PhotoNews By Adeola Aderounmu
Former Governor of Lagos State bowing to General Buhari. This image has drawn many negative comments from some group of Nigerians. The reasons are obvious. First is the issue ot tribe and the other is the nature of Nigeria’s (crazy) politics.
Here is former president Clinton also bowing to Obama. Those who think that what Tinubu did was in order have used this image to press home their points.
Clinton bows to Obama
By Adeola Aderounmu
When late Abacha held Nigeria in his palm, Reuben Abati stood out as Nigerian Government Critic Number one! There was no dispute about whose article would be most read on Friday or Sunday back in the days in the Nigerian Guardian.
I do not recall anyone in Abacha’s government or thereafter calling Abati names. Abati was not even arrested despite all his criticisms of the dictatorship and later civilian governments in Nigeria.
At the height of his fame as a government critic Abati asked Nigerians to stone those in power. Was he testing his fame? This was when the Federal Government increased the price of petroleum products-the old subsidy lies that Abati would come to champion in January 2012.
I was told by someone who knows the Guardian very well that Abati was actually collecting brown envelopes for many of those articles that he wrote those days in the Guardian. Everything has fallen into places now that Abati has shown his real image. It may be true that he wrote many articles for money afterall many Nigerian journalists today still have their own favourite politicians.
I am fond of writing that Nigerians have no heroes today and when the likes of Abati remain the mentor for Nigerian journalists, then hope is quenched!
Last week Reuben Abati who now works for the inglorious Nigerian government blasted internet warriors and the rest of you who are fond of abusing Jonathan on facebook and on your blog pages. I am an internet warrior, I have abused Jonathan on facebook and my blog since 2006 is full of abuses and criticisms for the worst and probably most corrupt government in the world with headquarters in Aso rock, Abuja.
So I take Reuben Abati’s message as a direct war. But this is a terrain I know too well. So he and his bootlickers can bring it all on. I will help them spell their last names. T-H-I-E-V-E-S IN P-O-W-E-R.
Some of us have been here-online- long before Jonathan. I wrote to the late Yar Adua government about the futility of taking on internet warriors. Anyone who cares can browse my articles at the Nigerian Village Square. We-the internet warriors-don’t lose and we don’t come last. If Mr. Abati needs a reminder, I will like him to know that long after the reign of his present master, internet warriors will be here in different forms and shades.
It is be an over flog to remind Abati about the nature of the government he serves. How do you begin to recount the stupidity of the government of the day in Nigeria?
A government whose moral compass was lost even before it started sailing. You can tell, unless you wear the garment of the Pharisees.
Farouk Lawan just returned from Mecca. Under the government that Abati is serving, corruption was magnified and redefined. Only men who have no shame will serve in corrupt and useless government. In Nigeria whatever happened to protecting your father’s name and your own integrity?
If Nigerians heed Abati’s call of just a few years ago, then they should be stoning people like him now. It was his call, maybe we should obey him.
I recall my meeting with two of Nigerian’s finest bloggers (names withheld) about 2 years ago in Stockholm. Of course we talked about Nigeria and the government. They laughed at me when I told them that I stopped reading Abati after the Abuja-land saga.
They laughed because they thought I was ignorant to have been one of the several thousands of Nigerians that Abati took for such a long ride. When Abati appeared in Jonathan’s government, it was not a surprise to them. Both of them stopped reading Abati many years ago. They said they saw the light a long time ago.
No doubts I have also written in the Nigerian Guardian a handful of times. No doubt my articles started appearing in the Nigerian Guardian days after I got Abati’s email from (names withheld).
But Reuben Abati should continue to serve his new master according to his conscience. If he likes let him continue to fire at internet warriors and the critics of Mr. Jonathan. It will show his real colours and the nature of his job.
I have been in the blog industry since 2006. I don’t have the intention of retiring now because Abati is serving corrupt people which confirms his own status as a corrupt man who used his articles to buy his way into the corridor where everyone (according to him) should be stoned!
Some of us will never serve in government. Our middle name is Ilesanmi.
Those who join government only to turn against their own constituencies will not find peace. It’s a natural law. Those who join government and cannot resist the temptation to also become corrupt will live with both personal burden and the burden of history.
I have not met a blogger or a government critic who is campaigning for absolute moral purification. Human nature does not tally that line. This is why we separate private from public life I guess. All we have asked for is that those in government must deliver on their promises and stop looting our common treasury.
All we have asked for is that the wealth of Nigeria should serve Nigerians. Just yesterday Bobola Babalola wrote on Facebook that democracy in Nigeria is government of some people, by some people, for some people.
Abati has now joined the few who are taking the rest of Nigeria/Nigerians for a ride. That doesn’t make it ok. That doesn’t mean that Jonathan, his family, friends, executives, senate and other corrupt people can loot and we have to stay quiet.
Abati in government is not a receipt with guarantee. Abati in government is not a form of immunity.
No matter who serves in Nigeria, no matter who is looting in Nigeria, no matter how foolish or wise the government becomes, social critics and public commentators will be here.
It doesn’t matter how we are addressed, we take on this social burden to tell things as they are.
In 2009 I warned about the flood that has now taken Adamawa (check before 70 000 people perish overnight in the NVS). NEMA almost asked for my head. Even the government as a unit was quiet because it is a useless government, constantly so since 1960. People are dying now after N26 billion was spent on invisible dam projects.
Anyway, the government of Jonathan, in my view, is the worst government ever in Nigeria. No matter how much Abati and his followers rant, the truth about the cluelessness of Jonathan, the waste that his government has come to represent and the calamity of the consequences of his inactions (especially) in Northern Nigeria cannot be taken away like a pinch of salt. A thousand Abati and a fake permanent secretary in Bayelsa (aka ghost worker in Rivers) cannot do that.
aderounmu@gmail.com
By Adeola Aderounmu
There are many records and chronological analyses of what went wrong with Nigeria. Above all a once prosperous country with one of the greatest aggregation of potentials-both human and natural-was mismanaged, plundered and converted into one of the worst places to live on earth.
Nigeria, photo By Adeola Aderounmu
In 1993 in what appeared to be an act of treason a major electoral process was blasted by the tropical gangsters led by Ibrahim Babangida. So the hopes and stakes were high when a new civilian government emerged in Nigeria in 1999.
The events from 1999 to 2012 have proven that the problem with Nigeria was partly the military governments and partly the civilian governments. In my opinion Nigerians have suffered to various degrees under all known types of dispensations after independence in 1960.
But there is a group of majority that continues to bear the brunt of more than 50 years of crimes against humanity in Nigeria. More than 90% of Nigerians are estimated to be living in poverty.
This group is made up of people who are unsure of the next meal. It is this group that is called resilient, religious or happy depending on which investigation you read. They were the hopefuls in 1993 and 1999. All they ever wanted, and still want is the good life.
Unfortunately they will not get the things they want. Since the life expectancy in Nigeria is about 52.5 years it means that there has been a generation of Nigeria that went through life in the most hopeless way one can imagine.
They never had constant power supply, they never had good roads and they never lived in quality houses or apartments. They did not get the best meals money can buy.
Nigeria, photo By Adeola Aderounmu
In historical perspective this will translate to two wasted generations of Nigerians. It is hard to give up on the argument that the nature of the Nigerian tragedy makes it one of the greatest (but hidden) tragedies of modern era.
When the Arab spring was in vogue, with Syria still as its melting point, some of us saw it as a misplaced uprising.
I mean if the second wasted Nigerian generation was raised in North Africa they would probably have driven on good roads, slept in good homes and experienced what constant power supply meant. For the most, they may have lived longer.
The hope in Nigeria-where democracy exists on paper and its dividends in the pockets of the looters-is a misnomer. The description “resilient” fits aptly. Still, I prefer Fela’s description of Nigerians as “suffering and smiling”. The song “Sorrow, Tears and Blood” has the same relevance today as it did when it was released in 1977.
All they ever wanted, they never got. All they had left were taken away from them. A typical Nigerian worker or unemployed adult was a self-witness to the demise of public education.
Right before his eyes, he saw how primary health centers turned to primary death centers and how major government hospitals degenerated in a fashion similar to necrosis. History has a record of how lesser or fewer tragedies have triggered massive protests, revolutions and government changes in several places.
One sad revelation of the Nigerian society is that the country continues to produce rulers (never leaders) who eventually turned out to be out of touch with everyday life of the Nigerian people once the ascension is made to either top or trivial political positions. Therefore the conclusion that a people deserve the type of (ruler) it gets deserves a closer evaluation in the Nigerian context.
Those who are ruling Nigeria today were on our side when we started complaining that things are not right. Why is Nigeria getting worse under the people who saw the problem with us from outside of government? In My Radom Reflections At 40, I wrote that-irrespective of what the future holds for Nigeria-the shape of things to come will depend on institutions and not people.
Had it been that the institutions are well and functioning for example more than 99% of Nigerian politicians today will be serving prison terms or facing trials for corruption, treason and outright negligence of responsibilities.
However Nigeria has almost no working institution, therefore it doesn’t matter if the politicians got legal or stolen mandates, in the end they always do what they like. In uncountable situations they do bad things and get away with crimes and all sorts of unthinkable acts never expected of public office holders.
Even today the regime in Nigeria is a mockery of the meaning of democracy. Nigerian rulers do not hide their autocratic powers. The situation in Nigeria is almost hopeless because when good people get into government they become bad, corrupt and unbelievably silent about evil deeds.
Those who managed to get into government offices end up seeing those outside of it as the problem. They see them as envious or jealous people. There is something inexplicable about how governments work from the inside in Nigeria. Hence the cycle of idiocy for Nigeria is endless.
The situation in Northern Nigeria was avoidable. If the institutions had been there, they would have rid the society of criminally minded and corrupt people both in and out of government. In the worst case the appropriate institutions would have ensured the security of life and property in the case of criminally-induced terrorism. But when the foundations are absent and everything is wrong as a result of round pegs in square holes, things will definitely fall apart with almost irredeemable consequences.
Several concerned Nigerians have begun to argue for the reinstatement of true federalism as one of the ways forward.
For them corruption is a secondary issue as far as the problems with Nigeria are concern. True Federalism will probably be a way to induce peaceful political changes in Nigeria. It is sad when those holding firmly onto power do not see the transient nature of it.
By such negligence they stubbornly fail to initiate the right political alternatives that can bring probable succor and social justice.
Sometimes stubbornness can generate earthly consuming fires. If the fire starts on the mountain as predicted by Asa, there may be nowhere for us to run. In this sense the political option, with religious inclination, chosen by Boko Haram is too costly and deadly. Most of it is senseless.
Nevertheless, it has been spoken about for years and in many ways that those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable. A violent change does not imply positive outcomes. The political structure of Nigeria must change.
It is better to approach the change constitutionally than to sustain the loopholes that terrorists are utilising to expose the weakenesses of Nigeria.
The common people will always be there. All they want is the good life
By Adeola Aderounmu
If I had any doubts before, it’s all gone now. It doesn’t matter that I have stated this fact before-that Nigeria is (probably) the most corrupt country in the world.
I don’t care what the Transparency International rating of Nigeria says. I am too convinced in my heart and soul that Nigeria is the MOST CORRUPT COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
In that country Nigeria, many known thieves (popularly called politicians) are parading the landscape free. What is agonizing about the Nigerian situation is that the thieves, criminals and looters are known. They are popular among Nigerians. It is not as if money went missing and they are trying to trace the money. The point is Nigerians know who has stolen the money but they do nothing to bring about any form of justifiable prosecution.
There are uncountable number of probes in Nigeria that are under the carpets. There are uncountable number of government agencies and committees doing ABSOLUTELY nothing but stealing and looting.
This is the greatest tragedy of the Nigerian society-that it is profitable and honorary to be a thief. In fact if a Nigerian politician is not a thief, he is regarded as a fool by his family and friends. I know people who are preparing for the 2015 elections because they want to reap from the Nigerian treasury, not because they really want to serve. Who serves in Nigeria?
Farouk Lawan will get away with the criminal charges around his neck. He will not be the first and he is not going to be the last unless a revolution happens in Nigeria tonight.
Mrs. Goodluck Jonathan got away with her loots. She and her husband have been siphoning Nigeria’s money long before the days of Aso Rock. Ask Mr. Jonathan what has happened to Nigeria’s external reserves since he assumed the position of the chief looter of Nigeria. The answers you get may turn you insane.
Obasanjo and the police funds, Nigerians have forgotten and forgiven. Babangida and 12 billion dollars, Nigerians have forgotten and forgiven. All the revelations made about how Atiku and Obasanjo wasted Nigeria’s money, all in vain.
You can count from now to eternity how Nigerian thieves (popular called Nigerian politicians) have stolen monies that Nigerians know about. But Nigerians do nothing to fight back or send these popular thieves to jail.
In Nigeria it is business as usual.
But they want us to write about the good things from Nigeria. Well, let those who have the feelings for that do so.
I don’t.
I see a country I left behind populated by some of the poorest people in the world. Nigeria is more than upside down. Tropical gangsterism is the norm. People do as they want and how they like and get away with political murders, theft in government offices across the country.
With Boko Haram and uncountable types of accidents life is very meaningless in Nigeria. Insecurity was redefined under the corrupt government of Goodluck Jonathan.
I don’t understand why thieves (popularly called politicians) cannot be apprehended, prosecuted and serve punishments. Oh, I do know. The Nigerian judiciary is so corrupt and morally blind you could almost want to scrap the Nigerian Law school and law faculties across the country.
There are many reasons why Nigerian Universities are not rated or seriously given a punch when rated. What are the roles of the products of the tertiary institutions when Nigeria is ruled by criminals in Aso rock and overlooked by the judiciary? The police are worse than legless animals. The political system in Nigeria makes a complete mess and mockery of the other (parasitic) institutions.
The police cannot arrest politicians because the politicians feed them. Nigeria is not a normal country. The judiciary cannot do a thing because it survives on bribes and kickbacks.
Our indigenous manufacturing industries are dead. Unemployment is all time high and it is almost hopeless to be a graduate without a line of connection that will open up job opportunities.
It is hard to create your own job or business since the government does not think it is its duty to provide electricity. The government of Jonathan is full of fools. Otherwise they should know that it is wrong to increase the cost of what is not yet available.
On June the 1st 2012 the cost of electricity was increased despite the fact that Nigeria has no electricity. It is now morally wrong to call what is produced in Nigeria electricity. It is not electricity or power supply because almost all Nigerian families have generators or power plants.
The environment is seriously polluted and combined with the almost useless public health facilities; life expectancy in Nigeria is hardly 40 years!
So, you see why corruption in Nigeria is the worst in the world. The implication of corruption in Nigeria is one of the greatest tragedies in the world since 1978-the year I started primary 1 as a 6 year old.
There will be no justification for the scenario that allowed criminals to rule Nigeria. It cannot even be blamed on the fact that they grounded public education.
To what extent will the thieves (popular called Nigerian politicians) go before the poor, oppressed and resilient people of Nigeria fight back?
Jonathan who vowed and promised to serve (and loot) for one term is now scheming for a second term. Nigerian rulers definitely are not only idiots; they are the greatest deceivers the world has seen since Judas.
Waiting for 2015 is like waiting for an Obituary. Who knows? By that time Boko Haram may have taken Arewa Republic and possibly Abuja.
The aggregation of people in Nigeria should seek the independence of their regions and tackle corruption before or after that.
At some point the indigenous populations need to take control of their own lives and determine the lives they want to live and the legacies they want to pass to their unborn generations. Present day Nigeria is a monumental waste and tragedy!
By Adeola Aderounmu
I responded with (a hidden) outrage to a Facebook post by two of my friends that a Nigerian woman was denied a job opportunity because she had a tattoo on her arm.
Apparently the interview was over and the panel of 4 interviewers was satisfied with her qualifications and suitability for the job. But when she stretched her hands to hand over her certificates the tattoo on her arm was revealed. At that point she lost the job!
My friends posted this on Facebook to warn potential applicants. I responded to one of the post and tried to educate the others who rejoined that it was wrong to disqualify a woman for the post that she was qualified for because she had a tattoo on her arm.
The counter argument was that it was against the so called “corporate policy of the company”. I left the argument after all my efforts fell on deaf ears.
The girl was qualified for the job, period! Does her tattoo interfere with the job she will do? I doubt that.
Nigerians are in serious need of education.
I even argued that tattoos are not new to Nigerians. Before I was 6 years, I had been seeing beautiful Nigerian women wearing tattoos on their arms and legs. I mean before 1978.
In Nigeria we have people with tribal marks and incisions.
How then does a girl fall into the discriminatory class in 2012 because she bears a tattoo that was only revealed because she stretched her hands?
I told these guys that this can only happen in Nigeria. In other places that company will go down because of the law or boycott of its goods/services.
I even tried to point out that many footballers in our favourite teams wear clear tattoos and ply their trades. I told these guys that the global economy will collapse if people wearing tattoos are out of jobs.
I tried to educate these guys but they kept to their guns.
I was so angry I thought if this is the average thinking of a Nigerian graduate, then maybe the Federal Universities in Nigeria should not even be rated for performance, they should be wiped away completely until proper education is set in place.
How can Nigeria continue to produce graduates and employers of labours who would deny an applicant a job position because she has a tattoo? The 4 man panel should think about their decisions as shameful and scandalous.
I do hope this incident is isolated and not a norm in Nigeria and that Nigerian graduates can argue for reasons, not emotions. The ones that argued with me on Facebook need re-education.
A View From The Scandinavian 