Month: November 2009

Nigeria’s Political Dilemma and Secession in the air

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Nigeria has been without a ruler or leader for several days now. In my opinion Nigeria has never had a president since May 2007. The man who was illegally imposed on us is now very sick and lying in some hospital in far away Saudi Arabia. Call it the shame of Nigeria-the nation with the largest concentration of black people not been able to provide good health care for its own (fake) president! Imagine the fate of the man on the street who has to beg to be able to afford a pill for his headache! What a tragedy for our nation?

Before he was bundled away he didn’t hand over the reign of power to his deputy, the so called vice president Goodluck Jonathan. On several occasions in the past Mr. Yar Adua had left his ill-gotten post unceremoniously without handing over to the man next to him. But this time it appears he will be away for a long-long time. There are uncertainties if he would be able to stand on his feet again, let home forcefully and illegally govern a nation of 150m passive people. Yes, we are that many but almost stupidly passive!

If we are not too passive or fashion-ly resilient we should have taken back all the things that were stolen from us or we should have kicked away the things that we didn’t ask for. Nobody voted for Mr. Yar Adua in the first place, so it was a stupid passivity that we allowed him to reign, forcefully.

We have been left alone several times without a ruler or a leader we still sit down and adopt the wait and see approach. By now millions of Nigerians should be on the streets demanding an end to this useless dilemma. Our economy is bad and investment is uncertain, yet we sit at home or go to work pretending that all will be well. The national budget is unknown making the already bad economy even looking predictably worse in the days ahead.

The men and women who pretend to be in the national assembly are too busy with personal interests and political survival that they do not see or realise how USELESS they have become in their own existence. If they are not useless what are they still doing when Nigeria with a population of over 140m has no legal president? Their own personal individual emergence continues to haunt them and they know that trying to do anything “right” will jeopardise their political future. I dare any member of the Nigeria Senate or House of Rep to sanely move for the removal of Yar Adua! They are all birds of the same feather-wicked and evil in colour.

The junta who want to have a northern president at all cost or the removal of Goodluck Jonathan to pave away for a Northern President to replace Yar Adua have now sown new seeds of secession. If the North must be president at all cost or at any cost, it makes more sense that they should keep the north to themselves. The rest of the south can decide what to do with their regions.

If the constitution of the PDP takes pre-eminence over that of Nigeria, then there should not be a country called Nigeria. This definitely is not the best option for Nigeria but it appears sensible that if the north wants to always dominate power then the other regions have the opportunity and reason to say, NO MORE!
The South-South have already issued a warning that if Jonathan cannot be the president in the absence of Yar Adua then the rest of us should brace up to a secession. That is more than justified. I mean if the constitution is not followed then there is no country to belong to. Therefore the individual nationalities have a reason to carve out their own existence. No one knows if there will be civil rife and on what scale.

But seriously what is wrong with Nigeria and Nigerians? I cannot stop looking at the intelligence question and the black race. Are we really stupid? Why is it so hard to follow the norm?

One man is sick and incapable, what is wrong with the deputy taking over as it is written in the constitution? Why should there be any rumour or allegation that a group from the north is putting pressure on the VP to resign? What sort of useless agreement could have been made between the VP and the North before the emergence of this unelected government? Are these the outcomes of Nigeria’s crazy democracy-one in which our votes are never counted? How long shall be continue with this nonsense? For how long shall we remain captives and slaves in our own country? For how long shall we bring shame and dishonour to ourselves and to Africa?

A time must come and maybe this is the best chance to redefine our mode of existence and the conditions for our co-existence or disintegration. What is of paramount significance and importance is the quality of lives that we want to live. We must be able to address the best avenues to attain our objectives for the nearest future.

To continue to live passively, doing nothing and encouraging these dictators-visible and invisible is a disservice to ourselves, our children and our children’s children. Just over the weekend Shakira said on Larry King Live: “we should be political, we must participate in the decisions that affect the future of our nations”

This statement must be directed to every Nigerian. We must participate-and we must start to do so positively-in the decisions that affect us now and our children in the future. Our political madness must stop and the way we do our elections must change. If nothing changes then we are confirming the fears of some group that as the black race we are not intelligent afterall. The prevalence of poverty and the fact that more than 90m live on less than 1 dollar per day despite the oil wealth of our country does not show that we are intelligent on our own soil. Maybe we are elsewhere.

The days ahead will shed more light on our intelligence especially in the political arena. The future of Nigeria is in our hands and whatever we decide to do or not do about it.

PDP Places Nigeria on a Keg of GunPowder

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By Adeola Aderounmu

BBC reported that the continued ill-health of Nigeria’s ruler Mr. Yar Adua poses a problem for Nigeria’s constitution. If he were to step down or die, he would be replaced by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, who is from the country’s southern Niger Delta region.

But according to the ruling People’s Democratic Party’s own formula for sharing power among the country’s regions, the president must be a northerner. Herein lies the recipe for disaster. I have continued to mention that Nigeria has serious problems and the fact that a party like the PDP is in control is worrisome.

From the start I am not impressed that the farce committed in 2007 was used to imposed Yar Adua on Nigerians. The guy was fraudulently bundled into power by the machinery of the PDP majorly controlled by retired generals who have committed treason against the people of Nigeria. These military men and their civilian accomplices have continued to loot and plunder the Nigerian treasury. It is very disheartening also that these tropical gangsters think that they can decide (without elections / votes) who rules Nigeria at any given point in time.

That Nigerians are resilient and quiet gives an indication of our level of reasoning. Perhaps these events are connected to how our collective intelligence is viewed and it is easy to play down the IQ of our race.

What is happening in Nigerian Political space is absolute madness and idiocy. The kind of people parading themselves in our senate/ house of assembly and the interests that they serve are absolutely ridiculous. Nigerians have to stand up one day and say enough is enough.

Indeed, our constitution given by the military leaves spacious rooms for amendments. Despite the fact that I dislike the illegal regime currently parading itself in Nigeria I cannot help but wonder why a vice-president will not be able to take over IF in case the ruler takes his exit.

Nigeria cannot stop producing amusing dramas all over. It is only in our country that a known thief would be made the president of senate and all sorts of people lacking integrity would parade themselves as honorables. It is in Nigerian only that the Attorney General knows himself as a stupid liar and defender of corruption. Still, we do nothing about these anomalies. What a country..!

Election or no election, succession or no succession, Nigerians must know their silence means stupidity. Poverty will continue to spread like wild fire and the standard of living will be similar to pre-industrial revolution. That we lack electricity defines where we stand in the order of things. The Nigerian system needs an overhaul. 140m people cannot sleep and face the same direction. To do that is to leave our destiny to chance. It is better to take it in our hands for the sake of our children’s children.

Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) in Nigeria

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By Adeola Aderounmu

I made an entry on my blog on Nov 21 2007 called

All Nigerians Should Join and Support CACOL

Since then some people wanted to know how to locate CACOL or become members. I am not a member myself and it would be nice to become a member of such a vibrant body. As a matter of fact I would have suggested that body to be named Coalition Against Corrupt People in Nigeria. It is not only the rulers or leaders that are corrupt.

Nigeria and Nigerians are suffering from serious crises that affect our individual and collective mentality of how we should live our lives. Almost everyone cuts corner in his or her undertakings. But I do agree that when the head is rotten then the whole body stinks. This is why CACOL may be a worthwhile adventure. Cure the head and the body becomes healthy perhaps.

Just imagine if we could prosecute and imprison all the corrupt rulers in Nigeria. You hardly see any leader. 99.9% of public servants and politicians in Nigeria are thieves. Big thieves and looters.

The Coordinator of CACOL Mr. Debo Adeniran was on my blog page to drop the needed information. This is the link to CACOL
CACOL ONLINE

Email: cacolc@yahoo.com

So, to all those who have requested for the information, you have it from the original source.

And how nice that Mr. Adeniran found my blog. I thought that was interesting.

Nigerians, free yourselves from Bondage, Seek Change Now!

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Nigeria’s illegal president Mr. Yar Adua has gone (again) to Saudi Arabia for another medical check up. The man is extremely sick and very weak. His physical appearance speaks volumes. He is not fit for the post of a councillor how much more the (illegal) president of Nigeria. He was fraudulently imposed on Nigerians by the machinery of the evil PDP government largely assisted by Mr. Obasanjo and the fraudster called Maurice Iwu who is still the head of the useless Electoral Commission in Nigeria.

Mr. Yar Adua

Mr. Yar Adua since his illegal ascension to Nigeria’s top post has visited hospitals in Germany, Brazil and more recently and frequently Saudi Arabia. This is the shame of Africa and Nigeria. For 8 years this man ruled over Katsina State and could not build any hospital that would be able to manage his health and that of the citizens of Katsina. For an additional 2 years of recklessness, absolute waste and meaningless governance he has been unable to design or build or update any hospital in Nigeria to take care of his failing health. And his health is failing rapidly! Not to my joy but to our collective shame that this is the type of nonentity that rules the most populous black nation on earth.

Yar Adua

There are so many problems in Nigeria and an incapable leader is the last thing we desire at this point of our history. We are already battling with many issues including fraudulent elections, poverty, lack of infrastructure, decay in education, low standard of living, internal rife, high cost of living, hopelessness, crime, kidnapping, environmental pollution, lack of electricity and extreme lack of both social and national orientation. We are also battling with politicians who continue to loot the treasury and persistently remain neck deep in the deep rooted corruption. We are becoming a failed country.

Some fools are suggesting a second term for Mr. Yar Adua. In the 2 years of his first term, he has spent more time in health institutions than in the office. He has done almost nothing and he is extremely weak and probably depressed. There is a huge doubt he will make any impact in the 2 years remaining of his illegal reign. The present government in Nigeria needs total FLUSHING. They have to be bundled out one way or the other. With the likes of Aondoakaa, Ibori and Iwu, Nigeria remains in a deep mess. Ogbulafor the PDP chairman heads a network of undemocratic hell angels who will for eternity suppress the will of the people. Under the PDP state of affairs, Nigeria will not rise. It is doomed for calamity.

Nigeria and Nigerians need public institutions that will bring back the glory that is long lost. We must be able to choose and remove public officers as the situation or conditions demand. We must be able to account for our positions in public. All the corrupt people and politicians since 1999 and before remain free. The prosecution of Bode George is 0.0001% of the job that should be done in the fight against corruption.

The 2010 and 2011 elections are already reaping casualties with assassinations. This is the madness of Nigerian politics. This is where social and national orientation is a missing gap. The spirit of live and let’s live is completely absence as successive governments have made jungle of our existence. We live like it’s a rat race.

Nigerians must begin to reflect on recents developments in the country. Bode George was prosecuted-no condition is permanent. Mariam Babangida is terminally ill in an American hospital-her husband could have build hospitals in Nigeria instead of the mansions he built in Minna. The Babangidas could have done more for the good of all. Babangida cancelled the most peaceful and the fairest election in the history of Nigeria and he is reputed to have stolen more than 12 billions dollars of Nigeria’s oil money. Nothing last forever you see. 12 billion dollars cannot buy life.

In one of my articles, I have written that life is a passage. It will always be. The best way to go through life is to live and let others live. What is the outcome of evil acquisition? It is absolute vanity.

Yar Adua squandered 8 years as a governor and 2 years as an illegal president. That he lacks the mentality required to build a state of the art hospital in Nigeria speaks volume about his fate. The good and evil that men do now follows them and live with them.

To all those who are waiting in line for their turn to loot the treasury in Nigeria and to those who are shielding corrupt politicians and other evil people systematically destroying the country, look around you and seek wisdom. Good life is good, but it is evil and wicked to gain that status at the expense of millions of others. More than 70m Nigerians are living on less than 1 dollar per day whereas someone has the guts to steal 12 billions dollars and nothing has been done about that.

The life of all men is not different from those of the flowers that boom at one time and are weak or dead at another time. Everybody deserves a good life especially in a country like Nigeria where the oil wealth from the Niger Delta can cater for the needs of all Africans. Why is poverty so widespread in Nigeria? it boils down to not only corruption but the greed of the leadership/rulership.

WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD FOR NIGERIA?

Nigeria must go through a new period of genuine transition. Honestly I don’t have the formula but I think there is a need to recall all the thieves who called themselves senators or lawmakers. There is a need to send home all the ministers and public officers who are there just to loot and serve their personal interests. Nigeria needs a period of say 6 months to one year to build up fundamental institutions especially the electoral commission and the anticorruption agencies.

A new reawakening is needed in Nigeria whereby a sense of collective social responsibility is created in the mainstream but starting with responsible leadership. We need a few men and women of honour to steer Nigeria under this transitional period so that we can achieve concrete goals and development in the nearest future.
As mentioned above it is difficult but it requires a great deal of sense and sacrifice. Some people must give way especially as they got into our lives through questionable means. The damage is far too extensive and the earlier we make this needed transition the better. I am no longer worried about my generation, I’m 37 and I can see the
absurd mentality pervading my generation. It appears we have been indoctrinated or absorbed into the wasted generation of Soyinka and Obasanjo. My worries are now towards my children, our children and the future of this blessed nation.

We must set out now, it is no longer dawn, but it is not too late. We can start by sending Mr. Yar Adua back to Katsina when he returns from Saudi Arabia. To do nothing now will confine the largest concentration of black people on earth into the doldrums, FOREVER!

Professor Sam Okoye, Top Nigerian Scientist, Dies in London

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(original story in http://www.saharareporters.com)

It is good to celebrate great Nigerians like Prof Sam Okoye and to use people like him to project the good sides about Nigeria. It is so very unfortunate that our Politicians ruined our country and they ruined the lives of many to this day.

Original post from saharareporters.

Professor Samuel Ejikeme Okoye, one of Africa’s top astrophysicists, died in London on Wednesday, November 18, according to a statement authorized by his family. The family did not release the cause of death.

Professor Okoye, who hailed from Amawbia in Anambra State, was born on July 26, 1939.

Professor Okoye earned a B.Sc (First Class) in Physics from the University of London and a PhD in Astrophysics at Cambridge University. He was the first black African to obtain a doctorate in Radio Astronomy.

An internationally renowned scientist, he will be remembered by many readers for his scientific columns for The Guardian which he wrote for more than four years. His columns, which focused on information technology as well as advances in scientific ideas, drew a wide readership because of his ability to convey difficult scientific ideas in accessible language.

Professor Okoye was a fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science as well as the Royal Astronomical Society of the United Kingdom. For five years, he served on the governing council of the Pugwash International Conferences on Science and World Affairs. In addition, he was a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, International Network of Engineers, Scientists for Global Responsibility, and the International Astronomical Union.

For many years, Professor Okoye lectured in physics and astronomy at the University of lbadan and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) where he achieved the rank of full professor in 1976. At UNN, he also served at various times as Director of the Division of General Studies; Head of Department of Physics and Astronomy; Associate Dean and later Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences, and Dean of the School of Post Graduate Studies. In 1978, Professor acted as Vice Chancellor of UNN.

Professor Okoye’s numerous scientific papers and publications span the ionosphere physics, solar physics, and the theory of extragalactic radio sources and cosmology. He also authored a monograph, Viable and Affordable Policy Objectives for a Nigerian Space Programme. He co-edited two books, Basic Science Development in Nigeria: Problems and Prospects, and The World at the Crossroads: Towards a Sustainable, Equitable and Livable World.

Apart from Nigeria, Professor Okoye also lectured in the Netherlands, the US, and the UK. From 1990 to 1993, he served as a visiting professor/senior research fellow at the Institute of Astronomy, and Fellow Commoner at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge.

He was a member of Nigeria’s official delegation to the United Nations Conference on Peaceful Uses of Space in Vienna, 1981 as well as a member of a panel charged in 1984 with producing an integrated energy policy for Nigeria. From 1986-1988, he was the chairman of the Board of Governors of the Awka campus of the Anambra University of Science and technology (ASUTECH).

Professor Okoye was a consultant to the United Nations on the development of space science and technology in developing countries (1979-1986).

In late 1993, he was seconded from the UNN to the Federal Government. He served as the pioneer science attaché and head of the Science and Technology unit of the Nigerian High Commission, London.

Professor Okoye taught or inspired a generation of Nigerian scientists who hold high academic, industry and bureaucratic positions in Nigeria and around the world.

His family will be announcing funeral arrangements in due course.

For enquiries, contact:

Dr. Chike Chuka
chikechuka@hotmail.com
Tel: +44.797.478.4340

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