Month: December 2017

2017: Yet Another Disappointing Year In Naija

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

The truth is always a bitter pill. For as long as we continue to lie, pretend, play to the gallery, hope and follow blindly that the unitary system of government will get us somewhere, these outcomes (pain, anguish, sorrow and disappointments) to different degrees will remain our common denominators.

We have not declared an official war in Nigeria but we live in a war situation everyday of our lives.

2017: Yet Another Disappointing Year For Naija

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola dec 2017

This is my evaluation of 2017.

The year 2017 turned out to be a very devastating one for several millions of Nigerians.

The sad chapters in the annals of this (should-have-been-great) country got longer.

This country Nigeria was destined for greatness as a conglomeration of regions but it had since 1966 remained trapped in a unitary system of government that is useless and nonsensical. Subsequently the country was sapped into poverty and penury by the lucky bastards in form of tyrants and criminal politicians who are not keen on reverting the country back to regional system of government.

In recent years l have written a number of ”end of year” messages through my blog posts. For this year and for the previous ones, these posts were written with my heart filled with rage and anger. I am still extremely disappointed in how the country continues to go deeper in hopelessness.

Already in the year 2007, that was 10 years ago, l wrote an article titled Christmas in Hell. The article chronicled my experience in Nigeria in 2006. One december day that year l drove early to a gas station to queue for fuel. It was my turn after about 5-6 hours of wriggling through the queue.

I will never forget the experience because as l waited in the car, l was crying uncontrollably. I cried for Nigeria. I cried for the suffering and devastation in the land. I cried for all the ignorant people and even the knowledgeable people who together were suffering, celebrating and smiling.

A few hours to that agonising experience, I’d flown into Lagos from Sweden where l could drive to a gas station, fill my car with fuel and pay by credit card and drive away in zero time. Then l came to a country flowing with oil and other uncountable natural resources and l had to queue for more than 5 precious hours of my life. I cried until there were no tears left to shed.

These types of experiences which have sadly become recurrent in Nigeria, even since 1977, showed that Nigeria is one of the worst places to live in the world. We have not declared an official war in Nigeria but we live in a war situation everyday of our lives.

In our country Nigeria, the people have completely lost it. There are no common interests for a national agenda and the political restructuring of the system has not been taken seriously so that prosperity and wellness can be in focus. If we restructure Nigeria today,  perhaps 50 years from now the generation of people that would be called Nigerians can be happy and fulfilled.

Unfortunately, the present Nigerian system continues to promote survival of the fittest. The system thrives as if we are in a rat race. The system runs a manual that ensures that people prosper either through some elements of luck or by connections to the largely corrupt and fraudulent elites and politicians. There are rare rewards for excellence and honesty.

The system breeds hatred in the hearts of men and women. The system ensures that there is a struggle between people in such a way that one group of people under the excuse of the slightest provocation would not hesitate to kill or main the other group. It’s still about the survival of the fittest. There are too many examples of people killing one another instead of negotiating and finding a common solutions to problems.

The effects of more nearly 60 years of bad rulership in Nigeria are too numerous to state.

In fact the present government is full of propaganda and cannot see anything wrong with all its failures and shortcomings. It’s that type of government comprising people who do not see beyond their noses. For, ordinary common sense dictates that the bulk always stop at the door of the person who is assumed responsible for the task (done or undone).

Buhari is the Minister of petroleum resources. He is the ruler of Nigeria. Irrespective of his lines of defenses, the shortage of fuel in 2017 means that the government has failed in performing one of his statutory obligations to the citizens of Nigeria.

But Buhari has been here many times before in his life. He was the Minister of Petroleum in 1977 and Nigeria had fuel shortages then. It remains to be seen if this shortage will lead to increase in the price of petrol per liter in Nigeria.

How long can Nigerians continue to tolerate failures and a system of government that seals more than 100m people to a permanent life of poverty and impoverishment? How long will everybody continue to hope and pray that in a system that is malfunctioning, that some divine intervention will be their hope for a happy life?

It’s complete insanity to hope on divine intervention.

Nigeria is not working and drastic measures need to be taken to turn things around. The most evident sign of failure is that one person cannot steer Nigeria. In how many ways do we want some evidence that this is not going to be possible?

Obsanjo failed, Yar Adua failed, Goodluck Jonathan failed and Buhari has already failed. What other signs do we need to know that we must try something else? That we need back regional government.

Just to ensure that l bring this article to an end, my suggestion is for the young people of this country to come together and wrestle their future and the future of their children and unborn grandchildren from the status quo.

You don’t need PDP or APC in 2019. You need to go back to your regions and harness the best brain to move things forward. Nigerian youths need to throw away all their affiliations to PDP and APC. There is no difference between the two parites. The politicians cross party lines annually because of what they will eat and gain. They have no ideologies to bind them. The people can remain slaves in Nigeria for all the politicians care!

 

There is no future with either the APC or the PDP.

With the numerical advantage on the side of the youth, they need to do something and very quickly too.

2018 will come with new opportunities and new challenges, the young people must unite and wrestle this country from the criminals in power across the country!

Follow me on twitter @aderinola

aderounmu@gmail.com

Atiku Is Not Fit To Rule Nigeria

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

In 2006/2007 the police (EFCC) and the judiciary had more than enough to pursue the criminal offences of both Obasanjo and Atiku. But nothing happened. These arms of government are totally useless.

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

 

If we back track to 2006/2007, that time when Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo was bidding for a third-term and spending billions of naira of taxpayers monies to bribe senators and legislators, we will also remember that the resistance to that bid was headed by his deputy, one Atiku Abubakar.

At that time Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo had turned the EFCC in the hands of Nuhu Ribadu to a tool of witch-hunting instead of the cleansing for which it was intended. So he turned the EFCC on his deputy but it was an incomplete process because no one was arrested or prosecuted. The EFCC published details of the criminal offences of Mr. Atiku and did so almost daily in various newspapers in Nigeria.

In the fight back, MR. Atiku’s media aides did a fine job. They dug deep into the criminal records of Olusegun Obasanjo and also made sure that these criminal records ended up the pages of the newspapers.

So for several months, Nigerians enjoyed a free soap opera.

The two men who were supposed to lead Nigeria were consumed by their quest for power, Obasanjo for the 4th term actually having been a dictator/tyrant in the 1970s.

Atiku won the fight because Olusegun Obasanjo did not get a civilian 3rd term in office. Majority of Nigerians were against the idea because it would disrupt the already dysfunctional constitution-one that had already ensure that majority of Nigerians are poverty stricken even to this date!

The saddest thing, from my perspective, is that when Yar Adua became the president of Nigeria in 2007, Nigerians went to sleep as if nothing had hapened.

The Nigerian Media is a piece of rubbish.

The Nigerian police is the biggest joke in the world.

The Nigerian judiciary, for me, is absolute nonsense and ingredients!

The media needed to pepper the system and the people. It failed, and even now still sleeping!

The police ought to have utilised the documents that were released by both Obasanjo and Atiku because they are hard evidence on each other’s criminalities. They both showed why the other person was a thief.

The Judiciary and the police had more than enough to pursue the criminal offences of both Obasanjo and Atiku. But nothing happened.

Nothing concrete had taken place in Nigeria’s civilian regimes to put criminals and thieves behind bars even in the faces of hard evidence.

Now we hear that Atiku is a top notch for the 2019 elections. He is aiming to become the president of Nigeria.

Nigeria is one of the few countries on earth where known criminals achieve their political ambitions. I don’t need a reply for this article. I don’t need a rejoinder. I am so sick of the Nigerian political system where people try one way or the other to justify why we must coninue to run the political system we have and why every four years we must queue behind a thief.

Once, Obasanjo had boasted that Atiku will never become the president of Nigeria. So far, this remain the case. I don’t know if there is a settlement between them now or if one had gone behind to beg the other.

In Nigeria’s politics, no enemy is permanent. It is the interest (to seek power and to steal from the commonwealth)  that is permanent. That is why today APC government is full of looters and criminals from 1999 and earlier regimes.

As soon as Atiku’s interest came up again, the Nigerian Media owed Nigeria and humanity a re-publication of all the crimes that were made public by Obasanjo’s camp. They need to open the EFCC files and tell him why he needed to first go to court than to try to seek a return to the seat of corruption in Abuja.

They must re-publish those allegations and support them with the documents so that young people can see how Nigerian politicians have stolen their future even before they were born and whilst they were growing up.

People like me cannot prove these crimes, we have our limitations. Those who have access to the criminal files and offences and do not open them to the public and media will never know peace.

It is such duties that the media owed the people: to investigate, to bring back memories that could help to save the children yet unborn from these old scavengers.

For, once a criminal is allowed back to the seat of government, this entire circus will continue and suffering will persist in the land.

Atiku in my records is a criminal, just the same way as his boss  Obasanjo was. They both made this clear in their roforofo fight. So this is not something l made up. They told us themselves!

Nigerians need to thank Obasanjo for his misadventure, his 3rd term quest which we together with Atiku made sure never came to pass. But Obasanjo will deny this 3rd term bid until the end of time. We don’t care because it does not matter anymore. The other pain left from that was the ghana must go bags that went to the sena-thieves and legis-looters.

That Atiku, like 99% of other Nigerian politicians, is a free man is a failure of the Nigerian police, the Nigerian judiciary and the Nigerian law system.

So don’t blame the people who classify the Nigerian police as the worst police in the world. There are so many reasons for that including the zero effect of ensuring that politicians are arrested and prosecuted accordingly.

If there is a report tomorrow classifying Nigeria’s judiciary as the worst in the world, l will sign under it. l will, because as long as criminals can vie for office in Nigeria, then we can as well do away with the police and the judiciary. Why do we have police and lawyers when criminals are what we get in public service?

A lot of people in Nigeria settle for criminals in political offices because of the anomaly that has become the normal thing. That is there are no saints in Nigerian politics and since the law is ineffective in dealing with looters and criminals in government, the people have accepted the situation.

The consequences are huge. Nigeria is withholding one of the most tragic mode of existence for humans. Forget about the flashy lives of the rich and the celebrities! More than 100m Nigerians are poor and live in extreme poverty.

Some Nigerians prefer to go and die as slaves in Libya. That summarises the mode of life in Nigeria!

The people think that saints will never emerge on the political platform. The people have accepted criminals to go and come as they like into government offices. The people are easily carried away by the cash that these criminals spread around mostly every four years.

Some fools will come to the social media to defend crooks and looters in goverment. They will ask you, what options do you have? They will ask you, who do you want to be the president? Stupid thinking, stupid questions, senseles mentalities!

The people of Nigerian unlike the people in Sweden or England do not know that their rights and they think that their lives depend on what the politicians do or not do (largely true) but it should be the other way round. The people, if they are upright and thinking straight, should ask accountability from politicians and fire them within 2 to 3 days if accountability is not given.

That is where the people, the media, the police and the judiciary have let the system down in this unified passiveness.

In Nigeria, people continue to choose between different grades of criminals, they call them politicians because they think they don’t have a choice. Nigerians don’t look inward to promote good people and people who can actually change the system for good.

The other sad thing about Nigeria is that since there is absence of accountability and as a result of almost 60 years of stupid leadership/rulership, the people don’t know what a real government feels like. So, even when a good person is put into government, the system corrupts the person and he or she start to steal or loot.

A friend once told me that if any person in public office does not conform to these criminalities, that the person will be killed or gotten rid off one way or the other.

That is why today, in many government offices, there is sharing of bonuses every Friday or other regular intervals. I mean there is a lot of loose cash in the Nigerian economy that it appears everybody is crazy and corrupt.

In any case, Atiku can continue to exercise his rights for as long as the useless system of government in Nigeria permits him. He is not alone, l always say 99,9% of Nigerian politicians are criminals/looters and it’s so true.

The system of government in Nigeria must change. If we restructure the political landscape and make the president a ceremonial and figure-head position, the corruption and even the urge to become a president will likely disappear. Now everybody wants to become the president or the governor because of the lawlessness in the land  and the useless constitution on which Nigeria runs.

If Nigeria returns to regional government, Atiku will be vying to become a regional leader and l am sure the sharia law will cut off his hands if he is found guilty.

A regional form of government will bring about healthy competition among the various regions in Nigeria and any region lacking behind will ask for the heads of its custodians.

The regional system of government is the most promising option for Nigeria. The other option which is also growing nowadays is the outright dissolution of Nigeria.

One day the people will be pushed to the wall, they will take the laws into their hands too and they will chase the corrupt politicians, catch up with them and send them into exile or out of this world.

Nigerians, the ordinary citizens are hungry, angry, frustrated and see no meaning with life. Again, that is why crazy and lawless Libya is an option. I am sure there are Nigerians in Yemen and Afghanistan looking for ways to survive when we have a state governor who can steal 300 billion naira or more at this very minute and walk free!

The politicians are looting, living large, sending their children around the world, buying houses around the world and doing what they like with taxpayers monies. These crazy ways will stop. These crazy things will come to an end. I don’t know when, but l don’t think Nigeria will continue for another 60 years of criminals ruling and making the people slaves in their homeland and in places like UAE and Libya.

Nigerians must see the 2019 elections as an opportunity for 2 things.

One, push for political changes before the elections so that regions re-emerged no matter the opportunity cost. There is a need to pause this nonsense APC-PDP Dilemma deluxe.

Two, for once in our life time, look for saints, good people and visioners to move the respective regions forward.

If we recycle criminals in 2019, if we recycle those who became rich stealing from us (people who became businessmen/women after looting the treasuries around the country) and if we maintain the currrent system of government, then it is just another cycle of idiocy. Nigeria will remain a country heading nowhere.

aderounmu@gmail.com

 

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The APC-PDP “Dilemma Deluxe”

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Under the APC-Buhari mandate, corruption became padded and embedded. For as long as this status quo exist, where the politicians and some other people are above the laws of the land, Nigeria will continue to exist in a combo of the APC-PDP dilemma deluxe or something similar.

The APC-PDP ”Dilemma Deluxe”

By Adeola Aderounmu

20171209_190058235507356.jpg

There is a joke that continues to make the rounds on the social media. It is about a citizen of Nigeria who appeared before his creator on judgment day. He told his creator that he was sure that he was not going to hell. His reason was that living in Nigeria during his lifetime meant that he had already been through hell. Now he must go into heaven.

Some jokes are not to be taken on their face values alone. In this case, the certainty is that ordinary citizens living in Nigeria are living in hell. Nigeria, like l always reiterate, is no ordinary country. The country, since 1960 when it claimed independent from Britain, had gone from one traumatic regime to the other. It had been a combination of both civilian misrule and military tyranny.

So, for nearly 60 years of her existence as a country, there had been a gradual corrosion of normalcy which has now reached a point whereby to be normal or to act normal in Nigeria is now the abberation. This unusual situation is now systemic. If you do something that is normal in Nigeria, people look at you twice and some people will define you immediately as non-Nigerian.

I remember an incident when someone asked me to do something for him and l quickly responded that l would not be able to do the task. But l added that l would recommend another person that would be suitable for the task. It was in a group chat and l could immediately detect the mood of others in the group. One person was bold enough to react. He said ”Adeola, you are definitely not a Nigerian. You could have accepted to do the job as a contract”.

That experience sums up Nigeria today. People are accepting to do things that they cannot do. Nigerians are offering positions and jobs to the wrong people. There are a lot of contracts and sub-contracts that drags in the system and everybody is taking advantage of the other person.

You have to be a fool in the eyes of the people to confess that there is something you cannot do when you can run around to find someone who can do it whilst pretending you are the one doing it. They call it business or hussle.

Meanwhile there are a lot of other things that you are good at but the Nigerian system invariably ensures that most people end up in the wrong branches.

The aberration of the abnormal becoming the normal and the unusual business of the wrong people and criminals running Nigeria lands me in the thought of the APC-PDP Dilemma deluxe.

In Nigeria the APC-PDP deluxe is simply an aggregation of criminals and opportunists who emerged in 1999 as the new (but actually old) custodians of Nigeria. They have wriggled around in cycles prior to 1999 and remain so till date and their sole aim is to continue to do the business of governance that they are not suitable for. They sustain themselves and their families directly and indirectly by stealing from the people.

From 1999 to 2015 the years that l predicted were going to be the worst days of our lives in Nigeria, it was the PDP that held sway and controlled the resources in the land. First there was a dictator turned democrat called Olusegun Obasanjo, who went from prison to become the president of Nigeria to end the brutal years of military rule for which he had been part and parcel of in the 1970s.

The people thought that his experiences as a former prisoner will liberate Nigeria. It did not. Today he regards himself as a saint. I am sure if one browses through my blog and search ”Obasanjo” one would see my opinion about him. In summary l regard him as one of the several criminals in Nigerian politics. Nigerians did not become free under him.

Then came Yar Adua who was implanted and imposed on Nigerians by Obasanjo himself. He died in office and my blog is not short of words about him. He tried a clampdown on bloggers but he did not live long enough to see where we are today. Nigeria did not become free under him. Social crusaders and online warriors will outlive bad government anywhere. It is a fight no government can win. It’s common sense!

Then entered one drunkard of a president who doled out Nigeria’s monies like a father Christmas. Jonathan’s wife is one of the richest Africans today. You will never be able to find an answer to why a first lady is amongst the richest Africans today. She has no job other than being the wife of the president. Of course she is a thief.

If you do a simple browse online, you will find out how one criminal called Diezani turned Nigeria’s oil money into her personal source of wealth. In my opinion all these people are mad. I cannot find another way to describe people who steal monies that are supposed to be used for the development of the country for personal gains.

So in 2015 the APC preached change, it gathered a few criminals from the PDP (including one Atiku who l have written about a few times) and merged with the criminals already in APC and CPC. They convinced the people that they are changed and they will bring change to Nigeria.

Remember that this is a country where normalcy does not exist. Otherwise all these politicians are supposed to be in prisons across the country. But they are free people, above the law and exclusive to say.

So the people gave a chance to the APC. Even me, l bought the lies in the end. When you have a president who is a drunkard and who does not seem to be able to control anything at all, of course you want a change.

This is the end of 2017, the APC has succeeded in only one thing.

They have succeeded in proving that the PDP was right. That there will be no change. That the people in the APC are the same as those in PDP.

The APC under Buhari is one of the most useless regime ever in Nigeria. In performance it ranked at the same level as the Jonathan administration before it, woeful!

In terms of corruption, it’s the same, same, same…

Whilst the looting was open and obvious under Jonathan, it is obvious but not open under Buhari. Under Buhari, corruption became padded and embedded.

The standard of living for the ordinary people did not improve. Things became more expensive. The Buhari government maintain a high level of propaganda through its Information minister, one Lai Mohammed whom everybody now called Liar Mohammed.

The media around Buhari is the most disastrous ever. It’s doing a job far worse than that of journalist turned political jobber Reuben Abati who served under the drunken regime.

It’s 2 years left on the Buhari administration and the signs are very bad. Politicians continue to steal, loot, and do whatever they like. They are above the law as the judiciary and law enforcement in Nigeria especially on matters relating to politics is almost 100% useless. I would be ashame if i was a lawyer in Nigeria. In terms of politics, the laws in Nigeria are worthless.

This is proven by the existence even in positions of the senate president and house of representatives leader who are both criminals. Almost all Nigerian politicians are criminals, so yes the laws and lawyers and judiciary are culpable.

For as long as this status quo exist, where the politicians and some other people are above the laws of the land, Nigeria will continue to exist in a combo of the APC-PDP dilemma deluxe or something similar.

(c) aderounmu@gmail.com

Appendix

Some people always ask “what then is the solution”? This question is now “lame”.

Does anyone know how great Nigeria will be if all our politicians are “clean”?

Does anyone know how prosperous all Nigerians would have been if everybody did the right thing in public service, if criminals no matter their positions (president, councillors, senate president and others) are sent to prison?

How nice if the country is ruled by law and justice?

In any case, we now have something on the table. Take away the political power in Abuja because it will NEVER, NEVER solve Nigeria’s problem.

Bring the government back to the people just the way it was before the useless coups of 1966, promote justice, law and order. Send all the criminals in Abuja to their separate constituencies and let them build their region and economy.

Bring back the healthy competitions between the regions and watch Nigeria rise to stardom again. It won’t happen overnight but it would be gracious for our children and children’s children.