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What happened at Dadamac's First Thursday - March 1st - Meeting - Nigeria, Serbia and UK March 5, 2012

 How it works

  • On  the first Thursday of each month I try be online for an hour. I invite   some of my friends and  contacts to join me. I have no idea if anyone   will be willing and able to accept my invitation, but I wait online in   the hope that someone will arrive - and usually the result is an    interesting  discussion of some kind
What happened at the March meeting

We start by introducing ourselves.
  • Pamela  McLean UK - interested in meeting up with my friends and contacts here.  I like how the Internet helps us to meet each other, learn from each  other, and do useful stuff.
  • Sasha  Mrkailo, Serbia- umm what should I write here, lets try: self  unemployed - learnig, questioning and thinking in silence.Searching for  new oportunities to earn, learn and share. (Pam added that Sasha is also a great teacher) Sasha -  http://www.dadamac.net/network/sasha
  • Olalekan Oyekola Ayorinde from Ago-Are but working in Abuja. Good afternoon.
  • We were also joined briefly by Ramadhan (Tanzania) and Graham (UK)
Pamela  and Sasha meet online quite often but Olaleken was new to First  Thursday meetings (and it was a long time since he and Pam had chatted)  so the focus of the meeting was on him.

Links we shared during the chat
Chat archive - edited down to focus on facts and excluding the friendly chit chat. You can read the full archive in that chat window at http://etherpad.openstewardship.net/March-2012-First-Thursday

14:07 Olalekan Oyekola: …. My Director is taking part in the burial of the Ikemba of Nnewi Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu

14:10 Olalekan Oyekola: Well, the Ikemba was the war hero on the Biafran side during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 to 1970. They called it war of unity because of the reunion. He was a Lt Col in the Nig Army before the rebellion.

14:13 Olalekan Oyekola: ... The nation is mourning him especially the South Eastern Nigeria people. He was their war hero, the leader of the rebellion famous for his Ahiara Declaration
14:14 Pamela: I read a wonderful novel about the Biafran Civil war, a couple of years ago - Half of a Yellow Sun 

14:16 Olalekan Oyekola: I actually had a book on the Nigerian Civil War by St De Jorre a British journalist who covered the two sides during the war. ..It was very rich

14:20 Olalekan Oyekola: The one I'm referring to is something like 'The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War" . … It chronicled all the political upheavals, the violence, wet-e syndrom and the coup detat and then the civil war , the Aburi Accord by OAU mediators in Ghana and on and on till the end of the war.

14:22 Olalekan Oyekola: …. Mine was among 5 books lent to people organising a national orientation programme they called. Operation Service Alert. Hi Shasha.

14:26 Olalekan Oyekola: The war hero of the Biafran side Ikemba of Nnewi Chief Odumegwu Emeka Ojukwu died recently in London and the burial is taking place here. He's being given national burial.... He was hospitalised there and he died. His wife was a one-time Miss Nigeria

14:27 Olalekan Oyekola: O.k. David Mutua said he would like to move a project to Ago-Are, but he's yet to tell me what it is

14:28 Olalekan Oyekola: Follow the news on "Nigerian Newspapers Online". You will read volumes on him this season

14:29 Sasha: So Olalekan, what do you do in life?
14:30 Sasha: NIgeria is a complex society, with a lot of ethnic groups and religions
14:31 Sasha: just like the former Yugoslavia was

14:31 Olalekan Oyekola: I'm a researcher, print and broadcast specialist. I have been producing Documentary films and jingles.for the Army in Abuja. But I'm still much engrossed on community development. I'm a native of Ago-Are. I have 6 books published in my name. And I established the Ago-Are Year Review in 2000.

14:34 Olalekan Oyekola: I wrote 2 historical plays AGANNA-IJI THE SAGA OF A YORUBA TOWN in English and AARE OLANIYA in Yoruba. Then I worte the authentic history of the Ago-Are Community in 1999. It's entitled AGO-ARE LATI IPILESE DE ODE ONI in Yoruba. Then I have 3 books on Public Relations studies.

14:36 Olalekan Oyekola: One of the plays was once used as a book for literary study in Lagos by a college of education. The 3 PR books have been used by polytechnics and universities in Nigeria and as a book of reference by the Mass Comm Dept of the University of Liberia.

14:38 Olalekan Oyekola: That's right Pam. I have been trying to write a second edition of the history book in English. But the people still want it in Yoruba.

14:40 Olalekan Oyekola: ….  I write and sub-edit for the Nig. Army newsmagazine New SOJA a quarterly. But I also contribute into Moment newspaper. I once worked for News Mirror and actually Acting Editor of the monthly Awoju Eko in Lagos.

14:43 Olalekan Oyekola: ….. I was involved in lecturing too in 2006 to 2010. I was an Instructor in Lagos at the Victoria Island Army School of Public Relations and Information. I assisted in its curriculum development. It's the first school of its kind in Africa.

14:45 Olalekan Oyekola: Yesterday I read about activities of the Caretaker Chairman of the Atisbo Local Government. He is Timothy Ogunkunle from Ago-Are. Remember I sent word to him that he should complete abandoned projects
14:46 Olalekan Oyekola: One of the abandoned facilities is the Info Centre.

14:48 Olalekan Oyekola: The Nigerian Tribune published a story on the achievement of the Committee Chairman yesterday. He will be there until elections are concluded and the elected man is sworn in.
14:49 Pamela: ….... I heard from Fola Sunday that it had been closed , he would also like to see it opened again
14:50 Olalekan Oyekola: We discussed last time. I think he has to. I will ask him directly. I hope to visit him soon

14:51 Olalekan Oyekola: There is a lot to gain in an InfoCentre. This is an Information Age.
14:51 Pamela: Are you in contact with any of the other people who are concerned, or have been concerned in the past
14:52 Olalekan Oyekola: I have Mr Oyawale and Dada. We have to move with the changes.
14:53 Pamela: i am thinking or Mr Timothy Oyawale, and Pastor David, and Chief Adejumo and Chief Adetola
14:53 Olalekan Oyekola: I want to come up with this year's edition of Ago-Are Year Review to be published in August for the AGM of the Parapo

14:54 Olalekan Oyekola: …. But Chief Adetola is my uncle. We can meet any time.

14:56 Pamela: ramadan! Graham! welcome

14:57 Ramadhan: Thank you P how are you every one

14:58 Pamela: Ramadhan - Long time - I am so pleased to see you, I was concerned for your well being

notes added later

Ramadan’s connection was soon lost. Sasha and Pam had brief discussion about Ramadhan and other contacts we have in East Africa through Minciu Sodas.

We shared more contact details and our preferred ways to communicate etc.


15:10 Olalekan Oyekola: Asking Mrkailo about snail farming and antelope rearing
15:12 Olalekan Oyekola: We used to go for antelope during games hunting. But they are fewer now with the use of the shotguns and expanding towns

15:13 Sasha: I think many europeans think about africa as one entity, which is of course wrong
15:14 Pamela: And some Americans think of Europe as one entity, which is of course wrong too
15:14 Sasha: Olalekan, I dont know anything about antelopes, about snails: I have once catched a bag full of snails, but since I didnt do anything with them on time they have escaped from the bag, that was a funny scene :)
15:16 Sasha: regarding snail farming there is a lot of info on the internet
15:16 Pamela: When I was at school we had French pen friends and we visited each other. I remember her father and grandfather bringing snails. I remember because I was in the garden looking in a different direction and they thought it would be amusing to put a snail on my arm as a big suprise !
15:18 Olalekan Oyekola: I will get them. We can do with snail farming. It's lucrative here and economical to do
15:19 Sasha: :)
15:19 Sasha: here people dont eat snails really
15:19 Pamela: Ref - We used to go for antelope during games hunting.- I think things have changed a lot.......Mr Timothy told me how elephants used to trouble to local farmers, but the elephants are all gone now
15:20 Sasha: I didnt try escargots here, but that may change some day

15:23 Sasha: just read the text about his (Ramadhan’s) farm, which was started with Maria from Italy
15:23 Olalekan Oyekola: Snails are small but recommended by nutritionists and medics
15:23 Pamela: My thanks to Sasha, Olalekan, Ramadhan and Graham for coming here today
15:24 Sasha: a year has already past (since death of Maria)
15:24 Sasha: thank you Pam for inviting me
15:24 Olalekan Oyekola: O.k. Pam. Happy we met and discussed at length today
15:24 Pamela: And he (Ramadhan) will have had so many problems to contend with
15:25 Olalekan Oyekola: My greetings to everyone.
15:25 Pamela: Thank you for being here, I will have to go now, I look forward to meeting again soon. Bye for now
15:26 Olalekan Oyekola: Thanks. Go well. Bye
15:27 Sasha: bye

Previous two meetings