Nigeria

BABANGIDA’S STUPID DECLARATION

/ Adeola / 5 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

If Jonathan returns from the US, Nigerians should start paying attention to both his speeches and body language.

IBB declared his intention to run for presidency on the same day that Jonathan is meeting Obama. The witch cried last night, the child died today. Who does not know that it was the witch that cried last night that killed the baby?

There are suspicions that the US is backing Babangida’s candidacy for the presidential election coming up in Nigeria in 2011.

Summarily, without wasting time, Babangida is a thief. He is a key player among those who destroyed Nigeria. He is part of those who stole our future. In his time, he didn’t do it alone. Infact he chose some men and women of substance in Nigeria and together, they institutionalized corruption. They took corruption to a new height and level. For 8 years as a dictator and tyrant, Babangida destroyed the foundations of Nigeria’s democratic institutions. For several more years he stood behind the scene and monitored the degradation of our lives.

Without wasting more time, this stupid and useless man annulled the best election ever conducted in Nigeria in 1993. By now, Babangida should be in kirikiri facing life sentence. The fact that he is still a free man implies that Nigeria is a funny and ridiculous country. Nigeria is peculiar.
Babangida stole Nigeria to dryness! He is alleged to have masterminded the killing of Dele Giwa among many other atrocities.

It is only in Nigeria that a known thief will control other people and order them around. It is only in Nigeria that someone who stole more than 12 billion dollars will walk free. Where is the money that Nigeria made when the US fought Iraq during the gulf war? Babangida has not told anyone where the money went to.
Babangida in the Nigerian context is one of the untouchables. He is simply above the laws in Nigeria. Why can’t he be charged for treason for all his roles in coups? Why can’t he be successfully investigated for the monies he stole? How long was Babangida in service and how much money could he have made for those years? Does his wealth tally with the money he made as a soldier or businessman?

He said he is the most investigated person in Nigeria. Really?

If he was investigated in deed and truth, he should be in prison by now drinking garri and eating dry beans.
And he has the guts to declare that he wants to be president in Nigeria. Sometimes I think Nigeria is not on planet earth. This is why I still consider the EFCC (whether under Ribadu or Farida) as a HUGE joke. The biggest and the most popular thieves in Nigeria are free men and women. Who is fooling who?

When Nigeria is ready, the likes of Babangida, Obasanjo, Atiku, Ibori, Anenih and even Jonathan himself will have their residential addresses changed. They all belong to kirkiri maximum prison!

How many of the politicians in Nigeria can tally their wealth with their incomes or business earnings? 99.9% of them are looters! It is painful because they loot and do nothing tangible to improve the country and the quality of lives that we live. There are several countries in the world where politicians steal and loot but at the same time they make significant contributions to the society. In several countries, corruption is limited.
In Nigeria corruption is unlimited, it is the norm.

If Mr. Obama has anything to do with Babangida, it will be one big scandal we must blow to the open. Those who know should give us the facts and figures. Obama should mind the relationships he keeps and he should actually stay clear of Nigeria’s affairs if this is the type of candidate he would support. Is the US supporting IBB because they want to reward him for crimes that have been covered for years? Or is it just to keep the oil flowing from the filthy deadly delta to America. No greater scandal. The blood of the slain innocent people will drown all accomplices in this matter.

Nigeria will probably be a struggling country for as long as the clean-up is postponed. Nigeria should resist all forms of internal and external supports that IBB is counting on. If it will cost us our lives, let’s pay that price for our children and children’s children. At some point we must start the process that will regain this nation or part of it for the good of those we love and what they will come to represent-the future.

The reformation of the Electoral Commission should be expanded to include ascertaining the sources of wealth of the contestants. Let Babangida tell Nigeria how he came about the Castle in Minna? Let’s see his bank accounts, transactions and business profits. Let him and his likes come forward and give us solid accounts of how they made it BIG.

The ultimate Electoral Change will be credible elections and the counting of our votes. To allow the likes of IBB to contest and buy votes with our looted monies will further make a mess of our already stolen and pitiable existence.

IBB belongs to kirikiri maximum prison and the earlier he and his likes get there the better for the Save Nigeria Project.

YES, Enough is Enough!

Who will save us from this re-emerging evil?

GOODLUCK JONATHAN’s VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

Nigeria’s acting president Mr. Goodluck Jonathan has been to the US on official assignment and state visit to President Barack Obama. I didn’t really monitor the events surrounding the meeting or the talks that ensued. I have not even seen the CNN interview which Jonathan granted. I’ve been too busy with other things lately.
Surely details will continue to emerge on the nature of the discussion and the outcome. Keen commentators will be wary of the implications for now, and in the nearest future.

Personally I don’t know how much I should about this ceremony or visit. I’m too worried about factual events and concrete details. I’m so devastated by the reputation of Nigeria and the hopelessness of more than 90m people. I continue to emphasize that the real situation on the ground in Nigeria is a huge tragedy of the 21st century.

What is Mr. Jonathan going to do about the poverty in Nigeria? There are one million and one questions about the devastation and calamities that Nigerians face daily. Which of these man-made catastrophes is he keen on battling and defeating? Power supply? Corruption? Decay of education? Lack of roads, lack of water? Which one will he face?

I read that he is seeking the help of the US and UN in Nigeria’s power supply dilemma. It is on record that there had been collaborative efforts and high profile planning in the past. But what happened? Some individuals in Nigeria stole all the monies budgeted for power supply projects. Under Obasanjo alone more than 16 billion naira grew wings! No one is held or imprisoned as a result.

This is part of the real deal-corruption will not produce any significant progress in Nigeria. what is the essence of consulting abroad when corruption looting and stealing are the orders of the day in native Nigeria?

Let no one be deceived, Mr. Obama must have discussed about the welfare of the US and the prospect of continued oil supply from the deadly delta region of Nigeria. It doesn’t matter how the oil gets to America, he will tell Jonathan to get it there anyway. That is no secret. The relationship between exploited, devastated poor countries of the world and the developed, wealthy country is that of take and take. But it is a fallacy however to say that Nigeria is a poor country.

Nigeria is probably the wealthiest country in the world but thieves and looters like Ibori, Babangida and Obasanjo to name just 3 out of thousands have stolen all of Nigeria’s money and used them for family and personal gains.

Even Jonathan’s wife has been implicated in the past as one of the thieves who stole Nigeria’s money. The act of re-introducing Ribadu will probably be a way to smash Mrs Joanthan money laundering case for good. So the point is, Nigeria is assumed to be a poor country because of the recklessness of a few citizens who stole, looted and destroyed the country beyond redemption.

Jonathan’s visit to the US is going to be invariably meaningless because of the thieves in PDP and other parties. Nigeria’s politics and public service is an icon of pure insanity. The looting continues. With unlimited corruption and the non-prosecution of thieves in high places, no amount of visit to the US or cooperation with the UN will improve power supply in Nigeria.

With the Nigerian mentality and the nature of our crude politics, progress is out of sight. Change is needed and the recycling of looters and their progeny must cease. How this is achieved is a gigantic task altogether. Where do we start from?

Charity begins at home. Change must come from within.

The Campaign Against Maurice Iwu: it took so long.

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By Adeola Aderounmu

The campaign against Mr. Iwu the fraudulent and corrupt chairman of the Nigerian Electoral Commission (INEC) must be sustained. To be sure, Mr. Iwu is not the problem with Nigeria. The problems are huge, numerous and enormous. However Iwu symbolizes evil and wickedness. He has been used as a tool to totally destroy the meaning of election in Nigeria. Mr. Iwu has taken rigging, corruption and recklessness of the electoral system to an irredeemable stratum.

Corrupt and Inefficient Iwu Maurice

Image from Nigerian Guardian Newspaper

I’m wondering why it took so long for this campaign to take form and shape. What is important now is that this campaign must be sustained and the eventual removal of Iwu must be achieved. If not, his activities will destroy more lives and souls.

In December 2007 I published the article below in the Nigerianmuse and on the Nigeria Village Square. I also published here on my blog and I’m just going to re-post it again exactly the way it was.
My views about Iwu are the same and I think the man should be facing the court of law by now. His former boss Mr Obasanjo should join him in trial. The crimes they both committed/perpetrated should not go unpunished. Removing Iwu is one thing, making him and his masters pay for their crimes is a bigger issue that should not be swept under the carpet-which is usual for the lazy and inherently corrupt successive governments in Nigeria.

A Persistent Resident Evil in the Aisle

Adeola Aderounmu
Written on Dec 11 2007

If we don’t do away with Iwu in our public arena and let him be HEARD NO MORE, someone will wake up tomorrow to tell us that Iwu is a hero. At that time, the likes of Babangida, Obasanjo and Atiku would have become saints and ordinary Nigerians would have been totally converted to their footstools. Iwu must go now!

Nigerians should not get tired of reading about one man or one incident day in day out. It is imperative that all of us who feel genuinely concerned should continue to echo our thoughts and actions where necessary until we rid our society of evil and atrocities. Mr. More-rice Iwu is one man we must continue to elaborate on until he is gone. He MUST go! He was quoted immensely by a recent report (10th Dec 2007) in This Day Newspaper

He stated that the conduct of the elections was far better than the June 12, 1993 election which is generally regarded as the freest and fairest in the history of Nigeria. Apart from confirmed madness, I tried in vain to find any other rational reason why any entity would make this kind of reckless and thoughtless statement. Would any sane person compare the worst election in human history with the best election ever held in Nigerian since 1959?

Iwu went further: Nigeria was able to transit from one civilian regime to another for the first time in the history of the country. This is a very, very useless line of argument. What is the value of a history that promotes shame, ridicule, lawlessness and executive madness? The significance of any election is not in the transfer of power; it is in the meaning that it adds to life. The significance also lies in the realization of the wish of the people, the need for a proper and appropriate change where necessary and the hope for a greater tomorrow. I will repeat that the 2007 selections in Nigeria were nothing short of a farce. It is a slap on the face of the intelligent minds that abound in Nigeria and those abroad.

Nigeria is fond of setting bad examples to other African countries and it is a big shame. It appears to me that Nigeria has not made any progress democratically despite the mistakes and shortcomings of the past. We repeat history and never learn from them. It was very stupid of us all as Nigerians to accept the outcome of the useless 2007 selections in the name of civilian to civilian transition.

After the 29th of May 2007, we still couldn’t bundle into jails all those who squandered our future. I am really disappointed that people like Obasanjo and Iwu and the others who have contributed to the demeaning of Nigeria are not investigated or placed on trial. We need to take control of our lives, our destinies and our future. It must start from someone, from somewhere. Yet it seems that we are wasting this opportunity which is still very fresh.

The INEC chief said in spite of the odds against the smooth conduct of the 2007 general elections, INEC was able to organize free and fair elections that produced winners from state assemblies to the office of the president. This is a classical example of what Fela termed “Animal talk don start again, hear o another animal talk”. I feel so enraged each time I read comments from Iwu. Who do I blame? I blame a system where people worship idiots like him. This is a man that should by now be facing the full wrath of the law. Where is due process and where is the so called ruse of law? Where are our investigative police and judiciary in all of these messes? AG nko?

The jargons that keep coming from Iwu went on: “It was a sad moment to say that 2007 elections was the worst elections when we knew what was happening in other parts of the world.” What does this mean? Which other parts of the world? Is it Sierra Leone that just emerged from a civil war and yet managed to conduct more credible elections? Is it France that conducted their elections a few weeks after the scandal in Nigeria? Is it South Africa from where he imported electoral materials days after the pre-prepared results have emerged?

Is it Ghana that had been reaping the dividends of democracy such that Nigerians are now relocating to Ghana? Which other parts of the world was Iwu talking about? Why do we even have to look at any other part of the world? We are talking about madness and lawlessness in Nigeria and he wants us to look for greater madness to see how blessed we are.

At a public forum last week, Iwu mentioned that politicians wanted coup in April 2007. What a cheap blackmail? Which coup in the history of man will ever surpass the one masterminded by Obasanjo and executed by Iwu himself? Why have we done this to ourselves in Nigeria or why are we permitting this kind of persistent shame?

Are we normal in Nigeria? Is this what it means that Africans are less intelligent? I don’t know what more to ask. Really it is very annoying and frustrating. I mean we went to school in Nigeria and we knew how intelligent our teachers and lecturers are. So, why do we get all these nonsense from those parading our public life? It is hard to understand but if this is what the outside world will hear in order to judge us, then where is the intelligence? Where is the non-fraudulent mind if one of it exists in Nigeria public arena? Help me!
Just when I thought I have read all the nonsense that Iwu had to say, he dropped another line of lunaticism.

He said:
“The 2007 elections we agreed were not perfect, it was a human undertaking. It won’t have been perfect. But I still maintain to the annoyance of some people that the 2007 elections were free and fair.” Yes Mr. More-rice Iwu, I am seriously annoyed and if I was a lawyer, I would dedicate the rest of my life to your prosecution until it shall comes to pass. Free and fair? Is this man normal? Iwu said that he is resolute in actualizing his missions of reforming the country’s electoral reforms, in line with what was obtainable in other developed countries. This is ridiculous.

That takes me to Yar Adua who has been talking about electoral reform. Is it the same reform that Iwu is referring to? Is the anticipated electoral reform Yar Adua’s project or Iwu’s mission? Iwu’s mission remains evil in nature and will never achieve any good or positive results. He will only end up setting more tasks for the judiciary who will continue to annul and rule in favour of re-election or resuscitation of proper candidates.

That will also plunge Nigeria into deeper crises. Similarly, if the power to appoint the chairman of INEC still resides with the presidency, then it looks like Umaru is going to leave Iwu to continue with the imaginary reforms he has been talking about. It would be a nice way to pay back Iwu who presented the certificate of office to Umaru when everyone was still shouting foul play. Anyhow, Umaru Yar Adua lacks the foundation to orchestrate an electoral reform as the battle for the soul of the presidency remains undecided. So, Iwu’s reform or Yar Adua’s reform, Nigerians loose either way. What a tragedy!

When Iwu mentioned that … when we knew what was happening in other parts of the world and then…… in line with what was obtainable in other developed countries. I knew for sure that he was absent minded. This is a man who said that we should be happy with our election by comparing it to other parts of the world and at the same forum saying that he wants to make electoral reforms that would compared to what is obtainable in other developed countries. So, the developed countries are in another planet or what? Truth is constant, it is not malleable. Inconsistency and heresy are clear symptoms of a die-hard liar. Iwu is a hardcore liar!

What are the terms governing the operations of INEC? Can the National Assembly do something about it? Apart from an unwillingly and a slow presidency, who else can we turn to for the removal of this cankerworm called Iwu? What about the Integrity Group? This man MUST go! The removal of Iwu is one of the steps we must take to move Nigeria forward. Let us rise up against all the evils in our society and their platforms.

If we don’t probe and try the previous and serving administrations and their key players, we will be taking steps that will only reveal that we are not destined for greatness. We need to stop thieves and deceivers like Iwu in high and low places and put everybody on alert for national revamping. Making Nigeria great is not going to be a day’s job. It will be a collective duty on virtually on frontiers of our lives. But Nigeria will never be great if we don’t resolve to take the first step. Many more generations will be wasted and people will continue to wallow in poverty despite the wealth of the nation. My heart has been bleeding for Nigeria, a rich country where values are not placed on human existence but which instead has become a place for the glorification of sycophants.

Let us not coat evil with honey. Nigeria must do away with Iwu, he is the resident evil, the remnant of the 2 dream killers who disenfranchised 140m people in a world record scandal and farce called election in April 2007. Let us continue to make all the sincere and necessary inputs that are needed to salvage Nigeria even if we have to do that a million times on the same issue.

We are living with many evils in Nigeria, from Babangida to Obasanjo, and the rest of them. One of these evils is very much at large and for as long as he remains relevant and influential in the order of things in Nigeria, this country will know no peace and the disappearance of the entity called Nigeria can be catalytically enhanced by such a fellow. If Iwu remains in charge of elections or electoral reforms, Nigeria’s doom day is surely at hand.

Nigeria, O Nigeria..!

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

Adeola Aderounmu
My lamentations continue and the story goes on that Nigeria is a very sick country.

I have uninterestedly followed the ministerial list/nominations drafted by Mr. Jonathan or whoever is responsible for the shortlisting-maybe the state governors or senators or godfathers.

There is a serious problem because what is happening is the same old stupid act being played out in a new predictable chapter. The foundations of this country were destroyed many years ago or maybe it didn’t even exist in the first place.

Nigeria is so divided that with the way things are (or have been) there is no hope. I don’t see any progress coming soon as a result of the lack of the understanding of the basic principles of democracy, fairness and justice.

Whilst there are one or two outstanding names on the list, the bulk of it shows that we continue to draw up Ministerial list based on state of origin and ethnicity. You will never find a greater sign of unwholesome division and failure of nations in human history. The trademarks are clearly evident in the way Nigerians think and act. This country may never know progress for as long as this is the way we want to do things.

I am not sure if it was the military that bestowed this method of governance on Nigeria or if we allowed ourselves to be swindled by the morons and brainless people in the corridors of power. How did they get there in the first place?

Nigeria will probably not make any visible progress nationally in the coming decades until a major change takes place.

It is wrong to draw up Ministerial list from states of origin or ethnicity. It is a stupid argument to state that that is how to achieve balance in Nigeria. Indeed it is a sign of mediocrity.

For this country to make progress and to ever even think of becoming a developing nation (Nigeria is not developing dime!), public institutions and other parastatals that influence the quality of our lives must be run by people who are capable and qualified, not people who are useless and stupid. We continue to bring is irresponsible people into our public institutions because of their ethnicity and origin.

Until we accept that this is wrong and anti-progress, this country will know no peace and make no progress. Until the voice of reason subdues the voice of sycophancy, we are going nowhere. Until we are able to find that mechanism that will relegate state of origin and ethnic background, we are only demonstrating laughable acts out of our weak national cognitive abilities.

All over the world, states and governments are functioning or trying to function by electing competent people into offices and sacking them once there are major shortcomings or issues of concerns. In Nigeria we continue to rewards thieves and their families and friends. What a joke! What a useless attitude!

Who would have cared if all the Ministers are from the old Bendel State if electricity is constant? Who would have cared if all the Ministers come from Adamawa if water flows in every home and schools and roads are world-class standard?

Who would have cared where the president comes from if he doesn’t steal? Who would have cared if he was rightly elected (and sack-able) under normal democratic circumstances? What would I care if the quality of my life in Nigeria can be as someone living in a less prosperous European or Africa countries.

With the wealth from Nigeria, Nigerians should be living the best life quality in the entire world. The reverse is the case-some of the world’s poorest people are living in Nigeria. What nonsense! What an aberration!

Check out Mr. Jonathan’s list. He didn’t make them for sure. There are limits to what he could have as “his” inputs. The rest are from godfathers, political gladiators, PDP (the most evil party in Africa) and individuals whom Mr. Jonathan owed one political favour or the other.

Based on the mechanism of drawing up the list, just a little fault lies with Mr. Jonathan. The rest lies on the failed system that operates in Nigeria. The Nigeria system remains a recipe for disaster. It is a recipe for profits for political conquerors of Nigeria. Once you get into that clique, all you need to do is to play safe and dance to the turn of the reigning Caesar. You will always earn your reward for loyalty. Then you can be in the position to either directly or systematically loot the country until your time fade out.

History will not forgive these wicked souls benefitting from Nigeria while the rest of us are suffering. History I pray should never be kind to these people and their offspring. They ruined us!

They loot and plunder the land. We have no water, we had to make boreholes. We have no electricity, they sold generators that we bought. We pollute the land and inhale poisonous gases everyday. They closed our schools and send their children abroad or the best private universities which they owned. They took everything that made us happy away. They stole our future. They took our lives away.

And they continue to bring in their offspring and their likes (they called it federal character) just to ensure that we remain in captivity. For all they care this can last forever. They call us Nigerians but they act like they are not part of us. They are even worse than the colonial masters. They are worse because they took everything away.

When will the glory of this country return?

The Ore school pupils’ tragic excursion

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The Ore school pupils’ tragic excursion

WRITTEN BY Luke Onyekakeyah

(For the Nigerian Guardian Newspaper Tuesday March 23rd 2010)

ONE day one trouble! That is what Nigeria has become in recent times. There is unceasing flow of ugly incidents traumatising the citizenry almost on daily basis. The deaths, last Wednesday, of 42 persons from Aricent Nursery and Primary School, Olupitan New Site, Ore is shocking. The incident has devastated families whose loved children perished in the ghastly crash on the Ondo-Ore federal road. It has added to the litany of bad news that has become the lot of Nigeria. The grief-stricken parents would never be the same again. In a twinkle of an eye, their loved kids were gone and they have been thrown into unending anguish for the rest of their lives. That is the story of today’s Nigeria; otherwise the accident was avoidable if things had been done the proper way. That is in addition to the deplorable road condition. As it were, no day passes without people dying on the roads.

The pupils and their teachers including the proprietor of the school, Mr. Tairu Ariyo, who also died in the accident went to Idanre hills on an excursion and were returning when the accident occurred. The 18-seater bus in which they were travelling had a head-on collision with a trailer. Ten of the pupils died on the spot. The rest of the seriously injured pupils were reportedly rushed to the General Hospital Ore where they died due to poor health facilities and inadequate attention.

Only one medical doctor was reportedly on hand to attend to the more than 30 pupils brought to the hospital in critical condition. Besides, the workers at the hospital were said to be uncooperative amid calls by desperate parents to have attention given to their dying kids. The abject state of affairs at the hospital obviously contributed to the mass deaths of the pupils. A better-equipped hospital with well-trained medical personnel could have saved the lives of many of the pupils. One distraught mother who lost her daughter in the accident described the Ore General Hospital as “a glorified health centre with no basic equipment”. That, in truth, is the condition of general hospitals throughout the country, where hapless citizens die owing to poor facilities to attend to the sick.

The Ore incident has brought to the fore the issue of standards in the running of public and private schools throughout the country. The decay in virtually every facet of the country’s life has created a culture of impunity whereby people do what they like knowing fully well that nothing would happen. For instance, in Nigeria’s school system, there are no laid down standards for conveying or transporting students from one place to another like you have in developed societies. Throughout the country, school children are ferried in horrible buses to and from school and for field excursions.

Schools use any type of buses to transport students and pupils to events over dangerous roads. It is well known that majority of the schools don’t have school bus of their own. What these schools do is to hire rickety commercial buses whose drivers are known to be reckless on the road. So many students/pupils are packed like sardines in such unhealthy buses. It is common in Lagos, for example, to see students packed like sardines in decrepit chartered commercial buses going on one trip or the other. This practice has resulted in the death of many students/pupils in the course of excursion trips. The Ore school incident is certainly not the first of such incidents. It is un-imaginable how over 64 pupils were packed like sardines in an 18-seater bus for an excursion. There is no doubt that the bus was overloaded and that could have contributed to the accident.

If field excursion is part and parcel of school curriculum, why are the schools not required to provide a standard school bus before the Ministry of Education gives approval. Why does the Ministry of Education overlook something as important that endangers the lives of innocent pupils who get excited whenever their schools organised excursion but only to meet their untimely deaths? Such incidents, which keep occurring without intervention from the appropriate quarters only go to prove that many things are wrong with this system that need to be addressed.

With the collapse of standards in the education sector, anything goes for the schools. The public universities are in worse shape. How many universities have standard buses for conveying students? The Ministry of Education is not living up to its responsibility to prevent this kind of deaths by ensuring that the right things are done in the schools. The blight affects both the public and private schools. Few private schools have school bus of their own choice. But there is hardly any public school with school bus. There is no talk of creating the right environment for learning or providing the right equipment. The Ore school incident happened to be one of the latest of such mishaps. There is no school bus system in Nigerian schools and yet students/pupils are transported to and from the schools in whatever could be chartered by the school.

The other factor that contributed to the accident is the appalling state of the road. The Ondo-Ore federal road is a death trap like the dilapidated Benin-Ore highway. The road is narrow and is bordered by thick forest on both sides. This makes it difficult for drivers to see on-coming vehicles even during the day. Night driving on the road is most dangerous. Unfortunately, the dead pupils were returning at night around 8p.m. when the accident occurred. The poor state of the road coupled with the recklessness of the drivers must have contributed to the crash. And so it was that healthy pupils who left their homes in the morning in high spirits perished on the road leaving their families devastated.

These days, hardly any day passes without one ugly incident or the other occurring that shocks everyone. The newspapers are awash with shocking headlines on daily basis. They range from mayhem, ethno-religious attacks, armed robbery, kidnappings, accidents, fire outbreaks, building collapse, strikes, demonstrations and such ugly incidents. All these incidents result in horrible deaths of hapless citizens. Many families in Jos have since the beginning of the year been devastated not by earthquakes like in Haiti or cyclone like in Fiji but by man induced inhumanity to man.

The average Nigerian is daily bombarded with hearth-rending news stories and you begin to ask where the country is heading? Cheery news is scarce to come by. The country is not officially fighting any war like you have in Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. But the charged atmosphere in the country has made living irritable. The average person on the street is tensed up as he or she faces the hurdles of the day. It is this state of affairs, the way and manner Nigeria is carrying herself that has given room to speculations of a possible break-up of the country. It is high time the country’s leaders showed commitment to issues that affect the citizenry. The way things are going is not in the interest of the country.

Regarding the school, it is high time that government made it mandatory for schools to have standard school bus for conveying students/pupils and for field excursions. A school bus is as important as a school building. If a community could afford to build classroom blocks, that community should be able to buy a standard school bus. Similarly, any private person who could afford to build classroom blocks should have a budget to buy a standard school bus. This is needed to create standards. And the creation of standards would start from somewhere. Except this matter is addressed by the Ministry of Education at the federal and state levels, students/pupils will continue to die in unclassified chartered buses.