The Dangers Of Hypocrisy

May 5, 2018May 5, 2018 / Adeola / 1 Comment

I am still looking for those who resigned and blew the whsitle when Jonathan and his crew (both in PDP and APC) were looting the treasuries. I am now looking for those who are going to leave the Buhari government and blow the whistle (both in the APC and PDP) as a result of the budget padding and scandalous national/state security situation. Mr. Buhari himself should have resigned along with Lai Mohammed for misleading the world when they stated at the end of december 2015 that they had defeated Boko Haram.

The Dangers Of Hypocrisy By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

There are no limits to the repercussions of hypocrisy. It is worse when the hypocrisy runs parallel with lies and propaganda. Two other dimensions that can worsen the situation is the spread and the acceptance of hypocrisy as a trait or norm within a political structure or among the people of a country.

As you read this essay the banks in Switzerland are still sending more and more of the monies stolen by one famous Nigerian criminal called Sani Abacha. He was unfortunately a former dictator in Nigeria whose death remains a subject of controversy.

Despite the fact that his loots are finding their ways back to Nigeria (since the regime of Obasanjo), Nigeria’s current president Mr. Buhari is yet to acknowledge that Abacha was in fact a criminal. This hypocrisy is dangerous and heart wrenching. This singular denial also shocks me when people say Buhari is not corrupt. I don’t understand how people don’t see the links.

Invariably the act of being a hypocrite extends to hangers-on of political associations. It cut across and destroys the consciences of both the enlightened and the disenfranchised as well as the educated and the ignorant. If Nigeria finally implodes, hypocrisy will not be left out as one of the diseases that sunk her.

If you listen keenly to Femi Adeshina you will find an example of a person who lost his mind and threw away his conscience to the lagoon all in the name of having a job and earning a mega pay. There were (before him) people like Reuben Abati, Reno Omokri and Segun Adeniyi. With him is a guy called Ogunlesi who thinks the rest of us are ordinary lower animals.

In my exposure to other countries where several of these spokesmen have also lived or visited before relocating to Aso rock, there is always a limit or threshold to how long an aide can defend a boss or get enveloped in the same cycle of ignobility.

What happens to the ability to resign or walk away to save one’s good image? Invariably my conclusion is simple: it takes a rogue to defend a rogue in matters of public accountability. It also takes selfishness and wickedness to turn blind eyes to the realities on ground in the daily existences of Nigerians.

Like l mentioned above, the realm of hypocrisy in Nigeria is massive. Therefore it is unforgiving that even professor Osinbajo lately said APC is not a corrupt government. But he is fully aware that APC integrated into its fold former PDP looters and existing APC looters. Their common saving grace is the unforgiving failure of the justice system in Nigeria. I always maintain that Nigerian laws remain useless as far as criminal politicians continue to rule Nigeria.

Osinbajo also said that APC is more honest than PDP. Since when did accountability to the people become a relative term? APC is confused. When the spree of murders and genocide escalated under this regime, APC stated that more people died during Jonathan’s PDP regime. My understanding of that conclusion is that the Nigerian life is worthless. Why else would number of deaths be comparative?

Late afromusic king Fela warned us many years ago about all those that do bad things in the names of their religious lords. We did not listen. We are still not paying attention.

Today l am neither for the APC nor for the PDP. I will go for a new orientation. It is about time people understood my stance nearly 12 years into this act of blogging. I stand for good government only. My inherent hatred for corruption and lack of independent reasoning have no bounds and it has no connection to religious or non-religious morality.

By a manner of another perspective and changing lanes, when next you read a criticism of the Buhari government from Reno Omokri, help me ask him where he was when Mrs. Jonathan and Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke where emptying the Nigerian treasury under the watchful eyes of Jonathan. Of course he would call it propaganda.

It is the same way everything was propaganda in the eyes of Segun Adeniyi of the Yar Adua regime. Now all you read here is propaganda for Mr. Adeshina. Wait for him to be out of the corridor of power. We saw Reuben Abati out, in and out again.

My take on some hypocrites is that they actually have their criminal minds before participating in all these serial governments of looters. How many more hypocrites and pretenders are going to emerge in 2019 if we don’t break this cycle of national madness?

I don’t even appreciate the headlines from people like Ngozi Iweala. Anyone that has been part of the governments in Nigeria and under whose watch or in whose presence massive looting had taken place is a bloody hypocrite.

I am still looking for those who resigned and blew the whistle when Jonathan and his crew (both in PDP and APC) were looting the treasuries. I am now looking for those who are going to leave the Buhari government and blow the whistle (both in the APC and PDP) as a result of the budget padding and scandalous national/state security situation. Mr. Buhari himself should have resigned along with Lai Mohammed for misleading the world when they stated at the end of december 2015 that they had defeated Boko Haram.

Mr. Donald Trump it appeared had no balls afterall. A straight talk would be to inform Mr. Buhari of his primary duty as the president of Nigeria. Buhari has failed and he is still failing to protect Nigerians. He, as well as the looters in the Nigerian senate, is failing to see the need for the immediate restructuring of Nigeria and the introduction of state police.

The hogwash in the White House led to increase in attacks in Nigeria. The long term consequences of the dangers poised by national and international hypocrisy and the passiveness of the drained Nigerian people are yet to be evaluated. But the signs are already very, very bad.

I can understand to some extent the feeling of party affiliation. What l cannot understand is the lack of will to stand with the truth. But l know many people are predictable in their love for money, power and position. Many people always discard the essence of public service because they want to remain relevant in the (dis)order of things in Nigeria.

These people look forward to recognition, gains and consolidations when the ocassion arises. So they cannot give up their hypocritic garments for honourary ones.

And since this is the way things work in Nigeria, the country dips deeper in national crises. We argue unnecesssrily on issues of common sense and we are a country left behind. We are sick. We need healing.

If a few good men and women are given the task of redirecting Nigeria back to the place where we were in december 1965, and if these men and women are honest and have no spirit of hypocrisy, if they are not concerned about getting rich or owning mansions in Dubai, America or London, or sending their children to schools in Ghana or USA, in less than 8 years (2 terms) Nigeria will be back again as one of the best places to live in the world. The people must be orientated about the dangers of hypocrisy and they must be ready to stand with these few good people. That is the hope of Nigeria and Nigerians.
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aderounmu@gmail.com

The Terrorist Of Trollhättan

October 25, 2015October 25, 2015 / Adeola / Leave a comment

We teach kids that the pen is mightier than the sword.

We also teach värdegrund-basic values so that love-(and not religion or race or skin colour) will be the universal basis of our existence.

The Terrorist Of Trollhätttan

By Adeola Aderounmu

On Thursday the 22nd of October, Sweden experienced what has now gone down in history as the worst terrorist attack on her soil in over 75 years. Everybody seems to agree on that postulation.

Anton Ludin-Petersson

Truly, there are definitely other tragedies that occur in trickles in the last 75 years that we have chosen not to discuss. The media controls us, in no small measure.

Still, the terror attack in Trollhättan, west of Sweden must be stated clearly as it was.

Children attending a grade 1-9 school left home that fateful morning. They hugged their parents and guardians goodbye as they have always done. They went to a safe place where their co-actors-the teachers and staff meet them daily, Monday to Friday.

The teachers, the staff, the resource persons and all the other people that are working together to make sure that the future is secured and better were on ground. They were playing their roles in building Sweden.

Teachers everywhere in the world are working hard not only to teach science and social studies but also what we call värdegrund-basic values so that love-(and not religion or race or skin colour) will be the universal basis of our existence.

It is at school that we-the teachers also teach about democracy and freedom. We teach children how to find happiness by choosing wisely among the options that life provides and to always remember that outside the four walls of the educational institutions, there are laws to follow and there are principles to guide them. We do our best, everyday.

It was in one of such schools, the one called KRONAN in Trollhättan that a young terrorist posed as a halloween celebrant and unleashed mayhem and terror that have now destroyed some lives forever.

A young man actually gave his life so that others might live. He was a young student assistant. His name was Lavin Eskandar. He died of the wounds from a sword attack. Yes, a sword!

The terror attack happened in the environment where we taught kids that the pen will always be mightier than the sword.

A student identified as Ahmed was also racially targeted and murdered by the terrorist of Trollhättan. May they (Ahmed and Lavin) rest in peace and may their families find the fortitude (and love from all of us) to bear the loss.

Let me be clearer, the Swedish media will call the terrorist gärningsman which means the perpetrator. That tag will not be substituted for terrorist in the major media that is controlled by those who tell us what they think we want or deserve to hear.

Incredibly a resistant group of activists and people with liberal minds have helped the Swedish media to correct that nonsense impression by rightly referring to the man who killed 2 people and seriously injured 2 others as a terrorist for that is what he was.

Incidentally as l was putting this story together, l got a message that a formal protest will take place against the Swedish Television in the coming days.

Sadly too there will be a lot of mis-information and propaganda from the mainstream media on how the late 21-year old terrorist had been a loner, a misfit, a psychopath and all kinds of forged tags that can be used to rationalise his crimes. Again, as we now know the guy was simply a terrorist.

The crimes committed and not where the criminal comes from must be the basis of the classification of criminals.

Meanwhile 24 hours hours after the attack, l had continue with my job and definitely with my life full of concealed anger. l am a professional, one of those in the category of the targets of this dead terrorist. l have to pretend that everything is alright when l am at workplace.

Who said teachers can’t be good actors? Isn’t that what we do everyday? Everyday we lay down our lives-to some extent that is-so some young children and even adults can have their dreams come true.

Tragically the terrorist was shot dead by the police. He was dressed in black and wearing a mask at the time. With a sword in hand he was clearly a danger to the lives of the police who arrived at the school to end the massacre that was in progress. The police said they acted in self-defense.

Anton posing with some students at the crime scene

Obviously Anton Ludin-Petterson’s death is a sad loss to his friends and families and to all those who knew him. He was born a free man but chose to die a terrorist.

In my view as a social critic and as a public commentator, no amount of sugar-coating or media-misrepresention should be allowed to justify any act of terror no matter who the perpetrator is/was.

Anton was a young man who had his whole life ahead of him. But on this sad day in October he died a terrorist after taking the lives of 2 innocent people he knew nothing about except that they had foreign backgrounds. He wounded 2 others whose lives remain in danger.

At 21 a free man in any lawful society is accountable and liable for his actions. Anton is not available to defend his actions. The task of defending him will be valueless. Yet, care must be taken.

However, as we take different stands, we must never forget that the justification of terror attacks by looking for excuses and reasons to do so have had only one effect in history and that is the repetition of similar unfortunate events by copycats.

Unfortunately the Swedish media is trying to find a connection between the terror attack and a previous report about safety and security concerns at the school. Even the national school inspectors were quick to jump on the bandwagon. They bought the bait and this is so unfortunate and actually very sad.

Nobody in their right mind should do such a connection. It will provide an avenue for haters, copycats or terrorists to look for more schools where security concerns have been expressed and where people of mostly foreign backgrounds get their education in Sweden. Such schools will become easy targets if we allow our reasons to be marred by sentiments.

In my opinion Anton was wrong to chose the school-KRONAN irrespective of whether there are security concerns there or not. No one will be justified in terrorizing other people based on any factor at all.

I work with children everyday. I have been doing that since 1990. I see children and l see hope, laughter, dreams and aspirations. Then one day one man walked into a certain school and decided to end the hope, dreams, laughter and aspirations of the young children. I will never subscribe to his reasons or motivations. I condemn all acts of terrors no matter the cowards who did them.

The terrorist of Trollhättan has reminded Sweden that her status as a free society is under fire. It has been under fire for decades and the cover ups have been massive.

Here is a surprising fact people are hiding from in Sweden: the rise of extremism is massive at the same time that public outcry against racism and injustice has been rife.

The racist party is slowing and gradually rising to power. This means that there is something that does not add up beneath the surface. Who can explain this? What is now obvious is that we live in a society full of racists, haters and pretenders.

What happened to all the värdegrund (basic values) that we have been teaching at our schools in Sweden? Oh, they are gone with the wind..!

In recent weeks, months and years, a lot has happened that showed the deepening hatred and threats in the Swedish society. We-the foreigners-have our different battles that we confront daily. But commonly the burning of asylum and refugee residences is the latest and ongoing onslaught on openness and freedom.

These problems can no longer be swept under the carpets because the consequences will explode soon, right before our eyes.

The days of pretense are over.

The time is now for Sweden to show the political will to correct these anomalies.

aderounmu@gmail.com

The Ignorance Of Jonathan On Poverty And The World Economic Forum

May 4, 2014 / Adeola / 2 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

If the forum goes ahead as planned, there will be tight security all around Abuja while the conference last. The security will be heavy and water-tight at the Sheraton Abuja Hotel, Transcorp Hiton Abuja and the Abuja International Conference Centre.

Somehow this conference in Abuja will showcase the low cognitive mentalities of some African rulers. The government of Nigeria will ensure the security and safety of foreigners. It is the same government that has not been able to protect her own citizens and is yet to issue any official statement on the circumstances surrounding the missing school students in Northern Nigeria.

Who abducted the girls? How many of them were abducted? Who are the gangsters responsible for this human trafficking? What efforts are being made to curtail or prevent a re-occurrence of mass kidnap of children, men and women? Why was it possible to carry our double terror attacks at the same spot at such a short interval of time? The answers to these questions lie with the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, men of the armed forces and the investigative arm of the security agencies, not with some “money-siphoning committee”. Silly!

The other angle to the economic forum came as a bang on the 1st of May 2014. The ruler of Nigeria revealed himself as one who has no sense of economics and growth measurements. What benefits is Nigeria getting from the WEF when poverty is measured by the number of people appearing on Forbes list of rich people or by the number of people who flew private jets to Kenya? Jonathan does not get it; his level of reasoning is so kindergarten and appalling. Now we know how Nigeria’s economic has overtaken that of South Africa-it is by private jets and Forbes report.

Poor Nigerians! They are in a permanent mess! With his line of reasoning, like a mad king, there is no way out. All those comments about Aliko Dangote, private jets and giving money to a Nigeria shows that Nigerians have thrown away their hope of a better future with the type of rulers they get at all levels of government. The relegation of intellectuals and the elevation of agberos and touts across all strata of governance in the affairs of Nigeria are revealing very devastating consequences.

When some people argue about not blaming the ruler of a country for the lack of security in the country then I don’t know who is going to accept the blame or responsibilities. Somebody must take responsibilities for the security breakdown in Nigeria and that person whom the bulk stops at his table is the ruler of the country.

It was not the South Korean PM who tilted the ship that capsized yet he took the blame and the responsibilities and stepped aside instead of finding blame or passing it around. So, I am sorry the security problem in Nigeria is for the government to solve irrespective of whether the government knows the sponsors or not. Innocent people are dying everyday! Children and women are kidnapped and used as slaves and sex objects.

Let me hasten my essay, Boko Haram successfully bombed a car park area in Abuja twice in a period of less than one month. The group vowed that it would remain in Abuja to unleash more terror attacks. Nigerians are asking for the arrest and prosecution of the sponsors of Boko Haram because Mr. Jonathan has mentioned several times that he knows the sponsors.

What investigations have been done by the police and the other security agencies? When will the arrest or interrogation of suspected Boko Haram terrorists begin? Is the judiciary independent enough to run these cases if this government gets the “liver” to start this show? Are the skeletons in Mr. Jonathan’s cupboard the hindrances to the end of terror in Nigeria? Who or what is he afraid of?

Who are those in his government that he said are “Boko Haram” members? Why is the Nigerian Army playing a double role in this whole deadly drama? People are asking the Nigerian army “if you can lead and win in Liberia and Sierra Leone, why is it impossible to lead in ordinary Northern Nigeria? Who controls the Nigerian Army today? What is in their way? Why are they being killed and slaughtered by Boko Haram so easily?

The WEF is ill-timed. Nigerians are asking about missing students and several murders and senseless killings by Boko Haram terrorists. Nigerians are asking for protection, they won’t get it! Nigerians do not have security for their lives and property. The luxury of security will be given to foreigners and coincidentally to Boko Haram terrorists who said they are already in Abuja. Are they lodged at the various expensive hotels in Abuja?

If this World Economic Forum conference is rolled away from Nigeria, the consequences and embarrassment (if this government ever get embarrassed) might help to start finding answers to the several unanswered questions that now include the global #bringbackourgirls campaign.

Who knows? The implications might be heavy enough to wedge stricter security measures to keep all Nigerians (and foreigners) safe while not ignoring the effects of the appropriate use of the rule of law as short term palliatives.

On the long term, it would be of historical and educational significances to look at the circumstances that led to the rise and success of Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria especially the role of underdevelopment, ignorance, poor education and outright failure of governance in the region notwithstanding the several years of hold on power by the selfish rulers from the Northern Nigeria. The lessons learnt can be useful for the future generations. Two post-independence generations of Nigerians are already wasted! Tragic!

aderounmu@gmail.com

[photo, world economic forum and AFP photo]

Terror And The Volatile Mix Of Blind Faiths

April 23, 2014April 24, 2014 / Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

One of the saddest things to occur in Nigeria in the last 4 years is the ascension and domination of religious politics. Unfortunately, it has also been the time of putting Nigeria on the map permanently as one of the major terrorists’ countries in the world.

Nigerian politicians have lost the plot a long time ago in the areas of ideologies and functional manifestos. It will amount to overstating the obvious that Nigerian politics runs on faulty foundations and that the essential purpose of politics in Nigeria is nothing close to service. The politics is rather self-serving, self-rewarding, dominated largely by criminal minds and stinking of massive corruption from the head to the toes.

Religion is destroying Nigeria

As Nigeria and Nigerians now approach the 2015 elections, the stage is now set for a religion-influenced electioneering. How did Nigeria get to this point? The question is relevant judging from the background and outcomes of the 1993 general and presidential elections. That election was adjudged to be the best election (ever) conducted in Nigeria.

Sadly for the Nigerian nation the presidential election results were annulled by the tropical military gangsters headed by one dictator called Ibrahim Babangida. That election would have ushered in MKO Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe of the SDP, two Muslims from two different geopolitical zones in Nigeria.

When Mr. Goodluck Jonathan started his reign as the ruler of Nigeria in 2011, it was not pleasing to the Nigerian opposition party and a lot of statements were made by the opposition politicians especially those from the Northern parts of the country. Gen. Buhari and Mr. Atiku were alleged to have made statements that ordinarily would have earned them interrogations by the Nigerian special security forces. But they were not invited for any interrogation or explanations.

There had always been elements of terror and its tendencies in Northern Nigeria. There was of course serious problems with the terrors in the Niger Delta that curiously to this day continue to gulp more money than the federal defence budget of Nigeria. However for some reasons that have now kept the blame game in a roller coaster mode the terrorist group popularly known as Boko Haram have flourished in the northern parts of Nigeria and Abuja under the reign of Goodluck Jonathan.

This period of rise of terror curiously also coincided with the era when Mr. Jonathan embraced the Christian community in Nigeria with more enthusiasm. He even went on the so called “holy” pilgrimage with a large entourage, all on Nigeria’s tax payers’ money.

By the way the annual holy pilgrimages to Mecca and Jerusalem are embodiments of the nonsensical waste in Nigeria’s government since time immemorial. Nigeria is a very corrupt country (we don’t need corrupt Mugabe’s opinion to confirm this fact) and the wastage or looting of money through religious tourism to other countries is regrettable. These pilgrimages are parts of the inferior complexity of Africans, also regrettable, made famous by the government and people of Nigeria.

The APC is yet to state with audacity the two persons who will be flying the flag or the brooms of the part in the 2015 elections. An attempt to draw a ticket on 2 individuals with the same religion like the SDP did in 1993 is becoming unlikely and like their party members and critics would make everybody believe-suicidal.

The disorganised polity has been heated and whether the Muslim community or the APC in Nigeria find it desirable or not, there is no longer a general acceptance for the type of scenario that Nigeria had with the Abiola-Kingibe ticket. Since the political scene is devoid of common sense and ideologies, the rise of Boko Haram has given many religious people within and outside APC the platform for hatred. Offshoots of the hatred are the emergence of the political suicide syndrome and the probable intense Christianisation of the Nigerian presidency under Jonathan.

The alleged statements made by the likes of Buhari and Atiku at a time when they needed to control their emotions but lost it completely, and the silence/lack of condemnation from the Northern region in general following the “successful” campaign of Boko Haram continue to send shocking and conflicting signals across Nigeria. It will be hard to erase the meaning and aftermath of what it takes to make Nigeria ungovernable. Such expressions now run parallel with terror occurrences.

The government of the day in Nigeria has made many remarks in the past and even recently linking the deadly terrorist group to the main opposition party-the APC. Nigerians are surprised because such allegations are supposed to be supported by investigation and arrest. Nothing has happened in that line. Before he was killed General Azazi linked the problem to religion, poverty, the desire to rule Nigeria and a combination of everything that is wrong with Nigeria. He especially laid the blame at what he called politics of exclusion of the PDP in the region.

When the true story of Boko Haram is finally told, it would be instructional, not least sensational to know the sponsors (national or international) and the roles of the Nigerian military that is alleged to be harbouring snitches who have made the bloody operations of Boko Haram successful. What will also be useful if Nigeria or the nations within Nigeria will ever learn anything from history is the magnitude of the alleged involvement of the Northern rulers.

I doubt if I know what to believe going by the nature of the roller coaster blame game. The Yorubas have said it all “if falsehood persist for 20 years (or even 100 years as Nigeria marks centenary of a painful marriage), one day the truth will emerge.

Meanwhile in the faces of the multitudes of speculations, allegations and counter allegations and irrespective of where the actual truth lies, it is extremely sad that those who have suffered the most are the innocent masses going about their occupations or daily activities. Women and children have suffered in this evil campaign and crimes have been committed against humanity.

It appears that the government of Nigeria enjoys playing or toying with the lives of the citizens. This whole pandemonium is like a chess game where the opponents are seeking checkmate. In this case, the 2015 election is the end result. The “I don’t give a damn attitude”, the lies of keeping government “working” and the campaign dance that took place in Kano barely 24 hours after the deadly car park blast in Abuja that claimed, depending on sources, between 150 and 250 lives are all indications of a failed government.

Religion in its ordinary form mixed with politics is poisonous. The effect of contaminations with radical views either from the presidency or any other place in Nigeria will be more potent than a poison. Nigeria appears to be in a labyrinth, more likely at the crossroad of self-destruction.

In January 2011 I wrote an article titled: My Message To Nigerians In 2011, Stop Saying It’s God. I condemned the influence of religion in Nigeria’s politics and social life.

Nigerians have been fooled, deceived and slaughtered at the altar of ordinary and radical religions. It does not seem there is an end in sight if one judges by the religiosity of Nigerians on the social media and in reality while the country burns.

Is it hard to see that Nigerian politicians (both Christians and Muslins) are looting the treasuries across Nigeria? Is it hard to see that they call on God and Allah to solve the problems that are related to common sense and simple political ideologies?

Nigerians and their politicians attribute events (good and evil) to acts of God and they merged together to pray for things that can be solved by simple action and will.

In the area of religion and prayers, I have not understood the Nigerian mentality. They pray for the things that they and the government are supposed to do. So after creating a corrupt political system where corruption and crimes are tolerated and rewarded, Nigerians will then commit everything into the hands of their various Gods. Nonsense and ingredients!

For Nigeria, religion has created more problems than solutions. It remains a deadly veil for both Christians and Muslims. It’s worse for radicals anywhere because the effects of brainswashing are profound on them and their narrow minds. It’s going to be mission impossible to forbid religions in public positions, in politics especially. Ironically the elimination of religion in our doings is supposed to be the best way to free our minds and promote coexistence.

It’s hard to “converge” my views but I’m trying to get to a point where I need to condemn the role of politics and religion in the rise of terrorism in Nigeria. I am of the opinion that religious differences have aggravated the political differences in Nigeria. I think that the corrupt rulers and politicians have through their actions, alignments, attitudes and utterances contributed to the hopeless situation in Nigeria.

I have a problem in understanding the rise of Boko Haram acting on the radical angle of one of Nigeria’s dominating religion, that is Islam. A few years ago, Nigerians boasted of their “fear” of dying. Today we are told there are suicide bombers in Nigeria. It’s very painful to watch terror achieve successes on the back of religious platforms. I’ve been blown away many times in my life seeing atrocities committed in the name of Christ, God and Allah.

I also want to emphasise that as long as religion remains a factor in Nigeria’s politics and socio-economic life, then the country is going no where. In the society, people need to start doing things independent of religion. Just be good, do the right thing and play your role in nation building!

The Nigerian political class does not build or propagate sane and sound ideologies; they are instead wiggling from one political party to another based on the religion of the political candidates, based on fairweatherism and opportunism. That is the height of stupidity, having no principles.

The call for true federalism or the emergence of regional governments cannot be swept under the rugs. For, right now, Nigeria is in a serious dilemma and the center is too weak to hold things together. The center is marrying, making merry and dancing around as the country burns and people perish daily.

The weakness of the center is the strength of Boko Haram, it is the strength of militancy or terrorism anywhere in Nigeria. The weakness of the center is the sustenance of a corrupt political system. The self-serving nature of Nigerian politics means that the non-thinking politicians and rulers are ready to take everything down with them. It is up to Nigerians to rise up above religion, above sentiments, above hypocrisy and above political and ethnic differences.

Great countries were not built on religions, corruption, selfishness, greed, prayers or miracles. They were built by dedicated people, on sound political structures, on performances, on ideologies that stood the test of time, on positive actions and on the collective will to succeed.

aderounmu@gmail.com

What Happened To A Pair Of Trousers At N52?

March 24, 2014March 24, 2014 / Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

In 1989 when I was at my final year of secondary school at Festac Grammar School in Lagos, I made a “senior uniform” for less than N100. So what has happened to making a pair of trousers for N52?

In February 2008 I asked a similar question: What happened To One Cup Of Rice At 30 Kobo? Six years on, Nigeria continues to sail precariously on stormy waters. Nigerians have never had it so bad and so hopeless. Any iota of hope that anyone kept until last week was vehemently quenched by the NIS recruitment tragedy. The tragedy was not only in the reported deaths but also from the evidential representation of the reality that the lame government and government follow-follow group try to hide or deny time and time again.

Festac Grammar School Prefects, 1989 set. (sitting 2nd from left: Adeola Aderounmu ca 1988)

In 1989 I could buy a chinos material for N35 and pay the tailor N17 for workmanship. With N50 it was actually possible to make a pair of trousers cut from other types of materials. So depending on the material of your choice, you could keep a balance that can be used for sundries.

It was not easy even back then to scoop or save up the N50. I was probably one of those who made their uniforms quite late during my senior high. Some students were radicals anyway. They didn’t really care about the pair of trousers. I was not a complete radical in that sense; we just had a dwindling middle-class family situation in Nigeria and some of us had to source some of the funds to get the things we needed.

My time stretch without the senior outfits was made even longer when I accidentally applied a very hot pressing iron on my pair of trousers on the night after I made the collection from the tailor. I could not cry. My mother who was also a tailor cum trader had to apply her creativity. My pair of shiny trousers became an adapted “baggy” short.

Ten years after my struggle to represent as a senior student and 4 years after l first became a university graduate, civilian government returned to Nigeria. The hope that was quenched earlier in 1993 when the military gangsters headed by one notorious General Babangida cancelled Nigeria’s most peaceful, free and fair elections was slightly rekindled when General Obasanjo was bundled into power in 1999.

In 2014 Nigeria’s self-styled democracy has proven to be a sham and an undesirable representation of the intelligence of the black race. Year after year since 1999, or more correctly since 1960 the rulers of Nigeria have systematically plunged Nigeria into crises that have deepened with time.

Under a presidency popular referred to as clueless and headed by Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria nears the brink. After years of neglect and maladministration in Northern Nigeria, terrorism (alleged to be both politically sponsored and religiously motivated) was set off. In general, insecurity in Nigeria has now reached a new frightening level. The dimension is unprecedented. Nigeria wallows in the doldrums. Resiliency is an overused word in Nigeria because an objective measurement of depression level will bend or break the threshold mark.

Nigerian rulers have always failed to fight corruption. They have always failed to lead, they preferred to rule. Under Goodluck Jonathan, corruption was redefined. Even when it is too obvious, this lame administration just failed to act. In different ways and under different manifestations the rulership of Goodluck Jonathan may go down as one of the most corrupt in the history of Africa.

On the surface of earth you will not find a similar act of tolerance to a combination of impunity, corruption and ineptitude. Nigeria remains the most openly corrupt country in the world and an utter disgrace to the dreams of the black race on earth. One week ago, the dreams of some young and old applicants were crushed. People were killed both physically and mentally in broad daylight under the watch of Nigerian rulers. That was a micro representation of the daily but larger pictures hidden across Nigeria.

What do you expect from a pair of trousers that cost N52 in 1989? Despite the declining fortunes of Nigeria at that time, it was still a period of time when workers who earned N2000 are considered “well-paid”. But when political madness goes unabated from a time when a politician or public servant can loot N1 million to this time when it is fine to steal USD 20b or more, it is only imperative that N52 cannot be adequate to buy a decent meal or snacks!

ln 2014 Nigerian politicians have realigned themselves along several blocks. The clear lack of ideology was expanded. You could move from APC to PDP or from PDP to APC depending on if the presidency was on your trail or on your side. It became even more obvious that the interest of the ordinary Nigerian does not exist in the political agenda of these greedy and corrupt lots.

As early as 2013, two clear years before new general elections, Nigeria stood still. Large sums of money continue to disappear from the local, state and federal treasuries as Nigerian politicians continue to loot and pile up funds for the 2015 elections. I have never seen a country so “silly” and so “ridiculously corrupt”.

In Nigeria saints have become devils. You will almost not be able to point at one honest politician or public servant regardless of their track records before they became part of the insane Nigerian method of governance. Once you’re in, your mindset changes and you become part of the people destroying Nigeria. Something is wrong inside of government I am sure.

Federal financial Institutions in Nigeria like the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance for examples have shown executive recklessness and harbour channels or leakages that make ordinary Nigerians impoverished. The misdemeanours of the Ministry of Finance in Nigeria are a disgrace to the whole of Africa. If you extend the scrutiny of official recklessness to NNPC you will be shocked that in Nigeria there is no campaign to arrest, detain and prosecute all the rulers and thieves in public institutions. No greater doom!

Why these public officers are still called politicians, ministers and so on remain another food for thought on the nature of law enforcement in Nigeria. For law and order in Nigeria, I suspect what I’ll define as Hidden Mental Handicap Syndrome (HM-HS). It’s an incapacitation of both the police and the judiciary as federal institutions in a country characterised by absolute systemic failure. It’s pure nonsense that some people are above the law! Why scrap history from the education curriculum in Nigeria? Our laws are not working; let’s scrap both the law schools and police colleges instead! Oh, I forgot, you don’t throw the dead baby and the water at the same time!

I know why I can’t make my pair of trousers for N52 today. It’s the same reason I cannot buy a cup of rice at 30 kobo. It’s the same bloody reason why millions of people in Nigeria are living below the poverty level, struggling to stretch hands to mouths. Some of the world’s poorest people are found in Nigeria. This is more than a shame. It’s a scandal on the intellectual capacity of the Nigerian people.

No single person, ministry or institution in Nigeria will admit that it is responsible for this tragedy of the hopelessness that pervade in Nigeria. It is this hopelessness that led several thousands of applicants across Nigeria to seeking jobs meant for a few hundred positions. In the end it turned out that the recruitment exercise like many things in Nigeria was also a scam.

People were ripped and people were killed, all in the name of executive recklessness. And life goes on as if nothing has happened. When billions of naira or dollars are stolen from the Nigerian treasury, life goes on as well as if nothing had happened! The money that had disappeared in Nigeria in the past few months is large enough to cripple the European economy! It may wipe Greece and Italy off the map of Europe.

The people who misruled and mismanaged Nigeria will not see why I can no longer make a pair of trousers for 52 naira because for some reasons they cannot comprehend the cumulative and negative synergic effects of their combined ineptitude, corruption and sometimes outright stupidity of job neglect.

The domino effect of half a century of misrule is huge. Today it will cost me about N2000 or more to make a pair of trousers of chinos material. The cost of living is high while the quality is extremely low. Nigeria is like a sinking ship, a place where almost no value is placed on human lives. Infrastructure developments are inadequate or non-existent in many places. Electricity remains at an evolutionary dead end in Nigeria. Many roads are bad and public schools have become relics. Security is zero and other vices are on the rampage daily. Such deprivations depict the sufferings of ordinary Nigerians.

In several ways public administration in Nigeria is similar to committing crimes against humanity. Nigerians hear of federal, state and local budgets every year. They know that the monies disappear in private accounts across Nigeria and worldwide. It goes largely unpunished in Nigeria because from the presidency to the local council, criminals hold sway.

In Nigeria you can steal USD 12m and walk free. You can be a murderer and get a presidential pardon. You can steal N225m and smile like a princess. You can buy 12 presidential jets and ask for more. You make Oliver Twist become an unlikely fairy tale hero by redefining greed and in-satiation. You can feed yourself with N1b of tax payers’ money. There is no limit to the extent of recklessness-everything appears lawless.

In Nigeria, you can be terrorist and own houses in Abuja and in other countries. As a clever media-smart writer you can blog or own a twitter account for billions of naira reward from government officials including the presidency. In Nigeria, pardoned and unpardoned ex-convicts and looters are free to roam again to repeat their madness-loot, kille or cart away. They win election and nomination every voting season.

You can even be a both a murderer and a looter today and a self-made saint tomorrow. Myopism is one of Nigeria’s greatest weaknesses. The other sources of weaknesses are of course religion, tribalism and a law enforcement system that is a complete joke. In Nigeria anything is possible to keep the status quo that promote evil and oppress the majority. The law is meaningless and aimed to punish petty thieves and the less privileged in the society.

One constant concern is also the people who want us to forget about highlighting the problems with Nigeria. They want us to proffer the solutions to the problems of Nigeria. Too easy! Just take a peep in the campaign speeches of each and every one of the major politicians in Nigeria. Take Jonathan for example and his “I have no shoes campaign of 2010”. With the exception of establishing true federalism in Nigeria the other solutions to Nigeria’s problems are contained in his campaign speeches. If Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign was his blueprint, Nigeria will be a paradise by now! What we need to take away is the madness that usually overtakes these souls once they get into offices.

Everything that has a beginning must have an end. One day monkey go go market e no go return . Imagine if the NIS recruitment exercise snowballed into a mass revolution. The national conference will be abandoned and a new re-awakening would have emerged in record time. Under such a rebirth there will be hope that through empowerment I will be able to afford a new pair of trousers again.

aderounmu@gmail.com