Month: January 2016

We Can’t Go On Like This

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

The silence of the Nigerian government on the current economic woes and the extreme rise in the cost of living is too loud.

Mr. Buhari must address the nation and tell the people how much longer they have to hold on. He and the APC mandate must know that ordinary people live in this country too-more than 100m-and they are suffering.

We Can’t Go On Like This

By Adeola Aderounmu

Yes, change is gradual. I know.

However in Nigeria’s case, we are not experiencing change in the positive directions. We need to talk about this and the time is now. Everything is getting costlier by the day and life is unbearable. The cost of goods and services are shooting up astronomically daily.

Cost of Living_Nigeria

The cost of living in Nigeria is increasing astronomically daily.                             (c) Image by Adeola Aderounmu, 2016

 

Yes, l know the government is fighting a lopsided-war on corruption where only the PDP stalwarts are criminals. I don’t need anyone to remind me of that. I don’t need anyone to remind me that suddenly, everything is right about the APC and wrong about the PDP.

I don’t need a reminder that suddenly all the criminals in the APC fold are now saints until l can prove their indictments. So sorrowful actually, that it depends on me and not the EFCC, or the police or the judiciary-the institutions that have been unleashed on the opposition and PDP contractors.

But my father always said what is worth doing at all is worth doing well.

It is so sad that the APC-Buhari mandate took over power without a clear economic blueprint. Before the emergence of the APC-Buhari mandate, it was clear that the Nigerian economy was already collapsing.

It was clear that the politicians regardless of their party affiliation, have been looting the various states and national treasury on an unprecedented scale. It was clear that the corrupt former Minister of Finance and the incompetent governor of Central Bank have doled out funds and monies like Santa Claus.

Before the emergence of the Buhari-APC mandate, it was clear that Goodluck Jonathan has been committing economic and war crimes against Nigerians through his lack of leadership and pure weakness of mind.

Before the emergence of the APC-Buhari mandate, the rest of the world has made it clear that oil prices will continue to fall for a long time to come as inventions and innovations continue to provide alternative to crude oil.

Cars for example are driven by cleaner forms of energy including electricity in many parts of the world. Solar energy use is on the rise even in countries with long winter seasons and shorter days.

The world is changing and moving ahead. The Buhari-APC mandate must be informed about global perspectives and where the world is heading. Crude oil may not be part of the future.

When the APC was on the campaign trail, it did not roll out economic recovery plans and achievable people-oriented palliatives that will cushion the approaching hardship both on the short- and long-term.

Rather the party was busy dishing out sugar-coated promises as if crude oil was going to sell for 200 dollars per barrel in 2016.

It will soon be one year since the Buhari-APC mandate took over government and the most constant thing they have emphasized is that all the problems in Nigeria today are to be blamed on the PDP and Jonathan.

Indeed, the PDP, Goodluck Jonathan as a bad leader and definitely the APC are all accomplices in the problems facing Nigeria.

I don’t understand how anyone can actually sieve out the roles played by the APC politicians since 1999. Are the APC states or APC politicians not part of Nigeria? Is the Nigerian National Assembly divided into PDP and APC divisions?

The bulk can stop at the desk of the PDP between 1999 to 2015. But it was merry go-round for all Nigerian politicians and for the real and fake government contractors.

I did not envisage that a new regime will emerge in 2015 without the vision of what it would take to fix or address the problems. I expected a mandate with several tools, one that can fight corruption totally and address economic and political issues plaguing Nigeria.

I still cannot believe that it took Buhari-APC mandate about 6 months to establish a government full of old, overused politicians.

I did not know that Buhari-APC mandate will do exactly what the PDP government perfected for 15 years of misrule, which is to use political positions and ministerial appointments to pay back for funds invested in campaigns. I thought there would be a change.

I didn’t know that those who want change in the right direction will be called wailing wailers by the press secretary to Buhari. It’s hard to believe that the APC mandate is shooting down all voices of oppositions, even of those that propelled them to power.

The Buhari-APC mandate and all future governments in Nigeria must know that no matter what happens, some incorruptible social commentators will always be there. They will bear the burdens of the voiceless no matter who captures Abuja or the Nigerian states. So start sucking it up and get to work.

If you don’t know, last week a packet of Indomie now sells for N1500. But those who feed themselves illegally with taxpayers money using the federal budget as a tool of stealing don’t feel the economic pains.

Bread_Naija

The price of this bread went from N200 to N250 within the last few days. It may increase further considering the situation in Nigeria and the poor value of the Naira.

Unleash your internet E-rats on us when we tell you that we know that you are fighting a lopsided war on corruption but you have refused to tell us what you are doing about the price of sardine that has gone up by almost 200% in the last one month.

The Buhari-APC mandate need to send people out to the market where we buy our stuffs.

Go to the market and have a feel of what ordinary Nigerians are facing or going through.

For how long will this hardship continue?

In Nigeria whatever has gone up does not ever come down again. With a salary that has refused to grow, this is a dilemma. With a minimum wage of N18 000, it is a hopeless situation.

What we are telling you is that Nigeria is collapsing, the economy is bad. Stop blaming PDP or Jonathan. Get to work instead.

Mr. Buhari for the upteempth time will rather address Nigerians from abroad than from his office in Abuja.

For me, this is one of the greatest mysteries with the Buhari-APC mandate so far. Buhari did not talk or address Nigerians adequately during his campaign. One year later, he is still not talking to Nigerians.

An arrangee media-chat is not the way to go.

I am now sure that something is wrong somewhere. This time Mr. Buhari had to fly to Kenya to make promises of cleaning up the Niger Delta. Before then, it was from the UAE, US and the UK.

Can l predict that the next time Mr. Buhari talks to Nigerians, he will be outside of Abuja? Very strange.

This is my assignment for Mr. Buhari. In the next few days, he should stand or sit side by side the Minister of Finance and perhaps one or two economic gurus from the Central Bank or from Nigerian foremost economic institutions and make a joint public address.

What is going on? When will this end? Where is the change?

We can’t continue like this and the silence itself is too loud.

The silence can also means clueless.

The issues are clear. The problems are obvious.

So, they need to tell us the plans to bring us out of these woes that we continue to pay for even through higher taxes and increase in the price of electricity that is not yet available.

What measures are in place to ensure that the cost of goods and services do not continue to escalate in the face of the misfortune that continue to befall our dear Naira?

What measures are in place that the minimum wage or the regular salaries received by workers do not become useless in the face of continuous rise in the cost of goods and services?

For the hardworking civil servant who has planned to build his modest home with his N5m savings, what are his chances now that his budget has gone up to N15m because of the dwindling fortune of the Naira?

The cost of a plate of rice has gone up. The cost of transportation is up. The cost of living generally is set for the sky.

What are the hopes for Nigerians today?

I can raise a thousand questions on the present fate of the Nigerian worker, the unemployed, children, the elderly and the hopeless across the country.

These are the people that Buhari-APC mandate should be addressing, the issues and the problems that they face.

If the Buhari-APC government continue to blame the PDP without addressing the problems or issues, how does that help the common, ordinary people?

Again, we agree that Jonathan-PDP mandate destroyed Nigeria. Thanks for the information. What are the plans now?

The Buhari-APC mandate must thank the Nigerian resiliency at a time like this. I don’t know if it can go on forever. For we have seen changes in regimes that occured in the twinkle of an eye through mass revolts even in places where government gave hopes to the people.

In Nigeria, no one has addressed the country about a future that is hopeful. No plans, no visions! We just dey carry go as if nothing happen or nothing dey happen. Na wa o

But enough is enough!

Mr. Buhari must addres the nation and tell the people how much longer they have to hold on. He and the APC mandate must know that ordinary people live in this country-more than 100m and they are suffering.

In the short term, all the recovered and returned loots must be heavily invested on the people in such a way as to provide reprieve for the current suffering staring at them daily. Transport, cost of goods and commondities, health issues just to mention three need to be addressed.

On the long term, Nigeria must reach that point as quickly as possible where all the regions and states are productive and contributing massively to the earnings of the country. Nigeria and Nigerians must act as if the oil is finished.

It’s probably time to start cleaning up the pollution in the delta as rightly mentioned by Mr. Buhari in Kenya. Clean the place and let everybody go home. It will take 50-60 years l learnt.

A corrupt-free government, one that is steered from the regions is imperative for Nigeria.

Patriotic citizens who are dedicated to country and humanity are elements of nation building. The optimal utilization of the available human resources will avail much.

A broader economic agenda should cover agricultural export, investment in science, education and medicine. It should include national exploration and appropriate utilization of Nigeria’s mineral deposits scattered everywhere in the land.

President Buhari and Nigeria’s economic and financial gurus must present in earnest a comprehensive and doable blueprint for Nigeria’s economic recovery.

Enough of the silence.

We are waiting!

aderounmu@gmail.com

 

What About Us?

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

When only few people are protecting the rights and interests of the common people, the cleavage in the society becomes deeper. We against them become instinctive and the survival of the fittest mode of existence becomes even more brutal.

What About Us?

Adeola Aderounmu

DSC_1136

In an earlier essay All They Ever Wanted written in July 2012, l explained what the common Nigerian people hoped for.

I stated that the common people will always be there and all they will ever want is the good life.

In today’s Nigeria the ordinary people are fading out of the picture.

The good life in Nigeria today is measured by wealth only. It is a very sad situation.

You have to actually be a very rich person to get some (not even all) of the basic things of life. Most of them you provide for yourself- water, electricity, quality education and so on.

Name it!

In extreme cases, you’ll build or fix some of the roads that lead to your home using your hard-earned income or labour.

There are evidence that point to the quick disappearance of the middle class in Nigeria.

I don’t know if it is a good or mixed news that middle class is also fading away from places like the United States where poverty is also rife.

Globally, the statistics released recently are scary.

What has worsened the plight of the common people in Nigeria is not just the near absence of the basic things of life, but also that very few people are speaking on their behalves.

When we speak or write, we get shut down by those who think they are doing well and that life is a competition rather than an experience.

The advent of the social media, just like the discovery of oil in Nigeria, may become a curse for the common people in Nigeria.

If caution is not taken, the social media will be dominated by mainly heartless souls who probably rake in millions of Naira monthly to represent their paymasters in good light whereas the true plights of the masses are akin to crimes against humanity.

When the hijackers have not been the E-rats, they have been the lucky ones who now belong to the new definition of the Nigerian middle class-at least in their own opinions.

For, the gap between the have and the have-nots and the differences between comfort and the tragedy of poverty in Nigeria are profound.

Last week l stated that the people need to know the difference between civil responsibilities/patriotism and taking sides with the government.

Government have obligations, and not favours to the people and the country. Government should not be praised, but checked.

When only few people are protecting the rights and interests of the common people, the cleavage in the society becomes deeper. We against them become instinctive and the survival of the fittest mode of existence becomes even more brutal.

Worse still, when the people continue to think that their hopes lie in prayers rather than actions and forceful demands; the social disorder appears to be irreversible.

Several factors have contributed to the establishment of Nigeria as a flashy, but failed country.

All the monies that have been looted in Nigeria since time immemorial are enough to make every household in Nigeria a potential multimillionaire family.

Even 500 million dollars returned to Nigeria should have a profound impact on us, the people. It should. But we don’t feel it.

Rather, tax for common things like bank deposits have crept into our existence. What have they done with the taxes for more than 55 years?

But money alone is not the true measure of a good life.

People actually want to work so they can earn decent livings.  People will like to see trust and commitment of government to the common good.

Think about the entire infrastructure that could have been erected.

Think about the jobs that could have been created. Think about the health sector, education, road, environmental policies, power supply and many more things that the government owed the people.

What about the manufacturing industry?

Just think about it.

Please think about it next time you compare what your kinsmen have stolen with what the others have stolen. Why would anyone calibrate crimes against humanity?

Think about it next time you think that those in government today are not as criminally minded as those before them. Did they not participate in the common rape of our common wealth since 1999?

Since 1960?

Where do you want to start from and where do you want to end just to realise that we the ordinary people are out of the equation?

Is it the environmentally-damaged South or the terrorist-infected North?

Think about your foolishness in defending any form of looting or criminality in government.

Think about the consequences of the unity of the Nigerian politicians and military gangsters in misruling Nigeria because of their personal gains/ambitions.

When you speak for them or when you stand on the same side with them it cannot be that you don’t know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil.

Why are you not on the same side with us, the people?

Why are you right? What makes the rest of us wailers?

I am a common Nigeria. So, what about us?

We put our hope in the Nigerian government in terms of providing better life for us after independence in 1960.

What about us?

Who is going to fight for us now that the value of the dollar has been taken to the sky? Who is going to fight for us when the prices of petrol and gas at the stations are beyond us.

Who will talk for us when we are all called wailing wailers because we have different points of view to your pay masters or families in government?

Is it just enough that you are doing well?

Did you think that we are on planet earth for a race or some sort of competition on who fares better?

What about us?

Our dreams? Our future?

Our aspirations?

What about the place of our ancestors, our homes?

What about our children?

What about us?

aderounmu@gmail.com

Multiple Charades

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

You need to know that the enemies-the Unbroken-exist and they are universal.

You need that knowledge to understand why a robber who stole mobile phones can be sentenced to death by hanging in record time while politicians and the elites who stole billions of dollars-under the same justice system-are receiving awards internationally.

 

Multiple Charades

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

A former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Haliru Bello Mohammed, earlier this month appeared before the court in Abuja, sitting on a wheel chair.

Until that day nobody knew that he was ill or when he became paralyzed. Only his immediate family members must have known of his paralysis.

Since the sacking of the primitive and evil government of Jonathan Goodluck, a significant number of the main actors have disappeared into exile or become mysteriously invalids.

The list of the probable invalids grew longer when Haliru Bello arrived in his wheel chairs.

I think that his medical certificate should be on demand on his next day in court. Haliru Bello Mohammed may be truly paralyzed, but his doctors must be able to back his claims.

The department of health in Nigeria should find the growing number of political invalids (especially from the Jonathan era) very useful in updating the health statuses of public officials.

For real, both the federal departments of statistics and health should find the figures useful for the purpose of documentation and national planning.

In particular as parasitologists some of us should be interested in the causes of paralysis in adults.

The former chairman and his doctors should be able to provide data showing the etiology, symptoms and treatment of his illness.

Did he beome infected with some existing microbial organism of medical importance? Could it be a new type of microbe that the rest of the population or the political class should be wary of?

Is Bello Mohammed a rsik to the society? Does he need quarantine so that he does not spread a new and dangerous virus in the society?

Was his paralysis caused by stroke? Was that a result of the stress or tension that arose because of the knowledge of his imminent arrest and probable imprisonment should he be found guilty?

These information are important in preventive medicine and national planning. They must not be neglected.

Nigeria cannot add a new virus to the prevailing lassa fever currently on tour in Nigeria. Hold Bello Mohammed down now.

There are other dimensions with the fight against corruption in Nigeria. They are not funny. They have become like parts of the tradition in Nigeria. None of them is new and this will not be the last time we will be repeating them.

Reminding ourselves of what is wrong with us should one day bring out the consciousness that we need to turn on the real button of change.

Cross-carpeting at all levels is a permanent survival kit for all criminal politicians in Nigeria. Did anyone miss the news that Jim Nwobodo’s switched from PDP to APC ? This is one out of the thousands of annual cases in Nigeria.

The people do it, the politicians do it. The reasons are the same. Lack of principle and bad family names among others.

Whilst the clampdown on the Jonathan’s men and women is necessary, there is nothing in Nigeria today that prevent the total clampdown of all criminals in past and present government except the will to do so.

If anybody misses the point that the looters in PDP remain looters in APC after cross-carpeting, or that they team up with the ready-made criminals in APC, then it is a shame.

If you think that the monies that Nigeria lost to corruption under the regimes of Babangida, Shonekan, Abacha, Abdulsalami, Obasanjo and Yar Adua are not worth chasing, then you don’t love Nigeria. Every kobo counts.

The judiciary lost its good name many years ago when money became the basis for judgements and outcomes in courts. The politicians and military gangsters paralyzed the judiciary.

The weakened judiciary and the short-arm of the law in Nigeria are among several reasons the political and economic charades in Nigeria are permanent.

How many cases of corruption have been logically concluded in Nigeria? Many of the cases were sent into permanent coma either through bails or irreversible adjournments. Several more were not even visited.

Nigerian invented a charade called plea bargaining for extremely corrupt politicians and elites.

Last week l stated that the support for tyranny is dangerous.

The best way to get fairness and justice for more than 100 m Nigerians living from hand to mouth is for everybody to demand a total independence for the Nigerian judiciary.  The justice system must work otherwise justice will never be served.

But Nigerians are not united. We antagonize ourseleves in ways that help perpetrators of evils and injustice to thrive. We have come to the un-agreeable conclusion that all Nigerians must be corrupt.

Nigerians must learn that once the voting or selection season is over, they are not to stay on the same side as the politicians. The people should learn the difference between civil responsibilities/patriotism and being slaves to political manipulations.

In all of these messes the outstanding and undeniable fact is that is that majority of Nigerian politicians are psycopaths. They are totally mentally sick and incurable.

If the Nigerian judiciary had been functional and effective, if Nigeria’s health system had been remarkable, several Nigerian politicians would have gone to prisons nicely. Their terms in prisons would have been done in conjunction with treatment for various mental ailments.

The men who supervised the looting of more than 200 billion naira or the women who made 40 billion dollars disappeared from a nation’s national treasury cannot be sane people.

I don’t understand how a robber who stole mobile phones can be sentenced to death by hanging in record time while politicians who stole billions of dollars-under the same justice system- can have their trials lasting forever.

Mr. Goodluck Jonathan under whose command atrocties were committed leading to the total draining of the Nigerian treasury is receiving awards after awards in foreign countries.

Even Ngozi Iweala under whose watch monies were looted away from the Nigerian treasury has also received international awards.

You need to be suffering from mental slavery not to understand this familiar trend. It is the same way some famous world rulers who are war criminals are being eulogised and even given peace prizes.

Still, it is madness.

Anyway, the Nigerian judiciary needs to sit up. They have to help the people in their fight for freedom. The judiciary must win back its independence.

For those criminals who want to go and see their doctors abroad, the request should be turned down on the basis of the fact that there are hospitals in Nigeria.

Politicians facing trials and even the others (from the president to the last man at the local government) should be restrained from travelling abroad for medical tourism. They should be ordered by the courts to stay back home in Nigeria to enjoy the medical facilities that they have provided for the people.

One speedy way to improve public health care provision in Nigeria is to implement such a ban and entrench it in the constitution.

Recently also, l wrote about the total disappearance of the loots that are recovered or returned to Nigeria. It remains an issue that recovered loots have not been utilised for obvious projects for the people to see the actual effects of the loots and what they are worth.

In the absence of visible, completed extra-projects specifically financed with recovered loots it is safe to assume that the loots were relooted because loots are not used when budgets are made.

When you talk about budgets in Nigeria, people don’t know if the budget is in the National Assembly or if the goats have eaten it. We don’t even know which version they are now referring to. The budgets grew legs and then re-emerged in newer dimensions.

In the end, the fight against corruption in Nigeria remains an optical illusion, a part of the charade.

The more you look, the less you see.

Now the former military generals of the Jonathan era are coming to trials too. So far, it’s all trials and no judgements. Back door settlements and plea-bargaining made possible by the EFCC have taken over the role of the judiciary.

This is a shameful democracy. A laughable justice system.

The politicians are getting richer, new political recruits are made and the circus continues.

The rich get richer, the poor gets poorer and the ranks of the Broken and the Unbroken are rearranged.

The charade continues.

The daily human struggle for existence, for living in Nigeria continues too.

The economy is paralyzed, the Naira almost valueless.

Salaries are not paid. Jobs are cut off. Unemployment remains high.

The prices and availability of fuel are perfect on government papers while the reality bites the people to death daily.

Government is full of promises. Government says ”smile”. People are suffering as the disconnection between the government and the people gets thicker.

What we are saying now is what we have said before. I am not tired to repeat it again next week.

We are not talking about baby mammas here. We are talking about serious issues that concerns the largest collection of black people on earth. The future of the black race is at stake.

The people need to know that the political system is wrong and not working. Let’s take a took again at what we benefitted and how Nigeria made progress under regional government before the useless unitary system was enforced by the military.

Does anyone think that militants will still exist again under regional government? Will there be a Boko Haram if Northerners determine their own future?

The pipelines are now in flames again and Mr. Buhari is not in Nigeria. What do you think?

We need to enlighten our people, free them from mental and religious slavery.

One day they will understand. One day, now or in the future or in the next generation of thinkers, we-the people-will be on the same side and the march to freedom will begin.

aderounmu@gmail.com

You Should Never, Never Stand With Tyranny

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

Our hopes have been that the judiciary will be able to act faster and dish out judgements on all cases irrespective of who is involved or what the issue is all about.

You Should Never, Never Stand With Tyranny

By Adeola Aderounmu

Ade_jan 10

Sometime in 2015 under the present regime in Nigeria (what l prefer to call the APC-Buhari mandate) the Nigerian National Assembly (NASS) tried to introduce a bill that will send bloggers and social media commentators to prison.

To the clear the NASS is largely a collection of economic parasitic leeches. Their functions are not clear but their contributions to the spread of poverty are profound.

This is the same NASS that set out to cut a ribbon to inaugurate a series of suggestion boxes in its building.

In other places around the world, governments officials and assembly men are cutting ribbons to open public schools, public universities, world class roads, hospitals and other infrastructure that put the ordinary citizens and government at par.

When Nigerian politicians travel abroad, they enjoy the facilities that other people have put in place from public funds. Back home, they just steal the public funds. Pure criminals.

You have to be a fool in  this century to be at any ceremony where the purpose is to celebrate and party over the introduction of suggestion boxes in your organisation. I won’t get over the trauma.

Meanwhile the APC-Buhari mandate rode nicely on the back of the social media to get to power earlier in 2015. The social media was also a perfect place to cover up all the atrocities that marred the 2015 elections and sentiments were high enough to cloud the people’s judgements. Little problem.

I must admit though that with a government as useless as the Jonathan government, change was in demand in 2015. The time for such a concept was ripe. So when the idea came, nothing was strong enough to stand in its way.

Against this background, it became a welcome development to find out why Nigeria has not made progress during the PDP years (1999-2015), so far the worst years of the Nigerian life post civil war.

Incidentally, the outcomes are the same reasons Nigeria has not become a global super power since her stillbirth in 1960. The PDP years was just an additional nightmare.

Most of our politicians are criminals. They have always been. Most of our military top brass are criminals. They have always been.

Some of the criminals that have emerged since Nigerians disposed of the Jonathan government have been on the scene as criminals even before some of us were born.

They are at different stages of investigation and confession levels.

Now, there are new propaganda in town. They always have to pass them through the social media to get them across. But this is the same social media they want to use for our persecution.

Why is it appropriate to use the social media for government propaganda but inappropriate for independent bloggers and social media commentators to fight back with the truth or criticisms?

I have seen many people now standing with tyranny on the social media. I hope they don’t do so in real life.

Of course, they won’t tell you to stand with tyranny using the word tyranny.

They have to always find a way to make sure that you don’t know the truth.

They have to always make sure that you don’t think for yourself. The pamphlets and posters are always ready-made to catch your attention and rob you of rational thinking.

By now everybody knows that Dasuki is the latest thief in town whose time is up.

Even the court of law knows that. It is common knowledge that he and his gangs (with the list growing everyday) committed crimes against humanity.

One shocking aspect of Dasuki’s revelations is how the APC-Buhari group have tried to limit the lists of criminals to the PDP circle.

The Dasuki-Jonathan-Iweala armsgate was an interparty and a national crime committed against Nigeria. It is so huge that some names will probably be chopped off at some point to save the APC-Buhari mandate from disgrace.

But during the 1999-2015 reign of the PDP, the APC people were also involved in some of the biggest heists in Nigeria’s history. Nobody is talking about them.

Even at that, in some places in the world that l know, there would have been a total revolution by now if 1% of Dasuki’s revelations is known among the people.

What that means is that even the equivalent of the Buhari-APC mandate in such places would have been history by now.

But Nigerians are used to suffering and smiling. So the roller coaster charade can rotate for life. Forever.

Leaping off the arms-gate and entering the Biafra warlord saga. Nnamdi Kanu is on both video and voice-records and nothing that he had stated recently since his incarceration can tip-ex those records.

In some of his hate speeches, he tolled the line of Hitler and called for genocide. Huge mistake!

Nowadays people press for referendum and open dabates to channel their aggressions and political demands.

Some of us have been writing about the need to see Nigeria return to regional govenrments. Regional governments will give back the eastern part of Nigeria to the easterners. There will be no blood shed.

Dear Nnamdi, if you get all/most of your people behind you, that is your option next time. Choose referendum.

One fact that cannot be denied is that Nigeria was prosperous under regional system of government.

But Nigerian politicians, just like the ancient colonialists and Middle-Age crusaders, will never give freedom to the people so cheaply. Not unless the people have the same voice and the same goal.

Nigerians are easy to rule today despite all the grave injustice because they have been divided by money, tribes and religion.

Even in Igboland there is IPOB and there is MASSOB. There is Anglican and if you are mad with the Anglican, you can get married again in the Catholic way.

Does anyone know the different classification of muslims or Islam? Seriously?

In both Dasuki and Nnamdi’s cases, president Buhari is not allowing the court orders to go ahead as the judges have proclaimed.

This is one of the reasons for the new slogan asking Nigerians to stand with tyranny.

The truth is that the Nigerian judiciary has never been allowed to evolved independently since the end of the civil war in 1970.

Everything in Nigeria collapsed with the parallel emergence of the unitary system of government. We blame the military. We blame the civilians. What about us, the people? Where do we stand?

Nigeria’s form of democracy is still a system of pseudo-tyranny and the evidence starred at us in our faces today.

That is why many things happen under Nigeria’s democracy that depends only on the president or head of state.

For example, it was possible for Jonathan to steal as much as he wanted and pass them to his cronies. No questions are asked. No queries. The CBN and finance ministry are rubber stamps only.

Similarly, during Obasanjo’s time, he was so drunk with the tyrannic power in the Nigerian presidency that he wanted a third-term and possibly a one-party state. Have we forgotten how he unleashed Ribadu’s EFCC on his enemies and opposers?

During Yar Adua’s time, one man said that Yar Adua can rule Nigeria from his toilet. That’s how tyrannic presidential powers are in Nigeria. The system is wrong and should be discarded.

There are 1 million reasons to discard Nigeria’s unitary system of government. It creates tyranny out of ordinary men because of the unlimited power conferred on it. If the man is now a former military ruler (like Obasanjo and now Buhari) the consequences are unimaginable.

Now, asking you to stand with tyranny means that the judiciary, under the APC-Buhari mandate,  will never be able to evolve the way some of us have been hoping for.

Our hopes have been that the judiciary will be able to act quicker and faster and dish out judgements on all cases irrespective of who is involved or what the issue is all about.

Rather than stand with tyranny what the people should be doing is keeping a constant tab on the judiciary and watching her every move.

If actions are promptly taken by an independent judiciary, there will be no need for a tyrannic imposition like what we have on our hands today.

I think the Judiciary should make haste on Dasuki’s case. On the revelations that kept coming, he can still come to court as a witness whether he is on bail or already serving time for his crimes.

I think a guilty, not guilty or bail decision should be passed and honoured in record time.

Once, l did not support the bail of Dasuki if it was to protect the APC people involved in the scam.

But if bail conditions are met, Mr. Buhari has not right to stop the men who have been granted bails.

What message is the APC-Buhari mandate trying to send by disobeying court orders? I know. They want Nigeria to stand with tyranny by putting fears in the general population.

The price is huge if you stand with tyranny.

We may all end up in prisons because we have a different points of view to the way APC-Buhari mandate is running Nigeria.

As it is for Dasuki, so it is for Kanu. It should be so for any Nigerian granted bail. They must be able to exercise their fundamental human rights.

Again, to be clear, rather than stand with tyranny, Nigerians should be putting pressure on agencies like the police, the EFCC and the security agencies, to provide evidence for their cases. They should be putting pressure on the judiciary- to dispense justice quicker without fear or favour.

The effects of fear induced by tyranny are profound.

If everybody leaves the PDP and decamp to the APC, it does not change anything. It will only establish a full blown tyranny under a one-party state.

Is that what you want to stand with?

I stand with fairness, justice and the rule of law.

aderounmu@gmail.com

 

The Broken And The Unbroken

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

 

The Unbroken have destroyed the Broken in different ways. The rules are now largely unwritten.

To Nigeria, my first love.

Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola_2016

One of my friends wrote something on his social network page recently. He wrote: the more things change the more they stay the same.

Charles Adagbon my friend was reacting to some aspects of the budget proposed by the Buhari-APC mandate for 2016.

The Unbroken in history remains those who are on the sides of the oppressors. They are also the oppressors. They have used many instruments and propaganda mechanisms to create and sustain a system that puts them above the oppressed, the people.

As hard at it may seems, Nigeria is a micro-representation of the persistence of both mental and factual slavery. If taken even more broadly Nigeria is a classical society where all the instruments of mental slavery have become deep-rooted as a result of several centuries of acceptance of lies and fallacies.

The situation in Nigeria has become extremely very complicated because the majority of the emerging generations were never exposed to a life of truth or justice. They neither ask questions nor seek the truth.

At this moment you have an accumulation of different aggregates. The most aggresive and the most vocal have a collective mentality that is deformed or permanently obscured if not damaged.

No apologies writing the truth. Lies have been told for centuries and they have become the truth for the people, even globally. Nigeria is of concern because it remains my first love. My heart never departed from Nigeria.

Now, for more than half of a century the handlers of Nigeria who took over directly from the colonialists have perfected the acts and practise of mental slavery.

Rather then freeing their people by telling the truth and promoting social justice, they chose to develop more along the line of oppressing the masses. They sustained the global stratified-system created many centruries ago.

The handlers of Nigeria belong to the category of evil rulers of the world. They are the Unbroken. They have done all that is necessary on their parts to sustain the lies and instruments of governance that keeps the people as both the slaves and the needy.

While promising the promise land since 1960, Nigerian politicians have continued to steal, loot and accumulate wealth for themselves, their families and even generations unborn. These are typical traits of the Unbroken.

The takeover from the colonialists was a perfect transmission that could not have been better in the eyes of the colonialists themselves.

Along with the highly-ranked military officers, the Nigerian politicians represent the elites in Nigeria. The ring is expanded when accomplices from the population pool are co-opted and given the means to wealth-an ageless and timeless instrument of oppression.

With propaganda that are well enforced even before 1960 the ordinary Nigerians continue to wait, generation after generation, for the promise land. When lies become permanent, history has it that they become acccepted as the truth by the majority.

Uncountable writers and social commentators have lamented the roles of religion in the institutionalisation of slavery in Nigeria. But the truth is now hard to accept because majority of the people have lost their senses of freedom and reasoning.

Therefore, religion thrives side by side of poverty and vices too numerous to mention. The people who practise religion in Nigeria are the same people who practice the vices. Still, it is impossible for our people to see and understand that the truth is hidden from them.

Some are afraid of learning about history because they think that history is highly distorted.

But the distorted parts of history is what led us to where we are today especially on the African continent which used to be home also to substantial part of the the present day Middle East.

If the original Ancient Egypt is sincerely reconstructed, there will be remarkable peace and understanding on earth as early as tomorrow.

Justice and emancipation will follow because veils and robes will drop and senses will be used rather than emotions attached to faiths and fictitious heroic figures.

But the Unbroken will never allow that. The world order will not allow the Broken to be totally free.

They have killed for it- through Christianity, Islam, crusades and slavery. They will do so again. Fear is one of the secrets behind the success of slavery and all forms of invented religions.

One of the difficulties I faced putting this essay together was limiting myself to Nigeria, my first love. This is because the problems in Nigeria as local as they appear have antecedents that transcend Nigeria.

In my view these problems are not far from the reasons why the African population in America are decimated everyday or why poverty in the African population in America is on the same level of tragedy as the poverty in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.

The common enemy is the Unbroken occuring in different shades and degrees in different places around the world.  So, invariably it is complicated. My swing here and there is deliberate, because sometimes people think I blend issues. But my head is clear about where I am coming from on this matter.

But some people will understand these words written here beyond this point. I free myself of the obligation of being explicitly understood.

Coming back to Nigeria again, the Unbroken do not only keep its rank, it also find willing tools easily nowadays. The recruitment process has become automated. It works in many ways.

For example, through the creation of what is known as political parties, the Unbroken have automated the process of willing slaves.

There are people in Nigeria who will lay their lives for their political parties despite the fact that the politicians are the same category of people-oppressors and representatives of the slave masters. Go figure..!

Another process of automation is the escape-from-poverty syndrome. Our people have had their existences reduced to mere survival. Therefore the Unbroken have made a thin divide between themselves and the Broken.

A broken Nigerian becomes Unbroken as soon as he emerges above that thin line. He has been trained as a fighter all his lives. This is why there is no difference between a successful civil servant or corporate worker and a successful criminal in Nigeria.

Wealth and a sense of doing-well bring Nigerians into the Unbroken category. No further questions are asked about wealth. It does not even have to be created. Have you heard about get rich or die trying?

The meaning of life is lost since the mentalities of the people have been permanently destroyed by the existence given to them by the Unbroken and the institutions of the Unbroken in which religion plays a psyche role.

There are other ways the Unbroken have destroyed the Broken. The rules are now unwritten. Physical slavery has longed been transformed to mental slavery.

This is where we are and this is the mountain we try to surmount when we tell the people that the enemy is a common numerator. The rest of us have been splitted into different denominators.

It is a sad situation for Nigeria.

That is why in the words of my friend, the more things change the more they stay the same. Staying the same is the aim of the Unbroken. It is in tune with their mission. We the oppressors can change, but the people we oppress must stay the same.

Is there a way out?

One of the questions we face as commentators is what are you going to do about it?

Adeola Aderounmu will keep writing about these things. The truth is worth dying for. I don’t know about the others because l have seen many people crosssed from the Broken to the Unbroken in the years that l have been on this side of the divide.

I will stand with the Broken Nigerians all the days of my life no matter how comfortable l become and no matter where l am.

The Broken have always lost the battle since time immemorial sometimes through outright massacres. They continue to lose their voices because of the crossover of those who they think were with them.

Why do you think they say, if you cannot beat them, you join them?

There are many slogans and even games that have been used to sustain this global madness.

On historical accounts, the cost of freedom throughout civilisation remains high. The most fundamental ingredient of freedom is the people staying on the same side and fighting the common enemy and the institutions of oppression.

Sadly too, history has massive records of betrayals and deceits.

aderounmu@gmail.com