Above The Law

I stated that those who will capture Nigeria in 2015 will continue to destroy Nigeria if the people continue to look the other way and condone madness in high places. The Nigerian Senate and the House of Representatives are among the high places where plain criminal activities take place.

Above The Law

By Adeola Aderounmu

Which Way Nigeria?

In the last one to two weeks the social media was again set agog with matters relating to change in Nigeria.

Nigerians need to understand that the majority of the politicians irrespective of their political affiliations or parties still carry criminal tendencies. Looting is criminal!

No one should forget that many of the serving politicians are allegedly corrupt and have been living above the law for a very long time. Until they are served justice, they won’t understand their crimes against humanity because it appears that they are dullards.

On May 31 2014 l wrote a piece titled Looters In Government Are Not Distracted. This means that Nigerian politicians will always serve self first and country last or not at all.

Sadly the change slogan provided them with newer opportunities and also a camouflage to do what they have always been doing best-stealing and looting.

Earlier February 22 2014, l wrote an essay on The Nigerian Syndrome And Criminalities ln The Nigeria government. I stated that those who will capture Nigeria in 2015 will continue to destroy Nigeria if the people continue to look the other way and condone madness in high places. The Nigerian Senate and the House of Representatives are among the high places where plain criminal activities take place.

So whilst the conquerors of Nigeria in both the APC and the PDP are at it, the people decided to raise their voices against the criminal allowance that the bench-warming lawmakers have been awarding themselves since 1999.

If a stop is not put to all these nonsenses, Nigerians may want to start to think of not just occupying Abuja or the Eagle square but also moving on to the systematic processes that will initiate the final revolt to actualise the freedom that has continue to elude them. Nigerians must stop all the gangs that want to continue to live above the law.

I mean the Nigerian senators are among the categories of politicians who have been stealing and looting the Nigerian treasuries since 1999 and no one has questioned their audacity in awarding themselves outrageous salaries and allowances.

No one has shut down Nigeria to ensure that the Nigerian lawmakers/senators, executives and elected/selected people are placed on regular civil service wages/allowances. To make matters worse, these gangs operating in a fashion similar to organised crime have not delivered to the people.

So since 1999, crooks continue to loot Nigeria blind through undeserved allowances and outright self-enrichment. To place these atrocities side-a-side the fact that some of the poorest people in the world are domicile in Nigeria make these crimes punishable.

To make things right means that justice must be served, no matter how long the injustice has lasted. The wealth that has been stolen and wrongly allocated to senators under the supervision of criminal minds like David Mark ought to be recalled and recovered.

Nigerians must not forget that the war on corruption and criminals parading themselves as politicians needs a holistic approach. The governors and former governors who have awarded themselves mouth watering pensions and emolument must be on the radar as well. The nonsense pensions that have awarded themselves must be cancelled with immediate effect.

Those former governors who have wriggled themselves into the Nigerian senate must be told that their pensions are no longer valid in general. How can they eat their cakes and still be having it?

The central government under the leadership of APC and Buhari as the helmsman will continue to be under scrutiny. We are watching to see how they pursue their change agenda and how they lead from the top. They need to help themselves by putting a control on the fake ”official” news flooding the social media.

To remain silent in the face of the persistent and monumental corruption, self-enrichment and massive social injustice will be the height of both hypocrisy and deceit.

As l have pointed out in a previous essay the change slogan will now belong to the dustbin of history in Nigeria. The wasted generation has these 3 to 4 years to show that they mean business of equity both in wealth distribution and providing a level playing ground for all Nigerians to reach their potentials and achieve happiness.

For too long Nigerians have been at home with a system that was not working. They have been at ease with corrupt people and corrupt government. They have all been waiting in line for their turn to dive on the national cake and take what they think belongs to them rather than thinking of what can be done in the best interest of everyone alive and the unborn generation. That mentality ought to be corrected.

Above all of these problems is tha fact that Nigerians are shying away for the political solution to some of the problems facing them. The centralised government is too powerful and too unconscious of the problems at the grassroots. The local government are too weak to carry out life-changing functions as their funding and directives are dependent on higher powers that be. Corruption and ineptitude are common denominators!

The eradication of corruption in Nigeria, the ultimate change that will bring about social justice and the possibility of having a worthy existence full of human dignity are inseparable from finding a stable political solution that will work for Nigeria.

Some experts continue to advocate for devolution of power and the re-instatement of regional governments that will bring governance back to the people’s doorsteps.  These are issues for the lawmakers or senators who prefer to share money than to serve motherland. What a bunch of mediocres!

The committment of everyone, unflinching patritotism to country, the elevation of institutions above people and the submission to the rule of law are some of the other ingredients that will bring about the change that the people keep yearning about.

aderounmu@gmail.com

2014-2019: The Last Show Of The Wasted Generation?

Those whose fathers have ruined Nigeria and the contemporaries of their fathers are what we have left on the stage. Criminal politicians and soldiers who have been recycled and overused now have the last chance to redeem their useless pasts.

2014-2019: The Last Show Of The Wasted Generation?

By Adeola Aderounmu

wasted generation

Some of the early indicators from the Buhari-led APC administration are negative. Many supporters of the administration have been responding to the criticisms against the APC government by asking for time.

It is a genuine request to ask for time because time is the indicator and revealer of all things.

But the argument for more time in the Nigerian context needs to be understood and well-defined.

The endless resiliency of the ordinary Nigerians have made nonsense of the principle of time and performance as well as accountability and probity in Nigeria.

By sleeping away mentally while living in a country devoid completely of social justice and equity, the ordinary Nigerians have been as guilty as the marauders who raped the land and cart away the treasuries for themselves and their children.

Passive citizenry contributed largely to the wasteful years that befell Nigeria from 1960 to 1999.

In that time frame of more almost 40 years, the value, meaning and the quality of life in Nigeria degenerated to one of the lowest in the world.

To make matters worse the PDP-led government unleashed another complete 15-years of waste on Nigerians. The Obasanjo-Yar’Adua-Jonathan administrations of 1999-2015 impoverished the lans and left majority of Nigerians poorer than before.

These rulers and their precedessors bled Nigeria to the point of an almost irreversible damage.

The recent climax was when a country that is almost devoid of electricity claimed to be the largest economy in Africa.

It is still so bad that the suffering in Nigeria (for the ordinary, struggling masses) is comparable to the situations faced by people living under war situations or the threats of it.

The wait for change has been an endless one.

Hence, the category of people who are in a haste to see the Buhari-led government properly hit the ground and running after barely one month have genuine concerns.

They are the people who know that time is now a luxury that Nigeria can no longer afford. They are the ones who abides by the principle of ”the morning shows the day”.

However the proper function of time in the entire scenario needs to be highlighted.

Change is a process and not a single event or an isolated occurence. Therefore there will be a need to re-educate the rest of us who think that a Buhari presidency under APC is the antidote to all of Nigeria’s woes.

Indeed the gradual change in government and governance are parts and parcel of the processes that will bring about the conditions that are needed to bring back living in Nigeria to what it was in the 1950s and early 1960s.

In modern times, those years before l was born were the paradise years of the Nigerian life.

There was an early warning that Nigerians ignored during the run up to the recent elections of 2015. It wasn’t new but it was phenomenal and rampant.  Some people continue to dignify political prostitution by calling it carpet-crossing. This permissive madness in the Nigerian political arena made popular by this wasted generation is about to ruin the traces of hope.

It has a lot of implications too. The most revealing is that irrespective of their political parties, Nigerian politicians are always after their own selfish interests. To a very large extent, it shows that politicians do not believe in the change that the ordinary citizens are clamouring for.

For them, politics is business as usual. Politics remain the easiest way to stolen wealth because the winners take it all!

Some brilliant minds continue to emphasized that until the political parties are separated ideologically, there will be no difference in what they bring to the table. Moreso tragic is the situation where the institutions that should check accountability and probity have been put in a state of permanent coma.

The sad situations from the past and present dispensations means that the strengthening of the institutions and their independence can no longer wait.

Changes may fail to happen as expected if the status quo of the various institutions remain the same. It means that the politicians will continue to steal, loot and propagate inpunity as if these ills are their birthrights.

In the same vein, there won’t be visible changes in Nigeria if the people do not understand that their own attitudes, their behaviours at their offices and in the society at large are also ingredients of the changes that everybody is talking about.

It is so disheartening to see that everybody is talking about change whilst nobody is changing the ways they have been doing things.

There is a lot of work to be done Nigerians!

The people must do what is needed of them as citizens and they must embrace patriotism.

The government must meet the people halfway to make the change cycle complete and running.

Buhari must appoint his Ministers before the end of June 2015 to redeem what is left of an already faulty start.

At this moment in Nigeria’s history-with APC-led central government-is what appears to be the last chance for the wasteful/wasted generation of Nigerians to redeem its name.

Politically conscious Nigerias and the people who will live in Nigeria by 2019 would be lost forever if they ever use the change slogan again.

In today’s Nigeria those whose fathers have ruined Nigeria and the contemporaries of their fathers are what we have left on the stage. Criminal politicians and soldiers who have been recycled and overused now have the last chance to redeem their useless pasts.

This type of nonsense must not happen again.

By 2019 one expects that the citizens must have played their parts. One expects that the government would have played her parts through exemplary leadership, total war on corruption, economic programs design to lift human dignity and political reforms to correct the sources of instability and mediocrity.

There are many more ways to know and measure performances. By 2019 the people must know if a new drastic measure will be needed and the awareness for that must begin in earnest.

If the tool of (last chance) change fails, the upcoming generation of Nigerians must begin to organise to weigh their chances of living a fulfilled life.

There is a tool that remained unused and that is a riddle that need to be solved. It is a two-edged tool. The more potent edge leads to a total generational shift and it will be wonderful to rid Nigeria of the wasted generation and their offspring that still loom large.

No matter what happens, Nigeria needs a functional political structure and system. Things cannot continue the way they are now.

Regional government and devolution of power are remedies to both the federal character system and the impotent geo-political zonings that have drained Nigeria of creativity and development possibilities.

A lasting change that will favour the people from the top to the grassroots will be very useful in evaluating the PDP- infected, power-hustlers APC government of Buhari.

The APC government has less than 4 years to rescue and redeem Nigeria’s wasted generation in what may be the final chance or opportunity.

aderounmu@gmail.com

Yoruba Union in Stockholm Celebrates 3rd Annual Yoruba Day

The Yoruba Union in Stockholm, Sweden successfully hosted its third annual Yoruba Day celebration. The event took place on Saturday the 23rd of May 2015.

Directors of Ceremony, Abiola Amos and Lydia Akinwale

Directors of Ceremony, Abiola Amos and Lydia Akinwale

The Yoruba Day in Stockholm is a day set aside to celebrate Yoruba culture and heritage in Stockholm the capital of Sweden.

The president of the Union Adeola Aderounmu in his welcome address trace the history of the Yoruba Union in Stockholm to 2010 when a group of young people came together to form the association.

Adeola Aderounmu, Welcome Address

Adeola Aderounmu, Welcome Address

The Yoruba Union was registered in Sweden in the same year-2010.

Yoruba Union in Stockholm is a non-political and a non-profit making organisation. This uniqueness distinguishes the Union from other associations that have been formed for the purpose of making profits or for self-aggrandisement.

Mr. Aderounmu stated that the Yoruba Union provides a social platform for the Yoruba community in Stockholm and even in Sweden as a whole.

Some of the executive members of Yoruba Union, Stockholm

Some of the executive members of Yoruba Union, Stockholm

The union provides a genuine base where members feel a sense of belonging and togetherness that have continue to contribute to the growth and development of the union.

Under the platform of the Yoruba Union in Stockholm the Yoruba culture and tradition is being spread and made known in Sweden.

The Yoruba Union-Stockholm is now very popular in Sweden.

Yoruba Union members and special guests at Yoruba Day 2015

Yoruba Union members and special guests at Yoruba Day 2015

In April 2015 Adeola Aderounmu represented the Union in a national televised live program. The Swedish celebrity TV-presenter Doreen Månsson, who spent some part of her early life in Ibadan-Nigeria requested the presence of the Adeola during a program that was dedicated to Nigeria.

In recent years the Yoruba Union in Stockholm has also worked together with the Modern Museum in Stockholm during the display of ancient art work from Ile-Ife at the museum which spans a period of about 6 months between 2013 and 2014.

The Union continues to receive request to represent and show the Yoruba culture in various ways and forms. The Yoruba Union has given lectures /talks bordering on the Yoruba Ifa religion and ancient art work from Ile-Ife.

Yoruba Union at the 2015 Africa Day in Sweden

Yoruba Union at the 2015 Africa Day in Sweden

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Yoruba Union at the 2015 Africa Day in Sweden

Five days after the celebration of the Yoruba Day in Stockholm, the Union represented West Africa at this years Africa Day celebration in Sweden. Yoruba dance and songs were presented to the rest of Africa.

Yoruba Union is growing from strength to strength.

Over the past 5 years the Yoruba Union in Stockholm has put YORUBA culture permanently on the cultural map of Sweden.

This year the city of Stockholm Council through the department of culture gave some financial support to the Yoruba Union. This sort of partnership will ensure more progress for the union in the forth coming years.

The Yoruba Union has a close working relationship with the Nigerian Embassy in Stockholm. The Union is also a prominent partner with the educational institution-SENSUS, based in Stockholm and Gotland.

Yoruba_13

A friend of Yoruba Union Stockholm

Mr. Kadiri and Dr. Adeniran

Mr. Kadiri and Dr. Adeniran

Mr. Aderounmu emphasized the positive roles played by the executive and the entire members of the Yoruba Union in Stockholm towards the sustenance of the ideals of the union and the continuous progress that the union continues to make.

He acknowledge their positive energies, innovations, determination and collection of life experiences that have been brought into play to mastermind the success of the annual Yoruba Day and other activities of the union round the year.

In her address the Head of Mission, Nigerian Embassy Sweden Mrs. Jane Ndem said that the Nigeria embassy in this era of citizen diplomacy strongly supported all Diaspora organisations and ethnic unions as their roles both abroad and back home cannot be overstated.

The Head of Mission at the Nigerian Embassy in Sweden Representing Nigerians in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, Mrs. Jane Ndem

The Head of Mission at the Nigerian Embassy in Sweden Representing Nigerians in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, Mrs. Jane Ndem

She urged Nigerians to remain law abiding citizens and should feel free to contact the embassy whenever the need arises. Mrs. Ndem commended the efforts and enthusiasm of the Yoruba Union in ensuring that the Yoruba culture is projected effectively to African and the rest of the world through the formation of the cultural group.

The highlight of the 2015 Yoruba Day was the special lecture given by Dr. Adewale Olu Adeniran the Executive Director, Center for Black Cultural and International Understanding, Osogbo-Nigeria

The title of the lecture was: Will The Yoruba Language Survive Beyond The 21st Century?

Dr. Adewale Olu Adeniran, Executive Director Center for Black Cultural and International Understanding, Nigeria

Dr. Adewale Olu Adeniran, Executive Director Center for Black Cultural and International Understanding, Nigeria

Dr. Adeniran emphasized the importance of speaking Nigerian indigenous languages to children at home especially before the age of 11 when the ability to learn languages begins to deteriorate as the brain begins to change physiologically.

He also lamented the lack of implementation of policy on the preservation of Nigerian indigenous languages. He emphasised the importance of making use of Nigerian indigenous languages as the language of instructions in early age schools and up to the tertiary levels.

Dr. Olu Adeniran deplored the elevation of the colonial language (the English language) above the other Nigerian languages. Making students textbooks available in our indigenous languages will also be a way to revive and preserve Nigerian languages so that they do not go into extinction.

While encouraging Nigerians in Diaspora to ensure that they make it a point of duty to ensure that they preserve their languages by speaking them to their children, he pointed out how Nigerian literary giants first mastered their indigenous languages before they became global names in the literary world. He gave the example of professor Wole Soyinka who won the nobel prize in Literature in 1986.

The full text of Dr. Adeniran-more than 20 pages-will be made available on the Yoruba Union website (www.yorubaunion.se)

During the celebration of the 2015 Yoruba Day, there were songs and dances in accordance to the Yoruba tradition and culture. There was fashion parade during which some of the popular Yoruba traditional attires and modern designs were on display.

Fashion parade of Yoruba attires.

Fashion parade of Yoruba attires.

There was also a session demonstrating how Yoruba women make and wear their headgears popularly called gele.

Kike Johansson with the gele demonstration

Kike Johansson with the gele demonstration

Guests, friends and members of the union danced to popular Yoruba music. They were also treated to exclusively Yoruba dishes.

Dr. Adeniran and Dele Momodu (in absentia) both received the Yoruba Union Lifetime Membership Award. They were also recognised for their contributions to the development of the Yoruba culture and Nigeria in general.

Yoruba Union Stockholm Lifetime membership award and recognition for Dr. Adeniran's contribution to the sustenance of the Yoruba culture and heritage

Yoruba Union Stockholm Lifetime membership award and recognition for Dr. Adeniran’s contribution to the sustenance of the Yoruba culture and heritage

The event was drawn to a close by a vote of thanks given by Debo Faseyi and Ibrahim Onifade.

They thanked all the special guests and sponsors of this year’s event. They even extended the greetings sent by Dele Momodu who had made plans to be at the event but had to return to Nigeria from London 2 days before the Yoruba Day.

Friends and Families of  Members of Yoruba Union Stockholm

Friends and Families of Members of Yoruba Union Stockholm

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Friends and Families of Members of Yoruba Union Stockholm

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Friends and Families of Members of Yoruba Union Stockholm

Among other dignitaries at this year’s event were:

Mrs Chika Nwachukwu, Counsellor and Head of Consular, Nigerian Embassy, Stockholm

Mr. Ali-Gombe Haruna, Head of Chancery, Nigerian Embassy Stockholm

Hajia Rafat Usman, Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja

The president of the Yoruba Union in Gothenburg Mr. Majekodunmi

Others are:

Mrs. Victoria Majekodunmi, Engineer Olatunde Aluko, Princess Adetoun Lasebikan, Mr. Salimonu Kadiri, Ify Onuoha, Gloria Viegurs and Mr. Tayo Adeyemi-the editor of African News, Sweden.

To follow the Yoruba Union Stockholm events, visit our group on facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/yorubaunion

Our website:

www.yorubaunion.se

Our Channel on YouTube,

https://www.youtube.com/user/YORUBAUNION

Mail us:

info@yorubaunion.se

DANCE dance2 dance3 dr.adenirannsomemembers drnhajia drnsomemembers drums

The full official album of the Yoruba Day 2015 will be available on our website and Facebook group.

Acknowledgement: Special thanks to Dr. Adewale Olu Adeniran, The Nigerian Embassy, Sweden, SENSUS-Stockholm and The City of Stockholm, Sweden

Collective vote of thanks

Collective vote of thanks

Copyright (c) Yoruba Union, Stockholm

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