Corruption

Obama’s Victory: The Lessons for Nigeria’s Do-Or-Die Politicians

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

Adeola Aderounmu

The American Electoral System is a modified form of democracy in itself. The people have become used to the system after 200 years and they are satisfied with how it works.

In my country of birth Nigeria one is constantly worried about the nature of the politics. Nigeria’s politics is a disgrace to humanity. It is depicted by lack of common sense and it does not serve the purpose for which it is intended.

Nigeria’s politics is bloody and deadly. It raises violent men and women and suppresses intellectualism.

Nigeria became an independent country in 1960 and since then it has been from grace to grass politically because someone fools and idiots ran the show using violence, arson and aggression.

In very worrying situations, intellectuals have been part of this worrying politics.

It is so sad because Nigerians are not ready or willing to change their violent democratic principles.

Check out this joke on facebook:

IF USA WAS NIGERIA, TODAY’S HEADLINES WILL READ:

•Don’t celebrate yet, Romney tells Obama (TELL magazine)

•Concede defeat, Obama urges Romney (Punch newspaper)

• 20 opposition cadres riot (The Sun newspaper)

• Romney Demands Vote Recount (Vanguard newspaper)

• Elections rigged (Guardian newspaper)

• No evidence of manipulation (NTA news)

• The Church declares elections free and fair (News Line)

• There will be violence if we lose; Romney declares (LTV 8 news)

• Election results for Arizona awaited (Channels news)

• Trucks with suspected ballot papers crosses into USA from Mexico (Tribune newspaper)

• Romney is an opportunist – Go back to your farm (AIT news)

• I will not accept results, Romney tells Obama (STV news)

• McCain heads to Election Petition Tribunal (MITV)

• White Majority rejects results (PM News)

• Kenyan Big Boy Senator Obama Throws Lavish Party to celebrate Election Victory (City People)

• Free for all fight at Obama rally in Grant Park (Channels TV)

• Northern elders, Arewa and Sultan rejects results (ThisDay)

• Republicans and Democrats supporters clash in Ketu and Ajangbadi, 14 dead, Romney threatens more heads will roll. (Sahara Reports)

• The people behind Obama’s victory: True story uncovered (Newswatch)

Funny. But Let’s Be Objective This Would Have Been The Report If USA Was Nigeria.

Food For Thought.
Learn And Change (likely source, ENVOY MAG facebook page)

These imaginary headlines are so true and sad.

Nigeria will not have a free and fair election in the nearest future because the political structures are weak and the system of government is very sickling.

True federalism is needed and there is an urgent need to take power away from the center.

The people of Nigeria actually need a referendum to decide on the future of the British creation. This is why Biafra will never go away no matter how much it is suppressed by the reigning gangsters in Abuja.

The poverty in Nigeria is tied to the recklessness of the political status quo that promotes nepotism and total corruption. Total corruption is the state where almost everything in a system is corrupt and where the mentality of attaining sufficiency and happiness are tied to malpractice and ills rather than common good. This is the situation in Nigeria and it is very sad.

If this generation is too cowardly and too corrupt to make the radical changes, I am convinced that one generation in the future (no matter how long it takes) will make it right. It will never be too late to catch up with the rest of the world if the world doesn’t end today.

The Law of Karma came upon Danbaba

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

I reported with sadness how Mr. Danbaba’s driver knocked down and killed one of my best friends, Edward Kokobili.

https://aderinola.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/how-governor-danbaba-suntais-convoy-killed-one-of-my-best-friends-kokobili-edward/

Danbaba is the governor of Taraba state who crashed his private aircraft this week in Nigeria. Unconfirmed reports earlier reported that he died in the crash and updated reports stated that he survived the accident.

It shocked me, like several other anomalies from the stupid Nigerian government that the office of the governor did not give any public statement regretting the death of my friend. Nor did I receive any rejoinder after publishing the details on my blog and the Nigerian Village Square, a popular Nigerian news site.

When I heard about the initial report of his “death” the only thing that ran through my mind is the memory of my late friend. Later Eddy’s brother posted on facebook:

[The family, friends and associates of Taraba state governor am very sure must be having their own fair share of what it means to be hurt inwards and perhaps outward, due to the wanton carelessness those in government mostly have subjected this nation. Exactly nine months ago, my brother died @ the Nnamdi Azikwe International airport, due to the carelessness of the governor’s convoy and for eternity a lot of people have been hurt too. People in government positions must as a matter of responsibilty and urgency address the spate of WANTON CARELESSNESS in the land. It is a matter of chance and time, it can swallow anybody no matter the extent of formidable security in place. Is like a game of numbers, with time anybody can be subdued !]

I liked his comment and added that I am disappointed at the manner Danbaba had gone to acquire a fleet of private jets for his pleasure. He is s useless governor, no doubt. He is not alone, Nigeria is flooded not only by water, but by corrupt people and corrupt rulers. They don’t care about the people whose money they have looted and how the people suffer.

Several governors and in fact 99,9% of Nigerian politicians are pure criminals. It is sad and hard to live in the most corrupt country in the world if you haven’t cut your own corners and means of survival against all odds.

Sometimes I wish the law of karma will come suddenly upon all Nigerian politicians. Maybe that will be the cure for the land. Just maybe

To Reuben Abati: Go and Hug a Transformer!

/ Adeola / 3 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

When late Abacha held Nigeria in his palm, Reuben Abati stood out as Nigerian Government Critic Number one! There was no dispute about whose article would be most read on Friday or Sunday back in the days in the Nigerian Guardian.

I do not recall anyone in Abacha’s government or thereafter calling Abati names. Abati was not even arrested despite all his criticisms of the dictatorship and later civilian governments in Nigeria.

At the height of his fame as a government critic Abati asked Nigerians to stone those in power. Was he testing his fame? This was when the Federal Government increased the price of petroleum products-the old subsidy lies that Abati would come to champion in January 2012.

I was told by someone who knows the Guardian very well that Abati was actually collecting brown envelopes for many of those articles that he wrote those days in the Guardian. Everything has fallen into places now that Abati has shown his real image. It may be true that he wrote many articles for money afterall many Nigerian journalists today still have their own favourite politicians.

I am fond of writing that Nigerians have no heroes today and when the likes of Abati remain the mentor for Nigerian journalists, then hope is quenched!

Last week Reuben Abati who now works for the inglorious Nigerian government blasted internet warriors and the rest of you who are fond of abusing Jonathan on facebook and on your blog pages. I am an internet warrior, I have abused Jonathan on facebook and my blog since 2006 is full of abuses and criticisms for the worst and probably most corrupt government in the world with headquarters in Aso rock, Abuja.

So I take Reuben Abati’s message as a direct war. But this is a terrain I know too well. So he and his bootlickers can bring it all on. I will help them spell their last names. T-H-I-E-V-E-S IN P-O-W-E-R.

Some of us have been here-online- long before Jonathan. I wrote to the late Yar Adua government about the futility of taking on internet warriors. Anyone who cares can browse my articles at the Nigerian Village Square. We-the internet warriors-don’t lose and we don’t come last. If Mr. Abati needs a reminder, I will like him to know that long after the reign of his present master, internet warriors will be here in different forms and shades.

It is be an over flog to remind Abati about the nature of the government he serves. How do you begin to recount the stupidity of the government of the day in Nigeria?

A government whose moral compass was lost even before it started sailing. You can tell, unless you wear the garment of the Pharisees.

Farouk Lawan just returned from Mecca. Under the government that Abati is serving, corruption was magnified and redefined. Only men who have no shame will serve in corrupt and useless government. In Nigeria whatever happened to protecting your father’s name and your own integrity?
If Nigerians heed Abati’s call of just a few years ago, then they should be stoning people like him now. It was his call, maybe we should obey him.

I recall my meeting with two of Nigerian’s finest bloggers (names withheld) about 2 years ago in Stockholm. Of course we talked about Nigeria and the government. They laughed at me when I told them that I stopped reading Abati after the Abuja-land saga.

They laughed because they thought I was ignorant to have been one of the several thousands of Nigerians that Abati took for such a long ride. When Abati appeared in Jonathan’s government, it was not a surprise to them. Both of them stopped reading Abati many years ago. They said they saw the light a long time ago.

No doubts I have also written in the Nigerian Guardian a handful of times. No doubt my articles started appearing in the Nigerian Guardian days after I got Abati’s email from (names withheld).

But Reuben Abati should continue to serve his new master according to his conscience. If he likes let him continue to fire at internet warriors and the critics of Mr. Jonathan. It will show his real colours and the nature of his job.

I have been in the blog industry since 2006. I don’t have the intention of retiring now because Abati is serving corrupt people which confirms his own status as a corrupt man who used his articles to buy his way into the corridor where everyone (according to him) should be stoned!

Some of us will never serve in government. Our middle name is Ilesanmi.

Those who join government only to turn against their own constituencies will not find peace. It’s a natural law. Those who join government and cannot resist the temptation to also become corrupt will live with both personal burden and the burden of history.

I have not met a blogger or a government critic who is campaigning for absolute moral purification. Human nature does not tally that line. This is why we separate private from public life I guess. All we have asked for is that those in government must deliver on their promises and stop looting our common treasury.

All we have asked for is that the wealth of Nigeria should serve Nigerians. Just yesterday Bobola Babalola wrote on Facebook that democracy in Nigeria is government of some people, by some people, for some people.

Abati has now joined the few who are taking the rest of Nigeria/Nigerians for a ride. That doesn’t make it ok. That doesn’t mean that Jonathan, his family, friends, executives, senate and other corrupt people can loot and we have to stay quiet.

Abati in government is not a receipt with guarantee. Abati in government is not a form of immunity.

No matter who serves in Nigeria, no matter who is looting in Nigeria, no matter how foolish or wise the government becomes, social critics and public commentators will be here.

It doesn’t matter how we are addressed, we take on this social burden to tell things as they are.

In 2009 I warned about the flood that has now taken Adamawa (check before 70 000 people perish overnight in the NVS). NEMA almost asked for my head. Even the government as a unit was quiet because it is a useless government, constantly so since 1960. People are dying now after N26 billion was spent on invisible dam projects.

Anyway, the government of Jonathan, in my view, is the worst government ever in Nigeria. No matter how much Abati and his followers rant, the truth about the cluelessness of Jonathan, the waste that his government has come to represent and the calamity of the consequences of his inactions (especially) in Northern Nigeria cannot be taken away like a pinch of salt. A thousand Abati and a fake permanent secretary in Bayelsa (aka ghost worker in Rivers) cannot do that.

aderounmu@gmail.com

All They Ever Wanted

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

There are many records and chronological analyses of what went wrong with Nigeria. Above all a once prosperous country with one of the greatest aggregation of potentials-both human and natural-was mismanaged, plundered and converted into one of the worst places to live on earth.

Nigeria

Nigeria, photo By Adeola Aderounmu

In 1993 in what appeared to be an act of treason a major electoral process was blasted by the tropical gangsters led by Ibrahim Babangida. So the hopes and stakes were high when a new civilian government emerged in Nigeria in 1999.

The events from 1999 to 2012 have proven that the problem with Nigeria was partly the military governments and partly the civilian governments. In my opinion Nigerians have suffered to various degrees under all known types of dispensations after independence in 1960.

But there is a group of majority that continues to bear the brunt of more than 50 years of crimes against humanity in Nigeria. More than 90% of Nigerians are estimated to be living in poverty.

This group is made up of people who are unsure of the next meal. It is this group that is called resilient, religious or happy depending on which investigation you read. They were the hopefuls in 1993 and 1999. All they ever wanted, and still want is the good life.

Unfortunately they will not get the things they want. Since the life expectancy in Nigeria is about 52.5 years it means that there has been a generation of Nigeria that went through life in the most hopeless way one can imagine.

They never had constant power supply, they never had good roads and they never lived in quality houses or apartments. They did not get the best meals money can buy.

Nigeria, photo By Adeola Aderounmu

Nigeria, photo By Adeola Aderounmu

In historical perspective this will translate to two wasted generations of Nigerians. It is hard to give up on the argument that the nature of the Nigerian tragedy makes it one of the greatest (but hidden) tragedies of modern era.

When the Arab spring was in vogue, with Syria still as its melting point, some of us saw it as a misplaced uprising.

I mean if the second wasted Nigerian generation was raised in North Africa they would probably have driven on good roads, slept in good homes and experienced what constant power supply meant. For the most, they may have lived longer.

The hope in Nigeria-where democracy exists on paper and its dividends in the pockets of the looters-is a misnomer. The description “resilient” fits aptly. Still, I prefer Fela’s description of Nigerians as “suffering and smiling”. The song “Sorrow, Tears and Blood” has the same relevance today as it did when it was released in 1977.

All they ever wanted, they never got. All they had left were taken away from them. A typical Nigerian worker or unemployed adult was a self-witness to the demise of public education.

Right before his eyes, he saw how primary health centers turned to primary death centers and how major government hospitals degenerated in a fashion similar to necrosis. History has a record of how lesser or fewer tragedies have triggered massive protests, revolutions and government changes in several places.

One sad revelation of the Nigerian society is that the country continues to produce rulers (never leaders) who eventually turned out to be out of touch with everyday life of the Nigerian people once the ascension is made to either top or trivial political positions. Therefore the conclusion that a people deserve the type of (ruler) it gets deserves a closer evaluation in the Nigerian context.

Those who are ruling Nigeria today were on our side when we started complaining that things are not right. Why is Nigeria getting worse under the people who saw the problem with us from outside of government? In My Radom Reflections At 40, I wrote that-irrespective of what the future holds for Nigeria-the shape of things to come will depend on institutions and not people.

Had it been that the institutions are well and functioning for example more than 99% of Nigerian politicians today will be serving prison terms or facing trials for corruption, treason and outright negligence of responsibilities.

However Nigeria has almost no working institution, therefore it doesn’t matter if the politicians got legal or stolen mandates, in the end they always do what they like. In uncountable situations they do bad things and get away with crimes and all sorts of unthinkable acts never expected of public office holders.

Even today the regime in Nigeria is a mockery of the meaning of democracy. Nigerian rulers do not hide their autocratic powers. The situation in Nigeria is almost hopeless because when good people get into government they become bad, corrupt and unbelievably silent about evil deeds.

Those who managed to get into government offices end up seeing those outside of it as the problem. They see them as envious or jealous people. There is something inexplicable about how governments work from the inside in Nigeria. Hence the cycle of idiocy for Nigeria is endless.

The situation in Northern Nigeria was avoidable. If the institutions had been there, they would have rid the society of criminally minded and corrupt people both in and out of government. In the worst case the appropriate institutions would have ensured the security of life and property in the case of criminally-induced terrorism. But when the foundations are absent and everything is wrong as a result of round pegs in square holes, things will definitely fall apart with almost irredeemable consequences.

Several concerned Nigerians have begun to argue for the reinstatement of true federalism as one of the ways forward.

For them corruption is a secondary issue as far as the problems with Nigeria are concern. True Federalism will probably be a way to induce peaceful political changes in Nigeria. It is sad when those holding firmly onto power do not see the transient nature of it.

By such negligence they stubbornly fail to initiate the right political alternatives that can bring probable succor and social justice.

Sometimes stubbornness can generate earthly consuming fires. If the fire starts on the mountain as predicted by Asa, there may be nowhere for us to run. In this sense the political option, with religious inclination, chosen by Boko Haram is too costly and deadly. Most of it is senseless.

Nevertheless, it has been spoken about for years and in many ways that those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable. A violent change does not imply positive outcomes. The political structure of Nigeria must change.

It is better to approach the change constitutionally than to sustain the loopholes that terrorists are utilising to expose the weakenesses of Nigeria.

The common people will always be there. All they want is the good life

Goodluck Jonathan: An irresponsible man I would say

/ Adeola / 7 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

Northern Nigeria is burning. There is a kind of war going on in Northern Nigeria. Muslims are attacking Christians. Christians are attacking Muslims. Boko Haram is ensuring that the flame goes on.

Earlier this year Goodluck Jonathan promised that Boko Haram will be a time of the past in June. At that time Boko Haram promised that come June they will bomb Nigeria more than ever before.

I remembered that I wrote an article saying that whoever carries the day is the one ruling or running Nigeria.

Boko Haram have shown that they are more reliable and trustworthy than Goodluck Jonathan.

Last weekend Boko Haram set Kaduna ablaze and the result is that Christians went for a retaliation on Muslims and now the Muslims are back to kill.

But in the midst of this madness, and war so to say Goodluck Jonathan flew out of Nigeria.

He went to Brazil to attend a so called earth summit. To my understanding of the situation in Nigeria Jonathan attending this meeting is meaningless and senseless. Is Jonathan an irresponsible man? My answer is yes!

A Yoruba proverb says you cannot leave fire at the top of your roof and go to sleep. Goodluck Jonathan left the country altogether.

This is a time that Nigerians could run the country to a standstill and just tell Jonathan never to return to Nigeria. He can remain in exile for all the people care. Jonathan is the worst president Nigeria ever had.

I don’t understand why a man will leave a burning house and embark on a pilgrimage. This is the lowest form of intellectualism I have seen in my life.

People return from far to attend to disasters and problems at home. Jonathan is travelling away from problem and disasters. There is a need to examine this man’s mentality for real. This is not normal.