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Corruption, Biafra And The Untrue Claim Of Igbo Marginalisation

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Looking at the composition of government between 29 May 1999 and 29 May 2015, persons from all ethnic groups have participated in running down Nigeria financially and economically.

Corruption, Biafra And The Untrue Claim Of Igbo Marginalisation

By Salimonu Kadiri

Mr Salimonu Kadiri

Mr Salimonu Kadiri

In Nigeria up to January 15, 1966, where the name of the President was Nnamdi Azikiwe and the name of the President of the Senate was Nwafor Orizu, it must be the most uninteligent propaganda to assert that the Igbo were marginalised in Nigeria since independence.

After the civil war Igbo soldiers and civil servants who were in the service of the Federal government before the war were re-absorbed and those due for pension received it. Even Ojukwu who led the rebellion applied for and received pension as a Lieutenant Colonel the rank he held in the Nigerian Army before the war.

From 1979 to 1983 when civilians ruled Nigeria, the Vice President was Alex Ekwueme and the Speaker of the House of Representatives was Edwin Ume Ezeoke. During the military rule of Ibrahim Babangida from 1985 to 1993 Ohaneze Ndigbo was so pleased with him that he was honoured with Igbo traditional title of ‘Ogugua Ndigbo’ meaning ‘the Comforter of Igbo People.’ It is noteworthy that Babangida’s Minister of Finance and National Development was Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu.

In the eight years of Obasanjo’s Presidency, Igbo played prominent roles in his government. After the exit of Theophilous Danjuma as Minister of Defence in 2004, Obasanjo appointed Thomas I. Aguiyi Ironsi the son of General Ironsi as Minister of Defence. Between 1999 and 2007, there were not less than four Igbo Senate Presidents.

When the Senate President, Evan(s) Enwerem, was impeached for fraudulent change of name and certificate forgery he was replaced with Chuba Okadigbo who in turn was impeached for breaching financial regulations by granting anticipatory approval for street light contracts. He was suceeded by Adolphus Wabara who also was impeached for collecting bribes to pass budgets and was replaced by Anyim Pius Anyim.

While Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was Obasanjo’s Minister of Finance, Charles Chukwuma Solhdo was Governor of Central Bank and Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke was Director General of Nigerian Security Exchange Commission. Special Adviser to Obasanjo on Political Matters was Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife and no one could see Obasanjo without first passing through Andy Nnamdi Uba. Up to 29 May 2015, the only position in Nigeria a person of Igbo ethnic group did not occupy since the return of civilian rule in 1999 is just the Presidency.

In the last four years of the government of Goodluck Jonathan, persons of Igbo ethnic group featured prominently in very strategic positions.

Here follows some examples:

  • Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) was Anyim Pius Anyim
  • Chief Economic Adviser to President Jonathan was Professor Nwanze Okeidigbe
  • irector Budget Office of the Federation was Bright Okogwu
  • Director General, Bureau of Public Procurement was Emeka Eze
  • Director General Bureau of Public Enterprise was Benjamin Ezra Dikki
  • Director General, Security Exchange Commission was Arunma Oteh
  • Director General Nigerian Security Exchange was Oscar Onyema
  • Managing Director AMCON was Chike Obi
  • Governor of Central Bank after Sanusi was removed was Godwin Emefiele
  • Managing Director of Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund was Uche Orji
  • Director General, Housing Fund was Sunday Iroha
  • Managing Director, Bank of Industry was Evelyn Oputa
  • Director General of PENCOM was Chinelu Onuoha
  • Director General, Debt Management Office was Dr. Abraham Nwankwo
  • Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for Economy was Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Permanent Secretary to the Minister of Finance was Anastasia Nwokobia
  • When Professor Bert Nnaji was removed as Minister of Power, he was replaced with Professor Chinedu Ostadinma Ndubuisi Nebo
  • Minister of Health was Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu
  • Minister of Labour and Productivity was Emeka Wogu.
  • When the late Ashiru was removed as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2013, he was replaced by Viola Onwuleri
  • Nigeria’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations and up till date is Professor Mrs. Joy Ogwu
  • When Stella Adaeze Oduah was removed as Minister of Aviation in 2013, she was replaced with Osita Chidoka.

The list can be made longer in exposing persons of Igbo ethnic group that held strategic positions in Jonathan’s government but permit me to reflect on the removal of Stella Adaeze Oduah as Minister of Aviation.

In 2011, the budget for fuel subsidy was N245 billion but by December 2011 the sum of

N1.7 trillion had been paid out by the Ministry of Finance without supplementary budget.

After January 2012 uproar over Jonathan’s plan to remove fuel subsidy, subsequent enquiry showed that billions of naira were paid for unsupplied fuel and that the government was subsidizing thieves.

Among the subsidized thieves was the Minister of Aviation, Stella Adaeze Oduah, who parallel to her ministerial post was also Director General of a company, called Sea Petroleum and Gas (SPG). She owned 99% share of the Company while the rest 1% was shared between those identified as Elisabeth Stewart, Josephine Oduah and Erotomi Buwa.

The Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation of Fuel Subsidy Payments discovered in September 2012, that SPG collected one billion, nineteen million, five-hundred and seventy-one thousand six-hundred and nine naira as fuel subsidy without supplying any fuel. She was not alone in oil subsidy thievery under Jonathan that was not punished in that era of impunity (na me dey there, who fit catch me).

In what appeared to be power passed position, Stella Adaeze Oduah was found to have exceeded her internal budget approval limit of N100 million by approving N643 million for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) for the purchase of 54 vehicles including two bullet-proof cars at $1.6 million in 2013. When the transaction was exposed, it turned out that the Minister of Aviation, Stella Adaeze Oduah was Igbo, the then Acting Director General of the NCAA who authorised the purchase of the armoured cars, Mr. Joyce Nkemakolam was Igbo, Director of finance at NCAA who carried out the order of the DG, Mr. S.Ozizi was Igbo, The Minister of Finance that granted a waiver (no import tax) for the purchase of the armoured vehicles, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was Igbo, the Director General of the Bureau of Public Procurement who issued the Certificate of no Objection, Emeka Eze was Igbo; the Chairman Senate Committee on Aviation, Hope Uzodinma was Igbo; the Chairman House Committee on Aviation Nkeiruka Onyejeocha was Igbo; and the car dealer who sold the armoured cars, Cosmas Maduka was Igbo.

Yet some people have the gut to say Igbo were marginalised in the governance of Nigeria. That is completely untrue.

The second perceived injustice that necessitates demand for Biafra is the creation of only five states in the Southeast geopolitical zone as compared with other zones that have six or more states. The primary purpose of creating state is to bring governance closer to the people and the larger the landmass, the more there is need for State creation.

The five states of Southeast: Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo–have a landmass of 29, 388 Square Kilometres and a population of 16, 431, 555, according to 2006 census.

Compared to the six South-south states comprising of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross-River, Delta, Edo and Rivers which have 94,924 Sq. Km., landmass and a population of 21, 044, 081, according to 2006 census, it will be unjust to have the same number of states in the Southeast as in the South-south with a landmass that is approximately five times bigger in size.

Although the Southeast is densely populated, it possesses the smallest landmass among the six geo-political zones and it should not have been more than three States in view of its landmass. In his Pirate Radio Broadcast, Nnamdi Kanu had talked about Igbo superiority, Hausa/Fulani parasitism and Yoruba cowardice.

He wants a Republic of Igbo land for Igbo alone but at the same time considers Asaba, Agbor, Ikot-Ekpene, Uyo, Eket, Ogoja, Calabar, Annang, Yenogoa, Warri, Ahoada, Ughelli, Degema and Port-Harcourt as part of Biafra’s 25 provinces. Apart from the Nka Igbo of Asaba and Agbor the South-south is composed of the Ijaw, Urhobo, Edo (Benin, Esan, Iromi, Auchi, Agenebode, Sabogida Ora) Itsekiri, Isoko, Ibibio, Annang, Oron, Efik, Ogoni and Ikwere.

Going by what happened during the civil war I don’t believe that the South-south will be willing to be integrated into Kanu’s Biafra. Victims of past tragedies should be less gung-ho about future ones. At moment we have three rival groups fighting for the secession of Biafra. These are IPOB, MASSOB and BIM.

A faction of MASSOB led by Uchenna Madu supports KANU’s led IPOB while Ralph Uwazuruike’s faction has formed Biafra Independent Movement, (BIM). Uwazuruike’s group has accused IPOB and Madu’s led MASSOB of perpetrating mayhem in the Southeast and South-south recently and blamed them for destruction of property and loss of lives during protests.

Biafra is not yet achieved and there is sharp disunity among the leaders. What then do we expect if the secession of Biafra is accomplished? South Sudan became independent from Sudan but soon after that the leaders of South Sudan, President Salva Kiir from Dinka ethnic group and Vice President Riek Machar from Nuer ethnic group, began to fight among themselves which culminated into a civil war that is still going on.

So far, the Igbo in other parts of Nigeria have not abided by the directive of Uchenna Madu’s faction of MASSOB, to return home to Igboland. Abiding by that directive, would have been the most peaceful way of achieving Biafra but many Igbo wisely consider MASOB’s directive as asking whales to leave the ocean to come and swim in a pond of water as a directive to embark on self-extinction.

Looking at the composition of government between 29 May 1999 and 29 May 2015, persons from all ethnic groups have participated in running down Nigeria financially and economically.

Therefore, there are as many, if not more, illegitimate ethnic Igbo millionaires/billionaires as there are in other ethnic groups in Nigeria.

Nigerian millionaires do not own factories and do not manufacture anything but poverty by stealing appropriated funds for national development.

President Buhari has promised not only to stop the looting of our collective patrimony by privileged few but to give investigative institutions free hands to arrest looters from the immediate past government, for the purpose of recovering looted funds.

It should be a unique opportunity for all Nigerians to support Buhari to sanitize Nigeria from thieving officials, but instead he is not only confronted with the menace of Boko Haram but Biafran secessionists.

If the resources of Nigeria are properly managed and the results are justly distributed among the citizens, the country would be a paradise for all of us. At the moment Nigerians are sleeping at the petrol stations to get fuel into their vehicles. Yet, Nigeria exports crude oil after reserving 445,000 barrels a day to be refined at the four refineries in the country for domestic consumption.

A barrel is equal to 159 litres which make 445,000 barrels to be 70,775,000 litres crude oil per day. If the over 70 million litres are refined, Nigerian oil refineries will be producing not less than 50 million litres of petrol per day apart from other derivatives such as diesel, bitumen, kerosine and some other chemicals.

Since the daily consumption of petrol is approximated to 40,000,000 litres, it means Nigeria would not need to import petrol and pump price would not be more than 30 naira.

But Nigeria’s four oil refineries have been plunged into comatose in order to pave way for massive and lucrative import of refined petroleum products while at the same time, the managers and directors of the comatose refineries are receiving full pay and allowances for producing nothing.

So in the coming year, I wish that we Nigerians may speak with one voice to the government of Nigeria. I wish God to punish those who have looted or are still looting Nigeria. I wish for God vengeance on members of the Judiciary, the Executive and the Legislature that have been or are still part of the looting.

I wish that the lives of those whose harmful designs of cannibalistic theft have denied majority of Nigerians quality healthcare, infrastructural development, clean and potable water, good housing and functional education, be cut off in gruesome manner as God did to Ananias and Sapphira in the Acts of Apostles Chapter Five.

CONCLUDED

Ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com

 

War On Corruption, Biafra And The Untrue Claim Of Igbo Marginalisation (Part 1 of 3)

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

For historically conscious Nigerians, Biafra connotes war, mass starvation and death. However, many Nigerians are afflicted with Alzheimer, a disease that robs its victims of their memories to learn from the past and present

War On Corruption, Biafra And The Untrue Claim Of Igbo Marginalisation

By Salimonu Kadiri (Guest Writer on Thy Glory O’ Nigeria and The Nigeria Village Square)

Mr Salimonu Kadiri

Mr Salimonu Kadiri

For Nigerians, every day is first of April in which they are either fooling someone or someone is fooling them. For Nigerians, December is a month of hypocrites and as usual Nigerians join the rest of the world in wishing one another happy Christmas and prosperous New Year even when in reality every celebrated Christmas and New Year is less happy and less prosperous in ascending order.

Nigerian hypocrites carry their religions on foreheads but their behaviours are inversely proportional to Godliness. They shout the name of God every now and then but act satanically.

In Nigeria, roads are simply non-existing, hospitals have become morgues, schools have crumbled, electricity is epileptic, pipe borne water is away on permanent leave, the streets are filled with filth, dead animals and sometimes human corpses because politicians and civil servants, apart from collecting their salaries and fringe benefits, have stolen monies appropriated for providing essential commodities for Nigerians.

The sixteen years rule of PDP led to so much head ache for Nigerians that they decided to take APC as a remedy at the March 28, 2015, Federal elections in Nigeria. That was the first time a government was voted out of power in Nigeria and the world exclaimed in surprise.

The All Progressive Congress (APC) and its Presidential candidate, ex-General Muhammadu Buhari, had gone into the elections with the campaign to deal with kleptomania which is on the verge to suffocate Nigeria.

As it turned out, the Presidential election was not only won by the APC, but they had majority in the National Assembly encompassing the Senate and the House of Representatives. This implies that majority of Nigerian electorates have empowered the Executive and the legislators to expunge kleptomaniacs from Nigeria.

After election victory the APC decided that the speaker of the House of Reps and his deputy should be Femi Gbajabiamila and Mohammed Monguno respectively while the President of the Senate and his Deputy should be Ahmed Lawan and George Akume respectively.

The Senate contains 109 members but it was reduced to 108 before June 9, 2015, when the 8th Assembly was to be inaugurated as a result of the death of one APC Senator after the election. Thus, APC have 59 members while PDP and allies have 49 members. Democratically and politically, the APC party had decided who among its elected Senators would be the President and Deputy President of the Senate respectively.

The decision of APC did not please Senator Bukola Saraki, therefore he openly connived with PDP, the political antagonist of APC, to become the Senate President against the wish of his party. On June 9, 2015, a compromised Clerk of the Assembly arranged the election of Senate President in the presence of 57 out of 108 Senators.

The 57 Senators consisted of 49 PDP and 8 APC. By the time the Deputy Senate President was about to be elected, the number of APC present had increased to 25, and the PDP Senator, Ike Ekweremandu, was elected with 54 votes against Ali Ndume, APC, who scored 20 votes.

Thus, a Senate President and his Deputy were elected through a process similar to those described under Article 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code – Obtainment by false pretence! In democracy and party politics, it is an abomination. In explaining their behaviours, Senator Bukola Saraki and his ilk have said that after elections the legislators are free to conduct the affairs of the National Assembly without the interferance of the political parties on whose platform they contested elections and won.

Yet, and in accordance with the constitution, no one can contest election in Nigeria without belonging to and sponsored by a political party. By taking some members of the APC, to which he belongs, and merging them with PDP to form a new majority in the Senate, Saraki subverted the will of the electorates that voted PDP out of power and he has created a real impediment against change and war on kleptomania, the campaign slogan on which the APC went into election. Outwardly Bukola Saraki is an APC but internally he is a PDP.

On September 11, 2015, the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) filed a 13 count charge of financial crime, money laundering, false declaration of assets, owning and operating foreign bank accounts while being a public officer, against Senator Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Abuja. Saraki was to be arraigned before Justice Danladi Umar of CCT Abuja on Friday, 18 September 2015.

Instead of defending himself at the CCT Senator Saraki hired dozens of advocates to file ex-parte motion at an Abuja High Court, presided over by Justice Ahmed Mohammed, on Thursday, 17 September 2015 seeking injunctions to prevent the CCT from trying him.

Justice Mohammed then summoned the Ministry of Justice to appear before him on Monday, 21 September to show cause why the trial should be allowed to proceed. The judge also summoned the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Danladi Umar and that of the CCB, Mr. Sam Saba as well as Mr Hassan who signed the charge against Saraki to appear before him on 21 September 2015 to show cause why Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki should be prosecuted.

However, the CCT commenced the trial of Saraki on the 18th of September 2015 and his lawyer asked the Tribunal for a stay of proceeding on the ground of Justice Mohammed’s summon. Justice Umar replied that the High Court had parallel juridiction with the Tribunal and as such, had no powers to halt a trial in the Tribunal.

Therefore, he issued order of warrant of arrest by the police against Saraki, so that he could be present at the next hearing to take a plea of guilty or not guilty in the court. Although Saraki had pleaded not guilty to the charges he has gone to the Supreme Court to challenge the jurisdiction of the CCT to try him and pending the decision of the Supreme Court, the CCT has laid the case to rest.

Bukola Saraki’s attempt to seek judicial embargo against the investigating authority is rather a norm than exception in Nigeria. The former Governor of Rivers State, Peter Odili, was the first to obtain a perpetual injunction against investigation, interrogation and prosecution over treasury looting of the State he governed from 1999 to 2007.

Others who were sluggish in obtaining perpetual injunction got their cases put into permanent coma by the trial judges. In recent time, Stella Adaeze Oduah, on August 26, 2015, obtained an interim injunction, from Justice Mohammed Yunusa presiding over a Federal High Court in Lagos, barring the EFCC and its agents from inviting or arresting her for questioning over the purchase of $1.6 million armoured cars when she was Minister of Aviation under Jonathan.

In the same spirit, on Thursday, 17 September 2015, an Abuja High Court presided over by Justice Valentine Ashi, in a ruling barred the EFCC, Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Department of State Security Services (DSS), the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and National Security Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), from arresting, detaining and investigating Mr. Kingsley Kuku over his activities as former Coordinator of Presidential Amnesty Programme for Niger Delta under President Goodluck Jonathan. Billions of naira were said to have disappeared over Niger Deltan ghost students purported to have been on scholarships under amnesty programme.

In the 16 years of PDP governing Nigeria (May 29, 1999 to 29 May 2015), the three arms of government – the Executive (Presidency), the Legistilative (National Assembly) and the Adjudicative (Judiciary) – were deeply corrupt. Chinua Achebe once said that Nigeria is not a country but he would have been stating the truth if he had said that Nigerians are not human beings because if one-hundredth of government’s kleptomania in Nigeria were to occur in any country of the world there would be public uproar and outrage.

Since Nigerians have been narcotized with fake religion and false ethnic love, national rogues always attribute their rogueries to the will (blessing) of God and whenever their stealings were exposed they claim that their ethnic group were under attack.

As obnoxious and odious leaders cut across all ethnic groups, the APC government under President Mohammed Buhari has decided to kill corruption before it kills Nigeria. The PDP has accused the APC regime of witch-hunting members and supporters of the immediate past government adding that any true war against corruption should start from 1985.

In a storm where multiple of trees fall on one another would it not be wise to start clearing log of woods from the top? If Jonathan’s PDP regime is at the top of the heap of accumulated corruption in Nigeria, common sense demands that enquiries should start on his regime.

Just as the debate on what happened to the wealth of Nigeria entrusted in the care of Jonathan in the past five years was on-going, a diversionary agitation for the secession of Biafra beclouded the political terrain of Nigeria.

For historically conscious Nigerians, Biafra connotes war, mass starvation and death. However, many Nigerians are afflicted with Alzheimer, a disease that robs its victims of their memories to learn from the past and present. Moreover those who are 45 years of age now may not have heard the true history of the civil war that ended on 15th January 1970.

 

Ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com

Life, Still A Passage

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

Just 2 weeks ago, (actually 3 weeks) l wrote: death either abroad or at home appears to be the only leveler between the corrupt and the saints, the rich and the poor. Life will remain a passage and only fools don’t see the vanity of primitive accumulations.

 

Life, Still A Passage

 

Adeola Aderounmu

By Adeola Aderounmu

I have made references to my essay ”A Passage Called Life” on several occasions. The essay was first published in the Nigerian Village Square on November 7, 2007.

At that time Ms. Bunmi Etteh was already brushed aside as the speaker in the Nigerian House of Representatives.  One Aminu Safana had also suddenly kicked the bucket.

In that 2007 episode l wrote about the recommendations of the Japanese.

I don’t remember where l got it from but the Japanese gave only 3 recommendations for a fulfilling life. These recommendations are 1. Have children 2. Write a book and 3 . Plant a tree.

I wish l knew where l got this from but it does not matter now. I can make my own inferences.

I remember also an ex-colleague of mine who told me that he was no longer afraid to die. When I asked him what he meant, he said now he has a child and all his fears are gone.

The meaning of the expression is deep and l leave it to my readers,the fathers and mothers out there to interprete.

For my ex-colleague, his thoughts may be in line with what the Japanese inferred.

Can everybody write a book? It depends on how you look at it. I think what will be relevant here it to tell our stories. Ideology and traditions have been sustained even in the absence of books. We can tell our stories and the custodians of history can write them for us.

Since we want our stories to be beneficial to mankind or humanity, we want it to contain good deeds.

It will be hard to read the minds of the Japanese but l do hope they realise the imperfection of mankind.

Not all of us will have children especially now that biological rules have been rewritten. We will not all plant trees because we depend on some institutions in the society to do so on our behalf.

Our stories will be our books if we write them. If we don’t, still we should not fail to share them with those we love and trust.

Then, just 2 weeks ago, l wrote an essay (108 Modern Hospitals Now) and in the conclusion l stated that death either abroad or at home appears to be the only leveler between the corrupt and the saints, the rich and the poor.

Life will remain a passage and only fools don’t see the vanity of primitive accumulations.

In the recent essay l threw a challenge to the government of Nigeria and the politicians as the custodians of our commonwealth. It was my response to the death of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and all the Nigerian politicians who want to go abroad to die.

Why not build hospitals for yourselves and the citizens of Nigeria?

Nigerian criminal politicians and in fact all greedy and selfish people need to be told (because they do not appear to know) that life is transient and nothing last forever.

Was it Akon who sang and mentioned that tomorrow is not guaranteed?

Whilst the poor people and the masses are still clamouring for the dividends of democracy 16 years on, some fools are already scheming for the 2019 elections.

This means that they are already looting and stealing monies in small and big amounts from different corners of the country and piling them up to execute the 2019 elections.

At the same time, they-the politicians continue to earn undeserved wages, award themselves contracts and buy houses from Dubai to the US, from Britain to the Carribean.

The tradition of the Nigerian politicians since the exit of the colonial thugs remain to suppress the people and continue to impoverish them. To an extremely large and unbelievable extent they have succeeded.

Hence no matter how we have preached about the need and importance of good governance, the priority remains their selfish gains and how to make their families and friends wealthy.

It was not a good omen when people jubilated in the streets in those days when dictators or crook politicians died.

Nowadays the jubilation is on the social media. Invariably the majority of Nigerians wish that many of the politicians could drop dead one after the other.

So far, many have dropped dead actually. There is no pity here because like l mentioned in 108 Hospitals Now, we have all lost some of our loved ones due to the recklessness of governance and disorderliness in the society.

Nigeria is on rampage daily.

But our political problems are not solved by death at home and abroad because the spread of wickedness and insensitivity are still irredeemable in the souls of the conquerors of Nigeria.

Today the conquerors are the men and women parading themselves in APC and PDP folds.

I have come to the conclusion that the APC and the PDP are birds of the same feather in different nests.

Fot them there are no lessons to be learnt about the transiency of life. No lessons are learnt from history.

Nigerian politicians do not give a damn. As long as there is yam, they are glad to remain the goats until they drop dead, whichever way.

So once again, as Nigerians continue with their daily struggles looking for food and water to put on the table, one hopes that sense will prevail and that gradually Nigeria will move towards finding a lasting solution to the problems plaguing country.

Not least is the political solution that is even now more urgent.

If a man participated in an election in the morning and dropped dead in the afternoon, then it is not just tomorrow that is not guaranteed but also the rest of today

Life will remain a passage. We are all here, only for a while.

Nobody leaves this planet alive. Live and lets live..!

aderounmu@gmail.com

 

The JETS Club, We Were Members!

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In this jet age and in the JETS CLUB, they don’t sell jets, they fly them! Moreover when the king’s house is burnt, the new one becomes even more beautiful.

The Jets Club, We Were Members!

By Adeola Aderounmu

I remember many things from my days as a child and as a young boy growing up in the city of Lagos. I remember many things from my school days as well. At school we had a group called the Science Club. I was a member of that group from my early days in secondary school. So l had the opportunity (a few times) to interact with my seniors and l look up to them.

Attending the Science Club meetings every Wednesday after school was also a way to introduce myself early to my future science teachers. Some of them stayed long enough in the profession to see me off my school days. Many of them left somewhere along the time. The global movement of teachers remains a syndrome to this day and is a point of discussion for another day.

jetsclub

Later on the science club did not exist anymore. The nomenclature became JUNIOR ENGINEERS TECHNICIANS AND SCIENTISTS CLUB-JETS for short.

Suddenly the hall became full every Wednesday when we had extra-curricula activities. I was now one of the senior students and the turn outs were massive from both the junior and senior classes. The new name-JETS was so captivating that everybody wanted to belong there-to the club.

So this week l read about president Buhari and the APC government still hanging on to the JETS bought by Jonathan and the PDP. Who no like jets? Why should Buhari sell the jets?

The other day vice-president Osinbajo went to Kogi state to support one of the most corrupt Nigerians alive-Abubakar Audu-in his bid to become the governor of Kogi state. Did we expect him to trek to Kogi ni? He has to fly in the corruption ballon called presidential jet in order to get to Kogi now. Abi?

How else can you support corruption if you are not dwelling or flying in corruption? Abeg o, naija people, join the JETS CLUB.

How many times have Mr. Obasanjo and Mr. Jonathan visited their friend President Buhari in Aso rock? Do you want them to trek back and forth? Nigeria needs even more presidential jets to fly all the corrupt ex-presidents and all the former and serving corrupt ministers and government official. Why is this hard to understand? Please stop complaining.

Leave the science club and join the jets club o jare, please!

Let APC fly!

Can’t you see that the presidential air fleet is the Nigerian national carrier? Book your tickets online or get connected to the Aso rock villa. Abi?

So you want Buhari to sell the jets? Really? How else can the Buhari government and the APC family fraternise with one another and the corrupt elites in Nigeria? Do you want them on our dangerous roads? We don’t even have a reliable railway line yet.

Did you think that all the overnight trains and railways commissioned by Mr. Jonathan were real? Ask Dr. Okupe for more information. You actually think your rulers are ok?

How did you think the Abacha family got to Aso rock in 2015? Did you think they trek like the refugees? They are not internally displaced people now?

Get it now, Buhari and the APC need the several jets to fly the likes of Abacha’s family in-and-out of Aso rock for dinner, prayer and merry making. Who no like jets?

Ask you minister of transport Rotimi Amaechi what he went through when his cousin from the Niger Delta Goodluck Jonathan grounded his (or maybe it was Rivers State) governor’s jets. It was like his world was turned upside down!

So now as the transport minister, Nigerians wants Mr. Amaechi and his boss Mr. Buhari to sell the jets? In this jet age and in the JETS CLUB, they don’t sell jets, they fly them!

Amaechi will now mock Jonathan in a thousand ways. He will fly around in jets as the minister of transport. He needs many of them just to show Jonathan that when the king’s house is burnt, the new one becomes more beautiful.Ha ha ! The JETS CLUB.

How many times has president Buhari attended events outside of Nigeria? Many, many times of course. If the tempo is maintained he will break Obasanjo’s record and make Jonathan’s flying habit a child’s play. Then you want him to sell the jets. Seriously?

President Buhari needs one jet per day for his trips. He will change them like l change my underwears. Each time has to the different from the previous one. Sell Jets? Sell fire. Abeg carry go, bad market!

Nigerians should praise this APC and Buhari government abeg. Before Emperor Jonathan was deposed, there were plans to buy more presidential jets. It was already in the budget. So if Buhari has not bought any new jets, he has saved money for Nigeria.

Under Jonathan, and probably now sef, the number of Nigerians belonging to the JETS CLUB was used to measure our national wealth and economic growth. As l remember now, l’m wondering, how did all these coconut heads become rulers of Nigeria?

Am l supposed to cry or laugh remembering that Jonathan said Nigerians are not poor because more Nigerians own private jets. To even remember the paperwork that Mrs Iweala did in order to deceive Nigerians and the world on the status of Nigeria’s economy is more disheartening. These people are not normal.

Who can forget the acknowledgements that the various African countries accorded to Nigerian diplomats and government entourage. In Nigeria there is no electricity to boost the standard of living or employment situation but the low thinking politicians continue to fly around Africa and the world in jets. No greater shame!

But for the APC and the Buhari intervention, it appears that Jonathan’s white elephant goal was that every household in Nigeria will own a jet. They already started with the ministers, their wives and husbands and their children.

The social media connected to Nigeria celebrates the looting of the Nigerian treasuries by the politicians by ways of writing and publishing images of ministers and their families flying in jets while the rest of us can trek or go to hell.

The cost of service under Mr. Buhari and the APC mandate? Was it 6 billion naira already? So how much will this corrupt government spend on jets before the end of the year? Before the end of the APC mandate?

If this wasteful government does not know how many homeless or poor people that could have be housed or taken off the streets by 6 billion naira, they should please employ Lateef Jakande immediately.

Since this government does not believe in the youth, they will need an old reliable hand like Lateef Jakande. They need him for the UPN blueprint on housing for all in western Nigeria. How many Jakande type of low cost hosuing estate can be erected with 6 billion naira?

How many junior civil servants who have no access to looting or organised crimes could have been made happier and healthier with 6 billion naira housing estate? Don’t ask google. Ask Jakande!

Anyway, in Nigeria that attitude of putting political party before sense, political party before reasoning remains constant. Therefore the government of APC with president Buhari and Mr. Osinbajo as the flag-bearers are not seeing the nonsense that they have been involved with lately.

Vice-president Osinbajo was in in Kogi to support corruption. What the APC should have done in this era of their stillbirth change is to at least struggle to present a new candidate in Kogi. They did not. They went ahead to fly corruption. It is amazing and very shocking. It is so disgusting one could throw up on the faces on all pro-APC ranters!

President Buhari is still living behind time, mostly showing insensitivity to current issues. He needs to be schooled and updated by his media team and advisers how the majority of Nigerians feel and their expectactions from him.

He must be able to leave the years of tyranny behind as the citizens try to forget the wounds of the military years which he contributed in inflicting.

lt was also an insult and a spite to the families of those murdered by Abacha and to the rest of us who (almost) gave our lives so that democracy can survive in Nigeria. Some people paid the ultimate price in the fight to wrestle tyranny under the watch of Abacha.

As for the JETS CLUB at Festac Grammar School, l wonder what happened to it especially when the 6-3-3-4 system that came behind us crashed with the same speed as it arrived.

What did not crash in Nigeria? Health care? Housing? Basic infrastructure?

I know what didn’t crash.

The sustenance of the Nigerian president air fleet did not crash. Not under Jonathan, not yet under Buhari.

Who cares about the revival of the Nigerian Airways? In Nigeria, there is a flying JETS CLUB.

In Africa we have the giant, the Ethiopia Airline, in whom we trust!

aderounmu@gmail.com

108 Modern Public Hospitals Now

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

What about the infectious diseases unit? What about children’s wards across the country? What about the maternity wards? What about us?

108 Modern Public Hospitals Now

Adeola Aderounmu

Södersjukhus in Stockholm. Nigeria must upgrade to International standard pix: Acrona

Södersjukhus in Stockholm. Nigeria must upgrade to International standard
pix: Acrona

The governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Henry Seriake Dickson is one of those people disgracing Nigeria and giving the country a bad name. Recently he spoke out of sense as he tried to rationalise the demise of a criminal politician who died recently in Nigeria.

Mr. Dickson blamed the death of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha on the federal government of Nigeria. He has been part of the federal government and now a state governor, so by his own submission that makes him a murderer too.

News had it that Diepreye Alamieyeseigha may have remained abroad or even flown back abroad (depending on which account of his death is true). We are told that his final journey was influenced by the issuance of the threat of repatriation by the British. Diepreye escaped from the UK without facing justice for his crimes.

Why was Diepreye receiving treatment abroad? Why was his life expectancy dependent on the hospitals that are in foreign countries? While he was the governor of Bayelsa State, what effort did he make to build or upgrade the health institutions in Bayelsa so that if he and his family members living in Nigeria got sick, they could go to the hospital for treatment?

This is what politicians and policy makers in foreign countries do. They make sure that while managing their corruption at the barest minimum, that the institutions that will serve them and their people are in place. The hospitals are one of those institutions. Functional public schools, good roads and water are fewer examples of an endless list of the basic things of life that give humans the dignity they deserved.

Nigerian politicians have no respect for the citizens of the country. They don’t think the people deserve the things that make life worth living. They are so myopic and wicked that they do not know that they need to provide amenities that will serve them and the rest of the population when the need arises.

Recently l wrote an essay titled: Let’s Go Die, Abroad..!

It was a reaction to the growing number of shameless Nigerian politicians and the so called statesmen travelling abroad to end their lives in several hospitals across the world. Some of them are lucky, they return to Nigeria alive.

A former Nigerian president Umaru Yar Adua was bundled, packaged and repackaged in several countries around the world when he was sick. For 8 years he was the governor of Katsina State before he became the president of Nigeria and no hospital was built or upgraded to care for, or manage his specific chronic ailment. The rest is history.

If not stupidity, how else can one describe such a situation when people who loot public funds cannot even think of providing something that could prolong their lives in their nearest vicinities.

We are all humans and we will always be prone to diseases, ill-health and other forms of frailties especially as we age. It will not matter how much money we have legitimately or how much some people have looted. Is there a way to let Nigerian politicians know that looting is not an antidote to diseases?

I am sure many of us have written about the shame of Nigerian politicians dying in hospitals in foreign countries and returned as packages to Nigeria for burial.

Still, it is worth writing about again especially as it appears that the shameful act remains unabated. The death of the Ooni of Ife in the UK is regrettable.

We argue and we try to prove it that civilisation started on the African continent. We argue and we try to prove it that intelligence in the group Homo Sapiens is independent of race.

But the rulers of Nigeria are weakening our lines of arguments in many ways. For example when they steal and loot money meant for public uses and when they travel abroad instead of providing for their health needs in Nigeria. Why must Nigerian rulers travel abroad for treatment and admission at hospitals and clinics?

As a way of elaboration, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha  was one of the several corrupt Nigerian politicians who looted the treasuries in one of the states in the Niger Delta area. Since the Nigerian form of fighting corruption is dependent on who is in power in Abuja, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was granted state pardon after he escaped from the UK dressed as a woman.

If not for the fact that fighting corruption in Nigeria is selective and heavily biased, the likes of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, and in principle 99% of those in present day PDP and APC should have been arrested and their cases dealt with in Nigeria. Why must it take the British or the American government to arrest Nigerian political crooks? How much money is Nigerian forfeiting in the process?

Nigerians have come to terms that their politicians can or must be corrupt. The new wave is that many Nigerians are seeking indictments in order to be convinced that a politician is corrupt. When a man serves as a state governor for 8 years and still travel abroad for treatment or medical check up, what kind of indictment are you looking for?

When a national assembly loaded with corrupt people give passages to corrupt ministers-to-be, where do you go for the indictment?

When a man cannot be probed because he sponsored the presidential campaign with security votes among other looted funds, then we say he is not corrupt. Today it is the PDP that is under the spotlight, well no problem. Every dog will always have its own day.

But Nigeria is in a constant mess. The way we live separates us and we see the demarcation between them and us. Death either abroad or at home appears to be only leveler between the corrupt and the saints, the rich and the poor. Life will remain a passage, and only fools don’t see the vanity of primitive accumulation.

Let me repeat, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha  could have built a modern hospital in Nigeria where people like him and the citizens of Bayelsa can be diagnos and treated with dignity.

Nigerian doctors are ranked amongst the best in the world but they work in several countries around the world helping to maintain the health care system globally.

How many times are we going to write about the need to ensure that our doctors, scientists and other professionals are provided with conducive environment and structures to work with in Nigeria?

Death is one of the few certain things in life. So what is the use of looting, stealing and stupidly accumulating wealth and then refusing to build hospitals in Nigeria or refusing to equip the ones that have been built?

Now this is my challenge to the Buhari-APC mandate before the end of May 2019.

Look around the various states in Nigeria. Give yourselves the marching order to equip and upgrade the existing hospitals to the standards of the hospitals you usually visit abroad. If anyone suggest that this is not possible, that person is probably an enemy of progress.

In additon to the first mandate, a second one is that every state in Nigeria must have at least 3 big modern public hospitals.

Some states like Lagos may have may even need more than 5 big public hospitals because of the extreme high population of the state and also as a result of the frequency of accidents and number of sick people.

The Buhari-APC mandate may want to forbid any serving politician from seeking medical abroad say from 2017 when some serious work and upliftment should have been possible.

At the existing hospitals, an evaulation of the situation needs to be done. All the units including the Accidents and Emergency should be upgraded. If this happens before the next senator is invloved in an accident, then he/ she can be treated anywhere in Nigeria.

The recent sojourn of Akapbio in a foreign hospital is absolute stupidity coming from a man who boasted that he built a world class hospital in Akwa Ibom. I am yet to get a report on why he was not treated at the world class hospital in Akwa Ibom.

What about the surgery units? For how long will hard earned income and donations be packaged to India for correctional surgeries? How many Nigerians have died because of manageable diseases that they could have lived with until old age?

What about the infectious diseases unit? What about children’s wards across the country? What about maternity wards? What about us? Where should we go when we face life-threatening diseases? Is there anyone reading this who has not lost a mother, a father, a brother or a sister due to preventable health situations?

What about making sure that the upliftments are taken as priorities? What about developing a health care system that will not put the cost above the importance of life in Nigeria? Does living long have to depend on how much money one has and which hospitals one can attend?

When the lives of the people can be prolonged by how much money they have, then the essence of living in such a country is lost. It is a disaster by all standard!

Nigeria needs to improve the health care insurance process and health care delivery system.

This demand for 108 modern public hospitals is not an exaggeration and it may even not be enough to meet the needs of 170m people. But the 108 hospitals in questions are the publicly available hospitals to stop the sojourn of Nigerian politicians abroad. They will also meet the needs of the citizens at large. And don’t forget to bring back our doctors from abroad. Bring them home..!

In the meantime, don’t also forget that our return to regional government is a must because it is the only way to purge the major unrests across Nigeria including the Boko Haram war for which the APC-Buhari mandate has shown it may not win.

The 108 hospitals challenge is on. Now I start to count…

aderounmu@gmail.com