Month: September 2010

Postponing the Nigerian Elections- A cosmetic approach still

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By Adeola Aderounmu

I have written several times on this blog page that Nigeria is not ready for any election in 2011. I have also published specific articles relating to the need to suspend elections in 2011 at other places because of the significance of the argument. I wonder how many Nigerians are reasoning along with me.

 The Independent National Electoral Commission is poised to postpone the presidential elections to April 2011 instead of the original January date.

 I still think that INEC should abandon that idea altogether and try to fulfil the suggestions that I made.

Nigeria is not ready for any type of elections in 2011. If INEC and Nigerians go ahead, history will repeat history with very serious consequences.

Mohammed Fawehinmi’s Bold Steps Against Babangida

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By Adeola Aderounmu

I must say that I find it timely and very instructive the reports emerging from the late Gani Fawehinmi’s chambers.

Mohammed the son of the late eminent lawyer has advised Nigerians to ignore Babangida and to ensure that they do not cast their votes for a dictator.

He warned Nigerians that Babangida is likely responsible for the deaths of Dele Giwa, MKO Abiola and Gani Fawehinmi.

It is getting interesting.

The things we know are now been re-echoed by individuals who know the inside stories.

Babangida continues to deny involvement in the letter bomb that exterminated Dele Giwa in 1986. As a blogger I’m wondering if the reports that he sprayed Gani’s prison room with carcinogenic substances are mere rumours or true stories. But this revelation by Gani’s son is instructive. AND who knows how he participated in the poisoning of Abiola when Clinton’s men were visting MKO right before his death. Or are we looking at his indirectly involvment by the June 12 1993 annullment.

Whichever way we look at it Nigerians must be ready to lay their lives for the future of this country. Evil men like Babangida who kill, maim and murdered in the name of power should NEVER again lead Nigeria.

In fact, that this man is free baffles all reasonable logic. What is wrong with Nigeria and Nigerians? Where is the rule of law? How can a dictator who committed treason be contesting for the position of president? Have we forgotten the June 12 1993 saga and the thousands of people who died? Have they died in vain? Shall we all queue up and die in vain? Shall our struggles be in vain?

I still don’t know when someone will wake up in this country and see that things are done in a civilised way. If we continue to allow lawlessness and crimes including corruption to go unpunised, I’m afraid that we are far from our redemption.

Everything is like a bad dream because nobody in Nigeria wants to face the reality of civilisation and social justice, not even the so called rulers. We have no leaders.

This country needs some form of deliverance. From where? I have no idea. It appears we all slept and put our heads in the same direction.

I hope Nigerians are listening to Mohammed and I seriously hope the message will be sent far and wide even to those who have no sense of history and the rest of us who are myopic in our opinions.

A Fellowship of Criminal Minds and Looters

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By Adeola Aderounmu

There is yet no hope that elections in Nigeria will bring changes in the nearest future. Our discussions are still about individuals and power blocs rather than manifestos, principles and party symbols.

There is hardly any Nigerian today who knows or talks about the principles / manifestos of each political party. Nigeria’s crazy electoral processes remained centred on individuals and personalities.

Nigerian politicians do not make efforts to engage the public and ordinary citizens on the principles that their parties radiate. The truth is Nigerian political parties have long lost the plots. Gone are the days of manifestos and principles. Politics is now about killing, assassination, arson, stealing, looting, forgery and all kinds of vices that are necessary to capture power at all cost.

The mentally deranged individuals who continue to seek political offices in Nigeria either do not know about party manifestos or do not give a “shit” about what it contains. The populace are so knowledge-deficient that all they see are personalities and all they argue about is who will loot less or more. It’s a tragic situation. This country is lost.

It is so because somewhere between 1959 and 1970 Nigerians lost the plot totally. They fought a bitter civil war after years of cold wars among the various tribes. They made the civil war sound like Biafra versus Nigeria whereas the war is actually between every community in Nigeria. The war persists today in our minds between every community and between every known tribe in Nigeria. The PDP power zoning system is a virtual extension of the Nigerian civil war.

The most devastating consequence is that Nigeria is no longer a country that any living soul is ready to defend. Nigeria is now like a geographical region where every now and then various groups of gangsters take over the reign of governance either in uniform or agabda and exhibit some of the crudest known human trait-acquisition of materials and wealth as a strategic form of the perpetration of the survival of the fittest.

In essence the structures left by the colonialists were destroyed. The promise made by the freedom fighters to build the nation became a pretence with which independence was proclaimed in 1960. Who has built Nigeria since 1960? Check out the value of the naira, the standard of living in Nigeria and the socio-economic conditions among 140m Nigerians and all you get are disasters made by man for his fellow man. What a tragedy! In my own world I have never seen any form of disaster greater that the consequences of the reign of evil in Nigeria.

I will continue to lament the tragedy of (probably) the most prosperous nation in the world harbouring some of the world’s poorest people.

Let me narrow down.

What I see today as the preparation for the forthcoming elections in Nigeria is a fellowship of thieves.

Let me state again before I continue that in Nigeria there are no heroes. I will stand alone rather than give any commendation or recommendation to any Nigerian ruler/ politician.

When my online friends went for Ribadu, I almost wept. It is a sign of decadence and lack of heroes that made them fell blindly to a man who deceived the world to acquire accolades.

Don’t get me wrong. I have stated that I am not a saint and I am not a righteous man. But my opinion about public service is simple-just do the right thing, always. When circumstances and situations prevent you then step aside and go in peace.

When Ribadu left those who use the presidential jet to carry dollars under Obasanjo I was left with no doubts that he is just one of them. I got tired of the arguments of the people he prosecuted. If he didn’t what then would his duties be? The things he didn’t do in no small way added to the piles of the rubbish that killed many innocent people and until this day continue to contribute to the spread of poverty and penury in motherland. Has anyone done an analysis of what the Nigerian state would look like today if Ribadu and Obasanjo had succeeded with their third-term plan/ agenda? I doubt. But what about using Zimbabwe as a yard stick or Idi Amin’s Uganda?

This essay is not about Ribadu. It is about how “hope has left Nigeria”. With the looters, thieves and lukewarm people parading the country and seeking presidential office, what I see is a fellowship of thieves playing on our “intelligence” and “myopic memories” once more. Each looter, thief and mentally deranged seeker has gathered his or her own supporters and the stupid game is rolling on.

Nigerians as a people have not sat down to ask themselves “why do we keep getting this combination of useless people and thieves as our representatives”? When Nigerians start to reason and think, they will reach an answer. If they don’t reach any answer, then there is no need for Nigeria any longer.

For instance why is no one asking Jonathan to open the books on Babangida? He is widely alleged to have stolen 12 billion dollars and to have murdered prominent people in Nigeria. Why do we have a police force in Nigeria? Why do we have lawyers and even the judicial arm of governance? The man Babangida challenged us to investigate him again and we did nothing. Seriously I don’t get it!

But I actually do. Jonathan will not dare Babangida or any other prominent thief or looter the same way that Ribadu and Obasanjo didn’t because they are all in the fellowship of thieves and looters. No one will cast the first stone because the criminal charges and prosecution will go round and they will all be caught by the same dragnet.

This is what Nigerians are not discussing. Our government is totally mafiac.

So Babangida will contest. Jonathan will do nothing because as a governor in Bayelsa and even in his present position his hands are not cleaned. He is afraid that if he opens the book on Babangida the same way Obasanjo dared Atiku, he will also have his books opened from A-Z.

My argument that Nigeria is not a country will therefore be true. There is the crude “survival of the fittest game” and the topical gangsters who win will cart away more money and plan their future self-preservations.

 When Obasanjo exposed Atiku, Atiku exposed Obasanjo and the EFCC did nothing about all the corrupt practices flying it its face. That was EFCC’s way of fighting corruption- fighting the opposition and protecting the one who pays the piper. No greater hypocrisy.

 These small vices add up to the decadence and nonsense in Nigeria. When I was in primary 6 attending Central Primary School in Festac Town my teacher Mrs Obi told me that what is worth doing at all is worth doing well. I will never forget that she also said that nearly does not catch a bird.

 We have lowered the standard of public service in Nigeria to a ridiculous level. Nigeria needs people with principles and high standard of morals in public service. This may not be right but is there a chance that we have a civilian version of Idiagbon waiting to be elected?

 Are my online friends still happy with their hero who will now contest the presidency with the money stolen from us? The same money he pretended to be recovering and from the same people he called looters just a little over 3 years ago. May I sound it clearer-In Nigeria there are no heroes. What we have is a fellowship of criminals who we worship differentially depending on how they impact our lives. 

 Ken Nnamani is fulfilling long know tradition. He will try to be a subordinate to Babangida. He eyes the vice-presidency. Who told him that he could not aim directly at the presidency? Oh I forgot, all they think about in Nigeria is the politics of big fat pockets of looted funds and yea he doesn’t have that kind of money yet. Therefore he will stoop low and believe the maradonic Babangida’s plan to make him president in 2015.

You have to love Nigeria somehow someway. Evil people make plan for Nigerians as if they are gods. I am not a student of politics or history but I will gladly recommend to Nnamani [to read about] the promises made by NPN in 1979 and 1983 and the outcomes. There is also a reason why someone will be called the Evil Genius. What a generation of myopics!

The arguments and stories about Nigerians are diverse and inexhaustible in any particular essay.

My argument today is that Nigerians are not yet ready for change. There is no hope yet when all we get is a bunch of looters, thieves and nonentities who have stolen our common wealth and they have the guts and urge to come back to the political scenes.

This is not about Babangida only. It is about all the candidates we have in Nigeria today.

They thrive because of the stupid and useless anticorruption agencies that they established for themselves. It’s like the devil’s pact. When I see people like Farida and Nuhu, all I think about is-what a bunch of jokes. Really it is not their faults.

If Nigerians want to continue as a country, they must define modes of their existence built on structures and not persons or individuals. Today’s INEC is about Jega unfortunately. It shouldn’t be. INEC should be about structures and equipment that can be used to deliver credible elections.

EFCC should not be about Waziri or Nuhu, it should be about principles that send every corrupt person to jail irrespective of their status in Nigeria.

Nigeria will become a country when the government becomes a democratic one. It is the path we chose but a road we have neglected. We must return. When we do, we will be able to elect leaders based on their plans for the country, based on their track records, based on free and fair elections.

The most difficult thing is how to negotiate the turning point because after 50 years the system is so rotten and bad that we don’t even know when or how to change the system.

We need leaders. We need heroes of democracy.

[The content of this essay does not change my views that the forthcoming elections in Nigeria are a waiting disaster. The elections will not succeed and it will not bring the changes that Nigerians desire.

Somehow there is a tradition of electoral madness and inefficiency around the machinery of electoral processes that ensure that traits of the olden days persist in Nigeria’s approaches to democracy. For as long as these traits and traditions persist and exist side-a-side there is yet no hope for decent democratic changes in Nigeria.

The discussion about the traits and traditions are beyond the scope of this particular essay.]

Show Me Your Friends (Evil Beget Evil)

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By Adeola Aderounmu

There are different kinds of connections between people. When you decide to work for someone as his or her campaign manager for an election, it is certain that you share common ideals and have the same views about politics. It is not impossible that this type of association exist between people who even share common views about life, its essence and values.

I felt like I have wasted all the times and moments I spent watching AIT since the 90s. Never again will I watch Babangida’s AIT. I hereby declare a life time boycott of AIT.

AIT is owned by Raymond Dokpesi. In the years past I have wondered a bit how Raymond made his money. He established African Independent Television in Alagbado Village in Ogun State many years ago. Since I didn’t investigate about the sources of his funds I could only (wrongly) imagined that he borrowed money from the bank or owned some genuine businesses. How naïve?

Today Raymond Dokpesi is the Director General of IBB Presidential Campaign Organisation. This means that there is a chance that AIT was founded on dubious funds most likely tax payers’ money. If IBB did not provide the illegal funds, then some other fraudulent means were probably utilised.

Gone are the days when Nigerians are interested in how people made their money. This anomaly has ensured that people make money by all or any means possible without any investigation. A man or even a boy may be poor or living low today and own a jeep tomorrow. Certainly miracles still happen but leaving everything to “miraculous breakthrough” has eroded the spirits of hardwork and perseverance.

All the pretences of AIT to be interested in National Development through Information Dissemination were actually slaps on our faces.

This new obligation is a revelation that Dokpesi all along has been part of the looters of the Nigerian treasury through indirect means. Nigerians have been fooled, for too long!

Or is it a new development that Dokpesi needed funds to save his ailing organisations with reputations for unpaid staff wages? In recent events we have seen how genuine workers at AIT have suffered humiliation and demotion for daring to use their fora to depict maladministration in Abuja and elsewhere in Nigeria.

Whatever the case, show me your friends and I will tell you who you are. Isn’t that what they say? Babangida committed treason in 1993 and his friend is Raymond Dokpesi. It means that Raymond supported the annulment of the 1993 elections and that he was happy when Abiola died. Anyone who is not happy with the death of MKO will not work for the evil that eventually took his life. What a tragedy for Nigeria that Raymond belongs to this school of thoughts-that evil should reign again in Nigeria. Need I say evil beget evil?

Today Nigerian media houses thrive on cash and carry basis. To rely on news or information from Nigeria may be very misleading and unwise. Discerning on the part of the reader/listener is a virtue in elucidating where the truth lies.

In general almost all the media houses in Nigeria are compromised. They are owned by one politician or the other. They are owned by one godfather or the other. Even if they are owned by businessmen, Media houses in Nigeria have political agenda as do many online blogs and information services. Ordinary Nigerians-the most gullible and resilient people on earth-continue to enjoy the “fools ride”. No greater foolery.

There are other sycophants like Raymond who are on the bandwagon. Their job is to sell IBB to Nigerians as a candidate. They are loaded with 12 billion dollars stolen during the gulf war and they are saddled with the task of convincing us that evil is good for Nigerians.

In all my essays I will almost invariably continue to remind Nigerians about the intelligence question. For those who don’t know, the question is about whether we as black people in Nigeria are stupid, crazy, cursed or just less intelligent.

If Babangida have associates, their positions on the intelligence question is clear to me. They are dumb. They love money and they want to be seen as wealthy. They are slaves to money, and of course several millions of Nigerians as I see it do not understand the essence of life.

Because people are so blinded to the transiency of life and the essence of living they miss the line and borders between wealth, satisfaction, happiness and contentment.

For as long as they live, they will find no peace because they don’t know what they are living for.

Vanity of men and human tragedies!

These people will try to enforce evil on Nigeria in 2011.

Kanti Bello is the Deputy Director General.
Sada Ilu is the Director Security and Intelligence
ABC Nwosu is the Director of Research and Planning
Sam Oyovbaire is the Director of Policy and Strategy
Kassim Afegbua is the Director of Media and Communications
Remi Adikwu-Bakare is Director of Women’s Affairs
Farouk Bibi-Farouk is Director of Youth Affairs
Shehu Musa Gamba is the Director of Contact and Mobilisation
Musa Elayo is the Director of Legal Services.

This is a reflection of the failure of governance in Nigeria. They are all directors. This is what everybody wants to be in Nigeria. Everybody wants to be the boss no matter the avenue or road taken.

This “evil list” shows those who looted together with Babangida for 8 years or more. It is always impossible for one person to loot, steal or destroy the economy without accomplices. This list should be taken by the EFCC (if only they know what they are doing) as the crime list. These people should be investigated for the period of time they spent in public services and every source of their income should be turned inside out.

If a genuine anticorruption agency investigates the people on this list, they will likely be sent to jail sooner or later. In short, they are the same as Babangida who should be sent to jail for treason, for annulling the 1993 elections. He should be held responsible for all the lives that were lost in the riots and violence that followed the annulment.

All these “hungry” directors will have boys and girls working for them across Nigeria and they will be feasting with the 12 billion dollars stolen a long time ago. If they must kill people like me to achieve their goals and objectives, they will. Afterall Dele Giwa was killed, allegedly by Babangida’s errand boys. We don’t know if blackmail was in the game that took his life. Now IBB has recruited more errand boys and those who speak the truth may be eliminated. The return of evil…

This is the norm in Nigeria. A catastrophe of unimaginable magnitude! Everybody is waiting for their turn to steal, loot and cart-away. This campaign organisation will be the life transforming experience for some people and consolidatory steps for others already used to stealing and telling lies.

Don’t cry for me fellow citizens. I have mentioned that this is my life now, to live and die for what I believe is the truth. I will always write about “the way I see it”.

Justice is dead in Nigeria. Everyone is fighting for his/ her survival. Goodluck Jonathan is not left out. He is fighting for his own perpetration. Look at his campaign team and see another dimension to evil.

This geographical entity called Nigeria will probably NEVER make it unless something radical is done. Nigeria obviously doesn’t seem like a nation or a country. It’s like a “thing” up for capture by the group that “outsmart” the other groups every now and then.

150m people must find their ways because government in Nigeria is neither by the people nor for the people. It’s pure rubbish.

Government in Nigeria is for those who captured political offices through Do-or-die mechanisms.

Nigerians who love social justice, genuine organisations that can defend the rights of the citizens in Nigeria must rise us against all form of political deceits. We now know where AIT belongs. It belongs to the evil axis. Let us do more sieving and bring together those who can use their senses above emotions, let us bring together those who know the truth that can set us free.

Let us for the sake of the unborn generations make the sacrifices that will bring prosperity to our children’s children.

If we must die for what we believe in, that will bring social justice and prosperity back to Nigeria in the future, so be it. No one leaves the planet alive. If we continue to remain silent in the face of evil, it will rise even further.

For evil to be eradicated, good people must speak, write, act, perform and die BUT NEVER IN VAIN. No society has been successful without these sacrifices. I live for this principle. It is my cause.

But mark my words; the 2011 is a waiting tragedy. We don’t need elections when we have no structures to work with. In 2011, the traditions of 1959, 1979, 1983, 2003 and 2007 will be repeated with fatal consequences.

Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are. Dokpesi is fighting for his pockets, as usual. He is Babangida’s boy, now covered in national disgrace and shame. Together they killed June 12 and murdered democracy. When they killed Democracy, June 12 and Abiola, they invariably signed a pact that democracy is not good for Nigeria. Why on earth is the champion of those evil courses seeking election? Why on earth should he be free? Where is justice?

Babangida annulled Nigeria’s freest and fairest election ever. I call on all Nigerians to resist him and call for his immediate prosecution. This greed for power must be his waterloo, an overdue nemesis.

These men have no reason to seek political offices because of the crimes hanging over their heads. They should be arrested and prosecuted now!

aderounmu@gmail.com

Nigerians And The Burdens of History

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

Nigerians are watching and listening as political schemers start or continue to test the political field once again.

I looked at all the candidates and it is hard to see any of them that should not be rotting away in prison.

Nigeria and Nigerians are saddled with the burdens of history-that constantly deny the truth.

We know who these men and women are. We know how they ruined the country.

They killed, maim, got drunk at the altar of power and they left devastating effects on our lives. They stole or they continue to steal. They gamble and struggle for power then and now.

Elections and elections’ results remain the most important single factor affecting progress and development in Nigeria. I have argued about this elsewhere (see my blog for details).

In 2011 history will repeat itself in Nigeria. This is not the first time I’m sending signals about things to come in Nigeria. It takes no prophetic ability to interpret these clear signals. It takes amazing and enormous stupidity to ignore them and pretend that everything is alright.

The Nigerian 2011 elections are disasters waiting to happen. How can we conduct credible elections without proper identification schemes? In my previous blog entry I have explained these things in details.

Fake identity cards are common all over the world. This means that there will be loads of opportunities to cheat in the forth coming elections in Nigeria. I have expressed my fears about this, how it will play out and how rigging, violence and bitterness will dominate the elections.

History will again repeat itself in Nigeria, probably more fatal. I’m not a pessimist. I try to place reasons above emotions at all time. I succeed for the most.

When you expect Nigerians to rise up and defend the good, they are no where to be found.

The ways we do things are just wrong. The reason for the failure of the followership is also attributable to greed, selfishness and the “cut corner / get-rich-quick” syndrome. Our methodology and approaches to issues are sources of concerns to global observers.

Why are thieves, looters, murderers and useless people campaigning on national televisions when they should be serving terms for their atrocities? I don’t get it.

We are standing on the wrong side of history. We are no where near the truth. It is ironical because Nigeria probably has the largest number of churches and mosques in the world. This is classical case of religion gone astray. We are far from the truth, we are all hypocrites. We confirm that there is no relationship whatsoever between how people call the name of their gods and their abilities to apply the right sense of judgement. Vanity upon vanity..!

It beats me that prominent people (if they are out there somewhere) and the rest of us are watching and saying nothing about the impossible task facing INEC. We don’t need elections in 2011. What we need is the re-structuring of the entire process/ machinery that will give way to successful elections in Nigeria. What about the horse before the cart?

Let us stop and think for a while. We may be able to reason together. Our lives remain in our hands.