The days gone by

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

by Adeola Aderounmu

I have missed blogging. I was busy with my books and then I had a visitor from another country. But now I have a little time to review some major things that I had in mind.


Yar adua’s travel

Umaru Yar Adua went to Saudi Arabia again because he hasn’t found the reasons to build a state of the art hospital in Nigeria 10 years after occupying positions of power. First he wasted 8 years as a governor and for the past 2 years he has wasted everyone’s time as the fake president of Nigeria. Yar adua remains a waste of space and time.

The questions remain: why should the ruler of Nigeria travel to Saudi Arabia for treatment?

Why can’t he build a good hospital for himself in Nigeria or why didn’t he do this as the governor of Katsina State?

Those who are ignorant of Nigeria can easily pop-up the race-intelligence question. If the ruler of a country is used to ascertain the intelligence of the other people then Nigerians are in real trouble. Seriously is it not stupidity that such a man cannot arrange his priorities and ensure that modern hospitals are built for Nigerians including himself?

If the ruler of Nigeria goes abroad for treatment, where should the citizens go?

Nigerian Guardian reporter killed
Nigerian Guardian reporter/journalist Mr. Ohu was gunned down in his home early Sunday morning. That was on the 20th of September 2009. May his soul rest in peace. Anyone expecting that his killers will be found should wake up from his or her nightmare. Nigerian Police do not have the resources to unravel any murder. Check the records and you will not find any solved murder case. The former attorney general Mr. Bola Ige was killed and no one was held accountable. Once again the question of security of life and property is brought to the fore by this ugly incident. Why would anyone assassinate a journalist? Isn’t this an assault on freedom of speech?

Total Strike in Nigerian schools
All public schools in Nigeria are now under lock and keys. Teachers and lecturers are on strike. Here we are in 2009 Nigeria, education finally grounded to zero. Meanwhile the children of the rich are in private schools in Nigeria or they are attending schools in Europe and America.

The fake Minister of education Mr Egwu has not even resigned. Does anyone resign in Nigeria in the face of failure? Never! Instead these nonentities are elevated even as they continue to steal and loot.

Nigeria is now 49 years. Where do we go from here? This country is failing…from where cometh our help? Thy Glory O’ Nigeria is slain upon the high places!

Racism In Arts And Two Good Hearts

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

September 11 2009 is a day that Belgium-based Nigerian artist Godfrey Williams-Okorodus will not forget in a hurry. Godfrey has been championing a campaign against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) using art as the tool of his campaign. In respect of this campaign, Godfrey’s work has been shown in the British Parliament, Harvard Faculty Club, Cornell University and several other venues in Europe. On September 11 2009 the art works were displayed in a small town called Ypres in Belgium. Godfrey had an exhibition of his own works along with those of other artists.

The organizers of the exhibition completely ignored the presence of our own Godfrey Williams-Okorodus while the officials of the city and organizers of the event made speeches and keynote addresses. As the originator of the campaign, Godfrey was left in shock. He was not even mentioned or acknowledge in the program. According to him, “I have never in my entire professional career felt so low. Of course I would rather die than allow such injustice and I raised a serious fuss and I was allowed to say something. The question I want answered is: can this same treatment be meted out to a Belgian artist?”

The second case was another incident that involved Godfrey and his friend Bode Owa who is a very well known black actor in Belgium. Bode was billed to perform at the exhibition mentioned above but when they got to Ypres they had to stop to get directions to the venue. In the process Bode spotted a wallet in the middle of the road. He picked it up and walked across to some youths to ask them if the wallet belonged to any of them but they answered in the negative.

So Bode opened the wallet and discovered that it belonged to a British man. Together Bode and Godfrey guessed it must belong to one of the tourists who have probably come to visit the graves of British soldiers killed during the World Wars. They decided to try to give the wallet to the owner rather than the police because Bode had a very nasty experience in the past where he took a wallet he found to the police and they detained and questioned him. The police even accused him of taking money from the wallet.

Anyway this time around Bode and Godfrey called the UK numbers on the complimentary cards that they found in the wallet and left messages saying that they found a wallet and they would like to return it to the owner. These 2 Nigerians even went to a pub in Ypres in an attempt to locate the owner of the wallet. They had seen a receipt from the pub inside the wallet.

After the nasty experience at the exhibition a call came through from the owner of the wallet and an arrangement was made to meet up at the exact spot where the wallet was found. The couple that came to retrieve the wallet actually stood in front of Godfrey and Bode but it was beyond their thoughts that these are the guys who have found their wallet.

It was rather comical as Bode was calling on the phone and Godfrey was looking at the whole scene. Bode had his back to the couple as he spoke to them on the phone on this tiny bridge where it should have been possible to see anyone who was talking on the phone.

Godfrey had to call the attention of the couple saying hey! We are the ones with the wallet. The first word that the man uttered in amazement was, YOU!!! That simple word spoke volumes as the man could not believe in his wildest dreams that he would lose a wallet and have it returned by two black men, one of them in dreadlocks. His jaw dropped and he was speechless for a few seconds. The couple did not know how to show their appreciation, the man was so grateful he refused to check the wallet to see if everything was intact in it.

The man told them that he trusted them so that he still refused to check the wallet even when Godfrey insisted that he should. The man didn’t need any proof of honesty for the case at hand. His wife was almost in tears with gratitude. The couples had planned to leave for Spain the next day but when they lost the wallet they cancelled the trip to Spain. But now they can continue their holidays by still taking the trip to Spain.

They offered money, meals, drinks but Bode and Godfrey turned down all. In Godfrey’s words: “their happiness was enough thanks for us”. Bode and Godfrey formed a common opinion that the next time the couple listens to someone saying how much blacks and other races are dishonest they can at least narrate this experience in Ypres.

Godfrey would like all black people to be like him, walk erect with their heads held high. He sent these words “I have been to a lot of places and I have seen countless injustices. That is why I am using my talent to let the world know that as long as I have breath in my body I will not let any form of injustice and victimization pass by me without protesting loudly and constantly be it wars, hunger, brutality etc. Even after I die my works will still be there to fight on. My parents told me as a child, do good and good will come to you”

With contributions from Godfrey Williams-Okorodus, Belgium
Email: okorodus_art@yahoo.co.uk

R.I.P Gani Fawehinmi

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

Gani Fawehinmi is dead. He was aged 71.

Gani Fawehinmi

Gani Fawehinmi

Gani fought a good fight and his name will never be forgotten. Gani fought for the good of all and he wanted justice and prosperity to reign in Nigeria.

Unfortunately he did not seem to get his way through his activism. Even when he joined politics there was no way for his likes in the useless political space that prevails in Nigeria.

His death is a great lose to Nigeria and Africa as this Dark Continent continues to seek for true heroes and genuine leaders.

Now that Gani is gone, maybe the stupid politicians in Nigeria can begin to reflect on some of his arguments, dreams and aspirations. But I seriously doubt that an illegitimate government has time to reflect.

Chief Gani Fawehinmi was the voice of the voiceless, the advocate of the masses and part of the conscience of the nation.

Now the history books will be revisited and updated. The rest of the year will be used to detail the life and times of this humble man who dedicated his life, time and energy to the cause of the common man.

Again it is a tragedy that the things that he fought for, went to prison for and invariably died for, are still the same or probably worse. Nigeria was not a failed state when Chief Gani blasted the warning signals. But Nigeria is now a failed state at the time of his death.

And things are getting worse. The man who stood alone fighting for the masses is dead. What are the masses going to do now? Seriously speaking the Nigerian people need no reminder that the death of Chief Fawehinmi should serve as a rallying point to now rise up and take back this country from the fools in power.

First is the issue of electoral reform and secondly is the ultimate search for our votes. In 2011, hopefully the electoral reforms will be done by then, Nigerians should ask “where is my vote” if it becomes necessary. In honour of Gani Fawehinmi, Nigerians must demand for proper elections in 2011, pursuits of accountability in public life and the attainment of good life for all and sundry.

These were some of the dreams of the good man who walked by for 71 years. If we continue to abstain from our civil obligations then peace and prosperity will continue to elude us. Rest in Peace Gani Fawehinmi

A letter from Dublin to Sanusi Lamido

/ Adeola / 3 Comments

Written By Akeem Adebayo (Published in the Nigerian Guardian 26th August 2009)

SIR: There was no crisis in the Nigerian banking industry before Friday, August 14, 2009, as none of the banks had failed to meet its obligations to its depositors. This crisis was imposed on it.

What we are witnessing is a campaign of propaganda by the Central Bank with the intention to forcefully change the ownership structure of Nigerian banks.

Please note the following points:

Why hurry to wield the axe, when the audit has not been conducted in all Nigerian banks to enable Sanusi gain a comprehensive picture of the situation in the industry? The weakest bank in Nigeria, Unity Bank, has not even been audited. Soludo’s CBN granted N70 billion to Unity last year without sacking its CEO or management.

The debtors’ list has proved to be sheer propaganda as the loans are mostly actually performing.

Why did Sanusi not publish debts owed by government ministries, agencies and parastatals? They are actually the biggest and most notorious debtors – either directly or through contractors who handle public project. For example, Transcorp is owing Union Bank N41 billion, but the government is yet to refund the purchase price of NITEL to the company after the Federal Government reversed the privatisation of the telecom company this year. Another important group of bank debtors are the importers of petroleum products. They say the government is owing them nearly N100 billion in subsidy reimbursement. So, this means that if the government that wants to rescue the banks fulfills its responsibility to those it is owing, the problems of the banks will be much lighter.

Why did Sanusi not invite the boards of the audited banks to show them the results of the so-called audit and them how they think they could solve the identified problems; for example, giving them a deadline to recapitalise? The practice all over the world is to fist demand that the existing shareholders meet the capital adequacy requirement. It is only where they are not able to raise the required capital that forced intervention by the regulators takes place.

Imagine that Sanusi is already saying he would like to sell the banks! After only one week of taking them over? That would be a world record in Central Bank intervention.
I advise Nigerians to learn a thing or two about Mr. Lamido Sanusi by reading the articles he wrote in the recent past. Please check. Then you will know where this man is coming from.

The CBN’s powers of intervention are to enable the government protect depositors and creditors of banks. The laws are not meant to enable the government do what it is presently doing: confiscating the legitimate properties of citizens. The schemers at play want to confiscate these banks from their rightful owners and award them to members of their ethnic group, the Fulani. Curiously, the EFCC is now going after the banks’ chiefs. This is a strategy to intimidate them into submission. What has the EFCC got to do with bank loans? Loan default is not a criminal offence in any legal system. This is all propaganda.

IAAF versus CASTER SEMENYA: It is pure Racism!

/ Adeola / 7 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

IAAF can go ahead to test Semenya Caster just because she is an African woman. This is pure racism and absolute discrimination even if they come up with one or two indications of elements of masculinity.

Caster Semenya (from www.bbc.co.uk)

Caster Semenya (from http://www.bbc.co.uk)

Does the IAAF have the courage to test all the muscular Jamaican, American, German, British and even Russian girls? No! We have not heard that they are doing all these elaborate, sensitive and intensive tests on any other woman/ girl from other countries or continent.

So, it is only an African that can serve as the laboratory “rat” of the IAAF? This is absolutely ridiculous. It is an insult to African women all over the world. IAAF is now going to set a standard of what a woman should look like, run like, dress like, react like and develop like.

Female athlete should now be IAAF factors-compliant.

I was so pissed off by the other competitors who complained about Caster Semenya. They can only make this useless complains because she is African I supposed.

Hopefully Semenya will come out clean and I hope by then she can give IAAF back their medals because this one has been made worthless.