia before we awake to the reality of our national predicament? I scream a loud NO! And again I say OUR TIME IS NOW! The future is a responsibility whose time has come. We have a choice to deliver it with our actions now or neglect it at our own peril.

I am talking to you young Nigerian in that cybercafe! My heart pours out to you young Nigerian in that lecture room, in that church, in that mosque, in that office space, in that car, in that lounge, in that closet of yours! Have you pondered about the future you want to see? Does it matter to you what the future holds for you and your children? What are your dreams of the future Nigeria? Do you believe that dreams come true? Hold on a second...

Are you the leader of a change group or movement? You are an invaluable asset to this cause. I believe the time has come for us to take our advocacy to the next level. We may be involved in different dimensions of the change project but we are all committed to birthing a new Nigeria of our dreams. Where are my mentors and contemporaries in this cause? Where are my co-nation builders? Does anyone feel the agitations of my spirit?

If I am the only one who believes we can re-awaken the Obama phenomenon come 2011, then, kindly ignore this writing as the rantings of a visionless Nigerian youth. But if you believe as I believe that 2011 is a critical process in our national advancement, then engage me.

I am
Ohimai Godwin Amaize
mrfixnigeria@yahoo.com
07041405391

Will the killings continue?

Since 1960 when the country gained independence, Nigeria has lost millions of her citizens to sectarian violence.

From the series of violent upheavals which are now relics of the country’s early post-colonial past to the civil war which claimed over three million souls, the Nigerian experience is like a bloody battle between sworn foes nurtured by the eternal echoes of a retribution that must be avenged again and yet again.

Sadly, in the midst of these national tragedies, it appears for the most part, that Nigerians have chosen to remain mute witnesses to the senseless recurring carnage which today situates itself in the nation’s body politic. But what can the people do?

Often victims of a failing order bedevilled by a tragically wobbly cohesion between the national promise and expectation, one can hardly surmise a coherent intervention from the people where the government itself has lost touch with the nation’s agenda for credible direction.

From the Maitatsine riots of 1980 to the Zango-Kataf riots of 1992, Nigeria has since been in and out of the bloody depths of sectarian violence. In 1999, about a 100 people reportedly lost their lives to two bloody days of ethnic violence in Lagos.

BBC reported that the trouble began when Hausa and Yoruba traders started fighting for control of a popular food market in Ketu on the outskirts of the city.

On October 15, 2001, protests in Kano state against American and coalition forces’ bombings in Afghanistan left dozens of people dead. Between June, 2001 and October, 2002, nearly 1,000 persons lost their lives in religious conflicts between Muslims and Christians in Bauchi and Plateau states.

In November 2002, as Nigeria prepared to host the Miss World Beauty Pageant, violent protests by Islamic groups, particularly in northern Nigeria, derailed Nigeria’s hosting of the event. In 2007, fights over Danish cartoons of Prophet Mohammed killed more than 100 Nigerians.

About 10,000 people have died in ethnic and religious violence since 1999. One wonders, will the killings continue Perhaps the answers are buried in the ruins of the recent past as Nigeria witnessed last July the sectarian violence unleashed upon Bauchi, Borno and Yobe states, claiming hundreds of lives.

Christened the Boko Haram riots, the violence was ignited by the Boko Haram group, a northern Nigerian Islamic movement opposed to Western education. Boko Haram means “Western education is sinful”.

Amid the social tension generated by the festering Niger-Delta crisis, one must observe the crisis beyond the matrix of a mere breakdown of law and order.

The extra-judicial killing of Mohammed Yusuf, leader of the Boko Haram sect recasts the issue in new dimensions, raising questions about the nation’s flawed law enforcement, the effect of harsh socio-economic conditions in the proliferation of sectarian violence while also hinting at the possibility of a hegemonial religious conspiracy theory. The emerging issues are disturbing.

Professor Murtalal Muhibbu-Din, Head of the Department of Religion at the Lagos State University, contends that the crisis was born out of anger and frustration rather than religious faith.

“What they said they were fighting against, such as Western education and Western values, are just smokescreens to vent their anger on the government.

That is why they are attacking police stations, which they see as government establishments,” he told IPS in Lagos.

The same could be said of the Niger-Delta conundrum. Agitation on behalf of the politically-marginalised and socio-economically deprived ethnicities for a fairer share of the oil wealth, have sustained armed resistance in the region till date.

Curiously, law enforcement agencies have yet to bring a single perpetrator of religious violence to justice. This, according to The Guardian, has “emboldened all sorts of religious fundamentalists who rise at will to visit mayhem on innocent people.”

As Nigeria continues in her troubled odyssey, one can only hope for a future that thrives on a coherent union and management of the nation’s diverse human and natural resources.

Achieving this will depend on the quality and ability of the nation’s leadership। Failing portends an imminent relapse into another round of violent uprisings that could degenerate into an irreversible national apocalypse.

Ohimai Godwin Amaize

September, 2009

Culled from www.234next.com
http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5459846-146/Will_the_killings_continue__.csp

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