Yar Adua

The Most Corrupt People I know

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By Adeola Aderounmu.

Mrs. Waziri said she is prepared to sacrifice her life in the pursuit of her job as the boss of the EFCC. I have heard or listened to many useless comments before and this is one of the most useless remarks you can hear from a Nigerian official. What about all the corrupt charges hanging on her neck plus all the sacred cows she has preserved for Umaru’s next campaign?

I have tried to raise my head high at all times-and I am still doing that. I wear clothes with N.I.G.E.R.I.A on the back and coats of arm on the front. I have a Nigerian flag standing on my parlour shelf and a big Nigerian flag is hanging conspicuously on my window in a white-dominated environment. Despite being torn apart between the choices of nationalities I continue to remind myself that I am Nigerian. I don’t know how much longer I can bear the huge cross. It comes with a lot of humiliation-accepting the responsibilities and bearing the shame for what some ignoble people have done and what others are still doing. Thank heaven for the game of football else there will be almost nothing positive about the green-white-green.

Everyday I rehearse at least 1 article in my mind yet I have written less than 7 in the last 6 months. This is because I long for real participation in the struggle that will emancipate Nigerians from the madness that has pervaded the country for 49 years. I thought about my (radical) activities and the plans I had just few weeks before I left Nigeria and I wondered if I would not have been forgotten in the prison by now. Maybe not…

Sometimes I ask myself: Is it just me? Maybe I am crazy. But the answers are quick to come. Human nature is besieged with greed, envy and insatiation. If you add this to the complete lack of cognitive ability in the crude men and women who control violent-takeover of power with ill-gotten wealth in the peculiar Nigerian political landscape, you will end up with probably the most unreliable collection of political aspirators in the universe. This is equals to extremely wicked and selfish people.

I have written on a number of occasions in this square that Nigeria is the most corrupt country in the world. I stand by my observation. In those articles, I have also argued and explained why. The amazing thing is that the situation remains the same. I know about the corruption in South America and South East Asia and elsewhere. The most corrupt people that I know are in Nigeria. I have compared the level of developments in Mexico and Thailand to that of Nigeria and I know that a European tourist will rather go to Mexico with Swine flu than to Nigeria. No amount of Tsunami or molestation of foreigners can derail the tourism industry in Thailand. It will bounce back-branding or no branding.

It is not that Nigeria does not plan. We do. It is not that we don’t have visions or missions. We do proclaim those. The very few sensible people among the leaders in Nigeria are very good with textbook versions of how things should be done. But the reality is that the mad act called corruption is the stumbling block to almost everything.

Nigeria as a country will not make progress. Not too soon anyway because the most corrupt people that I have ever known in my life are in charge in Nigeria. Mr Yar Adua is a symbol of corruption. He personifies corruption to the highest power. It is ridiculously shameful. It is one of the major weight hanging on my green-white-green curtain. I am not proud of the position of that office right now. It weighs me down than my personal burdens.

The guy has openly confessed that he was rigged into power. He has also insulted the intelligence of anyone who cares to know that he cannot prosecute all the corrupt people around him because literarily they are all the same. Men and women who have no honour! Altogether, these people have no integrity and their sense of judgments is clouded by greed, selfishness and the corruption that goes with power.

How can any plan, vision or mission work out in such a counterproductive country like Nigeria? The country makes monies that are shared among crooks, godfathers, opportunists, sycophants and extremely corrupt individuals. It takes madness to store money in foreign accounts when Nigerians are starving. In Yar Adua’s Katsina, thousands of women fetched dirty water to sell from deep wells. They make less than 1 dollar a day! Generally while Nigerian masses are classified among the poorest in the world, Nigerian politicians are the highest paid in the history of man. Paradox or irony?

Schools has dilapidated, hospitals are so unsecured that even Yar Adua himself depends on voodoo and foreign hospitals. Schools have been shut, opened and shut again. School fees are above the clouds, far beyond the sky and education is no longer for all. Billions of dollars are resting in private accounts and the deaths on the dilapidated roads are blamed on witches and wizards. The electricity supply is the worst in the whole world and the seventh largest producer of crude oil is now a laughing stock in the comity of nations. A nation of 150m people depend on less than 3 000 MW of electricity. Michael Faraday must be turning in his grave. The Niger Delta is now a killing field to the delights of the clique whose groundnuts have been grounded.

President Obama is visiting Ghana because Nigeria is so unbelievably corrupt that any attempt by Obama to visit Nigeria can destroy his political career. Nigerians have been deceived again that the economy will be among the greatest 20 by year 2020. Nonsense! How can that happen? What about the persistence of the crooks and political jobbers that are siphoning the money that we will use to build the economy and infrastructure. Even when I think about FIFA and the world cup saga, I just think that FIFA is simply stupid.

It is only in Nigeria that FIFA deals with government which is against the statutory procedures of FIFA. FIFA knows very well that Nigeria lacks the infrastructure and when we do have them, we don’t maintain them. Yet FIFA is still looking in the direction of Nigeria. Will it take a 10 year old boy (born in 1999 when we hosted the world) to inform FIFA that the corruption in Nigeria will not allow us to do anything right? FIFA is not even thinking about the heat in Nigeria and that matches cannot be played at night because of lack of electricity. How does FIFA think sef?

I simply do not understand why Nigerians are allowing all this rubbish. It beats me! Is this why the intelligence question is dangling over our head? How dull are we really? I was expecting a total revolt or some kind of revolution with the nonsense that took place in Ekiti. Was what an election? E gba mi o..! That was absolute rubbish and to think that it passed is unimaginable and unthinkable. What happened to the song we sang those days: how many people police go kill o, how many people police go kill…? What has happened to the resistance that pursued and hastened IBB to Abuja? Some people deserved to be chased to the bush right now.

The most corrupt people that I know are working with the Nigerian government headed by one unserious and incapable Yar Adua and the earlier Nigerians wake up, the better for the future of their children. I seriously do think we need to do something now. The time is now. We must enforced an appropriate electoral reform and pursue early elections. Let’s see if we’ve learnt any lesson. Our future is ruined. The future of our children is stolen..!

Inaugural Truths

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By Adeola Aderounmu.

This is not a historical day for our nation for it doesn’t mark any important milestone in our march towards a maturing democracy. For the umpteenth time since we have refused to cast off the shackles of colonialism almost a half-century ago, we have again managed another stupid selection and the most useless transition from one autocracy to another.

We acknowledge that our selections were actually a charade. Thankfully, we lack well-established legal avenues of redress, and I urge anyone aggrieved to pursue them. I also doubt that our experiences represent an opportunity to learn from our mistakes. Accordingly I will set up a shadow panel to examine the entire electoral process with a view to ensure that we do not raise the quality and standard of our general selections, and thereby destroying our autocracy.

This occasion is not historic also because it doesn’t mark the generational shift when the children of independence will assume the adult responsibility of running the country at the heart bleed of Africa.

My fellow citizens, I am never humbled and never honoured because you didn’t elect me and the robotic vice president Jonathan to represent that generational shift in the task of destroying a just and great nation, where its people have no chance to attain their fullest potential.

Sadly we are always starting from the scratch. We are unfortunate to have been misled for the past 8 years by one of the nation’s greatest disappointment, Mr. Obasanjo. On behalf of the looters union, I salute you, Mr. Obasanjo, for you lack of vision, your failure and your misused strength in destroying the roadmap towards that united and economically thriving Nigeria that we keep dreaming of.

Many of us find it easy to believe now, and even before you assumed the rigged presidency 8 years ago, the national conversation was about whether Nigeria deserved to remain one country at all. Today we are talking corruption in Nigeria and how it has already stopped us from becoming one of the 20 largest economies in the world by the year 2020. That is a measure of how far our country has been looted. How can we thank you?

The administration of Mr. Obasanjo has destroyed the foundation upon which we could have built our future prosperity. Over the past 8 years Nigerians have reached a national consensus in at least four areas; to destroy the concept of democracy and to make a mockery of the rule of law; destroy the economy driven primarily by the private sector; display 100% tolerance for corruption in all its forms, and finally destroy our government to ensure inefficiency and bad governance. I commit myself to these wicked tasks.

Our goal now is to destroy the greatest accomplishments of the past few years. Relying on a 7-point hidden agenda that did not form the basis of our contact with disenfranchised voters during the recent jamborees; we will not concentrate on building the physical infrastructure and human capital in order not to take our country forward. We will not focus on accelerating economic and other reforms in any way that will make a concrete and visible difference to the ordinary suffering masses.

Our economy already has been set on the path of doom. Now we must continue to do the unnecessary work to create greater unemployment, higher interest and exchange rates, increase inflation, and maintain an unstable exchange rate. All these will decrease our chances for rapid growth and aid further underdevelopment. Central to this is destroying our basic infrastructure. We have no plans for mass transportation, especially railroad development. We will make the railroad plans unrealistic.

Equally important, we will not devote any effort to overcoming the energy challenge. Over the next 4 years we will see a dramatic catastrophe in the power generation, transmission and distribution. These plans will mean big if we disrespect the rule of law.

Our government is determined to destroy the capacity of law enforcement agencies, especially in the police and EFCC. The state must not fulfil its constitutional responsibility of protecting life and property.

The crisis in the Niger Delta does not command our urgent attention. Ending it is not a matter of strategic importance to our country. I will not use every resource available to me; I don’t need your help, to address this crisis in the spirit of injustice and corruption.

We have a bad starting point because our predecessors already launched a master looting plan that can serve as the basis of a comprehensive extermination of all the issues. We will not involve all the stakeholders in working out a solution.

As part of this effort, we will not move quickly to ensure security of life and property, and we will not make investments safe. In the meantime, I will not appeal to all the aggrieved communities, groups and individuals to immediately suspend all violent activities. They should disrespect the rule of law. Let us not allow the impending dialogue to take place in conducive atmosphere. We are not all in this together, and we will not find a way to achieve peace and justice.

As we work to aggravate the challenges of the Niger Delta, so must we also spread poverty throughout the country. By spreading poverty, we spread disease. We will not make advances in public health; to spread the scourge of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases that hold back our population and limit our progress.

We are determined to eliminate the war against corruption, more so because corruption is itself central to our goal of spreading poverty. Its corrosive effect is not too visible in all aspects of our national life. This is an area where we have made little progress in recent years, and we will destroy the momentum.

We also are committed to destroying our human capital, if we are to pull the economy down. We must revive elite education in order to create more inequality, and citizens who cannot function productively in today’s world.

To our larger African family, you have our commitment to the goal of African disintegration. We will continue to collaborate with fellow African dictatorial states to increase conflict and enslave our people in the chains of poverty. To all our friends in the international community, we pledge our continuing infidelity to the goal of conflicts in Africa and war in the world.

Fellow citizens, I ask you all to march with me into the age of regression. Let us not work together so that we can uphold our shameful vices of dishonesty, indecency, wickedness, immodesty, selfishness, oaths of secrecy and lack of accountability. These destructive vices determine societies that will fail woefully. We have chosen to fail.

I will not set a worthy personal example as your president. I must travel abroad for treatment.

With all the obstacles that confront me, I have the confidence and faith in my abilities that I will not overcome. After all, I am a Nigerian. I am not resourceful and I am not enterprising. I just have it within me that my country can be a worse place. To that end I offer myself as a self-serving leader. I will listen but there is nothing I can do. How can I serve this type of country with humility?

To fulfil my selfish ambitions, I have asked all leaders at all levels-whether a local government councillor or state governor, or cabinet minister to maintain our style and our attitude. We must act at all times like demi-god, with aggression and foolishness. I ask you, fellow citizens, to join me in re-destroying our Nigerian family, one that defines the failure of one by the sadness of many.

I asked you to set aside hopefulness, and concentrate all your energies on watching us as we wine and dine with fellow looters. All hands cannot be on deck, we have our tropical gangster group.

Let us join together to aggravate the pains of today while destroying the expected gains of tomorrow. Let us embrace cynicism and not strive for the good society that we know is a mirage. Let us embrace the habit of high expectations of our leaders as well as ourselves.

Let us start justifying every shortcoming with that acceptable phrase “the Nigerian Factor” as if to be a Nigeria is not to settle for less. Let us never recapture the mood of optimism that defined us at the dawn of dependence, that legendary cannot-do-spirit that marked our Nigerianess. Let us not join together, never, to build a society worthy of our children. We are wasting our talents. We have stupid people in government. They don’t have the ability.

The challenge is not great. It is too easy to loot and be corrupt. The time is not yet now.

I can never thank you. You did not vote for me. God bless me.

Inaugural Lies

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By Yar Adua (2007)

This is a historic day for our nation, for it marks an important milestone in our march towards a maturing democracy.

For the first time since we cast off the shackles of colonialism almost a half-century ago, we have at last managed an orderly transition from one elected government to another.

We acknowledge that our elections had some shortcomings. Thankfully, we have well-established legal avenues of redress, and I urge anyone aggrieved to pursue them.

I also believe that our experiences represent an opportunity to learn from our mistakes. Accordingly, I will set up a panel to examine the entire electoral process with a view to ensuring that we raise the quality and standard of our general elections, and thereby deepen our democracy.

This occasion is historic also because it marks another kind of transitional generational shift when the children of independence assume the adult responsibility of running the country at the heart of Africa.

My fellow citizens, I am humbled and honored that you have elected me and Vice President Jonathan to represent that generation in the task of building a just and humane nation, where its people have a fair chance to attain their fullest potential.

Luckily we are not starting from scratch. We are fortunate to have been led the past eight years by one of our nation’s greatest patriots, President Obasanjo. On behalf of all our people, I salute you, Mr. President, for your vision, your courage and your boundless energy in creating the roadmap toward that united and economically thriving Nigeria that we seek.
Many of us may find it hard to believe now, but before you assumed the presidency eight years ago, the national conversation was about whether Nigeria deserved to remain one country at all.

Today we are talking about Nigeria’s potential, to become one of the 20 largest economies in the world by the year2O2O. That isa measure of howfarwe have come.And we thank you.
The administration of President Obasanjo has laid the foundation upon which we can build our future prosperity.

Over the past eight years Nigerians have reached a national consensus in at least four areas: to deepen democracy and the rule of law; build an economy driven primarily by the private sector, not government; display zero tolerance for corruption in all its forms, and, finally, restructure and staff our government to ensure efficiency and good governance. I commit myself to these tasks.

Our goal now is to build on the greatest accomplishments of the past few years. Relying on the 7-point agenda that formed the basis of our compact with voters during the recent campaigns, we will concentrate on rebuilding our physical infrastructure and human capital in order to take our country forward.

We will focus on accelerating economic and other reforms in a way that makes a concrete and visible difference to ordinary people.

Our economy already has been set on the path of growth. Now we must continue to do the necessary work to create more jobs, lower interest rates, reduce inflation, and maintain a stable exchange rate. All this will increase our chances for rapid growth and development.
Central to this is rebuilding our basic infrastructure. We already have comprehensive plans for mass transportation, especially railroad development. We will make these plans a reality.
Equally important, we must devote our best efforts to overcoming the energy challenge. Over the next four years we will see dramatic improvements in power generation, transmission and distribution.

These plans will mean little if we do not respect the rule of law. Our government is determined to strengthen the capacity of law enforcement agencies, especially the police. The state must fulfill its constitutional responsibility of protecting life and property.

The crisis in the Niger Delta commands our urgent attention. Ending it is a matter of strategic importance to our country. I will use every resource available to me, with your help, to address this crisis in a spirit of fairness, justice, and cooperation.

We have a good starting point because our predecessor already launched a master plan that can serve as a basis for a comprehensive examination of all the issues. We will involve all stakeholders in working out a solution.

As part of this effort, we will move quickly to ensure security of life and property, and to make investments safe.

In the meantime, I appeal to all aggrieved communities, groups and individuals to immediately suspend all violent activities, and respect the law. Let us allow the impending dialogue to take place in a conducive atmosphere. We are all in this together, and we will find a way to achieve peace and justice.

As we work to resolve the challenges of the Niger Delta, so must we also tackle poverty throughout the country.

By fighting poverty, we fight disease. We will make advances in public health, to control the scourge of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases that hold back our population and limit our progress.

We are determined to intensify the war against corruption, more so because corruption is itself central to the spread of poverty. Its corrosive effect is all too visible in all aspects of our national life. This is an area where we have made significant progress in recent years, and we will maintain the momentum.

We also are committed to rebuilding our human capital, if we are to support a modern economy. We must revive education in order to create more equality, and citizens who can function more productively in today’s world.

To our larger African family, you have our commitment to the goal of African integration. We will continue to collaborate with fellow African states to reduce conflict and free our people from the leg chains of poverty.

To all our friends in the international community, we pledge our continuing fidelity to the goals of progress in Africa and peace in the world.

Fellow citizens, I ask you all to march with me into the age of restoration. Let us work together to restore our time-honored values of honesty, decency, generosity,
modesty, selflessness, transparency, and accountability. These fundamental values determine societies that succeed or fail. We must choose to succeed.

I will set a worthy personal example as your president.

No matter what obstacles confront us, I have confidence and faith in our ability to overcome them. After all, we are Nigerians! We are a resourceful and enterprising people, and we have it within us to make our country a better place.

To that end I offer myself as a servant-leader. I will be a listener and doer, and serve with humility.

To fulfill our ambitions, all our leaders at all levels whether a local government councilor or state governor, senator or cabinet minister must change our style and our attitude. We must act at all times with humility, courage, and forthrightness.

I ask you, fellow citizens, to join me in rebuilding our Nigerian family, one that defines the success of one by the happiness of many.

I ask you to set aside negative attitudes, and concentrate all our energies on getting to our common destination.

All hands must be on deck.

Let us join together to ease the pains of today while working for the gains of tomorrow. Let us set aside cynicism and strive for the good society that we know is within our reach. Let us discard the habit of low expectations of ourselves as well as of our leaders.

Let us stop justifying every shortcoming with that unacceptable phrase “the Nigerian Factor” as if to be a Nigerian is to settle for less. Let us recapture the mood of optimism that defined us at the dawn of independence, that legendary can-do spirit that marked our Nigerianess. Let us join together, now, to build a society worthy of our children. We have the talent. We have the intelligence. We have the ability.

The challenge is great. The goal is clear. The time is now.

I thank you and God bless you.

Corruption Rebranded

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By Adeola Aderounmu.

On March 17 the project to rebrand Nigeria was launched in Abuja. At the occasion where Yar Adua was represented by Goodluck Jonathan, Dora Akunyili likened her pet project to WAI of the military era. It is shocking that this launching became a reality less than one week after Dora was sweating and lamenting at the National assembly where she was summoned to defend the funding for the project.

At that hearing she lied when she said that the rebranding is by Nigerians and for Nigerians. Which Nigerians was she talking about- mama Risi who is selling rice on the street or Papa Victor who does not know how to get to work tomorrow? Could she be talking about the loads of unemployed Nigerians?

Prior to this launching which would have gulped millions or billions of naira on its own, I have read with dismay the call to rebrand Nigeria. It is one of the most inappropriate calls I’ve heard in recent time which unfortunately and tragically has now been realized.

If Dora Akunyili and the pro-branders are not aware, then may I humbly tell them that Nigeria cannot be rebranded? The obvious brand-able things in Nigeria since 1959 are corruption, underdevelopment and massive looting.

It is true that some countries go for branding in order to promote their national businesses and trade. But at this point Dora and her protagonists (especially those seeking political favours) must be told that branding or rebranding as being loosely tagged in this case is not the same as tourism promotion.It is also absolutely not the same as Idiagbon’s WAI.

Malaysia-truly Asia is one of the most popular tourism promotion slogans on CNN. That is not branding. To bring people to Malaysia for tourism, the country has done a lot of work to raise the country from being under-developed to a growing world economy. Malaysia boasts one of south-east Asia’s most vibrant economies, the fruit of decades of industrial growth and political stability-(BBC)

Nigeria does not need rebranding. This project will amount to another white elephant project that will drain the treasury. Even the lazy lawmakers in Abuja were shocked as they do not even know where the money for the project would be coming from. Their fears cannot be described as genuine anyway because as political jobbers/opportunists, they will not let any amount of money fly in their faces without their own cuts. But after Dora’s visit the deal was sealed and delivered!

Dora should have diverted her “informative” energy inwards. She should be informing the concerned authorities about the urgent need to provide this country with constant electricity, good roads, security of lives and property, good schools for all, employment opportunities, sense of belonging, human dignity, respect, voting rights, rewards for labour, and dividends of (true democracy).

The Nigerian leadership has an obligation to ensure transparency in governance, prosecutions of corrupt people in both public and private offices and preservation of the institutions on which the unity of the country resides. After doing these things and much more to improve the standard and quality of lives, the branding is then complete.

There is no greater branding than the quality of lives that the people have. If Dora Akunyili is representing Nigeria at a global fair say in Canada for example, how would she rebrand Nigeria to the business community? Should they start their businesses in Nigeria and import electricity from Europe or America? I have no doubts in my mind that rebranding is the making of a shallow non-creative mind.

Elusive Electoral Reform

Probably the most important proposal on the recommendations of the Electoral Committee set up by Umaru Yar Adua was overturned by Yar Adua himself and his co-travelers. The ideology behind the FEC decision is to promote dictatorship rather than preserving the constitutional roles of a president. Nigerian politicians in their myopism do not always see the need for positive changes and progress.

Nigerians should insist as they have done now on the retention of all the recommendations of the Electoral Committee. Total expunging of the operations of the present Electoral Commission is one of the several useful steps towards building a true democracy for Nigeria. We are yet to democratize Nigeria and the longer we wait, the lower our standard of living drops. All forms of dictatorial tendencies should be vehemently resisted.

The electoral committee gave a landmark proposition in suggesting that laid down procedures should be followed in the appointment of an Independent Electoral Commission chairman. My interpretation of the procedures is that the process should rest on an institution and not on a person.

That institutions, and not persons, do function is paramount to building a successful society or nation. Many institutions in Nigeria including the office of the presidency have failed because they depend on people rather than viable blueprints and guidelines.

What is about to be taken away from Nigerians yet again by Yar Adua and the FEC is the golden opportunity to build one of the outstanding pillars on which the survival of this nation should rest upon. For as long as our elections do not work because of our malformed behaviours and absence of credible electoral institutions, then hardly will anything work out well.

The temporal man in charge of Nigeria learned too quickly the national mentality of Nigerians and obviously he is riding high on that belief that Nigerians have short memory-they forget how things should be done the right way. Perhaps they don’t even know how things should be done because since their colonial master left in 1960, they have not put one right step forward, democratically. Goodluck Jonathan was right; rebranding Nigeria will not work like Big Bang. However, only a Big Bang can put Nigeria on the world 20 by 2020.

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

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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!