Adeola Aderounmu.   

The appeal court in Nigeria has confirmed Yar Adua as the president of Nigeria. In 2007, Nigeria conducted the worst and the most shameful election in human history. 

On 26th February 2008, the appeal court delivered a judgment that made nonsense of the opposition’s case as brought forward by Atiku and Buhari. A Super Tuesday was expected but Nigerians got a Useless Tuesday.  

The issues are complicated. On one hand, based on democratic principles and the enthronement of proper standard for governance, the judgment of the court was simply absolute nonsense. On this particular case, history will judge them as supporting the disenfranchisement of 140m Nigerians. It is not worthwhile repeating all the atrocities and illegalities that went along with the selection process of April 2007. They are too shameful and too scandalous to recall every now and then. 

In Nigeria, the law has a very short arm and cannot yet deliver all the oppressed and suppressed people. It is difficult to know where the hope of a common man in Nigeria lies. In general, hopelessness pervades and reign supreme.  

From another perspective, the opposition as represented by Buhari and Atiku does not appeal to a lot of Nigerians. Buhari was a former coup plotter who had violently and forcefully overthrown democratic governments in the past. He has no business to aspire to be a democratic president. He should be facing charges relating to treasonable felony. I wonder why he was not reprimanded in court on this useless Tuesday. Buhari has been faulted for his religious inclination and apparent non-tolerance of people of divergent beliefs. He must never be allowed to be a civilian president. He has contributed enough to the destruction in Nigeria as a coup plotter and military head.  

Atiku is a very corrupt man. As a civil servant he became very rich probably looting and stealing government funds. As the vice president who rigged elections in 1999 and 2003, he has no morality on the issue at stake. He stole so much that he dipped his hand into Petroleum development funds and got carried away with it. All the monies stolen by Atiku and Obasanjo were made public knowledge during the third term war of Obasanjo with the rest of the country. 

In a way, no matter how devilish the judgment of the court appears, we are still left with very bad people trying to take control of our lives. Let Buhari and Atiku go and sit down. They should return all the monies that they have stolen from Nigeria. Rather than going to the Supreme Court and wasting more money, they should give the money to charity or look for Nigerians who don’t have 2 dollars to spend in a day.  

Yar Adua must be smiling now. He has a right to be the president of Nigeria but it is good that he has acknowledged that the process (not election) that brought him to power were very fraudulent. His emergence points to the persistent power play among those who are hell bent on using Nigeria’s wealth to their selfish benefit. Maurice Iwu must also be laughing now, probably having a party to laugh at his perceived enemies.  

Nigeria claims to be the giant of Africa but all that is radiated from Nigeria are the attributes of a clown. Beyond this political impasse, ordinary Nigerians want to feel the benefits and dividends of democracy. They want water in their homes, food on their table and they long for the basic infrastructure that will add meaning to their lives. 

The schools are dilapidated and they have lost their glories from primary to secondary to the Universities. The worst roads in the world are in Nigeria! Fraudulent activities abound, corruption is a way of life and lawlessness is an ok concept. 

While we endure this illegitimate government, one hopes that those who are its beneficiaries will not get carried away by this undue victory at the court of law. We don’t expect much from them since they emerged from flawed processes but let them not make our lives more miserable than it is at this moment. 

The hope and the emancipation of Nigerians remain delusionary but we must keep the dreams alive. We’ll see where we go from here!   

By Adeola Aderounmu.

The useless and worthless selection that brought David Mark to the Senate has been annuled.

See: BBC

See also: Nigeria Village Square

The real issue is that there was no election in Nigeria in 2007. It was Obasanjo and Iwu who used their positions to impose candidates on 140m others.

The selection process remains the worst in the history of mankind.

On tuesday the 26th of Feb, many Nigerians anticipate that Yar Adua will be sent packing to Katsina. It is up to the judiciary to decide, so, we’ll wait and see what they come up with.

The lesson for Nigerians is that we MUST learn how to do things properly and in the right way. What is wrong with Nigerians? Why can’t we conduct a decent and normal election? We did it in 1993, we can do it again!

By the way, I really hope David Mark does not win the appeal or re-election. This is one of the men who looted our National treasury. He looted as a military governor and as the Minister of Communication.

He should be told to refund all the monies he stole and I hope the police will investigate him and hand him over to the court of law.

Let him and people like him answer for their negligence, looting and the destruction of Nigeria. He has no business in the Senate!

Kenyans are trying to forge a way forward in their democratic dispensation. Odinga flew into Nigeria to meet Obasanjo. Here is a report written by the Guardian of Nigeria.

By By WOLE SHADARE and DEBO OLADIMEJI

Odinga in Nigeria, meets Obasanjo

Why is Odinga meeting Obasanjo?

Obasanjo supervised the worst election in our history as Nigerians. He perpetrated crimes similar to what Kibaki did last december in Kenya.

Obasanjo is an enemy of democratic processes and it was people like him that squandered the hope of the realisation of the mandate of the June 12 1993 presidential election believed to have been won by late MKO Abiola.

I don’t understand the need for this kind of meeting but I know that African leaders are very insincere bunch of people. They are selfish and egoistic.

I think Kenya’s problems are bigger and more serious than I’d been thinking. Odinga is definitely at the wrong place at the wrong time by meeting a man who installed an illegitimate government in Nigeria.

___________________

disclaimer:

NB: I have not endorsed Odinga as a better person than Kibaki. I don’t know him from Adam. But I know that the last election in Kenya were absolute farce.

I am just surprised that Odinga came to a man like Obasanjo. It shows that Kenya has a very big problem on their hands.

(Original story written by CHIDO OKAFOR …..Published in the Nigerian Guardian Feb 18 2008)

Preamble:

A TEAM of FIFA officials led by the body’s Vice President, Jack Warner, has expressed dissatisfaction with the present state of the Warri Stadium, which the Delta State Government is presenting as one of the venues for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in 2009.

The team toured the Warri City Stadium complex yesterday but was not happy with a lot of things at the stadium. The FIFA team scored low the Warri Stadium pitch, where the game would be played, noting that the field was poorly grassed, thus exposing the earth when looked at from very close range. This, the officials observed, would be hard on players.

Lack of vegetation in the rain forest.

When a Local Organising Committee (LOC) member told Warner that the stadium would be re-grassed before the next FIFA team visit, Warner disagreed, saying that FIFA would prefer synthetic pitch to a re-grassed one.

The first evidence of NEPA

A drama took place as the team toured the Warri Stadium: a quick-fix 30 KVA power generating set hired to light up the stadium while the officials were around broke down and threw the whole inner chambers of the stadium being inspected at the moment into darkness. The delegates waited but power was not restored until they left.

Amos Adamu’s shame !

Even the Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Amos Adamu, could not hide his disgust at the level of unpreparedness at the Warri Stadium. However, Amaju Pinnick, the Warri sub-seat chairman for the 2009 FIFA Cadet World Cup, fought hard to convince the team that the stadium would wear a new look when next it visited.

No light, the 2nd evidence of NEPA.

The FIFA officials were also not impressed with the fact that there was no single flood light at the stadium, and that the stadium environment was too filthy and too indecent to host the world, that purpose-built television stands were lacking, and that the perimeter fence separating the pitch from the spectators looked awkward.

Undressing Room.

At the dressing room, the FIFA delegation observed that there were not enough facilities for a team of 25 players to use at a time, saying it was below the standard requirement needed for such a tournament. The team also highlighted some architectural errors in the stadium, especially in the area of space management.

Food is their problem.

Earlier at a luncheon organised in honour of the visiting FIFA officials by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State, Warner expressed gratitude for the warm reception accorded the delegation, adding that were he alone to decide on venues to be used for Nigeria 2009 World Cup, he would had approved the Warri Stadium in view of Delta State’s impressive sport records, but said the decision would be made by a large body of FIFA officials. Amos Utuama:

The speech of a Liar!

The state governor, who was represented by his deputy, Amos Utuama, said Delta State met all the requirements for the hosting of the championship, adding that the state was committed to the development of soccer. He said the state government wanted to use the tourney to promote development in the state. The FIFA team included the former Director, FIFA Competition Division, Jim Brown, Senior Manager, FIFA Stadia and Security, Adnan El Guindy, Director, FIFA Competition, John Schumacher, Director, FIFA Communications, Emmanuel Maradas, FIFA Accommodations Office, Enrique Byron, Representative of FIFA Marketing, Christopher Axer, and Cheryl Abrahams, InfoTech consultant to Warner.

VERY INCOMPETENT PEOPLE: NFA, No future ambition.

The LOC team included the Nigeria Football Association Chairman, Sani Lulu Abdullahi, andVice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Local Organising Committee, Mainasara Illo.

One good news!

FIFA vice president, Jack Warner, after the FIFA team on inspection of the Abuja National Stadium declared that the stadium is too qualified to host the FIFA Under-17 World Cup.

By Adeola Aderounmu.

On the 14th of February every year, people fool around the world in the name of love. Teenagers are well indulged in the rituals of expressing their love to their boyfriends or girlfriends as the case may be. It is quite possible that girls and boys use the prevailing atmosphere of perceived love on this date of the year to throw away their precious  flowers. Who knows how many get their infectious first kisses on this worldly date? Adults are not left out of this love game. Incidents have revealed that in as much as the message of Valentine is love, there are a lot of elements of diabolism associated with the event.  

I cannot deny the fact that I have sent 1 or 2 valentine cards in my entire life. I have also made out gifts few times to express my warm regards to the people that are dear to me. But each time I have done that, I have not differentiated the love that I’d radiated on that date with the type of love that I try to radiate for the rest of the month or year. I have tried several times to extend fellowship of love and affection to the people around me or others that I meet throughout the year. 

We live in a world full of hatred, racism, war and general indifference. We have been unable to extend the euphoria of the good times to indefinite lovefulness. This world is full of hypocrisy and the expression of hatred abound.  

The saddest thing about valentine minus Christmas day is its emphasis on expressing love just one day in a normal year and leaving the remaining 363 days to be enveloped by hatred, wicked criticisms, selfishness, indifference, loneliness and broken heartedness.  

It would be a wonderful world if we live everyday of our lives like its Valentine’s Day!