Day: December 27, 2009

Nigeria: Terrorism, Stateless, Visionless, Aimless and Confusion-ism

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Adeola Aderounmu

A Nigerian has been arrested for acts of terrorism. Nigeria is in partial turmoil-no light, no fuel, no good roads, no good public schools and so on and so forth.

Since 2007 we have battled with the illegal presidency of Yar Adua. Then came the shocker that the guy is working like a snail. The reason is because he has been sick even since we was a governor in Katsina.

I have condemned Nigerian rulers many times because they steal, loot and misrule us while forgetting to put in place the basic things that could be of help to them and the rest of us.

We have just received reports that Maryam Babangida died in a US hospital. Meanwhile her husband was president in Nigeria for 8 years. He too had an operation in France when he was our tyrannical ruler.

Present Yar Adua is in a Saudi Arabian Hospital, invariably terminally ill. As a governor and then fake president he didn’t see the need to build any hospital in Nigeria that could cater for his health needs. He suffers and 140m Nigerians suffer along with him. This country is sick, for real!

For over one month, Nigeria remains without a ruler (fake or real) and as the rest of the world rejoice and celebrate Xmas and look forward to a new year, Nigerians are groaning under the effects of fuel shortage, absolute darkness and a life so uncertain of what tomorrow will bring.

Yet the politicians keep toying with our lives and it appears that Turai the wife of Yar Adua has become a force to reckon with. This is so shameful. Nigerian politicians are acting like mad people, it seems what they will eat has robbed them of their senses.

Who can you blame? They were never elected in the first place so they do “anyhow”, toy with power and might and act as if there is no law and order in Nigeria.

2010 will bring additional challenges to the problems we already have. We have serious crises on our hands and the addition of terrorism to the list of our woes is just like the last straw-the camel’s back appeared to be broken.

As a matter of urgency, we need to fix our election palavers. We need to fix our problems with electricity. We need to look into infrastructure, schools, roads, and other pressing needs.

Nigeria must fight poverty and corruption tooth and nails. Nigeria must uphold the rule of law and get rid of people like Ibori and Aondoakaa from the public space. There are lots of idiots roaming around and destroying our national image and our lives.

Short and long term measures must be executed to address our problems nationally and internationally. The best form of rebranding will be to start a process of internalised cleansing by sacking all corrupt people, send them to jail and start a process of national re-awakening that will put Nigeria in her rightful place before the turn of the next century.

We must set out, before dawn!

Terrorism: Nigerians should brace up for the aftermath

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Adeola Aderounmu

There are reports that the same airline that suffered terror treat on Christmas day has experienced another situation: A Nigerian on the flight on sunday (today) has been held for disruptive behaviour.

Let me give a hypothetical scenario of what has happened (I may be wrong in the end):

The guy being held went to toilet (perhaps frequently because he is ill or for a long time) and the others on the flight became apprehensive about his attitude, why does he have to go to the toilet so often or for a long time?

So the others jumped on him, searched him and insulted him.

The Nigerian guy could not accept the insult and the verbal attack so he spoke back. Have you ever been around a Nigerian talking? Yea, we talk in a peculiar way and you might think we are fighting while we are exchanging warm pleasantries.

So imagine how “disruptive” this Nigerian would have been described as he talked back to the other passengers who became suspicious of him.

I think irrespectice of what turned out to be the true story, Nigerians should brace up for the days and years ahead. TWENTY THREE year-old Nigerian, Umaru Farouk Abdul Mutallab has started a process that will take years to heal.

Where do we go from here?

Maryam Babangida, The End of a Chapter

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Maryam was 61 when she finally succumbed to the cold hands of death. She battled with ovarian cancer for several years.

Maryam for the record was the wife of one of Nigeria’s former evil ruler-Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. Babangida is famous for plotting coups and he ruled Nigeria for 8 wasteful years (1986-1993).

Babangida stole more than 12 billion dollars during the gulf war alone. It is not known how much he stole in 8 years of tyranny. Maryam Babangida was obviously part of the evil reign of her husband.

Babangida could probably learn a lesson from the death of his wife and give us back our money. Life is transient and nobody will leave this world alive!

The money stolen by the Babangidas was meant for millions of Nigerians who are now living in extreme poverty and hopelessness. Meanwhile the Babangidas have been living large and far beyond the means of their military father.

There are a lots of online responses to the death of Maryam and many of them have not shown any sort of sympathy to the Babangida family. This ia largely because they consider Maryam to just be one person like anyone of us. Therefore her death is a childs’play compared to the effects that the rule of her husband had on the nation.

Babangida is reputed to have institutionalise corruption in Nigeria. his greatest evil against Nigeria and Nigerians was that he oversaw the annulment of the June 12 1993 elections. That election remained the only peaceful, free and fair election in the history of Nigeria.

But Babangida annulled that election that would have brought MKO Abiola to power as the president. MKO was killed later in detention by the Nigerian military and probably with the help of some American collaboration. Abiola died while receiving visitors sent by Bill Clinton. One question the US has not been able to address…what roles did the American entourage play in the death of Nigeria’s legitimate president?

Anyway, Babangida annulled the election/ results and created confusion that resulted to the deaths of hundreds of Nigerians in the aftermath as riots broke out nationwide.

It is not uncommon for Nigerian politicians to pay homage to Babangida. This is because the man stole Nigeria’s money like no other; he allowed corrupt people like him to occupy key offices and indeed many useless politicians in Nigeria owe their wealth and breakthroughs to Babangida. This is why the Minna home of the Babangida has become a point of rally for evil and political absurdities.

So don’t be surprise by the eulogies that will come from the political circle to honour Maryam and don’t be surprised that in the next few months from today-all roads lead to Minna.
This is Nigeria, the land of bad politics and tyranny.

Maryam is dead. Is there anything that she would have changed if we could turn back the hand of time? What were her last wishes? Definitely nothing close to evil desire of looting money!

Are there any lessons for our greedy politicians about the essence of life? Is Babangida going to give back to the Nigerian people the money he stole or would he continue to live above the law?

What will happen in Nigeria or to Nigerians that will lead to the re-emergence of good?

Judgment is coming to town and those who have eyes, let them see. Those who have ears let them hear. Yar Adua is wasting away in Saudi Arabia. There will be no greater judgment than the “feedback-evil” befalling those who knew the right thing but ended up doing the wrong thing.

Those who are still looting and doing one little thing or the other that adds up to destroy Nigeria will be rewarded accordingly while they are alive and before our very eyes.

As I close this blog entry I am completely indifferent to the passage of Maryam. If her husband and the rest of the evil rulers in Nigeria have done what they ought to do, she would have been in a Nigerian hospital rather than an American hospital. Now that Yar Adua is in Saudi Arabian hospital, let it be known that judgement may have come to town.

Death is certain, life and power are transient.

Live and let’s live..!

US Blames Security At Lagos Airports, Really?

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By Adeola Aderounmu

The US should stop this blame game and focus on the matter at hand. The Nigerian terrorist travelled through two airports-Lagos and Amsterdam.

There must have been something the alleged terrorist did to beat the securities at these two airports. That should be the focus. In what ways was he ahead of both the Nigerian and the Dutch security systems? Trying to fault the Nigerian end is baseless and reckless.

Where was the US security during 9-11? May the souls of the departed continue to rest in peace. Should we blame the US security systems? No we don’t have to even though we know that everytime something goes wrong, someone should have thought better. Still each error provides a room for improvement and prevention of future re-occurence of the same error.

The US should be focussing on its embassy in Nigeria. How did they end up giving a juicy VISA to a suspected terrorist? And if the VISA was issued before he became a terror, what attempts were made to keep a TAB on him? (It appears the visa was obtained in UK)

The attention should be taken away from MMA even though I am not saying that MMA is perfect or tight. But that the guy went through Amsterdam Airport without beind detected is an indication that he was a step ahead.

Rather than a blame game, an international cooperation and multi-faceted investigation should be undertaken because this guy has travelled wide and far and probably has a links or networks that are unknown.

I am just concern about how much his father stole as a Minister or Bank Chief that may have contributed to the affluent live the boy lived as a student in UK. I am going to be devastated beyond words if my fears are confirmed that his father stole Nigeria’s money only for the boy to end up this way-wasting Nigeria’ Niger Delta Wealth or depositors’ fund in First Bank.

For us Nigerians, this is a national embarrassment and many of us are bracing up for the challenges and the implications for the days ahead. We are already struggling with a severely battered international image, to now top it with a terrorist act is the last thing we need for our country that has been denied a legitimate government since 2007.

Even as I write I am very angry with Nigerian thieves who say they are politicians. For the past 1 month we have no ruler as the fake president lies lifeless in Saudi Arabia and we are just sailing like people in a lost ship.

This act of terrorism is the last form of distraction that Nigeria needs right now as we have serious political problems to take care of. We are a nation in crisis.

Hopefully this may serve as a wake up call to the useless people in Aso rock and Abuja including the worthless lawmakers idlying away as the rest of us suffer the effects of fuel scarcity and prevalent poverty.