Nigeria

Nigerian Judiciary, A citadel of Corrupt Minds

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Adeola Aderounmu

When I was a little boy I was told that lawyers are liars. It was a joke but it stuck. I was determined never to become a lawyer but I do admire them.

Almost everything institution in Nigeria is corrupt and upside down. All our democratic institutions that should be protecting the rights of citizens and promoting justice and fairness are all corrupt. Nigeria is a peculiar country.

The thing is, when something fundamental goes wrong, you cannot just point at the person concerned. You have to look at the institution that he or she belongs to and give a summative judgement.

That is why I have the title covering the Nigerian Judiciary. I tried to trust this institution but over the years it has contributed to the destruction of the democratic pillars that it ought to be building. The best way to describe the Nigerian Judiciary is lukewarm. It is very inconsistent and highly fallible.

This week one of Nigeria’s most notorious politicians James Ibori was cleared of 170 charges of corruption – involving the laundering of millions of dollars. The trial judge Justice Marcel Awokulehin was reportedly appointed by Ibori himself! You see, this is why I’ve always said that Nigeria is the most corrupt country in the world and I will stand by this any day any time, UNTIL I see changes.

No matter how corrupt other countries are, you will never hear of an accused person appointing his own judge! This can only happen in Nigeria. To me the most corrupt people in this world are living in Nigeria..! I mean the outcome of this case became predictable several weeks ago.

So the Nigerian Judiciary has dragged itself into disrepute-stinking, useless institution that should never be trusted. The EFCC-Nigerian anticorruption agency said it will appeal the judgement. Where were they when that hungry judge Awokulehin was hand-picked by Ibori? How much money did Ibori give to this shameless judge? Why did they ignore all the warning signals issued by bloggers and online reporters until the case went as predicted. Yes bloggers and online reporters because the Nigerian media is totally enveloped in fear of “what to report or not”.

It is an open secret that Ibori sponsored Yar Adua’s illegitimate presidency. So it is easy to see that the Nigerian government is in support of this judgement. The AG of Nigeria Michael Aondoakaa has travelled to London several times to defend Mr. Ibori. I cannot believe just how stupid we appear as a country.

The Attorney General of Nigeria went to London to defend a criminal. That makes both of them criminals and the fake president also an accessory to crime. Is this a country? I cannot shout..!

And you don’t even see the end of corruption in sight. It’s just getting deeper and deeper by the day. Ibori stole Delta State to dryness and he is walking free because he gave substantial part of the money to Yar Adua for his campaign. The Nigerian people are suffering no doubt and it is such a helpless situation when you are trapped between the devil and a deep ocean. The only way out is to fight back. When Nigerians do this by protest or revolution, freedom will be earned.

To expect that freedom will be earned by passivity or endless prayers will only add to our burdens. Our lives are in our hands.

Nigerians brace up for a Bleak Christmas 2009

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Adeola Aderounmu

I hope there will be no pipeline explosion during this season as I now punch my keyboards to write about this year’s Christmas in Nigeria. Nigerians just got their Christmas presents.

There will be no 6000 MW of electric power supply. This means that darkness will continue to pervade the land. How sad!

Fuel is now scarce again. This is one of the biggest intellectual scandals across ages. In Nigeria crude oil is flowing like milk and honey. But Nigeria exports crude oil and imports finished petroleum products. You can tell that morons are in charge of this blessed but damaged nation. Serious intellectual issue..!

A lot of Nigerians had great expectations in 1999 when Obasanjo became president. In 2007 hopelessness knew no measure among ordinary people. Only the politicians, their families and the lucky people in the private sector have some measure of wealth to live the good life. More than 90m Nigerians are living desperately from hand to mouth. I can’t stop stating that this is one the hidden tragedies of modern era. It’s hard to find more serious problems even in war torn areas.

In 2007 when the presidential mandate was smuggled and given to Yar Adua, some people’s hopes were rekindled because they didn’t know that it was the perpetration of evil. For the past 10 years the politicians have continued to steal, loot and enrich themselves while the quality of our lives have diminished terribly. Nigeria is grounded and what we continue to be fed with are lies and deceit.

The purchasing power of the naira is bad and the exchange rate is alarming. People want to shop and look good for Christmas but many people can’t afford simple meals and decent clothes. So this Christmas a lot of money will be sent home from abroad. Nigerians in Diaspora will once again rise up to the occasion to put smiles on the faces of families and friends.

Unfortunately no one will be able to handle the wickedness of thieves, kidnappers and armed robbers. Many unemployed Nigerians are so frustrated that they have increased the ranks of these unsocial groups. The Nigerian Police will not be able to guarantee the safety of lives and property at this time of the year. They are hardly there at other times. Their best and unethical function is to collect 20 naira at artificial check points and bribes in their offices. You can mistake Nigerian Police station for a failed bank.

I am not proud of our failures because they represent a collective shame. I don’t take pleasures in these writings. I want to write about the good things but the bad and evil have simply over shadowed the good things. There are honest people in Nigeria. There are good organisations in Nigeria. On the whole Nigeria is beautiful, blessed by nature.

But I will not write about so many good things when one man stole 12 billion dollars and walked free. I will not talk about good things now when governors stole their states dry and walked free. I cannot concentrate on the good things in a nation where more than 90m people are poor, helpless, oppressed and speechless.

No I cannot stop talking about these things because Nigerian politicians are bloody liars and too corrupt to behold. One day will be one day; we will have to device a method to drive away these wicked people. I am so sure they will not last forever. There is a need to emancipate the 90 or 100m Nigerians in desperate need of fulfilling lives.

Merry Christmas to the downtrodden. May you and your generations rise again..!

Wicked Behaviours

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Adeola Aderounmu

The most urgent thing in the minds of Nigerian politicians is how to get rich for life. The priority is how to loot, loot and loot so that during and after public life they are never poor again. Becoming a prominent politician in Nigeria is an investment and the dividends are enormous. You’ll never be poor again..!

Imagine this; there is a proposal in Nigeria to spend N3.5billion on the construction of new houses for the Vice President, the Senate President and his Deputy, as well as the Speaker of the House of Representatives along with his Deputy. One useless man called Mallam Adamu Aliero has been defending this in the Nigerian Senate. Absolute madness! Welcome to Nigeria the land of mad politicians!

And another shocker in this time of economic recession: the federal government of Nigeria presented it’s budget to the National Assembly and requested appropriation for four new presidential jets at a cost of $210 million USD.

Yes Nigeria is a rich country probably one of the wealthiest nations on earth. But with the state of our infrastructure and the stupidity of our politicians these requests are just too selfish to ignore.

Electric power supply in Nigeria is near ground zero. Schools are not well funded and health care is a disaster as we can easily confirm that the man whom they call their “president” lay sick for over 3 weeks in another country, Saudi Arabia to be precise.

Our roads are bad and terrible at the same time. Cost of living is sky rocketing daily. Christmas is around the corner and the best gift Nigerian got was fuel scarcity because of some wicked and mad oil marketers and stakeholders. They continue to ruin us and make us sad. Our lives are almost worthless in their eyes. Where is clean water? Where is the dignity for our endless labour?

We are like on-lookers in our country. We do nothing to stop the rise of evil. A politician in Nigeria can appoint a judge in his own case. This is the level of corruption in Nigeria. I swear, in my whole life, I have never seen a country as corrupt as Nigeria even if such exist. My experience is from Nigeria alone and a boy who has never been to another farm always believes that his father’s farm is the biggest. This is my case at this point. Nigeria is rotten to the core.

Change must come to Nigeria. let’s do every little things we can that can add up to the destruction of evil and the prosecution of our wicked, heartless and lying politicians.

Fuel Scarcity hits Nigeria: Another season of madness

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Who can understand this situation? One of the world’s largest producers of crude oil is at it again. It’s close to Christmas 2009 and Petrol is scarce again in Nigeria..!

I can’t stop making reference to the level of our mentality-cognitive and otherwise. This is absurd. 10 years into a new found civility (though clouded by tyranny) there is yet no “brain” to develop our oil resources to make them abundantly available for the citizenry.

This is because of the mafia group that runs the Nigerian oil businesses. Now they have created a new scarcity, they will make hell of money and the populace will groan and suffer. People who are already poor will now pay even more money to get fuel or to get transportation to move around. What a hell of a country! I have no doubt; this country is managed by extremely heartless and wicked people.

The government has a plan to deregulate the oil sector. Could this be the new plan to drive home the point? Do the people have to suffer more because of the planned deregulation?

And come to think about it this country has no legal president since 2007 and not even any form of governance since November 2009 because Yar Adua is lying ill in Saudi Arabia. What a country? Nigerian politicians are in need of psychological and mental examinations. Is this all about political survival? Is this all about selfishness? Is this all about some form of peculiar madness in the political arena?

There is fire on the mountain and nobody seems to be running.

Renowned lawyer and human right activist Femi Falana has asked an Abuja court to declare vacancy in the Nigerian presidency. But for the legal procedures I think that position has been vacant since May 2007 when the mandate was stolen in what has been described as the worst election in the history of mankind. But how wonderful that there is still one sane person in Nigerian political / judiciary arena! Thank you Femi Falana for your courage.

Also thank you to CACOL: the coalition led by Debo Adeniran is still trying and working hard to eliminate corruption in Nigeria. All these will not be a day’s job.

I still believe in Nigeria. We are talking about probably the most prosperous nation on earth but having some of the poorest people and the worst of infrastructure. Nigerian roads are among the worst in the world. Schools are frequently closed due to bad management and electric power supply is almost non-existent. Poverty is rife as a few greedy people have stolen our commonwealth. Our politics is complete and total
madness and our votes still useless, they are not counted.

Still, our life is in our hands. Our future is what we make of it today.

One day, things will take a turn for the better. I don’t know the sacrifices we have to make but I am sure we must get rid of the bad people and bad politics. One way or the other we must prove our sanity, cognitive abilities and courage to establish institutions that will lead us to the good life in our promised land.

Nigeria will rise again, soon..!

Power, Too Transient

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By Adeola Aderounmu.

If you have to choose between having good health and political power, what would be your decision? Think about it this way, health as they say is wealth. And when you are healthy, you are also happy and you are at peace with yourself and with others.

Having a power of any sort does not give peace of mind the same way as good health does. And when you have been in a position that allows you to accumulate wealth either fairly or through stealing, the normal thing to do is to ease yourself and pay attention to your health.

In Nigeria the man who stole the people’s mandate in 2007, in my opinion, must have surrounded himself with bad advisers. On his own, he seems to lack the common sense that dictates that health is wealth.

A normal and healthy person will suffer in health as a leader of a group or organisation. It is part of the sacrifice to be paid. How then can we qualify or quantify a very sick man who thought he could lead a nation of over 150m people? In this singular reasoning I doubt if Yar Adua is a normal human being. If we have good documentation of people’s behaviour, health and attitude as they do in the advanced countries it would be nice to study the history of the man Umaru Yar Adua.

I mean even ordinary jobs take their tolls on us. Teachers, accountants, programmers and other jobs take their effects on our health and see how we long for breaks and holidays. How can a sick man take up the job of being a “president”, especially an illegal one haunted by his own conscience, the various oppositions and the hammer of the judiciary? Depending on how this ends, the roles of his family should be taken into account.

Does he not have a wife that care or children that love him? Does he not have people around him who would rather see him alive and managing his health than dying in a position that is “too transient”. Between power and his presence, what did they choose?

Power is transient and is independent of health. It will be gone too soon and the one who is in power today will be ordinary or gone tomorrow. I’ve read that absolute power corrupt. It is a sad excuse to acting in a mad way. Power should not be like that. But unfortunately it is…

Imagine the sanity that will be in Nigeria’s seat of presidency if every bad leader disappears mysteriously. Abacha comes to mind and now Yar Adua. Unfortunately again people do not easily learn from history or philosophy. Power is transient, why not try to acquire it legally and do the right thing?

By death or other means people who are in power or position today will not be there tomorrow. None of us will leave this planet alive. Integrity and legacies are the things that last longer than positions. What legacies have been left behind by the stupid and looting Nigerian politicians since independence in 1960? They have destroyed the country and they have stolen money for themselves and their families, even those unborn.

Power is transient and I cannot wish well those who stole my future. I do not have good wishes for those who are destroying today the future that belongs to the children. Power is transient and I cannot wish well anyone who have taken 1 naira from the treasury. I definitely do now wish well for those who stole billions of dollars through contracts and direct looting. May judgements come upon them. Power is transient!

Nigeria will rise again. I believe.