K A C H I I I

Cool, calm, collected, crazy thoughts guy| Writer| Engineer | Husband | Tired of Nigeria Nigerian

[K A C H I I I @dbartezo]

A Grammy styled award on a subject would be great. One add I think would eliminate issues down the line is putting a kind of measure which enables a winner to not bag a subject area for consecutive years, ensuring that others in the field are recognised.

[Alex Onyia @winexviv]

I'm thinking we should have an annual Best Teacher Award where the best teacher each year wins ₦100 million.

We can have other categories too.

Something like a Grammy to celebrate and inspire teachers.

What do you think?

[Yehgha @yaygha]

Nigeria, man. There's no escaping the rot, insecurity and dysfunction, no matter how rich you get.

1. Buy an SUV because the roads are bad, and you become a prime target for kidnapping, extortion, and inflated prices

2. Live in an estate for quiet and security but the moment you drive out the gate, you're back in the same poverty, crime, chaos and insecurity everyone else suffers. Your safety exists only within the walls of your expensive prison

3. Spend millions on solar so you don't have to suffer generator noise but your neighbours still use generators. You stop hearing yours, not theirs.

4. Make money and the women will come but the women who come are poor. You work hard to escape poverty, only to give your money to women who are hoping to escape their own poverty by 'working' you

5. Buy Starlink to escape MTN and Airtel, and now the whole compound wants your password.

"But it's unlimited now?"

Decline and you're a bad neighbour

The tragedy of trying to buy your way out systemic dysfunction is that you never truly solve the underlying problem. You just spend money trying to insulate yourself from it, and in that process, create new problems for yourself.

But you interprete it as progress because you no longer have the exact same probems as the next Nigerian.
Because progress here is less about better roads, reliable power and security for all.

Progress here is more about owning an SUV while everyone else dodges potholes in their Camry, having steady power and uninterrupted airconditioning whilst everyone else sweats through the heat, and living behind the 'security' of estate gates while everyone else lives with insecurity.

It is that contrast that gives me fulfilment. It is what makes you stand out, and provides both of us something to brag about. So the benchmark is not whether the system works; It is whether I am better than others in a system that does not work.

And I say "I", because I, also find myself thinking that way sometimes.

I also want to brag about paying 8 million for rent, rather than demand afforable housing for all or protest against the fraud of agents and the greed of landlords.

Afterall, I am also a product of the system.

As a result, most of what I, and by extension, Nigerians broadly speaking, consider progress, is a maladaptation to systemic failure.

It is, to condense it, progress measured against dysfunction, rather than freedom from it.

And 'Maladaptation' because the actions we have adapted to help us cope with the dysfunction, ultimately does more harm than good.

So for example, rather than protest insecurity, bad roads or unreliable power, we maladapt by travelling by air, buying SUVs and installing solar.

We spend money to work around failing institutions while the institutions themselves continue to decay.

But the problem with our "I better pass my neighbour' cope is that it will eventually reach its limit. Because as the rot and decay deepens and spreads, even our workarounds will fail, our estates will no longer keep the criminals and the abokis that surround us out (Abuja residents beware), the kidnappers will come to our doorsteps, like they're doing in Ekpoma, and our roads will get so bad even our four-wheelers will no longer be able to handle them, leading to accidents that will land us in hospitals with no doctors and nurses because our best health workers have japa'd.

Checkmate

[K A C H I I I @dbartezo]

A shame!💯

[Alex Onyia @winexviv]

Nigeria has now been delisted from the International Maths Olympiad, whose finals are happening in Shanghai, China, this July.

It is one of the most prestigious academic competitions in the world.

Nigeria can now only participate as an observer nation, while other countries can participate fully.

This was because of the Ministry of Education’s inability to fund students for 4 consecutive years through National Mathematical Center.

It’s a big shame for Nigeria.

[K A C H I I I @dbartezo]

@cn_ebere Be like your Mama never tell you to bring her grandchildren latest next year, na why you leave who summon courage pre toast you for that call.😁

[K A C H I I I @dbartezo]

@kenkenlewu 😂😂😂

[K A C H I I I @dbartezo]

@cn_ebere 😂

[K A C H I I I @dbartezo]

@cn_ebere So, I've once come across a partial pension contribution plan from someone on LinkedIn. That way, you contribute only a part of what you would have while keeping your employer contributions at the maximum. I'd say that's a win. If only I could find the post again, I'll share.

[K A C H I I I @dbartezo]

If you attend an interview and when offered water or whatever reject it when you do really need it, you're not wise.

I personally wouldn't eat at an interview before it's done to not incur any stomach storms when still there.

[OG @OrevaogheneGP]

Went for one interview November last year. I graciously ate their sweet chicken pie and drank their water.

It was those tiny bottled water, like 33cl. Wasn’t enough for me so I asked for another chilled one.

Did the interview with their CFO who was in China so they set up WeChat for us. Aced it and she was very impressed.

HR said since she started there, I’m the only one who did not only eat and drank, but asked for another water.

The Nigerian mentality surrounding offerings like these is archaic and from a place of systematic suppression. ‘Elders’ were always coming up with useless ‘etiquettes’ like this just to exercise dominance over younger ones. So it stuck.

[K A C H I I I @dbartezo]

😅

[AFTER HOW MANY CHILDREN @tomisin_ms]

My weekend vocabulary

Stop that
Get down from there
Oya, bite/slap her back
Stop now
Keep quiet
Don't do that
Face the wall
Hit her back
Pack your toys
Stop spiting out your water
Stop Stop Stop
Stop!!!!!!!!!!
Bed time

[K A C H I I I @dbartezo]

Na mumu still dey matchmake anybody. I no dey for that kind wahala of mind again abek. Who no fit find love for him/her self, make em stay single. No be me una go put for talk.✌🏾😁

[Oṣóyínká 🪔 @sledge_baba]

Two people wey I matchmake in October 2024 don breakup like 4 times already and I'm always caught up in the middle of the drama, trying to resolve it.

Woke up around 5am today and I saw a Missed call notification from my guy and a "Hello Sledge" WhatsApp message from the babe.

God forbid I reply any of them, at least I know they're both still alive.
Relationship no be by force.

[Alex Onyia @winexviv]

Good news: South East Maths Olympiad winners Egejurum Onyedikachi, Onwubiko Chimdiebube and Don-Anele Munachimso have now been invited to participate in International STEM Olympiad Grand Finale happening in Rome from July 2nd - 8th.

They will be competing with students from 153 countries.

I'm confident that they will bring back the Gold medals from each category. We will shine in he world stage.

Their teachers will be going alongside them too.

The cost of this trip for all of them including registrations, flights, tours, hotels etc will be £32,200.

What should we do?

[K A C H I I I @dbartezo]

@pee_rsp You're telling someone that needs to first go outside and touch grass before he thinks again. No stress yourself jare.

[Lola Okunrin @lollypeezle]

A lot of you are just fortunate to have made it. You don’t have a good heart at all.

You enjoyed 13k school fees during your time but today, you want the government to increase school fees because education costs a lot. Why didn’t education cost much when your parents were paying for yours. Terrible life you are living.

“I pay 2 million for my son per session”. There are people paying 49 million per session for their children too. To them, you are also poor. Imagine, if they bench mark education to 49 million Naira per session, you also can’t afford it.

Animals are running amongst us. Terrible animals.

[K A C H I I I @dbartezo]

@Admiral_Cyborg @simplyEromz With what I'm just reading about the NNPC, Bwala is the distraction.

[K A C H I I I @dbartezo]

@gabe_teee It's funny he says "heating up the polity" when all there is to see is hot boiling stupidity.

[Kingsley Moghalu OON @MoghaluKingsley]

Often in life we focus on the wrong things - titles, position, financial wealth etc. But what matters most in life are two things- values, and impact. Often, the first influences the second. It’s not what we take out of life and our societies, but what we give, that matters.

This is reflected in legacy. It can happen in various ways, but is anchored by the values we have. If we believe integrity matters, for example, it will affect how we do everything else. It will affect how we render service in organizational or public service contexts. If we believe hard work is important, we will work whatever we do, from civil service to business, so that the track record of our success is obvious and transparent, rather than “miraculous” short cuts.

All of this is why, for example in Nigeria, Ministers and other public officials come and go, but you would be hard pressed to remember them. Because many were of no consequence really. They just occupied the position and enjoyed titles, and maybe made some or a lot of money illicitly, but contributed nothing. But we remember the concrete contributions of a few public servants. Because those contributions are tangible, and endure. A man or a woman that mentors young people into becoming focused and productive members of society is to be valued and honored more than some carpet-bagger public official.

[K A C H I I I @dbartezo]

I like the Pixel. But until they get serious and become an all round phone for flagship consumers, they're never getting the market share that should be due them as the Android parent. Maybe they're intentionally sabotaging themselves to sell the OS? Either way, I wish them well.

[Marques Brownlee @MKBHD]

S26 lineup starts at 256GB
iPhone 17 lineup starts at 256GB
Xiaomi 15 and 17 series start at 256GB
Oppo Find X9 series starts at 256GB

Google Pixel 10 series stars at 128GB

[Abiodun @bin_gbada]

There’s no place in the world where people will be killed & kidnapped daily in large numbers & the president will be relaxed & not afraid of losing his seat.

He’s even touted to win reelection. Everything here defies common sense.

[K A C H I I I @dbartezo]

This is the gospel. Until the people say enough is enough, there will be no change, and only the greedy few will continue to feed fat of the common purse.

[Kingsley Moghalu OON @MoghaluKingsley]

“Nigeria needs you”. I hear this phrase a lot. I believed it myself when I left my prestigious perch as a professor on the faculty @FletcherSchool @TuftsUniversity in 2018 and returned home to offer myself as a presidential candidate in 2019, and tried to become a candidate a second time in 2023 but was betrayed by self-serving, cash-and-carry political entrepreneurs in one of the so-called “alternative platforms”.

After which I decided it wasn’t worth the bother for someone who does not need the Nigerian “system” to feed, and whose contributions are demanded and appreciated well elsewhere. So I ended my brief foray into politics and returned to international professional life. Best decision I ever made.

Life since has been quiet, happy, and fulfilling. I love my country but I also love myself, my health, and my family whose time and attention to their needs - and resources to which they are entitled - I sacrificed in 2018/19 and again in 2021/22, because “Nigeria needs me”. Resources earned from honest labor, not “you-know”. And I still contribute occasional commentary on public and economic policy to help shine light on important issues of statecraft (but I do NOT make partisan commentary since I am not aligned with or a member of any political party).

Now I know better. So when I get the “Nigeria needs you” line I respond: “it needs you too, and ALL of us, not just me”. Our country is down deep, whether anyone accepts this or not. It can only be fixed by the people themselves, if they were to recognize their own power and come out in their millions to demand responsible and accountable governance and a transparent democracy where their actual votes are more important than those who “magic-count” votes. Governance remains absent because the Nigerian people have consciously disempowered themselves with excuses such as “poverty” etc - the very reason they should exercise their people power and shake up the greedy politicians.

Citizens in other countries- citizens, not politicians- have changed the trajectories of their own troubled countries. Admitted, not everywhere, and it’s admittedly not easy, but it has happened in places that did not have 220 million people. May we not become the Democratic Republic of Congo - although some would retort “what’s the difference, really?”