~The Blog of Badabeat~

Victoria Island....
Going to Victoria Island in Lagos has always signified SERIOUS BUSINESS and my last trip to VI on friday was more than just a trip.
A lot of things sure do come to mind and as much as I tried to get it out of mind, my mind had succeded in saving the tiny bits of impression this trip had on me.After hobnobing all over the important places; had to visit Qatar Airways office at Ahmadu Bello way to confirm a ticket to Dubai.
It would have taken me a few minutes if these people can just have a customer service desk, but I had to take a number and wait for more than an hour only to be told by the "trying hard to be chic" agent that my options cannot be met by the airline.
Pissed off and steaming, I went to Silverbird Galleria; my purpose was to visit the popular Nu Metro store and alas, they have moved to Shoprite, so I just concluded my business there, cross the road and head off to Oyin Jolayemi (what a crowded street) and from what I saw there, I hope a major fire outbreak does not happen, otherwise all the tightly packed buildings with no alley whatsoever will be infected by any primary carrier of the disaster.
From on here, I went to Idowu Taylor to make some enquiries at Ethiopia Airline and I was sorely disappointed as well ( at least a notch higher than Qatar Airways).Well, that will be a story for another day.
My final stop on the Island was supposed to be the Public Affairs Section of the United States Consulate in Lagos a.k.a. EAC (formerly USIS) at Broad Street and here was the interesting part.The purpose of this visit and ensuing meeting will not be transcripted as they are intended to be CLASSIFIED for my own purposes. However, I will de-classify my conclusions of the matter. Shikena!

I have heard it said times without number that humans are more or less animals of hope and indeed hope is always a sell-out on us.

I bought my own share of hope a few years back when I believe the situation of higher education in Nigeria will change for the better. Afterall, through my university days, I was always regaled by lecturers narrating how things were better in their own days which was also worse than the days of their predecessors; thats if you can call a hall built for 150, now sitting 500 when it used to sit 300 students an improvement, Na wa O!

Anyway, my brand of hope was wishing that a Nigerian university will be listed on the top 50 universities in the world, but alas, we were not even in the first 100 and I doubt if we make it to the first 200; pity, pity, pity.

Maybe, I should do a refund issue on this hope. Hope, uhmmmm, always reminds of a recent story one of my exchange students told me after returning from their program in the US.

He had visited one of the colleges in Los Angeles to look at a postgraduate option; of course, they gave him a book indexing all the universities and colleges they will accept their graduates and Lo & behold! his perceived prestigious private university in Nigeria was not even listed there.

Well, enough yarn...see this on Harvard blasting the No 1 spot for 5 years going: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en

...Ya' adua, pls do something aside from the Rule of Law.PLEASE!!!