Corruption

A nation in coma: 50 years of bondage, 2 wasted generations and 400 billion dollars Missing..!

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By Adeola Aderounmu

A nation in coma: 50 years of bondage and 2 wasted generations

When I wrote Nigerians as captives: 48 years of waste one year ago I was hoping that my pessimism would be overturned somehow. Far from it..! 2009 has gone down in our annals as the worst year Nigerians ever lived. In total, it’s been almost 50 years of bondage, 2 wasted generations and more than 400 billion dollars missing.

It is now accepted that the generation that took over the reign of power from the colonial masters is a wasted generation. Unfortunately they have infected the generation that is after them and it appears the cycle of idiocy is still in motion.

One of the most unfortunate legacies sown into Nigerian politics is the attitude or mentality that if you find yourself in the position of authority or some form of power, you must use that position to steal while pretending to be serving. Ask any Nigerian young man vying for political office what his aspirations are. Young men and women alike have formed the opinion that politics is the quickest avenue to get rich by stealing or just looting. This is one of the reasons why Nigerian politics is full of bitterness and it’s about life and death since 1959.

In line with the above it may be pertinent to emphasis how my generation too has started to waste away. Just recently Mr. Bankole literarily told a colleague of his in the House of Representatives to “shut up and sit down” as the fellow tried to bring up the debate concerning Nigeria’s sick ruler. This means if given the opportunity Dimeji Bankole will gladly become a dictator. In other events Dimeji’s name keep cropping up in allegations of scandal, looting and self-enrichment. My generation is wasting away too. Hope is dim. How sad..!

2009 has ended and Mr. James Ibori will still walk free. This is the height of judicial ridicule. The Nigerian judiciary has become a citadel not only of lukewarmness but also of corrupt minds. In Nigeria, an ex-convict both nationally and internationally became a governor. The man is still free! Is Nigeria not yet a failed country?

Mr. Michael Aondoakaa is still the Attorney General of Nigeria. How do Nigerian diplomats cope among their international colleagues? Even as an ordinary citizen attending an international conference on development in Stockholm in 2002, I was quizzed by a number of participants on several issues. People asked me many embarrassing questions about Nigeria. Some of them could not comprehend why several homes in Nigeria are more fortified than European prisons and 419 activities were common.

Look at David Mark, a military man who served under Babangida. Together they ruined the communications industry. Up to this day no one has explained what happened to my family’s telephone number. These men looted uncontrollably and destroyed Nigeria. They are still in Nigeria and the looting game is still on, at various levels. Nigerian lawmakers now headed by Mr. Mark are blood suckers who assign money to themselves and distribute penury to the populace. Even the lazy executives want to build houses worth billions of dollars for themselves in the new budgetary plans while millions of Nigerians are suffering and living in extreme poverty. No greater scandal!

Head or tail, we, the ordinary people continue to suffer. We can go to hell for all the political gangsters care. Two years after the present illegitimate government was forcefully installed we have found ourselves atthe most humiliating position among the comity of nations. No greater shame..!

Our educational system remains hijacked by government officials who are proprietors and owners of private schools and universities. Public schools are in total rot and states of confusion. The quality of education is low as emphasis has shifted to profit and total corruption. Many of the children of the rich and looters have been sent abroad to school right from elementary schools as revealed recently.

We ended 2009 as a dark nation both literarily and proverbially. Nigeria is generating electric power that is embarrassingly low and ridiculous. The output may be less than 3 000 MW! The result is a state of near total darkness over the country. This is real and the effects on the quality of lives cannot be overstated. The effects of lack of electricity on employment opportunities and economic growth cannot be overemphasized. Infrastructures are commonly lacking and hopelessness pervades the land. Nigeria is in coma..!

We have suffered in the hands of those who used khaki, agbada and violence to recapture Nigeria in 2007. At the moment our constitution has been unofficially suspended with the illegal installation of a new chief of Justice. In the last 5 weeks (Nov–Dec 2009) the man who slowly supervised the stagnation of our lives since 2007 has been missing in action and no one knows what his true situation is. We continue to thrive on rumours and speculations about his health. But obviously he’s in a bad shape and that he has not be removed from his position shows that he was probably a puppet in the first place. The situation confirms the fears in certain quarters that Nigeria is ruled by a cabal and not an individual.

Still, we are being tussled around in Nigeria like idiots, all of us. Daily, we are fed with lies and deceits by those who are power hungry and inclined to evil ways. There is no need to ruminate over the implications of a country’s foremost citizen, legal or illegal by nature, lying helpless in a foreign hospital. We continue to spread all our clothes in the sun. The world is laughing at us and I continue to think about the racial implication of the intelligent question. Something is fundamentally wrong with the black race anyway. Nigeria is the largest black nation on earth. Something is wrong with us. I’m sure.

We are like 140m robots, programmed to fail as a nation but instilled with the eagerness of self-preservation and survival instincts. Another year has ended and our unusual resiliency has not allowed us to figure out how to re-engineer ourselves from our stereotyped siddon-look status into proactive agents that will seize the moment through collective reasoning. Why is it impossible for the rest of us to force justice and fairness on our system? Surely we may not be able to attain a common reasoning. Is that the colonial impediment that I was warned about?

Just when we are still pondering and brainstorming on what we can do to save our nation, the corrupt regime in Abuja came up with a propaganda called rebranding. The regime tried to shy away from the problem of corruption and maladministration. The best Christmas present ever to any Nigerian government was handed over by Nigerian terrorist named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. In the twinkle of an eye he laid to rest the fraudulent rebranding program that several Nigerians have criticized times without number. He updated our known reputations by taking it beyond our reach or control.

By putting Nigerian on the map of terrorist nations Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab reflected the failure of Northern Nigeria where Obasanjo allowed the likes of Umaru Yar Adua to disrupt the secularity of Nigeria through the establishment of sharia regimes. These treasonable acts provided the basis for the escalation of Islamic fundamentalism in Northern Nigeria. Innocent people are slaughtered routinely across Nigeria no thanks to the failure of the useless government to bring sponsors and perpetrators to book.

Umar Farouk represents the failure of the central Nigerian government. He is a classical example of failure of both the home and the society. He will stay for a long time as the link between two failed generations and an emerging generation of disorientated Nigerians. His activities, though highly condemnable and disgraceful will probably provide the needed reflection and reasoning over some of the problems plaguing this sick country.

2010 will be Nigeria’s year of jubilee. We should look back at our errors and shortcomings. Then we should look ahead-how do we want to continue this journey? The time is now for progressive minds to take the central stage, it is over due. If we must split back to regions, so be it. We should probably not continue to live as strange bed mates where our individual, wicked ambition is to steal from the treasury or be beneficiaries of questionable wealth through friends and families. Do we have a common national ambition?

We cannot continue to rely on our endless prayers from our sinful lips without the corresponding actions. It is a lame approach. Imagine the progress that will be accomplished if we take the necessary actions to define our mode of existence-regional governments or true federalism. Imagine what we can achieve if we ensure that the likes of Ibori and Aondoakaa are allowed to do time with Mr. Bode George. Just imagine the progress and national revamping if we insist on the rule of law, the end of corruption and the end of tyranny. We must define how we want to achieve these goals otherwise we are facing another 50 years that will remain characterised by waste, slavery, poverty and unhappiness under the cabal and their accomplices.

May the Glory of Nigeria come, soon..!

aderounmu@gmail.com

Forgive me when I say Nigerian Politicians are mad

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Adeola Aderounmu

There is a story making rounds that Yar Adua (Nigeria’s illegal president since 2007) will sign certain papers relating to budget and handing over to his deputy.

There are strong indications that the man cannot talk, or move. Yet we are now being told that he will sign forms or papers. Is it possible for sane people to frame up this kind of scenario? Mad is the word!

I have always used strong derogatory terms to describe Nigerian politicians and this is one of the reasons. Now that I find joy using these terms but I am completely expressing my frustrations. Yes I am frustrated as I don’t understand why the wealthiest Nation on earth has become home to some of the world’s poorest people.

I am frustrated as I see poverty, penury and extreme corruption. Check out the latest Ibori case. This guy was an ex-convict, national and international and he became a governor. He looted and he got free! I will never never understand that so yes I am frustrated.

Nigerian politicians and evil rulers kind of think that the rest of us are stupid. But we are not.

They should stop playing games and stop fooling around.

The lazy lawamkers know what to do but what they will eat has rubbed them of their senses.

There are provisions in the constitutions that should have been invoked to transfer power to Mr. Jonathan but they have refused to do that.

They are going round in circles and wasting time as more than 90m Nigerians (more than 50% of the 140m population) continue to face hopelessness and uncertainty. No fuel, no light, no security, nothing good!

There was even a rumour that some politicians and Turai Yar Adua are planning to sponsor a coup.

The world will be swift to condemn it and that may be the final catalytic arrangement that will break Nigeria into pieces.

I will ask again like I’ve done before: are there people in the Nigerian political arena who still have their senses intact?

The time is now for them to take the country one step forward. Jonathan should be the new president as we look ahead to the future that will bring fair and credible elections. No need for the useless signature acting, it’s all rubbish and madness.

I hope Nigerians will not spend the next 50 years in poverty as I look forward to the elimination of poverty and penury among my brothers and sisters.

Nigeria, wake up!

Is Northern Nigeria A Failed Region?

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Adeola Aderounmu.

There have been reported clashes in Bauchi State in Northern Nigeria. A non-conformist Islamic group had been on the rampage and clashed with security agents.

No doubts there have been ominous signs from Northern Nigeria since Mr. Obasanjo allowed the creation of Sharia States in Nigeria. Nigeria is a secular country and the emergence of Sharia in Northern Nigeria is a confirmation that there had been plans in the past to make Nigeria an Islamic country. Tyrants and dictators like (late Murtala Mohammed) and Mohammudu Buhari have been alleged in the past to have tried to make Nigeria a muslim country. How true are those stories?

The presently sick illegal president Umaru Yar Adua was one of those who instituted Sharia in Northern Nigeria. He was then the governor of Katsina State.

They may want to convince us that Sharia State has nothing to do with the constant violence in the North but that will be hard to prove as well. The fact that they allowed religion to blur their sense of reasoning is a catalyst to the emergence and spread of extremism in Northern Nigeria.

Northern Nigeria is like a failed region in Nigeria. However that does not also take away the fact that the Nigeria’s central government is a total failure in itself. Saddled with extreme corruption and ineptitude the various governments since independence have failed to tackle infrastructure and social well being of the populace. Look around you, almost everything is bad and rotten.

Government officials have stolen and looted while neglecting the ideals of real democratic governance. The Military regimes in Nigeria added to the woes of a country that should have been the giant of Africa but which instead have become a global laughing stock. Countries like Togo, Benin and Ghana are doing much better than Nigeria in terms of infrastructure and social welfare. Nigeria is rich but the people are living in extreme poverty because a few people continue to steal and make themselves richer and richer.

Northern Nigeria where most of the rulers come from is by far the worst hit. They lack basic education and family planning is not in their dictionary. Many children are un-catered for, and they are ready tools in the hands of the fanatics. A people without education surely are destined to perish and this is what has been happening when security agents confront the religious fanatics in Northern Nigeria.

My major concern has always been for the Christians or atheists in Northern Nigeria. They are usually brutally murdered or executed for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Seriously I don’t know how southerners live in the north when they could be killed at any time!

I am not implying that southerners should vacate northern Nigeria. My emphasis rather is on addressing the roots of the matter. First is, if Nigeria wants to continue as one nation, then the abrogation or abolition of sharia is non-negotiable. We cannot live in a country with two laws, it will not work. Never!

Secondly is the fact that policy makers or administrators in Northern Nigeria needs to wake up to answer their call duty. They are there to educate and emancipate the people but over the centuries the privileged people in the north have ensured that opportunities for education are limited and restricted. Even if I am wrong still there is something in the north that makes education non-attractive. Many of the people are not only poor but they are also ignorant. This is probably a political device to ensure that the general population can be manipulated especially during national elections. So far this has worked.

Therefore if anyone thinks that the end has been heard of religious uprisings in northern Nigeria, he/she should get his head checked. There are fundamental issues that if not address the problems will pass on from one generation to another and forever more.

The whole of Nigeria must revert back to secularity and there must be one law, one constitution. The persistence of sharia is an aid to extremism and double standards. The absence of education or the restriction of it especially in the north is a chronic disease that will continue to push this nation to the precipice. The ineptitude of Nigerian politicians is a colossal cankerworm that may ultimately lead to disintegration. Making it non-violent will be an uphill task.

Meanwhile isn’t it time for the people of Nigeria to wake up, ask for political justice, social justice, equality, freedom of speech and expression and the dividends of true democracy? It’s been 10 years of maladministration by seriously incompetent men and women. Change must come, but we must demand it and take necessary actions to see that it happens.

Nigeria is now labelled a potentially terrorist nation and here we are battling religious violence, again in Northern Nigeria. I’m getting tired. Where do we go from here?

Nigerian Judiciary, A citadel of Corrupt Minds

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Adeola Aderounmu

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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