text:
Lyriel are a German heavy metal band who formed in autumn of 2003 in Gummersbach. Originally playing folk metal, they turned more towards symphonic and gothic metal. Lyriel has recorded five studio albums and published a DVD of a live performance.

History
The band's lineup remained unchanged from their formation until 2008. Lyriel played as opening act for bands such as Elis, Visions of Atlantis, Regicide, Xandria, Schandmaul, Corvus Corax, Saltatio Mortis, Oomph, Schelmish, Korpiklaani and Manfred Mann's Earth Band.

In 2005 they toured Germany, Austria and Belgium with Elis and Visions of Atlantis, in February 2006 Lyriel played on the "Romantic Darkness Tour" together with Regicide and Xandria. Moreover, they played on the Celtic Rock Festival at Greifenstein castle in Hesse. A video was released of the show. The first studio album Prisonworld was released on 17 January 2005. Especially notable is the song "Lind e-huil" which is sung in Sindarin, a fictional Elvish language created by J. R. R. Tolkien. The song "The Symmetry of Disfiguration" was inspired by Wendy and Richard Pini's Elfquest series.

Their second studio album Autumntales was published on 29 September 2006. It continues the band's style and among other songs contains a cover version of "Hijo de la Luna". The performance of the string instruments was lauded by the musical press, as well as Jessica Thierjung's singing. The track "My Favourite Dream", recorded together with Sabine Dünser of Elis, was also acclaimed as one of the harder songs on the album.

In September 2008 drummer Daniel de Beer left the band and was replaced by Marcus Fidorra. Since then the lineup has changed several times.

The First Chapters, a remastered compilation album containing the first two studio albums was published in 2009. A new album Paranoid Circus followed on 29 January 2010. German voice actor Simon Jäger, known for dubbing actors like Heath Ledger and Matt Damon, appears as a guest artist on the album, reading an introduction and an excerpt from Hermann Hesse's short story The Wolf in the middle of the album.  German and Austrian reviews agreed that while offering a high musical standard this album lacks the general speed of the previous releases. The album was re-released on AFM Records in April 2011 with a new cover artwork and 2 bonus tracks.

Lyriel signed with AFM Records in 2011. A fourth album named Leverage was released in February 2012. Among a mix of soft folk rock as well as symphonic metal, it features a duet with Schandmaul vocalist Thomas Lindner. Leverage received positive reviews in Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom. It was however noted that the "album does lose some steam near its conclusion" and that the band should have dared to evolve towards harder metal songs. Leverage contains two songs "The Road Not Taken" and "Parting" that are based on lyrics by Robert Frost and Charlotte Brontë respectively On the extended edition there is a version of "Everything's Coming Up Roses" by Black.

The band's fifth album Skin and Bones was released in September 2014 after bassist Steffen Feldmann had left the band. In March 2015, founding member Oliver Thierjung announced that he had left the band because of health issues. He was replaced by Thomas Raser in April that year. Also in April 2015, the band released a 10-years-anniversary EP called 10.

Style and influences
The septet designate their music "Dark Romantic Celtic Rock". Lyriel's repertoire ranges from medievally inspired ballads to hard rock pieces with elements of classical and folk music. Early recordings were frequently compared to Blackmore's Night, but the band has evolved towards symphonic metal with gothic influences.

Band Members

Current members
Jessica Thierjung - vocals (2003–present)
Linda Laukamp - cello, backing vocals (2003–present)
Joon Laukamp - violin (2005-2010, 2011–present)
Marcus Fidorra - drums (2008–present)
Tim Sonnenstuhl - guitars (2011–present), bass (2011)
Thomas Raser - bass, backing vocals (2015–present)

Former Members
Claudia Schäfer - violin (2003-2005)
Daniel de Beer - drums (2003-2008)
Sven Engelmann - bass (2003-2010)
Martin Ahmann - keyboards (2003-2010)
Oliver Thierjung - guitars (2003-2013), bass (2013-2015), backing vocals (2003-2015)
Matthias Kirchler - bass (2010-2011)
Johannes Anand - violin (2010-2011)
Steffen Feldmann - bass (2011-2013)

Timeline

Discography

Studio albums
Prisonworld (2005)
Autumntales (2006)
Paranoid Circus (2010)
Leverage (2012)
Skin and Bones (2014)

Compilation
The First Chapters (2009)

EP
10 (2015)

DVD
Live auf Burg Greifenstein [Live on Greifenstein Castle] (2005) contains video footage of events of the 3rd Celtic Rock Open Air festival.

References

External links
Official website
[ Lyriel] at Allmusic

German folk metal musical groups
German symphonic metal musical groups
German gothic metal musical groups
Musical groups established in 2003
Musical groups from North Rhine-Westphalia


text:
Home People Places and Stories This Lytle added fame to family name
This Lytle added fame to family name
People Places and Stories
Mike West, the Murfreesboro Post, January 10, 2010
Andrew Nelson Lytle, a name that grew to represent the final voice of the Southern Agrarian movement.
The day before Christmas in 1902, a baby was born to Murfreesboros founding family, the Lytles. He was the son of hard-working Robert Logan Lytle and Lillie Belle Nelson. An ancestor, William Lytle, had donated the land for Murfreesboro in 1811, only slightly less than 90 years before.
They named him Andrew Nelson Lytle, a name that grew to represent the final voice of the Southern Agrarian movement.
The influential Agrarians, a group of graduates and professors at Vanderbilt University, published the 1930 book of essays called I'll Take My Stand. The book made the case for preserving the values, economy and habits of the farm and small Southern town, while casting aside the centralized industrial life blossoming in the North. It was penned, to a certain extent, in response to the national uproar created in 1925 because of the Scopes monkey trial. "Do what we did after the war and the Reconstruction," Lytle wrote. "Return to our looms, our handcrafts, our reproducing stock. Throw out the radio and take down the fiddle from the wall."
Only Lytle, who penned the essay "The Hind Tit," actually lived the agrarian tradition. He ran a series of family-owned farms and tended a garden that supplied virtually all the produce for his table until he was well into his 80s. While the book, I'll Take My Stand, resonated for decades in the South, it had little impact outside the region other than in academic circles. The Agrarians made the case that urbanized, industrialized society undermined the value of hard work.
Industrialization, they claimed, damaged religion, arts and social amenities, such as conversation, hospitality, sympathy, family life and even romance. Eventually, the Agrarians dissipated with most of the 13 authors who penned I'll Take My Stand moving out of the region.
The group included Robert Penn Warren, Allen Tate, John Crowe Ransom and Donald Davidson. Warren would grow to be the most famous of the group receiving the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for his novel, All the King's Men (1946) and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1958 and 1979. Meanwhile, Lytle remained in the South where he mixed his writing and teaching career with farming and greatly surpassing the role he played with the Agrarians.
He attended Sewanee Military Academy on the grounds of the University of the South, then graduated from Vanderbilt with a Bachelor of Arts in 1925. That same year he was accepted at Exeter College, Oxford, but returned home on the death of his grandfather. He subsequently moved north to New Haven, Conn., as a student at the Yale School of Drama from 1927 to 1929. During that period, he supported himself as an actor in several plays in New York City.
In 1938, Lytle married Edna Barker, and they had three daughters. He developed a certain dramatic flair in those early days that carried him through the rest of his long life. In his later years, friends and family would encircle him at his cabin in Monteagle where he would entertain them with humorous anecdotes and stories from his younger days.
Lytle's serious literary career began in the late 1920s, when he penned a biography, Bedford Forrest and His Critter Company. Described by experts as a writer's writer, Lytles writing's tended to win more critical praise than popular acclaim. His first novel, "The Long Night" (1936), and "At the Moon's Inn" (1947) were well received by critics, but "The Velvet Horn" (1957) is regarded as his masterpiece.
His academic career included stints at Vanderbilt, the universities of Florida, Iowa and Kentucky as well as Kenyon College before ending up at the University of the South in Sewanee. During his years as an educator, Lytle taught several prominent writers including Flannery O'Connor. He later published several of her stories in the Sewanee Review, as well as critical essays on her work. The longtime editor of The Sewanee Review, he transformed what had been a small academic publication into one of the nation's leading and most innovative literary guides.
Lytle, after retiring from the University of the South in 1973, spent the last 20 years of his life living in his cabin on the grounds of the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly not far from the campus of the University of the South. He died in 1995 two weeks short of his 93rd birthday.
Looking Back: Bradley Academy had six buildings
A Window to the Past – Lodl keeps up with county's records for future generations

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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in other news, was a rly cute tractorg outside blodgett's window last week, but don't think it saw blodgett. maybe it will be here again today! hopes.
also yestertag was good, was in large hall with smooth floor and played a LOT of run-run-run-sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide. alas discovered later this result in matching holes on blodgett's best rainbow-stripy socks. nevermind….
This entry was posted on Monday, October 25th, 2010 at 9:57 am	and is filed under blodgett. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
what you need is a counterfactual-aware alarm clock.
> what you need is a counterfactual-aware alarm clock.
> good work on sliding.


text:
Shroud believes Halo needs to change "a lot" to compete in modern era
Published: 23/Nov/2020 5:53
by Alex Tsiaoussidis
343 Industries / Shroud
Halo Infinite shroud
Shroud believes Microsoft's long-standing Halo franchise needs to change "a lot" about the way it plays if it's to compete with modern titles like Fortnite and Call of Duty with the release of Halo Infinite next year.
Shroud is an expert when it comes to first-person shooters. It's not even because he's a phenomenal player. It's because he knows what makes them good and how they can be improved.
The Twitch star regularly comments on games and issues; recently, he chimed in on Modern Warfare and explained why he finds it so boring.
Now, he's set his sights on the Halo series, expressing concerns about Halo Infinite, which is still pending a release date after being delayed.
Shroud is an open book and doesn't mind sharing his opinions with viewers.
In his latest stream, Shroud spent a couple of hours fragging lobbies in Halo 4. He seemed to be enjoying himself, but even he wasn't too sure, in the end: "I guess that was fun?" he said after closing the game browser. "I don't know. I really don't know. Just Halo, I guess."
The concern, he said, is that the title feels 'outdated,' especially when matching up against other modern titles on the market.
Read more: Shroud is "scared to know" why Twitch banned Dr Disrespect
"Halo Infinite needs to change a lot [to] so that it meets up with current expectations," he said. "Halo is dated. But it makes sense. The games are old, so it makes sense for the games to feel dated."
Halo Infinite has had a troubled development since being delayed until 2021.
Of course, Halo Infinite is set to revolutionize the franchise by expanding the game into an open-world. However, Shroud's comments seem to be more about the multiplayer combat and gameplay itself.
"It was so short… I don't like how not chaotic it is," he said. "4v4 and the size of the map and how you can control it is kind of weird. I wish it was more spontaneous and all over the place… More of a deathmatch."
Shroud acknowledged he hasn't played the series enough to know for sure. He also said he's willing to give it another chance. "Everyone says Halo 5 could be something I'm interested in," he said. "I really want to play more."
Read more: Shroud explains why he wouldn't care if he got a Twitch ban
Unfortunately, he didn't have any real suggestions on how to improve the gameplay. However, he flirted with the idea of adding air strafe. "If this game had air strafe, it'd be f**king nuts. But.. then it'd pretty much just be Quake. Well, kind of."
It goes without saying that Shroud's views are his own, and he's merely sharing them with viewers on his stream. There are plenty of other players who love the Halo series and are excited for Halo Infinite.
Still, the expectations for Halo Infinite are high, especially since it's been five years since Halo 5. Plus, Shroud's opinion is always valuable, and many believe his concerns are warranted.


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text:
Spencer Torkelson Stats & Scouting Report - Baseball America
#20 | 1B/1B
Name: Spencer Enochs Torkelson
Born: Aug 26, 1999 in Petaluma, CA
College: Arizona State
High School: Casa Grande HS, Petaluma, Calif.
Career 360 .203 .285 .319 8
Drafted in the 1st round (1st overall) by the Detroit Tigers in 2020 (signed for $8,416,300)
Undrafted after his four-year high school career in Northern California, Torkelson exploded onto the college baseball scene at Arizona State with one of the best freshman seasons ever. He led the nation with 25 home runs that year, breaking Barry Bonds' ASU freshman home run record. He was just as strong in his sophomore and junior seasons, but the early end to what is expected to be his final season left him three homers short of breaking Bob Horner's ASU career record. Torkelson has terrific hitting ability with an advanced approach and plate discipline, plus bat speed and plus-plus power. He hits with power to all fields and showed an increased ability to pull pitches over the middle of the plate during his abbreviated junior season. At times he gets too much out on his front side and pulls off of pitches, so there are still some swing tweaks to be made. Even so, his power potential and hitting ability are that of a middle-of-the-order force. Torkelson an above-average defender at first base thanks to his impressive agility and good hands, as well as his strong work ethic to continue improving. Torkelson played some outfield with USA Baseball's Collegiate National Team, where he ranked as the top prospect last summer. While he has below-average speed, he runs well underway and has improved his throwing technique. He could be at least adequate in left field, but most observers want him to stay at first base so he can focus on hitting. Torkelson may be the safest pick at the top of the draft thanks to his outstanding hitting ability and the most usable power in the draft. He draws comparisons to elite mashers like Mets first baseman Pete Alonso and should rise quickly through the minors. If Torkelson does become the first overall pick, he would be the first college first baseman to ever do so.


I ran across a piece by John Berger on the importance of drawing... I agree, but say also that painting and writing... are crucial in the same ways. A blog I read told a story and quoted Volatire: quoted Voltaire: "J'ai décidé d'être heureux" ("I have decided to be happy," to which he added, "because it is good for my health") -- see http://afemmeduncertainage.blogspot.com. I love this quote, and decided to play with it!


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Q: replaceObjectAtIndex:withObject does not work I am trying to assign objects in an NSMutableArray using this code
- (IBAction)variablePressed:(UIButton *)sender {
NSString *variable = [sender currentTitle];
if (!_variableToBePassedIntoTheDictionary) _variableToBePassedIntoTheDictionary = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
[_variableToBePassedIntoTheDictionary replaceObjectAtIndex:0 withObject:variable];}

but when I run this program the program breaks at the last line, since I have set the debugger to show warnings if a Exception is raised. Running the program without breakpoints, the program gives SIGARBT and crashes. I then assign these values to a dictionary which would be passed to the Model for further calculations.
- (IBAction)testVariableValues:(id)sender {
if (!_variablesAssignedInADictionary) _variablesAssignedInADictionary = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
[_variablesAssignedInADictionary setObject:_digitToBePassedIntoTheVariable forKey:_variableToBePassedIntoTheDictionary];
NSLog(@"%@", _variablesAssignedInADictionary);}

P.S. I am new in Objective C, can anybody please explain when do we use
@synthesize someProperty;

vs
@synthesize someProperty = _someProperty;

Thank You!

A: The first time the method is called you create the NSMutableArray and then attempt to replace an object which is not there.  The reference says:
- (void)replaceObjectAtIndex:(NSUInteger)index withObject:(id)anObject

The index of the object to be replaced. This value must not exceed
  the bounds of the array. Important Raises an NSRangeException if
  index is beyond the end of the array.

And 0 will exceed the bounds of an empty array.
Try this instead:
- (IBAction)variablePressed:(UIButton *)sender
{
    NSString *variable = [sender currentTitle];
    if (_variableToBePassedIntoTheDictionary == nil)
    {
        _variableToBePassedIntoTheDictionary = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
        [_variableToBePassedIntoTheDictionary addObject:variable];
    }
    else
    {
        [_variableToBePassedIntoTheDictionary replaceObjectAtIndex:0 withObject:variable];
    }
}

A: Taken from the docs :

The index of the object to be replaced. This value must not exceed the
  bounds of the array.

As I see from your code your array is initialized and there is no object at index 0. hence you try to replace an object at an index which is out of bounds as your array is empty.

A: Very simple question:
You told it stops on an exception. Fair enough. What for an exception? Let me guess, an out of bounds exception? The exception tells you what's wrong in most cases.
replaceObjectAtIndex:0 : is there something at that index or not? Probably not.

A: In your code you test the condition:
if(!_variableToBePassedIntoTheDictionary)
and if the condition is true, that is the array is nil, then you alloc-init it.
In the following statement:
[_variableToBePassedIntoTheDictionary replaceObjectAtIndex:0 withObject:variable];,
you try to replace the object at index 0 with variable. But in the case above, if you just alloc-init the array, it is empty and than you cannot replace the object at index 0 as not existing, and this raises an exception:

*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSRangeException', reason: '*** -[__NSArrayM replaceObjectAtIndex:withObject:]: index 0 beyond bounds for empty array'

So what you have to do is to change the last line as follows:
if([_variableToBePassedIntoTheDictionary count]==0) {
  [_variableToBePassedIntoTheDictionary addObject:variable]
} else {
[_variableToBePassedIntoTheDictionary replaceObjectAtIndex:0 withObject:variable]
}

As far as the second question about properties, consider that the role of synthesize is to create for you the setter/getter methods based on the attributes you assigned to the @property. In the new Objective-C you don't need to declare the ivar associated to the property (the ivar is the instance variable that represent the property) and the compiler by default assigns the ivar the name of the property. By using the
@synthesize someProperty = _someProperty
convention you specify that you want the ivar to be called _someProperty. The advantage of this approach with respect to the default one is that you cannot confuse accessing to a property using the setter/getter methods and the ivar directly, that is you cannot make possible mistakes like:
someProperty=value
but instead you must write:
_someProperty=value
or
self.someProperty=value

Anyway have a look at Obj-C documentation for this, it is quite exhaustive.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Home News Magic Emperor Chapter 16: Release Date and Spoilers
Magic Emperor Chapter 16: Release Date and Spoilers
Jiu convinces Xiao Fan to join his Qianglong's pavilion after witnessing his tremendous fighting skills in the latest chapter of 'Magic Emperor.' This manga made its latest release on the 12th of January 2020 with the release of chapter 16. So in this post, we are going to talk about 'Magic Emperor' Chapter 16 release date scans and spoilers. So if you don't like spoilers, you can just skip the spoilers section below.
Magic Emperor Chapter 17 Spoilers
Xiao Fan asked if the position he was offered was the highest in Qianlong despite all the benefits it came with. So he accepted the offer after making a suggestion that he wants his family in Luo's Family to live in peace. It was not a complete sealed deal as he refused to be the lord of Qianlong as he said it was influenced by what Xiao Nui had told him earlier.
When Can You Expect Magic Emperor Chapter 16?
This manga releases its new chapters on varying says, so its release schedule is a little random. But new chapters are released multiple times in a week. The latest release was with chapter 16 on the 12th of January 2020 with chapter 16. So this means that chapter 16 might be released around the 16th of January 2020. So make sure to regularly visit our website as we will bring you updates as soon as a new chapter, ie released.
READ: Hunters: Release Date, Cast, Plot, and Update Details
Where Can You Read Magic Emperor manga?
As of now, there is no official website for you to read Magic Emperor manga online, it is available on Kuaikan Manhua magazine so you can support the creators by buying the magazine. You can also read the latest chapters online on unofficial sites, there are many of them, but we highly advise you to support the official releases as this supports the creators.
What Is Magic Emperor Manga About?
This Manga follows the life of the Main Character, who is a magic emperor. The strongest man alive who once died and then reincarnated into a boy with no cultivation.
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text:
Q: Empty Jboss files post removal of old application bulid file I have a very strange situation.
My application build file was deployed in jboss and i accidentally installed the new build file without removing old build file.
Now when both the build files were present ,i removed the old build file forcefully and without stopping the jboss process.Which has resulted in following empty files with 0kb
cache-invalidation-service.xml, sqlexception-service.xml, jbossjca-service.xml. jboss-local-jdbc.rar, jboss-mx-ext.sar under server/tomcat-clustered/deploy/
i need to know,what could have triggered that has caused only these files to go empty.
Thanks..


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A week ago, I stumbled on an article titled "Africa and the burden of Leadership" (The Guardian, Nov. 7), written by Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, banker, investor and entrepreneur, former Managing Director of Access Bank Nigeria, our compatriot. The piece was actually excerpted from a speech he delivered at the graduation ceremony of government and public policy students at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, UK, in his capacity as founder of the Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG). The AIG was founded by him in 2014. The piece made me curious and I had to check out the Africa Initiative for Governance online. In this age of "google-it" or what others call the "white man's oracle," if you are in doubt about anything or you are looking for information, just consult the google-oracle. So I googled it to double-check some of the information already provided in the article before me.
Indeed in 2014, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede founded the Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG) as a not-for-profit, private sector-led Foundation to promote good governance and public sector reform. Every year, since 2016, the AIG, in partnership with the Blavatnik School of Government has provided post-graduate scholarships for a Masters in Public Policy (MPP) programme at the University of Oxford. To date, persons selected from Nigeria and Ghana have benefitted from the programme. Five of them graduated in November 2018. They are expected to return to their home country and become change agents in their country's public sectors. Five other AIG scholars enrolled for the MPP in September 2018.
Every year, the Foundation also awards the AIG Fellowship to an outstanding public official in Nigeria or Ghana. To date, Professor Attahiru Jega, former Chairman of Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the immediate past Chief Justice of Ghana, Justice Georgina Wood have benefitted from the Fellowship. The AIG is involved in partnership with the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation (OHCSF) to give teeth to a 2017-2020 Federal Civil Service Transformation Strategy and Implementation Plan to ensure the transformation of the Nigerian civil service, and general public sector reform. As recently as October 2018, the Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG) sponsored and facilitated a session: "The Unfinished Business of Reforms" at the 24th Nigerian Economic Summit held at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, FCT. I further discovered that my friend and brother, Olusegun Adeniyi sits on the board of the AIG. I recall that he actually once wrote a piece on the initiative when it was first launched.
Aigboje Aig-Imokhuede is a member of the emergent generation of Nigerian wealthy men and women, the 80s generation that made its money in the last two decades, from banking, finance, securities, real estate, oil and gas and just about anything that could be turned into money as the decades progressed. This rise of new money in Nigeria as different from "old money" (represented by the Odutola brothers, Dantata, Ibru, Ojukwu, daRocha, Fernandez etc) also seems to have coincided with a rising consciousness about the need to give something back to society, that is philanthropy or social responsibility. There has been, in Nigeria, a re-definition of capitalism, in terms of a more benevolent construction, and the rich man as a responsible man of community and an agent for social good.
What has been seen, therefore, is the growth of institutions and initiatives devoted to the public good or ostensibly so, with too much money seeking to do much good. Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Group, and one of the richest men in Africa, has the Dangote Foundation. Jim Ovia, owner of Zenith Bank, has a Jim Ovia Foundation, and is founder of the Jim Hope Schools. Tony Elumelu, Chairman of the Union Bank for Africa (UBA) runs the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) which has been supporting and grooming entrepreneurs in 44 African countries. Of all these efforts that I know, the least publicized in my view is the Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG). Or to put it differently, in a country where a Foundation that distributes food to the poor, and another small one that gives out second hand clothes, are much better known, a Foundation like the AIG which focusses on reform, governance and policy deserves more aggressive publicity - not to promote ego, but to inspire a much broader debate about its goals and objectives.
It remains for us to interrogate the foundations of the initiative, and some of the points raised in Aig-Imoukhuede's article. The original assumption is that the civil service is the engine-room of a country and that for a country to function effectively, attain a competitive edge and for democracy to work, there must be in place a development-oriented civil service in place. Aig-Imoukhuede obviously believes as shown in his piece "Africa and the burden of leadership", that the failure of African States is a function of the failure of the bureaucratic machinery in those countries, and that reform is required to reverse the trend, rediscover lost glory and reposition African countries for progress. There is a touch of nostalgia in this. Many Nigerians growing up in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s in Nigeria will remember a country that once worked. Chinua Achebe referred to this when he titled one of his books, "There was once a country". In that country referred to by Chinua Achebe, there may have been small corruption within the system, tongue and "tribe" may have differed, but Nigeria was a country that worked.
There was in place a State bureaucracy that provided opportunities and service for the average citizen. We had in the country some of the best schools in the sub-region, if not in the entire continent. Scholars from around the world came to teach at the country's universities; there were foreign students in Nigeria as well. As a secondary school student, some of my teachers were from Pakistan, India and other parts of the Commonwealth. As an undergraduate, we had Faculty members from the United States, France, UK and Canada. Nigerian roads were fixed by a department called PWD, that is Public Works Department. In those days, teachers were special citizens because students and their parents celebrated them and appreciated their value. A school principal or a primary school headmaster or headmistress was definitely a member of the local elite. There was a Sanitary and Hygiene Department at the Health Office. Today, Nigeria ranks second on the ignoble, global list of countries that are guilty of open defecation due to the absence of public latrines! There was regular power supply in those days. Nobody had any need for a generator. Today, every home is a power station. You have to generate your own water, your own electricity too. The situation is so bad that the Federal Government has had to declare a national emergency on water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).
AIG believes that the narrative can be changed and that new thinking can produce a new Nigeria. Aig-Imoukhuede is convinced that public sector reforms focused on human capacity development and institutional capacity building can change our circumstances. The truth is that there have been many public service reforms in Nigeria as has been convincingly argued and rigorously analysed by Tunji Olaopa, our former Perm. Sec at the State House who in a few days will be delivering an inaugural lecture as a Professor at the Lead City University in Ibadan. (see for example: Tunji Olaopa, Managing Complex Reforms, Ibadan: Bookcraft, 2011, 315 pp). Nonetheless, in spite of all of those reforms, Nigeria remains classified as a "hesitant reformer". Countries like Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, Mauritius, Botswana, and Kenya are ahead of Nigeria. Nigeria remains resistant to new thinking. Aig-Imoukhuede through the AIG, wants to intervene from within, through private sector injection, into the policy making process. His entry route is education. He believes that if the private sector can invest over time, in human capital, create a pool of public policy experts who have been schooled in some of the best institutions in the world, when such individuals are injected into the system, they can make a difference. He even intends to set up a public policy university in Nigeria where such new thinkers can be produced.
I get the point about human capacity investment. Many countries in the developing world have learnt to recruit into their bureaucracy only the best and the brightest available. In India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, you must be really smart to be a civil servant. It is understood that what happens in terms of the management of the State determines everything else. In Nigeria, our civil service system has been overtaken by nepotism, lack of merit, incompetence and complete disregard for critical thinking. The same Nigerian civil service that once produced Super Permanent Secretaries (including Philip Asiodu, the late Allison Ayida and late Hayford Alile), now produces ethnic champions, looters, "area boys", and closet politicians. Aig-Imoukhuede believes that a carefully groomed and intellectually exposed new elite can create a revolution. He has taken the strategic step of involving beneficiaries from Ghana and other African countries.
I assure Aig-Imokhuede that he may end up having more success stories from Ghana and elsewhere in Africa. But that does not mean he must give up on his own country. He made his money here and he has an obligation to contribute to the re-making of the country of his birth. The path he has chosen is much better than donating money to politicians who do not understand policy or the developmental process that will produce a better society. It is a much wiser way of spending his money than acquiring additional wives or side chicks, living large like an octopus, dressing like a coxcomb, or becoming an embarrassing face of capitalism. My worry is this: when the new bureaucratic elite that he is helping to create through first world education return to Nigeria or Ghana, how do they fit in, into the rot in Nigeria especially? How do they fit into the prevalent culture of anti-intellectualism? A Masters in Public Policy (MPP) from Oxford is great but is Nigeria's civil service today, ready for Oxonian intellect and competence? What is the guarantee that some of AIG's products will not end up elsewhere in other countries where they may be better valued? Aig-Imoukhuede wants to create 21st century technocrats for a 19th century system in Nigeria. Will elite public policy education also prepare his beneficiaries for the primordial constraints of the Nigerian public sector?
Let me simplify that. In Oxford, and I believe in the elite school that Aig-Imoukhuede wants to build, they will teach things like planning, processes, innovation, creativity, efficiency and outcomes as parts of the bureaucratic engine. How will the AIG agents when they return to Nigeria respond to their other colleagues who in the first place are holding strategic positions because of Federal Character and whose secondary school certificates cannot be traced and who have never been to anywhere close to Oxford? How will they relate with the horde of civil servants who will leave the office before noon every Friday and will not return? How will they deal with a system where records are not kept and nobody wants to keep any record because of an established "Guardian syndrome" - the this-is-how-we-have-always-done-it mentality that has always made new thinking impossible in the Nigerian civil service? The plan is to train AIG Fellows to think modern, post-modern even, but what should they do with that other colleague who during the weekend had been shown wearing a masquerade attire and prancing about with a primitive sword in his hands, and paraded as the chieftain of a 9th century society?