Month: November 2008

CONGO; Foolish and Senseless..!

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By Adeola Aderounmu.

Everyone knows that it is easier to prevent the war than to stop it. But what the world leaders are always doing is to stop the war and NEVER to prevent it. There must be wicked reasons for that. That’s why the wars keep coming back

The African continent would like to be projected in a good image. But how many good things are we radiating from within Africa. Agreed again that there are many useless conflicts and wars going on around the world… the Middle East is troubled no doubts. There is war in Iraq and there is war in Afghanistan and so on.

No war is good and no war is desirable. But when Africa countries start their own conflicts and wars, the human toll is always immeasurable. Rape, looting, senseless killings, child soldiers, child abuse, beheading, mutilating, tongue cutting, genocide and several other vices that cannot be described have been perpetrated endlessly in the last 2 decades in Africa. In Sierra Leone, in Liberia, in Congo, in Rwanda, Angola….

Even in countries where there are no wars, the internal conflicts and tensions have resulted in the deaths of civilians in no small measure. Take the case of Nigerian under Obasanjo, Zimbabwe under Mugabe and Kenya under Kibaki as examples.

Congo is at it again. This is a country that may have lost over 5 million souls to war in the last decade. More than 250 000 are presently displaced. Children are suffering and dying. Pregnant women are undergoing the greatest trauma of their lives. Hunger pervades the land; suffering has become a way of life. No hope in sight!

Those idiots, the rebels and the governments are at it again. The craziest thing is that the minerals and the resources that should unite these morons is what they or someone is using against them. Congo like many other African countries is blessed and endowed with resources including Gold. Sometimes, I cannot stop thinking that the level of intelligence of these war lords and their corrupt government is below zero.

The negativity of their minds and their intelligence is what has denied Africa the true greatness she deserved. All the western news agencies are having a swell time showing the rot and stupidity going on in Congo. This is definitely the type of news that they love to show case. War, hunger, conflicts and madness especially from Africa.

What they are not showing or telling however is the countries and the international conspirators who are fuelling this war in Congo. Which countries are supplying arms to the rebels? Which countries or organizations are supplying arms to the government of Congo? Which countries and which organization are buying the resources that the rebels are using to finance this crazy war that has killed several children and women? Computer software and mobile phone companies and their major/minor suppliers should be investigated and they should be named. They must stop buying blood resources. The blood is from children and women and helpless men.

It will be nice if CNN, BBC and Skynews can lead the pack to expose the evil machineries behind the escalating war in Congo. They should extend the investigation to Darfur and other places. Obviously they will not do that. It gives them pleasure to report bad news, so there is no point seeking the end of bad news from Africa. Oh, what a failed continent!

How easy for the United Kingdom to arrive in Congo the other week. What pretense is behind the interest of UK, US and other European infiltrators? The international community should stop deceiving themselves. Who are the beneficiaries of the ongoing wars in Africa? They should be exposed if only to save the dying children.

To show how unserious the UN is about this situation, they are sending Obasanjo from Nigeria to mediate in the war. What signals are they sending to the rebels and the rest of the world? It is people like Obasanjo who are destroying democratic structures in Africa and the way to reward or recognize a man destroying democracy is to send him to a country in dire need of proper democracy? The UN must be a scandalous organization! Nonsense!

What is Obasanjo going to preach in Congo? How he rigged election 3 times in a row in 9 years of failed governance? How he advised Odinga to accept a government of National Unity in Kenya after innocent people have been slaughtered at the altar of democracy? The UN is not serious at all. I pity those innocent children of Congo; I pity their pregnant women and weak adults. I pity those people who will soon be wiped away by genocidal instinct of the crazy and mad rebels.

One thing I know for certain, the rest of the world takes pleasure to see Africa suffers and they begin to send aid, soldiers and peace keepers. As stated, this favours some people and countries-they get richer and they make deals with rebels and governments and then they rule by neo-colonialism. The intelligence of the African leader is always in question. The sell out continues.

Everyone knows that it is easier to prevent the war than to stop it. But what the world leaders are always doing is to stop the war and NEVER to prevent it. There must be wicked reasons for that. That’s why the wars keep coming back

Congo, what a way to go…. It’s a crazy world indeed

American man suffers racism in Sweden

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Posted by Adeola

Original story at Prince 0772

Hi, I’m American and have lived in New York City most of my life. I’ve been living in the richest part of the city and have a successful international job. I am Filipino-American. My friends come from all different backgrounds: white, black, hispanic, indian, asian, you name it. I just moved to Sweden the last 11 months and already have I experienced racism 3 times! It was nothing hostile but I can account for 3 situations and the 3rd one was today, that’s why I searched for “racism in sweden” online. Here were the incidents:

1. I was walking my bike home on a rainy night and 2 drunk Irish guys were smoking outside a pub and cracked jokes in English how I just came off the boat from China. Assuming I didn’t speak English I just said “I’m American. I hear every word.” and walked away.

2. I was riding my bike home and a guy yelled “Nee-How”. Not so bad, but offended to assume I’m Chinese.

3. Today, I went to the supermarket. 5 Swedish kids around 13 years old (I’m 32) were bullying me! I’m 32 and twice their size! How were they bullying me? They just said stupid comments like, “Having a party tonight? Nee-How.”

Again, these incidents were minor. They were just comments. It’s just surprising to me that a culture that I assumed to be so advanced compared to the rest of the world is still struggling with racism issues. I guess Sweden is a bit more homogenous compared to New York. In all 3 occasions I walked away but I feel like educating them. It’s so difficult to have an intellectual conversation when the first impression is ignorance. I sometimes feel like packing my bags and just going back to NYC.

I don’t want to experience this every 4 months while I’m here. But I also want to fight for my belief and teach these people how ignorant they really are. It’s a battle that can’t be solved through violence but education and discussion. I’m starting to believe it’s only an American Dream.

How to Kill a Pensioner in Nigeria

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By Adeola Aderounmu.

I will not be surprised if the problems in Nigeria are worsened by the curses of pensioners, especially those that have died without successfully getting their complete or befitting gratuity and entitlements. How can we redeem ourselves from these kinds of curses?

Post and Telecommunications (P&T) and the Nigerian Railways are two examples of government institutions that really used people and dump them later in life. There are other institutions where men and women gave their time, energy and abilities to keep the nation working. Many of these people gave 35 years of their lives. They stole nothing. They didn’t display disloyalty to the government. They obeyed their superiors. They are men and women of honour in the service to the nation. They kept fate with the system. The system simply turned around and offered them stones. Many of these men and woman waited in vain for bread. It never came. Some died like lepers.

Isn’t it appalling to carry out endless verification exercise on a man who served his country for 35 years? Isn’t it injustice and betrayal of the highest order to hold back this man’s gratuity and pension? Isn’t it also amazing that the face of public service has changed for the worse? Tell me, who wants to die on a queue waiting for his/her pension? Workers of nowadays (including you and I) do not have the excellent occupational traits that our fathers and mothers displayed.

Stealing and distrust in governance has rapidly permeated every sector of the Nigerian life. What we find nowadays are successful public servants. Even junior officers have discovered how to build houses and marry more than one wife. Since it is useless to depend on the government for affordable mortgage houses or provisions for their future, these men and women found the short cuts. Only a few honest people are left in public and private services in Nigeria.

Unfortunately, the efforts of the evil people have completely overshadowed the diligence of the honest ones among us. The results are staring at us in the face. The failure of governance, the insincerity of the pensions board (does it exist?), the self enrichment of the politicians and the melancholy tales of our pensioners (like Baba P&T) are parts of the reasons people have taken desperate measures to salvage their future. It is a sad situation.

It will take more than a miracle to wipe corruption away from government, places of public services and private enterprises. It will be a collective effort on the parts of all and sundry. It is not a job for the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) only. It is something we must all work for and try to achieve. It will take time but it is not an impossible task.

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This article is an exerpt from the original: This Pensioner Must Die..! published here On July 24 2007. I have re-posted it because of the incident that happened in Abuja recently and reported by the Guardian Newspaper of 11th November 2008.

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Guardian Report Nov 11 2008.

The plight of pensioners

THE sorry plight of Nigerian pensioners again came to the fore recently when a senior citizen who had worked with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) died on his way to Abuja to receive his pension. Elder Citizen Michael Igiebor Okhokpa had been ill and so could not present himself at the Pensions Office in Abuja from his base in Benin, Edo State. His son whom he had sent with a letter of authority to receive the money on his behalf, was ignored by the officials in charge. He had to return to Benin to fetch his aged and sick father.

Sadly, the old man gave up the ghost on the way, in Kubwa, inside the vehicle conveying him to Abuja. In frustration, the son took his father’s corpse to the paying officers. There was pandemonium when they arrived, as angry onlookers including other pensioners nearly caused a riot. The hitherto recalcitrant officials promptly paid the dead man’s pension. Certainly, this is unbecoming of state officials. It shows how callous and insensitive the Nigerian system can oftentimes be.

Getting gratuity and pensions in Nigeria has become a nightmare for senior citizens. Often these men and women who spent their youth serving the country are compelled to make long journeys to Lagos or Abuja, or state headquarters for some officials to ascertain their continued existence. In some cases, the pensioners, where they enjoy good health, do not even have enough funds to make the trip.

In other cases, they simply arrive at the city centre, build a tent and remain there sometimes for months on end while the verification exercise lasts. The example of discharged soldiers who spent months in Lagos and Abuja some two odd years ago waiting for their entitlements, is still fresh in public memory. An attempt was finally made to pay the pensions only after the angry retired soldiers almost rebelled against the Army.

In the past, retirees were paid in their home states at zonal offices across the country. But civil servants colluding with some retirees soon began to defraud the system. Names of retirees who had long died were retained on the payment vouchers. The truth is that in the civil service, at both Federal and State levels, retirees sometimes wait for four to five years before they get their gratuity.

Some ministries are particularly notorious; they seem to derive pleasure from the helplessness of retirees. Proper records are not kept. Unscrupulous officials demand different documents from bewildered retirees. It is perhaps because of this experience that the Federal Government decided that all payments should be made centrally. The Obasanjo government also reformed the national pensions scheme, to make it private sector-driven, with the emergence of Pension Fund Administrators. It is hoped that in the long run, this will eliminate the current inefficiency seen in the payment of backlog of pensions in the public sector.

Retirement is a period workers should look forward to with hope and pleasure. After many years of hard labour, a worker is entitled to some peace and security in his old age. It is for this reason that many people once considered a career in the civil service safe and secure. But not anymore. In contemporary Nigeria, the life of an average pensioner is now insecure and generally, senior citizens are treated shabbily. Help does not come from the State either, and the future is uncertain. Not surprisingly, workers are compelled to protect themselves against future uncertainties by resorting to all kinds of sharp practices while still in active employment. Apart from changing their dates of birth at will, in order to prolong their service period, many deliberately engage in corrupt practices.

The pensions payments system, with regard to retired civil servants who are not covered by the new system introduced by the Obasanjo administration, must be reviewed. Humiliating and maltreating persons who had spent a better part of their lives serving the country is unacceptable. It is curious that the usually discourteous and mean pensions payment officers, who insist on humiliating pensioners, hardly realise that they would also end up as pensioners some day.

Except pensioners receive fair and prompt treatment, the country will unwittingly strengthen the temptation of civil servants to be corrupt. Any society that cannot treat its elderly citizens with care and respect advertises its disregard for values. Retirees should be paid their entitlements without any stress. Michael Okhokpa didn’t deserve to die trying to get his pension

Obama’s Victory: Provoking African Politicians to Positive Actions

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By Adeola Aderounmu

In Africa the things that should unite us have been used to divide us and the outcomes are hunger, poverty, impoverishment, penury and wars.

At this moment (Nov the 5th 2008) in the United States, history has been made. Barack Obama born of a Kenyan father and an American mother became the 44th President-elect of the United States of America. American democracy is not perfect. It has its short comings and pitfalls. The rigging of votes by George Bush in Florida in 2000 and the dirty campaign mastered by his father will remain as some of the most shameful highlights of American democracy.

Nevertheless the peaceful transition of power from one democratically elected president to another is a trait that is worth emphasising when it comes to American politics and democracy. As Barack Obama waits in the wings as the president-elect of the United States, it is time to take up some provocative issues with some African countries and their leaders. This moment of Obama’s glory and triumph of people power must not be wasted without reminding Africans about their backwardness. This is the best time to provoke those extremely bad leaders and looters who are spreading poverty as a way of life for millions of Africans.

Americans have voted and Obama has been declared the winner. McCain was very quick to send his congratulatory message to Obama. If Obama had lost, he would have done the same to Senator McCain-send him a congratulatory message. McCain and Obama campaigned and sometimes one spoke ill of the other but that is the nature of politics. They did not however send assassins after each other and they did not wish each other dead. The crux of the matter was the United States as a country and how best the country can make progress. In Nigeria, many politicians have been killed under mysterious circumstances and no one has been held responsible for the killings.

Recently in Zimbabwe and Kenya the instrument of governance and violence was used to send many innocent people to their graves. Mugabe killed as many people as he could in 2008 just to silent the opposition and remain in power. In some African countries, the urge to remain in power or to acquire the power is with evil intention and revenge. Will there come a time in the history of Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe when elections will be held without violence?

McCain is not talking about power sharing and he has not told his supporters to go on the rampage. No one has complained about rigging of elections or the minor irregularities. The country comes first and personal interests stay in the background. Kenya and Zimbabwe are today practising a useless form of democracy called power-sharing government. The implication is that one corrupt leader coerce with another potential corrupt leader to destroy the mandate of the people. This scenario also implicates the opposition in these countries as agents of evil. A man who is seeking the good of his country will under no circumstances participate in an evil regime or a regime that is strangulating democratic principles.

They always argue for the government of National Unity in the name of peace. That is blatant lie. Who created the chaos in the first place? What these corrupt African leaders do is to sow distrust and hatred in the population and then capitalise on these misdemeanours to accomplish their own selfish ambitions which is primarily self-enrichment. In Nigeria, there has not been any peaceful election since 1959 except in 1993 and the results of that peaceful election were annulled by a military gangster called Ibrahim Babangida. The winner of that presidential election was imprisoned by another military dictator called Abacha. MKO Abiola the man presumed to have won the only peaceful and fair presidential election in Nigerian history was killed under the leadership of a dictator called Abdulsalami. Interestingly though the United States government was implicated in the assassination of MKO Abiola. This is because he died when an entourage sent from the White House was visiting him in a Nigerian Prison!

I have stated earlier that the United States is not a perfect country. Still the democratic principles in a way offer a lot of exemplary approaches that could be borrowed. In the just concluded presidential election in the US, the world didn’t even have to wait for all the results to be announced or counted. The winner of the presidential election-Barack Obama, was known even before the counting was concluded. This is impossible in Nigeria or Kenya. It will be an abomination in Zimbabwe for a winner to emerge when the final vote has not been counted. It will be a recipe for violence and disaster. As a matter of fact, votes have never been counted in Nigerian elections. Since 1959 this country that pride itself as the giant of Africa has continued to waste billions of naira on conducting elections that never matters. Nigeria is severely corrupt and unbelievably incapable of conducting a decent election 48 years after it became independent. This is very shameful indeed.

In April 2007, Mr. Obasanjo who was the outgoing president in Nigeria single-handedly installed Mr. Umar Yar Adua as Nigerian’s new illegal president. He was able to do this by conspiring with the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) whose Chairman is a man of questionable character. Obasanjo himself employed Mr. Iwu as the chairman of the INEC. But there is nothing independent about the INEC. It was manipulated and controlled by the ruling party in Nigeria. Mr. Obasanjo it must be noted had ruled for 8 years (1999-2007) using the power of force rather than votes. The votes were rigged and manipulated twice to allow him win the elections. The story of Nigerian Politics continues to be a very bad example to other countries in Africa. It is both devastating and disheartening.

I was particularly taken aback by the massive support that Obama received from Nigerian politicians and law makers. But have these lazy and corrupt Nigerian politicians sat down to ask themselves this question: Are we (Nigerian Politicians and leaders) stupid? They should ask themselves more questions:

• Why can’t we conduct peaceful elections in Nigeria?
• Why do we kill ourselves during election time in Nigeria?
• Why are issues and policies never discussed since the collapse of the second republic in Nigeria?
• Why do we rule the country by looting public treasuries and spreading poverty like wild fires?
• Do we need psychiatric tests before we are allowed to run for public offices in Nigeria?

Agreed that the incursion of the foolish military into governance in Nigeria (and other countries as well in Africa) landed a negative blow to our sense of purpose and direction as a nation: still that is not enough excuse to practise the kind of crude democracies that are seen in Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

In some African countries like Somalia, there is complete absence of a government. In 2008 Congo, a genocide war is brewing intensely because of the fight for the nation’s wealth. In Africa the things that should unite us have been used to divide us and the outcomes are hunger, poverty, impoverishment, penury and wars.

Some people blame the western world for most of the suffering, pains and political instability in Africa and even in parts of Asia. I beg to disagree on this generalized concept. In our modern world every nation has the means and possibilities to steer the wheels of its progress independent of its colonial masters or former oppressors. What is needed is the proper diplomatic dispensation that pursues mutuality rather than supremacy or vengeance as we saw in Zimbabwe. At this stage and age of globalization, I strongly believed that each nation is shaped not only by foreign influences but also by the thoughtfulness, soundness and sanity of its leaders and politicians. The sense of belonging instilled in the citizenry also plays a key role in nation building.

The question of public service in relation to intelligence, reasoning, accountability, probity and sanity therefore becomes very important in the analyses of the woes of sub-Saharan African especially. What is wrong with sub-Saharan Africa? Why does the attention of the world have to remain fixated on poverty, diseases, corruption and the gross incompetence of the leaders, politicians and warlords of sub-Saharan Africa?

Some people also argued that it took the US and the British over 200 years to accomplish their stable democracies. This is simply lame excuse and idle talk to allow African leaders to spread their shallow intelligence in a jet-age world. What is clear is that the parameters to measure progress over the last 2 centuries have been dramatically transformed. We are now living in a technologically advanced world.

This is the age of computer advancement and no silly excuse can be offered to support retrogression and redundant Cognitivism. What took months or years to achieve 200 years ago can now be done in micro-seconds. Even when I was a little boy, I wrote letters and waited for weeks and months before getting responses. Do African leaders and their uninformed supporters have any idea how long it takes now to get a response for my electronic messages or chats? Give me a break! The global world is now a leveled playing field and one part of the world cannot continue to refer to the prehistoric timeline of countries like the US and Britain in order to ascertain when to achieve true greatness. With the kinds and nature of resources in Africa, it should be the wealthiest continent in theory and practice.

There is corruption everywhere in the world but the nature of the corruption in Nigeria and some other countries in Africa for example is unparallel. There are probably more than 90m people representing more than 50% of the population in Nigeria who are living on less than 1 dollar a day. This is the difference between corruption in Africa and other places. The effects are profound in Africa.

It amazes me when people compare corruption or its impact in my country Nigeria with other places. The institutions of governance are heavily compromised in Nigeria. What is expected is that people move in and out of institutions that are functioning and regulated. For example whether George Bush likes it or not he would vacate the White House in January 2009. Bill Clinton before him did the same without any bitterness. It has never been like that in Nigeria. It is always a case of someone forcing himself in and other people forcing him out. This is the failure of institutions and a serious questioning of our collective intelligence is always brought to the front when these anomalies come to play on the world stage.

But the anomalies are not unexpected. For instance there is absolute disorganization and disorientation in our attitudes in Nigeria. In the US election it is possible to see exactly how many people voted, their race, their gender and their ages. This is an impossible mission in Nigeria. From the scratch, the voters register lists are falsified and ghost names are on the lists. Underage voting is common practice in Nigeria. Above all, it just doesn’t matter about the irregularities because a caucus of people would eventually sit down and verbally decide who wins and who lost in Nigerian elections. In several cases, the political godfathers determine the case of the contestants and the amount of money that can be spent during the bargaining plays a key role. We have seen in Nigeria where someone who is not a contestant or a candidate won an election!!!

Nigeria is presently seeking political reforms while Kenya and Zimbabwe are making do with unified corrupt governments. It is time to have intelligent inputs and outputs in the governments of these countries. Their progresses or failures will continue to inspire the rest of Africa. But there is an urgent need for re-awakening in Africa. From Congo, to Uganda, to Nigeria, to South Africa, to Kenya, to Zimbabwe, to Angola, to Rwanda, to Somali, to Eritrea, to Ethiopia, to Togo, to Ivory Coast, to Senegal, to Gambia, to Niger and to the rest of Africa. It is time to wake up. The victory of Barack Obama should henceforth be used as a new yardstick for the election processes for Africa.

No one should see this as an impossible mission unless we want to tell ourselves and the rest of the world that Africans are not intelligent. Do we want to tell the world that we are incapable of running smooth democracies? How much time does Africans need to be able to ascertain their independent which they fought for? Some diligent leaders fought and earned independence for Africa. Haven’t we allowed their labours to be in vain?

Africa cannot copy the exact form of democracy that we see in America but what is wrong with conducting peaceful elections? What is wrong with transferring power peacefully from one democratically elected president to another? What is wrong in building institutions that will stand for all time while allowing people and leaders to pass through them? What is wrong with trying for once to end the reign and spread of tyranny in Africa? What is wrong if African countries like Nigeria start to use the power of governance to create and spread wealth among the people? What is wrong with ending the wars and poverty across Africa?

Hopefully the presence of Obama in the White House and on the world stage will inspire Africa positively. Time will tell.