Democracy

A Political Stillbirth

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

Didn’t we warn about the roles of political prostitutes in Nigeria?  The generational bastards-who are carbon copies of their criminal fathers-are now gradually taking control of the change machinery.

A Political Stillbirth

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

Though many will continue to argue that APC or the new government headed by Buhari should be given time to adjust and get to work, still the situation at the end of June 2015, one month after the new government was inaugurated, is simply unacceptable.

One of the consistent arguments in recent essays l’d written is the suggestion that Nigeria needs a political solution to most of the problems that plague her.

Political solutions can be taken from different perspectives. For example, the biggest transformation will be to overhaul the system and bring governance to the grassroots so that the people can closely monitor their politicians, scrutinize them and boot them out of office for corruption, non-performance and inefficiency.

An argument for regional government has been rife for many years because of the failure of the pseudo-federal system that is practised in Nigeria. The Senate and the House of Representatives in Nigeria still represent a watse of money and something many regard as senseless organs of govenrment.

The likely stillbirth of the APC government has also now brought into focus another missing link in the physiology of the various political parties in Nigeria.

This missing link is so bad, and in fact so sad it is hard to deny that Nigeria is in the hands of a bunch of opportunists and dunces. I mean that after one month, it is still impossible to consitute a functional government. How else can one qualify those on whose shoulders or laps the mantle of rulership just fell?

This also reminds me of a few lines in some previous essays where l dismissed the campaigns of both the APC and PDP as mere charades.

In the course of building a political party, the starters need to find intellectuals who will drive every relevant question relating to politics, the economy and of course social issues among several others that (should) usually steer the outcome of elections.

In all political parties, there should be departments that represent every facet of governance. The implication is that every political party owes itself a shadow government.

The electorate or a voter should be able to make phone calls to the APC headquarter and request to speak with the department of power and steel, or the department of youth and development or the department of economy and social welfare.

Invariably there should be an expert or a group of experts within the party who manage all the issues and questions affecting the party and the citizens as a whole.

The importance of the hierarchy among these experts cannot be overemphasized.

It should be based on merit, experience, loyalty and service to the people and the community. It is such structures that make the emergence of a new government stress-free in what we called the advanced countries or countries with functional democracy. Such is the reason why the opposition party/government is ever ready to take control of governance when the ruling party collapse.

When Buhari emerged as the APC presidential candidate, why did the officers or experts in the various areas (economy, power supply, transport, youth affairs, justice, and so on) not emerge parallel at the same time based on merit, knowledge, experience, loyalty and political pedigree?

Why is the emergence of this think-tank taking more than one month to be constituted? No one should blame it on restructuring or resizing. Those are useless excuses.

Some of the real answers are not far-fetched.

Buhari was definitely not prepared for office. The hallmark of his campaign was silence but the APC social media prowess propelled him to fame and eventual victory. We have been cornered into forgoing the rigging that went with the elections.

Apart from Buhari’s lack of preparedness for office, there are other factors, some of them as old as the Nigeria that emerged in october 1960. There is always a constant force (many call it the cabal) that usually derail Nigeria just when you think there is a new hope.

Then on her own part, the APC will provide a lot of explanations and reasons why Buhari’s ministers may not emerge until a certain date. They will not tell the world how many variations of ministerial lists that are being submitted by various interest groups, persons and organisations whose sole interests is to continue to profit from Nigeria as the people continue to suffer and wait in vain for the dividends of democracy.

Nigeria is at a standstill. She has been at this point several times before. The present disgusting political scenario is an avoidable stillbirth.

Between 1999 and 2015, 16 years was wasted as corruption occupied Nigeria and PDP sent Nigeria and Nigerians down the drain.

The opportunity to compare what the APC government has to offer between now and 2019 is already been wasted. The PDP infiltrated the change movement through the fake latter days converts like Saraki and co..and it appears that the APC is now in disarray because of the ambitions of some fools in power and the continuous adoption of political criminals and political criminals.

Didn’t we warn about the roles of political prostitutes in Nigeria?

The APC change partially appears genuine but it was not going to be perfect because of the criminality of the politicians. However it is now too easy to condemn the APC altogether already just one month after they emerged. The fears that politicians do not change or that they are the same is being tested.

In any case, if the nonsense that has happened in the last one month remain the characteristics of the APC, if the APC does not find a way to uproot all the vagabonds and traitors in her midst, it means that they have already failed in advance before the examination day.

For the future, even as a lasting political solution is being pursued, the political parties need to put their houses in order, properly.

As they set to campaign, they need to have their officers and ministers in place. It is these officers or ministers (to be) who should be campaigning and answering all the political and economic questions at rallies. Just as VP Osiyemi was known during the campaign, all the other likely emerging people should have been visible and presented.

They are the ones who should be facing the multitude and telling about why they should be voted for and what their political parties have to offer.

In that way, the people already have an idea of who and who that are coming on board. It also provides a way to look at the characters and nature of a government that is emerging or the one that intends to continue in office.

I do not want to agree that Buhari was a bait provided by Tinubu/APC to continue the business of looting at the Federal level. Rather what l see now is a group of people denying Nigerians the completion of a process that would have been easily evaluated for continuity say in 2017 or 2018.

Many people condemned the PDP for 16 years for the ways they ruined Nigeria and Nigerians. Why is it too hard to try a complete turnaround process of 4 years? How can we access the APC government when it has already been hijacked at this stage?

I think Nigerians need a series of massive demonstrations/rallies that will force the resignations of all those who have forced themselves into offices through crooked means. Transparancy and fairness should be encouraged.

The people who are obstacles to the change Nigerians are waiting for need to be confronted head-on right away. The bastard politicians, some with the carbon copy traits of their fathers are becoming generational obstacles.

Some people stood up for 16 years and masterminded the change of 2015. Why should they suddenly be pushed under? If Nigerians allow the generational bastards to take control of the change machinery, then the pages of change as a process should be closed forever.

By 2017 or 2018, if the real APC government must be accessed for performance as a party that is actually ruling, Nigerians must help them bring down all those who are already strangulating the baby before the naming ceremony. This perpetual political stillbirth is dangerous. For the good of all, the political stillbirth must be aborted once and for all.

aderounmu@gmail.com

2014-2019: The Last Show Of The Wasted Generation?

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

Those whose fathers have ruined Nigeria and the contemporaries of their fathers are what we have left on the stage. Criminal politicians and soldiers who have been recycled and overused now have the last chance to redeem their useless pasts.

2014-2019: The Last Show Of The Wasted Generation?

By Adeola Aderounmu

wasted generation

Some of the early indicators from the Buhari-led APC administration are negative. Many supporters of the administration have been responding to the criticisms against the APC government by asking for time.

It is a genuine request to ask for time because time is the indicator and revealer of all things.

But the argument for more time in the Nigerian context needs to be understood and well-defined.

The endless resiliency of the ordinary Nigerians have made nonsense of the principle of time and performance as well as accountability and probity in Nigeria.

By sleeping away mentally while living in a country devoid completely of social justice and equity, the ordinary Nigerians have been as guilty as the marauders who raped the land and cart away the treasuries for themselves and their children.

Passive citizenry contributed largely to the wasteful years that befell Nigeria from 1960 to 1999.

In that time frame of more almost 40 years, the value, meaning and the quality of life in Nigeria degenerated to one of the lowest in the world.

To make matters worse the PDP-led government unleashed another complete 15-years of waste on Nigerians. The Obasanjo-Yar’Adua-Jonathan administrations of 1999-2015 impoverished the lans and left majority of Nigerians poorer than before.

These rulers and their precedessors bled Nigeria to the point of an almost irreversible damage.

The recent climax was when a country that is almost devoid of electricity claimed to be the largest economy in Africa.

It is still so bad that the suffering in Nigeria (for the ordinary, struggling masses) is comparable to the situations faced by people living under war situations or the threats of it.

The wait for change has been an endless one.

Hence, the category of people who are in a haste to see the Buhari-led government properly hit the ground and running after barely one month have genuine concerns.

They are the people who know that time is now a luxury that Nigeria can no longer afford. They are the ones who abides by the principle of ”the morning shows the day”.

However the proper function of time in the entire scenario needs to be highlighted.

Change is a process and not a single event or an isolated occurence. Therefore there will be a need to re-educate the rest of us who think that a Buhari presidency under APC is the antidote to all of Nigeria’s woes.

Indeed the gradual change in government and governance are parts and parcel of the processes that will bring about the conditions that are needed to bring back living in Nigeria to what it was in the 1950s and early 1960s.

In modern times, those years before l was born were the paradise years of the Nigerian life.

There was an early warning that Nigerians ignored during the run up to the recent elections of 2015. It wasn’t new but it was phenomenal and rampant.  Some people continue to dignify political prostitution by calling it carpet-crossing. This permissive madness in the Nigerian political arena made popular by this wasted generation is about to ruin the traces of hope.

It has a lot of implications too. The most revealing is that irrespective of their political parties, Nigerian politicians are always after their own selfish interests. To a very large extent, it shows that politicians do not believe in the change that the ordinary citizens are clamouring for.

For them, politics is business as usual. Politics remain the easiest way to stolen wealth because the winners take it all!

Some brilliant minds continue to emphasized that until the political parties are separated ideologically, there will be no difference in what they bring to the table. Moreso tragic is the situation where the institutions that should check accountability and probity have been put in a state of permanent coma.

The sad situations from the past and present dispensations means that the strengthening of the institutions and their independence can no longer wait.

Changes may fail to happen as expected if the status quo of the various institutions remain the same. It means that the politicians will continue to steal, loot and propagate inpunity as if these ills are their birthrights.

In the same vein, there won’t be visible changes in Nigeria if the people do not understand that their own attitudes, their behaviours at their offices and in the society at large are also ingredients of the changes that everybody is talking about.

It is so disheartening to see that everybody is talking about change whilst nobody is changing the ways they have been doing things.

There is a lot of work to be done Nigerians!

The people must do what is needed of them as citizens and they must embrace patriotism.

The government must meet the people halfway to make the change cycle complete and running.

Buhari must appoint his Ministers before the end of June 2015 to redeem what is left of an already faulty start.

At this moment in Nigeria’s history-with APC-led central government-is what appears to be the last chance for the wasteful/wasted generation of Nigerians to redeem its name.

Politically conscious Nigerias and the people who will live in Nigeria by 2019 would be lost forever if they ever use the change slogan again.

In today’s Nigeria those whose fathers have ruined Nigeria and the contemporaries of their fathers are what we have left on the stage. Criminal politicians and soldiers who have been recycled and overused now have the last chance to redeem their useless pasts.

This type of nonsense must not happen again.

By 2019 one expects that the citizens must have played their parts. One expects that the government would have played her parts through exemplary leadership, total war on corruption, economic programs design to lift human dignity and political reforms to correct the sources of instability and mediocrity.

There are many more ways to know and measure performances. By 2019 the people must know if a new drastic measure will be needed and the awareness for that must begin in earnest.

If the tool of (last chance) change fails, the upcoming generation of Nigerians must begin to organise to weigh their chances of living a fulfilled life.

There is a tool that remained unused and that is a riddle that need to be solved. It is a two-edged tool. The more potent edge leads to a total generational shift and it will be wonderful to rid Nigeria of the wasted generation and their offspring that still loom large.

No matter what happens, Nigeria needs a functional political structure and system. Things cannot continue the way they are now.

Regional government and devolution of power are remedies to both the federal character system and the impotent geo-political zonings that have drained Nigeria of creativity and development possibilities.

A lasting change that will favour the people from the top to the grassroots will be very useful in evaluating the PDP- infected, power-hustlers APC government of Buhari.

The APC government has less than 4 years to rescue and redeem Nigeria’s wasted generation in what may be the final chance or opportunity.

aderounmu@gmail.com

6 Jonathanic Years Of Waste

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

At this time in Nigeria’s history no change or transformation will be complete without a lasting political solution. I hope to continue to write again about Nigeria but only under a new dispensation, otherwise it will not be worth it.

Six Jonathanic Years Of Waste

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

As l write this article, the main opposition party in Nigeria the APC seems poised to win the 2015 presidential election. Everyone is waiting for the official results to be announced by the electoral commission-INEC.

In 2010 when Umaru Yar Adua died l wrote an article on my blog lambasting all his supporters who were creating obstacles that could disrupt the smooth emergence of the vice president Mr. Goodluck Jonathan as the next president of the federal republic of Nigeria.

At that time l was enraged that democractic principles could be thrown away if Mr. Goodluck Jonathan was not allowed to continue as the president of Nigeria as stipulated by the constitution.

My support at that time was for the continuation of an imperfect mandate.

During his short reign as the president of Nigeria Umaru acknowledged that he became the president of Nigeria through a fraudulent process. He was probably swept off his feet by the PDP rigging machinery courtesy of Obasanjo and Ibori.

The PDP which emerged as Nigeria’s ruling party under Mr. Obasanjo in 1999 until the time of Yar Adua’s death was already a great disappointment.

To the chagrin surprise of ordinary Nigerians, after the military left in 1999, corruption was re-entrenched in Nigeria’s civilian reign just the way it has always been since independence in 1960. Nepotism became rife and the dividends of democracy stayed mostly with the politicians, their families, their friends and acquaintances.

Mostly too, the business of governance was neglected as the presidency, the executive members of government, the ministers, the governors and even local government chairmen raked in monies into their personal accounts in Nigeria and abroad.

Crude oil production and marketing became complete mafia affairs. Subsidy scam, pension scam and employment scam escalated with time. The diversification of the economy was put into coma.

There were occasional pockets of good news but overall the expectations of more than 90 m Nigerians who live below the poverty level and unsure of the next meal remain largely unmet. They continue to suffer and continue to live hopelessly even to this day.

It was against this backdrop of disappointments that Nigerians gave a popular support to the candidacy of Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. They thought he was a new kid on the block.

But they got it wrong. If the track records of political office holders are relevant in Nigeria and the laws correctly enforced, Goodluck Jonathan would have been a prisoner at the time he was contesting for the office of the presidency.

This is because he had used his wife as a front in looting the funds that belong to the people of Bayelsa State when he was deputy governor and later governor.

Goodluck Jonathan was not fit for any political office. This is actually true for more than 90% of Nigeria’s politicians. Many of them are criminals waiting to plunge the state and national treasuries. So it is not as if Gooldluck Jonathan is an isolated case.

When Goodluck Jonathan started his own mandate in 2011, it suddenly became clear that the largest black nation in the world had been handed over to a clown. Goodluck Jonathan is not only clueless, he is also grossly incompetent and lazy.

The ridiculous nature of politics in Nigeria in the hands of fraudsters cannot be overemphasized.

The fact that the Nigerian National Assembly could allow such a disaster on Nigeria reveals that national assembly is also full of individuals who are after their own selfish interests. To call them criminals too is fair enough considering that their inactions have continue to send children, unprotected people, the elderly and the several other categories of Nigerians to their early graves.

Where lies the hope of the common man and the ordinary people in Nigeria?

Since 1999 the return of civilian rule in Nigeria has revealed the criminalities of civil administrators and their actions and inactions together have contributed enormously to crimes against humanity.

Since 2011 Mr. Jonathan did absolutely nothing to curb corruption.

His antecedents provide a useful base for comparison. He was corrupt as a deputy governor and later governor. He allowed all the corrupt people under him to flourish. He released murderers from prisons, he pardoned convicted persons and he embraced them publicly. Jonathan promoted drug dealers and put them in position of authority.

Jonathan’s affinity for criminals and crimes has no bound.

The latest were the re-enthronement of a thug one Mr. Fayose as the governor of Ekiti and a known criminal Mr. Obanikoro as a minister of the federal republic of Nigeria.

Mr. Goodluck Jonathan up till now is the worst president Nigeria has ever had. The previous political and military rulers are all crooks and corrupt people. But Goodluck Jonathan took corruption to a new dimension. His simply laid it like a spreadsheet program.

They should all been prosecuted and it is never too late to recover Nigeria’s stolen wealth.

A president who does not understand that stealing is corruption is a source of international embarrassment to Nigeria and Africa.

Goodluck Jonathan does not also understand the importance of courtesy and decorum. The way his wife have been screaming, crying and lately campaigning across Nigeria adds to the embarrassment that his family brought to Nigeria.

Mrs. Jonathan graduated from the looter of Bayelsa to the looter of Aso rock and she runs her mouth faster than her brain cells.

The Jonathans have not represented Nigeria in good light.

Nigeria is blessed with courageous people and some of the most brilliant and sound minds in the world, yet the country always manage to bring insane people to serve in public offices as politicians.

The process that produces the likes of Jonathan and his lousy wife has also over the years produced thousands of similarly unfit people in various public and political offices.

This is one of the sources of the challenges that Nigeria faces. Wrong people who should be receiving counselling and psychological supports have been elevated to run politics and policies.

The lack of electricity, the lack of functional public schools, the lack of good roads and the absence of social justice did not start with Mr. Jonathan. Under him things that did not start with him just went down the spiral curve.

He is always emphatic about these issues and he is always repeating the obvious- that Nigeria’s problems did not start during his administration. He is so clueless not to even take one issue head on and solve it as an evidence that he can perform.

It is not only the oil sector that is in tha hands of mafia, even Nigeria’s electric power sector has been sold to the mafia. Billions of dollars were spent by the wasteful PDP government since 1999 when Obasanjo came to power but the power generation became worse. It can only be criminals who stole the money and left the work undone.

The population of criminals in government increased in the last 6 years because Jonathan had no plan and no clue about what governance is all about. It may also be that he got too drunk often like he did in Addis Ababa and forgot the task before him at the AU meeting.

I long for a country where social justice will reign.

One day l hope the judiciary arm of government will ressurect and that the police will become the institution it should be. My hope for Nigeria is that no matter the political party that any politician belongs to, that they will never be protected from the law by any form of immunity.

My hope is that Nigerian politicians, the mafia in the oil sector and in other sectors hindering the progress of the country through corruption will all be brought to their knees at the court of law, to face justice and to return looted monies.

My hope for Nigeria is that a day will come when crazy people will be bundled out of political and public offices so that normal, unright people with sense of responsibility and accountability will start to run things.

In many countries around the world, it is those few sane people in government that have kept the system working. Unfit people are never elected and they are bundled out through due process when they have been errorneously put in public office.

Nigeria can become that country where the best brains, the trusted hands and the brilliant public administrators can be saddled with nation building. The judiciary must work so that when brilliant minds become criminal minds, they can be quickly shown their room numbers at kirikiri.

At this time in Nigeria’s history no change or transformation will be complete without a lasting political solution. Nigeria must return to true federalism or regional government. The power at the center even if the judiciary is working must be removed and made unattractive.

Politics cannot be a business adventure for lazy or criminal minds and the task before a government and the people as well is to make politics unattractive for those who think that it is a means to acquire wealth for themselves and their unborn generations.

The emergence and the reign of Goodluck Jonathan were an insult to the intelligence of the Nigerian people and to Africa in particular. He and his wife brought Nigeria to ridicule and together with the loads of corrupt people in the government they made Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of nations.

Under Jonathan Nigeria remains as one of the most corrupt country in the world.

I will hope that the 2015 elections bring a new government. It will be interesting to see the other side of the coin.

Without a change of government through another political party we will not be able to know if the 1999 to 2015 pdp years was an avoidable waste.

In subsequent essays l want to evaluate a new government at the national level because the PDP is a known disaster.

I hope to continue to write again about Nigeria but only under a new dispensation, otherwise it will not be worth it.

aderounmu@gmail.com

The Unveiling Of Africa’s Latest Tyrant?

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In 6 weeks Nigerians will know if a tyrant is born or not. They will know if the military will be in charge to complete the February 7 coup

The Unveiling Of Africa’s Latest Tyrant?

Is Jonathan Africa's latest tyrant?

Is Jonathan Africa’s latest tyrant?

By Adeola Aderounmu

Nigeria in 2015 probably has a new dictator in the making. His name is Goodluck Jonathan. The man is a famous drunkard who rode on luck to become the ruler of Africa’s most populous country.

In a sane society a man so incompetent, clueless and thoughtless would not near the seat of governance. The way he and his wife have been running Nigeria is a complete disgrace to the intellectual capacity of the African minds. Mr. and Mrs Jonathan stain and embarrass Africa, greatly.

The rise of Jonathan to power will remain one of the darkest episodes in Africa’s modern history.

Trillions of dollars that could have brought prosperity to every Nigerian family are now missing and shared with a group of corrupt people who are already members of the influential 1% that owns 80% of the country’s wealth and who together continue to enslave the majority of the population.

The present ruling government, like all the previous ones before it, contains people who should be tried for crimes against humanity for rapidly spreading and escalating poverty among the majority of the population.

The problems Nigeria face today did not start with the criminal minded Jonathan and his wife but under them the situation reached a new dimension with alarming consequences.

The coming days and months will reveal the willingness of Nigerians to liberate themselves or to remain in bondage for a much longer time.

On February 14 presidential elections are supposed to hold in Nigeria. The chairman of the electoral committee stated the readiness and commitment of the electoral institution (INEC) to conduct the elections like it did 4 years ago.

Mr. Jonathan boycotted the National Assembly which has the mandate to set and adjust election dates. The National Assembly did not see the need for the delay of the polls and would have disagreed with Mr. Jonathan.

Mr. Jonathan turned to the military and staged a coup on the 7th of February 2015. The army told the world that it cannot secure 14 local governments for 2 days of election!

So the electoral committee was left with no choice but to postpone the elections.

If the army cannot protect 14 local government for 2 days, that army must be the MOST USELESS army in the history of mankind. We know what ordinary vigilante groups can do within a locality.

But that was not the truth. Mr. Jonathan was afraid of defeat at the polls. The opposition headed by a former dictator Gen. Buhari was poised for victory at the polls.

Postponing or cancelling the February polls was a décor to halt the certainty that the opposition will displace the corrupt, lazy and incompetent administration of Jonathan that continues to loot and rape the country blind.

The military taking on the function of the National Assembly in postponing the elections has invariably committed treason and carried out a coup. The coup was sponsored by Jonathan and this may mark the beginning of his reign of tyranny if Nigerians do not disengage him as soon as possible.

Six weeks from now, Boko Haram will still be in existence. There is no way Jonathan and his coup plotters can rid North Eastern Nigeria of Boko Haram in 6 weeks. Why have they not done in 6 years what they now what to do in 6 weeks? Only fools will believe the lies of the Nigerian army and Jonathan.

The most efficient way to fight terrorism or insurgency is never to give the impression of weakness. It must have taken a fool and a clueless mind to act otherwise. Cancelling the February elections is the hallmark of cowardice and lameness.

The saving grace for the February 7 coup is that the constitution was buoyant enough to absorb the adjustment. If the elections are postponed again, the constitutions will not be able to accommodate the changes and the rule of Jonathan will therefore become illegal.

If this happens, the opposition will be right to fulfil its threat of floating a parallel government. Jonathan is ready for war and that is why he has depleted the Nigerian army and equipped his militia group in the Niger Delta.

He has secretly and openly unleashed the Nigerian army on the opposition. Soldiers who should be fighting to keep the 6 weeks target intact are watching over the opposition in compliance with the orders from Africa’s latest dictator.

All the characteristics of a tyrant and a dictator are emerging from this criminal called Jonathan. He is afraid of going to jail one would think and therefore not ready to lose or hand over government to the opposition.

His loudest bulldog one Mr. Okupe said that Jonathan would rather hand over to an interim government or to the military rather than to the opposition.

In making such a statement, the camp of Jonathan already conceded defeat even before the elections. The morning shows the day.

The lazy army generals who could not protect 14 local governments for 2 days are waiting in line if all the plans of Jonathan fail.

They have already staged a coup on February 7 2015, one can assume that they are just waiting to announce a new military government in 6 weeks.

Mr. Jonathan is following a script no one has seen or heard of. He is taking his cluelessness to a new height because of the urge to remain in power at all cost. It is easy to predict that he will be put to shame soon. He is the proverbial Yoruba dog that wants to get lost totally.

I hope all the pastors who prayed for his victory at the botched February 14 2015 elections can now see that they are also fools. They were taken for a jolly ride by the clueless crook from the creek.

Nigerians are patient people. Late Fela Anikulapo was their greatest prophet ever. What did he say about suffering and smiling? What did he say about army arrangement? What did he say about missing oil money? What did he say about the pastor and his wife? What did he say about the Imam?

Mr. Jonathan is testing the waters. By now he ought to have been drowned in the test. Historically he is stretching the limits of the people’s resilience when he cancelled an election that took the electoral commission 4 years to prepare for.

What Mr. Jonathan must know is that Nigerians are not expecting a miracle from anyone who takes over the mantle of rulership from him. What is certain is that irrespective of the nature and consequences of the change, the people are poised to try it out and see where it takes them.

People are sick of his cluelessness and dumb brain.

The common voice of the majority will remain the voice of the gods. It shall prevail. If Nigeria exists after Abacha, then no one can hold the country down on his or her own terms. Never!

In 6 weeks Nigerians will know if a tyrant is born. They will know if the military will be in charge to complete the February 7 coup.

The roles of the civil society as well as the formidability of the opposition parties may determine the fate of a tyrant in the making.

If caution is thrown to the winds, all the predictions about the disintegration of Nigeria in 2015 may come to pass and history may record Jonathan as the last ruler of a unitary Nigeria. Time will tell..!

aderounmu@gmail.com

A Remarkable Pact

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

Buhari and Jonathan signed a peace agreement. Historically this is a very remarkable pact-that a peace agreement was signed before a war or in the absence of war between 2 factions.

A Remarkable Pact

By Adeola Aderounmu

Ade

The ugly tradition of politics in Nigeria remains and is madly sustained.

Several politicians flock from the PDP fold into the APC fold as the February 2015 elections draw closer. This massive, aimless exodus of purposeless, selfish and greedy politicians is unprecedented in the history of Nigeria.

Nigeria is peculiar.

I have emphasized before that there are rewards for political prostitutions in Nigeria. As it stands now, it is impossible to find the definitive line that separates the two main political parties in Nigeria.

A good friend based in Southie argued that APC is different from PDP: that when the PDP members cross carpet to the APC they will act differently because people are influenced by the type of company that they keep.

I disagree on this one because APC is increasingly becoming a party of PDP dropouts. So the party continues. Where is the change? Who is fooling who?

Every four years people fall to the same political scam. It’s like a ritual. For those who are entering into political awareness for the first or second time, they will soon learn the name of the game.

For several others suffering from political myopism because they have not been paying attention for a very long time, they have refused to learn that the system of politics in Nigeria is remarkably dysfunctional.

Since the clarion call for the abruption of the faulty political system to allow for the re-actualization of the dreams of the fighters of the Nigerian independence is not yet popular, the follow-follow majority continue to hold on to false hopes every four years.

As the national existence in denial continues, there are probably 3 scenarios that may emerge depending on if peradventure the forthcoming presidential election, against all odds, reached  conclusion, or not.

The first scenario is that Goodluck Jonathan may continue in power. This is possible because global democracy has a nasty history of what is called the power of incumbency. Umaru Yar Adua missed out by his untimely death.

Despite the gross incompetence and laziness of corruption-laden Goodluck Jonathan, he may persist to extend beyond 2015 the worst post-military years of the Nigerian life which began with Obasanjo in 1999.

It is not only the power of incumbency that could tilt the votes in his favor. There is always a difference between what people might consider as social media popularity and the reality. Sweden and in fact the rest of Europe provide classical examples.

Racists and extremists’ political parties are winning more votes and finding their ways to European parliament despite the upsurge of campaign against them on the social media.

So the question is why do they keep getting so many votes? In Sweden the racist party is the third biggest political party. The party may not be popular online but it garnered massive votes on election days.

A lot of people think that Buhari will sweep the Nigerian presidential elections. How many of those who support Buhari at rallies have the cards to vote? Many Nigerians like to attend political rallies just the same way they attend religious crusades.

Nigerians are very good lookers too. If taxes are collected for looking, a lot of money will flow in to the government coffers daily in Nigeria. But the money will be looted anyway.

If we assume that Nigeria conducts a free and fair election, the social media denigration of Jonathan does not necessarily imply that the coast is clear for Buhari.

But there are crises and mayhem already in Nigeria that may escalate and hinder a free and fair election. The success of Boko Haram is an additional catalyst to any chaos that may trail the 2015 elections in Nigeria.

The second scenario is that Buhari too can win the election. If the massive support on the virtual social media and at the physical rallies translates into non-pretense active participation, then Buhari may win.

In addition if all the PDP prostitute politicians who cross-carpeted to APC can successfully convince their followers to do the same and if they all have the voters’ cards to exercise their rights, then Buhari may get a land-slide victory, l think.

The third scenario is what many people don’t want to talk about because it is highly undesirable, but not impossible.

If Nigeria reached an unresolved stalemate, say, as an outcome of the interplay of inconclusive presidential elections, violence around the country and escalation of the Boko Haram war on Northern Nigeria, then the future of Nigeria may be decided following long-drawn battles that will take place both on the political and war fields.

I maintain that it is very risky that Nigeria entered into this election season with many prevalent problems unsolved and many questions unanswered. The dirt under the carpet is massive and stinking.

Nigerians must know that there was a reason for the peace accord that was signed in Abuja in week 3 of 2015 by the principal members of both APC and PDP. If anyone thought that it was ordinary eyes, they better go wash off their eyes to see the handwriting on the wall and the reason for the peace agreement.

Again, Buhari and Jonathan signed a peace agreement. Historically this is a very remarkable pact-that a peace agreement was signed before a war or in the absence of war.

Nigerians must hope that this peace accord spreads to everyone including Boko Haram before the election. It is in fact a good deal and it is better to use it proactively than to try to use it by hindsight.

In the meantime isn’t it about time the intra-and interparty uprisings in Rivers State are stemmed before they spread to other parts of the country? We know that Amaechi has been promised a number of ministerial slots and the elimination process by murder had started in earnest! Wike and Amaechi will need their own peace accord before the River burns!

Nigeria faces her biggest challenge ever since the end of the civil war because an election is planned amidst a long list of uncertainties and in the face of Islamic fundamentalists waging a war in the northern region.

When, and if the dusts ever settle, the bigger challenges will remain because the future of any nation is more important than where she is now.

There are outstanding problems that are partially independent of whoever becomes the ruler of Nigeria as I call them.

Summarily, as a matter of urgency, Nigeria needs to:

  • End the war in the north and disarm the terrorists in the south and elsewhere
  • Find a permanent political solution
  • Face the current economic reality from a global perspective

The political solution ace lies with the National Assembly all the time. Instead of doing their jobs, they have over the years allowed themselves to be overshadowed by calls for Sovereign National conferences and all kinds of ruses called CONFABs.

The Nigerian National Assembly has, for so long, neglected its role of debating the political structure of Nigeria and how to systematically remove or reduce the power concentrated at the center. This negligence reflects the evil nature of the extreme selfishness of Nigerian politicians.

The system works for their pockets, makes them billionaires and promotes their ineptitudes. The system that has destroyed virtually all important organs of governance, probity and accountability makes Nigeria probably the most corrupt country in the world.

As the National Assembly continues to ignore this role, corruption persists as the most organized activity in Nigeria.

Hence successive corrupt governments continue to institute or plan own convention and conference. Mr. Jonathan wasted a fortune from tax payers’ money on this recently. The real National Assembly must start to debate even if the debate outlives a certain government.

It will not matter how long Nigerians beat about the bush. One day in the future, they will be forced to discuss reasonably through the national assembly. If it becomes too late the third scenario highlighted above may be triggered.

Then they’ll again have to bring their representatives who will discuss and negotiate the future of Nigeria by force so that they can come forward with a functional system of government.

On the economy, let me remind Nigeria that the future of crude oil does not look bright. The world is looking and it is finding alternatives to fossil fuels including crude oil. The argument is to reduce the extraction and refinery of crude oil to the production of raw materials that are related to medicine and household needs.

So it means that the diversification of the Nigerian economy cannot wait.

Solving the political problems and allowing the different regions in Nigeria to plan their survival and economic future are some of the ingredients that can move the country forward as a true federation the way it was before the ugly coups of 1966.

Nigeria must make use of her honest historians and political scientists to show the proper road maps.

All the fools, nonentities and dunces running to politics solely for money making need to be stopped!

Apart from an effective military that is well trained and combatant ready, the removal of the excess power at the center is probably the other most effective check to the nonsensical ambitions of Boko Haram.

This suggested political option is also probably the most significant check that can remove violence/chaos that characterized the election campaign seasons. For if the power at the center is removed or reduced, the hassles for it will almost vanish.

Definitely functional law and judiciary systems play their unquestionable roles.

All that is needed to put Nigeria among the best countries in the world in the next half a century, which also includes eradication of corruption at all levels, cannot be discussed in one essay.

The people must be educated, live in manageable planned family, learn the civics of trust, co-existence, tolerance, selflessness, dignity of labor, patriotism, nation building and commitment to humanity and nature.

These virtues will avail much and their acquisitions are not dependent on religion or any remarkable political agreement.

aderounmu@gmail.com