Political Leadership in NIgeria and the Bane of Sycophancy: There are two things a well-intentioned leader must do to be effective in office; one is to guard against developing a belief that he knows it all and that he is above his subjects and the law; being strong yet not arrogant is a personal attribute. The second is to have a personal means of assessing performance and avoid obliterating his true sources of feedback.
These may seem simple but often in the power, luxury and pressures surrounding African political offices, it becomes practically difficult, even for the well-intentioned leader. Two factors may contribute toward this; firstly political pressures from ‘higher’ powers and secondly, surrounding self with sycophants (knowingly or unknowingly). Here we will take a closer look at sycophancy.
More...

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning in Nigeria: a Clear and Present Danger: On a recent trip to Nigeria I was astonished by the number of privately owned electricity generators and their associated noise levels. I was in Lagos, Port Harcourt andYenagoa , and the story was all the same in the less affluent areas: small, smoky, oily generators placed in metallic cages close to doorways. It was even worse in the so called multifamily ‘yards’ , where on a good evening you could have up to 5 different generators running. In the more affluent areas, these generators were mostly bigger and smokier, and though housed in sheds slightly distant from the main houses, sometimes directly discharged their fumes into other nearby accommodation. It struck me at such that most Nigerians were inadvertently exposing themselves to unprecedented levels of carbon monoxide..
More..