Nigeria

African Cup of Nation: Old Rivalries Rekindled

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Adeola Aderounmu

Ghana vs. Nigeria and Algeria vs. Egypt. These are classical games. On paper, Egypt and Ghana should be heading to the finals. This is because Egypt has won all the matches played so far. They are also out to prove a point that losing to Algeria in Sudan was an unfair result for them. The Algerians have emerged from being humbled by the Malawians to a great force after seeing to the exit of highly rated Ivory Coast.

Ghana has not been spectacular but they have shown more enthusiasm than their Nigeria counterparts. Nigeria struggled to beat Zambia and only after the penalty shoot out did Nigeria manage to scale through to the semi-final.

I hope that security are in place to prevent the ugly scenes from Sudan, Egypt and Algeria that we had 2 months ago during the world cup qualifiers that Algeria finally won by a lone goal in Khartoum. It will be shameful it the North Africans come to Angola to show their violent tendencies. We have had enough of that and please let us see some beautiful football and live in peace.

One also hopes to find a good centre referee. Officiating has been disastrous in this tournament. Ivory Coast got an equaliser against Algeria but it was wrongly ruled as offside by a careless linesman. The demoralising of Cameroun was completed by another catastrophic officiating that ruled for a goal when the ball didn’t even touch the line.

If FIFA has been reasonable to introduce TECHNOLOGY into this game, it would have taken less than 1 minute to verify these “2 disasters” among several others. Until then, cheating and useless decisions will continue to take the beauty of the game away.

May the better team win on Thursday and may we get a beautiful final.

Murder in Ogun State: The Killing of Dipo Dina

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Adeola Aderounmu

A prominent son of Ogun State has been assasinated. Mr. Dipo Dina was a vibrant opposition figure and the Ogun State gubernatorial candidate of the Action Congress in the April 2007 election. He was assassinated near Covenant University in Otta, Ogun State on Jan 26 2010.

My parents are from Ogun State. I have been there maybe 4 or 5 times my whole life. Ogun State is home to Obasanjo, MKO Abiola, Awolowo and several prominent Nigerians including Ernest Shonekan.

Ogun State will continue to occupy a central place in the Nigerian Political Sphere. But that we have killed one of our brightest minds is a big shame to us. We have allowed politics to ruin our sense of value and belonging.

The killers of Dipo Dina should bend their heads in shame. They are no better than wild animals in their show of stupidity, madness and extreme barbarism.

This is one murder too many.

There are people who are already concluding that the Ogun State Government headed by the governor Mr. Daniels should be held responsible for this killing. Such allegations may be careless or reckless.

But what are we going to get in a country where assassinations and murders of ordinary and prominent people have never been solved before? With the wicked and evil minds in control of governance, we may be asking for too much if we ask for the perpetrators to be apprehended and prosecuted. Still it is a necessary call!

The police may be out already calling this an armed robbery attack! This is what they always say. This is shameful and scandalous. We want better results from the police and security agencies.

Anambra Elections is coming soon in February, I hope that the people will allow peace to reign and that the electoral committee will count only the votes casted at polling booths.

In 2011, and before, we hope that the nest of killers would have been dismantled and brough to Justice.

The killing of Dipo is despicable, highly unacceptable and should never have happened. It is sad and the scar will remain with Ogun State and Nigeria forver.

May his sould rest in perfect peace and May the family find the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

Wasting Nigeria’s Money, Wasting Our Time and Lives

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Adeola Aderounmu

In the last 60 days The Presidency in Nigeria may have spent nothing less than N30 Billion in lobbies only. This is to prevent the debate on Yar Adua’s health in the National Assembly. I continue to insist that Nigeria is governed by mad people!! It can only be madness to do this type of thing. Whoever is approving the money and whoever is accepting are also part of the madness in Nigeria’s government.

Last year one man spent over N2 billion naira oscillating the universe because they call him the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Add these sums to the billions of naira that are stolen daily across Nigeria and you may arrive at the reasons why Nigeria is populated by poor people living on less than a dollar a day. You will arrive at the point where you will understand why the quality of lives in Nigeria is depictive of a failed state despite the oil wealth of the nation and the vast unutilised agricultural and natural resources.

I will consider as a HUGE JOKE the idea that Mr. Yar Adua will be brought back to Nigeria on a stretcher and made to rule from a life support machine. It will be the BIGGEST joke in the history of man to have an invalid at the helm of affairs of a nation of 150m strong, capable, determined and indefatigable people. Nigeria will not only continue to be a laughing stock, we will by that time be erased from world map if that ever happens!

How much more money and how much more time do we have to spend on this wasteful family holding 150m of us to ransom? So they want to build a life support machine in Aso rock? Let them also go ahead and build a life-prolonging machine as well. Life support will not be enough!

I salute Nigerians who have began to take to the streets to make their voices and frustrations known. I salute the Wole Soyinkas, the Chinua Achebes and the Femi Falanas of this world. I salute the Nigerian worker, I salute the Nigerian woman and children. I salute all the brave people who are now talking and acting for the rest of us.

The revolution is starting slowly and that is exactly how it should be. I salute all the Nigerians abroad especially those who have defiled the cold weathers to join the long march to freedom. All of these actions will converge in the days ahead to get the evil and wicked people out of our government. They will be gone soon.

We must ensure that we keep up the tempo, the pressure and never to neglect ourselves in these trying times. I salute Nigerians for what they have done so far and I know that with such actions, will and determination, the journey on the long road to our liberation, to our freedom and to our real independence have just started.

Together we will get there and freedom and peace will come to our children and children’s children. I still believe in Nigeria..!

Jos Burns Again

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By Adeola Aderounmu

I have at least 2 entries on my blog stating that Nigeria is not a terrorist country but the muslim region north of Nigeria continues to make nonsense of my claims. There are loads of groups now on facebook saying that Nigeria is not a terrorist country. But the more some of us have tried to paint Nigeria positive by saying that we are not a nation of terrorists the more some fools somewhere are negating our claims.

There have been fighting again in Jos. Jos again? What is wrong with Jos?

Can the governor of Plateau State give us reasons why he cannot ensure security of lives and property in his domain? Why is there regular fighting in Jos between Muslims and Christians? Are there no permanent solutions to these problems?

Nigeria is not a terrorist country and those who may want to use this ugly event in Jos to say-we told you so-must be told in clear terms that this violence in the North of Nigeria or in the Middle Belts do not define Nigeria or Nigerians.

We are a life and peace loving people. These outbursts in the North is a regional problem caused by ignorance, poverty and brainwashing of illiterates by a few selfish people-usually politicians using religion as a political weapon. I really do not know the cause of the recent clashes but I’ll surely have to ask around and find out what the problems of those fools are.

I remember featuring in a video clip for a group of people who are planning to visit Nigeria-see inserted clip. I promoted Nigeria and Jos especially. So I am really disappointed with the latest clashes. How can these people now have the courage to visit Jos with all these clashes and religious violence.


But then, hey, Nigeria has no ruler and there you can trace the origin of our country. A headless body is obviously useless. It was bad enough with headache, what can one say when the head is eventually off?

Nigerians, please lets save our country..!

We are not terrorists and we are definitely not a nation of violent people. How can we get this message across with all these negative images from Nigeria?

Anambra Election Already on the Path on Chaos?

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By Adeola Aderounmu.

Fake Electoral and Polling Materials are already in circulation in Anambra States, Eastern Nigeria. This is ahead of the governorship Election coming up in February 2010.

The Police have intercepted some of these materials but who knows how many of such materials are in hidden places at this moment? Now we have blamed the Electoral Commission for frauds in past elections and that is true.

But here we see how some of the frauds are initiated by candidates. If the Nigerian State is well organised, by now we should have been told which of the candidates owned the seized fraudulent electoral materials. Such a candidate should be named, disgraced and disqualified for attempting to cheat.

If there are ways to detect if other candidates have acquired similar papers or are planning similar frauds, we should be informed immediately.

This type of revelation indicates that Nigeria is not ready for true democracy. Nigerian public office holders and seekers alike are not ready to compete fairly for votes. It has never happened before in the ugly history of elections in Nigeria. Candidates always cheat or are imposed on the populace by electoral officers.

It is just too shameful and unbearable that despite our wealth of experience and knowledge the Nigerian political sphere is dominated by stupid candidates and do-or-die politicians.

Again the bottom line is the fact that they want to steal, loot and destroy the country. Otherwise I don’t see any reason why a sane person would want to cheat to acquire a public office.

Public offices are meant for service to the people. Such offices take your time, dedication and selfless efforts. But it is not so in Anambra or anywhere else in Nigeria.

I am still hoping that one day sanity will reign supreme in Nigeria. Indeed it will require multi-faceted efforts and determination on the parts of the people who are still sane and selfless. We are surrounded by too many people whose ideas of public service is nothing but self enrichment which makes the means to such offices not only requiring desperate measures but deadly approaches through the use of violence, assassination and free fight.

If only the police can tell us who the useless owner of the fake electoral materials are..!