Nigeria

Babangida, Obasanjo and a Lawless country

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Adeola Aderounmu

Babangida marked his 70th Birthday recently with confessions of madness. His deputy during his reign of tyranny died on the same day he was celebrating his madness. Augustus Aikhomu passed away in Lagos after a protracted illness. I don’t know how many Nigerians are praying that the souls of wicked dictators should find peace.

Babangida (who enslaved Nigerians from 1985-1993) has been throwing jibes at Obasanjo about his misrule (1976-1978 and 1999-2007). Obasanjo has been replying with fire.

The bottom line is that Nigerians live in a country where madmen are in control.
Ordinarily these two men should be cooling off in Kirikiri maximum prison for the rest of their lives.

Both of them were former dictators and Obasanjo even ruled again as a civilian president.

Babangida stole more than 12 billion dollars that he still has in his private account. He has not been formally charged for stealing. He is alleged to have killed Dele Giwa with a letter bomb, a crime he is yet to answer for. Babangida did many terrible things including mass murder and spreading poverty throughout Nigeria. His regime gave corruption a brilliant face.

Babangida is yet to be charged for treason for cancelling the 1993 presidential elections.
Obasanjo’s sins range from the probable mastermind of Bola Ige’s death to the squandering of 16 billion naira Power Budget. He also destroyed the democratic processes in Nigeria in 1979 and 2007. On both occasions he ensured that the people’s votes are meaningless.

In Nigeria the Police are like zombies designed to oppress common people and petty thieves.

Nigerian military rulers and civilian dictators are above the law and the police are like their houseboys.

The police chiefs are where they are because the politicians installed them. So it is impossible for example to prosecute Obasanjo, Babangida or Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan who are also alleged to have stolen but are now the rulers.

So the two big fools can continue to trade words. It will inspire neither the police nor the judiciary because Nigerians live in a very rotten system where known cases of executive corruption and crimes are swept under the carpet. It doesn’t matter that Babangida and Obsanjo are exposing each other, no one will act. When Obasanjo and Atiku even went as far as publishing evidence of each other’s corruption on the front pages of National tabloids, nobody acted and nothing happen.

This new episode will not be different.

What a shame! What a country!

RIP Sam Loco Efe

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Adeola Aderounmu

One of Nigeria’s finest actors Sam Loco Efe passed away early this week.

He was there on stage in LANGBODO during FESTAC 77.

He was a fine actor in Winds Against My Soul, one of Nigeria’s finest soap opera that featured in the 80s.

Sam Loco Efe was a major actor in NOLLYWOOD. He is prolific and versatile acting in various roles and in different capacities.

Sam loved life and he never pretended about his love for the cigarrete, booze and women. He will be greatly missed by friends, fans and families.

RIP.

1999-2015 PDP Years May Be The Worst Of Our Lives

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Adeola Aderounmu

The problems facing Nigeria are huge. They are also many.

The solutions are not easy to define because for over 50 years the country has been neglected as successive governments looted and stole just the way they liked.

Both military and civilian administrations in Nigeria neglected the people and plundered the country like emperors and tropical gangsters.

There is no federal government in Nigeria that has successfully planned for the future or made long-term plans to ensure national growth and development.

In 2011 Nigerians followed their minds while neglecting the power of deep cerebral thinking as they voted massively for Mr. Jonathan. The votes-Nigerians claimed-was not for the PDP.

Unless something is done in the days ahead the next 4 years may add to the previous 12 as the worst years that Nigerians alive have ever seen.

Security is at its lowest ebb since the end of the civil war. Terrorism is fully established and Boko Haram can take Borno, Kaduna and even Niger States if it so desired.

Food has never been so expensive in the history of Nigeria. The prices are increasing daily and the purchasing power of the Naira remains low as its value continues to tumble.

The worst express roads and highways in the world are still in Nigeria. One Minister cried at Benin-Ore road but she could not repair 0.1km of the stretch. One former Minister of Works and Housing is from Benin and his cerebrum could not connect to his nerves to get the simple messages: repair, build, restore, maintain.

The chronicle of Nigeria as a failed country is also very evident in the education sector, health department and area of infrastructure.

Lack of housing schemes and absence of water for majority of the population joined with the high cost of food in making Nigeria a country inhabited by more than 90m impoverished citizens. This, though hardly spoken about widely, is probably the worst man-made tragedy of our time.

With the near complete absence of state-supplied electricity Nigeria is among the worst places on earth inhabited by humans. We near Somalia, so precariously!

In addition to a President, Nigeria has Ministers, (including the unnecessary, wasteful and redundant Ministers of States), Lawmakers, Governors, Commissioners and even Councilors. For all the PDP dominated years, very little has been done to touch the people’s lives.

Nigeria has been left in the hands of Special Advisers, Special Assistants, Expert Facebookers and PR Consultants. Nigeria probably runs the most expensive government in the world and nothing is in the pipeline to change the status quo. Looting continua..! It is also not a joke that a governor in Nigeria appointed a special assistant for Lagos Matter and another special assistant for Lagos Affairs.

The ordinary citizens and people of Nigeria are suffering like mad as billions of Naira are wasted daily on side attractions including one useless talk of tenure elongation.

A 3-month genuine anticorruption program to arrest and prosecute all corrupt people in and out of government will avail more than the senseless debate about tenure elongation. Such a genuine adventure will settle for all time the question of accountability and probity. It will make elections less adventurous.

But all the governments in Nigeria including the government of Jonathan have been dominated by corrupt people many of whom have been recycled. This cycle of idiocy makes it impossible to fight corruption but relatively easier to distract with irrelevant issues like duration of looting tenures.

But in any case the government of Jonathan has promised to do wonders. It promised a lot during the election campaigns in 2010 and early 2011.

The office of the Nigerian president is too powerful. It’s like what the Yorubas called Kabiyesi (no one can question you?). The Nigerian presidency offers room for both laziness and lackadaisical attitude.

At this stage of post-election 2011 what should Mr. Jonathan be doing?

His schedule should be taking him round all the Federal Ministries in Nigeria and probably all the states of the Federation for the fulfillments of electoral promises.

In the Ministry of Transport he should be commissioning several kilometers and stretches of federal roads and rail lines all around Nigeria. It is very important that such projects are everlasting projects with regular maintenance included in the contracts.

In the Ministry of Education he should be restoring all the Federal schools including the Federal Universities. The competition will be to ensure that all Government Universities are more efficient than Private Universities that have been established with looted funds or collections from congregations.

In the Ministry of Water Resources Jonathan should be using his knowledge of science to work together with the Minister he has appointed. Millions of Nigerians are living without access to pipe-borne water. Water-borne diseases and malaria are giant killers of Nigerian children and adults too.

I remember that in Yar Adua’s village women fetched dirty water from deep wells and they sold the water. They are still probably doing that while Sambo is likely drinking imported water.

There are quite a number of natural sources of water in Nigeria and the south coast is lineated by the Atlantic Ocean. Clean and affordable water should flow in every home in Nigeria and 4 years is good enough to accomplish that.

In Ogoniland gradual poisoning of the population commenced since 1959 or so through polluted water and soil and when the full effects will become manifested, extremely poor Nigerians from the extremely rich oil fields of the Niger-Delta will face one of the worst human-induced health crises the world has seen.

Jonathan is asking the UN to help rid his region (Niger-Delta Ogoniland) of the devastation of oil spillage. A report stated that it will take about 3 decades to clear the mess. It has taken more than 5 decades to create it.

Why ask the UN? What about our EIA specialists in Nigeria? They should be on the next flight to Abuja and then the next one to Ogoniland to start working. Sincerity of purpose is the keyword. UN will not clean Nigeria. Nigerians will cleanup Nigeria when people like Jonathan start putting square pegs in square holes rather than buying 3 presidential jets for one person in a nation where poverty wage is negotiated.

What has Jonathan thought about concerning providing houses and flats for Nigerians? What is the function of the Federal Ministry of Housing? When was the last time that the Federal Government of Nigeria embarked on aggressive and rapid housing programs?

What is wrong with the Federal Government working together with private construction companies and well established banks to ensure that decent flats and apartments become affordable and accessible by 2014 or 2015 as Jonathan’s parting gifts to Nigerians?

The number of Nigerian politicians and public figures dying in foreign hospitals is increasing. This is a disgrace I am so ashame. The Babangidas and the Yar Aduas of this world know better by now that health is wealth and that having quick access to quality health services is very important. But they were so daft and myopic not to make such services available to themselves at home in Nigeria.

One hopes that the sad omen will not hit the Jonathans. It is now time to do something once and for all about our health institutions from the community levels to the highest spot. Our University Hospitals must also be revived immediately. We can’t wait for the next state-sponsored treatment abroad before we open this discussion again.

All the things that take Nigerians abroad for treatment including the twisted ankle of Mr. Atiku should be highlighted and corrected in the next 24 calendar months at most. Even the children with holes in the heart should have corrective surgeries in Nigeria and not in India. How long shall we express inferior intelligence by the things we do wrong? Just how long?

I can go on with what Mr. Jonathan should be doing. It is not the least that he must work together with the Minister of Youth, Labour and Productivity to ensure that the problems of employment and national productivity are tackled and solved. It will be recklessness not to re-introduced government-organised farm settlement schemes across Nigeria under the control of states or regions. Cocoa, groundnut, oil-palm and cassava must hit the export again.

The Minister of Natural resources under Jonathan must have his or her hands full with the type of promises that Jonathan made. Has anything progressive been done in the last 2-3 months in the coal and steel industry for example?

Most of the things above will not work in the absence of electricity. Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa said that power will be constant by 2015. We have heard that before. Mr. Jonathan must make electric power supply a priority and ensure that we light up Nigeria by the end of his first year in office. If this means destroying the generator importers cartel, so be it!

Mr. Jonathan has a moral obligation to keep permanent tabs on all the ministries under his rank. Nigeria must move away from the textbook-forms of administration where Ministers read out their plans every 4 years from what they have read in books or on Google and do nothing after the recitations.

Mr. Jonathan took a record time to appoint his cabinet. After wasting our time he cannot place people into positions and let them do what they like. What Nigerian politicians like is to do nothing. They love to steal and loot.

We cannot afford that carelessness any more. Mr. Jonathan should not oversee another 4 years of wanton looting and he must not orchestrate one. He must put his house and office in order.

Mr. Jonathan should get out of the comfort of Aso Rock. He can’t spend 4 years meeting people and holding endless discussions. When is he going to hit the roads? Four years is such a long time in human existence. Some people’s lives were changed in 4 seconds, some in 4 minutes.

Nigerians said they voted for Mr. Jonathan and not for the PDP. I’m still laughing. It is left for Mr. Jonathan to prove Nigerians right or wrong. 1999-2007 was a complete waste of our lives. We became a GSM society. And so what? The world has since moved on. Our debts were cancelled. Where does that leave us now? Abacha’s loots were partially recovered. But the Nigerian bookkeepers under Obasanjo stated that the money was spent on projects executed a few years before the loots were recovered. The chief bookkeeper is back. A country of abracadabra..!

Even if Mr. Jonathan is a new magician he will never achieve half of the lies he promised during his nationwide campaigns. Those are elections jives and they are full of deceits and thoughtless moments. The greatest legacy Jonathan can leave behind as his single tenure runs a countdown is to ensure that as much as possible is done out of his debts of promises.

He must get somewhere commendable in the race and targets he set for himself. The task before and after The Jonathan Era are huge. Nigeria definitely needs a transformation borne out of honesty and patriotism.

I cannot end this essay without stating my support for regional governments. Instead of tenure elongation what we should be seeking on the long-term are constitutional changes tied to eradication of corruption, devolution of power, regional productivity, growth and development.

Nigeria’s Strange Market Forces at Ramadan

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Adeola Aderounmu

I have not stopped wondering why the prices of food commodity usually skyrocket during the fasting month of Ramadan.

When I was a teenager growing up in Nigeria I was usually shocked at this phenomenon. The prices of essential food commodities usually shoot up during the fasting seasons.

This year 2011 has not been an exception.

Consumers are paying through their noses since this week started.

Ramadan is a fasting month and the number of people consuming perishable foods should be reduced. How does a decrease in demand lead to increase in prices of food items?

Do sellers hike their price to make up for the low numbers of buyers? Are suppliers deliberately making life miserable to other members of the populace?

Or does demand for food actually increase during the Ramadan month?

There are issues with the market forces in Nigeria that really need to be investigated and explain to everyone.

Exploitation of ordinary consumers should not be encouraged and government policies that prevent unnecessary increase in prices of food, goods and services should be enacted.

Nigeria: From Regional Government to Terrorist Country

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Nigerians were shocked when on December 25 2009 a young man by the name Abdul-Muttalab attempted to bomb an America-bound plane which he boarded from Amsterdam.

I was one of the several bloggers who screamed “Nigerians are not terrorists”! History and current events have proven otherwise.

Nigeria is now a front liner among the terrorist countries of the world.

In one of the most cowardly expressions I’ve read this year, Mr. Jonathan said that no nation is free from terrorism. Indeed, true because Norway just got hit. But what has Mr. Jonathan done since the war started in Maiduguri and now brought to his doorsteps in Abuja?

The Nigerian Police headquarter in Abuja the capital of Nigeria was attacked on Thursday 16th June 2011 by suicide bombers. They succeeded in detonating massive loads of bombs inside the parking area of the Nigerian Police Force in Asokoro Abuja.

Those who are responsible for these series of successful terror attacks inside Nigeria have exposed the complete lack of intelligence of the Nigerian Government.

No one has been arrested since the first letter bomb of 1986 which was masterminded by Babangida and his security aides. In recent years the use of bombs in Northern Nigeria has escalated with neither arrest nor conclusive investigations. In Northern Nigeria bombs are more common than groundnuts.

The weaknesses of the Nigerian Defense mechanisms have constantly reminded us that Nigeria can be annexed at any time by serious external aggressions.

The present state of insecurity of the country called Nigeria may be an introduction into the final chapter of Nigeria as a unified anomaly.

The Inspector General of Police boasted that we are in the last days of Boko-Haram. Rather than be intimidated the group came out strongly to blast the headquarters of the Nigerian Police and to simply tell Afiz Ringim to shut the f— up!

But how did Nigeria become a terrorist country?

Students of political science should be doing extended researches on the rise of terrorism in Nigeria. Through such comprehensive studies we can get the full report on how terrorism has become a part of our existence in Nigeria.

Nigeria right from onset is a political error and an occurrence facilitated by the selfish (and probably stupid) thinking of the colonial masters. How can people and ethnic groups that have nothing in common be formed into one country? Intelligence was deducted when such economic and political decisions were formulated.

The stupidity of the creation of Nigeria would have been probably neutralized by a purposeful leadership. But what Nigeria got since 1960 has been a series of government dominated by tribalism, nepotism and massive corruption. Summarily government in Nigeria is like total madness in high places.

In the process civil war was fought from 1967-1970. Violent crimes and armed robberies rose remarkably after the civil war.

After 50 years of near total neglect and non-governance, unemployment increased in Nigeria and the standard of living dropped sharply. Austerity measures were introduced in the early 1980s and Structural Adjustment Program in the mid-80s under one of Nigeria’s most notorious dictators, Ibrahim Babangida became Stomach Adjustments program as hunger crept into the lives of millions of Nigerians. we have not recovered.

The governments of Nigeria neglected the well-being and welfare of the people. Politicians stole money and as I write stealing remains the main reason why people go into politics in Nigeria.

Religious riots became common. Many internal borders became disputable and ethnic rife mixed with religious tensions.

Many decisions including the location of state capitals for newly created unviable states were based on political gains rather than social justice. Many Nigerian politicians are too ignorant of the meaning of social justice.
They promoted ethnic politics and even religious politics.

Education was relegated and today public education is almost non-existent. Several politicians stole public funds and started private schools. Many sent their children abroad as they stole blindly.

In short Nigeria became a country where the government runs its own thing on one hand and the citizens run theirs on the other hand. The two became exclusively independent of the other especially as votes are useless and elections are predetermined. So in Nigeria, anything goes.

Many people made it in life out of extraordinary situations and amidst little hope. Many did not make it and will never experience good or quality life because the system is too disorganized and cruel to recognize the plights of the majority who are suffering.

In 2003 the central government collaborated with the River state government and gave weapons to the youth so that the PDP can win elections by force. This terrible carelessness gave more power to local groups who later became formidable as militants in the Niger Delta. Across Nigeria this became more common.

Rather than educating the youth and providing for the welfare of the states, the PDP government under Obasanjo gave them guns!

As the 2011 wrapped up, riots broke out in Northern Nigeria and many innocent people and youth corpers lost their lives. Boko Haram rose to unprecedented heights. The connections are too hard to ignore. The problems escalated because of the level of illiteracy in the North and the fact that religion and politics are perfect volatile mix in that region.

Boko Haram may be facilitating the last chapter of our common history.

When I started this essay a few weeks ago the activities of Boko Haram was daily and widespread. But as I conclude this July month of 2011 it seems that they have relaxed a bit.

Or maybe the security apparatus is starting to work properly.

Everything in life is a function of time.

Nigeria remains one country just to serve the corrupt and the cabal. For example we know that electricity may never improve in Nigeria because those who import and sell generators are government officials and politicians.
They will never wish for a better power supply.

It is the same for the education sector. Public education may never improve in Nigeria unless all the private schools own by politicians are taken away. They were established with stolen funds.

It is time for all Nigerians to have a stake in the future of the different nations within this ugly combination.

We should support a return Regional government similar to what we have in those days: Western Region, Eastern Region, Northern Region and Middle Belt. If necessary new regions like the Niger-Delta should be introduced.

It is time for each region to determine how it wants to run itself using its own economic, human and natural resources. It is time to take the power away from the center. Let us return it to the region where it will be possible to manage and even uproot corruption. It is absolutely useless to remain like this. What we have now is a product of corruption, made for the corrupt and to enslave more than 90m Nigerians who live in absolute poverty and penury.

There is no simple way to analyse Nigeria and the way forward will demand a lot of sacrifices. Surely the killings in the delta and in Maiduguri are not the type of sacrifices. They are too costly.