Murder in Ogun State: The Killing of Dipo Dina

Adeola Aderounmu

A prominent son of Ogun State has been assasinated. Mr. Dipo Dina was a vibrant opposition figure and the Ogun State gubernatorial candidate of the Action Congress in the April 2007 election. He was assassinated near Covenant University in Otta, Ogun State on Jan 26 2010.

My parents are from Ogun State. I have been there maybe 4 or 5 times my whole life. Ogun State is home to Obasanjo, MKO Abiola, Awolowo and several prominent Nigerians including Ernest Shonekan.

Ogun State will continue to occupy a central place in the Nigerian Political Sphere. But that we have killed one of our brightest minds is a big shame to us. We have allowed politics to ruin our sense of value and belonging.

The killers of Dipo Dina should bend their heads in shame. They are no better than wild animals in their show of stupidity, madness and extreme barbarism.

This is one murder too many.

There are people who are already concluding that the Ogun State Government headed by the governor Mr. Daniels should be held responsible for this killing. Such allegations may be careless or reckless.

But what are we going to get in a country where assassinations and murders of ordinary and prominent people have never been solved before? With the wicked and evil minds in control of governance, we may be asking for too much if we ask for the perpetrators to be apprehended and prosecuted. Still it is a necessary call!

The police may be out already calling this an armed robbery attack! This is what they always say. This is shameful and scandalous. We want better results from the police and security agencies.

Anambra Elections is coming soon in February, I hope that the people will allow peace to reign and that the electoral committee will count only the votes casted at polling booths.

In 2011, and before, we hope that the nest of killers would have been dismantled and brough to Justice.

The killing of Dipo is despicable, highly unacceptable and should never have happened. It is sad and the scar will remain with Ogun State and Nigeria forver.

May his sould rest in perfect peace and May the family find the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

Nigerian Politicians Repeating their Madness

By Adeola Aderounmu.

Nigeria is still battling with the illegal presidency two years on. Nothing is working except organised corruption.

In Anambra State, the madness is on again. There will be a governorship position to be filled in February 2010. There is total chaos now in the politics in Anambra State especially in the PDP camp. PDP is the ruling party in Nigeria. That is the party with the evil strength that have been used to plunder and scatter the country since 1999.

By special arrangement PDP has been designed to win the governorship election in 2010. The votes will not be counted so the other parties may as well not bother to campaign or send their supporters into the deadly voting processes.

PDP will win because the most useless election umpire ever in the history of mankind, one Maurice Iwu is still in charge of the partial electoral committees. No electoral reforms have been carried out since the illegal regime of Yar Adua took over in 2007. Why would there be a reform that could unseat the evil and wicked government?

PDP styles of government has appointed the immediate past governor of the central bank of Nigeria Mr. Soludo as its flagbearer for the 2010 Anambra State governorship election. PDP did not follow the due process that will allow delegates to vote for aspirants. In Nigeria elections are a mere waste of time. In keeping with this mad attitude and since there were over 40 candidates seeking the single PDP ticket, the PDP hiearchy took the shortest cut ever. It is called wuruwuru.

This is an idea of the things to come in Nigerian in 2011. There will be violence, political assasinations, mayhem, riots, chaos and anarchy may be the climax. This country is in bad hands and bad shape. There are no electoral reforms so this useless politicians will keep the status quo. It is a game, survival of the fittest, survival of the fattest pocket. Looters on the rampage.

Politics is the shortest cut to wealth in Nigeria. People steal freely and they loot as much as they want from the public treasury. This is why someone can pay 5 million naira to buy a governorship ticket. Most of these people are people who have stolen from one place or the other. How else can they raise 5m naira to buy an ordinary paper?

Since thieves and looters are not prosecuted, Nigerian Politics continue to attract more thieves like the ones in power now. Yar Adua and all his co-travellers are thieves!!! Has anyone check out the customs department lately? It is full of smugglers known to Yar Adua and even the custome boss is a BIG FRAUD!

One day will be one day, the people will eventually have their eyes open and take what it theirs.

It is certain that this country cannot go on like this, it is a big shame. Nigeria is now the ant of Africa. We share a collective shame because of the madness and the greediness of a few. The madness will stop one day.

1960-2008: Nigeria has wasted 2 generations and 48 years

By Adeola Aderounmu.

Not everyone will agree that 2008 was another wasted year but in actual fact, it was wasted. To those who have managed to climb up and away from the poverty zone, it is a year of accomplishment. To those who have succeeded through hardwork and a little bit of luck, it is a wonderful year.

However, more than 90m Nigerians are still below the poverty level. Many of them living desperately on less than 2 USD per day. To be sure, there are some people in Nigeria who do not have any money or material comfort. These people are neither covered by any form of social security nor consoled by the any type of social amenity. They lack the basic things of life: water, food and good accommodation. In general, their standard of living is below acceptable human conditions.

Several millions of Nigerians will start 2009 just the way they started 2008-poor and facing extreme hopelessness. They will start a new year without electricity in their homes. Nigeria is currently generating less than 3000 MW of electricity! Power supply in the last quarter of 2008 is one of the worst in the history of Nigeria. There are many days of absolute power cut and (sometimes) intermittent supply of about 30min in 2 days. Is Nigeria really a country?

Yet Nigerians are addressing Yar Adua as president. What has he successfully presided over since he was illegally bundled into power by Obasanjo and Iwu? Nigerians know that they are being held as captives but they don’t know how to release themselves from the bondage.

No one can deny that the Nigerian masses are being held as captives by a clique of tropical gangsters who have “bought” the country and turned it to their paradise and our hell. It is so unbelievable that these monsters have held swayed for most part of the 48 years of Nigerian independence. It is also remarkable how they re-group and recruit new accomplices in order to ensure that evil and terror are perpetually unleashed on the common man.

For instance Yar Adua’s fake government is oiled by corruption just like the others before it. How long shall we repeat this? Everytime I hear Yar Adua condemning corruption, I get stomach pains. How can you condemn something that you are enmeshed in, something you are doing almost nothing about in the interest of the public even though you have the transient or stolen power to do so?

Can Yar Adua tell Nigerians why Ibori is not facing prosecution? Why did Lucky Igbinedion pay just 3 million naira after looting for 8 years? Why are all the indicted governors and Ministers from 1999 to 2007 free people? Yar Adua should please save us the hypocrisy of his pseudo-leadership. It is not possible to fool all the people all the time.

It is now known to all and sundry that Ibori is the one controlling the EFCC nowadays. This would explain why Farida is his foot mat. Ibori has perfected the act of escaping prosecution. This guy stole Delta State to dryness and he is enjoying a post-governorship immunity simply because he donated more money than anyone else in sponsoring Yar Adua to the global centre of corruption aka Aso Rock.

Among the people who have contributed to the waste and hopelessness in Nigeria, one should never fail to mention Obasanjo. In Nigeria today, NEPA is generating less than 3000MW and the misdeeds of Obasanjo and his co-looters is a principal factor in this debacle. For 8 years, this man deceived all Nigerians and made us believed in vain. Nigerian are invariably in for another ride of deceit-waiting in vain for a declaration of a state of emergency in the power sector.

Maurice Iwu has joined the long list of the men holding Nigerians as captives. All the elections held even after the sham of April 2007 are still condemnable. The worst political comment in the world in 2008 was made by Iwu when he said that the US should learn from Nigeria when it comes to conducting election. The comments of senile Mugabe (“Zimbabwe is mine” and “no cholera in Zimbabwe”) are child’s play compared to Iwu’s venomous utterances. Nigeria is surely condemned when men without defined visions or missions are in control.

Anyone who has been following the proceedings of the Nigerian Senate under the leadership of the mega-looter called David Mark would really feel sorry for Nigeria. There is almost no room for intelligent discussions and Mark is usually way off the mark when he makes his comments. Nigerians have sacrificed intelligence for stupidity and looting games in the Nigerian Senate and House of Assembly.

David Mark has no business in the Senate anyway. After participating in the looting of Nigeria, it is quite easy to understand the negative contributions he brings with him to the senate. The war on corruption, if we had one, should have engulfed his likes.

The reigning gangsters and looters in Nigeria are surely having a jolly ride with a man like Michael Aondoakaa in control of the legal system. He is not only shielding and defending the looters in Nigeria and abroad, his idea of rule of law is very instrumental in the spreading of poverty and deaths in Nigeria.

What these bad leaders don’t understand is that every little misdeed adds up to the misery of Nigerians. Why protect people who stole monies that they cannot spend in 10x their life span? Obviously he is gaining a lot in the process! One day na one day sha!

There is no way Babangida will not be on this parade. More than 12 billion dollars of Nigeria’s money alleged to be in his possession is enough to keep Nigeria in the doldrums for another decade or more. If 12 billion dollars is pumped into Nigeria’s scientific and medical research and development (R&D), almost all Nigerian scholars abroad will be heading home to contribute to the progress of the country.

We don’t need a prophecy to know that Nigerians will continue to suffer because of a few men in possession of the country’s wealth. If there is war on corruption in Nigeria, many of the people parading government houses in Nigeria today should be answering for corruption and crime against humanity.

There is no real anticorruption body in Nigeria and this is why politicians and government officials continue to steal. Obasanjo destroyed the EFCC by using it to crack down on all anti-third term groups and individuals. The rules have changed under Umaru-soft pedal for all and sundry. Slow and steady kill the case was the modification by Farida Waziri-a pure puppet.

If Nigeria has a proper anticorruption agency, it would be independent, open and sincere. The EFCC of today is a shield for the likes of Ibori and all the corrupt governors and politicians that served under Obasanjo. Those who served and lined their pockets before 1999 are not even moved. The only worried groups in Nigeria today are the yahoo-yahoo boys, cybercafé owners and of course the common man. EFCC has even dedicated a drama series to yahoo-yahoo boys on AIT. What a joke of an institution!

Forty-eight years of waste was solidify by the lukewarmness of the Nigerian judiciary. This organ of government has disappointed Nigerians over the years and more recently has produced highly questionable and contestable judgements. The court has made it possible for individuals who did not contest in elections to be winners. Serving convicts and ex-convicts contested and won elections in Nigeria. Imagine how many criminals are occupying political positions in Nigeria. The disposition of the Courts in Nigeria is one of the reasons that the police stations have been turned to firing squads. The Nigerian Police is a sick child on its own: a very sick child! When it mattered most, Nigerian law system usually becomes heavily compromised.

All of these evil acts that have confined Nigeria among the poorest nations in the world is actually the summation of the effects of a group fondly called “the cabal“. The cabal is the reason why sane and intelligent minds get to government houses and become stereotyped looting machines.

Even Nigerians who lived abroad before joining government have not been spared the initiation into the looting game. The cabal preaches a gospel of eat and go and don’t bug yourself with the status quo. This is why many nice people have become “new creatures” once they eat the forbidden fruits. It is because of the cabal that our elections have no values and are unworkable. The cabal is responsible for the annulment of the only free and fair election that took place in 1993.

The sins of the cabal are many but its prime approach is to promote fear and ignorance with the view of controlling the machinery of government forever. The newest approach being utilised by the cabal is the secrecy oath in the illegal presidency which is now being adopted across government institutions nationwide. What is secret about the illegality of the regime in Nigeria? What is the secret about the fact that they are all there to protect their personal interests and steal as much as they can just like the deceivers before them.

The problems in Nigeria are not going to be solved or ameliorated if we don’t take care of the stumbling blocks. Nigerians have been quiet for too long and everybody is after his or her own interests. It shouldn’t be like that. Some people have called for a revolution but Nigeria is a very complicated country and this complication is one of the weak points that the cabal and the corrupt leaders are using to oppress Nigerians more and more. Some people want the biblical call: To thy tent O’ Israel! The Niger Delta crisis, the threats of religious riots, tribal conflicts and secession bids are obvious indicators.

Rather than “every-man-to-himself” Nigerians should start thinking collectively of how rescue the over 90m people living hopelessly across the nation. We should come together and discuss whatever it will entail to capture this country back from the vultures who have been stealing and looting since 1960. If the outcome will send us back to our tents, so be it. Posterity should be the keyword.

After chasing Ghanaians out of Nigeria, they went home and built a formidable country that Nigerians are running to like rats. Ghana is now ranked as one of the most prosperous countries in Africa. The actions and leadership of one man changed Ghana forever. The lesson is that one man can make a difference. Enlightened Nigerians have the honour to take up this challenge and start building formidable forces and groups that will challenge the “status quo”.

We must do whatever it will take to break from this yoke. It’s too heavy a burden and one way or the other we all feel the effects. Let’s do what it takes to free our children and grandchildren from this burden.

Happy New Year!