Abuja

Nigeria: Of Treasons and Breakups (Or The Last Chapter)

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Boko Haram members are doing nothing other than committing treasonable felony. Now they have even gone ahead to say they will kill Goodluck Jonathan latest by June 2012.

Boko Haram is not the first group of terrorists on the treason list. MEND has been there and MASSOB leader stood trial for his roles.

With Rauf Aregbesola on the list from Western Nigeria, the list got longer.

But how truthful is the Rauf Aregbesola’s case? Is the PDP on his trail genuinely or for the sake of political persecution?

Well in Nigeria, anything is possible and everything goes.

The US has predicted (like a god will do) that Nigeria will disintegrate by 2015. Whether this comes true or not is not supposed to be a game plan and it will never justify the role of the US in global instability.

But what I know is that politics in Nigeria remains an insane game. It has created a killing field outshined only by real declarations of war. The corruption in Nigeria conceals or maybe reveals the absurd stupidity of what politics should be. Nigerians mock the definition and essence of democracy.

With Nigeria as an example democracy cannot be the best form of governance since its advent has contributed to increase in poverty, increase in the level of ignorance and a rise in the death rate of Nigerians. Democracy as defined by Nigeria has promoted illiteracy, backwardness and underdevelopment.

But that is not the norm even though that is what obtains in Nigeria where a fool can be the president or governor. Many Nigerian lawmakers are almost illiterate and unknowledgeable. The major motivation of becoming a politician in Nigeria is to become a thief, that is to steal from the national or state treasury.

Nigeria’s politics is silly and therefore we now have a consequential outcome as a result of more than 50 years of useless rulership, almost devoid of real leadership.

Treason has been in the air for long and the conditions on ground permit it.

Raul Aregbesola is now on the watchlist based on security reports.

But no one placed Babangida, Shekarau, Buhari and Atiku on the watchlist based on the same security report that was leaked several months ago.

The PDP and the Jonathan administration have redefined the meaning of enemy of the state.

Where does Nigeria go from here? Their tents or to war? Time will tell.

The Days Gone By….Muamba, Barcelona FC et al

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By Adeola Aderounmu
It’s been almost one month since I wrote my last blog/article. Time flies, things happen, every second for that matter.

I have tabs on several news/event and I even have newspaper cuttings that I’d saved. But now I decided not to look at the newspapers or to even think about the events of the last one month as it were.

I will just write what comes to my mind.

PATRICE MUAMBA

I remember Fabrice Muamba, his miraculous recovery from a failed heart during Bolton’s game versus Tottenham. Fabrice has made tremendous recovery and he will surely be out of the hospital soon.

The survival of Fabrice says a lot about the standard of hospitals in England. This incident brought out the best in the English health scheme and training.

My friends and I remember how Sam Oparaji died at the National Stadium in Lagos in 1989 while playing a tensed game against Angola.

One Nigerian player also died recently in Sudan. These sad occurrences may have been prevented if the health system in Nigeria and Sudan are in top form. But we will never know..! This is just the way some things are, inconclusive.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Yesterday I switch off then I changed the channel to Movie channel after the referee gave Barcelona its’ second penalty against AC Milan.

I cannot imagine watching such a useless game to the end. I don’t think the referee is normal. He needs a medical check up. But many people think that Barcelona is UEFA team.

It is possible. I remembered I didn’t watch the champions league for a whole season after Barcelona were favoured against Chelsea in one game where a Barcelona player had handled the ball and a penalty was not given.

Maybe it’s time to take another break from stupid games where the referees and possible UEFA are cheats. It’s hard to tell, really. And considering also the bettings and gambles behind the scene, then impossible is nothing!

THE TROUBLE WITH NIGERIA

It’s hard for me to not write about Nigeria. What is also hard is to live with the mentality of an average Nigerian that complaining about Nigeria isn’t worth it. Just try to make it and live with it. It’s a mixed feeling not having to live in Nigeria and then trying hard still to “see” if what I write can help change some situations.

Indeed sometimes what I write about gets through and some positive outcomes do take place from time to time.
Still it is even harder to hide from the reality that corruption and stupidity is the order of the day when it comes to Nigerian politics. The people I write about don’t read my blog and the people who read my blog thinks that it is just another ranting Nigerian.

It always seems that ranting Nigerians are looking for entrances to main stream “looting” Nigerian. And when they do, their lives change like Reuben Abati and Segun Adeniyi.

Sadly, and true 99% of the times-Nigerian public office holders are the same (looters and thieves).
But when the president is a crook-accepting bribe for everything and spending Nigeria’s money as if it is his father’s inheritance, what moral compass are we going to use to gauge the performance of the people and country.

When the senate president is a well-known junta and looter, any expectation of the eradication of poverty is like building a house on sand.

When all those who have stolen are our brothers and sisters and they are free to oppress us with the monies they stole, what legacy are we leaving to the generation after us?

Nigeria is rotten, inside out, from the top to the bottom. It remains an aggregation of familiar enemies fighting for the common resources and looting the proceeds without fear or hindrance.

Nigeria is lost! Boko Haram is an offspring of a lost course. Many more bastard associations will be revealed in the months ahead.

It’s not easy to face anyone in Naija and ask for a change. Almost everyone and everybody in infected with the corruption virus and the cut corner approaches.

School children have failed in national exams in what appears to be the last phase of the collapse of public schools. Nigeria jaga-jaga was an under-statement.

Yet, we remain proud..! It is good to remain nationalistic. But it is almost criminal to pretend that all is well, or that all is going to be well when all the indicators are otherwise.

In federal and state governments, sanity is lost and accountability is akin to shooting yourself in the foot if you ask for it.

I have been constantly reminded that those in governance have only one head. Therefore the time will come for others to be part of government and do their own looting.

Jagajaga, I repeat is an understatement. Everybody is doing anyhow and anything. Government is so far away that hope is like a death sentence.

In addition to the dead educational system, health, and other social infrastructure are like luxuries. Power supply is a forgone issue, it will never happen in Nigeria. Power generation is rubbish..!

Generators will be in Nigeria for several years to come.

All these things are sad and they remind us that even though we claim we are intelligence, the results are telling the opposite.

Intelligent people and intelligent countries have power supply all year round and transient interruptions are due to unpreventable or unexpected circumstances.

GLOBAL MADNESS

THE DAYS GONE by are the same globally. Nothing has changed. Social injustice is everywhere and political groups have created more problems that they have solved. World powers are silly, they fight stupid wars. On one side they fight terrorism, on the other side they install terrorist to lead. Sometimes I just conclude that man is a crazy animal that does not know what he wants.

Nigerian Immigration Service: How Not To Issue New International Passports To Nigerians Abroad

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Nigerians living in certain parts of the world are already frustrated and unhappy with the performances and activities of some of the Nigerian embassies abroad.

One remarkable problem area with the Nigerian foreign missions is in the issuance of the International passport for Nigerians residing abroad.

I have listened to several Nigerians who have been frustrated by the processes/ procedures of acquiring new Nigerian passport at the expiration of their old passports.

The stories and experiences from the Nordic countries are as diverse as the narrators.

Some people have to wait for 2 months or more before their passports are available for collection.

Sometimes some people waited so long that they eventually gave up! It is a harrowing experience to wait for 6 months.

A few years ago the stories were always about taking the applications from Sweden to London for processing. I don’t know if anyone has verified if such stories were true.

It won’t be out of line to doubt the authenticity of such fables against the backdrop of the new found boldness of the Nigerian Immigration officials who now travel for about 6000km from Nigeria to Sweden from time to time.

Their missions include “snapping photographs” and travelling back to process passports for their ( sometimes helpless) fellow citizens living in the cold Nordic zone.

When the present Nigerian ambassador to Sweden arrived in 2011 he made efforts aimed at fast-tracking the application process.

He had also made us to believe that he had been tackling the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) on the need to ensure that the Nigerian embassy in Sweden can independently issue passports to Nigerians living in Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Finland. His efforts have not yielded the desired outcome.

Nigerians living in the Nordic area usually turn to the Nigerian embassy in Stockholm for services relating to passport renewal and other important services that the embassy can help with.

It is therefore both scandalous and disgraceful that the Nigerian embassy in Sweden does not have the capability to process and issue Nigerian passport for Nigerians living in the countries mentioned above.

In the past the story was about “the passports are made in London”. Now it is well known that Nigerian Immigration officials travel all the way from Nigeria to Sweden on a certain day and an announcement is sent by sms to Nigerians connected to the Nigerian Union. The Information is also available online (see http://www.nigerianembassysweden.se).

Here below is the mission of the Nigerian Immigration Officials who have travelled from Nigeria to Sweden.

[“Dear fellow Nigerians

Nigerian Immigration officials from Abuja arrived at the Nigerian Embassy today the 13th of March to assist Nigerian seeking to obtain the new E passport. The officers will be at the embassy in Stockholm until Friday the 16th of March 2012

Those wishing to secure the new E passport should report at the Embassy of Nigerian in Stockholm, with the following requirements.
1. Identification document in form of a Nigerian passport, Swedish passport, A Swedish ID card or equivalent
2. passport photographs
3. A letter of authorisation from parents for children seeking the passport
4. A passport fee of 700: Swedish Crowns
Call the Nigerian Embassy to confirm if you are unsure of your particular requirements”]
The information on the embassy’s website is not the same as the sms that has been sent by the Nigerian Union. Somebody had lied about the dates and I won’t be shock if the purpose is to create panic. On the website the duration of the wasteful presence of the NIS officials is 2 weeks.

In any case this story solidifies what is known about the nature of corruption in Nigeria. Corruption and the display of intellectual deficiency are so endemic that the winning argument as at today is that there is no hope for Nigeria.

I have no doubts that the fact that the Nigerian embassy in Sweden has no passport processing machine is because the NIS director or senior officials find it convenient to embezzle funds by sending some favoured or selected officials to Sweden. If they are here themselves, it won’t be shocking.

The NIS by these acts/attitudes is showing the world that it is incapable and irresponsible.

I am convinced that it is cheaper for the Nigerian government to deliver an authentic passport machine to provide for the needs of Nigerians living in the Nordic countries than sending some already officials to Sweden every now and then. The smell of corruption is too hard to ignore.

Why buy a cow when the milk is so cheap?

The Nigerian government in the past and now has never pretended about her profligacy. When Goodluck Jonathan visited Sweden at the time Mr. Igali was still the ambassador, the Swedish government was left in shock at the display of opulence, waste and reckless spending.

It was so bad that it probably led to the cancellation of the remaining scholarship opportunities for Nigerian students studying in Sweden. A Nigerian student Mr. Oyebanji was quickly referred to Nigerian politicians when he sought a scholarship offer.
Nigerian diplomats and government officials don’t like to read about criticisms of their offices or actions. They want to read about only positive things about Nigeria.

How can they forget the sufferings of the Nigerian people at home and abroad? Nigerians suffer untold trauma when they try to renew their passports. It is one of the worst nightmares that a Nigerian faces, far from home. We must write and talk about these things.

To have an international passport is the right of every Nigerian.
It is not a privilege and all these senseless procedures that infringed on the rights of the Nigerian (like sending immigration officials from Nigeria to Sweden and sending sms to people) must be condemned in the strongest ways possible. These procedures are ridiculous, archaic and unacceptable.

It is even appalling considering that the Nordic countries are ranked among the best places to live on earth. The last time I checked it took 24 hours to renew a passport in Sweden.

The Nigerian Immigration officials should be ashamed of their misadventures in Sweden. How do they feel about living in Sweden for 2 weeks (13th to 27th) just for the purpose of “taking pictures” and flying applications for over 5998km?
It will probably take 6 months before the passports are ready for collection. The information about the collection procedure is another source of worry.

For example, information from the embassy reads:

[“This is to inform Nigerians that the passport renewal that took place in June is now available for pick-up by those that participated in the exercise. Those residents in Stockholm can come to the Embassy to pick up their passports. While those residents in Goteborg, Denmark, Finland and Norway should contact their respective Nigerian Union to know when they can go over to them to pick up their passports”]

These delivery procedures do not meet internationally accepted standards and should be amended without delay.

If the Swedish Police can renew the passport of Swedes in 24 hours then it suffixes to state that one of the plans of the Nigerian embassy in Stockholm should be to tap from the wealth of technical knowledge in its environment.

But this will even remain a farther mirage if the Nigerian Immigration Services continues to send its officials to Sweden instead of sending the machines that are needed to do the jobs.

The NIS must know that it can fool some people sometimes but it cannot fool all the people all the time. Enough of these corrupt practices, stop sending your officials to Sweden! It is a stupid and laughable misadventure.

For as long as Nigeria exists, the NIS should perform its functions in Nigeria and let the embassies take over the functions of providing fully for the needs of Nigerians living abroad.

BOKO HARAM: Who are the powers behind?

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By Adeola Aderounmu

There are insinuations in Nigeria that General Ibrahim Babangida, General Buhari, Atiku Abubakar and even ex-Gov Shekarau are some of the brains and sponsors behind Boko Haram.

In Nigeria anything is possible.

I cannot state for sure that this insinuation is true or false but someone described it as an intelligent report on the security situation in Nigeria.

The unconfirmed report even went ahead to state that the Boko Haram militants have received training in Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Syria. The weapons are also suggested to have come from these named foreign countries.

At Nigeria borders weapons have been intercepted several times but no one knows where these weapons end up in the end. It is not impossible that the weapons get to their destinations anywhere due to the corrupt nature of the Nigerian public service system.

What do Nigerians want to do with their lives and existences amidst the certainty that it is now impossible to continue to pretend that Nigeria is one country. The failed country called Nigeria has never been one in principle and it will NEVER be one country. NEVER!

So maybe one day the sensible people will wake up from their slumbers and rescue their heritage and regions from the claws of the larger evil Nigerian government and useless existence as a failed country.

That day they may begin a new chapter in their own histories and make something out of the ruins that is left so that their children and children’s children who have a place to call home. Right now Boko Haram has made Nigeria a more complicated hell on earth.

The rumour about the leaked intelligent report that General Ibrahim Babangida, General Buhari, Atiku Abubakar and even ex-Gov Shekarau are some of the sponsors of Boko Haram may just be true. Anything is possible in that country-Nigeria.

True or false, it would be interesting to see what Jonathan (the man who is always drinking alcohol) does in the days now following the leaked intelligent report.

David Mark: Kettle Calling the Pot Black

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By Adeola Aderounmu

David Mark has described the Nigeria Football Federation as the most corrupt government agency in Nigeria. This is because he is frustrated with the misfortune of the Nigerian Super Eagles that even failed to qualify for the concluded 2012 Nations Cup in Gabon/Congo.

No doubt corruption is the number one problem in Nigeria and as things are now that disease will continue to see more Nigerians slip below poverty level.

David Mark incidentally is one of the most corrupt government officials that have walked the surface of the earth.

How he got the courage to pronounce corruption on fellow corrupt people is a mystery. David Mark can continue to deny to his grave but he was the one who told us that telephone in Nigeria is not for the poor.

The corrupt attitude of people like David Mark (whether he accepts it or not is irrelevant) is the reason why my family’s land telephone (00234 88 5432) disappeared into thin air. David Mark was part of the evil that ran the Nigerian Telecommunication into irreversible coma.

In summary David Mark along with his mentor Ibrahim Babangida were parts (and in fact are still parts of the evil cartel) that are running Nigeria into penury and widespread poverty.

If Nigeria was a “real country” and not an aggregation of “disjointed nations” David Mark should be cooling off in detention. In China he would have been beheaded for his role in corruption.

But he sits on top of the Nigerian senate pointing fingers at other corrupt institutions like the senate that he heads. Only in Nigeria..!

The Nigerian senate is occupied by looters who are carting away billions of dollars daily in salaries, contracts, allowances and estacodes while over 90m Nigerians live in permanent penury and irreversible hopelessness.

In Nigeria like I have pointed out a million times on this blog, corruption is the king. Even the president is probably stealing as I am writing this. He has depleted the external reserves and he is borrowing money to finance his extravagancies. Nigeria’s president cannot travel in normal aircrafts; he is still buying more presidential planes. He cannot live in a normal house; corruption is embedded in Aso Rock, Abuja. The presidency and other government arms and agencies in Nigeria are borne of corruption and live in permanent corruption.

Nigeria is runned by thieves and gangsters and David Mark does not have the moral rights to call the NFF the most corrupt government agency. There is no shame in being a looter of treasury and there are no consequences for serious crimes in Nigeria. Phone calls from the so called high places have overturned several judicial processes. The judiciary is a huge joke as revealed by the recent Ibori case. Ibori was declared innocent in Nigeria because he stole to make way for Yar Adu, Obasanjo and Jonathan. Useless people altogether!

If things were right, the one who threw the stones and the ones in the glass houses should be serving life sentences.
Nigeria will remain in coma until all these anomalies are addressed and the question is BY WHOM?

One day the people will rise up and take what is theirs. That day, sense and reasoning will prevail.