Nigeria

Nigeria, the issues at stake

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

Adeola Aderounmu

The news that Mr. Jonathan has dissolved the cabinet today is not to be received with any form of jubilation. If anything it is a new cause for worries.

Mr. Jonathan unfortunately does not have the choice of handpicking the executive members. For several years the system of governance in Nigeria is not based on merits or knowledge of the individuals in their chosen fields.

Right now what is going on is lobbying (which is normal and fair enough) at the different states of the federation where the new cabinet members will come from. At the end of the (new) long wait-which is a serious deficiency of the system-names will be drawn up from the different geographical areas of Nigeria.

The people who will get nominated will be happy for the invitation or re-invitation to loot and steal from the masses. This is the process since 1960-bring in people and let them lie and steal!

The Nigerian National Assembly will also be bubbling by now. We have seen these shameless people in the past soliciting for bribes from nominated candidates so that they can be confirmed by the senate.

For me, history is just going to repeat itself. The senate members will collect bribes, the new executive members will be square pegs in round holes or the other way around. The cycle of idiocy will continue.

There is nothing wrong in dissolving or re-shuffling the cabinets. I’m just afraid that I have seen thousands of that before in my life time. Things only get worse.

We run a system where everything we do is too cosmetic and irrational.

Rather than cabinet reshuffling I would have called these ministers to give an account of their stewardship and achievements. I would have recommended them for prosecution for all the monies that they have stolen. I would have used them as examples of how “not to steal and loot”. I would, as a leader, try to give good examples of what it means to lead.

These men and women will walk away from governance with all the monies that they have stolen and looted. They will be replaced with new categories of thieves. The whole nonsense will continue.

Mr. Jonathan is trying to ascertain his command, but in the end, he will get new people around him that he barely knew.

There are more pressing issues to face in Nigeria.

There is war in Jos. Niger Delta is waging war against Nigeria. There is poverty, millions of Nigerians-more than 70% of the population are extremely poor and living on less than 2 dollars per day. We are talking about approximately 90m people or more. It is one of the biggest human tragedies of modern times. Highly overlooked, but the consequences will make Biafra and Somalia to be children’s plays if Jos and Niger Delta escalate into full blown wars. The rest of the world will not be spared, and this is not going to be the price of gas only.

These grave problems dwarf the significance of the cabinet change in Nigeria, no matter how relevant it seems to the present occupiers of the seat of power.

Nigeria is on a brink, the gun-powders are leaking. Add the wars to the unemployment, insecurity of lives and properties and the uncertainties of everyday life, we are starring at a human disaster on the rise.

Something must give way, otherwise Nigeria will give way and hundreds of nations may arise. No one knows what the consequences and repercussions will be. It’s time for those in the rock to wake up. Even the rock is not immune from weathering. It can happen..!

The Horrors from Jos

/ Adeola / 3 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

I have seen images of the recent mayhem in Jos. Children were slaughtered like goats. Women were pierced and chopped into pieces. Men and their families were massacred without mercy. I don’t know the animals that carried out the massacres but those slaughtered were Christians. It’s easy to infer that they were killed by irate Muslim mobs.

Shame of a failed nation

Nigerians and the world at large are now used to these scenarios of religious riots and counter-riots especially in Northern Nigeria. Jos is the capital of Plateau State in the middle belt region of Nigeria. But it is a little bit tilted to the north.

The riots that took place over the weekend of 6-7th march is definitely not going to be the last of it. There are reports of tension and likely retaliation from the affected group. Let us not forget that the Christians defended themselves the last time they were attacked early this year. As a matter of fact their assailants were shocked by the defense mechanisms that the Christians put up, even in holy places of worship.

This would explain the nature of the recent attack which came as a surprise and the Christians were defenseless. But how long will this mice and cats games continue? How long? What is the origin of these crises? What has the governor of Plateau state done to end the crises? What is he doing on short and long term bases?

The Map of Nigeria

Some of us have argued that Nigeria is a failed country. We have been labeled as unpatriotic. But how does one reconcile the killing of innocent children and women in Jos with the pretension that Nigeria is not a failed country? It’s hard, isn’t it?

Nigeria is a complex country. The recent madness in Jos has heightened the call for the segregation of the country. But we must not forget that our country is not only complex but interwoven. There will not be any easy way out of the dilemma that was imposed on us by the British amalgamation of 1914 when Northern Nigeria was merged with Southern Nigeria. There will not be any easy way out of the message brought by the missionaries from the south and the jihadist from the north. Nigeria is a melting point for political, cultural, religious, and social disorientation and disasters. How we manage to survive together for so long is an additional mystery.

Nigeria may never know peace as a united country. It will be difficult to find political solutions to the country falsely called Nigeria. Nevertheless these aberrations do by any means not justify the stupidity and madness that has been displayed in Nigerian political and public spaces.

Nigerian politicians ranked among the worst in the world. They are corrupt, wicked and clothed in absurdities. They almost have no sense and no direction in their thinking. The significant thing with being a Nigerian politician is to be cunning and crafty with looting of public funds, and to be a genius with falsification of contract sums and other things they allow them to rip the national treasury one way or the other. This has been going on for 50 years, unabated!

Hence the country went on a free fall. Nigerian went from being the best place to live in Africa to one of the worst places in the world. In Nigeria today electricity generation is nearly 0%. Is there a worse place on earth? I am still trying to figure out if there is any where on earth where electricity generation is nearly 0%. If there is none, then Nigeria is probably the worst place to live in, Somalia apart. I mean what is life without the uninterrupted supply of electricity?

If I was the president or acting president of Nigeria, I will move my office to Jos for at least one week. I will take over the position of the governor, literarily. I will make consultations with the people and be among them. I will try to find out the root cause of the Jos riots. I will never set up any useless committee or delegation or fact finding committees. I will be on the field and find out the nature of the problems. In fact I will ask the people, how can we help you, how can we solve these problems? I believe that anything short of this approach will not solve the problem. Many more lives will be lost and the country will sink deeper into man-made depressions.

But in Nigeria the acting or whatever president will be busy with contracts, oil rigs, future election manipulations and self preservation. Nigerian politicians acts in senseless manners and they have no idea what public service entails. Sometimes I wonder if their brains sublimed the moment they get into office by their violent and dubious acts.

I’m trying to love Nigeria but I’m perplexed and honestly speaking I’m also confused. We give an impression to the world that we are uncivilized whereas we are not. In Nigeria and abroad we have millions of Nigerians who are brainers, geniuses and trailblazers in different fields and endeavors of life. Across the world we continue to mentor people, children and even in some cases there are Nigerians mentoring a whole community of people.

But the question is, where is this pool of intelligence where and when it is most needed? Why is the quality of our lives in Nigeria below acceptable international standards? From Nigeria, why is our image that of corruption, massacres, barbaric acts, poverty, no electricity, no economic prowess, no employment and all types of vices you can think of including armed robbery and kidnapping? I am a frustrated Nigerian. I don’t like how the events in Nigeria are affecting the way people are looking at me and my compatriots on foreign lands. Sometimes you can see in their looks-why don’t these “fools” go home and fix their country?

The point is there are millions of Nigerians living in Nigeria who know what to do about the problems in Nigeria. But like the rest of us, they have allowed the violent and ruthless people to take over governance. Sometimes several people with good intentions get into government and they soon join the bandwagon of looters. They suddenly forget the sons and daughters of whom they are and they begin to acquire wealth illegally! They forget their roots and add to the loads of problems. It is called the Nigerian mentality.

So where and what is our hope. Will there come a time when good people will show good traits in public service? Will this country by salvaged? By who? A messiah? Will Nigeria ever know peace, progress and true development? Will there come a time when rulers will be replaced by leaders with visions? What is the way out of the Nigerian dilemma?

Jos-Nigeria, a lawless state

/ Adeola / 5 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

Jos has now become the death valley. Jos the capital of Plateau State in mid-Nigeria is now notorious for religious attacks, counter attacks and revenge.

What a sad situation!

Jos is supposed to be one of the most attractive tourist attraction centres in Nigeria, but see what religion has done to Jos. What a shame!

Jos has a climate that is superb and it’s one of the places I would have loved to visit but I dare not. I am disappointed, not in Jos really, but in Nigeria. The country is a completely failed state. Lacking in democracy and genuine leadership, the problems of the states is actually a reflection of the stupidity of the rulers. Not to fail to mention the absurd resiliency of the masses. These two abnormalities have now melted Nigeria into a jungle country.

The other day we read about, and saw horrible pictures of innocent people murdered and dissected by armed robbers. No greater insanity. Time after time, Jos and other places continue to erupt into violence and “small” wars.

There are problems upon problems in Nigeria but the politicians and conquerors of Nigeria are busy stealing, looting, talking nonsense in the house of assembly, sharing money and allowances across the various arms of government-monies that end up in private account and overseas. This country is a failed country! I’m so convinced.

No credible elections, no electoral reforms, no legal president, useless anticorruption war and all sorts of stupid things going on daily.

The one who is the acting president is still romancing the same people who stole, looted and destroy the country. He is one of them.

The Jos issue is not a local issue. It is a reflection of the lack of democracy and failure of the system. We have no defined system and the country is built on very useless people instead of strong institutions and good principles of governance.

I am not just crying for Jos, I am also crying for Nigeria.

Nigeria Appoints Lars Lagerbäck As Coach of The Super Eagles

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

Lars Lagerbäck has been appointed as the coach of the Nigeria Super Eagles. Shuaibu Amodu has been sacked from that position because of the poor performances of the Nigerian team at the Angola 2010 African Cup of Nations. The sack is also connected to the pattern of play and the unconvincing manner in which Nigeria qualified for the world cup.

This is not the first time that Amodu would qualify for the world cup. He did it before and was sacked. The reasons and the circumstances are exactly the same. In fact the administration of football and sports in general in Nigeria has gone worse under the same period of time.

By sacking Amodu the NFF is actually sweeping the dirts under the carpets. NFF did so in France 98 and Korea Japan 2002, the outcomes were disastrous. More devastating when we lost our qualifying spot to lowly rated Angola in 2006. Not that Amodu is indispensable or that he could not have done better, but the fact is that there is more to sports and football in Nigerian than the use of Amodu as a scape goat. Goodbye Amodu, I hope the day will never come when they will ask you to come and help Nigeria to qualify for the world cup again.

The baton has now been passed to Lars Lagerbäck. I have followed Swedish football since 2002. That year Sweden defeated Nigeria 2-1 in the Japan-Korea 2002 World Cups. That was after Aghahowa put Nigeria ahead with a beautiful header off Yobo’s cross. Henrik Larsson and Fredrik Ljungberg got a goal each for Sweden.

Before 2002 I knew Martin Dahlin, Henrik Larsson and Tomas Brolin. Brolin was a huge success in the Italian league and he has a famous way to celebrate his goals. I don’t have any problem per se with the appointment of Lagerbäck. I think his track records give him a good edge for that position.

Sweden has not produced several big names in recent years but Zlatan remains outstanding. Sweden failed to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa. Lagerbäck was relieved of his position. Lagerbäck was not a failure but I am convinced there are a few things he would have done better as the head coach for Sweden. Sweden does not have many skilful and talented players as Nigeria.

As the coach of a Nigerian team Lagerbäck has entered into a position where non-performance will not be tolerated. There are 140m football analysts in Nigeria. His seat is even hotter than that of the president. Does he know that? Nigerians don’t care about the presidency as much as they do football-football is the number one religion in Nigeria.

Lagerbäck who has been used to organised environment and structured attitude to work has now suddenly entered into a position where he may probably be looking for jerseys on match days. Lagerbäck will be shocked to know that his salary will not be paid on the 25th of every month. He will have to get used to be living in advance as the salaries will drag and drag. He needs tolerance, endurance and perseverance to survive the 5 months that have been handed to him.

Lagerbäck will inherit players of different ratings and attitudes. Obviously he needs to get used as quickly as possible to the Nigerian football ages and get rid of tired legs as soon as possible. He will see players who think they are doing Nigeria a favour by playing in the national colours. Lagerbäck will see players who are dying for their club sides because of the money they earn and strolling on the pitch when they play for Nigeria. He will be shocked! In fact he will see players impressing in training but posing on match days.

I have suggested in a previous post that we need to work on the mentalities of our players. But the complexity of the problem is that our players are Nigerians and we cannot isolate their mentalities from the national mentalities. Most of the people in governance or administrative roles in Nigeria are doing things that will profit them and not Nigeria. We have an attitude that has robbed us of our pride and duty to nation. Nigerian players are not exceptions!

I don’t know the nature of Lagerbäck’s contract but if I could just imagine-it would be wonderful to have him bring some organisation and structure into our football. If they could employ him not just as a coach but as a “tool” to institute the organisation that is missing in our football, that would be great.

Imagine if our democracy is structured like Swedish democracy-where you can vote at a post office or at designated centres before the Election Day-and your vote will still be counted. Imagine if we could sack corrupt people and let good and knowledgeable people run our sports, our football and our government-the world will be at our feet.

I wish Lagerbäck the best of luck. I wish I could meet him and give him some solid advice and information about his new task and terrain.

I wish Nigeria goodluck in South Africa. And I sincerely hope that Amodu will find the place in his heart to forgive Nigerians, we are a bunch of _________people..!

Yar Adua should be taken to his village..!

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By Adeola Aderounmu

You can tell who the real enemies of Nigeria are. They include individuals like Yar Adua and his so called evil kitchen cabinet.

Just when we are about to settle down to do something meaningful after over 2 years of recklessness and waste Mr Yar Adua was smuggled into Abuja amidst tight security. It makes you wonder if he is a civilian ruler or an outright dictator.

We don’t know if he came back to Nigeria on his own or if his kitchen cabinet wanted to give us a stationary dude for a fake president for the second time in 2 years. Time is the revealer of all things-hidden or secrets. But that he is resident in an ambulance speaks volume!

Time will tell if Yar Adua is bold enough to appear in public by conscious effort. When he claimed to be well, he was very ineffective, slow and very insignificant to the lives of millions of suffering Nigerians. It doesn’t matter his condition now Yar Adua is already down in history as the worst president/ruler ever in Nigeria.

Nigeria is not ready for the present dilemma which the kitchen cabinet has now orchestrated. We were just looking into the future and thinking about how to adopt electoral changes, how to conduct free and fair elections and how to enthrone genuine democracy.

We were just thinking about how we can help Mr. Jonathan with the fight against corruption in his family and nationwide. We were putting on our thinking caps about the electricity problem in Nigeria. We live in darkness and our businesses are crumbling for obvious reasons.

Suddenly, we now have to stop and think once again, not about 100m Nigerians living desperately on less than 1 dollar per day, but about Mr Yar Adua who held Katsina and Nigeria in bondage for 8 and 2 years respectively. We are back in trouble waters.

This is what I think, some idiots may probably use Yar Adua as a decoration somewhere and pretend to us that what they are doing is following the instructions from Yar Adua. They tried this several times saying that our fake president was ruling and giving orders from Saudi Arabia.

Since that ploy failed with the elevation of Goodluck Jonathan, they decided to bring Umaru home-dead or alive. It’s the same old trick.
I have written before that Yar Adua should be taken to his village if he ever returns to Nigeria. I maintain that stance. Mr Yar Adua, the illegitimate ruler of Nigeria, is not fit for the presidency. No matter the condition under which he has returned to Nigeria, he should be taken to his village.

He needs to continue to rest. If he is conscious, he needs to think about his health and family. He should never prioritize Nigeria. Nigeria and Nigerians can do without his nonsense inputs. He should just go and leave Nigeria alone.

I am waiting anxiously to see his unveiling if he thinks that he has the strength again to lead Nigeria.

A word is enough for the wise but never enough for the foolish. The dog that will get lost will never hear the hunter’s whistle. AND those whom the gods will destroy, they first make deaf. I think someone or some people are probably deaf now.

The next few days will be exciting in Nigeria. There will be no dull moments. We keep our fingers crossed..!