Corruption

Why God Will Not Save Nigeria

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By Adeola Aderounmu

In Nigeria God has been used to perpetuate and cover many atrocious acts both inside and outside of worship centers.

When dubious men and cunning women who have stolen Nigeria’s money enter into churches and mosques and ask God or Allah to save Nigeria, then you wish for the God that can answer by fire and consume the guilty flesh in his presence.

The characters of several Nigerian political and public officers call for evaluation of both the ordinary mental states and the anticipated cognitive capabilities in Nigeria.

In my opinion I think it is pure stupidity for a man to neglect his obligations and pray for miracles to achieve the goals of his obligations.

The problems with Nigeria are too complex.

It is also disturbing that since we see things from different perspectives, it appears there is no way forward. Since I have known Nigeria it has become increasingly impossible for the people to find a genuine way to seek the common good.

Increasingly, before and after the days of the songs made popular by “The Mandators” Nigeria deepens as an incomprehensible jungle of rat race.

I have no hope in Nigeria based on the status quo.

Nigerians themselves have acquired the Stockholm syndrome because millions of Nigerians will do anything to defend the nature of Nigeria. They will tell you to stop criticizing the government, that you should proffer solutions to unintelligent rulers and above all some Nigerians will tell you to hope in God who can do all things.

Really?

This veil of God has, in no small measure, contributed to the persistent underdevelopment in Nigeria.

The intellectuality and the creativity of the majority of Nigerian people have been truncated and incapacitated mainly by this mentality hinge on religious belief side-by-side negligence of citizen duties/obligations to country and humanity.

Isn’t it sad that religious rulers have now developed sticky fingers by stealing from tithes and offerings to buy private jets? Nigerian pastors now rank among the richest people in the world. If there is a real hell fire, these men will probably be likely candidates. Apparently they know there is none, so they feed fat on the masses who are scared and are brain-switched by religious indoctrinations.

Even Jesus whom they try fruitlessly to emulate was said to have rode on a donkey. He gave to the poor and needy, he shared with them.

Which God is going to save Nigeria? The one the religious rulers are stealing from or the one the looting politicians are pretentiously calling upon?

I don’t know how one God or several gods will save a people that permit and tolerate the looting of their common treasury. A people so resilient they cannot use the numbers on their side to turn the table in their own favour.

No one knows exactly how much has been stolen from Nigeria. The estimate (still growing by the minutes) runs into several billions of dollars. Several countries in the world would have become extinct if such were stolen from them. The sum stolen from Nigeria so far would have led to a global economic crisis if such amount were to disappear from the European economy.

At this time of the year and at the beginning of a new one, Nigerians will converge at different worship centers not only at home but across the world. They’ll pray for miracles in the New Year and they will pray that God will take control of the Nigerian political and economic situations.

Those who are stealing Nigeria’s money from the presidency to the local government will say the same prayer. Let us imagine a God like that of Elijah in the Holy Bible. Let us imagine a God like that of Moses in the Bible. Let us just imagine how fire and earthquake would have consumed all the hypocrites gathered in the temples, churches and mosques on the last day of the year, or even before then.

That type of God would have saved the helpless masses because by one swoop, 99.9% of Nigerian rulers would be consumed and 99.9% of the pastors and imams would perish.

If this is what Nigerians are waiting for, I am sorry to break the news again that several millions of Nigerians will go through this life without ever experiencing the true meaning and the essence of living. I am fond of calling this situation one the worst but hidden tragedies of modern era.

In recent months, I have pondered over the reasoning of some people that I’d encountered in real life and through other means. It is sad that some Nigerians have confused their personal achievements and survival strategies with the opportunities that the state is supposed to provide to everyone.

When people start to do well through their struggles through thin and thick or via their connections to the strings that fetch wealth from the Nigerian situations, they suddenly forget or neglect the maladministration, the gross incompetence and the severely corrupt nature of the Nigerian government across all strata. They give credits to their gods or to their spiritual fathers.

Some people are still struggling genuinely and some are also struggling with the anticipation or hope that one day, they will get to that point where they will benefit from the corrupt system. You can ask all the people who have been made wealthy by each successive corrupt government in Nigeria. Their testimonies of sudden riches represent the rude shock Nigerians got used to, with bizarre admiration.

All these categories of Nigerians converge in churches and mosques and pray that God will save Nigeria while they forget the roles that the citizens play in nation building. They forget the function of governments at all levels.

The other day I was at a gathering of some Nigerians in the diaspora. One young man was very emphatic about what should be done when you get the opportunity to serve in Nigeria. According to him and in fact, according to many confused and silly minds, “if you can’t beat them, then you join them”.

Majority of Nigerians at home and in the diaspora have unfortunately come to terms with the ill fact or misconception that the primary purpose of politics and public service is to enrich oneself when one gets elected or appointed into an office.

This is part of the sad reality that led me to the conclusion that Nigeria is in a very hopeless situation and that there is no God that will save Nigeria.

If Nigerians want to be saved or rescued they should abandon their churches and mosques and face the reality of everyday citizen roles in nation building. I don’t think they want to be.

The president of Nigeria and his vice are feeding themselves with over N1b annually on record and probably over N2b off record. In which other part of the world can this sort of systematic stealing happen? Since when do people who receive salary feed on government and tax-payers’ money? Nigerians should ask Jonathan about this and the insatiable urge from the presidency to spend all of Nigeria’s money and reserves.

Nigerians should get out of their worship places and ask about the report from each federal minister and every state commissioner about the outgoing year. They should seek answers to the ways their lives have been steered by those who they elected, selected or forced into offices. They should task the governors and lawmakers who are feeding and living on the highest paid political wages in the world-what have they done in the outgoing year to improve the lives of ordinary Nigerians?

Nigerians are going to the wrong places every Friday and every Sunday. God owes you nothing! The politicians and public servants owe you everything.

Nigerians, you owe yourselves that boldness to seek probity and accountability.

Take your drive away from places of worship and move towards the various government houses instead. Ask about the future of your children and yours. Ask about the quality of education against the backdrop of global industrialization and technological advancements. Make a request that the children of all politicians be educated in the local government where their fathers and mothers live.

Ask your local, state and federal governments about the state of health provisions when the president, his wife and all your politicians are heading abroad for treatments.

Nigerians, ask the people who rule you about water, roads, electricity and other social amenities that add meaning and values to life.

Ask about your police and the judiciary and how to make them work for you. Ask about jobs, housing, employment opportunities and social or welfare services that exist in the constitution but not in real situations. Ask about anything and everything that affect the way you live and the quality of your life.

Stop asking God. No deity will save Nigeria!

On your own part, you must come to the table with clean hands and pure hearts. In what ways have you contributed to the development of your family, community and region?

Are you looking for ways to impact positively on the people around you and on your community or are you looking for ways to “join them if you can’t beat them”?

Who told you that you cannot beat them? Stop believing in popular fallacies! Your gullible existence is sucking away positive energy from your living. Gandhi told you many years that you should be the change you want to see in the world.

You can pray from now to eternity and your lives and the future of your children will remain stolen and wasted. Your president can knee before men from now to eternity for nothing. Think more about your children and the useless country you are about to bequeath to them-a place where people get away with crimes, lootings and all sorts of atrocities.

You want to leave behind a country where they are not expecting anything from the state but where they have to struggle like it’s a rat race. Some people will do some extra struggle as history has always recorded, no doubt. But such situations that have now replaced normalcy can only be reversed by your positive actions and not by prayers.

God will not save Nigeria. I am sure. What will happen is that your pastors and imams will get richer tapping more from your meager earnings. You will contribute to building more churches and more mosques and no new schools for your children.

Your politicians (that include your fathers, your mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and acquaintances) will steal more money, get richer and sprinkle some crumbs around. They will give loads to churches and mosques, a confirmation that the churches and mosques are ruining your lives.

If you continue to pray without facing the realities, Nigeria will continue to waste away and possibly crumble. We won’t need seers to tell us that insecurity will rise, that the cost of living will continue to climb and that these difficulties will be directly proportional to sub-human standard of living.

Those who have escaped the poverty line should stop confusing their emergence with the real situation that ordinary Nigerians face daily. In 2012 Nigeria is rated among the most corrupt countries in the world and Nigeria is the worst place to deliver a child. These rankings are relative but a lot can be drawn from the statements, including the fact that Nigerian political and religious rulers are gangsters.

At the beginning of 2011, I wrote “My message to Nigerians in 2011, stop saying it’s God”. Since then things have gone even worse.

In 2013 I believe that Nigerians need to demand for as many as possible referendums.

It is very important to redefine the meaning of some words like: Nigeria, Nigerians, Regional Governments, Federal Government, Federal Republic, Federalism and Patriotism.

I read a bit of the Nigerian constitution and I thought it was written either by drunkards or some mad men. No nation will get anywhere with such a constitution. The application of common sense is far better than many of the contents of the Nigerian constitution.

For instance the issue of the federal character is clearly retrogressive and it gave a clear sign that Nigeria is not going to move forward anytime soon. We have subdued intellectualism and replaced it with resounding mediocrity. We have killed the voices of reasoning. I thought about some top employees of the Nigerian Immigration Service who are from Northern Nigeria and who usually ask their colleagues from western Nigerian to help them write letters to their wives and families in the north. My hope now is that they can at least send emails or sms on their mobile phones.

I also thought about some commissioners in Bayelsa State who served under Goodluck Jonathan. They wanted to travel to America with the Nigerian passport even when entry visas have not been sought. They were already asking for travel allowances ahead of visa procurement.

These types of men (and women) abound in Nigeria’s political space and public services due to local and federal character slash politics of thugs. Are we still surprised why the system collapsed in Nigeria?

In the Nigerian constitution, there are sections covering national awards. Over the years political thieves and known criminals who unfortunately are above the laws of the land have been given national awards in Nigeria. That alone, zeros the constitution because it takes a thief to honour a thief. Who is now fooling who?

In Nigeria millions of people are joining the bandwagon, looting, accepting bribes, cutting corners and doing anything it takes to “survive”. “If you can’t beat them, join them” is the national slogan and they keep praying to God. What a joint joke?

Some expectations are driven by absolute foolishness and blind faith. The things Nigerians are asking God to do are the functions of people and governments across the world. How can God fix a country where nearly all the national and state resources and funds are distributed into the private accounts of politicians and public servants? Is God a global magician?

When Nigerians are ready or when the veil of God is removed, they will rise up and claim what is theirs. How they do that is definitely up to them. Nigeria is not going to get better based on religion, prayers or miracles. God will not save Nigeria.

Only Nigerians can rescue and save themselves completely.

Punch Editorial Urging Goodluck Jonathan To Resign

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Jonathan Spendthrift: Enough is enough

Written By The Punch Newspaper 4th December 2012

NOTHING typifies the frivolous, insensitive and completely inept leadership troubling Nigeria currently than the recent approval of a N2.2bn banquet hall for Aso Villa by the Federal Executive Council. Coming at a time when the country is buffeted by serious security and other challenges, it demonstrates that this government is not a thinking one. Just one of the dozens of eye-opening government expenses, President Goodluck Jonathan is proposing to build a party hall in the palatial Aso Villa while millions of Nigerians are hungry and jobless. Like the fifth Roman Emperor, Nero, Jonathan is fiddling around while the nation is burning. This disgustingly lavish lifestyle must be curbed.

The justification is as galling as the project. The FEC hinged its decision to award this contract mainly on its belief that smaller countries have better banquet halls near their seats of power. The Federal Capital Territory Minister, Bala Muhammed, who briefed the press on the issue, added that the existing hall was inconveniencing and that the proposed 150-seater hall would have such facilities as “security, hall conveniences, technical room and press briefing room that are more and more enhanced so that national broadcast can be done from there.” This has taken profligacy in public expenditure to absurd lengths.

Jonathan probably expects Nigerians to give him and the other FEC members a standing ovation for initiating the project. But he is greatly mistaken. This is as reckless as it is feckless. With all its wealth, the United Kingdom houses its Prime Minister modestly at 10 Downing Street. Its State Dining Room accommodates just up to 65 guests and is also used to host the PM’s monthly press conference.

Other reasonable leaders, including the Presidents of Malawi and Uruguay, have demonstrated good leadership values by their modest lifestyles. As soon as she came to power earlier this year, Malawian President, Joyce Banda, decided to sell off the country’s only Presidential aircraft and a fleet of 60 Mercedes Limousines. She prefers to use private airlines. Banda’s predecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika, had defended the purchase of the jet as a “must” for a national leader in 2009. The same woman recently announced a 30 per cent cut in her salary. This means that Mrs. Banda’s salary will drop from the reported £37,000 a year to £26,000.

On his part, the Uruguayan President, Jose Mujica, not only drives a 1987 Volkswagen Beetle, but also stays at his wife’s farmhouse. Besides, he donates 90 per cent of his monthly salary to charity. “I’m called the poorest president”, he had said, “but I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more…This is a matter of freedom. If you don’t have many possessions then you don’t need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself.”

Also, the King and Prime Minister of Norway reportedly fly commercial airlines. The interesting thing about Norway is that it produces almost the same amount of oil as Nigeria. But while it has successfully navigated through resource curse to be among the richest countries in the world, Nigeria, in spite of its abundant natural resources, is among the poorest. Norway’s success is not by magic but by prudent management of its resources.

Jonathan government has continuously demonstrated that the interest of the larger Nigerian citizens is not its priority and that profligacy is its cardinal principle. There are many depressing examples. In the 2011 budget, N18bn went for the maintenance of presidential planes, which could provide decent accommodation for 18 million people going by the UN-Habitat estimates. In the 2012 budget, it set aside N1.9bn for the purchase of an additional aircraft for the already bloated Presidential fleet and N1.5bn for guest houses for some senior lawmakers. This is happening in a country where a prized possession for many is a generating set.

Nigeria is buckling under the weight of Jonathan’s propensity for the absurd. Allegations are flying everywhere about the monumental level of government ineptitude in responding to insecurity. Almost on a daily basis, bandits and Boko Haram terrorists are killing scores of innocent Nigerians. A recent report by the British-based Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Nigeria as the worst place for a baby to be born in 2013. Nigeria is 80th out of the 80 countries surveyed. Infant and maternal mortality in the country is among the highest in the world. Life expectancy for a child born in Nigeria is 51.9 years whereas, for a small country like Gabon, it is 62.7 years; Mauritius is 73.4 years; and Libya, 74 years.

The 2011 Human Development Index report by the United Nations’ Development Programme placed Nigeria 156th out of 187 countries surveyed. UNDP says, for almost a decade now, Nigeria has been recording consistently high economic growth rate that has not produced commensurate employment opportunities and reduction in poverty among its citizens. Poverty is endemic in the country as over 70 per cent of the citizens live from hand to mouth. An estimated 11 million Nigerian children of school age are out of school. Out of this number, about 7.5 million are girls.

With a GDP Per Capita of $2,500, malnutrition wracks 46 per cent of the population, unemployment rate was 23.9 per cent in 2011 and youth unemployment rate was as high as 46.5 per cent in the same year. It is insulting that the President is creating an atmosphere of wealth and luxury for himself. In the 2012 Mo Ibrahim Index for African Governance, Nigeria was ranked 43 out of 52 countries assessed. The country’s overall score of 42.0 did not even match up to the West African average score of 51.9. Smaller countries just emerging from the ravages of war, such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Angola, are relatively better in development indices. Poor infrastructure and harsh economic environment have led to the shutdown of many companies. Some of these companies have relocated to these same smaller countries, leading to massive loss of jobs in Nigeria. This is a grim reminder of North Korea whose leader lives in opulence while the entire populace live in abject poverty.

Regrettably, the Jonathan administration is no longer evincing any hope. The cavalier attitude of the National Assembly is also regrettable. In the life of this administration, corruption has assumed a monstrous status. According to SUNDAY PUNCH investigation, over N5tn in government funds has been stolen through fraud, embezzlement and theft since President Jonathan assumed office on May 6, 2010. Sadly, as The Economist puts it, “Many Africans are ambivalent about their leaders’ extravagance; disgust at profligacy mingles with pride at the display.”

The Jonathan government has demonstrated complete lack of judgement in initiating this project. The citizens, through civil society groups, should rise up to salvage what is remaining of this country. Nigerians should wake up and demand modesty from their rulers. Leadership is about self sacrifice, assertiveness, service, prudent management and the ability to think and galvanise the populace towards achieving the vision of the leader for the common good of all.

Jonathan should curb this regal lifestyle and lavish spending of public money. He should step aside if he cannot do this.

Nigeria’s wasteful president

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Adeola Aderounmu

The other day Goodluck Jonathan met the press and exposed a great deal about his ignorance. When responding to question relating to government spending Mr. Jonathan had to state that he eats twice a day.

That sort of response alone shows that Nigerians have been taking a ride on a sinking ship, and it’s been more than 50 years in the ship. What a tragedy.

The man even went on to state that he didn’t promise to eradicate poverty but to increase wealth. That’s like the dumbest comment any president has made since Berlusconi said he preferred to have sex with a 17 year old rather than be gay.

The money that has been stolen in the Nigerian government since 1960 is now estimated to be uncountable. No one knows the exact value. It could be a value enough to eradicate global poverty, not poverty in Nigeria alone.
Nigerians are resilient.

Otherwise you cannot imagine that despite the waste, another 5 Trillion Naira got missing under Jonathan.

Add that to the money this guy and his crew are stealing daily.

The proportion of corruption in Nigeria is inestimable. I don’t think any country should be placed close to Nigeria in terms of known corruption. Unknown corruption is another parameter with varying global implications.
Nigeria’s corruption is known, open and wicked in proportion.

Doyin Okupe, Nigerians will rather stone you and Jonathan!

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Some Nigerian rulers and power drunk employees of the Jonathan administration need to be called to order.

Doyin Okupe should be told that Nigerians will NEVER beg Jonathan to run in 2015.

If you ask me, I would rather have Jonathan out of office this minute. The guy is a waste of space and time. Under Jonathan Nigeria’s profile as probably the most corrupt country in the world gathered new momentum.

Jonathan will go down in history as the president of probes and committees. Not like the probes and committees saw the light of the day but rather that new ones are emerging daily.

Who will forget the uncountable corrupt practices under Jonathan? Jonathan defrauded Nigerians with the constant increase in petroleum products and its perpetual scarcity. Who will forget the Farouk Lawan and Otedola missing dollars? There are so many ways that Jonathan has messed up Nigeria.

These evils did not start with Jonathan but they escalated greatly under his watch making him one of the most incompetent handlers of Nigeria.

Doyin Okupe can continue to steal, loot and empty the treasury in Abuja. This is not the start for him. He’s been there for several years. What he should not do is to categorize all Nigerians as fools.

Doyin Okupe should be thankful to Farida who threw away or burnt his files at the EFCC.

In a normal country the appointment of Okupe into the presidency will have only one consequence: the end of that government through riots, demonstrations or total revolution.

But in a lawless and severely corrupt country like Nigeria, it will accrue praise among his bootlickers, family members, acquaintances and sycophants.

These are people who should be rotting in life sentences and they are returned to government with glamour. Jonathan is a disgrace to Nigeria and serious attestation to the uncommonness of common sense.

The other day Bode George, an ex-convict reported delivered a Herbert Macaulay lecture. The organisers of such events are definitely brain-dead or zombies.

The same pattern of madness brought a criminal like James Ibori to empty a state treasury for 8 years and the subsequent sponsoring of Yar Adua and Jonathan with stolen loots.

The evil in Nigeria will continue to rise when these types of aberrations are normal.

How can Doyin Okupe be in government and we turned away our faces? Lagbaja is so-so right when he mentioned 150-200m mumus.

Okupe should know that in 2015 (if Nigeria is still in existence then) the likes of him, Abati and Jonathan will follow the prescription that Abati himself gave us a few years ago.

Millions of Nigerians will gladly stone people like Abati, Okupe and Jonathan at rally grounds and probably follow up to the corridor of power (thanks Abati for the tips)

If your campaign funded by looted and stolen funds ever takes you to Jos, Kaduna and most of all Maiduguri, pray you live to tell the story Mr. Okupe.

Nigeria, Ruled By Thieves and Fraudsters like Doyin Okupe

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By Adeola Aderounmu

When you have a spokesman like Doyin Okupe, then you probably have either a criminal mind or deep criminal tendencies.

Goodluck Jonathan probably considered Abati ineffective as a presidential spokesman. Abati wrote and spoke for the common people for many years before he switched sides. Under the influence of money and power true characters will always emerge. Abati has gone down in my books as one of the criminal minds in Nigerian journalism.

I knew Okupe during the 1993 presidential debate because I saw him on tv. I knew right away that he was criminally minded. He was representing the NRC which has Alhaji Tofa as its presidential candidate. MKO Abiola was definitely at his best and he rightly put Okupe in his lowly place. There are no saints in Nigeria.

Okupe was the mouthful spokesman for Obasanjo and the jobs of these spokesmen has always been to be the devil’s advocate. Someone has to do the job anyway; no matter that it is a dirty job.

Nigeria is a country-as I have repeated many times on this blog-that will probably never make it until drastic and radical changes take place.

The changes will include sentencing criminals like Okupe to prison for a very long time.

When criminals are in power, how can a country prosper?

If Jonathan can bring criminals into government, then it means the entire Nigerian presidency is full of criminals and is therefore a big fraud.

Men who have stolen from the National and state treasuries for many years are in control of Nigeria.

The hope and optimism in Nigeria baffles me.

This is a country of over 150m people with a handful of prosperous people. You can count the number of people who prospered by hard work and dedication. Several thousand defrauded the state and federal government. The private sector is not free of executive criminals.

Corruption is global as I’d always hinted. But the dimension in Nigeria is a calamity. The acceptance of corruption as a way to good life and prosperity in Nigeria is a misnomer.

That is why Jonathan can hire a thief like Okupe to be his spokesman.

Okupe is a loud-mouth who is ready to do anything for his money. His ways of running down government opposition exposes how money and position can rub men of their supposed intellectualism. In that way he is of the same feather with Abati who is wasting his time in Africa’s biggest citadel of corruption and executive maladministration.

One day the Nigerian people will rise up and save themselves from these vultures, criminals and evil minds who have perfected the act of self-perpetuation since 1960. One day this anomaly will end.