US

I Didn’t Know Donald Trump Was A Real Person

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

Just imagine a Donald Trump-presidency and a gun-for-all American society. I say a Swedish prayer for all American people, May The Wind Be Your Way..!

I Didn’t Know Donald Trump Was A Real Person

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola_dec_2015

With the title of this essay, l have not lied.

If you think it is funny or ridiculous, you have a right to that feeling especially if you know who l am.

If you choose to continue to read after this point, try to have an open mind and be objective.

I followed American politics for a while especially when Barack Obama became a candidate for the White House. Before the presidential election in 2008, l got a request from a media organisation probably based in the United States to write an opinion about Barack Obama.

So l did a series of online interviews with some people in Nigeria right from my base in Sweden. The results were 3 articles on Obama and the 2008 American presidential election in general.

The media group known as Vote2008 Takeaway has since pulled down all the publications or maybe they moved the websites. I cannot be sure which.

I started to tune down my interest in American politics after Obama’s victory. I read about all the opposition to Obama’s policies from the republican side.  Not that l was very pleased with Obama himself. The last straw was when American drones started to take away lives around the world. I zoomed away from American politics.

Later on, l started to hear the name Donald Trump more often. I must have heard it in connection to the 2008 election and probably did not pay attention to it.

The reason l have not paid attention to the name is because for some (probably strange) reasons l was connecting the name to something about THE SIMPSONS.

I don’t know or recollect how that happened. But it happened so.

For once l never thought Donald Trump would turn out to be a real person.

I mean my CNN channel disappeared from my free cable network and l hardly tune in to Aljazeera after l was unable to get a reply from one of their correspondents after making some enquiries on a subject matter. I felt dumped because l just helped them with one of their programs by participating in a recorded Skype-video conversation.

Anyway one fundamental argument, as l reflect now, why l didn’t think that Donald Trump was a real person was because most of the things attributed to him don’t sound real. So l just laugh and thought whoever invented this comic character is crazily funny.

I also thought: what is the media getting at when they portray such a comic character?

Let me repeat, this is not a joke. There was a time l thought Donald Trump was not a real person.

Yes, l am a writer. Yes l write about Nigerian politics since 2001. And yes l am not ashame to say that in the early days l didn’t know that Donald Trump was real.

I have my priorities.

I didn’t think all the dumb characters portrayed in Simpsons or other cartons or comedies are real.

It was when it dawn on me that Obama’s second term is drawing to a close that l started paying attention again to some aspects of American politics especially the candidates vying for the White House.

By the summer of 2016, l’ll probably catch up with all that is obscure now.

But how did l discover that Donald Trump was a real person?

It is the same way l have checked my sanity over the years. I ask people unexpected questions. Even at meetings or gatherings l have asked questions or make comments off the mark just to do some reality checks.

One day l asked my wife-have you been hearing the name Donald Trump? She said yes. So who is he l asked?  After our conversation, l finally came to terms that Donald Trump actually exists and that he is not just a character in the Simpsons.

My wife laughed, but it was in a good way.  My sanity check was complete.

So, l finally discovered that Donald Trump was actually a real person.

Oh my..!

I couldn’t believe my ignorance. At my age..!

Still, l didn’t pay attention so close enough. Even after discovering that he is a real person. I mean, l thought the media had been unfair to him and that they must have attributed all those nonsense to an innocent man. There must be some of those stories about him that are exaggerated.

My line of thought was liberally, dilutedly objective: if a man is going to become the president of America in this century, he should at least not be dumber than Mr. Obama’s predecessor or McCain’s running mate.

I reasoned further, though l didn’t fancy Obama’s drones, Americans can still produce people who can show enlightenment, grasp of globalization and ability to discern between fishing in Alaska and hiking in Barcelona.

Does anyone remember Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential candidate who does not even have an international passport? Sarah Palin l know. She was for real!

I thought that Donald Trump was a comic media invention that was developed to haunt Barack Obama. I thought it/he was a comic character and how l arrive at that reasoning will forever remain a mystery.

I can quite understandably and easily align with people who think that Donald Trump is dumb. I mean l didn’t even know he was a real person like Sarah Palin.

If 20 % of all the things attributed to him are real or correct as much as he is a real person, l am so sorry for all categories of American people.

In those days when l used to watch Jay Leno’s late night show, l ’d been taken aback several times when Leno went on the streets of America to ask people simple questions.

For some episodes, he asked sometimes very simple questions that sound like: who is the president of the United States? Amazingly some people don’t know, don’t care!

As l reviewed the Jay Leno’s shows that l watched and placed them side-a-side the emegence and rise of a presidential candidate like Donald Trump, my shock about the realness of Trump simply just disappeared.

I mean he is a leader in the race to the White House.

I can imagine that Jay Leno asked other questions like: where is Iraq? Some people would have answered, in Africa. I mean the US invaded a country that majority of her citizens do not know the location even if you give them a map.

The United States probably have the largest accumulation of ignorant people per total population on a global scale. Some will argue. I care less. But l wish they could do their research or possibly go deep into the villages and cities in America.

Hence when a character that should exist in a comedy suddenly turned out to be a real life leading presidential character in the US, you can get a better perception of where the world is heading in general.

On a global perspective, the world is in the hands of the wrong people. Are we for real?

Mostly l have read only the headlines since l discovered Donald Trump. That way, I have maintained my sanity since my wife explained to me who he is.

With all that l have to do, think or worry about especially if you love Nigeria and Africa like l do, adding the content of Donald Trump’s campaigns or useless speeches will amount to what the swedish people called slosseri med tiden. Go figure..!

My greater sympathy goes to all those who have suffered persecution, rejection and extreme discrimimation in the hands of Donald Trump-the real character.

Just imagine a Donald Trump presidency and a gun-for-all American society. I say a Swedish prayer to all American citizens (by birth or naturalization), May The Wind Be Your Way..!

aderounmu@gmail.com

2015 Most Wanted Report

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

 If the calls for the trial and imprisonment of George Bush Jr. for example cannot be found in the report for 2014, maybe a call for pardon or amnesty (and not a justification) for Charles Taylor will not be out of place as well.

All men are equal and what is good for the goose ought to be good for the gander.

2015 Most Wanted Report

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola_2013

The Human Right Watch Report for 2015 is one of the most anticipated world reports of the year. It will read 2015: The events of 2014.

What keen observers will be hoping to read will not only be the events of 2014 but more accurately the revelations of 2014. This means that known but hidden/classified reports covering the human rights violations of the United States and her allies during recent wars and occupations of other countries will be expected to make the reports.

In 2014 the United States, was described as having medium risk of human rights offenses and she ranked 139th among the 197 countries. The ten worst countries were

10. Nigeria

Yemen

Myanmar

Iraq

Afghanistan

Somalia

Pakistan

The Democratic Republic of Congo

Sudan and

1. Syria

The conditions that made these ten countries the worst places in 2013 were largely unchanged in 2014.

For example the Syrian civil war with the rise of ISIS in the Middle East still places Syria and Iraq amongst the worst places to be born in 2014. Religion despite all its rites of morality unfortunately also remains the most dangerous tool when brothers set out to kills their own kinds.

Boko Haram kept its hold on North Eastern parts of Nigeria and continues to control many local government areas in Borno and neighboring states. The terror group remains specialists in abducting and raping young girls. With Boko Haram, slave trade and human trafficking are kept alive in the Sahara.

The rise and successes of Boko Haram may stall the February elections in certain places in Nigeria. This may be so significant that it may result in the postponement of the elections with expected mayhem and escalation of the drums of war.

In Southern Nigeria it appears Mr. Jonathan has equipped his local militants with weapons from Norway, South Africa and Pakistan in readiness for war. The Nigerian military on the other hands is ill-equipped and had forfeited many grounds and weapons to Boko Haram.

In the 2015 Human Right Watch Report, Nigeria will be presented not only as an extremely corrupt country but a geographical region where human rights violations are rife and face escalation.

The rest of the world will not be disappointed with the established activities of the Taliban. Their yearlong crimes in 2014 culminated in massacre of 132 school children in Peshawar.

But back in the United States, there were more provocative revelations about the roles of the United States military in Iraq and Guantanamo. The revelations have heightened the call for the trial of George Bush a former president of the United States and some of his military chiefs.

Apart from the war crimes there were serious internal challenges in 2014 that rightly positioned the US as a serious contender as one of the countries with the worst human right violations in 2014.

The extra judicial killings that have been watered down for several decades reared their ugly heads and took on a non-suppressive dimension in 2014. It will be unfair to blame this awareness on media hype. I do not agree that the media blew the unfortunate events out of proportion. It is just the right thing to do rather than remaining silent when a persistent evil repeats itself with clear precisions.

Human Right Index 2013-2014

Human Right Index 2014

No amount of media hype will be excessive to seek justice and redress for the killings of Eric Gardner, Michael Brown, Kajieme Powell, Vonderrit Myers Jr and Antonio Martin just to mention a few that got our attention in recent months. Who knows exactly how many John, Jane and Baby Does went down in the US in 2014?

There are quite a handful of images and videos emanating from the US and going viral on the social network that depict in extreme situations daylight executions of colored people by white cops.

The 2015 Human Right reports will be of interest, a waiting thriller perhaps.

The place of the killer drones is hard to define but it has come to represent a form of repressive, excessive force, large unaccounted for. The American killer drones under Mr. Obama widen the stretch of international war crimes.

The world is waiting. Where will the US be? Based on current knowledge and events, will the authors miss the position of the US among or near the ten worst countries? Shall we be distracted to Russia, Ukraine and North Korea as a reprieve?

More so the double standard of rating human right abuses is condemnable.

What makes Charles Taylor suitable for prosecution / jail term based on human right abuses in Liberia and Sierra Leone but the presidents of the United States and the Prime Ministers in Britain unsuitable for prosecutions despite all the war crimes committed on their behalf around the world?

Charles Taylor is serving a 50 year jail term for aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone and Liberia. His arrest, detention and trial brought about a weird diplomatic drama among many countries including Nigeria, Liberia, the US, Britain and the Netherland.

Charles Taylor spoke of injustice early in his trial because he pointed out that George Bush and Dick Cheney are guilty of the same crimes he was accused of. All his other lines of defense also fell flat.

The world is watching closely again. The United States is expected to be among the worst countries in the world where human rights violations became an issue. This view is shared by several independent human right observers.

It is expected that Human Right Report will be clear on highlighting how different forms of torture were used in Abu Dhabi, Guantanamo and so on.

The world is waiting to read the report about the innocent American citizens who fall to police bullets everyday on home soil without recourse to justice.

So many things are unclear. For example, there are more colored people in jails for crimes related to drug possessions but the white population has the larger percentage of drug users. The tilted nature of criminal prosecutions in America does not favor the African-Americans.

The Human Right Watch report for events of 2014 is under a special watch light.

The reports of the watch dog will be closely monitored. If the calls for the trial and imprisonment of George Bush Jr. for example cannot be found in the human right report for 2014/2015, maybe a call for pardon or amnesty (and not a justification) for Charles Taylor will not be out of place as well.

All men are equal and what is good for the goose ought to be good for the gander.

aderounmu@gmail.com

The US, UK and Germany are Terrorist countries too..!

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

Nigeria probably deserved to be there because Northern Nigeria is dominated by Sharia law and extremists who have slaughtered and killed Christians over the years without facing judgement.

Nigeria’s former president Mr. Obasanjo allowed the thoughtless governors in Northern Nigeria including Mr. Yar Adua to establish Sharia states. As the president from 1999-2007 he could have weird his presidential authority (even if that confirms his military background for a good purpose) to stop those fools from establishing sharia states within a secular country.

By turning his face away and doing nothing Mr. Obasanjo and the lazy Northern governors committed acts of treason, among many other crimes, against the Nigerian nation. The 2009 Christmas day Nigerian bomber is the certificate and climax for the crimes of both the Nigerian rulers and a failed parenthood.

However Mr. Obama the American president and those who decided to place Nigeria on the list of countries of terrorists are either myopic or simply blinded by what we continue to unfold as the future of terrorism.

A number of the perpetrators of the 9-11 terror attack on the US trained both in Germany and the US. They were trained by Americans and probably Germans. That way they are not different from Abdulmuttalab who was trained in Yemen. Yemen and Nigeria are on terror list. In my opinion Germany and the US are on top of the terror list.

I cannot count how many terrorists have emerged from the UK. Those in incubation as we have been told far outnumbered those we have seen. In that sense the UK occupies the number one spot of terrorist countries.

You see Mr. Obama, double standards cannot save or rescue the world. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. You cannot put Nigeria on the list of terrorist countries while closing your eyes to the past or the precedents and even ignoring threats from within your domains.

But let me help you. I am Nigerian and I know that if care is not taken, Nigeria will disintegrate even before the 2015 as predicted. I hate what is called governance in Nigeria. It’s too corrupt for me to behold. I know corruption is worldwide trait but the dimension and the effects in my Nigeria make me sick. I am frustrated. I am so frustrated by the never improving status of my country despite our intelligence, oil wealth and vast human resources. Our expanse of mineral and agricultural diversities lay in fallow or in ruins. We are so graciously blessed but largely living in penury-more than 70% of Nigerians are living in unnecessary poverty. We deserve a better life for real!

Hence I reckon with you the ease with which you can place Nigeria on the terror list. But that doesn’t stop me from pointing out to you that the US, Britain and Germany in my mind, are terrorist nations as well. I believe I have a right to my own judgement too. The recent killings of Americans by an American man at a military base point to the constancy of America as a nation of terrorists. A number of American citizens are scattered worldwide planning terror to be executed in America or on Americans. Remember the arrest in Pakistan?

My advice to you is to review the list of terrorist countries. You have to base your conclusions on sound judgments and not sentiments or witch-hunting. How can Nigeria be on the list of terrorist countries for the same reason that have left out the US, UK and Germany? That I don’t get but I do understand our peculiarity as highlighted above.

But now I can argue that Nigeria should not be on the terror list because Abdulmuttalab is not a symbol of Nigeria.

Their President is Missing

/ Adeola / 4 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

Mr. Yar Adua who millions of Nigerians regard as their Nigerians is missing. He is not in the hospital in Saudi Arabia as originally thought or reported. So, where is their president?

This is so ridiculous and shameful. The US has just listed Nigeria as one of the countries under scrutiny because of one stupid boy called Abdulmuttalab who tried to blow up an American airliner. Seriously I’m beginning to have a second thought on my support for Mr. Obama.

1 Nigerian terrorist and 151 million people guilty. Mr Obama needs to re-examine his thoughts and actions. Indeed Northern Nigeria is a potential hot spot for recruitment of idle or wasted minds into terrorist network but the more literate south is devasted by this situation. Nigerians should be removed from the useless list of passengers to be “stripped” when flying to the US. All passengers deserve the same treatment.

Anyway how much blame falls on Obama’s admin is another perspective into the entire scenario. 151m Nigerians have been kidnapped and held hostage by a cabal and some gangsters that have refused to move the country forward more than 40 days since Mr. Yar Adua went missing.

Nigeria is a peculiar country no doubts. Our politicians and rulers are more or less idiots and nonentities. If not, how can there be a power vacuum for more than 40 days when there is a VP? They have turned the VP to a mumu. I could throw up reading his new year message! Pray, Support, this, that and all the useless and nonsense statements we’ve heard before. Nigerians need a new way forward, we want a leader and to even think that this entrapped man called Jonathan is the likely ruler in the days ahead makes me shiver. Still I hope he gets the chance and we’ll see where we go from there in 2011.

Many things are wrong and lies and propaganda are flowing freely. Power vacuum remains as some irresponsible people continue to toy and play with our lives. They stole our future and they are about to set the stage for the destruction of the next generation.

If I may repeat (how many times have I done this?), Yar Adua should be left alone wherever he is and whatever he is doing, we MUST MOVE ON.

We are a nation of 151m people and we are currently at the centre-stage of world’s attention as a terrorist nation. Still we have no one to address the issues plaguing us. Their president is missing, no one knows where Yar Adua is!

Maduekwe is giving the US a 7 day ultimatum. Very funny. Where is your president Mr Ojo Maduekwe? Where is the ultimatum coming from and who are you chatting with? Please give me a break. A country without a legal president is a symbol of useless politicians who should be ignored.

I’m sure Obama will listen to you when you tell him where your president is.

Where is their president, Mr Yar Adua?

US Blames Security At Lagos Airports, Really?

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

The US should stop this blame game and focus on the matter at hand. The Nigerian terrorist travelled through two airports-Lagos and Amsterdam.

There must have been something the alleged terrorist did to beat the securities at these two airports. That should be the focus. In what ways was he ahead of both the Nigerian and the Dutch security systems? Trying to fault the Nigerian end is baseless and reckless.

Where was the US security during 9-11? May the souls of the departed continue to rest in peace. Should we blame the US security systems? No we don’t have to even though we know that everytime something goes wrong, someone should have thought better. Still each error provides a room for improvement and prevention of future re-occurence of the same error.

The US should be focussing on its embassy in Nigeria. How did they end up giving a juicy VISA to a suspected terrorist? And if the VISA was issued before he became a terror, what attempts were made to keep a TAB on him? (It appears the visa was obtained in UK)

The attention should be taken away from MMA even though I am not saying that MMA is perfect or tight. But that the guy went through Amsterdam Airport without beind detected is an indication that he was a step ahead.

Rather than a blame game, an international cooperation and multi-faceted investigation should be undertaken because this guy has travelled wide and far and probably has a links or networks that are unknown.

I am just concern about how much his father stole as a Minister or Bank Chief that may have contributed to the affluent live the boy lived as a student in UK. I am going to be devastated beyond words if my fears are confirmed that his father stole Nigeria’s money only for the boy to end up this way-wasting Nigeria’ Niger Delta Wealth or depositors’ fund in First Bank.

For us Nigerians, this is a national embarrassment and many of us are bracing up for the challenges and the implications for the days ahead. We are already struggling with a severely battered international image, to now top it with a terrorist act is the last thing we need for our country that has been denied a legitimate government since 2007.

Even as I write I am very angry with Nigerian thieves who say they are politicians. For the past 1 month we have no ruler as the fake president lies lifeless in Saudi Arabia and we are just sailing like people in a lost ship.

This act of terrorism is the last form of distraction that Nigeria needs right now as we have serious political problems to take care of. We are a nation in crisis.

Hopefully this may serve as a wake up call to the useless people in Aso rock and Abuja including the worthless lawmakers idlying away as the rest of us suffer the effects of fuel scarcity and prevalent poverty.