Nigeria

Achebe Distorting History

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By Adeola Aderounmu

It is unclear why Chinua Achebe smeared late Awolowo in his new book-There was a country. People that are well respected worldwide in literature, art or any endeavor at all should need always to be careful when they go to the print.

Tribal sentiments and even emotional sentiments should not be allowed to overtake vivid reasoning.

Unfortunately Achebe did not realize this and it is shameful that despite his age and exposure to historical facts he decided to write the role of Awolowo during the Nigerian civil war. What Achebe wrote about Awolowo are pure lies and historical jargons.

There are so many books out there that have explained the role of late Ojukwu in both the war and the consequent genocide suffered by the people of Eastern Nigeria during the civil war. It is therefore needless for me to repeat or recant the things or issues that are known as facts and truths.

Those who are not sure should seek knowledge. What Achebe has done is to fan the tribal conflicts in the minds of people-both Easterners and westerners-which is diabolic in itself.

It brings to fore that one of the most important things in life, viewed consciously or unconsciously, is the protection of one’s race. Achebe’s book which I will definitely not read strengthens the call for Nigerians to return to their tent and mind their own business and destiny.

No matter how long it lasts, people of different races in Nigeria will continue to pretend that they love one another superficially while harboring contempt, hatred, malice and un-forgiveness in their hearts and souls.

It is a tragedy to live a life that you didn’t choose and to pretend that it was okay. It must have been painful and hurtful for Achebe that he and his people were denied of their country-Biafra. Living with that lose for several years took its toll and the book must be a piece of the iceberg of the inner sufferings.

However laying the blame at the feet of Awolowo was an irresponsible act.

The pseudo-existence of a country like Nigeria remains a recipe for racial discrimination, tribalism and severe underdevelopment. Only the captors of Nigeria and few people benefit from Nigeria. The rest are-in the words of late Fela Kuti-suffering and smiling.

My Random Reflections at 40

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Adeola Aderounmu

I am 40 years old today. I started this series when I turned 36. So this is the fifth edition of my random reflections on Nigeria.

The occurrence of negative things and tragic occurrences in Nigeria are so rapid and frequent that both local and international media cannot stay abreast of the tragedies. Nigeria records one of the highest frequencies of terrorist attacks in the world today. How did we get to this point?

Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

I remember in 2009 when a group (known as APELSIN TILL JOS) was planning to take a road trip from Sweden to Jos in Nigeria interviewed me at my home and how the trip was eventually cancelled due to political and religious riots in Jos. The upheavals in Jos in 2009 and 2010 now appears to be dress-rehearsals for the mayhem that Boko Haram has inflicted on Northern Nigeria and Abuja since the emergence of the Jonathan administration.

I don’t think that anyone is still in doubts about the gross incapability of the Jonathan administration. In terms of security Nigeria has never had it so bad. Many innocent people have been murdered and slaughtered by the blood thirsty terrorists in Northern Nigeria. Mostly the terrorists walk free and have constituted themselves to a potent factor that may end the union of Northern and Southern Nigeria.

In general the safety of life and property is at an all-time low and Nigeria has one of the lowest life expectancy in the world. In Nigeria people are not guaranteed of safety in their homes and elsewhere. The roads remain terrible and the airways got a bad hit due to the recent tragic Dana Air crash. Survival of both the fittest and the rugged is a daily interplay in the Nigerian society. Anything can happen at any time and any place.

Unless something ingenious comes up the sleeves of the occupiers and rulers of Nigeria, there is a slight probability that the regime of Goodluck Jonathan might go down in history as the last one for Nigeria. The successes of Boko Haram so far however tragic may trigger the emergence or reactivation of other regional warlords in other parts of Nigeria. At least a people or a tribe must have the right to preserve its own existence once the condition for such gets out of the hand of the irresponsible rulers in Abuja. Events in Maiduguri and other key strongholds of Boko Haram have lent credence to the prediction that Nigeria may cease to exist by 2015.

It is not clear how federalism, regional government or new nations emerging from Nigeria will survive. Corruption is on one side, loss of values and cultural disorientations are on the other side. Too many uncertainties and a totally disorganized system are lurking in the background. Educational institutions and loads of other values that keep a society sane are lost in Nigeria. Nigeria has been on a free fall for over 50 years and it seems the chickens are finally home.

The problems with Nigeria have folded into a complex labyrinth. It appears that the dead ends are numerous. The worst thing is trying to exit the lobes with rulers having bloody hands, corrupt minds and almost no sense of direction.  Many years ago Nigerians substituted their leaders with rulers and ever since the demise of the regional governments, the road to perdition was certain.

My biggest concern for Nigerians is their welfare. No doubt the followership has been almost as bad as the rulership. I tried to refrain from using leaders or leadership when I write about Nigerian rulers. They rule, they never lead. The welfare of the Nigerian is non-existent and somehow a Nigerian does not know what the state owes him or her. The last time I was in Nigeria, I saw again the disconnection between the ruled and the rulers. Everyman runs his own kalakuta republic and there was no way to check both individual and executive recklessness. Nigeria more or less runs on “autopilot”.

It hurts to see the persistent widening gap between those who are rich by crooked means and those who are poor because of their positions in the society. Nigerians are paying more for electricity despite the fact they run their homes with generators and power plants. In other places that I know, that single act of “social terrorism”-that is paying the government for what the government is not providing”-will so much raise dusts, unrest and upheavals that it will bring down the government in no time.

It is amazing how the governments in Nigeria remain in the face of extreme corruption, social injustice, insensitivity to the plights of the masses, increase in the death rate due to unnatural causes, low purchasing power, extremely low wages and other vices too numerous to list. Governance in Nigeria is a big joke. It exists in words and vanishes in acts.

When I write my opinions about corruption, bad governments, useless rulers and acts like the worthless federal character system, I do so against a background of experiences I’d had since I was 8 years old-the first time I had to lead a group and it the first of many years of leadership and service. Today, as I’d always been, I am contented with my life. I work to earn a living like I’d done since 1990, a year after I left high school. My parents taught me all I needed to know about honesty and I believe in them because they trained us with good examples.

It hurts also to see how stupidity has reigned supreme in Nigeria. Many people have told me that I would be killed if I join Nigerian politics because “you must steal”. If you don’t the people around you will set you up and eliminate you. I have listened to some people who are planning to join politics in the future, from 2015 actually. According to them there is money in politics and those who are stealing until now don’t have 2 heads. This type of motivation means Nigeria will probably not make it. People steal; they are still stealing and walking free. In a disorganized system where institutions don’t work and the type of governance is counter-productive, it is hopeless to be hopeful.

Sometimes my hope in Nigeria is not just diminished, it is gone completely. In Nigeria good people are not keeping quiet anymore, they are actually drafted into government to become part of the looters. Many Nigerians of good characters have been drawn from home and abroad over the years just to become evil doers in different governments (civilian and military). The Nigerian system spreads evil and poverty at an alarming rate.

They say that a people get the type of rulers it deserves. Maybe this is true for Nigerians. For many years the country was on a free fall, the acceleration was magnified when the military destroyed the regions and brought in the useless state system. It has not worked and all indications point to the fact that it may never work. Nigeria’s jagajaga governments have over the years brought disaster and penury on the majority now over 90 million.

Hope for Nigerians can come with life and attitude, not with religiosity. It is time to remove the veil of God. Nigeria has the highest numbers of churches and mosques in the world yet Nigeria ranks amongst the worst places to live on earth. The lessons are obvious. The deceits are huge. My first message for Nigerians in 2011 was simple, stop saying it’s God. Everyday Nigerians tell me in chat rooms that God will do it. Even the politicians are saying God will do it at the same time that they are stealing and reaping from a system that is programmed to fail over 100 million people and benefit those who capture power.

No matter which way Nigeria turns, the efforts to regain her glory and positive fame will not depend on men or women but on institutions. It will not be unilateral but multi-dimensional and an aggregate of several simultaneous but positive forces. It’s like trying to revive the dead because with the advent and spread of terrorism Nigeria became a confirmed failed state and itself a ticking time bomb.

Everyday people open their facebook accounts to actually read about what is going on in Nigeria. It’s quite amazing where people go these days for the latest news. With the way things are going now and with the unhindered massacre across Northern Nigeria and below it, one day the news will come that Nigeria has made the final turn. I have written earlier that a people have the right to preserve its own existence, so if you ask me where that turn leads, my answer for now is I DON’T KNOW.

I’m 40 and I’m happy that my parents and my teachers prepared me for the life now. I’m happy for the gift of life. I’m happy to be able to contribute meaningfully to other people’s life through my friendship with them and also through my activities in the Yoruba Union in Stockholm. It makes a lot of sense to still be in touch and actually making useful contributions to Festac Town through my involvement in the Alumni Group.

I’m blessed with a wonderful family here in Sweden. It feels like home. In 1995 I read a wall poster at my aunt’s place in Omitowoju-Ibadan. The inscription was BLOOM WHEREVER YOU HAVE BEEN PLANTED.

There is going to be a celebration on Saturday the 14th and I’m expecting about 40 guests to celebrate with me. I have been planted. With my family and friends, I bloom.

These are my random thoughts.

After the Dana Air Disaster

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By Adeola Aderounmu

The Dana Air Disaster was altogether avoidable.

More than 160 people dead. Men, women, children, passengers, pilot and crew members all perished in one swoop.

There have been series of technical faults with the aircrafts that belongs to DANA AIR. It is likely that the one that went in flames and crashed in Lagos was one of the faulty planes.

Sometimes I wonder if the pilot and crew members are briefed about the state of the aircrafts that they are embarking upon. It is possible that the owners of the flight company hid facts and figures from their flying crew because I don’t think that anyone will add flying in a faulty aircrafts to the high risk of flying in the air. May the souls of the departed find peace.

Now is the time to withdraw DANA’s license if it is found that the management intentionally put the life of its passengers and crew at risk.

The Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation should be fired to send very strong signals about the seriousness of the Nigerian government to wipe out preventable air disasters.

The rulers of Nigeria and the government of Lagos State should find the families of the deceased (both the passengers and those killed on the ground) and make sure that they receive psychological, emotional and financial support needed to move on with their lives.

The insurance companies should not be found wanting on the side of Dana Airways and the individuals that have lost their lives. Life insurances, where applicable, should start rolling out without delay and without unnecessary bottlenecks. Some people have insurances that are not known to their families. The insurance companies owe it as a duty to find the relations and surviving members of the deceased.

The Dana Air disaster reminds us once again that Nigeria and indeed many parts of Africa remain dumping grounds for waste products from the rest of the world. The Nigerian government should ensure that planes in Nigeria are modern and air-worthy. Efforts must be genuine and realistic to stop the importation of abandoned airplanes to Nigeria.

Pius Adesanmi has criticized the Lagos State Government for buying old and abandoned trains from the Canadian government.

Nigerians and Lagosions can show their protest and dissatisfaction by refusing to embark on such trains. These trains, abandoned in Canada and unveiled in Lagos, should be sent to the recycling center and burnt or the metals recycled-with immediate effect.

Governor Fashola should make haste to discard those trains because they will kill Lagosians one day. It is too true to ignore.

Old trains, old airplanes and old buses fall in the same category of moving coffins. Why do we need to shed the blood of Nigerians by bringing obsolete transportation means to Nigeria?

When are we going to learn and use our brains? Why buy cheap stuffs that will take innocent lives?

Nigerians don’t need a ruler who shed tears at the scene of accidents that are preventable. They need leaders who know what leadership means. They need leaders who can lead by examples. Jonathan buys himself new presidential jets every now and then and his government did not see the need to ensure that Airlines like DANA do not fly old and faulty planes in our sky. That is such a scandal and there is nothing wrong laying the blame at the table of the ruler of Nigeria.

This disaster is very sad. We lost our friends, families, brothers and sisters. The people we know lost their loved ones and we are all together in this grief. It could have been anyone of us in that flight.

We travel by air trusting that the flight company has done what it should do, the right way. Travelling by air will continue to be a huge risk and it is therefore necessary to remove and eliminate already detected potential source of danger. DANA airline is guilty of flying faulty aircrafts and does not deserve to remain in business.

The Minister of Aviation must be sacked and other people who one way or the other contributed to the negligence that led to the crashing of the plane should be made to face the music accordingly.

If there are no consequences for this avoidable scenario, Nigerians have not learnt anything and this could happen again.

Lastly it is no secret that the worst roads in the world are likely in Nigeria. Our roads are bad and our waterways are underutilized for water transportation. Militants are kidnapping sea/ocean workers and robbers are way laying night buses. How can people travel safely in Nigeria? This question requires an urgent answer.

 

 

 

ANOTHER BLACK DAY IN NIGERIA: SUICIDE BOMBER IN BAUCHI AND A PLANE CRASH IN LAGOS

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Remarkable and terrible things are happening in Nigeria. June 3 2012 and we have a suicide bomber in Bauchi killing more than 15 other people at a church service.

The news is yet to settle down when we heard that a plane had crashed in Lagos. The plane was flying to Lagos from Abuja. More than 153 are dead. The plane belongs to one DANA AIR FLIGHT.

CNN reports that 3 houses are affected which means that the death toll will be higher than 153 when the dusts settles and the fire off.

Obviously the government of Jonathan is a disaster. This is a government that we all know now should never have happened. The helplessness and ineptitude of Jonathan’s government is incomprehensible.

Security situation in Nigeria is at a record low and anyone can be murdered or kidnapped at any time in Northern Nigeria. It is no longer a hidden fact that Northern Nigeria is out of control of the Jonathan government. It’s a dead zone and people who live there are doing so at their own risk.

One hopes that adequate and reportable investigation will reveal the cause of the plane crash so that lessons can be learnt and future disasters averted. What we are not expecting to hear is that the plane is over 30 or 40 years old because there have been accidents in the past caused by usage of old and aged aircrafts.

If the accident was caused by preventable causes, then those who are responsible should be held liable and accountable. If it means that the Minister of Aviation should be fired, so be it.

Emergency responses in Nigeria are bad. People were actually begging other people on facebook to make contact with NEMA. Really?

Well, there are several aspects of the Nigerian life that needs reviewing and the events of June 3 2012 reminds us of the need to end this useless regime and find new ways to move the various regions of Nigeria forward.

Delay is dangerous and 2015 is too far for comfort. Change is Now!

HOSNI MUBARAK GOES TO JAIL

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak will serve a life sentence. He is already 84, almost having nothing to lose.

Mubarak was accused to ordering the killing of protesters in 2011. It was actually very difficult to prove this case against him. The Police could have acted on its own. But Mubarak was in charge and the bulk stops at his desk.

Mubarak is ill, suffering from a heart condition. It would not be a shock if he is released on compassionate ground or if he is still allowed to continue to live at the Military Hospital.

Mubarak was a dictator. I don’t have enough knowledge to access his regime and I have refused to read Wikipedia for any details.

I am just going to complete this essay as an ignorant observer of Egypt.

Egypt remains a hot destination for tourists. Many Europeans will still spend this summer in Egypt. Therefore there must be something that Mubarak did well as a dictator or killer of protesters.

There must be something about Egypt before, during and after MUBARAK that makes it a wonderful place to live and visit.

Egypt remains a great footballing country. The images of Egypt that I see and observe are wonderful and delightful.

My own brother visited Egypt a few times as a tourist and businessman. It must be great there.

Usually I write to compare situations around the world with the country where I was born, that is Nigeria.

In Nigeria Mubarak will still be a hero like Babangida. Babangida killed several people including Dele Giwa and a generation of Nigerian young and promising military service men. Babangida rolled out the tanks in 1993 and Killed Nigerians protesting the annulment of the Presidential election won by MKO Abiola.

Babangida in one swoop stole more than 12 billion dollars during the Gulf war.

Today he is still a hero. He has never been convicted or imprisoned for any of these crimes.

When I watched the trial of Mubarak, I thought to myself: what if the Egyptians visit Nigeria and discover that Nigeria is covered by darkness because of the lack of electricity?

If they come, the Egyptians will see that there is no public education in Nigeria because nobody cares if the poor man and his children receive any education.

What if the Egyptians come to Nigeria and see that Nigerian hospitals are big jokes and that infrastructure in Nigeria is dead.

Nigerian roads are prone to accidents and they are among the worst in the world.

In Nigeria the politicians are thieves and they are wicked.

This week in Nigeria the heartless regime that continues to loot and steal decided to increase the price of something it is not providing. Nigerians will pay more for electricity while they live in darkness.

My conclusion?

If the Egyptians come to Nigeria they will fish out all the past and present rulers of Nigeria and tear them into pieces. This group includes the present president, all his serving committees, all the governors and all the people occupying government houses across Nigeria.

The Egyptians will take them out and sentence them to life imprisonment or to death. They are worse than Mubarak. They are the heroes of Nigeria. What a world!