Foolish Expectations

December 7, 2014December 7, 2014 / Adeola / Leave a comment

Mr. Robert Marley must be flabbergasted in his grave. There is a place where you can fool all the people all the time by repeating the same jingles every four years and make them have the same expectations of a better life. It must be foolish expectations waiting for good to emerge from evil.

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

I have a friend who strongly believes that ordinary Nigerians who are waiting for Nigeria to improve politically and economically will grow old (or not) and die while waiting.

This friend of mine is one of the several millions of Nigerians who discuss about Nigeria almost every day. Some of us go the extra mile to put our thoughts and arguments into words. That is why we are able to blog regularly or opine our thoughts weekly.

Nigeria is approaching an election year and that makes the discussion about election the hottest for now.

The reasons why Nigeria will not improve politically have not been tackled because Nigeria remains a “geographical prize” presently chased by several crooks and political scavengers grouped mainly into two factions-APC and PDP.

In the past the prize has been chased and won under different dispensations. In politics it is the politicians and their army of sycophants who win the prize, steal the monies in the treasuries and disappear into thin air.

Under military rule, it is the soldiers who steal the monies in the treasuries and carried out counter coups to take turns in looting the treasuries.

Irrespective of the dispensations, the criminals have mostly gotten away with the proceeds of the treasuries, and to this day they continue to live large. Some died leaving billions of dollars of Nigerian money in foreign accounts/countries. There is no limit to stupidity in that sense.

An interesting dimension is the persistent of some people in the Nigerian political scene. It’s not all the crooks who disappear. It is amazing how long some of them have continued to carry out their nefarious activities while the people and the short arm of the law look away.

One of the most shocking aspects of the Nigerian life is the way the people condemn the rulers and the politicians despite the fact that they know that they were criminals before they were selected or bundled into important national and political positions.

In Nigeria the knowledge that a fellow has criminal cases or is incompetent are not deterrent factors to eventual elevation in public life or politics.

For the ones who became criminals while in office Nigerians have not find the way to boot them away or send them to prisons. Instead Nigerians develop a weird follow-follow Nigerian syndrome that is built on nepotism, blind faith and waiting for my turn to chop.

There are several examples that cut across the two major political parties, and beyond.

There are too many examples from the past and the present. The future seemed already awash with dubious characters waiting in line. The Nigerian society continues to thrive on systemic falsehood, alignment with bogus promises and foolish expectations.

This is a repetition. One criminal called James was sentenced in a Nigerian court. He later became a governor and what happened next is history. He raped the state and looted it blind. It took a London court to confirm to the foolish people of his state that they had a criminal ruling them!

This type of obvious stupidity-allowing criminals and extremely bad people to rule and dictate the policies- is spread across the length and breadth of Nigeria.

Nigerians know that occupiers of government houses across the land are not true to their promises and they rank them in order of their corruption tendencies instead of forcing the law to take its course.

There are millions of Nigeria who knew that a former governor in Bayelsa and his wife have been stealing directly and through couriers while ruling the state. They even know the criminal before that called Alams.

Yet when Obasanjo brought Jonathan to the national front to become one of the rulers of Nigeria, Nigerians accepted him. It is not as if Obasanjo is a saint but majority of Nigerians canonized him. It’s part of the foolishness, to raise one evil above the other instead of total condemnation of such in public offices.

Jonathan who never did anything tangible in Bayelsa continued to fool Nigerians 6 years on. His romance with all kinds of criminals-or their offspring attests to the nature of his true personality.

Mr. Robert Marley must be flabbergasted in his grave. There is a place where you can fool all the people all the time by repeating the same jingles every four years and make them have the same expectations of a better life. It must be foolish expectations expecting good to emerge from evil.

I remember watching the campaign trails of Jonathan versus Atiku during my visit to Lagos, Western Nigeria in 2010. I remember the walk down the streets in Iyana Ipaja, Festac Town and some parts of Amuwo Odofin. I can’t forget the disconnection between the people ruling and the people being ruled. It was two worlds apart.

The people who should be in prisons for crimes against Nigeria and Nigerians are always the ones on the campaign trails every 4 years. They are here again. Amazing!

The system is not right.

In 2014 Nigerians expected Jonathan to have solved their problems despite knowing his background as lazy, corrupt, feeble, and lacking courage. They know there is no way his wife would have been stealing so much money if he was not providing them from the Bayelsa state coffers. How much money has been stolen from the Nigerian treasury under Mr. Jonathan?

Since the return of civil rule and the virtual exit of the gangsters in uniform, several politicians and soldiers have been smiling to the bank and building businesses and empires by stealing public funds. Many of them have been receiving contract sums for work they never did. Nigeria’s most notorious ghost worker lives in Aso Rock.

In Lagos State it appears that everything is in the hands of Mr. Tinubu. Many have argued that this is necessary to provide a formidable opposition for the ruling party. Really?

So, Nigerians will get rid of crooks in Aso Rock by supporting crooks in the opposition parties. The people who treat symptoms rather than cure the disease won’t stop praying for miracles. This cycle is programmed to exist for as long as Nigeria exists.

I ponder. So Nigerians will for as long as they exist continue to choose between different forms of evil. So there will be no fresh start someday in Rivers, in Ekiti, in Adamawa, in Kogi, in Bayelsa, in Anambra and everywhere.

My friend does not claim to be a prophet but on this one, he is on point. If this is the mindset of a typical or an average Nigerian then the ordinary people will grow and die waiting for miracles in Nigeria. Their life time will be defined by complete hopelessness.

It is sad. Despite all the knowledge about what is wrong with Nigerian politics, Nigerians will follow-follow and repeat the same process in 2015.

Afterwards they will start to oppose and counter oppose and ask for a new fake change especially on the social networks.

Why can’t Nigerians soft pedal on elections and clean the system inside-out?

What are Nigerians going to do to stop politicians from stealing? What are they doing to stop the wastages at the federal execu-thieves level? What are they doing to stop the representa-thieves and legis-looters?

What are they doing to put a final stop to crimes in all the governors’ offices across the land? What are they going to do to ensure that elections become meaningful and that their votes really count?

How long do Nigerians intend to go before arriving at a point where Ghana-must go bags will not dictate the outcomes of (s)elections?

How do they intend to arrive at a point where the temporary condition of their stomachs is not a reference for thugs turned politicians?

How do they want to rebuild electoral principles/manifestos around education, health, jobs, social welfare, social justice and the protection of life and property? How?

I remember writing an article arguing that the 2011 elections should now hold until a political solution is adopted. I knew fully well that Nigerians were heading to the polls to select fraudsters. In 2015, the same process of selecting fraudsters will take place. The cycle of idiocy will be nourished.

The urgency of seeking political solutions has never been more critical than now when many things have already fallen apart in different regions. The worst hit is the N-Eastern axis under the control of local and foreign terrorists.

Nigerians should be tired of their rulers.

They need to elect leaders amongst them who will lead them in organizing and creating regional societies that will suit their goals and pursuits. This has been a mission impossible, and it is even sadder.

In 2018 slash 2019, people will be shouting, we told you not to vote for Jonathan-he is a liar. We warned you about Buhari-he is a dictator. We told you Atiku stole from the custom department.

We told you we want to control our resources. We told you the government was Boko Haram. We told you the oppositions were behind Boko Haram. We don’t have electricity. My children can’t go to school. Schools are for the rich. I have no job and no social security. There is serious problem of insecurity. The roads are bad. And so on.

My friend will still be right then because the system is just not working for the ordinary people. It was established out of oppression and oppression of the ordinary people will sustain it.

Nations or countries that prosper were mostly built on honesty, trust, patriotism, solidarity, probity, accountability, sincere promises, wise expectations and the pursuits of the common-good of all.

All the above virtues are missing in Nigeria. There will never be progress where there is no trust.

Majority of the citizens of any nation must cultivate these virtues. It must be forced down their throats through proper education or enlightenment campaigns.

In addition to integrity, functional institutions and a return to a system of government that works, these virtues are the hope of a brighter day for all the nations/regions entangled in non-functional unitary Nigeria.

aderounmu@gmail.com

Threshold

November 9, 2014November 9, 2014 / Adeola / Leave a comment

There are plans to postpone or cancel the 2015 elections due to insecurity in substantial parts of the country. This will create an inflammable volatile tension that may be impossible to quench when it implodes.

Threshold

Adeola Aderounmu

By Adeola Aderounmu

Nigeria in 2014 is one of the most complicated places of earth.

The damage done to Nigeria and the psyche of Nigerians through 54 years of misrule is multifaceted.

The damage also includes the dearth of intellectualism in the public spaces. Where available, it is manipulated to suit evil desires of the rulers and politicians.

One of the most stupid debates one can imagine gathered momentum in Nigeria in recent weeks. Even former dictators and political rulers are discussing about their religions or faiths as the 2015 political season draws closer.

Nigerians are aligning along ethnic, tribal and religious lines for the 2015 national elections.

If the politicians, political godfathers and public office holders are also discussing their religions rather than their political pedigrees, patriotism and the positive thrusts that they could bring into offices, then Nigeria is on the threshold.

The permanent cracks called 36 states of Nigeria may collapse in an unexpected fashion.

The fertility provided by Boko Haram (BH) will not be an unexpected catalyst.

The ripened assimilation of religion into Nigerian politics is not an isolated phenomenon and it did not happen overnight. It was influenced by distrust and lose of political ideology.

Nigerians have been completely brainwashed by foreign religions mainly Christianity and Islam. The people are divided and separated not only by tribes (or ethnicity) but also by religious affiliations.

It is so sad and appalling that the religious denomination one belongs to affects also how one is perceived or received by other people sharing even the same religion.

The ascendance of religion in public and political life in Nigeria is one of the saddest events that befell the country. It brought a shade on all the anomalies that characterized the failed political structures and systemic collapse.

Religion was made one of the safe nests of criminals who have misruled Nigeria since 1960. It was the perfect cover for the promotion of idleness and crimes against humanity.

Nigerians swallowed political lies and religious fallacies hook, line and sinker. They left governance in the hand of crooks and let it rot.

Religion becomes an evil item the moment it is allowed to leave its terrain as a private experience and brought into public spheres. In Nigeria this has been the trend, the country is already suffering from the dividends of religion in public offices.

If Nigeria finally trips over the threshold (probably catalyzed by the BH war) those denying the negative roles of religion in politics and public life will be overwhelmed by both the existing polarity in the polity and the war already consuming substantial parts of the country.

The failures of the Jonathan-led weak unitary government and the Nigerian military to stem the BH war will continue to fuel the speculation that Nigeria is at war with itself. It will continue to promote the theory that the government of Nigeria is at war with her citizens.

Goodluck Jonathan was one of the weakest governors ever produced in Nigeria. Under him Bayelsa and Bayelsans simply went to sleep. His weakness as a ruler will probably explain why he needs so many attack dogs who are getting fat and building pot bellies on tax payers’ money.

Political pedigree remains insignificant in the unitary form of government in Nigeria. Hence rather than performing and being proactive Nigerians are stuck with a government that react and respond to every criticism of the lazy administration with irritating comments.

For instance Mr. Okupe is not worried about BH because the BH war is yet to disrupt his breakfast. I have not found a more senseless reaction from someone to whom much is given albeit from looted treasuries.

The official response from the lazy and corrupt Nigerian government has now shifted to declaring the obvious- that Boko Haram is at war with Nigeria. We are now told that the war is not a religious war but a political one invariably because of the indiscriminate targets of BH.

The unpleasant reality is that the war is taking on both dimensions. One does not exclude the other. BH (regardless of who the sponsors are-the PDP, the APC, some international gangsters or even aliens) is succeeding so far with the war against Nigeria.

Unfortunately for everyone the perpetrators are making use of Islam as their platform for propagating the war. In that sense one cannot rid the terrorists of their faith. It does not matter what other people think, this is what they (BH) professed.

The inability to tame BH and its alleged sponsors (allegations ranging from APC to PDP to international sponsors) has brought potential doom to the doorsteps of Nigerians.

Monsters usually go back to chase their makers and all. Can this explain the indiscriminate targets of BH and the recent invasion of Mubi, the hometown of the Badehs? Whose home town is next? The inactions of a weak government will avail much.

People are still arguing: we have always had these problems; Nigeria is not going to break.

Yes we have always had problems but there was no BH occupying an entire region.

Though there is a war going on, many are still saying we can’t afford another civil war.

Blind faiths promoted by different religions have reached new heights and unprecedented dimensions.

Distrust will never disappear from Nigeria. It was partly distrust and fear of domination that destroyed the first republic in 1966.

There will always be distrust and the fear of marginalization too.

Nigeria is at a threshold, the most fragile since the end of the civil war in 1970.

Mr. Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP are making plans to postpone or cancel the 2015 elections due to insecurity in substantial parts of the country. This will create an inflammable volatile tension that may be impossible to quench when it implodes.

Everything in life has a limit. Luck is not an exemption.

Nigeria is in a dire need of a political solution. It is getting too late. The country and the people are slipping precariously into a season of electoral chaos.

The BH war, incessant tribal and religious conflicts in several places, inter/intra-state political enmity and the supra religion-based 2015 elections are super enrichments for calamities and self-destruction mechanisms.

Even in the face of distrust or mistrust, leadership and development in region-based government across Nigeria was still functional until the senseless coups of 1966.

A political option for Nigeria is to retrace the map of regional government and initiation of a referendum on resource control.

Obviously, there are more problems and divisions in Nigeria today compare to 1965 or 1966.

Therefore a modification of the regional government map to accommodate present day agitations may not be a suggestion that is out of place. It is an option far better and more preferable to what BH war has carved out for everyone involuntarily (as the lazy government looks away).

After 54 years of mostly misrule and deviation from what is normal, I always insist that Nigeria will not get a magic dose and no suggestion will be an overnight maneuver to paradise.

Every day breakfast is interrupted in expected and unexpected places and there are no helicopters to evacuate the Nigerian species that are not connected to the Badehs, the Jonathans, the Okupes and the Abatis.

What if breakfast is interrupted in Otuoke tomorrow?

One day perhaps breakfast may be interrupted at Aso Rock Villa-Nigeria’s citadel of corruption, and mis-governance.

On such a day, the bitcoins supporting pseudo unity, political and religious fallacies would have been overspent, the permanent cracks will collapse and it may be too late to reverse the threshold.

aderounmu@gmail.com

Big Rewards For Political Prostitution In Nigeria

July 13, 2014August 18, 2014 / Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

The wave of swapping political allegiance in Nigeria is out of this world. There is no need to assign a Guinness book of world record to it. It is super unique and there are just no other countries as contestants.

Last year five governors (s)elected on the platform of the PDP in Nigeria left their party and joined the APC. What would have been more honourable and sensible was to denounce the mandate they stole through the PDP. They kept their mandates while seeking desperate means of self-preservations. It’s purely unethical and somehow also a criminal act. People who rob Peter to pay Paul will always be diabolical.

Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers has been leading the pack of aggrieved governors and he is still at loggerhead with Mr. and Mrs Jonathan on several River state and national issues. When you read or hear about some of his ordeals, they are like in the movies. It is either he narrates the “police-and-thief episodes” or the “cowboys-on-the-mountains” version. But the series are endless and this makes Amaechi a good real life actor. One day Hollywood may come knocking for him because Nollywood will not be able to afford him.

But seriously, governors like Amaechi (and other swingers cum politicians) who have been swinging or running helter-skelter, changing political parties like their underwear would have done humanity a big favour by delivering services to their people and bringing them out of poverty and extreme hopelessness. Rather than serve with their whole hearts, they keep oppressing the poor and selling propaganda across Nigeria and even paying corrupt bloggers and social commentators to kiss their asses. Politics should be about service to the people, not ego or blandishment of persons.

But trust naija where looting remains the shortest criminal way to wealth, the name of the game is survival, not service. The other PDP governors that defected to the APC with stolen mandates are Alhaji Ahmed Abdulfatah (Kwara), Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Alhaji Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), and Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto). Nyako was given the shakings of his life penultimate week. He knows who not to blame while his sweat is un-dry.

Just a few days ago one Fayose was returned to Ekiti state house riding on the back of unlimited funds looted by the presidency in Abuja. He had been bundled out of the PDP, went to the APC and then returned to the PDP. In all of Ekiti, there is no one leader to stand tall among the people. There are generally no leaders in Nigeria but rulers abound. No one could stop the return of a looter to the same treasury he once looted. What has become of the children of Oduduwa? Orunmila must be shaking his head in disbelief.

It’s typical Nigerian syndrome, that those who steal more money have greater opportunity to own the government houses across Nigeria. As it is for the PDP, so it is for the APC, they just loot the treasury away while doing very little or sometimes nothing.

Does anyone remember Atiku Abubakar? He probably holds the title of the “chief prostitute” amongst Nigerian politicians. Between 1980 and 2014 he had been a founder or member of PFN, PDM, PDP, AC, PDP and APC. There is no doubt that this behaviour exemplifies lack of seriousness. It shows an unrepentant strong desire of a political prostitute to serve self rather than humanity.

Examples of Political prostitutes in Nigeria

Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK) is among this category of Nigerian political prostitutes. During the reign of Obasanjo he became a minister, first of culture and tourism, then of aviation. Under Yar Adua, he was investigated and arrested by the EFCC. Like many uncountable political-criminal cases, his trials relating to corruption and money laundry will drag until eternity. Then, they’ll fade away too and he’ll continue to claim innocence. In Nigeria, with the useless nature of the Nigerian judiciary, a James Ibori will always be innocent.

Mr. Fani-Kayode is now back in the PDP claiming that the APC is full of dictators. Thanks to Mr. Fani Kayode, we now know that the APC is also pursuing a jihadist agenda. Are we supposed to thank the moron of a corrupt general who cancelled the June 12 1993 elections? Perhaps the PDP is also no longer a nest of killers; it’s safe for some people to return.

Since the renewed romance with Aso Rock, Mr. Fani-Kayode will now have to disown all his “rubbishing” of Jonathan’s government including referring to it as the worst in corruption in the history of Nigeria. He will need Abati’s lesson notes. Nigerian politicians are too shameless.

You also have to wonder what the presidency and the Nigerian military are doing about Boko Haram and APC with all the intelligence and secrets at the disposal of FFK. Obviously FFK has also told us about the man without balls before he went back to his camp. Can Femi help Jonathan get his groove back? Can he help him to regain his balls?

But we know that the balls won’t matter once 2015 is secured by the PDP, for then FFK will likely become a minister again, under the same government (if PDP wins) he labelled as the most corrupt in Nigeria’s history. The toothless EFCC and the corruption-prone judiciary can suck it up in advance if they like.

One of the additions to the ranks of political prostitutes is the former governor of Kano State Ibrahim Shekarau. He’s done the full cycle in his prostitution journey moving from ANPP, to APC and now to PDP. Obviously his political experience can make him useful as a serving minister but it carries a previous taint of allegations of links to Boko Haram.

The ranks of people with alleged links to Boko Haram in the Jonathan government are increasing daily. What is FFK going to do about PDP and the Boko Haram appeasement tactics? Another mischievous angle to Shekarau’s appointment is that it is one of the several nonsensical political gimmicks in Nigeria. His impulsive appointment as a minister without a portfolio is coming on the heels of fundamental changes connected to the emirate in Kano, Northern Nigeria.

The journeys along the line of political prostitution can never be justifiable. It confirms the age-long fear that the major political parties in Nigeria are the fingers on a leprous hand. Some, like Atiku have done the cycle uncountable times. If you have sound principles and a convincing political ideology that are based on honesty, service to humanity and selflessness, there would be no need to change your political party like you change your underwear.

Again, the goal is clear in Naija’s peculiar but rotten politics: always put yourself in the best position to make political gains that will lead you to the treasury you can loot with impunity. The justice system will look away or help you get away if trials come.

It’s impossible to highlight all the unprincipled men ruining Nigeria but Femi Pedro the former deputy governor of Lagos State has been around too. From AD to Labour Party to PDP and now back to APC. I actually wrote about Femi Pedro here in the village square (see Nov 3 2007).

Someone responded then that he had dug his political grave when he left Tinubu’s party. That person saw the future. You wonder if Nigerian politicians are the hungry people actually. Their insatiable lust for wealth, power and ego is either evil or a special brand of psycho-egocentrism.

Olagunsoye Oyinlola must be really feeling princely. Even Jonathan is begging him to serve the PDP. Of course like the rest of the poli-thieves, the guy will keep serving his stomach. How can Olagunsoye missed the fact that Mr. Fayose got unlimited funds stolen in Abuja and his dreams came true in Ekiti in grand style?

I have no doubt that almost all Nigerian politicians are “dead on arrival” on money matters. They’ll kill for it. The forthcoming Osun state governorship election is already a box office thriller everyone is waiting for. Tax-payers money is about to go to the drain again!

Even common aides are shifting bases. Wonders will never end in Bongo! I can’t dwell on the two ordinary aides of Adams Oshiomole who are now political prostitutes in the PDP. But I can emphasise again that as long as the government treasury remains the shortest cut to sudden wealth in Nigeria, and in the face of non-existent honest mentorship manifesto in any of the political party, then the master-and-discipleship relationship or the governor-and-aide concept can rest in pieces.

What has been the saving grace for all categories of political prostitutes is simply the total failure of the Nigerian judiciary system. For we know that under normal circumstances many of these criminal-minded politicians would have been successfully prosecuted and many would have spent time at various prisons.

If punishments for political crimes and other crimes related to abuse of public offices had been in place before and after 1960, Nigeria would have been a paradise and probably the best place to live on earth. Currently, and sadly too, as an outcome of the sum of the activities of all these politicians and their military-junta counterparts/accomplices, Nigeria is ranked amongst the worst places to live in the world. It is still probably the worst place you want to have children!

Ironically, sometimes one wishes that the people can listen to these rulers and crooks very carefully. Just like Reuben Abati suggested in one of his many write-ups before tasting the forbidden fruits that revealed the real Abati, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi has also been quoted more recently as saying that Nigerians need to start stoning the politicians because of their corrupt practices.

Imagine if the Nigerian people start to stone all the crazy politicians looting the treasury at the local, state and federal levels. Maybe that will put Nigeria on the right path again if they are not replaced by similar crooks! There is also a problem of new set of crooks taking over from expired crooks.

Every 1 kobo that is stolen from any treasury in Nigeria contributes to the systemic poverty and these crooks can even steal 12 or 20 billion dollars in one swoop. It’s amazing the magnitude of corruption and impunity in Nigeria that allows the criminals to live large and rise above the law system. I cannot over emphasize this treasury-rape syndrome.

Nigerians are letting the politicians get away. Nigerians are allowing themselves to be fooled by the political parties and all the criminals that saturate these parties. The people are totally subdued mentally and even physically despite their numerical advantage. They act not in the face of obvious oppressions because their friends, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and other family members are involved in the crime or are waiting to benefit from the insane system.

The political parties in Nigeria and their imaginary manifestos have never been significant especially after the second republic which saw to the demise of parties like the UPN popular in western Nigeria. Even the days of SDP and NRC provided Nigerians with distinct options.

Nowadays, the common people are happy to mortgage their future and that of their children for a 5kg bag of rice and peanuts as proven again (recently) in Ekiti state. The handicapped police are totally inefficient and the judiciary is absolutely corrupt dispensing justice on a cash and carry basis. In essence the institutions are grounded. This combination produces a dilemma of the highest order in Nigeria.

Come 2015, it won’t matter the prostitutes or group of prostitutes that seize Nigeria when the institutions are not working and at a time when the people are already deflated and defeated by both politicians and terrorists. Even if we turn on the fight for regional governments, it won’t matter if we allow the political prostitutes cum rapists to return to their different regions to continue the rampage and rape locally.

For Nigerians, the roads to freedom within Nigeria or in the different nations that may emerge remain a very long one. Nigerians have one more walk to do. It will be the longest walk of their lives. Freedom from political and mental slavery will never be given on a platter of gold. It must be earned.

Such freedom will not come from the “dead on arrival idea” of a useless rotational presidency coming from the secluded and retired minds caged in a carnival-like arena in Abuja.

Nigeria’s longest walk to freedom which will rid the country of sycophants and low-grade mediocres and hopefully re-establish the institutions that will serve humanity and posterity will come from a united, purposeful and well orchestrated revolution of sound minds and committed citizenry.

aderounmu@gmail.com

Disgraceful Election Set To Hold In Ekiti State, Nigeria

June 17, 2014June 17, 2014 / Adeola / Leave a comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

Governorship Election will hold in Ekiti State Nigeria on Saturday June 21 2014.

So many things have happened that simply makes this election a shame or a disaster waiting to happen.

During his campaign the ruler of Nigeria Mr. Jonathan promised to develop Ekiti if the PDP candidate Mr. Fayose wins the election. This is such a stupid comment and it is difficult to ascertain the mental state of Mr. Jonathan is what it takes to develop Ekiti is for the PDP candidate to win.

Mr. Fayose and Mr. Fayemi have been alleged to be distributing raw and cooked rice to woo voters. There are so many pictures flying around on the internet and especially on social network that shows how rice has been used as one of the campaign instruments.

A lot of monies that will not be accounted for have been spent by both the PDP and the ACP, the two main parties hoping to “seize” power in Ekiti.

Now, the latest in the series of the disgraceful countdown is that the Nigerian Police is now storming Ekiti with guns, ammunition and dogs. When “armed forces” and dogs are unleashed for the purpose of election, you can tell how the mentality of the average Nigerian works.

Elections in Nigeria are do or die processes because the next governor of Ekiti as in the case at hand is going to be the custodian of the state treasury. This battle has very little to do with public service but a lot to do with ego and personality. It has a lot to do with the potential looters of public funds in Ekiti State.

These are the tragedies of the nature of politics and public service in Nigeria.

During and after the elections, the death toll will be interesting to know.

When is this country Nigeria going to grow up?

(POLICE IMAGE From The Punch Newspaper twitter page, https://twitter.com/MobilePunch )

Terror And The Volatile Mix Of Blind Faiths

April 23, 2014April 24, 2014 / Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

One of the saddest things to occur in Nigeria in the last 4 years is the ascension and domination of religious politics. Unfortunately, it has also been the time of putting Nigeria on the map permanently as one of the major terrorists’ countries in the world.

Nigerian politicians have lost the plot a long time ago in the areas of ideologies and functional manifestos. It will amount to overstating the obvious that Nigerian politics runs on faulty foundations and that the essential purpose of politics in Nigeria is nothing close to service. The politics is rather self-serving, self-rewarding, dominated largely by criminal minds and stinking of massive corruption from the head to the toes.

Religion is destroying Nigeria

As Nigeria and Nigerians now approach the 2015 elections, the stage is now set for a religion-influenced electioneering. How did Nigeria get to this point? The question is relevant judging from the background and outcomes of the 1993 general and presidential elections. That election was adjudged to be the best election (ever) conducted in Nigeria.

Sadly for the Nigerian nation the presidential election results were annulled by the tropical military gangsters headed by one dictator called Ibrahim Babangida. That election would have ushered in MKO Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe of the SDP, two Muslims from two different geopolitical zones in Nigeria.

When Mr. Goodluck Jonathan started his reign as the ruler of Nigeria in 2011, it was not pleasing to the Nigerian opposition party and a lot of statements were made by the opposition politicians especially those from the Northern parts of the country. Gen. Buhari and Mr. Atiku were alleged to have made statements that ordinarily would have earned them interrogations by the Nigerian special security forces. But they were not invited for any interrogation or explanations.

There had always been elements of terror and its tendencies in Northern Nigeria. There was of course serious problems with the terrors in the Niger Delta that curiously to this day continue to gulp more money than the federal defence budget of Nigeria. However for some reasons that have now kept the blame game in a roller coaster mode the terrorist group popularly known as Boko Haram have flourished in the northern parts of Nigeria and Abuja under the reign of Goodluck Jonathan.

This period of rise of terror curiously also coincided with the era when Mr. Jonathan embraced the Christian community in Nigeria with more enthusiasm. He even went on the so called “holy” pilgrimage with a large entourage, all on Nigeria’s tax payers’ money.

By the way the annual holy pilgrimages to Mecca and Jerusalem are embodiments of the nonsensical waste in Nigeria’s government since time immemorial. Nigeria is a very corrupt country (we don’t need corrupt Mugabe’s opinion to confirm this fact) and the wastage or looting of money through religious tourism to other countries is regrettable. These pilgrimages are parts of the inferior complexity of Africans, also regrettable, made famous by the government and people of Nigeria.

The APC is yet to state with audacity the two persons who will be flying the flag or the brooms of the part in the 2015 elections. An attempt to draw a ticket on 2 individuals with the same religion like the SDP did in 1993 is becoming unlikely and like their party members and critics would make everybody believe-suicidal.

The disorganised polity has been heated and whether the Muslim community or the APC in Nigeria find it desirable or not, there is no longer a general acceptance for the type of scenario that Nigeria had with the Abiola-Kingibe ticket. Since the political scene is devoid of common sense and ideologies, the rise of Boko Haram has given many religious people within and outside APC the platform for hatred. Offshoots of the hatred are the emergence of the political suicide syndrome and the probable intense Christianisation of the Nigerian presidency under Jonathan.

The alleged statements made by the likes of Buhari and Atiku at a time when they needed to control their emotions but lost it completely, and the silence/lack of condemnation from the Northern region in general following the “successful” campaign of Boko Haram continue to send shocking and conflicting signals across Nigeria. It will be hard to erase the meaning and aftermath of what it takes to make Nigeria ungovernable. Such expressions now run parallel with terror occurrences.

The government of the day in Nigeria has made many remarks in the past and even recently linking the deadly terrorist group to the main opposition party-the APC. Nigerians are surprised because such allegations are supposed to be supported by investigation and arrest. Nothing has happened in that line. Before he was killed General Azazi linked the problem to religion, poverty, the desire to rule Nigeria and a combination of everything that is wrong with Nigeria. He especially laid the blame at what he called politics of exclusion of the PDP in the region.

When the true story of Boko Haram is finally told, it would be instructional, not least sensational to know the sponsors (national or international) and the roles of the Nigerian military that is alleged to be harbouring snitches who have made the bloody operations of Boko Haram successful. What will also be useful if Nigeria or the nations within Nigeria will ever learn anything from history is the magnitude of the alleged involvement of the Northern rulers.

I doubt if I know what to believe going by the nature of the roller coaster blame game. The Yorubas have said it all “if falsehood persist for 20 years (or even 100 years as Nigeria marks centenary of a painful marriage), one day the truth will emerge.

Meanwhile in the faces of the multitudes of speculations, allegations and counter allegations and irrespective of where the actual truth lies, it is extremely sad that those who have suffered the most are the innocent masses going about their occupations or daily activities. Women and children have suffered in this evil campaign and crimes have been committed against humanity.

It appears that the government of Nigeria enjoys playing or toying with the lives of the citizens. This whole pandemonium is like a chess game where the opponents are seeking checkmate. In this case, the 2015 election is the end result. The “I don’t give a damn attitude”, the lies of keeping government “working” and the campaign dance that took place in Kano barely 24 hours after the deadly car park blast in Abuja that claimed, depending on sources, between 150 and 250 lives are all indications of a failed government.

Religion in its ordinary form mixed with politics is poisonous. The effect of contaminations with radical views either from the presidency or any other place in Nigeria will be more potent than a poison. Nigeria appears to be in a labyrinth, more likely at the crossroad of self-destruction.

In January 2011 I wrote an article titled: My Message To Nigerians In 2011, Stop Saying It’s God. I condemned the influence of religion in Nigeria’s politics and social life.

Nigerians have been fooled, deceived and slaughtered at the altar of ordinary and radical religions. It does not seem there is an end in sight if one judges by the religiosity of Nigerians on the social media and in reality while the country burns.

Is it hard to see that Nigerian politicians (both Christians and Muslins) are looting the treasuries across Nigeria? Is it hard to see that they call on God and Allah to solve the problems that are related to common sense and simple political ideologies?

Nigerians and their politicians attribute events (good and evil) to acts of God and they merged together to pray for things that can be solved by simple action and will.

In the area of religion and prayers, I have not understood the Nigerian mentality. They pray for the things that they and the government are supposed to do. So after creating a corrupt political system where corruption and crimes are tolerated and rewarded, Nigerians will then commit everything into the hands of their various Gods. Nonsense and ingredients!

For Nigeria, religion has created more problems than solutions. It remains a deadly veil for both Christians and Muslims. It’s worse for radicals anywhere because the effects of brainswashing are profound on them and their narrow minds. It’s going to be mission impossible to forbid religions in public positions, in politics especially. Ironically the elimination of religion in our doings is supposed to be the best way to free our minds and promote coexistence.

It’s hard to “converge” my views but I’m trying to get to a point where I need to condemn the role of politics and religion in the rise of terrorism in Nigeria. I am of the opinion that religious differences have aggravated the political differences in Nigeria. I think that the corrupt rulers and politicians have through their actions, alignments, attitudes and utterances contributed to the hopeless situation in Nigeria.

I have a problem in understanding the rise of Boko Haram acting on the radical angle of one of Nigeria’s dominating religion, that is Islam. A few years ago, Nigerians boasted of their “fear” of dying. Today we are told there are suicide bombers in Nigeria. It’s very painful to watch terror achieve successes on the back of religious platforms. I’ve been blown away many times in my life seeing atrocities committed in the name of Christ, God and Allah.

I also want to emphasise that as long as religion remains a factor in Nigeria’s politics and socio-economic life, then the country is going no where. In the society, people need to start doing things independent of religion. Just be good, do the right thing and play your role in nation building!

The Nigerian political class does not build or propagate sane and sound ideologies; they are instead wiggling from one political party to another based on the religion of the political candidates, based on fairweatherism and opportunism. That is the height of stupidity, having no principles.

The call for true federalism or the emergence of regional governments cannot be swept under the rugs. For, right now, Nigeria is in a serious dilemma and the center is too weak to hold things together. The center is marrying, making merry and dancing around as the country burns and people perish daily.

The weakness of the center is the strength of Boko Haram, it is the strength of militancy or terrorism anywhere in Nigeria. The weakness of the center is the sustenance of a corrupt political system. The self-serving nature of Nigerian politics means that the non-thinking politicians and rulers are ready to take everything down with them. It is up to Nigerians to rise up above religion, above sentiments, above hypocrisy and above political and ethnic differences.

Great countries were not built on religions, corruption, selfishness, greed, prayers or miracles. They were built by dedicated people, on sound political structures, on performances, on ideologies that stood the test of time, on positive actions and on the collective will to succeed.

aderounmu@gmail.com