Democracy

Mugabe: A Wrong Type Of Celebration

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There is grave danger if the method used to oust Mugabe is celebrated. The use of the military to correct political anomaly should not be celebrated or hailed anywhere in the world.

Mugabe: A Wrong Type Of Celebration

By Adeola Aderounmu

 

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Adeola Aderounmu

Many observers within and outside Africa seem to have celebrated the overthrown of Mugabe as the president of Zimbabwe after nearly 4 decades in power. Such a perception is a sharp contradiction to what obtained in the 1970s and 1980s when Mugabe was a hero of Zimbabwean independence.

I remember my reaction when Mugabe was voted to power for the 6th time in 2008. Then, he was 84 years and l thought he should be due for retirement so that he could rest and enjoy the rest of his days. At that moment l concluded that bad leaders, no matter how good their intentions may seem, are those who refused to train or mentor followers to take over from them.

In my opinion, Mugabe’s greatest mistake was not nurturing a few young men and women who could move Zimbabwe forward. He was prepared to rule Zimbabwe until his death and that is the only explanation l found for a man who is 93 years and not retired from public service.

No doubt about it, Mugabe overstayed in power. He probably mistook democracy for monarchy. In a democracy, the transfer of power is inevitable. Those who fought alongside Mugabe for the independence of Zimbabwe have reasons to feel insulted when it became apparent that Mugabe was planning to transfer power to his wife.

Some of these people are now politicians albeit old politicians and some remained in the military. They have now ensured that power was taken by force from Mugabe in his old, helpless ag.

When the current power tussle is settled, the handlers of Zimbabwe have a few things to clarify and rectify. For example, the law that gives  Mugabe the power to sack the Vice President of the country should be revoked through the legislature. Other repressive laws in the constitution that are capable of converting revolutionary, democratic leaders to tyrants should be abolished.

Zimbabwe and indeed many other countries in Africa need to review the tenures of their politicians. Zimbabwe for example, would probably have grown democratically if there was limitation on the number of times a president can seek for re-election. In countries where the power of incumbency makes it an almost impossible task to change power through credible elections, limited terms of office will be an antidote.

There is grave danger if the method used to oust Mugabe is celebrated. The use of the military to correct political anomaly should not be celebrated or hailed anywhere in the world. It remains a recipe for violence and civil war. It was wrong that the military option was what it took to oust Mugabe or stop his wife from taking over power. The electoral option, that which makes use of credible ballot votes and acceptable results, is always the best method.

The global media therefore need to present a balance report of the situations regardless of  its predisposition (love or hate) towards Mugabe. What has happened in Zimbabwe is not just about the person of Mugabe and his hunger for power but also about the welfare and the well-being of the people of Zimbabwe at home and abroad.

The lessons of Zimbabwe should once again opened our eyes to the inadequacies of democracy in certain parts of the world and these lessons should be instrumental to various institutions saddled with the promotion of not just democracy but civil rights of all people globally.

aderounmu@gmail.com

To Whom Nigeria Is Given, Corruption Is Expected. A Dissection of Buhari’s Oct.1 Speech.

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This government is running the country down. The corrupt elites put Buhari there and corruption was the expectation. Nigerians need to ensure that this regime too, like the Jonathan regime before it does not repeat itself. It’s the same bad wine in a dark bottle.

To Whom Nigeria Is Given, Corruption Is Expected. A Dissection of Buhari’s Oct.1 Speech.

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The current emperor of Nigeria is Mohammadu Buhari and it is expected that he will be corrupt throughout his reign. This is the way Nigeria was founded-on false hopes and for the satisfaction of the British orgies.

I took my precious time to listen to the speech of Nigeria’s president (yes l called him an emperor earlier because the Nigerian consitution was made by military men like him who unwisely made the position of the president that of an emperor). The speech was to mark the 57th independent anniversary of Nigeria.

The first lie in the speech was that Nigerians got free on october 1st 1960. Nigerian are not free yet. The people do not have freedom from the slave masters who have since taken the form of politicians. If Nigerians are a free people, they will have the possibility to pursue a life of happinesss and fulfilment. These rights, which are fundamental, have been taken away by crazy politicians and military gangsters. Nigerians are not free.

President Buhari wanted us to use the time for the celebration for reflection. That l totally agree with. People like him and all those who have stolen from Nigeria since 1960 should reflect and feel ashame of themselves. They should be ashame of their family names and how for the past 57 years that have ridiculed the intelligence of the black race. Yes, there is a need for reflection from the presidency to the states and to the local communities.

I find it rather amusing that after 2 years of this wasteful APC regime, Mr. Buhari is still blaming the lack of saving by former president Jonathan for non-performance. We know Jonathan was a prodigal child. Sadly the regime of the APC has shown that prodigality is inherent in the federal government of Nigeria.

Since the inception of this administration, we have not seen the reduction in the wages/salaries and allowances of the Nigerian politicians. The APC regime is the same as the previous PDP regime. From 1999 to date, Nigerians have seen rotational criminality in almost every sphere of governance.

I heard Mr. Buhari spoke loudly about fighting corruption. This statement turns my stomach. Mr. Buhari is dining and wining with criminals everyday in Abuja. The senate president is a criminal by all standard and by all measurements. His family has a history of organised crime. Everywhere you turn in Nigeria, you find that almost all the politicians are thieves. So, which corruption is Buhari fighting?

Mr. Buhari has proven that to whom Nigeria is given, corruption is expected. There is no way his pretences can hide him any longer from what is evident. This essay is not enough to run a chronicle of corruption that he has supervised or that have taken place while he was hale and away from government. Right now, he and his image makers will be battling how to nullify the new revelation of how he (as the president and minister of petroleuem) looted the treasury through the NNPC.

Mr. Buhari was talking about political freedom. I disagree with his idea of political freedom. Elections in Nigeria remain the winner takes it all affair and to be best of what we know about INEC, Nigeria’s politics is still a cash and carry affair. Buhari himself said he had no money for election form or campaign. So how did he become the president? The APC governors raided and raped their states for his election. Tinubu, Amaechi and co brought Mr. Buhari to power and the returns for the investment is part of what is keeping Nigeria down. Mr. Buhari, there is no political freedom in Nigeria. That is why you reward your sponsors and that is why you are expected to be corrupt. Nigeria was built for this.

Mr. Buhari will always be a military man. His speech was full of hatred for the Igbos. He berated their elders for not warning about the consequences of war. Was Buhari preparing for a war because of IPOB? That was a revelation. The man is so old-school and unintelligent. You don’t need to fight war to achieve seccession. This is the 21st century. He was so divisive he praised the Niger Delta elders for whatever they were doing to keep the militants calm. Buhari’s speech was very un-presidential, it was rather a speech full of hatred and waste.

From lying that the APC government had defeated the Boko Haram terrorists in 2015, Mr. Buhari is now accepting that terrorism is now part of human existence. So why did he lie in december 2015 when he said his propaganda government had technicallty defeated Boko Haram? Now he said even Europé and other parts of the world have similar problems of not being able to get rid of terrorists. I do not want to write about the Chibok girls because Madam Adamawa and El-Rufai have the details.

There was a talk about rice and fertilizer. To the best of my knowledge no one has confirmed to me that the price of rice has dropped. Maybe the impact came first to Aso Rock and the rest of us can await the dividends of this democracy. It is coming.

When Mr. Buhari spoke about power supply, l almost wept.

You could see the face of a man who cannot solve the problem. It appears that Mr. Fasola is warming the bench at the Power Ministry. Nigeria is targeting 10 000 MW by 2020 he said. This is just the same old lies we have been sold since the days of Abacha and the others before and after him. 2000, 2010, 2020. By 2020 they will move the goal-post to 2050. Those of us who would have lived and died without experiencing steady power supply in our lifetime would have done so. Then the lie will be repeated and so on and so forth.

It is a shame to the black race that the one who calls himself the giant of African cannot put her best brain together to end the menace of lack of power supply once and for all. It is a shame that the country cannot draw as much as possible from solar energy and use applied technology to end the menace for all time. It is a disgrace to humanity that Nigerians are living in darkness in the year 2017. This problem did not start with Mr. Buhari. Mr. Fashola only boasted before Nigeria was given to him through the Ministry of power. Now he too knows: To whom Nigeria is given, corruption and not solution to problem is expected. Ride on corruption, Long live corruption and stupidity.

Mr. Buhari ended his speech by talking about the 2nd half of his tenure. I hope it will be the last of his tenure. Even if somone else stood for him, Nigerians need to ensure that this regime, like the Jonathan regime does not repeat itself. It’s the same bad wine in a dark bottle.

We have a president who was talking about independent and freedom. Really? He is not even ashame to call Nigerian an independent country. How is Nigeria independent when he and the ones before him are receiving medical treatment in UK? Does Mr. Buhari or anyone in APC know the meaning of independent?

This government is running the country down. The corrupt elites put Buhari there and corruption was the expectation. All the fuss and noises about anticorruption are distractions. Nothing has happened significantly to impact on the people’s mentality and attitude towards corruption. Nothing will happen when all the corrupt people do not resign and they are not under any pressure from the people to resign.

That is why Nigerians are not free. They may think they are but they are not. A free people can change governance, government and the compositions of politicians in one night. In Nigeria, the people are forced to return criminals to office across the country every 4 years.

The APC government, like the PDP before it, is the same and they will not touch on the ordinary people’s lives. I need to remind all those who made it against all odds that their successes are not a prerequisite for me to give up the fight for the common good. I don’t care how you struggle to align with the nonsense system to make it by crook or clean. I’m saying it’s not right when your president is looting and wasting funds and the senators are certified crooks. It’s not right when the politicians are living large and anyhow whereas the people are hungry and angry at one another.

I’m trying hard not to conclude that Nigeria is a failed state and that despite all the sweet talks and coatings here and there, Nigeria will never make it under a unitary system of governance.

It’s not as if saints will be imported to run the regions if we succeed with regional government or independent regions. It’s a long, hard road for a people whose mentalities have been severely deformed and battered.

In matters of public service, Nigerians have an almost irreparable deficiency syndrome. They think public service is a means to wealth. This is the premise on which the government in Nigeria is operated since 1960 and this looks like the status quo that: to whom Nigeria is given, corruption is served and expected.

It’s a long, windy, difficult road to freedom. What will be the cost of freedom for Nigeria and Nigerians?

We must change the system and that is not an option.

aderounmu@gmail.com

By Adeola Aderounmu

The Nigerian Military Vs The Rest Of Us In A Pseudo-democracy

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The Nigerian Military Vs The Rest Of Us In A Pseudo-democracy

By Adeola Aderounmu (Today is 11 years l have been on this BLOG, THY GLORY O’NIGERIA..!)

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(A recent tv-program claiming that there is starvation in parts of Africa including Nigeria. This is the type of shame that Nigerian politicians bring to their families, fathers and mothers and the rest of us. How can a country so blessed be populated by starving children and jobless people?)

 

There are pockets of problems in Nigeria. The most visible in recents days is ongoing in the Eastern part of Nigeria as the Nigerian Military started show of might in some parts of Nigeria.

According to the military, these exercises are staged in a number of geographical locations in Nigeria. There is no external aggression against Nigeria so it suits the Military to oppress the civilians/citizens.

Sadly the exercise in the East is causing commotions and deaths because of the clashes between the Nigerian military and the members of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB).

There have been a lot of arguments back and forth on who is to blame for the deaths and clashes. One person that l know stated that two wrongs does not make a right. Oh well, two shades of madness does not make a sense to me as well.

If your enemy is planning to roast you, you do not rub palm oil on your body and then start dancing near the fire (or python). At the same time, the one who does not let a sleeping dog lie would be bitten and may die of rabies.

In the year 2017, there are so many options open to agitations bothering on secession and independence. In the 1990s we saw the effect of war and stupidity as Bosnia and other nation went up in flames because people refused to talk. Way back in 1967 Nigeria herself went up in flames and the rest is history. How easily can history repeat itselt? Too easy as humans never learned. Humans are passionately foolish.

For BIAFRA, my opinion is that IPOB and MASSOB need to find a common ground as a starting point.

For as long as IPOB and MASSOB have differing views on how to achieve the BIAFRA AGENDA, the Igbo people are just deceiving themselves. Secondly, and after they have achieved a common front, they now need to get the support of the generality of the Igbo people including their politicians at home and at Abuja.

In order to be qualified for REFERENDUM, the Igbo Nation, as in all of Eastern Nigerian must be united in seeking the referendum in which those in support and those against BIAFRA can make their votes count. In asking for a referendum, it does not mean that all Igbo people are in support of BIAFRA, it only means that they will have a chance to test the popularity of the opinion.

A Referendum will not be achieved by violence and hate speech for which Nnamdi Kanu is a champion, sadly. A referendum will never be achieved as long as Igbo Ministers and Igbo politicians in Abuja are rubbing minds and asses with the rest of the country. It is not as if they need to come home to settle to Biafra, but their inputs are needed in achieving and testing the referendum. A majority outcome is the future of the Igbo Union.

Not even getting to that point makes a useless mess of the agitation of either IPOB or MASSOB. A war will consume them like a thuderous fire no matter the external or internal support. IPOB must understand the dictates of war. It is beyond street violence as the Nigerian Military as shown by their tiny operation in the East in recent days.

True it appears the Nigerian Military is controlled by the North. True, it appears that Buhari is a sectional ruler and a ruthless, thoughtless dictator… THEREFORE not playing by the rules of achieving a referedum makes it easy for him as a ruthless ruler to excercise military might.

To confront any ruler or government in Nigeria, any region or section that is willing to secede must first follow the books. To go to war with Nigeria means that the government of Nigeria have refused to listen to the voice of reason after every requirement for referendum or eventual secession have been achived. It would then be logical to accuse the Nigerian government of genocide or tribal killings (for which the military is already an expert, so don’t get me wrong). I am not in support of any military action or excercise in any zone in Nigeria. It is absolute nonsense and a provocative act.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. In my opinion a referendum is the way forward for the BIAFRAN AGENDA. It will be a very, very long and unwindy road to get to the point of a referendum.

Violence, war and forming local militias is not the way. History shows us that lives will be lost, the innocent will be massacred and the purpose will never be achieved. Only the manufacturers of weapons will smile to the banks.

So again, let IPOB or/and MASSOB come to the table and forge a way forward. Greed and thirst for power may eventually suffocate both groups. Get your people together, not necessarily because you think you are right to form BIAFRA but to vote against or for your call for the republic of BIAFRA.

Let everyone be prepared to accept the result of the referendum and let’s see where we go from there. Remember that as long as your Abuja politicians and state governors are singing a different tunes, then there will be no referendum, talk less of a BIAFRA that many people around the world belived died in 1970.

I am not an expert on this issue, l am just a blogger offering my opinion because l would hate to see a people suffer genocide in the hands of the one-sided Nigerian military.

However l am super convinced that if it were to be a country-wide revolution where all the people in the country (more than 150 m) pour to the streets at the same time for several days or weeks, the government will be totally crippled and changes including the emergence of new nations or the re-establishment of the old ones will emerge.

I amd also thinking about what will become of the IBADAN DECLARATION in the coming days. I wonder if it was an empty show where some people are also seeking for attention.

I am thinking loud about the major problems in Nigeria, a country so blessed yet so deprieved because of the greed of a few people who sadly are still in power no matter the political affiliation.

I am thnking about: IPOB, MASSOB, ODUDUWA REPUBLIC, AREWA YOUTH, MIDDLE BELT REGION, MEND, HERDSMEN AND BOKO HARAM.

There is an urgent need for a political solution. With or without the IPOB uprisings, this country cannot hold for too much longer. We postpone the major evil days while the people experience taste of evil daily. This is not sustainable.

These are just my my unedited random thoughts in these days of uncertainty, lies, power vacuum and a propaganda machine in the hands of a very wicked style of government. The Buhari led APC government now ranks among the most useless government in Nigeria. It is the most hypocritical in the history of Africa. It is basically at par with the Jonathan government with regards to the number of criminals in its ranks from the president to the senate leader to the governors and the local government. It’s the same old sh*t.

Toying with this type of heartless criminals the way IPOB is doing is mainly suicide. There must be a way round…

 

Nigeria, A Country Heading No Where

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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

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

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

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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