Saraki: Between Politics, Justice And The Common Good

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

Last week l asked Buhari why his cronies in the Halliburton scandal are still walking free. This week, Saraki’s supporters are asking why the judiciary is digging up Saraki’s criminal cases. Justice served to one must be served to all!

Saraki: Between Politics, Justice And The Common Good

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

There are good reasons why Nigerians should let the law takes its course on Bukola Saraki. If that means that he will be sent to prison for a while or even for the rest of his life, Nigerians should let it be. But many will disagree.

Yet, in my own opinion this is another opportunity to start the long-awaited process of social revolution in Nigeria.

Some people may think l am naive because of my expectations from the country called Nigeria. No l am not. I am just waiting for that final trigger that will gradually or suddenly eradicate all the criminal-parents and criminal-children of the criminal parents in Nigerian politics and military set-ups. These criminals together stole our future on the Nigerian soil.

As you read, they continue to steal the future of the unborn generation.

Nigeria has a long way to freedom as l always write at the end of my essays. The decay in Nigeria’s political arena remains massive and unprecendented.

The systemic decay since Nigeria’s independence in 1960 led to misrule, emergence of criminals in government and application of inappropriate political and military systems in the (mis)rule of Nigeria.

So in Nigeria today we have a confused generation coming on the trails of the persistent wasted generations.

My emphasis of labelling Nigerian politicians as criminals will be relevant until the cleansing process consumes all the consumables. I thought we should have cleansed the system by 2009 but now in 2015 Nigerians are still struggling daily with criminals in political offices spread across the country.

The struggle to cleanse the system will probably continue even when my confused and divided generation is long gone because the confusion and insincerity traits in Nigeria seems to have become genetic.

Sometimes some people ask, what is wrong with black people? They mean what is wrong with Africans? But it is this same people who become part of government and continue with the sickening syndrome of looting Nigeria and enriching themselves and their families.

So, indeed, what is wrong with Nigerians?

Don’t look too far. Some student rulers (not leaders) from western Nigeria made a student union budget recently and made the headlines for the wrong reasons. They blew the expenditures out of proportion and made room for looting. They are just students but already criminals!

This is a confirmation that corruption and political madness have become genetic traits in Nigeria and thereby pass-able from the wasted generation to the confused generation.

Criminality, an offspring of the decayed and corrupt system is seen as a legitimate right in Nigeria. Despite our weekly shout-outs, criminality and corruption continue to fight back, in massive doses.

On Bukola Saraki there is no need to be divided on the issue.

Nigerians have always failed to seize opportunities that could lead them to a social revolution, one that could bring some measure of justice and sanity to the polity.

True, Bukola Saraki is not the only criminal in public office. Almost all Nigerian politicians are criminals. So he can feel violated not because he is not guilty but rather because the police have not been given the go ahead to arrest Babangida, Abdulsalami and Obasanjo. In addition to corruption, there were state sponsor murders under these men!

Why is Saraki suitable for arrest and not the rest of the corrupt politicians in Nigeria?

This is where every government in Nigerians has failed! This is where Buhari-led APC just like Obasanjo-led PDP is adding to the endless problems in Nigeria.

You cannot handpick a criminal in the midst of thousands of criminals. It is wrong to start with one criminal when you have the net that can pick 10, 20 or even 30 at the same time.

You cannot chase one criminal out of a million. If an arrest warrant was given say to 10 or 20 alleged criminals or murderers irrespective of whether they are in service or retired, Saraki and his supporters will shiver even more.

Handpicking criminals and selectively prosecuting them are the hallmarks of political witch hunt. Saraki’s current war will be seen as a political vendetta no matter if that is true or not.

He has disobeyed all the tenets in the APC book since his deceptive cross-over from PDP. His dilemma is right in the face of the law.

However to handpick Saraki alone from a massive pool of criminals in the system is not fairplay.

This is where Buhari and APC are going wrong and perpetrating a system inconsistent with the war against corruption slogan. Make it real, make it total and don’t make it personal.

Last week l reminded Buhari of his friends and cronies in the Halliburton scandal. Why not open their cases parallel so everyone can see justice is universal and respecter of no one?

Irrespective of the interpretation of the Saraki dilemma, my position is that no matter how long it takes the law must be able to catch up with a criminal. Let all criminals go to prisons for a long time or forever. Let it be so.

Rather than try to shield Bukola, his confused supporters eating from the crumbs on his table or from the looted funds via the Nigerian Senate and the organised civil society owe it as an obligation to press the same judiciary and the police to ensure that known criminals like Babangida, Obasanjo and all the other hitherto untouchables are lined up next.

NANS supporting Bukola Saraki is just rubbish. NANS standing behind a criminal is yet another indication that corruption and criminality have become genetic in Nigeria. The children running NANS are part of a confused generation. What a sad situation!

To be clear, we always know that time is not a factor in criminal cases. The Bukola Saraki case justifies what some of us have us argued for. Bring criminals to justice no matter how long ago they committed their crimes.

Buhari and APC should stop playing with fire and time bombs. Stop the selective prosecutions! Bring the Halliburton criminals to justice as well!

I know some people support Saraki because they oppose Buhari and they are still in fetish love with Jonathan. Some of these people suffering from political hangover will even accuse Tinubu as being behind the Saraki’s dilemma instead of asking the judiciary and the police to extend their operations to cover all suspected political criminals.

Some people oppose Saraki not because they want the law system to work but rather because Saraki went against the desire of the APC in the National Assembly.

In 2007 around december 12 the EFCC took hold of one criminal called James Ibori. It was in those days when Facebook has not become widely used among Nigerians and the awareness created by the social media was still in incubation.

I wrote a piece on the NVS the next day after Ibori’s arrest on how EFCC should continue to pick up the remaining criminals and hoping that if they do that over a period of 2 years, Nigeria will be cleansed up to a large extent anyway.

But Ibori was let off the hooks in Nigeria. Again, it makes me look naive. I am not. I just want the best things to happen to Nigeria.

EFCC has proven to be largely a toothless bulldog. At some point it was Obasanjo’s tail in the hands of Ribadu-the servant of Adamawa.

EFCC is submerged in its own corruption cases. The ICPC too.

What happened to Ibori after his arrest is now history. Everyone who was not born yesterday knew that it took a foreign country to put him behind bars. It is just like an irony because the country where Ibori is currently jailed is loaded with looted monies from Nigeria.

There have been several cases after Ibori. Plea bargaining set many criminals on free foot in Nigeria. They pay a certain percentage of their loot, usually an insignificant sum to the Nigerian government and they walk free.

Sometimes even in the absence of plea bargaining many criminals have walked free or served ridiculous jail terms.

How should we reason at a time like this?

It seems that our awareness have reached a common threshold compared to when some of us where shouting alone at the top of our voices in 2002 or in 2007. How some of us have written on the same topic about Nigeria for several years is even worth reviewing.

When are we going to have the reach we desire so that one day Nigerians can collectively see the difference between good and evil irrespective of tribal inclinations or political affiliations?

Yes it is going to be a long way to freedom if Nigerians allow Saraki to escape justice in the court of law. Let him go there and argue his innocence.

This is the way forward if we want Babangida, Abdusalami, Obasanjo, Fani-Kayode, Akpabio, Tinubu and even Buhari in the same court of law so that they can give accounts of their stewardships in office.

Saraki’s dilemma can open the door to a social revolution. Nigerians, let it be. Ask that the justice be served round and sustained.

Why can’t we see it this way? Why can’t we seize the moment that can orchestrate the revolution of the people by asking the judiciary and the police to never stop until justice for one becomes justice for all?

aderounmu@gmail.com

The Road To Perdition?

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

Buhari is enjoying the rape of the Jonathan administration whilst his friends and cronies in the Halliburton international scandal are having dinner with him daily. What a scandal! What a shame!

The Road To Perdition?

Countries that are rated as best performers or least corrupt around the world do not have leaders who have declared their assets. They do not have to. They have functional media and investigative journalism that reveals anomalies in wealth acquisition and properties that are not correlated with earnings.

They have a tax system that monitors property. They have a police system that monitors private and public citizens. The judiciary works and the entire system, mostly, is functional.

halliburton

I stand to be corrected that in places where such systems operate and work for the citizens, that they are not better gifted intellectually than Nigerians or even Africans. So if one argues that Nigeria cannot have such a system after 16 years of democracy, it will be a submission to the nonsensical white supremacy or self-acquired inferiority complex.

Heads up now you Africans!

Assets declaration (especially if it is constitutional) is a useless distraction. Only a thief or one who plans to be a criminal or a system that expects criminals in government will encourage such a stupid clause in the constitution. Imagine that there is also an immunity clause in the Nigerian constitution. Is that not a contradiction?

Declare your assets but you will not go to jail even if you have stolen them. Recently I asked why criminals are the politicians we chose in Nigeria.

When a man declares his assets without further explanations on how he acquired the assets, then the asset declaration is even useless. You have a house in London. Is it your family’s inheritance? Is it a gift from the Queen of England? Did you save so much money as a civil servant or you did a business that was so profitable that you were able to afford it?

In non-abstract mathematics, answers are useless without the processes or methods to show how you arrived at the answers. Even medical research findings must come with methods and procedures.

Declaring one assets does not mean that one is a not a criminal or a public treasury looter. In a rare case that one is able to save all the excess salaries and greedy allowances that the (criminal) politicians in Nigeria pay themselves while the ordinary citizens crawl in penury, it still does not make it fair. It’s all nonsense and ingredients!

One thing that the Nigerian people ought to know is that the system of government even now under Buhari is still built on deceit, lies and obvious propaganda. It is shocking how loyalists to any government pick up one tiny detail or some pieces of deceits and mould it to extreme achievements.

Is this where you want to be as a (sleeping) giant of Africa? Seriously, is this the life you choose to live?

Nigerians need to wake up from the state of permanent slumber. They need to wake up from government-induced comatosis. For once they should try to follow up on events, activities, investigations, promises, remarks, comments and all that affect their lives.

Nigerians tolerate a lot of nonsense and they are easily taken for rides by their governments-federal, state and local. It pains so see that those who benefits from a prevailing government of the day or still looking for that opportunity to partake in the looting or sharing of any part of the national cake help to propagate deceits or to close the chapters on matters of national interest.

When the problem starts from the top, it is hard to nip it in the bud.

Buhari’s government has been boxed into a corner. It is several of Buhari’s personal friends and Buhari himself who have destroyed Nigeria such that even after 16 years of the so-called democracy, Nigeria remains in LIMBO.

Buhari is setting more bad examples of how not to govern if Nigeria is to rise again. Nigerians were deceived to think that a saint has emerged. The first test of Buhari’s anticorruption crusade was to show all his friends in the Halliburon scandal the road to kirikiri. He failed.

What did Buhari tell the judiciary? What has he been doing to the police? They have failed to arrest and start the prosecution of all the criminals in the Halliburton scandal. Buhari is rather enjoying the rape of the Jonathan administration whilst dinning daily with his international criminal friends. This is a shame! It is a scandal out of measurable magnitude!

All the Halliburton criminals that have visited Buhari in Aso rock must have gone with one message or the other. Could those messages include a blackmail of revealing all the financial mess involving Buhari when he was petroleum minister and when he was in charge of PTF? Do all Nigerian rulers live with criminal tags hanging over their necks?

Nigerians do not follow up on issues that affect their lives negatively. They do not follow up on the issues that should be brought to logical conclusions so that lessons can be learnt and life can be better for all. Nigeria has a pool of criminals now generally classified as UNTOUCHABLES.

The Nigerian media is so useless in this regard. The brown envelope syndrome is as old as Nigeria and the media outfits today are controlled by one political godfather or the other. The rest belongs to the PDP or APC-alignment. There is almost no free press within Nigeria or on the web. He who pays the piper is the common slogan for almost all of them.

There are ways to bring some degree of sanity to the government while some of us are still waiting for the ultimate political solution. Citizen responsibility and patriotism are lacking in Nigeria. Once a man is ok, the others can rot for all he cares. This attitude is killing the spirit of the country.

One man will say that Buhari is less corrupt than Jonathan. Another will say Abacha stole more than IBB. Then one will conclude that Obasanjo is their Baba. They are all speaking on tribal sentiments or based on what they or their families have benefited from all the useless dictators. I say all of them are criminals.

Until that day when tribal marks are taken off political criminals or military gangsters, Nigeria as a country may remain on the road to perdition.

Since Nigerians have refused to fight a common war for the good of all, the country remains in disunity. It remains in the hands of those who know nothing about positive governance and how to make a mighty country out of all the abundance of wealth and human resources scattered in all the nations that make up Nigeria. This is one of the greatest tragedies of modern era-that a country so blessed parades some of the poorest people in the world.

Before you forget Nigerians, please remember that a criminal built a first-class hospital in Akwa Ibom but went abroad after sustaining injuries in a road accident. When he comes back, ask him why he went abroad after building a first-class hospital in his state.

More importantly, put him and his contemporaries on trial. It is time for them to account for their time in power. Don’t forget the man who made a website for N78 m in a world where wordpress.com is still free!

One governor called Amosun sacked some teachers and educationists in western Nigeria for doing their jobs. Have the teachers been recalled? If not, all the people living in that state are fools! Their children’s future will remain in jeopardy and they may be on the road to perdition.

So many governors cannot pay workers’ salaries and they have not been impeached or even resigned out of shame. Nigerian wonder!

One governor budgeted N200 m for prayer warriors. Adamawa is definitely under a spell if that money has not been recalled to build houses for the homeless.

I recall an outgoing season of madness in Nigeria and I know that as September is running out, Nigerians are stuck with a boring Buhari-reality show. One day the members of the stain-free executive will arrive on a saintly mission as we have been told.

If they miss the opportunity to work with the lazy, money-sucking National Assembly to restructure Nigeria politically so that it becomes governable again, the road to perdition will acquire more turns.

aderounmu@gmail.com

Why Are Our Politicians Criminals?

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

The overbearing nature of the systemic corruption becomes the burden of the people, the states and the country. Invariably corruption is accepted as a way of life in Nigeria.

Why Are Our Politicians Criminals?

By Adeola Aderounmu

Which Way Nigeria?

One of my earliest articles in the Nigerian Guardian Newspaper (precisely in 2002) was titled: Why Politicians Steal. Since then I have made references to that article several times.

It is still very shocking that nearly all Nigerian politicians are criminals.

In my opinion, since they are all stunningly rich whilst in office and their lifestyles/wealth accumulation afterwards does not reflect their salaries or allowances, l am going to conclude that they are all guilty until proven innocent.

Why are they all criminals?

There are no easy ways to explain how Nigeria got to this point. It reminds me of the irreversible reactions from my chemistry lessons.

In Nigeria you almost cannot get anything done anywhere in the country unless someone’s palms are laced with bribes, kickbacks or advance fees in form of fraud. Hence the overbearing nature of the systemic corruption becomes the burden of the people, the states and the country.

Invariably corruption is accepted as a way of life in Nigeria. It is the system and the way things work.

In Nigeria government and governance collapsed a long time ago giving way to corruption as a highly organised syndrome in the society.

It must be the organised nature of corruption that makes it possible for a respected former governor like Fashola to be in the news for the wrong reasons in recent weeks, no matter if these are the handiwork of his enemies or detractors.

Someone submitted a quotation to drill 2 boreholes for N139 m and the state approved it. The state (represented by Fashola) and the contractor (representing the people) are both criminals.

This is just one example of the thousands of contracts awarded across Nigeria monthly.

Through contracts, inflated wages and allowances and in many other ways Nigerian politicians remain criminals in their dispositions.

Why are the local government chairperson criminals? Why are the state governors’ criminals? Why are the state and federal lawmakers’ criminals? Why are all the former presidents and former heads of states criminals? Must they be criminals?

I heard that when completed projects are commissioned in Nigeria, that contracts are given for the purchase of the pair of scissors used in cutting the tapes or bands. The average cost of the pair of scissors usually ends up at N150 000!

The person who got the contract, the person who approved it and the public official (chairman, governor or president) who used a one-time pair of scissors that cost N150 000 are all criminals.

Next time anyone needs a pair of scissors to cut tape in Nigeria, please send me an email or give me a call. I will send one for free. My only request will be that the N150 000 should be donated to the motherless babies home in lsolo because someone will add the N150 000 to the expenditures anyway.

Nigeria politicians remain criminal because that is what the system requires, sadly. It doesn’t have to be so. I heard that if a man or a woman tries to be honest and trustworthy, that he or she can be murdered by friends or colleagues.

People who try to be honest at places of work or in public services are soon disowned by friends and families.

When good people become endangered species, the result is what reflects in the daily lives of the ordinary masses-the downtrodden.

Nigeria is rotten in uncountable ways. People who are not willing to play ball are neglected, cast aside or even never given the opportunity to emerge as public servants or contributors to the success of the society.

In this sense the country Nigeria has been a tragic occurrence since the years that precede the civil war years.

But are there ways to get out of this ugly situation? How can the people be cured of their permanent fixation on corruption as a means of succeeding in the country? Nigeria does not have a specific dose of ingredients or actions that will cure her.

It is very difficult to know what should come first in an attempt to move this country away from these criminalities that fill the minds of all and sundry. The majority of the people have never known a system that works correctly.

The majority of the people have been wrongly orientated for most part or all of their lives.

Education is no longer universal in Nigeria and civics, history and citizen responsibilities are off the curriculum. People grew up seeing that their existences are like a rat race and the ultimate goal became to be materially better than your friends and neighbours no matter how you do it. This is so tragic!

The only thing that has mattered in Nigeria since the collapse of governance almost 5 decades ago is how one takes the shortest cut to wealth. Family values collapsed as many parents became incapable of raising normal children in an abnormal country. Even politicians mentor their wards and godsons to be criminals like them.

But there are still many people who are representing Nigeria positively in various ways at home and abroad. There are good families and there are good parents.

Yet, one is worried about the several questions that beg for answers and solutions.

How can the majority be educated or given the appropriate orientation that will help to reduce or eliminate the criminal tendencies in them either in private or public institutions? How can Nigeria one day revert to that point where a proposal for a borehole will reflect N1m or N2m if that is the correct cost rather than an exaggerated N70 m?

The alternative costs to Nigeria’s corruption-ridden contracts and looting of treasuries are inestimable. Does the Lagos State government for example know how many Lagosians that can be housed with N70m? Then multiply that by 2…Then let us imagine the scale of corruption nationally!!!  Tragic! Painful!

There must be a particular action that will set the ball rolling.

How can Nigeria stop choosing criminals to serve them? How can Nigerians stop seeing criminality as a normal way of life? How or when will this falling country be able to finally round up all the political criminals still parading themselves around town as saints?

I can reiterate two things that l think are important for Nigeria and Nigerians.

First is the political solution that all beneficiaries of the political nonsense in Nigeria do not want to discuss. Just now Nigeria remains a game and whoever captures the center controls everything.

At this moment it is Buhari and APC who decide who a criminal is or not. To some extent it seems the EFCC is wriggling its tail in recent months after many years of nonsense job done. The EFCC itself is rotten! The judiciary is lame.

A correct political system will remove the power at the center and allow the different regions to develop at own pace. Some 50 something years ago Nigeria was among the best countries in the world under the regional system of government. Why is it so hard or impossible to implement the system that works best? It baffles the intelligent minds.

A correct political system will settle the nonsensical discussions and arguments about the useless federal character to a large extent. Resource control can be discussed so that another idiotic war does not break out.

The second issue is independent of the first. It is about the institutions of governance, how they can be managed correctly and productively.

For a dysfunctional unitary system (as it is now in Nigeria) or a decentralized regional government, it is still important that criminals are not in positions. This is a dilemma for Nigeria or the states.

Under any kind of system, the persistence of criminals everywhere and in political offices anywhere in the land will continue to show in the low standard of living, the high cost of living, lack of electricity, lack of social justice, lack of social amenities, lack of public schools, low life expectancy, high mortality rate, increase in number of uneducated people and many other vices that are characteristics of a poverty-ridden country/a failed country.

One solution that has never failed in history is the genuine revolution masterminded by the downtrodden masses who have lost everything to the oppressors and losing their own lives became the ultimate price for the freedom of their children and children’s children.

aderounmu@gmail.com

The Things We Took For Granted (Part 2)

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

Let’s love one another in Africa and appreciate the things and people around us always. Maybe if we start with our friends and families, one day the love may go round the world and our lives will be happy and free.

The Things We Took For Granted (Part 2)

By Adeola Aderounmu

Often we forget to show how much we care for our families and friends. Sometimes it is very difficult to express in words or actions how much our friends and families mean to us.

Me and A friend-Onero and his wife

Me and A friend-Onero and his wife

Absence makes the mind to grow fonder. This is so true that we (then) begin to appreciate friends and families when they are separated from us.

Sometimes the separation is irreparable or permanent because death came calling unexpectedly. This can result to extreme sadness or even depression.

Sometimes during this summer I saw my eldest brother again. He came to visit me in Sweden. The last time we saw each other before this visit was also in Stockholm in the spring of 2005. Though l have travelled to Nigeria two times after that we did not meet.

No one will believe that l have never travelled to Abuja or anywhere in the North of Nigeria. It does not even look like it will happen soon. I am that small boy from Western Nigeria.

As l was driving to the airport to pick up my brother l was moved to tears. Suddenly it struck me that a lot has happened since the last time we met. There have been a lot of good things. However since we are getting older we have had our own share of family tragedies which as a matter of principle l never share on the social media. But l made an obituary for my mother in the village square.

Distance apart means that we have not been able to share our emotions regarding these tragedies. Though my eyes were swollen, I could not shut them tight long enough to enable the free flow of tears. I needed to keep my focus behind the wheels.

But in private, I’d wept many times. It’s human nature. In some of my stories I’d written that the men who commit suicide are those who refused to cry. They sealed their emotions and punish their souls giving them up to untimely death.

When people cry on behalves of those who commit suicide, they (the mourners) find the strength to move on because their tears become sacrifices to the gods.

For about 30 minutes which was approximately how long it took to drive to the airport l also reminisced on many of the good times we had together especially in Festac Town where we grew up.

Sometimes l don’t know where to place my memories about Lagos Mainland. Are they real or are they mere fantasies? Why do I always think that my version of the aftermath of the assassination of Murtala Mohammed in February 1976 was the correct version? Why does all the pandemonium in Surulere play back and forth in my head as if they happened yesterday?

At home, when we were boys, I remember the fights and the unnecessary contests for power and supremacy. You cannot avoid these things if you have many boys growing up together in a flat or in a house. I don’t want to remember my violent tendencies because sometimes the repercussions were terrible.

I always remember the football days so much that l wrote the article The Boys From Festac. A follow up to that article is necessary. If someone had told me that l can live without playing football on Saturday mornings and Sunday evenings, l would have responded: don’t go there!

Sometimes l don’t worry to tell people who never saw me play football how good l was because they won’t understand and it is of no use now.

Sometimes too l remember how some people find it difficult to believe my brilliance at school because of my small size and extremely playful attitude. I still wonder too!

If you live your adult life very far away from the closest people you grew up with, the tendency is that when you look back, you’d wish you could turn back the hands of clock.

There are so many things you wish you could do again. There are so many people you long for but whom you took for granted when they were at arm’s length to you. What about the things you took for granted too?

Life will continue to go on and nothing will last, not forever anyway. Life itself will remain transient and temporal.

Recently l heard a story from one of our elders here in Stockholm. Obviously it is one of those stories you heard whilst growing up in Nigeria. But when you are reminded of such a story after a long time, it helps. Mr. Salimonu Kadiri, a respected elder in Sweden spoke about the argument between death and money. It was a case that was taken to the king.

Money argued that nothing can be done without him and death reminded the king that he (death) would have the last say on everyone including the king.

This folklore from Yorubaland has a lot of implications.

People should think about their pursuits of wealth and the opportunity costs.

Perhaps if we sit back a bit and reflect on life holistically….just maybe…we will live our lives differently, spread some love and warmth everyday. Who knows? We may end up living closer to our families and spend more time with the people we love.

We definitely need to appreciate more the people around us including our friends and our families.  If we do, our regrets and disappointments will be minimal if we eventually are (unavoidably) separated from one another temporarily or permanently.

The other day l came home from Finland and made an unscheduled visit to a friend in another part of Sweden the same day. It was 467 km away. I left home late and arrived at his front door at about 10pm. His reaction was priceless. Shock will be an understatement when he opened his door to welcome me and my family. We even ate dinner before we left!

In Nigeria this would have been a normal thing. But in Sweden it is almost a taboo to visit someone without notifying them. It’s rare. On top of that we arrived at night like thieves. I don’t why people look too far and find it difficult to connect the individualistic traits of the western world with the high rate of depression.

When we grew up in Nigeria our lives were mainly communal in nature. We meet people everyday. We share with people everyday and we celebrate everyday. We took these things for granted because we thought we will always have them.

Since we do not have the same powers as the gods, we did not see the future. We were taught the 20 children cannot play together for 20 years. It wasn’t made so clear that the 20 children will have extreme difficulties to re-unite or re-group again once they have said goodbyes.

I see the struggle to re-unite or re-group in alumni or old students’ associations. It’s like a mission impossible though manageable from one event to another when different people show up.

I see the struggle to re-unite with friends. We have all received our fair shares of desperate mails from people on the social media asking if we are the right persons.

Even l have seen the struggle to re-unite families.

We struggle now because we took people and things for granted when we had them right in front of our faces. Some of our struggles are psychological because we are torn between two or three countries and wonder if we will ever make it back to settle in Nigeria. We miss home and the warmth of our friends and families especially.

It is now golden for us in the western world to meet our friends, families and even the people we knew first in this part of the world. Unfortunately, here, most friendships don’t last because individualism and western world syndrome gradually eat into our souls. We are in trouble. Where are our real friends? Where are our true families?

When Mr. Kadiri spoke, it was at a memorial for a man whom many people spoke well of. I’m not sure he heard so much of these good things from his friends and families when he was alive. The people who knew him or who were close to him may have taken things for granted.

How wonderful life would be if people start to say all these positive things to one another whilst they still can!

How can one preach that people should just shun bitterness and hatred towards one another?

I know. It is like a mirage to hope that the human race should place love and care above hatred and war.

Let’s love one another in Africa and appreciate the things and people around us always. Maybe if we start with our friends and families, one day the love may go round the world and our lives will be happy and free.

aderounmu@gmail.com

The Things We Took For Granted (Part 1)

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

When l was growing up in Nigeria l had no idea that one day I will be living in another country and eating meat and chicken that are produced in factories. I miss my poultry in Nigeria..!

The Things We Took For Granted (Part 1)

By Adeola Aderounmu

IMG_2269

As Africans we need to start appreciating the things we have in Africa especially nature’s endowment.  We also need to preserve our culture, our heritage and the true versions of our stories and pass them intact from one generation to the next.

There are so many things we took for granted in Africa. We still take them for granted on the home soil.

When l was a little boy in Nigeria, l had not doubt in my mind that all the food including fruits and vegetables were coming from nature and in natural ways. It is possible to write a book then about Feeding Without Fears in Nigeria.

I remember my involvements and experiences in farming as a school boy. We planted crops as part of practical Agricultural Science. We even tilled the soil and prepare them for cultivation. Groundnut was my favourite. There was no need to cultivate water leaf (spinach); it was growing everywhere-along the roadside, among the bushes and just about anywhere there is soil and moisture.

I remember the poultry l kept at the backyard. My love for the hens and cocks was for them to grow up and end up in my pot of soup on that famous kerosene stove. Some of these adventures must have helped in forming me. I have patience to see things through. I know how sweet the reward is for genuine labour.

In Nigeria we have everything that nature could provide for life in the tropical region. There is rainfall, and there is adequate sunshine. There is a clear demarcation for day and night.

We have all kinds of trees. We have mango trees, the coconut trees, the orange trees, the cocoa plant trees. We have the sugarcane plantations. We have cashew crops and so on.

Irrespective of where these crops are found, one didn’t have to worry about consuming them. It was unthinkable that certain chemicals inimical to human health were consumed with them. We were children, we felt safe.

The good stories about growing up in Nigeria are varied and marvellous.

Now in Europe and other parts of the advance world, it is very disturbing to note how unnatural the foods we eat are. It is extremely disturbing to walk into the stores and find all kinds of labels on the food items.

What is biological mango? What is ecological mango? What is fair trade banana? What is ordinary banana? What is ecological carrot?

Reading food labels and tags on fruits and vegetables is a way of life that emanated from outside Africa. It may be the beginning of fear or wisdom depending on your views about food and nutrition. In whichever case, it is not a pleasant trauma.

As a child, when l bought oranges at Agboju market or when l jumped and plucked Mama Tunji’s mango and ran away to eat it while hiding, l have no idea that one day l will be settling down to first read the labels before buying or eating fruits.

One day a friend who thought that she has found a new knowledge tried to explain to me the difference between ecological and biological fruits and vegetables. What an effort to make..!

In this part of the world we are in some deep troubles because people eat all kinds of things that they don’t even know where they are coming from. How can anyone trust the labels on fruits and vegetables in these days when people are fed pork and horse meat as beef? When meat and fruits are made by artificial methods, how can expiry dates be valid?

When l was growing up in Nigeria l had no idea that one day I will be living in another country and eating meat and chicken that are produced in factories. I miss my poultry! Where are all these fake and giant bananas coming from?

There is trouble here; we eat synthetic materials as food.

Some oranges are bigger than the human head. Some bananas are bigger than the African plantain. We are in trouble.

Fruits with labels? How Healthy are tey?

Fruits with labels? How Healthy are they?

For Africans, it is sad that many of these fake products and synthetic food items have crept into the continent.

In Nigeria l remember the influx of fake chicken and turkey into the Nigerian market. This year 2015 the Nigerian custom continues to fight the smuggling of the fake poultry products from neighbouring countries into Nigeria.

In Nigerian traffic especially in Lagos, everything is sold. The shiny green apples look purely synthesized. Sometimes you’ll think they have been taken for polishing at the shoemaker’s stall.

Nigeria has since become a consuming society and a dumping ground for all kinds of fake food products and dangerous medicines. The failure of governance and the systemic collapse of institutions in Nigeria left much to be desired.

There is no shame greater than the importation of food and crops that can be produced in Nigeria. It was totally senseless to relegate agriculture as the leading foreign income earner for regionally governed Nigeria.

The rulers of Nigeria are weak intellectually. They even import petroleum products! Their dumbness is exposed in their primitive accumulation while sacrificing the present and the future at the same time, all for nothing.

In Nigeria we took for granted all the free gifts of nature. Nigeria is a rich country in all ways and by all ways. Mr. Buhari can continue to misfire-calling Nigeria a poor country-because of his low intellectual capacity and inability to reason out the meaning of rich or blessed with.

The Nigerian climate is perfect for agricultural practises. The countries that have long winter season would probably stop synthesizing food items if they have such optimal climate.

I will not forget that eating fruits while growing up in Nigeria was devoid of looking for tags and labels. There was no doubt about the safety of the crops that my grandfather nurtured on his farmland in Igbogila. I had no doubt buying roasted plantain-boli at the roadside or oranges from the hawkers.

We ate healthy and unless we expose our skin to malaria parasites we hardly become ill. In comparison the reports of catching ordinary cold all year round in the advanced countries is amazingly high.

The present and upcoming generations of Nigerians must be told the true stories. There was trust in Nigeria in the past and there was dignity in labour. Sadly when things fell apart politically, everything else fell apart. The proportions of failure in Nigeria since 1966 especially are unimaginable. It is a sad story.

For Nigeria food production that will completely eliminate reliance on import and adulteration is still very possible. The potentials are still there and though the climate may have change, it is not significant enough to disrupt full blown back to the golden days of Nigeria.

The blueprints that allowed Nigeria to flourish under regional government up till the early 70s need to be reintroduced. It is getting clearer that the APC mandate is a fluke as Nigerian politicians remain hell bent on looting and destroying Nigeria because of the nonsensical unitary system that gives power to one man as if he is a dictator even under a democratic system.

How did the Old Western Region succeed with the regional farm settlement schemes alongside a world class education system? What made the groundnut pyramid in Northern Nigeria so high? Why was the East home to cassava, yam and other cash crops? The answers to these questions that will return Nigeria to her rightful position in cocoa export, oil-palm production, yam and groundnut export are political!

How we let go of healthy living in Nigeria is related to the collapse of the Agricultural sector and it happened due to bad governments. Living in places where natural food are now produced by synthetic methods or gene modification makes one to appreciate the continent of Africa that is blessed by Mother Nature.

In my part of Africa, the tropical zone of Sub-Saharan, nature smiled on us and provided optimally for our living. When we are ready, Mother Nature will still be waiting.

A deep-rooted and sincere reorientation of the citizens will be necessary to rid Nigerians of their affinity for food and things that are foreign. Those who indulge in illegal importation of food stuffs should spend long years behind bars. They are a risk to people’s health and also economic saboteurs for local/indigenous farmers.

The health of the citizenry is the wealth of the nation.

Repeatedly, a functional political method is an integral part of the solutions to all of the problems in Nigeria. This is where the burden falls back on the citizens. They have a collective right to fight the politicians and take back their functional regions and bring back the days before the civil war when there was abundance and prosperity.

It will be a long road to freedom.

aderounmu@gmail.com