Buhari's Presidency - The Return of A Change Agent?

When President Muhammadu Buhari became the Head of State of Nigeria On the 31st of December 1983, he was a forty one (41) year Major-General serving as General Officer Commanding the Third Armored Division of the Nigerian Army in Jos and it was just a few days after his birthday on the 17th. On the 29th May 2015 some thirty odd years after he has been sworn in as president. This time he is - in his own words - a "Converted Democrat". He is now a seventy two (72) year old politician who has run for that post in every election in the fourth republic - a total of four (4) times.

The amount of controversy that trailed him during the general elections begged the need to gain some clarity about him.  I discovered that he's participated in three (3) coups in Nigeria's rich sixty five (65) year history and his last one ousted Shagari. He's been a governor,  minister of petroleum resources and head of the PTDF but has confined himself to a somewhat ascetic existence in atypical fashion.
While a lot can and has been said of him on both sides of the moral divide, it is undeniable when considered objectively that he is regarded as an incorrupt  leader and a man of fierce integrity.
Needless to say, in a time when corruption has become commonplace in our most hallowed institutions, the fight against corruption and war against indiscipline - two strong elements of his previous government - are imperative as critical and pivotal elements of the strategy that must be deployed going forward.

One cannot fail to see the resemblance especially as astutely outlined in this PM News article - Buhari, A Hero Then, A Hero Now in his first and second ascension to the highest office in the country. In 1983, he became head of state amidst precarious economic circumstances during the Shehu Shagari regime which are all too reminiscent of Nigeria's current situation. To name a few, there was then and is now:

• Significant decline in world oil prices and resultant dwindling of the nation's finances.
• Copious allegations of corruption absent judicial consequence.
• Endemic ethnic religious violence.
• Widespread unpopularity of the government with the citizens.

This raises a few questions for me - is Buhari's  return a coincidence or by design - divine or human?
Are Nigerians only ready to accept the taste of the bitter medicine we need for things to get better when it is almost too late? We must point out that this "change" is only here now because the people of Nigeria didn't want it bad enough until now. Our experiences as a nation have brought us up to the point where we would rather have a former military ruler take charge than a civilian democrat. Perhaps we were too busy doing the dance around with quacks and charlatans who distracted us with such loud but empty promises - with micro interventions that did nothing to stop the rapid dilapidation of the nation.

As is commonly said in politics - "Vox Di Populi, Vox Di Dei" - meaning "The voice of the people is the voice of God" - The people of Nigeria have clamored for a change still not many may even recognize in its true, tangible form. This is not the first time we have jubilated at the commencement of Buhari's or even any other's tenure as president. With a train of panegyrics and encomiums, we create the persona of a messiah that has come to solve all of our problems. That has to stop.
This time, let us as a nation be older and wiser and tread the path of National recovery with more participation and vigilance. No one can singlehandedly solve even their own problems.

A lot has also been said about his suitability for the position of President of Nigeria considering his past as a military 'dictator' but what matters now is that he is president. It is immaterial whether it was just bad luck for the outgoing administration to be the first incumbent to be voted out in Nigeria's political history or as a result of gross mismanagement and monumental ineptitude among other things,

We must discontinue the promotion of divisive sentiments that do nothing for national unity but rather talk objectively about advancing the commonwealth of Nigeria for the good of all.
Such a conversation must be continuous, careful and calculated, a national discourse that is without feudalistic machinations and  draconian hegemony. It must be all encompassing and embracing, bold and visionary. It must not preclude any sect or group from participation but be forthright and equitable forthwith.

I am not talking about another national conference but rather, the manifestation of a government that does not waste any effort in promoting the welfare of its citizens - that understands that it comes from the same crop of people and without them - it is nothing. Even the most powerful kingdoms of the earth in times past have only thrived on the support of their people.

This power of the people is a concept that I believe the outgoing ruling party has become quite familiar with. The people of Nigeria more so. I have lost count of how many times I have heard someone tell me it doesn't matter if we vote, the "powers that be" would put their man in power. It is only mental laziness to think that way. Our numbers at the very least are too overwhelming for us to embrace docility so easily. We have all witnessed firsthand our power to self determine. The power to choose our own destiny as a people and not succumb to mediocrity and think it will be alright in the end.

In summary, my hope is all Nigerians will now realize that God only helps those who help themselves. Good leadership isn't borne of luck, good or bad but of duty, discipline and diligence. We must uphold the values and noble ideals that all men everywhere hold true. We must expand our internal capacity for self development and progress. Because when we put our minds and backs to it, the harvest can be plenteous and abundant, more than enough for all - and then it won't matter what part of the country we are from, or how we choose to worship.

Change has begun, let's get to work.

Thank you for reading. Please leave your comments below.

Don't try using Oracle's Fusion Middleware with Windows FTP. Just don't

I'm writing this out of pure frustration with Oracle's SOA Suite Product.

It's disgraceful and a downright time waster. To avoid sounding like a ranter, the following is a summary of my issues with it.

1. The absence of a proper debugging environment. If there is, I haven't seen how to use it in any of the documentation I've been looking for about 2 years now. To 'debug' BPEL and Composite Applications I have to rely on the audit trail in  the Enterprise Manager window. That's a cycle of develop, deploy and run on the FMW server for every little change I'd like to test and examine. It doesn't stop there! To see more details about why for example FTP connection is failing, I have to scour the log files - there's no point trying to use the EM GUI for that, it's too unwieldy to make productive sense. 
2. The combination of Oracle SOA Suite + Oracle Weblogic Server is a memory hungry monster that will eat up all of your precious working memory. 
3. Deploying other products such as hyperion, essbase is a nightmare! Too many things left to the administrator. Why not just wrap all these up into a proper UI and handle your business. It all gives the feeling that all of the products were hurriedly put together.
4. Don't try using the FTP Adapter with a windows NT FTP Server. Even when the servertype, listParserType, recentDateFormat etc parameters are properly configured as per http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E12839_01/integration.1111/e10231/adptr_file.htm#BABEDEGC it still doesn't work! And wait, there's no way to properly debug it to find out what's exactly happening and the log files aren't helping much.

P.S. I'm writing this after spending at least 6 hours trying to list files on a windows FTP server from BPEL without success even when the Weblogic/SOA is installed on Windows itself.

The default settings on the FTP Adapter work without issues tho.

Dear Oracle, keep it up

Unable to invoke endpoint URI successfully due to: oracle.fabric.common.PolicyEnforcementException: Non-MTOM message has been received when MTOM message was expected

I followed these steps while attempting to mock an ssl enabled web service using the very cool soapui.
I went here to get rolling http://ejvyas.blogspot.in/2010/12/2-two-way-ssl-using-soapui-as-client.html.

• Created a mock service in soapui using an existing wsdl file on disk which had a valid xsd imported into into it in the same folder). 
• Created a composite in Jdeveloper and deployed to Oracle SOA to call the yet to be ssl enabled webservice and I get the unexpected error.

<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
   <env:Header/>
   <env:Body>
      <env:Fault>
         <faultcode>env:Server</faultcode>
         <faultstring>Unable to invoke endpoint URI "http://<host>:<port>/xxx/xxxxxx" successfully due to: oracle.fabric.common.PolicyEnforcementException: Non-MTOM message has been received when MTOM message was expected.</faultstring>
         <faultactor/>
         <detail>
            <exception>Unable to invoke endpoint URI "http://<host>:<port>/xxxxx/xxxxx" successfully due to: oracle.fabric.common.PolicyEnforcementException: Non-MTOM message has been received when MTOM message was expected.</exception>
         </detail>
      </env:Fault>
   </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

So I find out that MTOM according to wikipedia(MTOM) is the W3C Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism, a method of efficiently sending binary data to and from Web services and is usually used with something called XOP. Right then, I didn't care about MTOM optimization. I just wanted to call the mock service and move on to ssl enabling it.

I discovered there are number of ways to fix this:

1. In the request and mockresponse in soapui, there are some properties forceMTOM and enableMTOM. Set forcemtom to true in the mockresponse properties or.
2. In jdeveloper, right click on the affected reference service, configure WS Policies and under MTOM add the oracle/no_mtom_policy (ensure the box next to it is checked). Compile and deploy. The WS Policy should be visible in Enterprise Manager Fusion (EM)Middleware Control. The policy can be attached in EM but it will be lost on redeployment if it's not attached in the source code.
   
   However, I was under the impression that soa suite didn't expect mtom by default as I hadn't got the error before then when calling webservices.
   After digging around a little more I found out that mtom is associated with serializing large binary data being transmitted to/from webservices. I also noticed the wsdl file had some elements I wasn't used to - binding, service and policy. It turns out that the policy element had something in it - a OptimizedMimeSerialization element which, from here -> http://www.w3.org/Submission/WS-MTOMPolicy/ indicates that mtom is to be used for the service. So, the wsdl was to blame!. It had to use mtom. So we fixed that and moved on.
3. Used the java keytool  to create a keystore and self signed certificate for soapui. (See referenced blog for details). All mocked ssl in soapui services will use the same certificate.
4. Import the mock server certificate into weblogic's keystore using the command.
   keytool -import -alias <certalias> -file c:\server.cer -keystore $MW_HOME\wlserver_10.3\server\lib\DemoTrust.jks
   
   I was prompted for a password which is usually DemoTrustKeyStorePassPhrase.
5. Restart weblogic server and soa and test the composite. 

If like me, you had enabled "require client authentication" in the soapui SSL preferences,  you may get the error below.  Just uncheck the box in ssl preferences.

Unable to invoke endpoint URI "https://<host>:<sslport>/xxx/xxxxxxxxxxx" successfully due to: javax.xml.soap.SOAPException: javax.xml.soap.SOAPException: Message send failed: Software caused connection abort: recv failed

Cheers.

India to be declared Polio Free on Monday 13th January 2014.

What a way to start the new year!
It's a victory for Indians. A victory for public health professionals. A victory for mankind.
I'm not indian but I like to celebrate things like this.
I'm sure it took a concerted effort by all the arms of government. They saw a problem, worked at it - over the years - and now it's over.

Overcoming Ignorance, illiteracy, a large population etc. they did it. ,

Congratulations, India.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-will-officially-be-declared-polio-free-on-monday/article1-1171899.aspx

Great People, Great Nation.

I wish.

I wish Nigeria's history was more noble, more colorful and more hallowed. I wish that we all held our institutions in high esteem and believed in our God given right to determine our own destiny.
I wish our people didn't die needlessly on roads neglected by leaders with private jets. I wish that our priorities weren't so ridiculously misplaced.

A nation so rich..But so unproductive. A people with so much potential. But so stifled. Why ? I believe it may be related to the ethos we have allowed to develop into our identity. We value things above ourselves, the empty trappings of earthly possessions above the goodness of our humanity.

If the foundation be faulty, what can the builders do?
It is my opinion that the consciousness of the country sits fundamentally flawed by the bad decisions successive administrations have made and that of the people to abide by them largely obsequiously.

A few have chosen to greedily engorge themselves on the enormous wealth and resources of the collective and placed their own survival and significance above the right of everyone else to the same. The stronger have chosen to wield their strength over the weak with impunity and grasp much needed nourishment from their jaws simply because they can.

There was a time when most would agree that we stood on the cusp of greatness. But now we've fallen far away from it. Our values lie wasting in the gutter of disdain. Whatever players may have acted in the yet unfolding drama that is Nigeria to bring her up to this point and their respective faults or successes, the important thing is what is done from here on.

A wish devoid of action is simply a daydream. So Nigeria must rouse from its stupor and act. It must act decisively and purposefully. Whatever the motivations of past leaders enthroned by consensus or fiat, in this life, it is scarcely ever too late to do the right thing.

Idealistic as the foregoing prose might sound, it is worth remembering that without ideals, we are empty, pointless and decadent contraptions made of bone and tissue. We could as well be monkeys. But even monkeys have dreams - in the sense that an average male monkey strives to be alpha male of its tribe. Worth mentioning that even then, it keeps watch over its own. Perhaps we are just a bunch of monkeys of too many different species that its too difficult for one leader to act in the favour of the tribes?

It's interesting that human beings are even more competitive than apes but sometimes intentionally opt to unburden self of the valuable benefits of morality and decency and take the path of wanton hedonism to the detriment of all.

Without mincing words, what Nigeria needs is a revolution. A revolution not necessarily involving the bearing of physical arms but in the minds of its people. What follows and where it takes us will be up to what choices we make. My opinion is there's a good way and bad way to bring about a revolution. The good way is when it is birthed on logic and careful planning.

We must rouse ourselves from the despondency and lethargy that is the Nigerian state of affairs and change our collective destiny.
We must forge for ourselves a country (or countries) that we can be proud of. Our pride must go before this promised land that we seek and it will be fanned into flame as our achievements provide the invisible reward that makes us carry ourselves higher and walk confidently among the comity of nations.

We must be cautious, intentional and skillful. Dutiful and diligent to the cause of national growth and development. We must frown at weakness and its children. By that I mean the vices of corruption, unfairness, inequity, avarice and self aggrandisement.

Maybe all this talk, this outpouring of words is pointless. I recall the words of Bob Marley - "Some say it's just a part of it, we've got to fulfill the book..." In our context, this will probably mean that the forces at play are larger than any or all of us and will play themselves out regardless.

Maybe, but we can't afford not to push back against the tide of  foolishness that is engulfing us into obscurity.

Some Thoughts on Habits.

I recall a sermon I heard once; the general import was that we are made of strong, resilient stuff and are able to bounce back from the rudest shocks. God didn't make us to whimper or cower when faced with obstacles or issues, hard as they might seem. When we get hurt by life, we can heal; like the phoenix, our spirits can rise out of the ashes of despair and calamity to achieve beautiful things.

For example, the untimely passing of a loved one may knock the wind out of your sails and leave you struggling for the will to live - but, with a little faith and a good amount of patience the wounds heal. While we might not totally forget, we can become accustomed to the unpleasantness to the point where it no longer adversely affects us. This depends, however, on how we choose to process the unpleasantness.

I believe that generally speaking, we give life to our circumstances - pleasant or otherwise - by the amount of attention we give to them. It's called the Law of attraction which implies that what you focus on, you attract. Yes, there are limits to our sphere of control nevertheless, but within it, we can be masters of time and space. We can to a good extent influence if not control, what happens to us in this gift called life we've been given. I find it helps to be as thankful as possible after all, the moment we are born, we are old enough to die so everything's a gift anyway.

I leave that train of thought and come back to the idea that - we get accustomed to and even benefit from unpleasant events. You may have heard these quips - "No pain, no gain" , "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger".

I attribute this to our ability to learn. We learn concepts and ideas, we develop new skills, our minds learn to think in a certain way, our bodies can learn to run a 100 meter race. The vastness of possibilities is one of the reasons I believe we keep deciding to replenish the earth with our offspring i.e. the idea that future generations can learn to do great things based on the foundations laid by people today

We don't just learn in our heads; our muscles, for example, learn to stretch beyond their limits when put to work. They can also retain the memory of a movement such as a dance such that the brain does not need to put them through all the paces of the movement (well, maybe not all of us). But ultimately, there seems to be not much we won't get better at if we keep doing it.

My point, however, is while there are habits that we consciously acquire, some are unconsciously or unintentionally acquired. Becoming lazy, choosing to take the path of least resistance, becoming complacent – these are some of the habits we can acquire without meaning to. Whatever path we decide to take in our minds, the seen and unseen rest of us follows. So, you better be learning the right things

Unfortunately, a lot of habits that are bad for us are enjoyable and pleasant to start with, but can quickly turn into a nightmare. They can put you into a place of regret and downward spiraling chain reactions that can be as explosive as the atomic bomb. A lot of them take quite long to manifest their evil domination. Sometimes, the effects are even felt by not just the person in question, but can reach other people close to them – even their children and descendants.

Not everything that feels good is good for you; think about someone addicted to just about anything – it's easy to see they've lost their freedom and are enslaved to whatever they once enjoyed. Every once in a while, it's useful to review our life's enjoyments and determine where things have become unhealthy, if only just for the knowing. Which is why some of my countrymen say "Na so and so thing go kill me".

Break free, Break out, Break forth. Go!