Nigerian Politics: The Meaning And Consequences Of Our Collective Foolishness

By Adeola Aderounmu

Which Way Nigeria?

There are several millions of people in Nigeria living in abject poverty and penury. I have been writing about this topic for many years. Over and over again l have defined mass poverty using Nigeria as a point of reference.

Don’t get this twisted few Nigerians are among the richest people in the world. There are legitimate ways to make money in Nigeria and abroad through hardwork, business focus and dedication.

But l will always prefer to write for the Nigerian who does not even know what he is going to do today or the one who has no hope for what he is going to eat for the next 24 hours.

There are over 100 million poor people Nigerians. Nigeria is the global capital of poverty. This is an abnormality because Nigeria is probably the richest country in the world. Nigeria is blessed with natural and human resources and she ought to be the number one nation in the world in terms of prosperity and the good life.

Now ask yourself, how can a country that is probably the richest in the world be home to some of the poorest people in the world? It is a very complicated situation and we have taken too long in this journey to stupidity in Nigeria.

I cannot tell you all about Nigeria but l can give you a quick review of the last decade or so.

Presently Nigeria is ruled (in 2018) by a man called Buhari. By all standards and measure this is a man that is not fit to be the president of Nigeria. This brings me straight to the topic Nigerian politics, the meaning of collective foolishness.

If we are not collectively foolish and stupid in Nigeria we should never have allowed unintelligent and dull people to run our political terrain. Above that, if we are not stupid and foolish we should NEVER have allowed criminals to rule us or to get away anyhow.

Our public institutions failed us and we failed ourselves by not having revolting minds. Somewhere along the way Nigerians became divided in several ways and this divide and rule became another addition to our collective stupidity.

The price we pay is huge. Globally not many people respect Nigerians despite the contributions that Nigerians in the diaspora give to the global economy, global health, global industrialization and global education. In many ways you can count the ways smart and intelligent Nigerians contribute to the world at large after been extracted from home or being born abroad.

But in that failed country called Nigeria, right there in the land, grand stupidity, madness and collective foolishness is the order of the day in politics and public service.

Of all the intelligent people in Nigeria and those we can bring back home from abroad, our president is Buhari. Buhari was a military man, a semi-illiterate who has no business with politics. He is the president. The most obvious anomaly of his emergence as a president is the fact that his deputy is a University professor. You can never find another country in the world displaying such collective stupidity.

Without any apology in sight, Nigerians display total and collective stupidity in allowing this to happen no matter what led to it. It does not matter what led to this, the fact is that it is stupid and foolish.

I mentioned earlier that criminals are ruling Nigeria and that is so correct. One way or the other these criminals are not going away soon as they continue to win cases in courts to prolong their criminal careers. I don’t care that these criminals won court cases and I don’t give a shit about whether l can prove the cases myself.

The list is long and they are all in the APC and PDP. All of them are criminals. This is the collective foolishness in Nigeria. It is the collective stupidity-that criminals are the politicians.

They are criminals because they are looting, stealing and living big. They have cars beyond their needs. They have houses beyond their needs, they live abroad and in Nigeria, their families are mostly abroad, they seek medical help abroad. Their children, relations and close acquaintances all go to school abroad or they travel abroad to lavish Nigeria’s stolen wealth.

If Nigerian politicians are not thieves or criminals, there will be not one single bad road in Nigeria. Nigerians roads are among the worst roads l have seen all my life. The roads in Nigeria clearly show the absence of sane governance. Pray you never have an emergency in Nigeria and need to seek medical help more than 5 km from your home. The result can be death! A journey of 15 minutes can take you 3 hours or more if you ever get going! In some cases, you can end up in deadlock traffic.

Public education is now history in Nigeria. Government shows little or no interest in public education and illiteracy has risen sharply in Nigeria. Private schools have been erected in every corner in Nigeria. So many of them are mushroom schools and a few of them are good standards. Huge sums of money are paid for education making it a luxury in modern day Nigeria.

Health is no longer wealth in Nigeria. There is poor health delivery to the masses and just like education, the health service you get is a measure of your pocket and getting quality health is therefore a luxury. Maternal deaths are still common especially during child birth and death during childhood especially from preventable and curable diseases including malaria are still rampant.

You can go on like l have done over the years to list the problems with Nigeria. I know that some people always shout “but what are the solutions you are prescribing”.

There is only one solution-that which has worked for all the developed countries in the world.

The solution is good governance.

But how can Nigeria have good governance when criminals, morons, illiterates, useless people, mumus, foolish and stupid idiots are running the politics? Why can’t the rest of us agree and come together to end this rubbish.

And when we talk about good governance, we cannot have it through the useless unitary/military system we have in Nigeria.

Nigeria is what it is because of our divergent opinions which has resulted in our collected foolishness. The public institutions failed us and we failed ourselves by becoming comfortable with bad governments. We became afraid rather than securing our total freedom and ensuring that our children have a place they can call home. Many of us found our way out of Nigeria and are not planning to return.

But we must save Nigeria.

In some cases we brought good people to government but because of the way government is run these good people became bad people. They never talk or resign or point out the problems they are facing. Rather they become accomplices and only talk when they are out of office and out of favour. That is another form of stupidity even by those who we think are intelligent and professionals.

So Nigeria is in a dilemma.

Where these types of problems have occurred before like in Europe, the turn around to sanity started with violent and bloody revolutions. Nigeria may get there.

But that is avoidable if reasons prevail even now.

Nigerians need to discuss at the regional levels and each state and region in Nigeria owe it a responsibility to seek the help of her brilliant minds and best brains. Enough of all these idiots and fools in political offices/positions!

Nigeria can become the best place to live in the world in less than 10 years! It is a possibility if we round up all these criminals in power and bundle them into prisons. We take back all our monies in their local and international accounts.

We can reorganize Nigeria at the regional levels and speed up development through healthy development projects. We can rebuild Nigeria on the strength of our regional prowess and human resources. We can make the big oil companies to follow our tunes or kick them out of Nigeria for good.

We can open up more ports across Nigeria to aid even regional development and decongest Lagos.

With dedication and patriotism we can build up the education industry and make primary education compulsory again. We can reform our health institutions and make Nigeria the health base of Africa.

We can harness the youth and make them productive rather than unemployed and criminally minded.

There is a lot we can do in Nigeria and as Nigerians if we first take the power away from the center and ensure that only our best minds and our best brains are entrusted with the running of public affairs.

We must trace back our steps and existence to the time before the 1966 military coup. We must trace back to the time when we love one another and helped one another.

I know there is a lot of problems in Nigeria because of tribalism and nepotism, that it is not a secret that people are brought into different offices not because of what they know but because they are from a certain part of the country. When we turn back to regional government and a ceremonial head of state with very limited power, all that nonsense will stop and education, merit and dignity will be restored.

If we don’t resolve to stop all the atrocities and all the nonsense that is going on in our politics and if in 2019 the status quo is still the case then l still owe no one any apology because it means we are all still foolish and stupid.

The only cure to our collective foolishness and stupidity that has made Nigeria one of the worst places to be born or live is a radical decision and a collective will to see that we change things for the best in the shortest possible time.

A vote for a Buhari, Atiku or Saraki for example in 2019 is pure madness. I just thought l should add that we cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a better outcome.

Away with criminals by all means and by any means!

I never know where to stop my articles and essays and that probably makes me the angriest Nigerian alive today. I am also the saddest Nigerian take it or leave it! It does not matter that l live a good life, l am sad and angry everyday because Nigeria is a total mess and a complete horror to behold. I know we can have it good and lovely and it hurts how we think, reason, act and how selfish and wicked we have become as a people.

The Angry and Sad Blogger!

aderounmu@gmail.com

@aderinola

Nigeria in 2018: Probably The Worst Place To Be Born Or Live

By Adeola Aderounmu

The headline can be controversial but l must write about this.

There is no official declaration of war in Nigeria but have you taken a trip around Nigeria lately?

A lot of people are in denial of the true state of things in Nigeria. In particular some people make a lot of money and wealth in Nigeria and they think that is a shield from the true nature of things. There is also another category of Nigerians who travel around the world and when they are in Nigeria they have the money to splash around and they think that Nigeria is the deal.

I am putting myself in the position of the ordinary Nigerian. The one who is unemployed due to no fault of his. I am putting myself in the position of the Nigerian who is totally disconnected from the meaning of true governance. I am putting myself in the position of the man and woman who is suffering immensely because of every N1 that is stolen or every N1m that disappears from the treasury of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Based on my position l have come to a conclusion that Nigeria is probably the worst place to be born among the countries not officially at war.

I wish l could take a trip with anyone who disagree with me. Such trip can be divided into sub-trips. We can take a trip in Lagos and visit all the local government areas. We can take a trip and travel in Rwanda, Ghana, Sweden, Togo, Benin, England and any other place not officially at war. Then we can put together our findings and make a conclusion of which country is the worst to be born or live. I am ready for this challenge anyday anytime.

If you have an emergency in Lagos, there is a 98% chance that you will die. The reasons are: you cannot make a journey of 10 minutes in 10 minutes to the hospital. It may take you 1 hour. A journey of 20 minutes can take you 4 hours. So you chance of survival is very slim.

There are other reasons and mainly health care is a mess. The best evidence of this is the regular travel of Nigeria’s politicians overseas for treatment. The other problems are that you need to be wealthy to have access to quality health in Nigeria. Emergency situations in Nigeria commonly result to deaths.

In everyday Lagos life, it is a struggle. Even some war torn ountries don’t ecperience such struggles. I encourage you to look for a video of Daddy showkey on the internet and see how it was impossible to reach Ajegunle from Ojodu. He never made it !

Nigeria is hiding the tru nature of life in Nigeria from the rest of the world. Nigerian celebrities are not doing enough, most of them are concerned about making money and not losing the patronage of the corrupt money that gets to them daily.

Nigerians are living are slaves in Nigeria and people are compromised. This is not right. There was a useless eelction recently in Ekiti where both APC and PDP were bribing the electorates. You can go one weeping for Nigeria and the level of deceits is unimaginable and the people are just rolling by rather than collectively revolting and taking back their country.

I will post some headling for you here and these headlines are normal, regular, not unexpected and they are okay because there are no more outrages in Nigeria. The people have become zombified and accepting a wrong type of existence.

I have never in my life seen a country with so much suffering and problems where the people are passive and resilient.

The government is a total failure at all levels and it is shocking to me that Nigeria has not been declared as a disaster zone herself. I visited Nigeria and l know what l am talking about.

I keep asking people “how can we be living like this”? There are no definite answers and people keep praying and hoping rather than coming together to stop the nonsense in the land.

Mr. Buhari’s government is full of lies and propaganda. Everyday hundreds of Nigeria die for various reasons relating to security, health and transportation. National emergencies should be declared instead of all these lies.

Headlines like these are no longer causing outrages or condemnations among Nigerians. They have come to accept terrorists and terrorism as part of the Nigerian existence. The herdsmen are commonly never apprehended and justice is never served.

In several parts of Nigeria there is lack of urban or rural planning meaning that EIA, Evironmental Impact Assessments are not done or they are ignored. If the government knows the meaning of planning then deaths like these can be prevented.

This is a rare acknowledgement that Nigeria is not safe as stated by Mr. Buhari. The problem here is that Dogara and his colleagues are carting away millions of dollars monthly as salaries and allowances. He is also part of the corrupt elites in Nigeria and people like him and Saraki should be prosecuted but the judiciary is weak and lazy. With politicians who are dishonest, Nigeria will remain one of the worst places to live on earth.

Emergencies are never declared and dying in Nigeria is not treated as a serious problem. No outrage when a soul is missing. Imagine 49 dead and property destroyed yet no national package on prevention of future flooding. Nobody was sacked and nobody took responsibility. Any kind of rain can result to flood in NIGERIA due to poor planning and lack of respect for human life

What has the APC government done to end the massacre and genocide across Nigeria? Nothing ! There are a few communities and villages taken over by the herdsmen in Benue and we have not heard that government troops have gone in to arrest the herdsmen. We have not heard that APC has reverted the communities back to the original owners. Is Buhari and APC not commiting war crimes in Nigeria?

Nigeria is one of the worst places to live and headlines like these tell the story. Which agency at the state and federal levels are monitoring building standards? A passerby or a young child or anybody at all could have perished with this building. We have seen and heard so many stories of collapse buildings. If there are things around you that could end your life abruptly, you are living on the edge!

Lagos in particular needs a permanent solution to the trailers, tankers dilemma on the roads. The tanker drivers and their owners are to date above the law and that is so ridiculous and shameful. In a lawless country things are done anyhow without consequences. Many trailers are involved in road accidents and many people have been killed like it is a ritural that must happen. Until the next disaster the Lagos state government goes underground and does nothing to prevent re-occurence.

What a sad loss! Nobody cares in Nigeria..! People just act like nothing happened and only the families affected by a tragedy bears the brunt and pains. It’s so typical Nigeria not to care anymore!

There are now so many terrorist groups in Nigeria and this one beats me. They may say they are not a terror group but that a rumoured attack is attached to a group simply in my own world means that you represent terror! For the attacks that these monsters have perpetrated, what has the APC done to ensure that they are arrested and brought under the law? Nothing!

Nigerians don’t believe in the judicial system so they take the laws into their hands. If somebody wants you dead all they have to do is to shout thief thief on you in a market place and you will be dead in split seconds. People are angry at the wrong things! The politicians are looting billions daily and they are living big and fat. Nobody is outrage at them. People kill their own kinds easily rather than turn them to the police. They don’t trust the police, they don’t trust the law system. Jungle justice it is!

BOKO HARAM was never defeated in 2015. Buhari lied! Buhari should have been impeached but Nigerian politicians are birds of the same feather. Nigeria needs to adopt a new system of government. The unitary system is not working and terrorism is a falliout of failed govenrment. The earlier Nigerian adopt regional government, the better. But the need to equip the military and the need to put a stop to BH is urgent.

Poverty and lawlessness go hand in hand in Nigeria. People risk their lives to make ends meet. It is a sad situation!

This is what you get when the government fails to provide safe and comfortable means of transport for the people.

Nigeria’s failed health system is amplified by the regular visit of Mr. Buhari to London. In the 1950s Nigeria was the hub of health tourism. 3 years after the APC came to power the government still cannot provide health care for Buhari. This is a shame l am so pissed off. You are a BIG fool if you try to justify or rationalise Buhari’s trip abroad for treatment.

Buhari has not hidden his love for the North. He is better off as the president of the North rather than the president of Nigeria. The security problem in Nigeria is largely due to Buhari appointing his kinsmen into all the key military positions in Nigeria. Buhari is not fit to be the president of Nigeria even for one day. Disgraceful!

This is Nigeria!

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We need to do something in every aspect of the Nigerian life. I mean every aspect and all these lies about the good life is propaganda. We need to come down to the level of the every day life of the common people and see their sufferings. It’s a hopeless situation everywhere you turn and we need a real change.

Nigeria is a failed country. We need a reset button and we need a new lease of life. We need to get rid of both APC and PDP and try something new. We need new hands and we need new ideas. APC and PDP members are changing camps as they like and that means they are just crazy and have no solutions at hand.

I m particularly angry at young people who cannot use their age and advantage to change the status quo. Many young people are behind APC and PDP and that is a great mistake. People have lost their senses because they want to make money and become part of the elites and oppressors club.

The meaning of life is lost in Nigeria and my conclusion is that Nigeria is the worst place to be born or live permanently in the world in 2018.

I did not write this eassy to destroy Nigeria. I am writing this because l want us to educate ourselves and l want us to love Nigeria and help her recover. We cannot continue to lie and deceive ourselves that things are alright. They are not and we are not alright. I am certainly not alright coming back to a shameful country like Nigeria every now and then.

we must talk and write about these things that are not working. We must stop to be selfish and stop thinking only about ourselves.

We all deserve to live decent lives. NiGERIANS deserve quality lives and we must do all we can to get to that level no matter what it takes.

You can tell that l have never been afraid for my life because life is transient and no matter how good or bad we are, it ends one day. But whilst it last, it pains to see Nigeria this way. It hurts badly!

The Dangers Of Hypocrisy

I am still looking for those who resigned and blew the whsitle when Jonathan and his crew (both in PDP and APC) were looting the treasuries. I am now looking for those who are going to leave the Buhari government and blow the whistle (both in the APC and PDP) as a result of the budget padding and scandalous national/state security situation. Mr. Buhari himself should have resigned along with Lai Mohammed for misleading the world when they stated at the end of december 2015 that they had defeated Boko Haram.

The Dangers Of Hypocrisy By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

There are no limits to the repercussions of hypocrisy. It is worse when the hypocrisy runs parallel with lies and propaganda. Two other dimensions that can worsen the situation is the spread and the acceptance of hypocrisy as a trait or norm within a political structure or among the people of a country.

As you read this essay the banks in Switzerland are still sending more and more of the monies stolen by one famous Nigerian criminal called Sani Abacha. He was unfortunately a former dictator in Nigeria whose death remains a subject of controversy.

Despite the fact that his loots are finding their ways back to Nigeria (since the regime of Obasanjo), Nigeria’s current president Mr. Buhari is yet to acknowledge that Abacha was in fact a criminal. This hypocrisy is dangerous and heart wrenching. This singular denial also shocks me when people say Buhari is not corrupt. I don’t understand how people don’t see the links.

Invariably the act of being a hypocrite extends to hangers-on of political associations. It cut across and destroys the consciences of both the enlightened and the disenfranchised as well as the educated and the ignorant. If Nigeria finally implodes, hypocrisy will not be left out as one of the diseases that sunk her.

If you listen keenly to Femi Adeshina you will find an example of a person who lost his mind and threw away his conscience to the lagoon all in the name of having a job and earning a mega pay. There were (before him) people like Reuben Abati, Reno Omokri and Segun Adeniyi. With him is a guy called Ogunlesi who thinks the rest of us are ordinary lower animals.

In my exposure to other countries where several of these spokesmen have also lived or visited before relocating to Aso rock, there is always a limit or threshold to how long an aide can defend a boss or get enveloped in the same cycle of ignobility.

What happens to the ability to resign or walk away to save one’s good image? Invariably my conclusion is simple: it takes a rogue to defend a rogue in matters of public accountability. It also takes selfishness and wickedness to turn blind eyes to the realities on ground in the daily existences of Nigerians.

Like l mentioned above, the realm of hypocrisy in Nigeria is massive. Therefore it is unforgiving that even professor Osinbajo lately said APC is not a corrupt government. But he is fully aware that APC integrated into its fold former PDP looters and existing APC looters. Their common saving grace is the unforgiving failure of the justice system in Nigeria. I always maintain that Nigerian laws remain useless as far as criminal politicians continue to rule Nigeria.

Osinbajo also said that APC is more honest than PDP. Since when did accountability to the people become a relative term? APC is confused. When the spree of murders and genocide escalated under this regime, APC stated that more people died during Jonathan’s PDP regime. My understanding of that conclusion is that the Nigerian life is worthless. Why else would number of deaths be comparative?

Late afromusic king Fela warned us many years ago about all those that do bad things in the names of their religious lords. We did not listen. We are still not paying attention.

Today l am neither for the APC nor for the PDP. I will go for a new orientation. It is about time people understood my stance nearly 12 years into this act of blogging. I stand for good government only. My inherent hatred for corruption and lack of independent reasoning have no bounds and it has no connection to religious or non-religious morality.

By a manner of another perspective and changing lanes, when next you read a criticism of the Buhari government from Reno Omokri, help me ask him where he was when Mrs. Jonathan and Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke where emptying the Nigerian treasury under the watchful eyes of Jonathan. Of course he would call it propaganda.

It is the same way everything was propaganda in the eyes of Segun Adeniyi of the Yar Adua regime. Now all you read here is propaganda for Mr. Adeshina. Wait for him to be out of the corridor of power. We saw Reuben Abati out, in and out again.

My take on some hypocrites is that they actually have their criminal minds before participating in all these serial governments of looters. How many more hypocrites and pretenders are going to emerge in 2019 if we don’t break this cycle of national madness?

I don’t even appreciate the headlines from people like Ngozi Iweala. Anyone that has been part of the governments in Nigeria and under whose watch or in whose presence massive looting had taken place is a bloody hypocrite.

I am still looking for those who resigned and blew the whistle when Jonathan and his crew (both in PDP and APC) were looting the treasuries. I am now looking for those who are going to leave the Buhari government and blow the whistle (both in the APC and PDP) as a result of the budget padding and scandalous national/state security situation. Mr. Buhari himself should have resigned along with Lai Mohammed for misleading the world when they stated at the end of december 2015 that they had defeated Boko Haram.

Mr. Donald Trump it appeared had no balls afterall. A straight talk would be to inform Mr. Buhari of his primary duty as the president of Nigeria. Buhari has failed and he is still failing to protect Nigerians. He, as well as the looters in the Nigerian senate, is failing to see the need for the immediate restructuring of Nigeria and the introduction of state police.

The hogwash in the White House led to increase in attacks in Nigeria. The long term consequences of the dangers poised by national and international hypocrisy and the passiveness of the drained Nigerian people are yet to be evaluated. But the signs are already very, very bad.

I can understand to some extent the feeling of party affiliation. What l cannot understand is the lack of will to stand with the truth. But l know many people are predictable in their love for money, power and position. Many people always discard the essence of public service because they want to remain relevant in the (dis)order of things in Nigeria.

These people look forward to recognition, gains and consolidations when the ocassion arises. So they cannot give up their hypocritic garments for honourary ones.

And since this is the way things work in Nigeria, the country dips deeper in national crises. We argue unnecesssrily on issues of common sense and we are a country left behind. We are sick. We need healing.

If a few good men and women are given the task of redirecting Nigeria back to the place where we were in december 1965, and if these men and women are honest and have no spirit of hypocrisy, if they are not concerned about getting rich or owning mansions in Dubai, America or London, or sending their children to schools in Ghana or USA, in less than 8 years (2 terms) Nigeria will be back again as one of the best places to live in the world. The people must be orientated about the dangers of hypocrisy and they must be ready to stand with these few good people. That is the hope of Nigeria and Nigerians.
Follow me on twitter @aderinola

aderounmu@gmail.com

Nigeria, A Country Heading No Where

The time is ripe for the ordinary citizens to orchestrate and execute the agenda of both political and economic reforms. They cannot wait. The people must ensure that all those who fail the country pay for their crimes and they must set new agenda for the way forward. Where there is a (good) will, there is a way.

Nigeria, A Country Heading No Where

By Adeola Aderounmu

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I have been writing about Nigeria for quite a while now. A few times, l’d almost given up on Nigeria. Many times, l’d resigned and promised never to write again. It’s too easy to give up because Nigeria is heading no where. It’s easy to give up because you don’t see the impact of what you and others are writing about. It is too easy to give up because when one group of criminals are leaving the government, another group of worse criminals are stepping in.

I know many people living abroad who don’t ever want to hear you discuss about Nigeria again. As far as they are concerned, Nigeria will never, never get better and anyone hoping to change things is just chasing shadows. In fact, l also know many people living in Nigeria who either look at you with indifference or even laugh at you when you think you have some messianic opinion.

My guy, abeg leave story, if you can’t beat them, you join them. Let them dey chop, pray make your own time come. No be today abeg.

With these submissions and resignations, it is obvious that Nigeria is heading no where. The country is hopeless and vandalised. It is overrun by criminals occupying all public institutions. Ordinary citizens of Nigeria at home and abroad have come to terms with the fact that criminals are running the presidency, the senate, the various states and the local councils.

So they pray that as many people and as many families as possible can take turns so that the national cake can go round. These actually are the views of the educated and semi-literates too. Everybody has join the bandwagon that Nigeria is a geographical area whose resources must be plundered turn by turn by locals and foreigners.

Some citizens are so excruciated and excluded from the running of Nigeria that it appears that they don’t even know where they are and which century we live in. Several millions of Nigerians have been booted off the radar of civilisation. The people are so bruised mentally and physically they don’t know how to fight for their rights and freedom. They are so brainwashed and deprived they don’t know how to tear down non-functional governments and oppressions staring at them everyday of their life.

How then do you console a people who never experienced even 12 hours uninterupted electricity in their life time? How do you console a people harbouring certain generations that haven’t experience quality education in their entire life time? How do you console a people who now see education as a waste of time because of the way politicians turn to criminals and just cart away loots everyday? How do you console a generation that worships ill-gotten monies and ostentatious display of wealth.

There is no consolation but pity for the people who have no understanding for the meaning of life and how the rest of the world looks like in 2017. You must pity those who see a normal downpour of rain as a curse as it swallows houses, property and people. You must pity those who don’t know who they voted for in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. They don’t even know who is running the country. A person or a cabal? You must pity a people governed by coconut heads who assemble regularly in London while the country lies in ruin and desolation.

You must pity the largest accumulation of black people on earth with the largest accumulation of tragedies. You have to pity the country that suppresses brilliant minds or simply turn them to criminals at home or heroes abroad.

You must pity the country that was once a rising giant but now a crawling cripple. You must pity the country that was once the hub for the princes and kings of the world but now a footstool for terrorists, separatists and militants.

You have to pity that country and people where murders by heavy stones is the order of the day at the economic capital. If you have some conscience left in you, you must sympathise with the country where brutal killings and rape in the hands of the herdsman is the order of the day on any grassland or arable land. The country is heading no where when the politicians sentence the people to death daily by their actions while they seek solace and comfort in London, Dubai and USA.

You have to pity this generation whose schools are constantly under lock as the majority of criminal politicians and the elites send their children abroad to receive quality education. In how many ways can we recount what is wrong with Nigeria, yet nothing seems to change?

What has changed in the last 2 years is that the administrative capital of Nigeria has moved to London by the man who promised the change now turned charade. He fooled Nigerians and made them pay for his medical bills and the education of his children abroad. What happened to leading by example?

This is a country heading no where. Whatever you read here now has been mentioned more than 30 years ago in writing and in songs. Is Nigeria a country? A place where people capture power and suppress truth and freedom. Is Nigeria a real country when poverty and hopelessness remain the rewards of citizenship. Cry, cry, cry for one of the most tragic sequences of political mismanagement in human history.

Still, Nigeria can go to places. The country can be free. Real change and absolute freedom will depend on the people. When they are ready for freedom, they know what to do. The criminals and politicians or even the cabals if they exist are very few and the people are several millions. They can become organised and in a matter of weeks change their destinies.

All they have to do is have a common goal and declare that enough is enough. When that happens, freedom will come and Nigeria will start to head somewhere. The people must unite and forge an agenda that will once and for all remove the clog from the wheel of progress.

The time is ripe for the ordinary citizens to orchestrate and execute the agenda of both political and economic reforms. They cannot wait. The people must ensure that all those who fail the country pay for their crimes and they must set new agenda for the way forward. Where there is a (good)will, there is a way.

aderounmu@gmail.com

My Random Reflections @ 45

This present unitary government that has now moved the headquarters of the Nigerian government to London is foolish, and a means to continue to breed bad leaders or to turn progressive leaders into mumus

The new clamour for the restructuring of Nigeria and the advantages for it will on the long run outweighs the useless unitary system that had kept more than 100m Nigerians in poverty, living from hand to mouth.

My Random Reflections @45

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

This is the 9th edition of my random reflections.

Nigeria is still in a lot of mess. Nigerian musician African China prayed that we should not let this country fall into a well. I am afraid that this country is not only inside a well, it is also drowned in the well.

ANOTHER MESSY, CLUELESS PRESIDENCY

Nigeria’s president is unwell. He is holed up somewhere in the world, most probably the UK. Earlier into his tenure, in several of my articles, l’d suggested that Mr.Buhari ought to be home to his family in Daura, taking it easy and enjoying the rest of his days.

In matters relating to health, it is not everytime we need people or doctors to advise us. Common sense about how our body functions and how it respond to stress and rest should be more important signals. No one can cheat nature. President Buhari should have handed over to Professor Yemi Osinbajo a long time ago. Now he struggling to stage a comeback in the kingdom of hyenas, wolves and jackals. Who was it that described Nigeria as a zoo again?

WE NEVER LEARN

In the time past, Mr. Buhari and his cohorts in the APC/opposition party demanded for the resignation or impeachment of Umaru Yar Adua when he was sick and flew round the globe in search of a magic healing.

There are other issues related to the above. We know that several billions of naira have been budgeted over the years for the State House clinic in Abuja. The fact that ailing presidents always continue to fly abroad for treatment is shameful and extremely embarassing to the black race. What was the meaning of independence again?

DASHED HOPES

We know just how bad leadership and massive corruption had sent this country into a well. The hope that came with the APC-Buhari mandate was probably about 20% of that which came with the botched June 12 1993 presidential elections.

When APC promised change that was to come in 2015, the people bought it. They did because the Jonathan government was wasting our time, money and resources. It is now obvious that this regime is not better than the Jonathan regime. With the kind of fluidity that allows cross-carpeting and merry-go-round, the two parties, APC and PDP are in principle the same nonsense.

This government (the APC-Buhari-Osinbajo mandate) so far is a popular disaster. It is not in such a way that one wishes that the PDP government was never defeated at the presidential election in 2015. It is rather in such a way that one looks back with sadness over what had taken place since 1999.

Both PDP and APC have brought shame, destruction, poverty and extreme hopelessness to the ordinary citizens of Nigeria who numbered more than 100 million.

HISTORY OF FAILURES

The civilian rule from 1999 to date represents a time in the history of Nigeria where criminals, thieves, looters, assasins and political gangsters remain in control of Nigeria. In terms of prosperity, this period of time is the worse in the history of Nigeria. Previous failures have been recorded during the military regimes 1966-1979, 1984-1999 and civilian rule 1979-1984.

CORRUPTION UNABATED

Corruption is also thriving under the Buhari-Osinbajo-APC Mandate, like never before. One month ago, on June 14 2017, Mr. Olusola Saraki was cleared and acquitted of all the criminal charges against him in the law court in Nigeria. If you are looking for the biggest scams of the 21st century, that judgement will pass as a key blacklist. Despite the promise of change, prosecutions for corruption are rare and the buffer provided by cross-carpeting remains a huge joke in Nigeria.

POLITICIANS OR CRIMINALS

The entire political class in Nigeria itself is one huge scam. There are no new ways to describe the levels of looting, stealing, mischieviousness, misdemeanour and outright crime against humanity that Nigerian politicians are commiting daily, on a large scale.

The incursion of the military into politics in Nigeria through coups and later the civil war, would forever remain a calamity. They left with a constitution that turned Nigeria into a unitary state. They promoted and sustained corruption, nepotism, tribalism. They also flamed religion and ethnicity and brought Nigeria to her knees. The country never rose again and Nigeria is still crawling.

NOTHING HAS CHANGED

There are a lot of things we had talked or written about for decades, years and months. There are no changes, so it’s like we are wasting our time. For example, we complained about former governors looting away states’ treasuries through undeserved pensions. Today they are still looting (in form of pensions) several billions of naira monthly.

Several former governors have invaded the Nigerian National Assembly as Senators. They are on live pension even though they have not become handicapped in any way. They are carting away salaries from the National Assmembly and pensions from their former states.

We are talking about a National Assembly that is sucking away between 20-25% of Nigeria’s annual budget through world record salaries and allowances.

Is that change? That is daylight robbery that calls for nation wide protests and revolution.

POOR MASSES ALWAYS DEFEATED

Nigerians surely love changes, the latest being the election of Adeleke as the Senator representing Osun West senatorial district. However, what remains sad is the sustenance of the status quo, that is, head or tail the masses have always lost.

RESTRUCTURE NIGERIA

Some people think this is new whereas Nigeria gained her independence in 1960 as a well structred entity. Governance was concentrated in the regions and the country prospered. True, the politicians had their shortcomings, but there was progress everywhere in the country depsite all the political troubles. Progress was based on the instincts of the various regions to develop and outshine one another.

Therefore the incursion of the military into politics in Nigeria through coups and later the civil war, would forever remain a calamity. They left with a constitution that turned Nigeria into a unitary state. They promoted and sustained corruption, nepotism, tribalism. They also flamed religion and ethnicity and brought Nigeria to her knees. The country never rose again and Nigeria is still crawling.

The new clamour for the restructuring of Nigeria and the advantages for it will on the long run outweighs the useless unitary system that had kept more than 100m Nigerians in poverty, living from hand to mouth.

The restructuring, now put better as both political and economic restructuring, will not be a magic solution. However, it should in a matter of a couple of decades be a blessing for the upcoming and unborn generations.

This present unitary government that has now moved the headquarters of the Nigerian government to London is foolish, and a means to continue to breed bad leaders or to turn progressive leaders into mumus.

The APC promised to restructure Nigeria and got voted for that purpose but to date the APC-mandate carriers are promoting the useless system of come, chop, clean mouth and go.

PERSONAL LIFE

For my birthday, it is been time well spent with family as usual this time in Sweden. We gathered at the family country home to have a dinner. It’s been so for over a deacde now.

Last year, the celebration was in Lagos, a place dear and close to my heart. It appears flood and badoo boys are wiping the state and people away. Shameful!

I am happy despite all the problems. Nigerians are supposed to be the happiest people in the world a few years ago. Are we all still happy? I guess so, especially in the absence of rage and urge to flush the politicians away for good.

I believe in change so I resigned my position as the president of the Yoruba Union in Stockholm after servng for 6 years and organising 4 annual Yoruba Days in Stockholm.

Last year l published a book The Madrilenian, a collection of 8 short stories.

My next book, a story about how an Italian family tried to cope with the post-mafian era has reached an advanced stage and may hit publication in 2018 or 2019. It’s fiction.

In our country Nigeria, the more things change, the more they stay the same. We are in a dilemma.

Life goes on and nothing last…

Live and let live

aderounmu@gmail.com

Let’s Go And Die, Abroad! (Part 2)

Who will tell our politicians that none of us is leaving this planet alive?

They think they will live forever l guess or why fly abroad to enjoy the medical facilities provided by responsible governments of other countries.

This submissive mental and physical slavery is one of the several tragedies of the African race. Buhari’s medical tourism and vacation is treacherous. It is treason against the people and country.

Let’s Go And Die, Abroad (Part 2)

By Adeola Aderounmu

On August 3 2014 l wrote the first part of this essay. It was in the wake of Nigerian politicians travelling abroad for medical treatment and ending their journeys there. Since l wrote that piece, the trend has continued. Politicians and monarchs who should be symbols of national pride and patriotism continue to flock abroad for treatment. Some don’t make it back alive to Nigeria. Hence the title, Let’s Go And Die, Abroad.

Treason needs to be redefined. You let your people down by not providing them with essential health services that could save their lives. Then you fly abroad to another country to rest and enjoy the medical services provided by foreign governments. You fly to see your doctors abroad. You fly abroad for vacation. All in one. That to me is treason.

We all have loved ones who could have lived quality lives and longer lives if the people we entrusted our welfare and well-being upon had done their jobs.

This is 2017.

President Buhari of Nigeria travelled to the UK for vacation and medical treatment/check up. He is not a private citizen of Nigeria, so this is out of order and unbecoming of a first citizen. It is not ok. It is not right. For me, this is treason, to go get the services that you denied your own people.

It is also not excusable under any circumstances whatsoever. On more than one ocassion, the media aides and advisers attached to the presidency, tried to explain why Buhari always flew to London for medical check ups. They bring it down to doctor’s advice or Buhari’s doctors now living in London. Those reasons are childish and unreasonable.

Nigeria got her independence from Britain in 1960. It is extremely shameful, ridiculous and very embarassing for the president of an independent country to go and lie sick or resting in another man’s country after all these years post-independence. The idea itself is sickening. This is one of the tragedies of the African race.

Nigeria is estimated today to be around 170 m people. When the presidency in Nigeria remains attached to the apron strings of the slave masters in England, it is a show of shame and a voluntary submission to both mental and physcial slavery.

There are so many other message and weights attached to this disgraceful exploits.

Out of more than 170 m people, Nigeria did not produce yet the medical doctor that can treat her political class in Nigeria.
Nigeria’s hospitals are mere mortuaries.
Nigeria is a very corrupt country and the presidency is the biggest symbol of this massive corruption.

Every year since 1960, huge funds and other allocations are budgetted and donated to the medical facilities attached to the office of the presidency in Nigeria. If the meedical facility is useless and dysfunctional, what is the purpose of the annual budget allocation? This is the second year of the second reign of president Buhari, what has his government done with the budget of the health institution at his official residence and around the country?

President Buhari is not the first Nigerian president to visit abroad for medical reasons. We have seen the head of state who went to Paris to treat a toe. We have seen a vice-president who went to London to treat a scratch. We saw a president who was a former governor for 8 years and refused to build a specialist hospital for his kidney problem. He was bundled in and out of Nigeria, shuttled between several countries until his last breathe.

Who will tell our politicians that none of us is leaving this planet alive?

Here is a pattern that is disturbing and irritating. These irresponsible people called Nigerian politicians should have been tried for crimes against humanity. They were/are supposed to provide medical facilities and solve health problems for (now) more than 170 m, but rather than do that, they fly abroad to enjoy the medical facilities provided by responsble governments of other countries. Nigerian politicians must be crazy and out of their minds. Totally!

President Buhari is spending his second spell at the helm of affairs in Nigeria. On his first exploit as a fierce dictator and tyrant, he could have (unstoppably) built the best medical facility in the world anywhere in Nigeria. He did not do that. This is the second year of his democratic reign, he has not made a public declaration of his willingness to build the best medical facility in the world in Nigeria even though the country has the possibility to do that so that all our shameless politicians can for all time stop their endless medical tourism abroad.

There is nothing wrong to invest in such a project to end this shame once and for all. But you won’t hear such debates on the floor of the Nigerian National Assembly where it seems criminals have been gathered just to share and spend monies on personal effects. Then, they are on the next flight abroad once they get sick. Total and absolute nonsense. Peculiar mess!

When these shameless rulers who think they are leaders don’t invest in their own health and well-being on the Nigerian soil, they provide a fertile ground for exploitations of the rest of the population. When private medical health providers fluorish, only the wealthy will be able to use their services.

The poor will beg from the atmosphere to the stratosphere in order to enjoy the services provided by private health institutions. They often die waiting for help. Even what is left of the public institutions is disgraceful and still out of reach of the downtrodden.

President Buhari’s regime under the APC mandate is today the worst regime in Nigeria’s history. The scorecard at home is heartbreaking. On the away front, the president added a new dimension to the medical tourism. We are told he is also on vacation! Really?

Here is the irony. Nigerians living abroad hurry home to Nigeria (and other West African countries) hoping to find rest at different places depending on where their favourite locations are. Now you have a president who cannot find anywhere in all of the 36 states under his watch where he could have a vacation. It’s amazing, the lies of this presidency!

This is the same government that claims to be promoting made in Nigeria things. This is hypocrisy of the highest magnitude. This government has failed and it will not make it. It will never be right to say you are promoting local things when you enjoy foreign things. What happens to leading by examples?

In November 2015, l argued for the establishment of at least 108 modern and standard public hospitals in Nigeria. No one has picked up the argument for a national debate. They are still sharing monies for cars and houses.

This country is going no where near redemption soon if these are the type of politicians and rulers we want to continue to parade. Is it any surprise that Nigerians are suffering in their millions while a few are basking in glory in the rat race co-existence?

For Nigerians, it’s still a very long walk to freedom when the praxis is I-before-others. It’s a long, long walk when all that matters is preservation of self rather than the well-being of humanity and nature.

Nigerian rulers, politicians and even the people are selfish and when everyone is so concerned about their self-preservations, living as if we will live forever, caution is thrown to the wind and the survival of the fittest turn men to vultures. It makes irrationality the norm and falsehood the veins of the system.

It’s a sad situation and when the rest of Africa start to believe this notion that Nigerians are now hungry, it spells doom for Africa and the African race. If your president cannot get treated in Nigeria, how can you dispel the notion that you cannot even feed yourself in Nigeria?

Mortals are watching. The world is waiting.

aderounmu@gmail.com

Nigeria @ 56: The Lucky Bastards!

It is better for Buhari to sacrifice his ego than for all of us to allow the APC-Buhari mandate to sacrifice Nigeria. President Buhari should be on his farm tending his cattle or country home playing with his grandchildren. If not now, when does he want to rest?

Nigeria @ 56: The Lucky Bastards!

Adeola Aderounmu

Nigeria enters her 56th year as an independent country in deep sorrow. Nigerian politicians who are largely responsible for the economic woes, recession and depression in the country are discussing how to sell the national assets. These politicians fit the expression The Lucky Bastards!

Who sells his father’s house or property without due consultations if not a bastard?

But the real reason Nigerian politicians are the lucky bastards is because they live in a country where there is no rage, yet people expect a change. That’s actually a huge joke.

There are not so many countries in the world where criminals rule the people and get away with it. There are too many examples to draw from but just the flash of news that the case against Mr. Saraki will be dropped, for example, reminds one that Nigeria is not a real country.

In real countries, there would be rage, occupation and sacking of criminals in government by force. The people will see to that.

Nigeria at 56 remains that geographical area where some people captures the center and oppress the rest-more than 100m. The exact population of Nigeria is not known as the northern part of the country is largely exaggerated in terms of the actual human population.

Whose assets are up for sale really? Who has the right to sell the people’s assets without a referendum or a long-term discussion on the benefits and disadvantages of selling national assets?

The common man on the street does not even know what a national asset means. In his world there is no difference from the crimes that has been perpetrated against him through looting of crude oil proceeds or mismanagement of revenues from other sources and the anticipated looting of the proceeds of the sales of Nigeria’s national assets.

The street implication of the sale of a national asset is simply the story of the prodigal child. The people who looted the country into recession are the ones selling and pocketing the proceeds of the national assets. Unless a referendum is done, or a national debate orchestrated, the street meaning of the sale of national assets will stand.

At 56, Nigeria is crawling. It is a big shame and a serious embarassment to the country that (ridiculously) brands herself as the giant of Africa. As far back as the early 90s, a lot of us joke that Nigeria is the sleeping giant of Africa.

In what ways can we now describe Nigeria? The dead giant of Africa will be appropriate. We have the bunch of lucky bastards to thank for that.

But seriously, who could have thought that the second year (now approaching) of the APC could have landed Nigeria into further mess? Only a few of us saw this coming. I remember how we were told to give the APC time. I remember how l always write that Nigeria has no luxury of time.

In several essays l kept complaining about the deviation of the APC from real governance.

In January 2016 l wrote that we cannot go on like this when the prices of goods and services hit the roof. If january 2016 was compared to september 2016, the january month was still a child’s play in terms of the hell that now prevail in Nigeria.

I was in the country to see things myself. It’s a sad situation.

Some people argued that some of us are impatient, that we should give the APC time. Now these people are quiet and they have disappeared from the social network because the APC has failed them. They are embarassed.

To be sincere, we are all embarassed. I am embarassed. I supported APC on the eve of the 2015 elections.

But when some of us write about Nigeria, we should not be seen an anti-government or anti-establishments. I think we go out of our ways to provide that check and the slim life wire that the hope of the common man hinged upon.

Total silence will lead to escalated genocide perpetrated through diverse mechanisms: hunger, road accidents, corruption, deprivation, inequality, injustice, lack of health, lack of education, lack of electricity, rise in social injustice, maladministration and outright war on the people as in the South East and the Niger Delta region.

I write about Nigeria because l’m hoping to one day live in the country that my mother described before she passed to glory. That country where she commuted by rail, walked Yaba to Ojuelegba and Oni Street Surulere by night, left her job to concentrate on family (thinking that things will always be the same, rosy) and procreated (not knowing that poverty could ever knocked on anyone’s door in western Nigeria).

I want to live in the country of my mother, the one that western Nigeria gave her. That’s why l write about Nigeria.

But the lucky bastards stole my future away in Nigeria. They refused to plan for my today. Not even one of them (from 1960 to 2016) will accept that they have done wrong. Rather they are still looting! Unrepentant criminals!

I am a long shot from the dream of living in the country my mother described. The distance was made longer when the APC lost the track very early in the navigation process of the APC-Buhari mandate.

If l am to live in the country that my mother described, the only thing l can ask for at this time in addition to good governance, is the resignation of President Buhari. He has failed and there are no signs that he will succeed before the end of this first term in office. If a miracle happens, he will bring Nigeria to the place it was when the corrupt PDP was sacked in 2015. They are all corrupt up till now. The lucky bastards!

If the APC-Buhari mandate maintains the status-quo, their first term report sheet will end with Nigeria buried in the sand. A country may not be left to govern!

There are so many reasons why president Buhari should resign. More than one year in office, he continues to blame the PDP for his failures. As a teacher, l would have sent (student Buhari) to the special education department. He needs help. He cannot lead successfully.

In the interest of the country at large and to rescue what is left of the first term of a tumultous and corrupt regime, the APC needs to do very quick analyses of her campaign slogans, manifestos and programs and find out what has gone wrong. The country is more important than individual interests or ego.

In an attempt to get back on track, the party should ask Buhari to step aside to allow for fresh minds and active millennium-compliant brains to help the country get back to productive ways again. In 2 years, a lot can still be put together. Someone in the APC needs to stop blaming the PDP. We all saw the problems before the change slogan was activated. Give us a clear blueprint!

Many people, at private discussions, have laughed about my suggestion that Buhari needs to step aside because politicians don’t resign or step aside in Nigeria.

President Buhari’s case is different, he is old and should be in his country home playing with his grandchildren. If not now, when does he want to rest? He needs to go home to Daura and let us retrieve our country from ruins.

It is better for Buhari to sacrifice his ego than for all of us to allow the APC-Buhari mandate to sacrifice Nigeria.

In more than 15 years of writing about Nigeria l have seen the country sailed without the men who thought that Nigeria cannot continue without them. The list will grow with time.

The APC must remember the first item on her manifesto/program. One of the long-term solutions to the several problems plaguing Nigeria is the political solution. We miss the country where our parents and grandparents thrived before the civil war. It is there (to the regional governments) we must return and start to rebuild.

A country that is a fool at 56 is as good as dead!

aderounmu@gmail.com

Thy Glory O' Nigeria..!

A View From Scandinavian, Since 2006

Category Archives: Crime against Humanity

Nigerian Politics: The Meaning And Consequences Of Our Collective Foolishness

Nigeria in 2018: Probably The Worst Place To Be Born Or Live

The Dangers Of Hypocrisy

Nigeria, A Country Heading No Where

My Random Reflections @ 45

Let’s Go And Die, Abroad! (Part 2)

Nigeria @ 56: The Lucky Bastards!