The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tony Marinho

  • More national mourning; Federal character COAS?

    Tony Marinho

     

     

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 3,475,000 among 168,000,000 diagnosed cases and 1.66+billion vaccines worldwide. Nigerian cases approaching 167,000 and 2,070 deaths with 1.9m+ doses given.

    Apology: China lands a Zhurong rover on Mars – 329.4 million km from earth, not the Moon- merely 384,000km from earth. Nigeria nko?

    There has been ignored, unannounced ‘National Mourning’ for years. Now we have a ‘More National Mourning’ air force plane crash in Kaduna killing the Chief of Army Staff, COAS Lt Gen I Attahiru, Brig Gen MI Abdulkadir, Brig Gen Olayinka, Brig Gen Kuliya, Maj. LA Hayat, Maj Hamza, Sgt Umar, and crew Flt Lt TO Asaniyi, Fl Lt AA Olufade, Sgt Adesina, ACM Oyedepo. They sadly, all traumatically, paid the supreme sacrifice for Nigeria, leaving behind unachieved goals, grand plans for country, career and community and leaving distraught wives, children, parents and distant family members and distressed friends – seen on the media.

    Many of us had previously thought how lucky they were in their success before the accident. Many just appreciated their drive and professionalism. Suddenly we are lost in pain of premature termination of the walk-through life. The nation had just pinned a medal of ‘Peace in Our Time’ hope on the COAS and his team. What now in the ‘War’? The military has shining successors all well-trained with public money supplemented by performance and professional ability. Buhari, strangely unable to attend the funeral or delegate to the VP Yemi Osinbajo is best known for sectional appointments. Again, he has an opportunity to choose a permanent COAS, a major key to Nigeria’s geographical survival ‘in the war and even the peace’ which always follows war. Can he ever introduce the constitutionally mandatory ‘Federal Character’ and ‘Merit’ in the choice to abide by the wishes of most Nigerians?

    ‘Loyalty’ the other key element in any appointment is essential but loyalty must be to Nigeria through the loyal, not parochial president, the first citizen of Nigeria. Loyalty cannot be to the president without loyalty to Nigeria. Who the president appoints will signpost Nigeria’s future? More of zero ‘Federal Character’ or a change? So many Nigerians scream ‘foul play’, ‘Ethnic Domination’, ‘Death of Federal Character’.

    Will the president change the power table? By all accounts, Lt Gen Attahiru and his heroic team were men of high integrity, professionalism and dedication to Nigeria. Truly they are as the president has said ‘Heroes of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’. May they Rest in Perfect Peace. The president can mourn, from home, with us as we have mourned thousands of times. He must be tired of having sent out more condolence messages than any other president since the Civil War, almost daily. But he, as president has a more pressing presidential responsibility at ‘A time of War’.

    The COAS post is one that requires that the ‘shoes are quickly filled’ even if we say respectfully and traditionally ‘his shoes will be difficult to fill’. Yes, ‘difficult’ but not ‘impossible’. We did not waste money training these fine men and a few women still alive and well in, and some regretfully retired prematurely and perhaps unfairly from, the armed forces. ‘Nigeria Expects The President Will Do His Duty For The Country’ and move the country back from the brink of emotional and financial depression and physical firmament by choosing a COAS based on the Merit, Federal Character and Loyalty.

    Our constitution is summarised in our National Anthem and Pledge. At this time of national mourning for the crash victims, all true Nigerians should be inspired by our deeply meaningful National Anthem and Pledge. Sadly most Nigerians recognised themselves on TV in the distraught, weeping crash-victim families. Most Nigerians in their minds witnessing their own relations being buried at those multi-grave funerals and they all claimed the ‘Final Last Post Gun Salute’ for their thousands of murdered loved ones nationwide. That televised funeral is actually a representational ‘Nationwide Funeral for the estimated over 100,000 easily named fellow citizens’ of human beings, hardworking, hopeful, nonviolent fellow Nigerians lost to mindless violence. Every single family in Nigeria has the name of someone lost or knows some family who has lost someone with a name who was dear but now dead in this undeclared war. The nationwide dead -armed forces including generals, security personnel, herculean steel-willed farmers from every state and their sweet darling wives and much-loved obedient children murdered for defending their eaten and stolen and burnt farm-produce and livelihoods and homes, ‘killed by police and other uniforms’, killed kidnapped victims including children and even after ransom was extorted, bandit victims of mass slit-throat executions of farmhands, the polio vaccine volunteers made execution victims, hate-driven anti-education terrorism with resulting mass kidnapped and murdered students -the pride and responsibility of any true nation, youth abductions and murders and female violence at home, school and hotel.

    Add those killed during the last 50 years unchallenged for body parts, for politics, prosperity and pecuniary rituals because governments since forever have not mounted one serious ‘Anti-Ritual Killing Campaign’ or done anything nationwide to stop this evil trade. In despair, revisit the National Anthem and Pledge. As independence-inspired patriots, our nationalistic hope was in their words, sadly, now hollow. We have been cheated and mesmerised into a Utopian ‘Giant of Africa dreamland’ -unachieved, distorted by wicked politics! Is the ‘Giant of Africa’ just a ‘gi-Ant’ -a deadly self-consuming ant- a termite?

    Are you ‘Faithful, Loyal and Honest’ to Nigeria and the ‘Federal Character’ unapproved constitution?

  • ‘Anthem + Pledge = Constitution’

    Tony Marinho

     

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 3,400,000 among 163,000,000 diagnosed cases and 1.41+b vaccines worldwide; Nigerian cases approaching 166,500 and 2,070 deaths with 1.75m+ doses given. Learn from the Indian variant and the third wave of the epidemic! Covid is fighting back in 2021 with a Covid-19 mutation. Covid 19-21 is my nomenclature as the term ‘Indian variety’ is very misleading as it suggests it is spread from India which is not the case. It is a mutation. Covid is not an old disease. Today’s variety is today’s disease. Remember that even malaria became resistant and changed. The new variants have also been identified here. But they did not arrive from India but grew as changes to the virus we have. Covid-19 is struggling to survive. What can you do to protect yourself, your family, friends, workers and contacts from Covid 19-21?

    There is no danger in keeping to existing safety measures or even starting today to take the well-known preventive measures. The danger is doing nothing and pretending you are immune without the full vaccination course.  Do not be an ignorant or arrogant danger to others. Not to be patient in the Covid fight now may turn you, a loved one, an acquaintance or office contact into a Covid-19 patient tomorrow. Many survive but some do die.

    Fortunately, the first wave of Covid-19 though deadly was not as devastating for Africa and Nigeria as predicted. We cannot predict how virulent and deadly the new Covid19-21 variety will be. Remember that ‘this too will pass’. But it will pass faster, and with less disease and destruction and death, if we fight the good fight and finish the covid race all together. We are only as strong as our weakest link. We must play our own part to keep ourselves and other out of our limited hospital beds and few mortuaries. Covid-19 is now definitely now a new Covid 19-21 version.

    China lands a Zhurong rover on the Moon. What does Nigeria do?? It cannot trace murdering bandits on heat-trailing motorcycles.

    Is Nigeria still safe enough for our youth to go on NYSC?

    Be aware of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, MIF’s ‘Ibrahim Index of African Governance, IIAG, published since 2007 has released its 2020 report highlighting the effect of Covid-19 and its impact on economies and lives and livelihoods and the future of Africa. The report suggests that several countries used the pandemic to reintroduce retrogressive oppressive laws against freedoms required for development. However, we know that China develops in a heavily monitored country. The report highlights the need for more, better-funded and equipped technical schools and move away from old men running countries down to a younger generation who will hopefully run the countries ‘upscale’.

    The MIF works with a major research organisation called the ‘Afribarometer’ which does a lot of citizen satisfaction and demands surveys to get updated information. For example, the citizens generally call for governments to get with and concentrate much more on developmental issues rather that divisive, anti-development, time consuming/wasting and very financially draining on the budget. The highlight of this is unfinished and subsequently abandoned projects from one government to another even when the same party ‘wins’ election again. Ask your child to Google the ‘IIAG-2020 Report’ and the ‘Afribarometer’ as well as the MIF, for a full assessment of Nigeria, the countries around Nigeria and Africa to get an independent view of happenings to balance Africa’s assessment by the IMF, World Bank and some UN agencies.

    France is transferring five billion euros to West African countries to strengthen the CFA frac and to form a new currency block the ‘Eco’ and maintain France’s hold on those former French colonies.  France until recently had a law that 50% of French West African countries’ forex reserves had to be held in France -a stranglehold against governments going independent. West Africa is still colonial. Even Nigerian citizens are demanding that Great Britain intervenes in the mess that has resulted from its creation of Nigeria in 1914 and the timebomb given us in 1960 at independence. That timebomb was a ‘multi-bomb’ exploding with deadly consequences since then, including a terrible civil war and thousands of ‘little wars’. We had hoped that the greed of a few would over the last 60+ years have been satisfied or at least curtailed by the long-term generosity of the merely needy.

    Our constitution is summarised in our national anthems. All true Nigerians should be inspired by the deeply meaningful versions of our national anthem and our pledge. Anthem 1 (1960-1978) written by British expatriate Lillian Jean Williams used words which has such power and depth but so neglected by the political class. Words like ‘Nigeria, we hail thee…brotherhood, truth and justice reign, no man is oppressed, and so with peace and plenty, Nigeria ‘may’ be blessed.

    The Anthem 2 (1978) to date written by JA Ilechukwu, EE Akpan, BA Ogunnaike, S Omoigui and PO Aderibigbe with words like ‘Arise, compatriots, love, faith, ‘bound in freedom, peace and unity’, ‘our youth the truth to know’, to build a nation where truth and justice reign’. When will truth and justice ever reign? Simple answer is when the greedy voluntarily or are forced to share Nigeria with all Nigerians, just like in that Nigeran pledge written by Felicia Adebola they force children to swear to but refuse themselves— to be ‘Faithful, Loyal and Honest’.

     

  • Recall reservists, recruit 200,000; $50b reserves!

    Tony Marinho

     

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 3,400,000 among 159,000,000 diagnosed cases and 1.15b vaccines worldwide; Nigerian cases approaching 166,000 and 2,075 deaths with 1m+ doses given. Learn from the Indian Epidemic!

    Mr President, recall reservists, recruit 200,000 now! We are at a crisis crossroads. But our problems started long ago. We were badly built. Some extended the hand of fellowship and equality, others enslaved and insulted them, taking too much for themselves. Mistrust, arrogance, greedy unity government, false federalism, rubbishing federal character, the political class mutating into an arrogant greedy corrupt rulership and its successor, the military, became rulers over conquered slaves, not leaders of a great country of proud citizens.

    Our hands are full with expected external enemies, fallout from the Libyan Peace Accord expelling mercenaries including battle-hardened Chadian anti-government groups as well as freelance mercenaries who hide and seek war, and often create conflict to keep employed. Clearly it is an unexpected outcome that ‘One man’s ‘Peace’ is another man’s ‘War’!  ‘Libya’s Peace = West Africa’s War!’

    Currently there are thousands of experienced soldier survivors of prolonged guerrilla and door-to-door war who have access to current weaponry denied the underequipped armed forces of soon-to be targeted countries. Add to that the tsunami of maybe 100m West African current burgeoning generation of disenfranchised resident and migrant ‘youth bubble’ neglected by generations of failed politicians failing all UN indices of development  to provide for three generations, father to son and grandson. No power, water, roads, education, security! The citizens have been forced into too many corners, with, belt-tightening and falling currency values.

    Certainly, for the past 30-40 years, marginalised youth in Nigeria stood on the social side-lines, neglected, watching the politicians, civil servants and contractor-class grandstand at election time. These failed leaders, even when in court facing multiple multibillion naira theft and mismanagement of the citizens’ money charges, dance in and out of court, smiling on the media stage while living large and partying wildly. They still consume huge self-inflated budgets for Salaries and Perks, SAPping Nigeria dry while the youth’s own parents and grandparents struggle with decades of poor salary-value in the market, penury, denied wage increments, salaries and pensions all forcing them to under-educate the youth. The pauperised citizens cannot keep their progeny in schools of good status, truncating tertiary education ambition and failed to adequately feed, clothe, and pay regular rent for a dignified shelter. The fall in most Nigerians’ financial status, particularly from refusal of employers to pay as-and-when-due caused by unbridled and unchallenged government corruption neglect, led to falling social standards and social services and respect within the family.

    There is disruption in the African Extended Family Bank, in existence before Western banking was introduced. Children lose respect for unsalaried parents and take to crime, stealing even at home and in the community using motorcycles, giving honest motorcycle operators a bad name. The buying power of one government or private sector salary directly and indirectly prevents violence by feeding hundreds in private employment in the food chain from private youth-run transport, kiosk vendors, schoolteachers etc.

    This menace did not start today. The growing local menace of thuggery was built on the history of local gang, cult and political thug groups. Now abandoned by their political motivators and financiers, they have turned on the citizenry. How can they be ‘de-thuggerised’ and supported before they destroy us with no help from the deliberate epidemic of farm and community and forest invasions by AK-47 wielding herders, the Boko Haram and ISIS-WA, all key chequered original terrorist groupings already posing a real and present danger to a country of one ethnic group lopsided governance appointments and lethargic with a deaf governance system?

    How can sexual, drug, alcohol, human kidnapping  and human parts trafficking abuse be tackled quickly when SDGs are so neglected, the police systems are attacked and governments claim they cannot pay the already outdated ‘new salary structure’ of N30,000 minimum wage? The problem governments have is not the minimum wage for levels 1-4 itself but the huge adjustments to the other levels of salary fat cats in the level 7+.

    Government can help Nigerians. It must ‘MAKE THE NAIRA STRONG AGAIN: TARGET $50b by 2022’. Government likes weaker cheaper naira because the few dollars will buy more naira and pay more local debt and salaries. However, the stronger dollar is required to demonstrate a strong country. Increasing dollar earnings from oil prices in which Brent Crude is predicted to reach $70/b can be harnessed by the CBN to achieve $50b Foreign Reserves and higher. $50b is magic minimum confidence levels for a 60+yar old country and a stable strong naira. The political class must get the foreign reserves to this safety net $50b figure with an eye on $75b.

    We demand that government recruits 150-200,000 youth to make a 500,000 strong armed forces command required to face the threats to Nigerians. Government should urgently recall Nigeria’s Reserve personnel, RANAO etc, made up of recently retired armed forces and police personnel. These are already highly trained personnel who graduated for the ‘University of Nigeria’s Military Life’, many also ‘specialty trained’ abroad, at huge expense to Nigeria. It is security 1-0-1 that their current competence must be tested to gather intelligence, plan and execute commando and other attacks to curb the crisis of violence frightening every Nigerian.

    MR PRESIDENT, RECALL RESERVISTS, RECRUIT 200,000 NOW!! TARGET $50b FOREIGN RESERVES by 2022!

  • Benin Bronzes: Stop Now

    Tony Marinho

     

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 3,500,000 among 155,000,000 diagnosed cases and 1.15b vaccines worldwide. Nigerian cases approaching 166,000 and 2,075 deaths with 1m+ doses given. Study the Indian epidemic!

    We are in our ‘Monthly Month-End Mourning’ precipitated by a massively bloodthirsty ‘Mourning Month of April’ which closed with another high death toll of fellow Nigerian citizens from farm invasion, herder and bandit mindless murder or kidnapping and execution or loss of gallant security personnel. WWW, Why,Why,Why??

    However, there is a sliver of hope in an unrelated source – the planned return of over 500 of our several thousands of plundered Benin bronzes.  It is good that Germany is finally returning returned hundreds of famous Benin bronzes made of a copper alloy under the coalition of Museums with Nigerian officials and the Royal Court of the Benin Kingdom called the Benin Dialogue Group founded in 2007. They are a beautiful testament to the wealth and industry of the Benin civilisation. When stolen as ‘spoils of war’, neither the thieves nor the Benin people ever thought the war trophies would be returned. Similarly, no one can yet see a peaceful way out of our increasing monthly murder 2010-2021 toll, a one-way war declared on Nigeria with no ‘right of reply’ or fighting back permitted!!

    What is the destination of the returned Benin bronzes? Abuja or Lagos or Benin, the scene of the crime? Will they just be re-stolen? Will they be self-righteously ‘repossessed’ aka re-stolen by a great-great-great-great grand-daughter of Omo n’Oba Ovonramwen who was deposed in 1897 and with two wives, exiled to Calabar and died in 1914? In case anyone ever returns the magnificent huge haul of Benin bronzes to Nigeria including from the British Museum, it will not be the time for the federal government to keep such artifacts in Abuja. The artifacts were stolen from Benin. We are told that a new museum is to be bult in Benin to rest the Benin bronzes stolen during the sacking of Benin in 1879 from Benin City. No one else should claim ownership over these precious artifacts steeped in ancient Benin bloodshed. Once this is agreed and the Benin bronzes are safely back home, one or two of the artifacts may be loaned too wherever. The Benin bronzes exemplify the glory of the ancient Benin Kingdom, and belong in Benin City secured like the Monalisa!

    Nigeria has looked in sad surprise at countries, African and European and ‘civilised’ which disintegrated because of senseless, needless unprovoked and always unpredictable and murderous destabilising war. Every tyrannical power falls eventually, so why do they bother? We Nigerians said, or hoped that those nasty things with tearful avalanches of refugees, mountains of graves and tsunamis of tearful suffering endless lines headlines as warnings to the rest of us, ‘are not our portion’, we said. We Nigerians know how to accommodate each other through integration tribally and religiously with intermarriage, NYSC and work relationships! We have learnt the lesson of the Civil War!! Never again!!! But sadly, and strangely sinisterly, Nigeria is being put in that ‘death and destruction, horrible hellhole’ place by a decision by unnamed people. One day, some international Panel of Inquiry will be commissioned by the UN or AU to do an investigation to answer  many weighted questions.

    One question will be why our would-be great and wonderful but usually safe country is a frightened, terrified shadow of itself.

    Another question will be how it came to have five million Internally Displaced Persons now being attacked even in their refugee camps.

    Another question will ask about the sea of blood shed from thousands of fellow Nigerians, only guilty of being born on and defending ancestral Nigerian farm or walking on a Nigerian ancestral path or just being alive and breathing Nigerian air with no weapons to equally protect themselves or each other?

    Another question will be to ask the www question. who.where.when- Who gave the order? Where; When was the order given?  What was the order? The order for an escalation of the mayhem that has existed for many years at a lower level of disruption. The order that emboldened thousands of herders to embark on nationwide farm invasions destroying the planted, growing soon-to-be-harvested financial wellbeing of other fellow Nigerians, disrespect their very existence, inflict verbal and physical violence, terrify them and then so needlessly, unprovoked and mindlessly kill them. Nigeria is a frightened country where the weak are disarmed by law or subterfuge and exposed to vicious highly motivated and apparently very teleguided armed herders, bandits, kidnappers who no one seems to be able or want to catch. A Libyan-Tchadian mercenary threat if not confronted could also sweep the violent and the victim.

    IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO STOP THIS STEPWISE ESCALATING VIOLENCE, but sadly history says it soon will be. The Boko Haram can be isolated and neutralised. The bandits can be forced out of Nigeria. The herders can be reined in or corralled. The leaders who gave the wrecking order can give the withdrawal order and Nigeria may just work to accommodate all. Already ECOWAS is facing the fallout from the peace in Libya displacing seasoned mercenary troops including Tchadian exiles fighting the 30-year regimen of late President Idriss Deby recently killed. His death will escalate the war in Tchad. They will reinforce ISWAP and embolden Boko Haram to join them or worse.

    www-whichwaywar in Nigeria, in West Africa?

  • Captive Youth: Go Ghana, Go!!

    By Tony Marinho

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 3,150,000 among 147,500,000 diagnosed cases and 1.002billion vaccines worldwide. Nigerian cases approaching 165,000 and 2,070 deaths with 1m+ doses given.

    The cold-blooded murder of our children – three of 18 kidnapped Greenfields University adds to the blood of souls kidnapped in educational institutions including the 35 youth from School of Forestry for 48 days added to the tragedy of Chibok, Dapchi, Kagara, Jangebe kidnappings. There are now millions of youth with PTSD, Post Traumatic [to others] Stress Disorder, cut off from education added to the five million IDPs poorly supplied with food. Students cannot study in violent circumstances. Fear fills Nigeria’s classroom.

    Attention Channels Television and others, please show better detailed maps of Nigerian states. Maps must be geographical educational. Good Nigerian LGA maps are used on Channels 400-418 and even 419[??Ha-ha].

    Why are we so economically down? Why has NASS not yet cut a kobo of its share of our money? That over-bloated N125b organ thrives while the federal government emasculates medical doctors of their house job internationally accepted pay.

    Know that Nigeria is gravely ill and in an ‘I can’t breathe’ situation as regards electricity, economic, education, security, productive job growth and even intelligent traffic solutions which increasing traffic attacks and okada motorcycle mayhem. Why? Electricity because of its low, less than 6,000Mw provision, and its high wicked tariffs and criminal ‘guesstimated bills’! Economic with its less than $50b-75b foreign reserves minimum to reverse the ‘toiletpaperisation’ of the naira. Security because there is no safe place anymore. We cannot protect our children. Every parent is terrified.

    ‘No to restructuring’ proponents must look at Ghana. Let us congratulate Ghana, senior by three years of independence since 1957, Ghana more companies and organisations see it as a safe, secure, EODB- ‘Ease of Doing Business’ hub. The latest are Hyundai and Kia planning assembly plants by end of 2022. Remember Nigeria has failed to complete a simple 110Km road, miscalled the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, in 15 years and moved the goal post again to end 2022, perhaps!! Remember that the Long Bridge section of the road is almost permanently under murderous night siege by ‘under the bridge’ killers with no effort to erect a permanent army camp under the bridge or securing the area with barbed wire and other obstacles. Not nuclear physics, just I-love- My-People’s Security 1-0-1! These murderers have killed or attacked anyone with arrogance. So why will international business and international bodies not go elsewhere -to Ghana for example.

    PS in case you think Ghana is a mistake or a blip, know that the other motor assembly companies already in Ghana are Toyota-Suzuki, Nissan, Kantanka Volkswagen and Sinotruck under Ghana’s Auto Development Program employing 3,600 assembly and 6,6600 manufacturing and millions of market people servicing them with supporting food, transport, housing, education and commercial jobs. Tell that to those against restructuring before they preside over an empty dead country.

    What has Ghana got that we have lost? Time was that the size of Nigerian market mattered when Dunlop, Land Rover, Peugeot, Volkswagen, Exide and a thousand other companies provided millions of jobs. Then we had the population, some degree of efficiency and manageable corruption until stagnated, backward and pedestrian ethnic advantage/disadvantage ancient not modern IT policies with the ‘Corruption Cancer’, smothering everything. This created administrative corruption bottlenecks, bad roads which all paralysed imports and exports, strangled and clogged the roads and port, and contaminated the goods and human passport/visa travel industry.

    It was not overnight but 50 years of mismanagement of the company called Corporate Nigeria that has led us to this failure. Yes, we see trains everywhere! Good but not good enough! It affected Ghana in the past but Ghanaians solved their main problem -poor leadership failure. Ghana put the fear of public execution into the future leadership. They then climbed out of the abyss of corruption and incompetence led by late Jerry John Rawlings and because Nigeria stagnated, Ghana overtook Nigeria on the road to creating a ‘DFE-Developmentally Friendly Environment’. We saw it coming and did nothing to improve. Go, Ghana Go!

    Nigeria’s genuine 1960s boast of ‘Giant of Africa’ was correct then but zero to poor leadership make it correct today only in our population size with no patriotic leadership for sustainability and warlike ‘Execution of Giant Developmental Visions’. Business needs a big market, yes, but also peace, security, affordable power and professionalism to kill corruption at Nigeria’s ports to allow business and pleasure to breathe freely. In tearful irony we ask leaders ‘Can Nigeria catch up with Ghana?’ If not, we will be a recipient of other countries’ finished goods- a new colony. When we allowed CINS -Corruption, Incompetence, Negligence and Selfishness in, mediocrity paralysed our development plans and 1970s’ N1= $1.5 plunged to N410-485:$1. No politician cared! They just demanded or stole more naira!

    Our youth need help. Oyo State’s YERI, Youth Empowerment REWIND Initiative, tackles drug and jobless problem of ‘Youth Restiveness’. Governor Makinde in 2020 paid prize money to athletes owed since the 2018 National Sports Festival and paid new winners for 2021.  Oyo State’s governor is also supporting a young golfer’s clinic. All federal and state efforts must make a mighty ocean of positive care for Nigeria’s 50m youth a priority or we may all pay.

    A good Floyd murder verdict. But black officers are barred from seeing the convict. Behind closed doors is he being treated like a king?

  • Generator Tax; Eastern Standard Gauge!

    By Tony Marinho

     

    Oyo State Please Cancel Murderous Business Generator Tax; Eastern Standard, not Narrow Gauge Rail Please!

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 3,100,000 among 142,000,000 diagnosed cases and 800+m vaccine shots given worldwide, Nigerian cases approaching 164,500 and 2,070 deaths with 1m+ doses given.

    In Oyo State, the business community and even hospitals  find themselves being strangely charged a new tax for the essential survival need to substitute for a government’s failure to provide 24/7 electric power -a  ‘Generator Gaseous Emission Charge [Tax]’, coated as an environmental charge. Are businesses responsible for shunning a perfectly good grid in favour of our generator use? Generators are a necessity for income generation not a luxury. No renewable source can power an office or hospital requirement for 10-20 air-conditioners, machinery, fridges, etc. The governor and government should please withdraw this tax, actually immoral in nature  and further made immoral by backdating it to two years and payable within 14 days  but typically delivered the day before expiry of the ‘period of grace’  a real disgrace! Governors, please protect your loving citizens and businesses.

    The evidence is overwhelming of a Nigerian history of maximum irresponsible politico-military governance manifest by the almost total negligent or deliberate refusal to implement anything continuously in brilliantly professionally conceived 5-10-20 year ‘Development Plans’. These were ignored in favour of deceptive Utopian futuristic ‘Visions’. Though articulated by heroic Nigerian professionals, they were destined to be totally ignored by those who commissioned them. The ‘visions’ were used to ‘photo-trick’ the eternally hopeful, intimidated, underserviced and desperately ‘hopelessly hopeful’ citizenry. A citizenry so in love with Nigeria that it suffered fools in office, hoping that the office would confer paternal wisdom and good works -an unfulfilled ‘citizen and country vision’ even in 2021.

    This massive Nigerian governance irresponsibility is measurable in failure to meet old United Nations Millennium Development Goals and now UN-Social Development Goals, Transparency International, and all other groups and resulted in Nigeria’s current government’s unflattering boast of ‘less than 6,000Mw electricity for 60 years of a hard-working 160million plus citizenry, free since 1960! A boast painful to the suffering citizenry! I question the currently bandied population figure. Just check the real and imagined voters and voters’ cards in any recent election and our pathological habit of inflating any figures for political, religious or ethnic advantage, since at least 1956 census as being about 30% above the actual population. Look at the purported number of foreigners believed to illegally NIN-registered. Were the computers taken across borders? Can anything honest and ‘good for all’ and truthful ever come of any counting in Nigeria – even numbers of dead at crime scenes?  In contrast to our free Nigerian state, the country we fought for against apartheid, South Africa, had been bequeathed 45,000Mw electricity for a 45m population by ‘hateful’ white supremacists. Should the British have given us more electric power pre-independence to compensate for our current inadequacies? Everyone in office in Nigeria is actually impotent or held hostage by the sectional power behind every throne. Certainly, almost all governors almost uniformly also failed to deliver at the local level -Ogbemudia, Jakande and perhaps Peter Obi and Zulum being examinable exceptions.

    Today each Nigerian requires an alternative power source, candles, rechargeable lights, solar or one of the estimated one million generators, from tiny ‘I fine pass my neighbour’ to giant generators. These, since around 1978, have polluted the air our pregnant women, children and babies’ breath, preparing for a life of environmental and social hardship. Add noise pollution and loss of billions of darkness-hours from school learning, sanity-inducing leisure and business-ease crashing national achievement level academically and in business costing trillions. Yes, the brilliant will be brilliant, overcoming even a pigsty-classroom and dark home environment. However, the average student and the majority are average, and would perform worse in a dark pigsty-class than dark home – too many obstacles to success.

    Can anyone explain why we did not 1999-2007 spectacularly tackle railways though I do know Obasanjo  commissioned the totally honest Engineer CSO Akande, former Head of Service to Western Region to redesign the railway system in Nigeria and the Canadians, the Americans, British, Indians and Japanese all offered railway improvements. Neither they nor the citizens won. Thankfully, though at what loans cost the Nigerian railways is coming awake? The slow pace caused grief to Nigeria’s millions. The railways were actually starved and then deactivated and actually destroyed for 40 years redirecting cargo movement business to lorry transport. This in turn destroyed the road and also the Apapa Port network. We have and are still paying that ‘negligence price’ even though there is welcome appreciable improvement, but still too slow.

    Fifty years post-Civil war, why is it the old narrow gauge 1.067m allocated to the Eastern Corridor and not the modern faster standard gauge 1.435m. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Smoothen the curves, flatten the hills. Why robbing Peter to pay Paul.  The minister must summon ability to fight for equality of services to his own citizens in the Federal Executive Council? He should speed up trains for his people! The loans will be repaid from eastern oil money.

    True Nigerians SHOUT OUT …..

    NO DISCRIMINATION: ‘TRUE NIGERIANS want Eastern Corridor Standard Gauge!   

    A government which builds standard gauge for speed and foreigners ‘for free’ must know charity, ethnic equity and rail uniformity begin at home and must manifest in the Eastern Corridor!!

  • Advert; Spraying; Stop Okada-Kekemania

    By Tony Marinho

     

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 2,975,000 among 137,000,000 diagnosed cases and 800m vaccine shots given worldwide. Nigerian cases approaching 164,500 and 2,070 deaths with 970k shots given.

    The huge number of greeting adverts for birthdays in the time of Covid, poverty and insecurity show dangerous insensitivity. Some Nigerians still live in the imaginary ‘all is well’ world and pay millions for ‘one day wonder’ greeting advert.  I believe such adverts, congratulatory or in commiseration should be banned or heavily taxed-50%. Imagine if the over N50m spent on birthday wishes adverts was donated to 50+ orphanages, widows or youth groups including the Red Cross, Boy Scouts and Blue Crescent in appreciation of celebrant or deceased. Our youth are dangerously uneasy, restless and undereducated, having been cheated and underserved by governance and individuals. That money could have been business start-ups for 100 or 200 youth or empowered many youth groups and got them jobs. Even the recently late Prince Philip, sadly dead at 99 years and husband to Queen Elizabeth 11, is being mourned by ‘donations to charity in his name!’

    There is still a lot of money around. The social media shows sickly scenes of $100 dollar bills and small mountains naira notes being swept up with brooms from the floor in their hundreds into empty champagne cartons and large plastic binbags, at events from weddings, birthdays to burials. Called ‘spraying’ it is now a grotesque art form. It used to be bundles would be broken and the money put on the recipient’s chosen body part. Some used a machine money sprayer. Now, the ‘money bricks’ are just removed from the cellophane, put on recipient and taken away by the hopefully honest relative or assistant. Sometimes, up to 10-20 bundles of N500x100 notes or N1,000×100 are sprayed. All this is camera recorded so that the counting can be accurate. The sprayers seem cruelly unmindful of being surrounded by struggling and financially down, hungry and angry- ‘hangry’ staff who are internally outraged at such profligate display and ‘waste’ while they earn so little. In extreme cases such a display involves the opening of pink champagne and pouring six or 12 bottles onto the head of the ‘big boy‘ being sprayed.

    It had been hoped that some traditions, identified as negative even though started with good intentions, would be stopped by modernity, current poverty and Covid. It is as dangerous to society as the more violent traditional practices. Spraying is serious social misconduct and not praiseworthy.

    Do police and the military debrief each and every victim of kidnapping and banditry to learn more about the individuals, dress mode, colours of clothes tribal marks, the languages spoken, the names shared and locations to build up a state computerised database to be shared with relevant agencies and members of society and quickly crosschecked with information on other attacks in order to plan solutions to this day-and-night nightmare facing the entire nation? As people migrate so do these devilish and murderous evil doers.

    Government continues, unchecked and uneducated, in its poor labour relations, manifest by the absolutely unnecessary government failures that forced the recent strike by the Resident Doctors which has thankfully been called off after some decisions were made. Could those decisions not have been made routinely long ago and executed responsibly?

    Okada-keke marwamania: So our tricycles, Keke marwa, are made in Oyo State by Yamaha. That is good business in one way. Tricycles are better than okada but worse than the minibus which is worse than a 30-seater bus in terms of the environment, safety of road-users, fuel consumption and pollution per passenger. Mass transit has lost in the transport war in Ibadan to a plague of high pollution, high space occupancy okada and keke marwa, multiplying, filling lanes, 30 or 40 at traffic lights. Other road users are being strangled while running the gauntlet of left, right and centre manic riding causing a tightening choking noose as they swarm like hornets of the road avoiding the empty layby lane. Like lethal children they speed, zigzag and stop subjecting all around to great danger and often death and injury. Untrained, uncontrolled since birth, they ignore traffic laws and, at junctions, they even cut across cars blocking every single space. Who will educate them on lane discipline, and road courtesy? An okada is a high-speed lethal weapon in the hands of an excitable undisciplined untrained person especially a youth. This created trouble and traffic mayhem with more lives being lost and more misery on the road- the Okada epidemic.

    LAUTECH seeks to be among the top 10 in the world. A tall order which requires a huge investment to pay past salary arrears and modernise the university in content. Fortunately, due to past good work, LAUTECH is the best among all state universities. But technology education is international, not a state or local issue. It is international.  If our leaders want the best salaries and perks and drive the best cars, what do our children deserve? They deserve the best lecture-rooms, the best laboratories, the best research facilities, the best technology tools, the best

    Another marker burnt Araromi Auto Market. Was it arson or accident, mistake or mischief? There are huge loses. Every time there is a fire, we ask about fire services. Beyond widening roads, better fire training and prevention and services with more available firefighters and engines and quicker communications. Naturally no one had insurance.

     

  • Condolences without change; House-job!!

    Condolences without change; House-job!!

    By Tony Marinho

    Corrigendum: Pls note that in the last article the word ‘Computer Olympics’ is one word and not two words ‘ComputerOlympics’.

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 2,870,000 among 132,000,000 diagnosed cases and 550m vaccinated worldwide; Nigerian cases approaching 164,000 and 2,060 deaths.

    The death of Yinka Odumakin like too many deaths is a disappointing shock to all who have a successful ‘Nigeria for all’ as a goal. The media waves are overflowing with deserved glowing tributes delivered with lightening speed from political and social figures. All mourning. The president, Nigeria’s sometimes resident chief mourner, has from his medical UK visit, joined. He has sent more mourning messages than any other president, a condolence message almost daily for five+years. Victims keep piling up faster than he can mourn them. It is surprising that he actually knew and worked with late Yinka Odumakin during one of his presidential bids. Of what use is a glowing mourning tribute to his life’s fight against tyranny and for true federalism, devolution of powers, true federal character and fiscal honesty, good governance, if his mourners ignore his words? Nigeria is witnessing an aberration that must not become the norm or we will all be mourned or mourners. We must learn from the dead.

    No amount of condolence or congratulatory messages will save Nigeria. We have to take the messages not from the condolences but from words left by the dead and actualise those words in our country before ages of nation-building crumble to dust creating 50-million trans-border refugees. Nigeria needs changes now before it is thrown over the precipice of despair.  We can no longer pretend things are alright when they are all wrong. Politicians have rejected good governance in favour of those features of the military days which late Yinka Odumakin and others were forced to fight so strenuously against. May God grant Yinka and others dying from whatever cause in Nigeria rest in perfect peace.

    Easter is a time of hope. So the promise ‘Death to Life’ personified by the Risen Lord, resonates at this time of IDPs, farm killings so painfully dismissed as exaggerated when even one was too many, a cold-blooded murder, absolutely provoked. Increasingly in Nigeria children are asking ‘Am I going to die?’ Mr. President, the custodian of security. ‘How many more condolence messages will you write before you win the war against violence in Nigeria?’

    More policemen and a reported policewoman murdered. The supreme price. The country must become more accountable. The states need to do much more to correct their criminal lack of security. A principal had both hands cut off and someone has the insensitivity, the hardness of heart to say such unprovoked vile evil unbridled bloodthirsty violence is exaggerated. I am a doctor and have in my life’s work encountered much human-on-human damage from childhood catapult eye injuries to sports accidents to okada attacks and okada high speed murders and mayhem to police brutality to cult stabbings and beatings to rape and domestic violence and now mindless farm murder, village, town and now city disfigurement by local gangs springing up everywhere. What manner of man is this man? Even the Good Samaritan separating fights often gets injured in an eye causing permanent blindness or gets stabbed in the neck or abdomen. And then there is the mental stress from being inflicted with or living at the time of such violence.

    As a doctor, I must resist the attack and misinformation peddled about the institution of the HOUSE OFFICER in medical hierarchy.  The House Officer cadre is the first employment step on the professional life of a fully qualified doctor who must, by law, complete a one-year House Officer-certified rotation of three months each through four specialities: obstetrics and gynaecology, medicine, surgery and paediatrics before full registration. During the period of one year, the fully qualified doctor is given a provisional licence by the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council, NMDC, to practice under supervision of seniors in the profession. The work period is called a ‘house job’ because it is hard, gruelling, run-around, result chasing, blood-taking, technique perfecting 12-20 hour per day for one year. A House Officer has a clearly defined and vital work-horse work schedule within the medical delivery system. It used to be the prerogative of federal hospitals and state governments, and the few private hospitals registered for that purpose who could take and pay House Officers.

    With typical no forward planning for products of new universities, Nigeria now produces more doctors annually than there are spaces registered to its regulatory body MDCN to take them. Unfairly, the backlog or overflow from say year 2018 was not guaranteed places before the new 2019 batch was employed leaving some without House Jobs for two or three years and unable to become fully registered. The new government system is to unify the registration and place the doctors in that central pool into posts nationwide. Typically government is trying to change the rules of engagement and undermine the already rubbish salary structure due the doctors for the house job. Governments must not undermine internationally instituted professional structures. Worldwide, house job is the first paid job on the lowest step on the employment structure of a medical doctor. Why should a serving minister, also a doctor, say otherwise? Why must politicians ruin every profession, even their own former profession, except politics in Nigeria??

  • SUBEB posters: ‘Computer Olympics’ pls?

    Tony Marinho

     

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 2,800,000 among 128,000,000 diagnosed cases worldwide, Nigerian cases approaching 163,000 and 2,050 deaths. Disclosure: I have had my first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine in one of multiple Ibadan LGA facilities. I recommend you see the relevant source to get vaccinated.

    Death of a uniformed policewoman following being shot at polling booth has shamefully gone unnoticed and so far, unpunished. No outcry for her or the others killed that day. Why? Her picture should be front page across Nigeria as should as for all the dead killed by Boko Haram and kidnappers. Catch the murderers and their handlers and there needs to be more police.  Bomb blast at another Bye election? What manner of despicable deadly and wickedly evil politician and political thug deprives the innocent of their lives merely for being present?

    There are electric vehicles in Kenya. Any plans for Nigeria?

    Congratulations to Seyi Makinde of Oyo State for authorising the regular payment of its counterpart funding to access the delayed 2018, 2019 and now 2020 SUBEB grant with consequent renovation of over 100 schools. Bricks and blocks are good but ‘Books and Picture Posters Build Brains Better’. It is time every government accesses its allocated SUBEB fund as a sacred political and moral responsibility to its teachers and youth to prevent uneven education across the country with the consequences of ‘under-educating’ segments of Nigeria’s youth in every state. This will avoid consequent repeating the unemployability and societal upheaval seen post ENDSARS.

    SUBEB should fill every primary classroom wall with exciting, inspirational education books, some ‘made by’ the teachers/students and others in collaboration with the tertiary educational and industrial centres in and out of the state.  Is it not a pity that the state’s’ polytechnics and institutes and research centres are not invited to make a ‘Polytechnic/Industrial Poster Series 1-50’ or ‘CRIN Poster Series’ or ‘Forestry Poster Series’ or ‘IITA Educational Poster Series’?

    Why does University of Ibadan, UI, not have a multi-streamed ‘UI Primary and Secondary School Subject Based Poster Series 1-500’. I believe that SUBEB with counterpart funding should include ‘A SUBEB School Poster Series’ in its portfolio. State governments must call for SUBEB to allocate 1-5% funds to turn classrooms in Nigeria into ‘Child and Teacher Friendly Environments’ by making SUBEB Educational Posters a funded agenda line item.

    It is disgraceful seeing the Chibok and Dapchi classrooms and any classroom near you empty of education wall charts -items readily available in other African and all foreign countries and huge missing link of education in Nigeria. Sadly, 26+ years after Educare Trust started this campaign, the country’s education elite still ignore this vital weapon. Truly ‘A CLASSROOOM PICTURE POSTER is worth 1000 words worldwide EXCEPT IN NIGERIA where bare walls fail to inspire empty brains of our Nigerian children in our Nigerian schools. Watch any video of any public school wall and weep as you compare it to schools of similar children abroad and even in private Nigerian schools.  We are deliberately under-educating our public school children and will continue to be punished for it during riots and community disturbances!

    What is war? What is a war-like response to an attack on a state and an insult to the government? The Kaduna 2020 Security Report reveals over 900 murdered [30 buses of 30 citizens], and over 2,000 kidnapped [60 buses of 30 citizens] and nearly 8,000 animals [160 trailer loads of 50 animals], rustled with untold millions [N500-1billion] in ransom paid. This is a terrible toll paid by Nigerians for citizenship. This proves it is not ‘localised border intra-tribal warfare’. The states of Nigeria face vicious war against the unarmed citizenry aimed at ending or stealing their lives, livelihoods and lands.

    The security outfits are also losing precious lives. Our thoughts are with the deceased, victims and their protectors even as we expect a larger warlike footprint. Our 39 students tragically kidnapped are ‘MIEA’s ‘Missing in Education Action’. ISIS-WA when reinforced, as anticipated by analysts, will be merciless to security and bandits and unarmed Nigerian citizenry. Our government must learn from last week’s Mozambique attack close to the Total mega-gas plant.

    The Tokyo 2021 the first Zoomed Olympics is a small example of what the Olympics could mean to billions. The Tokyo 2021 Olympics is going ahead but there will be no foreign fans and restricted local fans relying on the digital media to broadcast events and champions. About 10 years ago, I advocated a worldwide ‘Computer Olympics’ available with continuous and monthly/quarterly/ half-yearly/ annual authenticated updates in which any participant or teams of participants could perform at the local level and upload their authenticated record up to the ‘Computer Olympics Data Base’. Such a ‘Computer Olympics Data Base’ would be segmented by age, sex, achievement and targeted record in a ‘Computer Olympics Multi-Event Sports Ladder’. Zoom etc could be used for some team events but it would be valuable for individual events.

    One day athletes worldwide will video-record their achievements, performed under an authenticating local authority, and Zoom/WhatsApp etc them in for evaluation and placement on the ‘Computer Olympics Ladder’ and eventually recognition year-round. Every four years the Olympics in its current forms Summer, Winter would not be compromised. Please send this ‘Computer Olympics’ suggestion to all IOC members you know.

    Happy Easter2021, May the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ actualise our Greater Nigeria where the guns are silenced, mutual respect grows and Nigeria grows in peace.

     

  • Wanted: ‘ECOMOG’ or Commando-AT-HOME

    Wanted: ‘ECOMOG’ or Commando-AT-HOME

    By Tony Marinho

    COVID-19 deaths approaching 2,730,000 among 124,000,000 diagnosed cases worldwide, Nigerian cases approaching 163,000 and 2,050 deaths.

    The world fought World War 1 and 2 in four years each. Each war called for the recruitment and equipping of hundreds of millions of men and women to man the war machine including weapons and also to run military and civilian supply chains in munitions and kitting the forces, feeding the forces and the suffering populations and transportation across land, sea and air.

    The war machine is no joke. Who dare forget Nigeria’s military and police contribution to UN activities including the Congo in the 1960s and effects of the Civil War 1967-1970 and more recently the ECOMOG saga, still of questionable quality, [Google please] and support from home. At the Lagos airport, I witnessed five-foot yams pallets, like bombs, air-cargo to ECOMOG troops in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Estimates of our personnel deaths range from 500+ to 3,000+. Whichever, they are mostly unsung heroes leaving poorly cared-for widows and children. The true numbers of situational dead in Nigeria resides in total delusional political and tribal confusion and truth denial or figure falseness and ever since 1956 leading to the ‘OVER 200M’ total population claims today, maybe 30% overstated.

    Judge the real Nigerian voter turnout and compare with actual voters in accurately censused countries. Phantoms citizens! Nothing is counted accurately be it the dead, dying, living, newly born, budget, toilets, school wall posters, functional school libraries, covid cases or the vaccinated. Every number is politicised or ethicised. During ECOMOG, I attended a Sango Cemetery funeral when a green bus drove into the clearing and a lady in a pink dress, unusual for a cemetery, jumped out and ran to the site of a small military. As she ran towards the funeral she screamed ‘So, you could not even tell me my husband is dead’ just as the final blank ‘3-Volley Salute’ was fired, signalling ‘Duty, Honour, Country’ and as in war history, the resumption of hostilities following the clearing of the battlefield of the dead and wounded and the bugle mournfully disseminated ‘The Last Post’ among the leaves of the weeping trees crisscrossing the cemetery. Someone said she was probably second wife and not Next-of-Kin manifest. But if she was first wife nko?

    My late Aunty Bola lived behind Atan Cemetery and used to talk about ECOMOG burials, often in shallow graves at night, in the military section of that burial sanctuary. I had the honour of visiting that cemetery to read the gravestone names of ‘Our Heroes Past’ from Private to a Major General. It is a very sobering action which I recommend to all Nigerians especially those in politics and our youth to spend a solitary 15 minutes in respect to those who represent the thousands who have given their lives for a Nigeria which has let most of us down badly, failing to meet our legitimate aspirations and expectations. The Nigerian military has certainly paid the price for the continuance of the Nigerian state as have millions of civilians, too many in even a war situation- declared on the citizens but undeclared so far by government. With our victories abroad we deserve peace at home. But no!

    Where is the local application of ‘Commando’ or the ECOMOG experience so costly in lives and $8b in spite of accusations of poorly late paid troops? Or will we need a foreign ECOMOG with non-Nigerian West African troops eager to payback for perceived and real transgressions of ECOMOG in the past??????

    It is mindboggling that wars declared against Nigeria have lasted longer than the lifetime for this government five years and most of the previous government’s eight years and ECOMOG. Shamefully, this government in five years with a teeming unemployment rate among the youth has not been able to recruit and train the 3-400,000 additional troops and police needed by Nigerians against ISIS-WA, herders with AK-47, bandits with military machine guns and robbers with dynamite and now bye-election mayhem killing hard-working police woman and two others and the repeated razing of a Police HQ and now an attack after Governor Zulum x2, on Governor Ortom who ran from his farm in spite an armed guard -like thousands of attacks on farms and roads across Nigeria against an unarmed population.

    The division of Nigeria into violent terror, bandit, herders or kidnapper territory is unhelpful. We live in a security disaster involving miscreants trained daily to become experienced killers, like their leaders, in all tribes and religions but some killers are protected. No educational facility, road or farm is off limits in this security-deprived country. Even as the minister told us that we have 5,831MW of electricity, we had no power for four days. Only in Nigeria are ‘Generation’ and ‘Transmission’ strange bedfellow and not twins. Meanwhile South Africa, population 46m has 45,000Mw since the 70s from the black-hating apartheid regime!!!

    Nigeria seeks to spend $1.5b on Port Harcourt Refinery planned for sale. For how much, please?? How many modular plants can $1.5b provide? How much solar energy equipment could a $1.5B ‘Revolving Solar Loan Scheme’ for solar factories and new direction solar technology youth employment for genuine renewable energy?

    Tokyo 2021 the first ZZooooomed Olympics, no foreign fans??? One day athletes worldwide will just record their achievements and zoom them in for placement on the medals table.