Adeola Aderounmu.

Africa is not alone in the menace of violence and barbarism but as Africans, some of us are obliged to focus on Africa. That is where our shoe pinches. The ongoing military brutality in Kenya in the hands of a senseless civilian is simply a case of spreading sorrow, tears and blood (an expression made popular by Fela). Kenya may have been a stable country until the notorious Iwu-like election that was conducted by the shameless Obasanjo-like Kibaki, but like Nigeria, Kenya has always been and remains a very corrupt country. Also, in a similar manner to Nigeria, Kenya is also the proud home to some of the poorest people on earth.   

It is hard to reckon that Africa is the acclaimed cradle of civilization. Leadership in most parts of Africa since the departure of the forced colonialism is a very big scandal. Some authors and commentators are always quick to retrace the woes of Africa back to the doorsteps of France, Britain, the US and other powers that have besieged Africa in the past and the present. It will not be surprising in the days ahead as the clouds gets thicker or clearer in Kenya that we will be told how some external powers have been involved in the bloodletting going on in Kenya. On whose permission would that have been if it turned out so?   

Beyond the placement of blame and unnecessary distractions of expectations of foreign involvement in the resolving of the mass murder playing out in Kenya is the general situation of things in Africa. Africa remains the most corrupt continent on the surface of the earth. Poverty is like an eternal plague foisted on Africa soil. There is a possibility that the poorest people on earth are living in Africa. It is so unbelievable that some of these people who survive on less than 1 dollar per day are found in Nigeria and Kenya.  

It is also disheartening to see how the instrument of governance in Africa has been misused over and over again. African leaders are selfish and merciless. They not only steal and loot, they are also reputable for their willingness to use military might to crush the voices and actions of the innocent. Images emerging from Kenya are very very unpalatable. A lot of theories are emerging on the nature of the violence and the possible expansive dimension of things to come. Yet, it remains unjustifiable how a civilian government can unleash military terror in the name of self-preservation/ perpetuation in power. Some African countries are doomed! Infact, they are cursed!  

Reprieve is not near at all in many countries in Africa. Where the leadership is unrepentantly blinded by greed, senselessness, inhumanity, evil, worthless self-preservation and uncontrollable ethnic consciousness, disaster is the end result. This is what has confined Nigeria to an everlasting destination of zero progress and this is what seemed to have caught up with Kenya. Regardless of the nature or origin of the problems, the consequences of mis-governance in Africa have common denominators. There is widespread corruption. Poverty is escalating. On top of these two popular disasters are several physically-felt dehumanizing agonies. There is serious sorrow in Africa. The people are crying as a result of lack of food and social comfort. The crime against humanity in Africa is so bad that blood is spilled at anytime and anywhere like water. Sadly, millions do not even have access to clean water. Many land and water are polluted to make sure that the dream of clean water will remain a mirage for several rural and urban dwellers alike.  

In the midst of all these however, it must be pointed out that some people are still lucky. Somehow, through hard work and through some strokes of luck, a handful of people have escaped poverty and are carrying on with decent lives. But these few people cannot cast our minds away from the greater majority whose daily plights continue to symbolize the ugly image of Africa. In Africa, the leadership has failed the common followership. In many places there is absolute ignorance that has made it easy for dictatorships to hold sway permanently. In some places the followership is simply tamed. Still some are feebly resilient. And when the followerships decide someday to show some resistance and demand for their rights, they are brutally crushed! Africa as a continent is a dilemma on its own.  

This is where I have refused to wholly subscribe to the attribution of Africa’s present woes to western influence. The bulk of Africa’s problems are traceable to madness of the leaders. The leaders have refused to see beyond their noses and some of them continue to sow the seeds of ethnic discord among several other discordant tunes to take undue advantage of political situations. In the process, they have brought ridicule and shame to Africa in addition to the spread of poverty, penury and impoverishment.  

The sorrow, tears and bloodletting on the African continent will continue for some time but the outcomes from the Kenya crises will serve as a benchmark for the future regarding the limits of madness at the helm of political affairs. Indeed the outcome unlike the resiliency that characterized Nigeria will serve as an eye opener for possible eventual emancipation of the African continent and the future application of the understanding of the principles of justice and fairness.  

 By Adeola Aderounmu.    

I am finding it difficult to comprehend the nature of things to come in Kenya. My fears are that things could get out of hand, out of control. In that worst scenario, thousands or millions of people could be killed.

I am also forced to deviate to Nigeria at a point like this. If Nigeria had been the good model of Africa as everyone expected, it would have been very easy to mediate in Kenya at a time like this. One could have been quick to say, didn’t you see how Nigeria is…bla blab bla. Unfortunately, Nigeria as the sleeping giant of Africa is headed by an illegal government since May 2007.  Imagine the ridicule if Yar Adua goes to Kenya to mediate in the crisis.  Or imagine Nigeria’s Maurice Iwu going to Kenya to lecture the electoral commission! What a shame!

Kenya’s Kibaki definitely has a strong point to hold on to in leading the people of Kenya even if it is against the popular wish. It’s like this: Illegality works in Nigeria (and perhaps many other countries in Africa), why should it not work in Kenya?

The problem though is still the relative differences in the levels of resiliency and the tolerance of evil. It seems that Kenyans are ready to lay down their lives for the enthronement of sanity, accountability and proper governance. In the end, if the people win, it will be the turning point that would shape the future of Kenya forever.  

It is unfortunate that hundreds of people have died and that the madness prevails. It appears to be a part of the sacrifice needed to build a formidable country devoid of injustice. However with the level of global advancement and awareness, the sacrifice involving the loss of human lives is quite unnecessary.  

Greed and corruption are the backbones to this type of a senseless scenario. It is very disheartening to see the waste of human lives and valuable time, two key parameters that can never be regained once they are lost.  

I look forward to Kenyans being able to resolve the issues at stake. Power, resource control, tribal conflicts, or whatever the rest of the injustice/egocentrism are all about. Africans deserve more than what the pitiable leadership have provided to date and the search for true statesmanship and genuine leadership irrefutably remain parts of the essential ingredient needed to take Africa out of the doldrums! 

Adeola Aderounmu.  

Has anyone been following the case of a Ghanaian woman who was sent home from the UK? This woman is terminally ill and requires kidney dialysis as treatment. I don’t know if a transplant is in the offing.

Yes, her UK visa expired! Indeed, she was at the wrong place!

But what does compassionate ground means when we deviate or conform to conventional norms and expectations?  What if she had died on the flight back to Ghana?

How sorrowful can it be to save a life or treat a patient against the laws surrounding immigration orders or disorders and in view of exceptional human needs?

Isn’t it from this same environment that hundreds of SOS appeals emanate daily asking us to save people in the so called 3rd world?

 It means the people who need help in the 3rd world should only get help in the 3rd world. How functional or effective is the help of SOS/humanitarian funds in that regard when all the executives in the 1st world behind the SOS slogans live in mansions and earn mega pay? Who is fooling who?

Surely, the world will be a safer and a better place if people appeal to their personal conscience first.

What a terrible world!

UPDATED 22 March 2008…

The woman in question, Ama Sumani died on the 19th of March. May her soul NOW find peace that The Ghanaian Authority and the British Government denied her.

It’s still a crazy world.

It must be Bob Marley who sang….You can’t fool all the people all the time

The sacking of Ribadu has given the impression that many more untouchables will emerge from the Nigerian political landscape, that all living untouchables will go free and the incarcerated ones will soon breathe the air of freedom. Time is a function that will always bring out clearer pictures of everything. Some schools of thoughts have dismissed the anticorruption slogan of the illegitimate government in Nigeria. Whatever happens, no one should hope for too much from a government of opportunists and well known perpetrators of fraud. Time will time in all these things!

No amount of press secretaries or press offices can cover our eyes with veil such that we do not see how Atiku in his days in public service and in the PDP contributed to the spread of poverty and penury in Nigeria. For 8 years, Atiku paraded himself as the vice-president of Nigerian under the Obasanjo regime. Together, through their corrupt acts and insincerity, they left office with more problems for Nigerian than what was on ground in 1999. The expectation of the poverty-stricken people of Nigeria was far from being met when Atiku was the vice president of Nigeria.

Atiku’s press office may be quite efficient in refuting allegations of corruption against him. I am not perturbed about what they have to say to defend their boss and their own daily bread. They are doing a dirty job for which they get paid even from looted tax payers’ money! Nothing can take away the truth that in Nigeria, Atiku has gone done in history as one of the looters of our common treasury.

In 1999 and 2003, Atiku helped the PDP to power under the leadership of a very cruel master named Olusegun Obasanjo. Atiku fought a bitter public battle with Obasanjo as a result of the latter’s intention to perpetuate himself in office for life. Atiku had a legitimate ambition of becoming the president of Nigeria but some rancor prior to the 2003 elections and Obasanjo’s ambition put paid to that ambition. While declaring his ambition, he highlighted 5 areas of our national life that required urgent intervention. These include

• Employment generation and wealth creation,
• Security and war against corruption,
• Energy and infrastructural development,
• Education and social services
• The Niger Delta.

Atiku promised to pursue programs that would ensure that Nigeria’s wealth must be for all Nigerians. So, what program was he pursuing or supporting before this time? Nigerian politicians and their ridiculous claims!

Nigerians should be grateful for the hand of fate that cause the katakata between Obasanjo and Atiku because that single event that brought governance to a halt for over 1 year in Nigeria gave us a deep insight into how Atiku participated in the looting to dryness of the Nigerian treasury. Let us imagine for once that everything went smoothly between Obasanjo and Atiku, then, all the allegations and counter allegations of corruption between him and Obasanjo would not have seen the light of the day. At the peak of their roforofo fight (in Fela’s words) Nigerians became tired of both Atiku and Obasanjo and the urge was to see the exit of both of them in 2007.

The implication of not having such a disagreement and subsequent roforofo fight is that power would have been transferred to Atiku and he would have continued to put up the face of an innocent man while stealing behind closed doors. In Nigerian politics, corruption is the keyword and that was why despite all the allegations of corruption here and there Obasanjo and Atiku still had followers. In civilized societies, both of them would have been under interrogation and possible prosecution and imprisonment. Immunity in Nigerian governance is a license to steal and loot. What a shame?

So, it happened that the PDP automatically became Obasanjo and Obasanjo became PDP; and the two became one. He threw Atiku out of PDP and deprived him of a platform to pursue or realize his ambitions. Atiku won case after case in the law court and eventually opted for the AC as the platform for his ambition. During his declaration, Atiku who was the architect of PDP’s rigged victories in 99 and 2003 had this to say "There is no great country without free and fair elections. We must mobilize all Nigerians to ensure that we free and fair and credible polls. Let them come out to vote and protect their votes. They must not allow those who want who want to subvert democracy to alter the outcome," he stated. Notable persons at the event included Chiefs Solomon Lar, Audu Ogbeh, Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Alhaji Lam Adesina, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Chief Segun Osoba and Alhaji Lawal Kaita among others.

What a wish and what a bunch of political gladiators! This is what the other parties and the people of Nigeria hoped and cried for in 1999 and 2003, but the likes of Atiku and his PDP cohorts smiled away with stolen mandates with Obasanjo as the lead beneficiary. The rest of what happened in 2007 (selection) is history. As a serious embarrassment to all Nigerians dead and alive, Obasanjo installed Umaru in the most shameful and worthless selection process since the evolution or creation of man. In Nigeria, rigging and manipulation of election result are acceptable ways of life. Even Atiku was stunned that he had crooks like Maurice Iwu beating him hands down in this shameful game.

The EFCC accused Atiku of diverting $125m into personal business interests. The report of his involvement in corrupt practices is quite voluminous. Villagers in this square have analyzed it back and forth.

No doubts, Atiku suffered humiliation as he championed the anti-third term struggle against a dictator like Obasanjo. Even a non-performer like Fani-Kayode could afford to spit his saliva on Atiku. He was the person loud enough to tell us such a nonsense that the presidential wing of the Airport is only meant for the President, "not to the Vice President or any other member of the public. It was the magnanimity of Mr. President that allows 20 members of family/staff of Atiku . Indeed politics in Nigeria has continued to bring out the animals in men.

One of the strongest arguments against the EFCC itself is that under Obasanjo, the commission completely strayed out of the path of duty into the field of witch-hunting. That whoever stood in the way of President Obasanjo during the turbulent days of the ‘Third Term’ project was marked for liquidation. Yet it is not clear how EFCC would have found a man corrupt if he was not corrupt at all. Does the EFCC manufacture bank documents and foreign account? Does the EFCC manufacture looted funds transferred to girlfriends or prostitutes? Does it connive with foreign banks to lodge imaginary funds abroad?

 

But one thing that continues to trail Atiku to this day is the international dimension of the allegations of corruption against him. They are popular scandals that had taken a substantial part of the World Wide Web. This is as a result of the involvement of the FBI in the case against him. It could have been cheap counter blackmail to say that EFCC was used by Obasanjo to sniff his dry, but I don’t know if Obasanjo or Ribadu induced the FBI to carry out the raid on his home in the US. I don’t know how many Nigerians bought this testimony told by Atiku when he faced the senate Ad-hoc committee. The real situation is that both Obasanjo and Atiku exposed each other’s corrupt acts and nothing can change that! No amount of haba! or ngbati-ngbati can take those revelations away. Who does not know that reddened eyes cannot light a cigarette?

Atiku has denied his involvement in the Willbros scandal . That is one of the issues that would be resolved with time and there are reasons to continue the probe.

The popular Jefferson’s story will also definitely be clearer with time. The US Congressman needs to be psychologically evaluated anyway as he continues to give contradictory positions/claims that he gave Atiku USD 100 000 bribe to facilitate a business transaction in Nigeria. Jefferson was filmed taking bribe and he also spoke about giving Atiku USD 500 000 as a motivating factor to make sure they obtained contracts for iGate and Mody’s company in Nigeria.

Atiku, just like his former boss Obasanjo and several other corrupt Nigerian politicians are examples of people who have not given full accounts of their stewardships in offices to the Nigerian people. Probity and accountability remain alien to the Nigerian society and several attempts to make it a lifestyle have been crushed by the cabal, both seen and unseen. To this day in Nigeria, there is a class of citizens that are the untouchables because no matter how much we know about their corrupt attitudes and the evils that they perpetrated, they have never been called upon to answer for their deeds or they always find ways to evade being under the searchlights. For the suffering masses and the downtrodden, hope is not near!

Further reading and references:

Gani Fawehinmi on NBA and Atiku

Atiku’s disqualification by INEC

Supreme Court’s Decisions

Acknowledgement

References from the Nigerian Guardian, The Washington Post, BBC, Nigerian Punch Newspaper, EFCC website and the Nigerian Village Square.

Adeola Aderounmu.   

Some life stories are the same. In April 2007, Nigeria conducted a very shameful election. The result is that since May 29 2007, Nigeria is being governed by an illegitimate government. Majority of Nigerians are resilient people, they would rather go about their normal life than fight for their rights.

Indeed, there are pockets of violence here and there in Nigeria but generally Nigeria is peaceful. No one is asking for violence but there ought to be forceful ways to ensure that the peoples’ voices are heard and that their votes should count. In the history of election in Nigeria (since 1959), votes have never been counted. Usually, a candidate is forced down the throats of the populace. It is the same for military regimes. Governance and leadership in Nigeria is by force. 

In Kenya, there is now a threat of ethnic cleansing and genocide looming in the air. The incumbent government has conducted a very questionable presidential election. The opposition and some of the people in general would not allow the election to stand. More than 300 people have been reported dead and imagine that a few dozen people were burnt to dead in a church. The church is supposed to be a place of refuge as I thought. 

A few years ago, we saw how these kinds of scenarios spiraled into large scale violence and civil war is some African countries. Recuperation is not near completion in countries like Rwanda. Sudan is still battling with Darfur. Militants or freedom fighters in Nigeria are still creating fuel crises worldwide.  

In general, the pictures that continue to emanate from Africa are very disappointing. Sometimes, I can’t help to agree that African leaders are useless, thoughtless and senseless. The thirst for power at all costs and by any means is one thing I will never come to understand. Is it that easy to be a public servant? Obviously, I know that it boils down to greediness and corruption and insatiable evil tendencies.  

At the end of the day, some people will organize themselves and start to blame the western world for the problems in Africa. Nonsense! Africans are the architect of their own woes and problems. They should stop blaming their lack of initiatives on slave trade and neocolonialism. 

What are the leaders doing to curb the intrusion of western powers? What are they doing to eradicate poverty on their continent? If truly they are deceived by the western world, it means the leaders are fools for falling into evil. 

Kenyans have a right to protest a useless election and they have the right to demand that their votes be counted appropriately. But it is so unfortunate that there are prices to be paid. I am not sure when countries like Nigeria and Kenya will be able to conduct credible elections. I don’t know when elections in Africa will be devoid of violence and unnecessary killings. Is life no longer precious in Africa?     

One can argue that this is not limited to Africa alone but I have made Africa my business and I refused to measure the successes of Africa by the failures of other struggling nations.

As many parts of Africa continue to battle poverty, penury and widespread underdevelopment, it becomes hard to believe that Africa is the cradle of civilization.