A Nigerian girl 15 year old Modupe Ellen Awoyemi was killed in Oslo when the terrorist Anders Behring Breivik unleashed evil on innocent people in the society.
I urge all Nigerians to condemn this act of evil.
If you want to leave a condolence message, then search for (Norway Victim – Modupe Ellen Awoyemi – Rip – 22.07.11) on facebook to express your sympathy with friends and families of Modupe.
It is sad. This should never happen anywhere in the world.
But terrorism has come to stay as part of the evil that men do to men/humanity.
The perpetrator of the Oslo massacres should not be allowed to get away with the claim of insanity.
As long as his name is not on any medical institution before the crime was committed it means that he is sane and healthy.
And killing people is not the way to seek medical attention.
Let the law takes its full course on the man he was before and during the attacks and not the man he claimed to be after the evil deeds.
July 22: There have been 2 separate but possibly linked massacres in Norway.
In the city center where the prime minister’s office is located there were massive explosions that have left at least 7 people dead.
On the island of Utoya Anders Behring Breivik dressed up as a police officer and gathered people in the same area pretending to be warning them and protecting them from the danger in the city that may spread to where they are.
Arbeidernes Ungdomsfylking (AUF) sommarläger is a kind of summer camp for youth wing of the social democrats.
Anders had bags containing a number of weapons and he opened fire on the group he pretended to be protecting. He killed at least 84 people in the camp and some who tried to escape by swimming were also shot dead.
Anders has been arrested and investigations are ongoing.
Anders Behring Breivik
32 year old Anders has linked to right wing groups. He is a member of the freemason and he had operated quite a number of companies for short periods.
Police think that the 2 terror attacks are related. If that is true then there will be investigation into the possibility that Anders got chemical fertilisers because he owned an agricultural company that grows sallads/ vegetables.
Anders has expressed extremist views before and he lived with his mother in western Oslo until June this year when he moved to Rena in Österdalen where they have training for the Norwegian military (Härens befälsskola, Härens Jegerkommando, Härens vapenskola och Telemark-bataljone).
Anders will stand trial for the crimes in Utoya and probably the bombing of the government offices.
Nigerians were shocked when on December 25 2009 a young man by the name Abdul-Muttalab attempted to bomb an America-bound plane which he boarded from Amsterdam.
I was one of the several bloggers who screamed “Nigerians are not terrorists”! History and current events have proven otherwise.
Nigeria is now a front liner among the terrorist countries of the world.
In one of the most cowardly expressions I’ve read this year, Mr. Jonathan said that no nation is free from terrorism. Indeed, true because Norway just got hit. But what has Mr. Jonathan done since the war started in Maiduguri and now brought to his doorsteps in Abuja?
The Nigerian Police headquarter in Abuja the capital of Nigeria was attacked on Thursday 16th June 2011 by suicide bombers. They succeeded in detonating massive loads of bombs inside the parking area of the Nigerian Police Force in Asokoro Abuja.
Those who are responsible for these series of successful terror attacks inside Nigeria have exposed the complete lack of intelligence of the Nigerian Government.
No one has been arrested since the first letter bomb of 1986 which was masterminded by Babangida and his security aides. In recent years the use of bombs in Northern Nigeria has escalated with neither arrest nor conclusive investigations. In Northern Nigeria bombs are more common than groundnuts.
The weaknesses of the Nigerian Defense mechanisms have constantly reminded us that Nigeria can be annexed at any time by serious external aggressions.
The present state of insecurity of the country called Nigeria may be an introduction into the final chapter of Nigeria as a unified anomaly.
The Inspector General of Police boasted that we are in the last days of Boko-Haram. Rather than be intimidated the group came out strongly to blast the headquarters of the Nigerian Police and to simply tell Afiz Ringim to shut the f— up!
But how did Nigeria become a terrorist country?
Students of political science should be doing extended researches on the rise of terrorism in Nigeria. Through such comprehensive studies we can get the full report on how terrorism has become a part of our existence in Nigeria.
Nigeria right from onset is a political error and an occurrence facilitated by the selfish (and probably stupid) thinking of the colonial masters. How can people and ethnic groups that have nothing in common be formed into one country? Intelligence was deducted when such economic and political decisions were formulated.
The stupidity of the creation of Nigeria would have been probably neutralized by a purposeful leadership. But what Nigeria got since 1960 has been a series of government dominated by tribalism, nepotism and massive corruption. Summarily government in Nigeria is like total madness in high places.
In the process civil war was fought from 1967-1970. Violent crimes and armed robberies rose remarkably after the civil war.
After 50 years of near total neglect and non-governance, unemployment increased in Nigeria and the standard of living dropped sharply. Austerity measures were introduced in the early 1980s and Structural Adjustment Program in the mid-80s under one of Nigeria’s most notorious dictators, Ibrahim Babangida became Stomach Adjustments program as hunger crept into the lives of millions of Nigerians. we have not recovered.
The governments of Nigeria neglected the well-being and welfare of the people. Politicians stole money and as I write stealing remains the main reason why people go into politics in Nigeria.
Religious riots became common. Many internal borders became disputable and ethnic rife mixed with religious tensions.
Many decisions including the location of state capitals for newly created unviable states were based on political gains rather than social justice. Many Nigerian politicians are too ignorant of the meaning of social justice.
They promoted ethnic politics and even religious politics.
Education was relegated and today public education is almost non-existent. Several politicians stole public funds and started private schools. Many sent their children abroad as they stole blindly.
In short Nigeria became a country where the government runs its own thing on one hand and the citizens run theirs on the other hand. The two became exclusively independent of the other especially as votes are useless and elections are predetermined. So in Nigeria, anything goes.
Many people made it in life out of extraordinary situations and amidst little hope. Many did not make it and will never experience good or quality life because the system is too disorganized and cruel to recognize the plights of the majority who are suffering.
In 2003 the central government collaborated with the River state government and gave weapons to the youth so that the PDP can win elections by force. This terrible carelessness gave more power to local groups who later became formidable as militants in the Niger Delta. Across Nigeria this became more common.
Rather than educating the youth and providing for the welfare of the states, the PDP government under Obasanjo gave them guns!
As the 2011 wrapped up, riots broke out in Northern Nigeria and many innocent people and youth corpers lost their lives. Boko Haram rose to unprecedented heights. The connections are too hard to ignore. The problems escalated because of the level of illiteracy in the North and the fact that religion and politics are perfect volatile mix in that region.
Boko Haram may be facilitating the last chapter of our common history.
When I started this essay a few weeks ago the activities of Boko Haram was daily and widespread. But as I conclude this July month of 2011 it seems that they have relaxed a bit.
Or maybe the security apparatus is starting to work properly.
Everything in life is a function of time.
Nigeria remains one country just to serve the corrupt and the cabal. For example we know that electricity may never improve in Nigeria because those who import and sell generators are government officials and politicians.
They will never wish for a better power supply.
It is the same for the education sector. Public education may never improve in Nigeria unless all the private schools own by politicians are taken away. They were established with stolen funds.
It is time for all Nigerians to have a stake in the future of the different nations within this ugly combination.
We should support a return Regional government similar to what we have in those days: Western Region, Eastern Region, Northern Region and Middle Belt. If necessary new regions like the Niger-Delta should be introduced.
It is time for each region to determine how it wants to run itself using its own economic, human and natural resources. It is time to take the power away from the center. Let us return it to the region where it will be possible to manage and even uproot corruption. It is absolutely useless to remain like this. What we have now is a product of corruption, made for the corrupt and to enslave more than 90m Nigerians who live in absolute poverty and penury.
There is no simple way to analyse Nigeria and the way forward will demand a lot of sacrifices. Surely the killings in the delta and in Maiduguri are not the type of sacrifices. They are too costly.
Warning strike actions will start across Nigeria on July 20 2011 over the non-implementation of the minimum wage of N18 000. I call this wage poverty wage anyway.
The state governments are saying that they cannot pay the amount as they don’t have that kind of economic resources.
Before the 2011 presidential elections even the NLC went to show support for the election of Jonathan. When Jonathan told them that he had approved N18 000 as their minimum poverty wage, they did not ask him how it will be implemented. They had a stupid meeting with Jonathan I would say. They were too myopic at that time.
The thing is: they can strike forever. The money that the state will use for the payment of the minimum wage is with Jonathan and the federal government.
More than 50% of Nigeria’s wealth is concentrated at the federal level, yet it was Jonathan who signed the minimum wage without initiating processes that will reduce the amount of money at the centre.
Jonathan and NLC are dreamers, I guess.
What is the federal government of Nigeria doing with more than 50% of Nigeria’s wealth?
I know.
Jonathan, his lazy ministers, his idle assistants and the jokers in the National Assembly and House of Representatives are sharing the money daily. These funny crooks who called themselves politicians are taking home more than 25% of the country’s wealth.
The rest of us, more than 160m can go to hell with the remaining 75% that is used to service re-current expenditures.
N18 000?
What can that buy? Still the state government cannot afford to pay it!
Can Jonathan and David Mark live on N18 000? Funny people.
I heard that Italy has a big debt. Do you know how much it is? 1.2 billion euros.
In Nigeria only Dimeji Bankole stole more than that as the speaker of the House of Assembly. This means that he can even pay off the debt of another country including Italy.
Nigerian politicians have no clues. They are interested in looting and they continue to succeed. The people praise them for their ill-gotten wealth and this encourage more and more people to go into politics just to steal.
The minimum wage should not be a problem. If states were formed based on their viability, then N18 000 should not be a problem. But states were created in Nigeria so that they could receive stipends from the oil sales. That is a tragedy on its own. A group of people sit idle all month, wait for money from the federal government and then share or loot the money as the case may be.
The local governments wait upon the state government for the same reason.
So in Nigeria’s politics, it is about money sharing.
They do nothing to promote the state of infrastructure or to develop the service and manufacturing industry. The economy is almost mono-economy surviving mainly on the sales of crude oil. We even import finished oil products. What a country..!
Nigeria needs to be restructured. More than ever before I want the re-emergence of regional governments where the regions would have more control over their resources and economic development.
All the powers concentrated at the centre should be decentralized and all the money going to the federal government that is not doing anything and that is also very far from the people should be taken away and given the regions.
But these things won’t work if corruption remains a way of life. Almost all Nigerian politicians are thieves. So it has been difficult to have both reforms and positive changes.
That makes the struggle for the minimum wage a minor struggle because the system is wrong and bad. It is very annoying actually.
NLC has not used its powers in the right way. It should actually be initiating a revolution that will sweep all these looters into jail or exile.
Nigeria and some countries in West Africa need their own revolutions.
Otherwise these looting, stealing, corruption, laziness in government and the diseases and poverty that continue to spread like wild fire will remain forever in West/ sub-Saharan Africa.
Good luck with your useless misinformed strike NLC. When you are ready, you will revolt once and for all.
This annual piece started when l turned 36. It reminds me of how time flies and how things change or not.
There is obviously a lot to reflect upon.
Two years ago I wrote about being the change that I wanted to see in Nigeria. Why not?
Since then I have molded some of my ideas through two organizations.
Through the Festac Grammar School Alumni Projects’ Management Group I became part of the founding members of the active group that is now pushing for positive changes in our alma mater. The group has grown and we have started doing things.
The Lagos State Government has the obligation to maintain the school. But we have a school of thought among our members that wants us to rebuild the school on our own. ‘Only if we can’ I dare say.
The most significant thing is that we are now a movement and there is no stopping us. The Lagos state government can meet us along the way.
If every educated Nigerian could stand up for his/her alma mater, we may invariably resuscitate the glory of Nigeria in the education sector. From one region to another, from one state to another, it could signify the start of a very rewarding process for the upcoming generation.
Education remains the greatest hope for the future.
I have also been very active in the Yoruba Union, Stockholm. I lead most of the meetings. The association is young; we started it in the summer of 2010.
We are happy with our union and through our meetings we are building good social interactions and viable network of friends and associates. I have enjoyed sharing good times and heartwarming discussions with everyone in the union. We learn from one another.
My other projects are pending. They exist in my head or in my dreams. I hope the time will be right someday to start the African Rights Initiative Group and the much needed Scholarship Award Program for deserving Nigerian students. I’ll keep these dreams alive.
Charity will always begin at home. I believe that Regional government can work for Nigeria again. Among other benefits, it will end the useless federal budgeting system and ineffective central government deeply rooted in corrupt practices and ineptitude.
Quite a number of recent occurrences have reshaped my thoughts and opinions about Nigeria.
Will Nigeria really be in existence come 2015? Even luck does run out as we now see and bear witness. It would be 16 years since PDP starting ruling and certainly ruining Nigeria.
I’m worried because at that time Nigerians will be told that the present occupiers need more than 4 years to fix Nigeria.
If Nigeria survives, the stories we heard in 2003, 2007 and 2011 will be repeated with precision in 2015 and associations earnestly asking for elongation of tenure may emerge from the 4 corners of the earth.
How did Nigeria become a country now characterized by daily terror attacks?
I was among the first group of bloggers to scream NIGERIANS ARE NOT TERRORISTS when Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmuttalab put Nigeria on the World Map of terror countries on Christmas Day of 2009.
Boko Haram has markedly opened a new chapter in the annals of Nigeria.
That group from the North has exposed the weaknesses and shortcomings of Nigeria’s defense mechanisms. To drive home its points Boko Haram succeeded in detonating massive loads of bombs at the Nigerian Police headquarters in Abuja on Thursday the 16th June 2011.
After that day the group has continued to cause destructions to lives and property, almost on a daily basis and largely unhindered. This shows lack of intelligence in the Nigerian security establishments.
In 1986 a letter bomb arrived in Nigeria through executive powers of the military rulers. Today there are more bombs than groundnuts in Northern Nigeria.
Those who mix sharia with politics when Obasanjo looked the other way planned for these waves of terrors in advance. They could not have missed the facts.
With the assistance of one of the worst democracies in the world the rulers of Northern Nigeria created a region characterized by extreme underdevelopment and probably the world’s most illiterate population.
The ever corrupt federal, state and local governments of Nigeria are all catalysts to both the reign of terror in Nigeria and the massive ‘poverty and hopelessness’ that pervade the land.
I can’t stop referring to Nigeria’s politics as one of the biggest tragedies of modern era. It’s almost totally about looting and even still getting rewards for doing nothing.
This is shocking but the race for the looting of the treasuries nationwide post-2015 has already started.
Isn’t it time for a serious National Conference to decide the way forward or backward for Nigeria? The government of Nigeria wants to negotiate with terrorists? Really?
Should every aggrieved group in Nigeria train to become terror-organizations if that is what it takes to negotiate in Abuja?
When will it be the right time to set aside corruption and the undesirable traits keeping this country in its fragile existence? Hunger and poverty affecting over 90m people didn’t work so maybe a serious national conference will be convened when all the Northern provinces have been blown into pieces?
There is always a lot to discuss about Nigeria. For a random discussion it is very difficult to draw the lines or conclude on lines of thoughts.
Imagine if Boko Haram members are given scholarships and sent abroad like the Niger Delta Militants? Just imagine..!
Imagine the impact of heavy rainfall in Nigeria..!
Imagine the near complete absence of electric power in Nigeria..!
Imagine the rate of unemployment, bad roads, collapse of infrastructure and the falling standard of education..!
Sometimes you just imagine what all the useless federal ministries are doing when the budget keeps repeating itself with no significant progress.
Imagine the overall cost of governance as politicians cart away billions of dollars daily for doing nothing.
Just imagine everyday life for the ordinary Nigeria. How low? How dehumanizing?
One of my friends told me what I’d always known. With events in Nigeria it is easy to get hypertension.
On July the 12th I’ll not worry about Nigeria. Rather I will call my friends together and we will celebrate the gift of life.
The summer holiday season is not only relevant to be around families, it also provides a wonderful opportunity for reflecting and planning for the future. I’m happy to have my celebration this season.
A View From The Scandinavian 