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.

Our Lives in Our Hands

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Originally published on April 21 2008 @ Nigeria Village Square

Our Lives in Our Hands

If Umaru Yar’Adua keeps flying to Germany every other day for medical checkups and randomized treatments, there is definitely no hope yet for the Nigerian masses plagued by poverty and very serious health infirmities. If the one in whom we entrust our health care seeks succour beyond the borders of Nigeria (and in fact Africa) then the rest of us must know that our lives are in our hands.
Shame which is a virtue in Nigerian politics is the only word that I found to describe this action of the number one citizen in Nigeria. It is a clear revelation of the gross incompetence of Umaru not just as an individual but as an administrator or ex-governor. For example, if I was the former governor of Katsina State for 8 years, I would have used my influence and position to build a specialized hospital to take care of my peculiar health needs. By so doing, I would have provided a unique opportunity for other people who have the same or similar problems within my state and elsewhere in Nigeria.

Really, how much can it cost to facilitate the building of such a specialized hospital at the federal level supposing the cost of building it surpasses the state health allocations for 8 years? If that was the only achievement in Katsina State’s Department of Health between 1999 and 2003, would it have been a selfish gain? Does it require the building of a new hospital to take care of Umaru’s special needs? Was any attempt made to incorporate what he needs into an existing health institution anywhere in Nigeria?

We must constantly remind ourselves of some unforgivable/ severe shortcomings of the people who lead us in Nigeria. Umaru is definitely bringing shame to Nigeria with this particular attitude of his. For instance, how does this flying out for health reason help Nigeria in terms of enticing foreign investors to Nigeria? In 21st century Global Village scenario, Nigeria cannot provide electricity to run businesses and Umaru is making it clear that the health of Nigerians and foreigners in Nigeria cannot be catered for in Nigeria.

My humble advice is that Umaru should with immediate effect lay a foundation in Abuja for the construction of the carbon copy of that hospital that he is always running or flying to in Germany. He should also make sure that the hospital is completed in a world record timing without neglecting regulations, standards and safety. In addition, he should ensure that replicas are constructed in at least 6 other places spread over Nigeria.

When that is done, Umaru should personally work closely with the Federal Ministry of Health to ensure that the hospitals are equipped not only with the state of art facilities but also with the best hands in Nigeria. If there is a need to recall Nigerian doctors or experts from the Middle East, Australia or the US then let it be done. We cannot possibly succumb to any form of inferiority complex that Nigerian doctors are not better than those in Germany. It is part of government’s responsibilities to provide the infrastructure and the environment that will facilitate optimum output and efficiency.

If the kind of hospital that exist in Germany is found in Nigeria and if our best doctors are there, Umaru would have no need to fly 6 hours in air just to see a doctor or the edifice itself. Afterall, Nigerian doctors are among the best in the world and they are scattered all over planet earth. The other day I was treated by a Nigerian doctor at the Famous Karolinska Hospital here in Stockholm. He told me he is from the old Bendel State and that he had been living and working outside Nigeria since the mid 70s!

These pieces of advice can serve as the stepping stones for the revamping of Nigeria’s ailing health industry. Without setting up any tea drinking or money-dividing committee, there are possibilities to establish, develop and maintain viable health policies that will work for all and sundry in Nigeria.

It is not too much to ask that the health industry must work. A healthy nation is a wealthy nation. Nigerians must stop the shameful seeking of basic health care from neighbouring countries and the confidence that we have in our health institutions and health providers can only be restored if the leadership truly leads by desirable examples.

RESPONSES:

pH_bomboy

# 2 | 21.04.2008 15:33

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why are we not protesting YarAdua’s foreign hospital trips as much as we are protesting British Airways treatment of Nigerians? I’ll be the first one to sign whatever petition is drafted.

WaleAkin

# 3 | 21.04.2008 19:43

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Adeola,

Just thinking aloud!!!

How much would it cost NIGERIA to build a state of the art all round Hospital somewhere in Abuja?

Do we have a bottleneck somewhere militating against this noble venture?

Now, where is this money pls?

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=Umar Musa Yar’Adua>For the Health Sector, we propose an allocation of N138.17 billion for 2008, a 12.57% increase over the 2007 allocation of N120.8 billion. The capital
component of this amount is N49.37 billion, out of which funds have been
provided for, among others, the following projects:
· Refurbishing and equipping all Federal Tertiary Health Institutions
· National AIDS/STI Control Programme, including the procurement
and distribution of ARVs and test kits
· Rollback Malaria Programme, including the procurement of new
drugs for malaria case management and insecticide treated nets
· National Programme on Immunisation for routine immunisation
· Capacity building and training for 5,000 health workers on
integrated management of childhood illnesses.
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DeepThought

# 4 | 21.04.2008 20:45

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If it were possible to justify the practice of corruption by the rank and file of Nigerians, then I would say this continuosly going abroad for medical treatment by Nigerian public officials/leadership make it virtually mandatory that the ordinay Nigerian be corrupt.

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why are we not protesting YarAdua’s foreign hospital trips as much as we are protesting British Airways treatment of Nigerians? .

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Good idea. We should

K_Station

# 5 | 21.04.2008 21:52

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=Robot;4295008061>Umaru is definitely bringing shame to Nigeria with this particular attitude of his.

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AA Baba,
God bless you for bringing attention to this recurring shameful act of our leaders, past and present, may you walk and never stumble! Every time I hear about any of these ridiculous foreign medical trips (per IBB’s toe, Atiku’s treadmill induced injury, and now UMYA’s eczema), I can only imagine their white doctors laughing at and scorning our country behind the backs of their Naija executive patients!

How can we expect anyone to take us serious or respect us in the world when our number one citizen cannot entrust his diarrhea to a Nigerian doctor? Our leaders are shameless mugus! Charity begin at home; not for nigerian leaders.

anonimi

# 6 | 22.04.2008 02:28

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=K_Station;4295008243>AA Baba,

Our leaders are shameless mugus! Charity begin at home; not for nigerian leaders.

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Na we d followers mungun pass as we dey hero worship dem & honour dem as part of the reward system for their (mis)behaviour:exclaim:
I am sure many are lining up to seek connections to such leaders so they can get juicy appointments, in public & private sector, so they can get their share of the looting.
meanwhile the vicious cycle of misery, poverty, mass unemployment, crime, worsening transportation, health, education and other infrastructures continues as we are too selfish to see beyond our nose.
why can’t we boycott the political, social and economic functions of these Looters-in-Power (LIPs)
the best way to be selfish is by being selfless ask d oyinbo people wey dey do welfare for dem government. if your neighbour is stealing & receiving stolen goods and you just dey say he no concern you, very soon they will rob you or someone very close to you, what will you say then:icon_ques

Olamide

# 7 | 22.04.2008 02:42

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=K_Station;4295008243>AA Baba,
God bless you for bringing attention to this recurring shameful act of our leaders, past and present, may you walk and never stumble! Every time I hear about any of these ridiculous foreign medical trips (per IBB’s toe, Atiku’s treadmill induced injury, and now UMYA’s eczema), I can only imagine their white doctors laughing at and scorning our country behind the backs of their Naija executive patients!

How can we expect anyone to take us serious or respect us in the world when our number one citizen cannot entrust his diarrhea to a Nigerian doctor? Our leaders are shameless mugus! Charity begin at home; not for nigerian leaders.

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I also thank you AA for bringing this issue out but you must be clairvoyant o. I was just thinking of writing something more caustic on the issue when I read your article. I am happy that all right-thinking Nigerians are ashamed that our President is running to Germany to treat eczema or is it ashtma in a foreign hospital. When Nigerian hospitals are referred to as glorified mortuaries, some people get upset but how many of our so-called leaders and their families go to these hospitals? None.

The people surrounding Umaru Yar’adua are his greatest undoing. If they cannot advise him that he is making us a laughing stock by flying to Germany, then we are doomed but the public officials are happy because they get estacode anytime Yar’adua flies out for medical treatment. We should launch another petition here to stop our leaders or is it ‘Dealers’ from travelling abroad for medical treatment as long as they are in public office. Over to you, guys.

K_Station

# 8 | 22.04.2008 11:41

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=Olamide;4295008280>We should launch another petition here to stop our leaders or is it ‘Dealers’ from travelling abroad for medical treatment as long as they are in public office. Over to you, guys.

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Dear Olams,
I also thought about your suggestion for a petition but I’m not sure it can be sustained legally. I’m not a lawyer (and I hope Village lawyers can shed more light on this) but I think every human being has a basic right to recieve medical treatment from wherever and from whoever.

This issue is more of morality and having a sense of decency, which most of our leaders seems to lack! One suggestion is for a broad citizen group to make a well publicized representation to both the legislature and the presidency on this matter; it will also be a good idea to seek the support of the Nigeria Medical Association and to carry them along.

draftman

# 9 | 23.04.2008 14:18

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Make una leave Yardua alone, he should be able to get a medical treatment anywhere he chose. What would you do if you fall sick in Nigeria, and can afford to travel out? The fact is that we do not have a fully competent doctors in Nigeria, even if we do we certainly do not have adequate facilities or tools. Until Nigerian can sort these issues, please don’t knock a man for taking care of himself, unless you’re just jealous. My cousin who is a medical doctor in both Nigerian and now in US, does not trust nigerian medical facilities. I was in Nigeria recently and my family member was sick, I was told by a nigerian doctors to seek treatment abroad asap.

Who among us want to take chance with our health.

karajakataja

# 10 | 25.04.2008 04:20

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the complete truth is yet to be told about the state of his health, what operation/treatment he actuually underwent prior to election in april last year. Yar Adua is our property and we need to know his health status. By the way when ar we gonna have an hospital that can give paracetamol to our public officers running abroad each time they have headache?
I don tire o

The BBC Story on Nigerian Police

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Adeola Aderounmu

The BBC yet again found another weak spot in Nigeria. The Police. It is up to the Nigerian Police to defend its integrity. How it goes about that is left to the authorities affected. I have done one or two pieces before on the Nigerian Police and I must confess that there was nothing new in that BBC story of December 8 2009.

There is a story that I always made reference to when it concerns how police kill innocent people in Nigeria. In 1995/ 96 while I was doing my youth service in Oyo State I lived on a street where Akinyele Local Government was/is situated. That is Moniya in Ibadan. At that time I was working at IITA in Ibadan as a youth corp member.

I lived directly opposite the local government and inside the premises of the local government was Moniya Police Station. It happened that in the middle of the night (almost every night) I usually hear loud noises that woke me up from my sleep. One day I had to ask my landlord’s son what the noise was all about.

He told me that I should ignore the sound and try to sleep because the police are doing their work-which is executing the robbers in the cell. He said they do that to avoid congestion in the cells. He told me that the bodies would be thrown into a famous river before day break. He told me this casually as if it was a normal thing. Going by its regularity, it was normal. I was shocked. From that day till the end of my service year I usually look closely at the police officers. As in they smile and go about like normal people but I actually thought they are crazy to be executing robbers at night.

That story plus all the other experiences about Police story that I’ve known before made me to dread the police like hell. I mean when I’m close to police officers with guns, I comply with whatever they say 100% because they can pull their triggers at anytime and you are dead. When I started driving in Lagos, every policeman was “Oga sir”! Many of them have red eyes and are invariably drunk. When a police man is pointing a loaded gun at you and ask you for 20 naira, I don’t think you want to mess around. Any dead citizen will be reported as armed robber to cover for atrocities. The BBC story is largely true.

But the Nigerian Police is just a product of a system that is decayed. The former inspector general of Police Tafa Balogun stole and looted police funds. Under Obasanjo billions of naira disappeared to his friends and family rather than the trust fund that was meant for the development of the police force. No one has been prosecuted, no one will be prosecuted. In Nigeria, you can loot and go. It’s your part of the so called National cake. A national tragedy as a matter of fact.

As mentioned above the police is just a product of a decayed system. Our politicians do not get anything fixed except their personal bank accounts and their homes/ future. They steal, they loot and they mismanage everything. Education, infrastructure, sports, health and so on. Just name anything, we have used nepotism, tribalism, corruption, and a form of madness called national character to destroy the fabrics and foundation of this (once upon a time) great nation.

The police have no modern gadgets and equipment to fight crime. They are usually overwhelmed by armed robbers who are more sophisticated. The Nigerian Police have inadequacies in everything! Patrol vehicles are probably too few and even the number of police / 000 citizens will shock anyone. I don’t know the statuses of the kinds of people employed by the police force. With Characters like Tafa Balogun, Mike Okiro and now one Onovo, the road is too long.

Police brutality and abnormalities are not peculiar to Nigeria but I’m a Nigerian blogger so I care less about the corrupt Russian police, the aggressive US Police or the lazy Scandinavian police. My attention is on Nigerian Police at this moment and I feel so sorry for them in a way. I mean their salaries are extremely poor and nothing to write home about. By setting up road blocks and begging for money instead of controlling, preventing or fighting crimes, Nigerian police is the apex of ridicule. They ask for money in the open and they tell you they have families at home.

This is the same country where one man will sit in his office and steal 12 billions dollars. A local government chairman will build houses and estate across the country. The senate president is a well known corrupt man, a thief in plain language. Name one prominent politician in Nigeria that is not a thief! So you see you can’t blame it all on the police, they see their bosses stealing. They see ordinary politicians amassing wealth overnight and with their poor salaries they set up road blocks to help their pockets. In fact, they give returns to their bosses who are sitting with their pot bellies in their office. How many police boss in Nigerian can chase a robber?

When it is election time the evil parties will connive with police to steal ballot boxes or to threaten voters so that elections can be rigged as planned. The Nigerian Police is at the mercy of the way the country is organised. Indeed all/ ordinary Nigerians are at the mercy of a certain evil force ruling the country. I have stated several times that in Nigeria we are in a dilemma: which problem/s do we solve first? How are we going to go about the rebuilding of this failed country?

For sure our politics and the corruption that have ruined the country will be an ideal suggestion. If we get it right politically, maybe we will succeed to elect the right people to lead us. Maybe we will be able to fight corruption for real and prosecute thieves and looters. Maybe our judiciary will work and then the police do not become the prosecutor, judge and executors? Just maybe!

Maybe when our politics is right, our education will pick up again, maybe our infrastructure will improve. Maybe we will build our roads, make our refineries work, create employment opportunities that will reduce the rising spate of armed robbery and assassinations. Maybe!

Maybe we will be proud as a people and eschew bitterness and hatred. One day I hope we will take out all the round pegs in square holes and chose the people who are upright, discipline and selfless to lead us.

Just maybe one day, the police and the rest of us will be doing what we are suppose to be doing and be really proud to be doing so. Until such a time when some of these dreams come true, no one should expect decrease in the number of unnecessary deaths from police miscarriage of judgement, from preventable diseases, from road accidents, from assassinations, from reckless driving and other man made atrocities in Nigeria. Imagine that we have lived 2 years with a fake president who is cooling off in a Saudi Arabian hospital while the rest of us including the police can go to hell! What a shameless man..!

reference: BBC on Nigerian Police

Nigeria: The Media, Politics, State of the Nation and the Fear of the Truth

/ Adeola / 9 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

There are obvious reasons why the Nigeria media is always short of expressions to drive home serious points when it concerns national issues and how it affects our lives. I can attest to the fact that Nigeria is not left alone in this media suppression of some sort. However the dimension it takes and the overall effects on the values of our lives in Nigeria leave much to be desired.

The other day one journalist with the Nigerian Guardian Newspaper was brutally murdered in his home. Bayo Ohu was a political journalist and his assassination will never be solved. The only thing we will get out of his death will be speculation and hypothesis. Those who work in the Guardian and his colleagues will probably have a clue as to what he was writing about or investigating before he met his brutal death.

There are countless other situations where journalists have been murdered in Nigeria. I am not surprised; journalists especially investigative journalists working on sensitive matters have met their untimely deaths in different parts of the world. Russia gives a typical situation here because quite a number of Russian journalists have been murdered too and like Nigeria the cases are never solved.

The Nigerian government does not usually tolerate criticism from media houses. The security service is always quick in seizing computers and closing down media houses in Nigeria. The Guardian, Channels TV and even AIT have at one time or the other experienced the evil and dictatorial arm of the Nigerian government. The craziest thing is that it doesn’t matter if it is the military or civilian government, once the government is uncomfortable with a report; it closes down the media outfit without notice or warning. Welcome to Nigeria..!

Now you can understand why authentic news or information about Nigeria are more reliable from external sources, I mean from outside Nigeria or on the web. Because if a Nigerian Newspaper for example carries an editorial tomorrow asking for the resignation of Mr. Yar Adua that media outfit will probably be closed down. The editors can be charged for treason and believe me, many families will be rendered helpless from the saga. Fathers will probably be behind cells for weeks or months and sources of livelihood will be terminated abruptly.

So there are no truths-saying media outfits in Nigeria. Sometimes some of them try to state the truth but they polish it and apply extreme diplomacy. It is hard to find a physical media outfit in Nigeria that takes a stand against the wrong doing of the politicians or the government at large. I have not read any newspaper that is bold enough to say that Mr. Ibori is a thief for example.

But seriously the Nigerian Media need to do a rethinking and despite the high risk they need to take a stand on national issues. Their passivity is contributing to the wretchedness in Nigeria. I know the risk but the truth is if all of them decide to start giving the government hard knocks I don’t think the government can close down all the media houses.

One key issue is that a number of the media houses are own by thieves and politicians who have stolen from the treasury. So in delicate principle it is hard for such media houses to crititicise the government. The hands of the owner are not clean and blackmail comes in cheap. Another related issue is that the pervading poverty has turned some aspects of journalism into a hand-to-mouth affair. Many journalists collect bribes to write favourable reports about thieves in power. Nigerian journalists are not immune from the corruption and hopelessness that has taken over the entire country.

It appears that in every aspect of our lives we are entangled, almost entirely entrapped. We have reached that point where there is no easy way forward. Nigeria is at a puzzled crossroad where the possibility to make one correct decision about our existence must drag along with it multiple options of how to deal with the entanglement. Indeed we are in trouble.

Out troubles are compounded by our actions and wrongfully inclined mentality inflicted by several years of misrule. In 2009 approaching 50 years of our existence as an independent country there are very few things to boast about.

If we are seeking ways out our media must start reporting things the way they are. We have no water in our homes unless we spend our hard earned money to make bore holes and buy pumping machines. There is no electricity and the people who stole the monies meant for the facility are walking free, our media houses should name them and shame them. The time to be bold is now. Our schools are in rot and almost no teaching is taking place. Cheats have taken over! We have a minister for education waiting for the media to scrutinize and expose more and more.

In our houses of assembly, both local and national, there are men and women of dishonour, sitting idly, awarding contracts, forming committees, paying themselves huge salaries and allowances!!! What is the media doing to expose these lazy thieves? If the media was good enough David Mark would never stay 1 week as the senate president! How can a looter and a known thief head the Nigerian senate? Where are our investigative journalists? I don’t mean the internet bloggers.

If the media had been sincere and bold we will never have allowed the fraud of 2007 to stay. Mr Iwu and Mr Obasanjo dictated for us, on behalf of the invisible cabal, who should be our next dictator. They gave us a terribly sick man and now we are all sick! Nigeria is a laughing stock in the comity of nations.

I must stop but I hope that the media would be bolder. I know the risk; I mean who wants to write that Obasanjo is a thief only to be found dead the next day, in cold blood? Who wants to write that Yar Adua is a stupid man for not building hospitals in Katsina or Abuja only to be shot dead or assassinated in the presence of his children? Nigeria is too delicate for the truth, but the TRUTH we must say even if it means laying down our lives. Afterall nobody will leave this world alive and only the truth can give us and our children that freedom, independence and justice that have eluded this failed country for almost 50 years…!