Nigeria

Terrorism in Nigeria May Lead to Disintegration

/ Adeola / 10 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

On December 26 2009 I wrote on my blog page that Nigerians are not terrorists. That statement is no longer valid.

Nigeria is now among the league of growing terrorist nations.

On Christmas day in 2009 one over-pampered kid Abdul Mudallab put Nigeria’s name on the global map. He is the famous underpants bomber.

One year later at the end of 2010 there has been series of blasts in Nigeria. From Abuja to Maiduguri to Jos and back to Abuja.

Terror now has its grip on the Nigerian nation.

At about 1730 Nigerian time on the last day of the year 2010 there was a deadly bomb in a busy area in Abuja. Thirty people may have lost their lives with several others injured.

As usual the Nigerian government is quick to point accusing fingers. The blame has been shifted to Boko Haram, a group whose mission is not really clear to the rest of us.

It is cheap and easy to blame Boko Haram because of their attack on the police and civilian populations in Northern parts of Nigeria. People have been killed in Jos in violence related to both religious and political conflicts.

There are insinuations that MEND could also be responsible for the Abuja attacks.

Nigerian security forces need to step up and try to stay ahead of these terrorists whether they are MEND or Boko Haram. Otherwise there will be no solution to the oncoming onslaught of violence and devastations that will hit the rest of the country.

The current pattern indicates a clear motive to disrupt the fragile peace in Nigeria. We know we have political problems and we are aware of the massive corruption and unimaginable social injustices in Nigeria: it is therefore easy for a group or groups with selfish ambitions to penetrate jobless extremists and use them to achieve a sort of destabilization that will usher in the final demise of Nigeria.

That in my opinion is the goal of consecutive bomb blasts and terror attacks. The aim will be to fulfil the predictions that Nigeria will disintegrate before 2015. I thought there are better approaches. When this country becomes ungovernable I look forward to negotiations that will usher in the separations of its parts. The consequences of war we are all familiar with. The Biafran experience should not be an option.

Whichever way, there are going to be many questions from now on. How did we get to this point in Nigeria? Are these attacks preventable? Are these attacks related to bad government and corruption across all the tiers of government in Nigeria? Are these attacks premeditated to make Nigerian ungovernable for a man from the Niger Delta?

There are multitudes of questions. There will not be simple answers. Even in the Scandinavian countries where it seems that the government is almost perfect terrorism is beginning to take firm roots.

The government of Nigeria is now finding itself in a dilemma. So many things and issues have been neglected since 1960 that it will be impossible for us to fathom the reasons for these attacks and the nature of things to come.

Just as recent as October 2010, we wasted over N20b celebrating a useless anniversary. We made the biggest cake in the history of man. There are over 100m Nigerians who are poor and impoverished. They have no hope and no option to a life of poverty. Yet we wasted so much money for nothing! Stupid people making useless decisions!

The Nigerian politicians continue to steal and loot across all levels. The presidency, the executive arm, the National Assembly, the state government and all places where politicians reign across Nigeria it has been stealing, looting and enrichments as usual.

Our legislators earn the most money in the world. We complained that they should review their salaries to what civil servants take home, all in vain.

In Nigeria there is no electricity. Where I live in Nigeria we have 4 generators and run 24-7 on them. There is no public power supply. We don’t have water from the government. Our roads are bad and we drive at average speed of 30km/ hr or less.

Public Schools are becoming historic. We pay high fees to keep our children in schools. Education is now a luxury. Foods are expensive, quality and standard of living are terrible and unacceptable!

Pensioners are suffering and people get laid off indiscriminately. NITEL staffs were dismissed without the benefits of continuous pensions. What a wicked government! So silly!

Nigerian politicians keep their families abroad while they suffer us at home.

When you add all of these woes together you get a failed country. Nigeria is a failed country. Therefore it appears as a golden opportunity for those who believe in violence. It doesn’t even matter if the stimulating or sponsoring agents are within or outside Nigeria. The fact is that they have found cracks in the wall and it is therefore too easy to penetrate and destabilize the country and the government.

The government of Nigeria will be at a dilemma and crossroad for sometime to come. How do you begin to know the elements or characters that are so angry they only resolved to kill innocent people? The Nigerian politicians have a way to protect themselves and their families. The victims of the attacks in Jos, Maiduguri and Abuja are people or individuals like me. We have no means to protect ourselves and the security provided by the Nigerian government is almost non-existence. Usually troops lined the streets after the evil has been done. Sometimes this fans the violence and lead to more deaths.

Who will save our souls? Evil is on the rise. The government has failed the people. For fifty years, public servants and politicians stole and stole. They are still in Nigeria. Nothing has been done to them. They ruined our lives. They stole our future and they took our hopes away. Until this day the story is the same.

The new found love of terrorism in Nigeria is an additional plague that we will now have to live with. It has taken 50 years to destroy this country. It will take more than 100 years to fix it.

Nevertheless we must start to build this country now. This is a country with vast potentials. The task of reclaiming the glory of Nigeria is before all of us. It should not really matter who becomes the president if we established a sound foundation for our democracy. What matters is that the likes of Atiku, IBB and even Jonathan should be sent to face trials for the mis-governance they have participated in. I see no hope in the present crop of looters and thieves that are in Aso Rock then and now.

If Nigerians think that they have democracy now, they really need to wake up from that nightmare. Democratic structures run on institutions and not individuals. Democracy runs on the rule of law which no one is above. In Nigeria, several people are above the laws of the land. This has made it possible for impunity to reign supreme. Our political parties are so useless they have no clear cut goals and objectives. Their dream is to capture power and loot the treasuries nationwide.

We really need to sit down in this country and think. We can’t afford to get it wrong this time.

The first ingredient for our future attempt at progress and development will be to find a genuine democratic process.

When we do, we must begin to address the issues relating to the rule of law and the promotion of social justice and state welfare. There is a need to form political parties based on ideology and good governance. We need to promote literate participation with the attempt to eliminate thuggery and insanity from our politics.

The people must know that they have government and governance that works.

The Judiciary must be independent and have the possibility to work with the police to wipe corruption once and for all.

Nigerians must start to probe the sources of wealth. People are stealing in government and private businesses. The nation is sinking because of the actions of a few men and women.

We must rebuild all public institutions, not physically but mentally. Nigeria must now tap deep into the cognitivity of its intellectuals with a view to promoting merit over national character. There is an urgent need to revive nationalistic movements that will carry everyone along. A massive re-orientation along the line of nation building is urgent. The goal will be to save this sinking nation.

The other option is to allow it to continue with the status quo and pretend that all is well while the nation sinks. Such pretentions will allow terrorism to take a firm root and grip on Nigeria. One day a new group will declare once and for all “to your tent O’ Isreal!”

At that point, the prediction of the disintegration of Nigeria would come to pass. Our lives are in our hands.

Adamu de-Brands Nigeria…FIFA has spoken

/ Adeola / 3 Comments

Adeola

FIFA has now found Nigerian Amos Adamu guilty of trying to sell his vote for the world cup bid.

I discussed this briefly in a recent post here on this blog .

The guy has been suspended for 3 years.

I should think that the evidence against him were convincing to Fifa Ethics committee. Adamu was caught on camera and I hope he stops pushing the case himself because the video may end up on YouTube.

My concern here is the way Adamu’s image has been splashed on all the major newspapers around the world and how once again the rebranding of Nigeria has been rubbished.

This is what you get when you cannot clean your house and going ahead to trying to clean the streets.

Adamu’s shameful and disgraceful involvement in this scandal is both a reflection and a boomerang of the Nigerian civil service where everything revolves around corruption, settlements and unimaginable acceptable codes of conducts.

Just last week roads were commissioned in Ikenne Ogun State in Nigeria by Goodluck Jonathan. There are reports that the roads already have pot holes. In less than one week!

It shows that the governor of the state is corrupt and the man who left Abuja to Ikenne to commission a bad road is…?

And for the past 6 days there has not been electricity in Ikenne.

This is Adamu’s background, a society founded on rot and gross ineptitude.

He should use the last pride and dignity in him to vacate FIFA and sport altogether. But No, not in Nigeria.

I will NEVER be surprised if he is rewarded in Nigeria with the position of the Sports Minister. Nigeria has several ways of rewarding stupidity and corruption.

Unless something unthinkable happens, this case is nothing to Nigeria and the further elevation of Adamu nationally is around the corner.

You must love my country of birth.

FIFA HAMMERS NIGERIAN FOOTBALL FEDERATION

/ Adeola / 3 Comments

Nigeria is in the news again for the wrong reason. From this week we cannot play any form of football on the African continent and worldwide.

Government has intervened continuously in the administration of football in Nigeria. As a matter of fact I think FIFA shares in the blame. Nigeria has hosted major football tournaments and each time she does FIFA is always so entangled to the Nigerian government in manners that beat my imaginations.

I think the Nigerian government got carried away by the relationship it had with FIFA and so the individuals in government did not know when to draw the lines.

We have hosted the U-21 and U-17 championships and on both occasions FIFA was actually dealing directly with the Federal and States Governments. Jack Warner knows all about these.

I am not saying FIFA is totally as fault. I mean FIFA had permitted the permeation of football administration and tournament organisation by the Nigerian government on two occasions instead of insisting on the football association in Nigeria to do the proper organisation and hosting.

FIFA permitted the Nigerian government to apply the fire brigade approach on two occasions as mentioned above.

Anyway you will think that this ban will inculcate some lessons into the greedy and corrupt football/ government officials in Nigeria. Wait until the ban is lifted, it will be business as usual.

I can almost not see anywhere in Nigeria where we have learnt from history and past events. People with the shortest myopic perspective in the world live in Nigeria. As soon as an event passes, we forget the lessons and the never apply our hearts to wisdom on how to make things work better.

Football administration in Nigeria has been in the hands of crude and unintelligent minds-people who probably know nothing about football administration. If you conduct tests about football, sports and sports administration for these people, their level of mentality will leave you spell bound for the rest of your lives.

How did they get there? Good question.

In Nigeria my country of birth, merit is dead. They use one useless thing called federal character in assigning positions and assignments. It means any fool can occupy any top position because he is from a certain part of Nigeria. Nigerians are united with their lips while their hearts are far apart. They so hate one another you will not imagine the depth.

The FIFA ban is about football but it is a total reflection of what is wrong with Nigeria. It is part of the reason why poverty and diseases continue to spread like wild fires. In Nigeria the jobs are never given to the people who are qualified or fit for the positions. Some people call it paddy-paddy.

Federal character and paddy-paddy at the expense of both merit and technical know-how have completely destroyed Nigeria.

I am not happy about the ban but I am not in a rush either for it to be lifted.

Nigerians must learn one thing. That is at some point we must begin to do things the right way. We must do the right thing always.

Imagine a premiership football in Nigeria with no relegations…what type of nonsense and stupidity is that. Imagine also all the Hullaballoo about the election, annullment, court cases and so on. What is wrong with Nigeria and Nigerians?

The federal character must be abolished. The person who can and who is qualified should be elected or appointed to do a given job. If he or she fails there must be buoyant mechanisms to allow for replacement according to guidelines or constitutions.

This affects every aspect of our lives including the forthcoming (future) political elections.

Nigeria and Nigerians must negotiate the turning point of their common history, the status quo remain a consistent recipe for continuous failure and international embarrassments.


UPDATE:

FIFA provisionally lifted the ban and Nigeria can continue to play their qualifying games for the Nations Cup.

October the 1st 2010. The Black Friday in Nigeria.

/ Adeola / 5 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

October 1 2010 has now gone done in our annals as the Black Friday.

In the last one month alone there have been several reasons for the selfish Nigerian government to annul the useless and stupid celebration that is going on worldwide today.

The reasons culminated today in the deadly bomb attacks carried out by MEND-Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. MEND is a militant group that emerged from the Niger Delta and Goodluck Jonathan definitely know more about them than the rest of us. Goodluck Jonathan is also from the Niger Delta.

The attacks are condemnable like any other terrorist attack. We must condemn in the strongest way possible all forms of attacks that aim at innocent people or ordinary citizens of Nigeria. Two cars exploded and more than 35 other cars were affected.

21 people are reported injured with 8 confirmed deaths. There are other unconfirmed reports stating that 15 people are dead. It’s a sad day in Nigeria. What a black October! The first day of the month for that matter and a Friday!

In more than 10 articles I have condemned the use of more than N17b for the celebration of failures and the promotion of evil and corruption. Several genuine and patriotic Nigerians have done the same. But in the eyes of the evil ones and the corrupt people those of us who write and speak the truth are the unpatriotic ones.

The 50th anniversary of Nigeria has exposed Nigeria the more as a nation of corrupt, wicked and evil rulers.

This week more than 2 million Nigerians became homeless. Dams ran over and rain fell. People became homeless overnight and it did not even occur to the government of Nigeria as an emergency. It was hardly mentioned in the news in Nigeria. It was a no issue. The attention was on the looting of the treasury through the 17 billion naira party.

17 billion naira can change Nigeria forever if it is genuinely used to bring NEPA back to life. Under Obasanjo 16 billion naira grew wings and we heard nothing from the investigation conducted in the National Assembly. 17 billion naira would have changed the face of Nigeria forever. But No. They prefer to party and jolly with it. This is the most useless form of governance on the face of the earth. Party, party, party while the people suffer.

Also this week innocent children have been kidnapped in Abia State of Nigeria. This is morally wrong. You don’t kidnap children. It is a very wrong step from all possible perspectives.

Children are the future. You don’t use children in sending messages of this nature. Children are never to be used to settle scores if such even exist in this situation.

Kidnapping is a crime. All hopes have been kept alive that the children will be found alive. Their lives are changed forever. They will have nightmares and they will probably be traumatized for the rest of their lives judging by the Nigeria that I know.

If the children are returned or found alive, please let the first destination be to the hospital or to a renowned child psychologist. Let no one hire crowds to sing and let the church services wait. Give psychological help first.

What is the message of the kidnappers? They want money-Yes. What else? They are not pleased or happy with the situation of things in Nigeria. Who is?

The inclusion of children in this evil venture has made headlines all over the world. Was that the objective? That has been achieved. Can the children now be released?

One thing that I know for sure is that this particular criminal act (plus the car bombings) has put Nigeria on the international spotlight at a time that Nigeria is celebrating her 50th anniversary-the biggest wastage in history.

It is like a nightmare. We are spending so much money to showcase the failures of governance and the decay of infrastructure everywhere except in a few places in Abuja and elsewhere where money has been buried by Nigeria’s corrupt and looting politicians.

The kidnappers chose this time to change the targets of the type of victims. It is not a coincidence. They planned it because they know that the government of Nigeria has earmarked billions of naira for every state government in Nigeria and the embassies abroad to spend and lavish away.

Invariably the crazy thing is that families are weeping and are devastated but the criminals are expecting the governor of Abia State to come up with the money for ransom. You don’t have to watch criminal minds to deduce the timing and the execution of the evil acts.

I am really sad. I have been sad many times just because of Nigeria. Have I mentioned that I am the weeping blogger? I still cry for Nigeria and Nigerians. The people deserved a better life. Nigeria is worth crying and dying for. It’s a country that provides unbelievable contrasts. It is possible that more than 70% of us are poor and wretched. Altogether we are 140m people, or more.

We are not able to manage our affairs successfully. We widened the gap between those who have and those who lack. The gap is huge and enormous such that many have lost hope.

Part of the hopeless lots cannot withstand the oppression of the politicians and corrupt people. They joined them in their own ways-kidnapping and state terrorism. All forms of criminal activities to survive the desperation created by the Nigerian government since 1960 has added to the loads of nonsense and rubbish that continue to negate genuine attempts.

There will be no justification for any kind of evil. But since our judicial system is crippled and the enforcement of law and order is a fairytale, all kinds of evil and atrocities go unpunished. Even Jonathan mentioned today on CNN that the judicial system is weak. Some of us know that that is why he and his other corrupt lots have escaped justice. What a country!

In Abuja and across the world where Nigeria is represented drinks are flowing. On NTA last night you could see people playing with bottles of wine just like that. Nigeria’s monies are going up in flames while our sisters and female friends from Delta State and other places are being used as prostitutes and slaves in Mali of all places on earth. In whichever place the news itself is a disgrace to Nigeria.

Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (Naptip) should be commended for its efforts in combating human trafficking. They have now told us that thousands of Nigerian women are sex slaves in other West African countries.

It is as a country that we have failed to stop our girls from carrying out this trade in Europe. We have now also failed to stop them from plying this trade in our neighbouring countries.

What does our government care? They are busy at this time distributing gifts and medals to themselves for lack of electricity and the spread of ignorance and disease. They are drinking and making merry in style and splendour while our scavengers are keeping vigil at the rotten garbage heap looking for the source of their next meal ticket. What a contrast?

The kidnapped children and their families are in trauma. The sex workers face an uncertain future as ever. MEND the militant groups are hitting wrong targets to send strong messages about what lies ahead-terrorism. We fear that we might reach a complete state of lawlessness and absence of central government. We are getting close.

The rest of us continue to worry about our next meal and if it will be safe to go out this night. We are also worried about our salaries being paid. Roads and schools give us sources of concern. From now on we are going to be afraid to get into our cars not knowing if bombs have been planted in them. Is this the life we chose?

We are not sure of anything. We are so unsure of the future. We are worried. We face uncertain elections and we don’t know where the unwinding road will lead us.

After the merry making let these rulers emerge from their madness and drunkenness and provide security for lives and property. Let them tell us the plan for our women, children and mothers. We are looking forward to the plans that will give us hope and dignity. I salute all Nigerian optimists; they give me hope in this season of hopelessness.

___________________ _____________ _____________

FOOTNOTE:

The kidnapped Children have been freed.

Nigerians And The Burdens of History

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

Nigerians are watching and listening as political schemers start or continue to test the political field once again.

I looked at all the candidates and it is hard to see any of them that should not be rotting away in prison.

Nigeria and Nigerians are saddled with the burdens of history-that constantly deny the truth.

We know who these men and women are. We know how they ruined the country.

They killed, maim, got drunk at the altar of power and they left devastating effects on our lives. They stole or they continue to steal. They gamble and struggle for power then and now.

Elections and elections’ results remain the most important single factor affecting progress and development in Nigeria. I have argued about this elsewhere (see my blog for details).

In 2011 history will repeat itself in Nigeria. This is not the first time I’m sending signals about things to come in Nigeria. It takes no prophetic ability to interpret these clear signals. It takes amazing and enormous stupidity to ignore them and pretend that everything is alright.

The Nigerian 2011 elections are disasters waiting to happen. How can we conduct credible elections without proper identification schemes? In my previous blog entry I have explained these things in details.

Fake identity cards are common all over the world. This means that there will be loads of opportunities to cheat in the forth coming elections in Nigeria. I have expressed my fears about this, how it will play out and how rigging, violence and bitterness will dominate the elections.

History will again repeat itself in Nigeria, probably more fatal. I’m not a pessimist. I try to place reasons above emotions at all time. I succeed for the most.

When you expect Nigerians to rise up and defend the good, they are no where to be found.

The ways we do things are just wrong. The reason for the failure of the followership is also attributable to greed, selfishness and the “cut corner / get-rich-quick” syndrome. Our methodology and approaches to issues are sources of concerns to global observers.

Why are thieves, looters, murderers and useless people campaigning on national televisions when they should be serving terms for their atrocities? I don’t get it.

We are standing on the wrong side of history. We are no where near the truth. It is ironical because Nigeria probably has the largest number of churches and mosques in the world. This is classical case of religion gone astray. We are far from the truth, we are all hypocrites. We confirm that there is no relationship whatsoever between how people call the name of their gods and their abilities to apply the right sense of judgement. Vanity upon vanity..!

It beats me that prominent people (if they are out there somewhere) and the rest of us are watching and saying nothing about the impossible task facing INEC. We don’t need elections in 2011. What we need is the re-structuring of the entire process/ machinery that will give way to successful elections in Nigeria. What about the horse before the cart?

Let us stop and think for a while. We may be able to reason together. Our lives remain in our hands.