Yar Adua

Yar Adua’s Clamp Down on Nigerian Bloggers

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

BY Adeola Aderounmu.

Nigerian bloggers should beware. The latest thing on the agenda of the illegal president in Nigeria is to clamp down on Nigerian Bloggers and make them suffer. It is possible that some will be killed because the Nigerian government does not respect life.

All the bloggers who have been criticizing the government are now more or less on the wanted list of the Nigerian State Security Service (SSS).

These are trying moments for Nigerian bloggers and journalists who are now afraid to say their minds or the truths about an illegal regime and a failed government.

Who could have thought that a fellow like Yar Adua would resolve to this evil path?

He was bundled into our existence by Obasanjo who rather than sink alone decided that all Nigerians must sink with him because of a failed 3rd term agenda.

And in my country, people turned the other side of their faces when you slap them on one side.

Any Nigerian blogger planning to visit Nigeria this christmas should be careful but then you cannot be too careful. The evil people are at the airport, they will pick you up on arrival. Ask Elendu Jonathan!

I heard more people have been picked up. Who knows what Yar Adua and his boys are doing to them. Using pliers to remove their teeth? Wicked souls!

Well, let Yar Adua be told. Nigeria and Nigerians survived Babangida, we survived Obasanjo and we survived Abacha even though many of our fellow Nigerians were killed-for nothing!

Nigeria will be there when Yar Adua is no longer the illegal president.

You can’t kill the truth.

The truth is that Yar Adua was never elected and he is not a legitimate president. No matter how many people he is planning to arrest, the truth is immovable.

And let the attention of the world not be removed from Nigeria even though Congo and Somalia are offering stiff attention. Nigeria is a failed country as much as Somalia that has not been govern since 1991. People must not forget that even though the worst place on earth right now is Somalia, Nigeria offers a mass scale of the dimension of poverty with over 90m people unsure of the next meal.

To add indiscriminate arrest and torture of bloggers to the assembly of problems in Nigeria is unjust and callous. Only a heartless leader will approve of that.

Leave Nigerian bloggers alone. Let us do what we know how to do best-criticize lazy and impotent governments.

Stop arresting us Yar Adua. We are not less Nigerian than you are and we have rights to live and enjoy our freedom. Freedom of speech, of writing and of association. We have the right to pursue happiness and to travel in and out of Nigeria without fear. Stop your mad acts.

I was so furious when a journalist friend started warning me about what to write to him over the internet. What manner of government will create or instil fear in the minds of ordinary people and journalist?

enough is enough…do your work, illegitimate or not and let bloggers live!

Yar Adua………Stop arresting Nigerian Bloggers!

A Funny Ladder of Corruption

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

Adeola Aderounmu

I have my reservations about International Organisations like Transparency International AND Amnestry International and their mode of operations, still I think they are trying a little bit reminding us of the some of the things that have made this world a devil’s hive: Corruption by government and lack of respect for the rights of all.

So here we are again in Nigeria! I have written somewhere that Nigeria is the most corrupt country in the world. I have not changed my mind on that position. The reasons were also mentioned in that article which has been published on this blog and on the Nigeria Village Square. I stand by what I wrote then and when I’m affirming now that Nigeria is (probably) the most corrupt country in the world.

If a man like Obasanjo and another one like Babangida can be freemen in Nigeria where more than 90m people are suffereing as a result of looting and stealing under these two men, then it is not true that Nigeria has made any progress in combating corruption. All the looters under the last dispensation are walking free. There is yet no proper dispensation of justice in the criminal investigation of politicians.One by one, they all bought they were out or they were never prosecuted at all. The Iboris, the Kalus, The Obasanjos, The Atikus and all the other thieves in Nigeria.

Look at the excitment on the face of Farida Waziri, EFCC Boss, when meeting with Doris Basle the Transparency International representative in Africa and Mid-East. Nigeris is happy to be ranked 121st which is a climb-up from the previous 148th position. What difference does this make? More people have probably suffered in Nigeria under the period in review than in the year before. So what is the need to move up a silly ladder just to inflict more suffering on a growing number of people?

The situation is probably not going to change in Nigeria until democracy or another form of workable government takes root in Nigeria. So far, what we have is gangsters taking hold of power at all cost. The present governmenr headed by Yar Adua is a reaffirmation of the gangsterism in government. This man will not have the guts or liver to fight corruption because he was not elected, like the others before him anyway. He was made president by Obasanjo, how then can he or his government give a fair investigation into the government of Obasanjo.

Even his own 8 years in Katsina, Yar Adua could not turn around the health department and that is why he is running to Germany and Saudi Arabia to seek solutions to his health problems.

Corruption beget corruption, that should be the motto on Nigeria’s coat of arm.

Soon, Nigerians are going to be presented with another opportunity to steer the course of the country. They must know that a free and fair election is the first cure for corruption. In it lies the ability of the system to rid away with corrupt persons and institutions. In it lies the voices of the weak, the poor and the masses whose contributions will come to represent the only way forward. Not succumbing or giving in to the threats of the wicked and the rogues in power will be the only way to the emancipation of the people and the realisations of their aspirations to build a sane society where the rights of all will be recognised. A sane society where one can live without fear or panic and with the confidence that the future can deliver what today promises.

Energy, Security, the Food Crisis and the Niger Delta By the Liberty Forum

/ Adeola / 6 Comments
    Written by Kayode Ogundamisi, the Liberty Forum

Peace Not War! We Need Not Another Darfur In Nigeria.

We call on Great Britain. We call on people of the British Isles and the children of great men and women that make Europe what it is to day: a land of freedom and opportunities We call on women and men of goodwill, students, workers and the business class, we call on armed and defenseless people alike, royals and commons, Lords and honorable, to prevail on the Nigerian President Umoru Yar Adua, whose election into office as Nigerian president was roundly condemned by the European Union, EU-having been characterized by rigging, stealing of ballot papers by soldiers, deployed unto the streets and corners of Nigeria, and who killed and maimed voters- to stop fooling the government of Britain on the real situation in the Niger-Delta, Nigeria’s oil hub, which has now been highly militarized first by the Nigerian federal government, and now by militant freedom fighters who largely represent the indigenous communities in the region.

Yar Adua, a Fulani, whose grand parents led the 1804 Jihad against the black-skinned African population, represents the interest of the feudal and Muslim North, and have ruled and manipulated Nigeria to their wish and caprices since the Islamic revolution, which seek to continuously put Nigeria in the pocket of this few class.

Oil, which is the main source of revenue in Nigeria, is found in the Niger-Delta, home to indigenous population. These communities, due to large-scale corruption, looting of the public treasury by the leadership at the centre remain largely underdeveloped.

The poorest of the poor live in these communities, their culture undermined, their heritage submerged, their hope dashed, their future traumatized and their children without any future.

Soldiers of Northern origin are posted to these territories, and as expected, they rape the people, as it was in the case of Choba a rural indigenous Nigerian Village (1999), kill them and instill fear on them.

The Yar Adua government is similar in character to Omar Bashir’s regime in Sudan, he wants to wipe out the indigenous population, and he cannot do it without help from a super power like Britain.

The late Ken Saro Wiwa, remember him, renewed the campaign for environmental and political justice in the Niger-Delta, but in 1995, he, alongside eight others were hanged and acid was poured on their bodies by the Nigerian state.

A democratic regime which came in 1999 was thought would address the problems of the Niger-Delta, but the Nigerian state did not change in character and form. Instead, it became more vicious and bizarre, all in the bid to continuously subjugate and muzzle the ethnic minorities in these territories. In 1999, Yar Adua’s party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP then led by President Olusegun Obasanjo sent 10,000 soldiers to Odi, an Ijaw community of 20,000 people. After 72 hours of military action, the only building remaining in Odi was a post office. 1,200 people were killed and hundreds were missing. What more is a genocide than the maiming of women, children and the unarmed and today the perpetuator of that act, General Olusegun Obasonjo roam the streets of Yaradua Nigeria, neither facing trial for corruption or war crimes.

Today the Niger-Delta people, having waited in vain for justice since 1959 when oil was discovered in their homeland, have taken up arms against the Nigerian state. This is against the background of age long outrage among largely Christian Southern Nigeria communities, that they are tired of living in Nigeria, a country ruled by a small fundamentalist group, a country that offers no hope for her citizens, a country that destroys the best of human values and a country whose citizens have been made to become a huge burden on the international community, considering the large number of exiles, some of who have taken up professional jobs in Europe and America and many of whom have taken into drugs, prostitution in Italy and cyber crimes.

Nigeria is an artificial creation, put together, without the consent of the communities, in 1914, following the sharing of Africa into spheres of influence in 1885 at the Berlin Conference. Now, the Yar Adua tribe are on top, and they do manage, at all times, to install their stooges in each of the 36 states of the country, whereas non of the states enjoy the benefit of federalism, which each of them heavily dependent on the centre in all areas including the registration of vehicles, control of ports, police and even as little as the right to create and run counties and the right to chose their political leaders, which must be screened and approved by the centre government.

Apart from the Niger-Delta, the Yoruba and Ibos of the South and the minorities of the middle-belt in the North are asking for self-determination up to the point of opting out of Nigeria. Many of these communities having watched several recommendations chuck by the government into the thrash bin, have decided to take up arms against the Nigerian state.

Britain was aware of this serious problem in Nigeria. In 1957, shortly before Nigeria got independence in 1960, Brittan set up the Willinks Commission, which recommended that revenue be shared 100 percent on the basis of derivation. Today, only 13 percent has been approved and just as recent as in 1999, for the oil producing communities. On top of all this is the fact that a credible election in unlikely in Nigeria under her present structure. This is the gist of this whole problem in the Niger-Delta and in Nigeria.

Another peace summit, the third in 12 years is in the offing, but expectedly, nothing is likely to come out of it, because while the summit is in top gear, Yar Adua is shopping for arms in Britain and has heavily militarized the region since the past 10 years.

A peace summit, even if to be chaired by Britain is what is needed. We need no longer another Iraq in Nigeria. We need no weapons that will be used by an illegitimate political class against the ordinary people of Nigeria.

Self-determination is the substance and the United Nations recognizes this demand under article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Help save Nigeria from war, help save Britain from being fed with lies and propaganda by one of the worst set of leaders in Africa.

As British Nigerians and Nigerians Resident in the United Kingdom with Stakes in Both Countries we demand as follows.

OUR DEMANDS.
• Prime Minister Gordon brown should withdraw his offer for military assistance to the Nigerian government.
• That the British government should commence investigation into the private accounts of past and current Nigerian public office holders with a view to recover stolen money and return same to the people of Nigeria.
• The Nigerian government should stop the continued militarization of the Niger Delta region.
• The Nigerian police should be adequately equipped to deal with law and order issue in the Niger Delta.
• That only a genuine restoration of the rights of the Niger delta people and all oppressed people in Nigeria will bring peace to Nigeria.
• That if the labor led government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown is in any way seen to join the Nigerian government in committing acts of genocide in the Niger Delta, the Liberty Forum and its affiliate organization shall commence immediate campaigns against the Labour Party in the afro-Caribbean communities in the United-Kingdom.
Signed.
Kayode Ogundamisi
Convener: The Liberty Forum-UNITED-KINGDOM
+447951402986
+442030150739

MAY 29 2007-MAY 29 2008:Another Year Wasted!

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu.

It’s been one full year since an illegitimate government was installed or enthroned in Nigeria. One can easily be deceived that Nigeria is ungovernable because of the divergence of people, opinions, cultures, attitudes and size of the country. But Nigeria is not the only country that is diverse in such many ways.

What is missing and what has eluded Nigeria is sincerity of purpose on the parts of the political class and the useless military that have plunged the country since 1960. To this day, a typical Nigerian politician is a looter and an opportunist. All he or she is aspiring towards is self-betterment and personal enrichment. The other aspects of him/ her are deceit and pure hypocrisy.

Corruption remains the main thing in Nigeria-our biggest ailment. Politicians continue to loot and milk-away the country to dryness. They are never prosecuted and when they are prosecuted, they walk away with total freedom after a deceitful trial and bail session. Who is fooling who? All the ex and serving politicians who have stolen monies from the national treasury are still enjoying their loots while the rest of us suffer, just like that!

Millions of dollars continue to disappear from the treasury daily under shady and covered deals. Nothing is done to improve the standard of living in the country. What is the essence of the few flashes of magnificent buildings in Abuja when it is made only for a negligible part of the population? Those things in Abuja mean nothing and they serve no purpose to more than 90m people living below poverty line and surviving on less than 2 dollars a day.

Nigeria needs 100 000 MW of power but she is generating less than 1 000 MW. How can a sane mind explain this? One year after the illegitimate coming of Umaru Yar Adua, power supply has gone worse. Those who stole and mismanaged billions of dollars that were earmarked for electricity development in the past 8 years are living as freemen. What a country? Those kinds of people belong in life-time jail because their negligence has sent thousands to the grave beyond. Their ineptitudes have destroyed lives and homes. They have spread sadness in the land, and the sadness and darkness persist to this day-May 29 2008 and beyond.

In other aspects of our lives as Nigerians, we are on our own while the government continues to operate at a frequency that does not tally with the expectations of the masses. The governments in Nigeria do not care about the Nigerian people. The politicians are thieves in disguise. They lie to the people and they rigged their way into power. Imagine this very wicked gang led by Yar Adua asking the people to pay more for electricity which is not even available in the first place. Absolute nonsense and senselessness!

In Nigeria, nobody cares if you have water to drink or if you “hunger to death”. Nothing is plan and nothing is in focus. The hospitals are not functioning to optimum level. Even the illegitimate president goes to Germany for treatment of his own ailment. What a shameless man? Why didn’t he build any hospital in Katsina State when he was a governor FOR 8 WHOLE YEARS? Has anyone thought about that?

Housing is an issue that is not tabled in the Nigerian government agenda. I don’t remember the last time estates or residential areas were designed and executed in that country. It is up to you as an individual to loot somewhere and build your own house. Only very few people can work legitimately to achieve such noble dreams. Majority do it at the expense of other people who must suffer. Rare and Scanty Mortgage houses are up for the rich and mighty. Where is the hope of the common man?

This country Nigeria is known worldwide as a producer of oil. Yet in a very shameful way, Nigerians continues to import petroleum products for use in Nigeria. The refineries are not working at all or they are working inefficiently. All these years of talking and talking, these civilian and military idiots in power cannot do something to build new refineries or make the available ones work maximally/ optimally. How many shameful things and mad acts can one see in governance by these gangsters?

Really, hopelessness persists. Look at the network of roads. Highways are in terrible conditions and all tiers of governance are looking the other way. Nigerian roads are terribly, terribly bad and annoying. Expressways have become snail-ways. Rather than settle down to work, these senseless politicians go about jumping from one country to another. They move from one hotel to another and from one useless function to another. They don’t even know what they are doing. Absolute scalar quantities!

The Nigerian people too do not even know their rights at all. They are just doing follow-follow. Many political thieves are still waiting for their own opportunities to steal and loot directly and indirectly. In general, the lack of purposeful leadership and the presence of a powerless followership are rubbing this country of her greatness. What is left of Nigeria is individual’s will to succeed at any cost. If you take away self-will, there is no country left to call Nigeria.

How long shall we complain about all these ills before we begin to see remarkable changes that will touch the lives of more than the 140m people? How long before corrupt politicians are sentenced to prisons? When will thieves in political offices be shown the way out? When will violence stop and when will the votes be counted? How many more fuel pipeline explosions are we going to have this year?

Who will save our souls?

Our Lives in our hands…

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

By Adeola Aderounmu.

If Umaru Yar’Adua keeps flying to Germany every other day for medical checkups and randomized treatments, there is definitely no hope yet for the Nigerian masses plagued by poverty and very serious health infirmities. If the one in whom we entrust our health care seeks succour beyond the borders of Nigeria (and in fact Africa) then the rest of us must know that our lives are in our hands.

Shame which is a virtue in Nigerian politics is the only word that I found to describe this action of the number one citizen in Nigeria. It is a clear revelation of the gross incompetence of Umaru not just as an individual but as an administrator or ex-governor. For example, if I was the former governor of Katsina State for 8 years, I would have used my influence and position to build a specialized hospital to take care of my peculiar health needs. By so doing, I would have provided a unique opportunity for other people who have the same or similar problems within my state and elsewhere in Nigeria.

Really, how much can it cost to facilitate the building of such a specialized hospital at the federal level supposing the cost of building it surpasses the state health allocations for 8 years? If that was the only achievement in Katsina State’s Department of Health between 1999 and 2003, would it have been a selfish gain? Does it require the building of a new hospital to take care of Umaru’s special needs? Was any attempt made to incorporate what he needs into an existing health institution anywhere in Nigeria?

We must constantly remind ourselves of some unforgivable/ severe shortcomings of the people who lead us in Nigeria. Umaru is definitely bringing shame to Nigeria with this particular attitude of his. For instance, how does this flying out for health reason help Nigeria in terms of enticing foreign investors to Nigeria? In 21st century Global Village scenario, Nigeria cannot provide electricity to run businesses and Umaru is making it clear that the health of Nigerians and foreigners in Nigeria cannot be catered for in Nigeria.

My humble advice is that Umaru should with immediate effect lay a foundation in Abuja for the construction of the carbon copy of that hospital that he is always running or flying to in Germany. He should also make sure that the hospital is completed in a world record timing without neglecting regulations, standards and safety. In addition, he should ensure that replicas are constructed in at least 6 other places spread over Nigeria.

When that is done, Umaru should personally work closely with the Federal Ministry of Health to ensure that the hospitals are equipped not only with the state of art facilities but also with the best hands in Nigeria. If there is a need to recall Nigerian doctors or experts from the Middle East, Australia or the US then let it be done. We cannot possibly succumb to any form of inferiority complex that Nigerian doctors are not better than those in Germany. It is part of government’s responsibilities to provide the infrastructure and the environment that will facilitate optimum output and efficiency.

If that kind of specialized hospital that exists in Germany is found in Nigeria and if our best doctors work there at home, Umaru would have no need to fly 6 hours in air just to see a doctor or the edifice itself. Afterall, Nigerian doctors are among the best in the world and they are scattered all over planet earth. The other day I was treated by a Nigerian doctor at the Famous Karolinska Hospital here in Stockholm. He told me he is from the old Bendel State and that he had been living and working outside Nigeria since the mid 70s!

These pieces of advice can serve as the stepping stones for the revamping of Nigeria’s ailing health industry. Without setting up any tea drinking or money-dividing committee, there are possibilities to establish, develop and maintain viable health policies that will work for all and sundry in Nigeria.

It is not too much to ask that the health industry must work. A healthy nation is a wealthy nation. Nigerians must stop the shameful seeking of basic health care from neighbouring countries and the confidence that we have in our health institutions and health providers can only be restored if the leadership truly leads by desirable examples.