The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tony Marinho

  • Our Girls; Census fiction; politics vs governance

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Leah Sharibuand others are not yet released. Fifty killed in New Zealand terror attack on a mosque. Cyclone kills 150 people in Southern Africa, death everywhere.

    Census fiction, population politics! Fake census figures!! Where are they? Who? The number of registered voters was 82-84million. The total number of voters 28,614,190 active voters =35.6% of registered voters. Perhaps this figure is exaggerated by 5-10% by thumbprint fraud, but these extra votes will cancel out those who did not vote from violent exclusion. Where are the remaining voters? 82-84,000,000 – 29,000,000 approximately= 53-55,000,000 lost voters. And what a waste of unused voter material.

    Are the remaining unseen voters abstainers, protesters or nonexistent? Perhaps we also need an ‘I did not vote’ protest vote register. Imagine if they had all voted for a single new party. Are they real or fictitious, no-show under-aged voters, in hospital, at work, dead and voters who registered elsewhere? Are they imports from foreign countries? Do they exist? Are they part of the fictional political media-mouthed exaggerated projections for Nigeria to be 200 million people, without the matching reproductive success to guarantee growth in the population? Nothing can explain the absence of 60+ percent of voters, except that, just maybe, half do not legally exist, leaving us with a true population of 198- 60m =138 or maximum 150million. Our censuses have always been a dangerous tragic minefield of magical mathematics and blatantly arrogant travesty of justice since the British tampered with them to give advantage to the North and are inflated for fiscal and power-keeping reasons.

    Alert; alert to all politicians. Politics is politics. Governance is hard work. Moral reputations are easily made and easily destroyed. The unsavoury information around a largely unlamented recently deceased National Assembly (NASS) member with a peculiarly questionable past does not inspire the youth with confidence in politicians. Nigerians feel disgusted with an apparently stupid and ludicrously expensive ‘tradition’ of suspending governance of 150m citizens for a day just because a NASS member dies. What a waste. NASS please change this rule to ‘One Minute Silent and a few tears’. We all die, and NASS member’s death is no different from the rest of us. The country cannot stand still for a day especially not at NASS members pay. NASS members are not worth it. When dead they should get a ‘minute of silence’ like the rest of us, who however mostly get only a ‘moment of silence’. It feels worse when NASS takes a day off when dishonor is smelt.

    Politicians must distinguish between ‘politics for self’ and ‘politics to accelerate service for progressive governance’. In normal societies ‘Governance’ is not a mere side-effect or sideshow of politics. Governance is the norm.   Is a norm, a necessity, not a choice? It is part of the oath of office. The people are angry in their failure to make progress against the politicians’ wall of irresponsible behaviour in governance. Sloth, feeble distribution of a few implements of work. Political dancing and singing will no longer work to entertain and divert their attention. Politicians, beware 2019-2023 will be different. Politicians, be aware that during 2019-2023, the people want nothing but their long denied rights including proper use of their money, all their money.

    Perhaps the past performance of some politicians is not their fault. But failure is certainly morally their fault because everyone instinctively knows right from wrong. Why do so many politicians choose the wrong path, the path of criminality and evil?  Have you ever thought through the words good and evil? One letter added or taken from each leads to their master? Remove ‘o’ from Good = God, Add ‘d’ to Evil = devil. Simple. But we are told politicians are under tremendous pressure to do evil and allow their members to recover campaign expenses often massively inflated. Invest N10million claim N20 or N50 0r N100 million, abi? Who is counting? It is not their money anyway. It is obvious that they do not ‘have the love’ or understand responsibility for others wellbeing. This makes them unsuitable for a leadership role in anything especially politics which requires a passion for people’s needs. Politics is founded on service not power, the reverse of the Nigerian situation even at LGA level. Politicians have not learnt everything is not politics or political. They require to wear two hats or two faces. There should be two modes for politicians -the ‘Political Mode’ during elections and the development ‘Service Mode’ to deliver the rightful development needs of every citizen irrespective of party affiliations.

    The development needs of the citizens are the non-political service exemplified by the UN-demanded SDGs for the 21st Century ‘Universal Rights of Democracy’. They are not politically motivated and are wrongly labelled ‘Dividends of Democracy’ which are extraordinary democracy developments, not exercise-books. Politics must be distinguished from ‘Routine Responsible Governance’ to provide infrastructure and services regardless of political bias. The mixing of the two led to Nigeria’s reversed fortunes in development manifest best described by a lack of electric power. Development plans die, sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. The ‘Political Great Greed’ of a few thousand party people and co-thieves destroys ‘The People’s Great Need’  of 120-150,000,000 citizens for growth. Nigeria repeatedly starts an engine only to kill it before it can deliver democracy forcing Nigeria into decline.

  •  Our Girls; Victory= service; ballot papers = jotters

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Leah Sharibuand others are not yet released.

    An Ethiopian plane crashed claiming 156 lives including two Nigerians: Professor  of Literature and African Studies and columnist Pius Adesanmi and Ambassador BiodunBashua. A tragedy for Ethiopia, Nigeria and for all.

    Murder to win a political office of service? Violent victory is not politics but murder. More than 56 killed and others kidnapped or injured in 2019 election violence according to civil society groups, including voters, security and INEC staff kidnapped. A horrifying record of criminality by political parties, not INEC. INEC is an administrative body, not a security outfit. Murder, kidnapping, theft and burning ballot boxes are security breaches, not INEC administrative failures. You cannot get a miracle from mayhem. Politics is Nigeria’s natural disaster.

    The Nigerian electorate has been crippled by the criminal cash-carrying raiding of the budget and the citizen’s pocket. Hopefully, you elected ‘I love Nigeria’ knowledgeable candidates in 2019 thus meeting SDG 16 and securing Nigeria’s developmental and economic future. Hopefully, yes, and if not, Nigerians must force the ‘elected’ and their political baggage to be humble and fulfill the shattered aspirations for respectable living. Poor political human material gives poor developmental results unless the professionals are recognized and utilised. Politicians know nothing but decide everything.

    Winning brings grave responsibility to work for the masses!!!! Another cycle of political failure will ruin Nigeria! Today’s Nigerians demand that a winning political party, winning by any means necessary, can no longer be an extortionist invading armed force pillaging the coffers and abandoning the citizens. Nigerians have a history of being insulted and walked over as ‘mere masses’ by politicians wallowing in ‘euphoria of victory’ as if they outwitted the citizens. The Nigerian citizen is not your prize or possession, the budget is not your reward or your private property. Nigerians suffer from a neglected right to be protected by politics. Instead we are extorted from by the greedy, selfish political self-funding system inherent for 50 years compounded by the consumptive presidential system Salaries and Perks -SAP-, constitutional projects scams and deliberately opaque fiscal surveillance and morality. This is criminal sometimes legalized rape of the citizen. Nigeria’s states will not survive another four years of greed and rape of the budget, failing in providing the nation’s infrastructural needs, essential to civilized existence.

    Politicians quickly forget the suffering of the voters. No people, no vote. Politicians must pay the people back. Probably more than 80% voted without political bribery, just using heart, head and hearsay hoping for improved service delivery. Politicians should not be entitled to unearned Excellency, Honourable and Distinguished and should earn the prefixed through genuine service as they should be deeply indebted to Nigeria’s voters. We expect maximum service not ‘power play’. Citizens, do not stand up when politicians below level of governor enter the room. They do not deserve such honour from you.

    Politicians, your ‘victory’ is not an act of God. God knows exactly what you did, good and bad, and what was done to others in your name. He allowed, but cannot approve of, criminal activities enforcing a wrong victory. That victory may also be partly the result of your actions, in your past life and present actions, by fair means or foul, with or without the following: stolen money in past positions, bloodstained streets and graves, broken bodies and spirits, intimidation, bribery of the electorate and the ubiquitous stomach infrastructure with mass cancellation of votes and even over-voting. You may have spent millions or billions. Whose money? Stolen? Will you rob Nigeria to replenish your spent money with huge interest by stealing from cripplingly inflated, abandoned unexecuted contracts and extortionary backdated rates and taxes- a post-election ‘gift’ to voters- the citizenry?

    Society cannot survive more than 10% political corruption. The election expenses of politicians are an extra-budgetary payback ‘Political election debt burden’ the country is forced to pay to politicians by them stealing on assumption of office. It is the foundation of the underdevelopment and destruction of Nigeria. Nigeria will die, be consumed by the locust political class, if this greed does not stop immediately. Politicians must keep, not kill, the goose that lays the golden egg.

    God has provided that every state and even LGA has annually been allocated more than enough for the complete revamping of the infrastructure. It is the state political class, which has failed and we mistakenly blame the federal government. Stupid us. True, the federal government must be blamed for stealing funds needed to alleviate rubbish power supply and poor roads, but states and LGA corrupted leadership has no zeal for development of even their own kith and kin. Yes, you are the politicians in power today. From tomorrow you will either steal from your ‘new children’ or give them their rights opportunities enshrined in the constitution to enter the 21st Century.

    Winners who won honestly or even by crook or hook, must ensure they quickly tabulate the hundreds of fantastic ideas, policy suggestions, cries of neglect, manifesto points from other parties, public debates and the media and brain storm with a POST ELECTION THINKTANK quick incorporation into progressive policy.

    Politician, you ignore professional advice and under-develop Nigeria. Your every action or inaction in addressing files and policies affects the citizen’s life.

    INEC: Recycle: Do not destroy or burn unused ballot papers. Make them into jotters for school students.

  • Our Girls; ECOWAS Benue Case; 100,000Mw

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Leah Sharibu and others are not yet released. Giwa LGA – seven killed, 29 dead in Zamfara this last weekend.

    More important than the elections is the judgment of the ECOWAS court in the case of Rev. Fr. Solomon Mfa & 11 others Vs. Federal Republic Of Nigeria suit no.: ECW/CCJ/APP/11/16 delivered on Tuesday, February 26. In the Suit filed by the Movement Against Fulani Occupation (MAFO) and some individual plaintiffs against Nigeria seeking declarations, compensation and damages for various human rights violations of communities in Benue State following armed herdsmen attacks.

    The court held that Nigeria violated the human rights of Benue communities by not protecting them, providing succour and not investigating and prosecuting perpetrators.

    The court upheld that herdsmen were attacking and killing and not that Benue people were killing each other.

    The court found Nigeria culpable by not upholding the fundamental principle of Article 1, African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights that not only do states, parties recognize the rights, duties and freedoms enshrined in the charter, they also respect them and give effect to them and are in violation of the African charter even if the state or its agents were not the perpetrators.

    The Court ordered:

    That Nigeria should immediately set up a commission to enquire into the atrocities committed by the herdsmen against Benue communities, identify, prosecute the culprits and ameliorate the victims’  hardships.

    The federal government should immediately deploy machinery in the affected areas and beef up security to forestall further attacks on Benue communities.

    The court however, declined to award damages and compensation for the victims and affected communities because the plaintiffs did not list the names (and details) of the killed and injured, the actual properties destroyed and its value etc. (At filing April, 2016 these details were not available).

    The court’s judgments are not appealable but it can review judgment.

    Hurray!!! A wonderful victory for the tortured and those 2-3 million IDPs rendered beggars. Give them due compensation before their rightful billions get stolen/eaten by any locust politicians in 2019-2023.

    Whatever the elections results, corrupted or not, the incoming politicians are offered yet another four yearly and perhaps the last opportunity to really save this country. The people’s desperate and rightful needs and now their lives have been rubbished for the politicians’ greed for too long- over 50 years. Be warned that country will die financially, medically, educationally and ‘road-network-ly’, if we have no real political sacrifice and service. Serve with dignity and honesty for three years 11 months and steal in the last one month if you have been cursed at birth to steal from the children of Nigeria- a grave hell-bound sin!!!

    We must all join in 2019 to end Boko Haram mayhem and the national 20+ year armed herdsmen militia deliberately marauding and murdering our children. My solution like others offered for 10+ years is ‘Breed and keep the cows in the North on ranches in their vast lands and grow grass locally to feed them or bring grass to feed them from elsewhere and transport the cows to markets nationwide by rail and road on demand’.

    This will stop the murderous clashes immediately. Nigeria cannot survive another murderous four years. A cow meat boycott will be a real consideration as the value of the cow will plummet to nothing rendering the wealth of the owners into nothing. It does not have to be that way but soon no Nigerian will want to eat a cow brought to the table at the expense of the blood of another Nigerian family’s loved ones. Pictures of IDPs should remind us all of misery of these wonderful downtrodden compatriots. The problem may be deeper than cow trouble but the cow problem is solvable by avoiding contact and combat. We may be forced to have cows roam our schools and hospital compounds but no one can force-feed us cow meat and that would have become ‘blood cow’ like ‘blood diamonds’ and ‘blood oil’. People must not die, be displaced or be distressed for other people’s economic advantage.

    Other areas needing total solution include 24/7 electricity. Nigerians across the country are financially facing ruin from the high cost of substituting for a powerless country. Nigerians from every home, family and business are forced to burn billions weekly due to the profound and disgraceful incompetence of government in the past 40 years and lack of creativity in solving the power problem.

    Japan so loved its people that it provided emergency 10,000Mw in three months when an earthquake destroyed a whole Fukushima nuclear plant that is less than 5% of its needs. Nigeria has no natural disaster and no 10,000Mw for all its 150,000Mw needs. But it has CINS- Corrupt, Incompetent Negligent and Selfish politics and political parties and politicians and governments. Incoming governments must know that 24/7 power will reduce the cost of living, put more naira in pockets, reduce cost of entrepreneurial startups, doing business and production costs. This will translate into cheaper business, huge job opportunities and reduced emotional and financial family and office stress with fewer suicides increasing the happiness factor nationwide.

     

    • LAST CHANCE – Please Vote ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES ON MARCH 9th-SDG 16.

  • Our Girls; Election violence cannot be for service

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Leah Sharibu and others are not released.

    Nationwide the election has taken place. Perhaps by today we know the presidential winner. Our country is crippled by massive looting since pre-1999, by Corruption, Incompetence, Neglect and Selfishness, (CINS) and backward. To whoever wins, Nigeria is nowhere near where it should have been. Every state and LGA has had enough funds to make it a spectacular success economically. The federal government has always had enough funds to transform Nigeria to a 21st century country. At each level there is massive failure to deliver the needs of the citizenry. The people are left empty and the common denominator in the failure is politicians -greed and corruption.

    Mr. President 2019-2023, get something straight: Nigeria’s money belongs to Nigerians, not you or your party or politicians in states and LGAs. Nigeria is running out of time to develop. We need every naira coming in to be used for development, not 30-70-100% kickbacks for party theft or politicians’ billions. Nigeria cannot afford to miss developing beyond ethnic politics in 2019-2023. The financial stranglehold of politicians must be removed.

    Once again, the evil among us injure, maim, disenfranchise and shed blood of the innocent, killing ad hoc INEC staff, a first-time voter, and rival politicians. Explosions by Boko Haram in Maiduguri, murder of party members and voters and ballot box snatching darken the corridor to democracy. Ballot box snatching is a crime and can be tried under a charge of ‘diverting the course of democracy’ a civilian or even a civilian militia coup plot against democracy.

    A youth corps member was abducted but released and one was injured by thugs. Abduction is a very violent attack on mind and body even if no scratch is found. No abducted victim is ‘unharmed’. There are always mental consequences and damage from forced deprivation, incarceration and fear.  Such actions should be prosecutable and not pretend that ‘Election violence is not as bad as criminal violence’. Election violence like domestic violence is criminal and prosecutable violence against the citizens and state -coup plotting. Election violence makes our society a primitive society where brawn triumphs repeatedly over brain. But the perpetrators do not care for reputation or the republic. They only seek power in order to rob and rape the citizens and country of their funds and a predictable progressive future- a political right denied them by thieving politicians downgrading their conscience to accommodate the stealing of billions.

    Who will comfort or compensate the NYSC victims? They are deserving of automatic post-NYSC federal employment, a hefty compensation package and national and NYSC honours. Who will compensate and comfort the families of the dead? Nobody. We have lost another opportunity to join ‘The Committee of Violence-Free Elections Nations’. Most painful is that too many politicians actually gain victory after deaths from unleashing warfare like this violence. They will be bold enough to step forward as the ‘democratic winner’ of a criminal coup-deviated democratic process and demand to be called excellency, honourable etc. They should be in prison or hung for the crimes of coup plotting and murder.

    How can a murderer give us what we need- a corruption free country, electricity, water, well-equipped schools and hospitals, good roads and new roads and bridges, rail and opening other ports and security? Nobody who employs a thug or plots to steal a single ballot box can suddenly become our saviour. We trivialise the crime of ‘violence during the political process’ by shortening it to ‘political violence’. We made that mistake with domestic violence which should be ‘violence’. The home or politics are merely the situation of the crime, not an excuse for the crime. The injured and dead in the political situation are just as injured and dead as if armed robbers had attacked them. The ‘Cloak of Politics’ in no way lightens the pain of injury, the certainty of death or burden of guilt and the need for punishment. Anyone involved in suffering or maiming or murdering is a civilian coup plotter and should hold no public or political office -a moral position.

    But we are not alone in mob violence and even murder. Until recently the Southern USA relished lynching thousands of African Americans for imaginary and trivial ‘crimes’ like being in the wrong place – America-, looking at a white female or being disrespectful. These murderers were actively protected by police. There was no punishment as the blacks were classified as animals. It was so natural that the three or four or 50 white murderers, fathers and sons, wives and daughters, would gather round their victims hanging from or tied to a tree or spread out and barbecued on a fire, and have a photographer come from town, there was no selfie then, and take a picture for the newspaper and the family album. And they hung a few whites as well. Murder by mob lynching and burning was trivialised for them.

    This is no excuse for us. The heart of man is evil. That was racism at its worst. What is violence against your own Nigerian citizens to force your political will on them? Simply murder!  Are you a murderer-politician! Election violence can never be for service.

     

    • Please Vote ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES ON MARCH 9th-SDG 16.

     

  • Our Girls; Election, what election? Stop Sexual Abuse – ‘Do No Harm’

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Leah Sharibu and others are not released.

    Election, what election? The election has come but has not gone. Postponed, it will return on 23-2-2019. Election annulments and postponements and postponed delivery of the nation’s budget for nine months, the length of a pregnancy, are Nigeria’s democracy disasters, not dividends. We stupidly plan to re-elect the political perpetrators of four budget delays when the entire National Assembly (NASS) deserves our red card ban and total change! Incompetent politicians shout about INEC’s incompetence. Yes, but military and politicians have ruled incompetently and ruined Nigeria since 1966. Woe is Nigeria characterised by incompetence in budget and democracy delivery. In Nigeria only banks and politics are profitable!

    The Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) should compute the cost of this postponement in INEC staff redeployment and material re-transport, state and federal public holiday losses, private business losses from work free and travel free Saturday, local and international voters travel, international and local media, international observers’ travel and allowances and accommodation – paid for by the foreign embassies –, party agents, redeployment/ mobilization for the election next Saturday.  Add the cost to the people of booked international travel and hotels for postponed thousands of weddings and other events long planned for the 23rd and now cancelled, no refund, and needing rescheduling at what cost? INEC should have been warned by NISER of this cost months ago.

    Theodore McCarrick was a Cardinal and a former Archbishop of Washington now defrocked for sexual abuse of the flock in his care. Good. Others knew of such devastation actions and also share guilt. And they are not alone.

    Nigeria also has much sexual abuse and violence. Media reviewers regularly report another rape, murder for sexual parts and sexual predator pastors, lecherous lecturers and teachers and injuries to eyes and bodies from school beatings. Horrifyingly, at a Kuje, Abuja School for the Deaf, a six-year old deaf child reported sodomy, murder and cannibalism. Nigeria has an abysmal record in preventive certification, background checks and non-corrupt supervision of educational institutions. We must take action before vulnerable have become victims.

    Many girls are forced into ‘I will fail you if..’ sex  or volunteer for ‘Sex for Pass Mark’ or are sexually abused by those who have the power by teachers, students, domestic help, family members, employers, employees and relations. Uniformed men in stations and barracks use belts and beatings and ‘pepper in the private part’ of girls and boys and needle-like broomsticks stuck down the penis to extract confessions. Political thugs happily strip naked a mentally challenged woman, Dada – sexual humiliation and abuse. Will prosecution follow this Friday Eluro’s atrocity? Fear and money must not cancel the human rights and justice. Abi, no be so?

    Unfortunately, sexually depraved people who maneuver themselves into authority, brazenly abuse that sacred moral trust and responsibility for their victims tearing the fragile fabric of morality, destroying respect and terrifying into silence vulnerable victims plunged into misery and let down by a silent oppressive society in which physical child abuse is the norm and sexual abuse is just one step further. Even one sexual assault or violence incident can make the vulnerable lose their humanity and destabilise minds leading to personality, academic and social instability undiagnosed in the veil of silence. These are manifest by personality disorders like introversion, depression, fixation, unpredictability, low self-esteem and cowering, rebellion, poor academic performance, self-deprecation, self-harm, drug dependency, alcoholism, death-wish and suicide attempts, some just to seek love or attention. If the abuser goes uncaught and unpunished, some victims become convinced that sexual abuse is normal and defend the abuser’s actions – the Stockholm Syndrome. The victim may, thinking ‘do unto others as was done to you’ or seeking revenge, become the sexually abuser of the vulnerable next generation. Harvey Weinberg, Bill Cosby, Larry Nassir, Professor Richard Akindele are the tip of the iceberg of sexual predators in every country. How can we safeguard the vulnerable?

    Introduce in your workplace and home – Eight Anti-Sexual Abuse and Anti-Violence Strategies: Vigilance! Preventive Education of potential victims and perpetrators!! Display Rules To Prevent Sexual Abuse and Violence!!! Reporting and Suspension!!!!! Documentation of Abuse!!!! Investigation!!!!!! Prosecution!!!!!!! Regular Review!!!!!!!!

    The price of moral victory over sexual abusers and perpetrators of violence is eternal vigilance and high suspicion. ‘Vigilance Must Be Institutionalized’. Do not wait for a sexual abuse crime to be committed on your watch. That is culpable failure. Take preventive action. No place is immune.  ‘Prevention Is Better than Cure’, with posters of ‘Guidelines/Rules To Prevent Sexual Abuse And Violence’ designed, discussed, displayed on notice boards and letters of compliance signed up every religious and secular worker and volunteer in every circumstance without exception. Say no to one-on-one private meetings, day or night, behind closed doors and windows and drawn curtains. Demand open windows. Doctors should refuse to see any patient alone.

    Do no act you would be ashamed of featuring on TV news. Victims must be protected when reporting while the violator faces suspension, documentation of abuse or violence, investigation and prosecution. Regular review of sexual abuse and violence strategy like for security will guarantee wide knowledge of their criminal nature and devastating effects.   A good anti-sexual abuse rule for your poster/notice board is Chris Anderson’s dictum to NGOs in conflict zones – ‘Do No Harm’ to populations.

     

    • Do not be apathetic. Please Vote ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES this Saturday -SDG 16.

     

  • Our Girls; Adeyanju; AU; corruption; thugs

    Our Chibok Girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Inexplicably our Dapchi girl-child, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released.

    Who is DejiAdeyanju? Google him. Is it true that he is held by an arm of the authorities for 50 days? Can this happen to a human rights activist in 2019 with elections this weekend?

    Our research economists need to get to grips with the need to assess and publicise the cost of corruption in Nigeria. Have you ever thought about the road corruption in Nigeria and its cost in the loss of billions of hours and damage to millions of lives on a daily basis?

    A very simple case study follows…. In 1976 the short-lived but at the time visionary Lagos-Ibadan Expressway brought Lagos closer to Ibadan, just one hour instead of the Sagamu nightmare or having to go through Abeokuta. But it did not last because the road was, through a moral and monetary corruption, allowed to quickly collapse structurally through criminally negligent and prosecutable zero maintenance practices even though huge sums were being raked in from tolls on the users of the deteriorating road.  All this conspired to force traffic jams and new increased time separation of Lagos from Ibadan to 3-12 agonising hours. It took five hours to get to Lagos last Sunday afternoon!!! Corruption driven roads collapse destroying the private and work lives of citizens. Hundreds of kilometres of road, initially corruptly poorly built and corruptly certified by consulting engineers under the thumb of thieving politicians believed to be demanding 30-70% of the contract sums for ‘party purposes’ as good have caused a nationwide collapse of the road network during the last 30 years. Every year we hear of budgets to redo these corruption-driven rubbish roads. No heads ever roll for signing off these badly constructed substandard roads. Just more billions down the drain. Shamefully Nigeria seems permanently retrogressive. The political class has largely led us backwards or in reverse.  The longest lasting roads are those built in the 50s and 60s. We had railways in the 50 and 60s. I was travelling from Ibadan to Zaria in 1969 for NUGA games by train and Lagos-Ibadan in 45minutes on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Not now. Those roads and railways built in the 70s and beyond just have not lasted because of political myopia, over centralisation, anti-democracy policies and base corruption of political heart and mind.  You know the Romans built roads adding to them annually and they have lasted 2000 years. Nigeria takes forever to build any small rubbish road and spends forever before rehabilitation of the same road just like with its refineries.  The cancer of corruption is in money, maintenance and execution of projects and policies. Meanwhile we rot on the Lagos-Ibadan road, not expressway so long overdue for delivery.  Google China- Pakistan Road to see real roads.

    President Al Sissiof Egypt takes over the African Union chairmanship. This AU Summit seeks cooperation across the board in health care, economic development and progress. NEPAD is changing its name to African Union Development Agency along with other reforms. The AU Free Trade Agreement is moving forward without Nigeria. The AU is seeking increases in education and health budgets to meet UN guidelines of 15% for health and 26% for education to stem the tide of displacement, economic migration and lift millions out of poverty. Did Buhari or Osinbajo attend on behalf of Nigeria or were they on the campaign trail? Charity begins at home, I suppose.

    If you kill someone directly or allow or encourage anyone under your control to kill someone, then you are a murderer and the sentence for murder is life in prison or death. If you kill someone to take political advantages or political power in your village, community or nationally, you are not only a murderer entitled to a death penalty or life imprisonment, but you are also a coup plotter. You are murdering to divert the course of democracy and change the government against the will of the people-a coup by any definition. The punishment for coup plotting is prison or death. Violence, intimidation and bribery are also part of punishable efforts to divert the course of the democratic process -a coup.  The crime of murder is not diluted because it is done in the name of politics. The dead remain dead. The injured remain injured. An orphan status is permanent and made easier because it is the result of political murder.

    Many politicians have been seen with thugs and many citizens have already suffered at their hands. Thugs recruited to divert the course of democracy often become politicians themselves.  Any politician with thugs deserves to be disqualified in a modern ‘free and fair’ electoral process in Nigeria@2019.  Unfortunately idle youth have a job of begging at events and during the political cycle. If not given free money, which some politicians have to steal from the public purse to give to thugs and run campaigns, the thugs quickly resort to rowdiness and the destruction of nearby infrastructure and destabilise the democratic process.

    A free and fair and violence free election is not a Nigerian impossibility but a political developmental necessity. It happened before. You must help. Do not encourage thugs, murder, violence, intimidation and please Vote ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES this Saturday February 16-SDG 16.

  • Our Girls;  Youth; ASUU; Election- no violence, bribes

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Inexplicably our Dapchi girl-child, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released.  Still more Boko Haram murders.

    The huge turnout of desperate youth for the nationwide #BigBrother Naija auditions is a pointer to the suffering and yawning chasm in the lives of the youth seeking solutions to the problem in their lives – access to a normal livelihood in which aspirations can be achieved by hard work and honesty. They are forced to fight for spaces in a sometimes disgraceful show of shameful human emotions that is voyeurism at its worst. But can these same youth translate or metamorphose that demonstrated attempt to solve this desperation into the need to act in the coming political arena, not as thugs but as keen voters immune to bribes? They know the cause of their lack of jobs is entirely political, greed and corruption-based all compounded by Nigeria being a country with the most expensive electricity supply in the world -generator power complicating business models and compounding the cost of doing business and being a customer in Nigeria for every single citizen. Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, has computed that approximately N246b was spent on generator fueling in two years. All this is transferred directly to the client or customer through higher charges.

    The youth voters we know are in their good numbers, enough to swing the election in any direction they want. Will the youth vote contribute to getting the needed political change and come out with similar dedication, conviction and tenacity to ensure that they all, and their friends and peers, vote on February 16? The youth vote can swing the election in any direction it wants. But it requires to be united to make the needed change. If it unites behind one candidate nationwide, it could place any president in power of its choosing. Fragmented, the youth vote will be of no impact. By the way some smart youth has printed a ‘Big Brother PQP’ for sale. Anything to survive. But there is a problem with the youth of corporate Nigeria’s making. The whole issue of ‘instant millionairism’ was started years ago in the promotional bonanzas and prizes across many companies. The youth were attracted to quick money without work. At its peak every day, they advertised one or 10 instant millionaire competitions amounting to N2-3billion/year. All these have corrupted the minds of the youth raising a few winners, many losers and many more frustrated with life.

    It a great disgrace to Nigeria that its youth struggling to face their studies at university are on the receiving end of the ASUU strike. Everywhere we run into frustrated youth, sitting at home frustrated beyond words as time ticks by, time that cannot be recalled, while government and ASUU posture and play the game of negotiation, TV dramatics and media grandstanding. Sadly government continues to shirk its responsibility to meet criminal shortfalls in the education budget responsible for the disastrous state of the universities being campaigned against by ASUU. It is always a pity that the Nigerian public stands aside and masquerades as innocent bystanders or a disinterested  crowd when such strikes occur and watch instead of coming down in favour of one or the other side based on wise counsel. We have not heard any outcry by a parent and guardian coalition or more importantly the alumni associations of the universities backs by facts and figures in favour of one side or the other. Analytical education news articles on the causes and consequences of the strike are sadly thin on the ground in number and especially in vital statistics. ASUU is notorious for being a poor public advocate of the need for a strike and public opinion is too often swayed against ASUU by fickle press stories. Nobody wants a strike. Any incoming government must face its enormous responsibility to clean up the mess created in education by serial underfunding of past governments whose heads sit on the Council of State and continue to mislead us into the future.

    The courts have finally forced the forfeiture of Patience Jonathan’s N1b even as they have lost all credibility in the eyes of the public with judge after judge falling under the microscope but no all passing the anticorruption test.

    The arctic freeze is a reminder of the fragility of the earth and how lucky we are in Nigeria. Just imagine for a moment if we had such weather and such a poor power supply system. Just imagine how many would be frozen to death. So far, our greedy, selfish politicians, totally responsible for our situation of ‘the poorest power grid in Africa’ are very lucky that we are so complacent and the weather is so good to us and we accept and cope with the heat.

    As we prepare to vote next Saturday, look at the politicians you seek to place in power over you for the next four years and count the number of thugs they move around with. The more the thugs the less the sincerity. Please work for a peaceful election and keep as many photographs of any violence without endangering yourself. Death is permanent to thug and voter.  We want to vote without violence!

     

    • Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16.

     

  • Our Girls;  Send no senator to senate; Court a tragicomedy

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Inexplicably our Dapchi girl-child, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released.

    The senate has proved to be not ‘fit for purpose’, its greed, infighting, unity against interrogation and self-preservation strategies making it out of touch with the needs of a country with 70+% in poverty. Its nauseating fake and real self-generated corruption stories terrify us. Senate: Commit hara-kiri, suicide, abolish yourself or be abolished!

    Nigerians -perhaps we should send no senator to senate by not voting for anyone senator in the coming election. This would abolish senate from the Nigerian governance structure.

    Please collate the most important political manifesto points and come up with your People’s Manifesto. Historically politicians rarely do what they say pre-election. Restructuring is the bait by every opposition party but dropped once in offices as it is a distraction from the huge amount of money to be abused and misused. Restructuring is the recurrent sweetener of a party which did nothing when it had power. Who is talking about cutting National Assembly (NASS) salaries? Trade and professional unions must include NASS salary cut in wage demands. We do not hear of which politicians or parties will improve the value of the naira as a weapon against poverty. Please ask them at the debates.  If only all the youth voted for one new party’s candidate, the old parties would be swept into retirement.  Why did Oby Ezekwesili resign? Did she jump or was she pushed? Was it altruism, international job temptations, thinking that she will split the ethnic vote between her party and Obi’s party or cold feet?  What is the cost of her decision, financially, morally, vote-wise? Certainly those who watched her as an admired frontline activist and woman with the best chance ever in Nigeria on the presidential debate, question this about-turn in the twisted political history of Nigeria.

    Court as a circus or tragicomedy: Nigeria has lost its CJN to presidential suspension and gained an Acting CJN who they say is an expert in Sharia Law and 32 children. In Nigeria every political action is as clear as mud, the true goals buried deep in harmattan mists. Is this CJN tragicomedy about concealed bank accounts – a crime- or the time – just before the elections? Is it about the sectional demand to have a CJN by all means possible? Is it a blanket APC plot in the face of a PDP threat? Are we watching true justice at work, with EFCC merely doing its job? Should we clap or boo? Is EFCC uncharacteristically efficient? If so, at whose prompting? Why is the court system suddenly supremely efficient trying a case within a matter of days while other cases languish for many years? Why do the lawyers scuffle over where, when and how the events should unfold and before which court of correct jurisdiction?

    Is the CJN such a dumbo to have seriously concealed such sums in identifiable accounts when he has just presided over a purge of the judiciary for judges found to have unexplainable or explainable money in their own homes? Presumably the EFCC of that time investigated all judges or was it just southern judges. Surely the CJN must have been included in the EFCC investigation at the time. Is it true that that northern judges need not acquire personal possessions like fat bank accounts from shady deals as their every need is attended to by the northern patronage and reward system unlike the southern system where every man is on his own making self-accumulation almost a professional calling with governance or job-performance a sideshow? Will we ever really know the truth about this CJN transition/suspension? What is it really? Is it a Supreme Court coup, a ruling APC counter coup following a political bribe to a CJN, a northern coup against a southern CJN?

    For many years we have said that investigated officials should step aside during investigation. Is the presidential suspension a forced stepping aside to allow normal unfettered investigation or something more vindictive and sinister? Would anyone actually suspend a whole CJN from any part of the country without solid facts of transgression? Yes, a then serving minister, Professor Grange was taken to court and disgraced in a media trial only to be vindicated two years later. Why were the facts not discovered during the saga of the investigation before the long night of the raids on judges? What manner of judge would assume such a sensitive and exposed position with such baggage hidden in such plain site?

    There is much more than meets the eye. We must ask of our judges -who is clean among you and who is wrongly stained by often-warped political expediency? Is it not strange that a whole CJN’s trail is being tossed around like an egg used as football? Where is the vice president’s advice in all of this? Justice Ayo Salami and Justice Teslim Elias were vindicated. The arguments bewilder us as lawyers take huge sums and vehemently express opposite opinions with no punishment for being wrong. Finally, the nasty putrid practice of justice makes one feel afraid, very afraid for Nigeria which has no case to answer.

    Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16.

  • Our Girls; Who killed the naira? 18-40 voter power

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Inexplicably our Dapchi girl-child, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released.

    So UNILAG has a TV station. Excellent.

    Ask yourself, since you were born, who in any government has ever really cared or cares about your earning power or the value of the money you work so hard to put on the table for your employees and in your pocket for your family needs and deserved human pleasures? Many currencies have been devalued as a result of war, corrupt diversion of the people’s resources, and even during periods of peace if that peace was not accompanied by justice. Some currencies across the world have suffered even more than our naira has but that can never be a satisfactory excuse to justify the abuse of the principles of economics in favour of the greedy and selfish in Nigeria’s politics, banking and business circles.

    Indeed this fall in the naira over the decades, amounting to a 3670% fall is due to misapplied principles and poor development strategies by bad and ignorant politicians and military personnel, all not dedicated enough to public good or knowledgeable enough in governance to hold public office and public trust. In short, politics, banking and business have abandoned the Nigerian citizenry. This has collectively resulted in a free fall of the currency, plunging over 70% below the poverty line, pauperizing and reducing the economic power of the citizenry. All this while they, the perpetrators wallow in stolen but stable foreign currencies made stable by the caring and hard work of other countries’ leading citizens. In those countries, there are enough good leaders who put their currency, country and citizenry needs over and above their personal ambition and greed. This has allowed their own countries and citizens to survive relatively intact.

    Nigerians must never agree to the fake news that their plight as Nigerians living without even basic 20th Century amenities like power, sanitation, water, education, health, pothole free roads available in larger quantity and better quality in every other African country, is divine or of their own making. Politicians rig elections, not citizens. Politicians recruit thugs, not citizens. Politicians steal ballot box, not citizens. We must never forget that in spite of the problems visited on us politically by the colonialists who handed us a rigged election and a deliberately divided country, they also handed us a strong currency, one which was also strong when we changed to naira. I remember buying $1.5: N1 in 1976 before the 50 year season of locusts which valued foreign currency above all else carelessly devalued our naira in order to pay government bills with less and less foreign exchange. Today I buy at N367: $1. What measure of economic testimony is that to a lifetime of work?

    The economist Chike Obi is reported to have said that it is essential for the naira to be devalued further to assist the economic recovery. Further devaluation will rubbish any salary increase negotiated with government and will further pauperise millions. In keeping with Buhari’s single-handed but much opposed principle of saving the naira as the currency is the pride of a nation, the government has however taken the view that the panic and speculation and corruption driven criminal 2015 devaluation to as low as N400:$1 and slight recovery was more than enough devaluation. The absolutely evil machinations of many bankers, economists, politicians and military adventurists in power which have brought the naira to this low level during my life time of working since 1970 when I first earned money as a demonstrator in anatomy in University of Ibadan quite certainly crippled me and my medical business, halving our income in foreign exchange terms and paralyzing our ability to purchase dollar valued equipment to uplift Nigerians with cutting edge medical equipment. That equipment is way out of our reach now the naira is toilet paper and single digit loans are impossible or finally given at nearly 30% and bribes are demanded in some banks or bank charges are added later on after published loan rates are approved. Now most of our incomes are burnt in the generators to maintain power, just like for many millions who did not steal a kobo or misappropriate the people’s wealth.

    Instead of allowing the foreign exchange coming into the CBN to be stolen, misused, it appears that Buhari and presumably the CBN, have used a good part of the funds to stabilize the naira, though the CBN is not an incorruptible saint judging by the humongous wealth of some of its ex-directors seeking to be governors. Will such people not demand a huge return on the funds spend on the election? And has CBN been audited?

    I do not hear of any plans by any incoming politicians to improve the naira value. Devalue the naira, devalue Nigerians, devalue Nigeria.

    In 2019, the vote of the under 40s can swing the election in favour of a completely different candidate and party. Our 18-40 year-olds, comprising 60% of the electorate, should strategise to take the electoral power, stop being sidelined, stop sidelining themselves, stop taking bribes for votes, stop offering themselves as thugs or cannon-fodder and vote with the conscience and not stomach. Nigeria can be given a systemic political shockwave sweeping away much of the water hyacinth blocking its development.

    Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16.

  • Our Girls; CJ; Power plot; Ibadan Lagos gridlock 

    Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Unfortunately our Dapchi girl, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released and still remains under the threat of death.

    Who is afraid of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN)J? The trial or non-trial of the CJN will create an unnecessary dust storm or is it s smoke screen?

    Power failure is not our lot. It is the result of a plot to keep Nigerians busy existing so we cannot interrogate the huge failure of our government to provide more power to meet the needs of the nation without resort to hyper-expensive and debilitating generator power.

    I had the privilege of visiting Nike Art Gallery in Lekki, Lagos, during the last week. The layout is amazing, rising four floors to a peak, each floor packed, and I mean packed, with a treasure trove of artworks covering all known genres. From the courtyard and its array of peculiar iron welded seats, human and animal shapes to the backyard. From the front doors to the ceiling, the space exudes some of the finest pieces created by our artists of all ages. The colours are an eye-full everywhere you look and the sizes vary from tiny recycled key rings which could easily have become earrings made out of recycled and processed plastic to giant beaded works depicting the Chibok girls looking despondent and abandoned in all their forlorn suffering. Lagos traffic is well represented. The naughtily immortal Fela has a huge multidimensional foot print, face print and quotes from his songs print and the classic depiction of the beauty of the female form is most strikingly exemplified by the ten or so large brightly painted depictions of an ode to the large size in range of female form at the very top of the pyramid of artistic wonders. I have known the one and only Nike – Chief Dr Mrs Nike Okundaye for more than 30 years. She has always been, maximally energetic and you should see her dancing with her team. I have yearned all this while to visit the museum which I found a delight of indescribable joy. It is a carefully tended oasis of dense knowledge and beauty in the midst of our very rough sea of those unable by self-imposed restrictions and work schedules or just plain unappreciative of the arts. All who enter the portals will come away enriched, enlightened and desirous of picking something up. Unfortunately I could only afford two different catalogues which I purchased for my NGO, Educare Trust, for the youth to understand the value and quality of artistic expression and end-products possible from recycling paper, bottle tops, bottles, metal objects et cetera. This Nike Art Gallery should be on the ‘TTD’ Things To Do list of everyone in and out of Lagos to get a synopsis of the Nigerian Art world under one roof and at one sitting. There is a legion of lizards somewhere in the gallery, I will not tell you where. Please go and visit and discover where the lizards are.

    What you see displayed is less than 10 percent of the actual quantity of artwork in the gallery. All around you see paintings stored against walls and squeezed between other exhibits each piece begging for a space on a wall. We must do what is done in other countries and develop our private and public Arts and Science Museum and Exhibition footprint.  Corporate Nigeria would do well to get behind efforts like that described above of Nike Arts Gallery to help fund the expansion and accommodation of all the accumulated artworks in one or several galleries for the enlightenment of the youth nationwide. This must be coupled to increased student traffic from schools and universities while encouraging more tourist visitors.

    The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway still under construction has after a two-week respite to allow free movement has reverted to its former depressing narrowing of the lanes to two with disastrous consequences on the travelling public. There is no effort by contractor or supervising government to ease the suffering of the citizens in the massive volume of traffic in those areas, with 5-6 lanes trying to shrink to two lanes. Nigerians did not cause the delay in the construction but it seems that the contractors do not care what happens to the citizens. This type of action must be challenged.

    Hurray as a result of the wonderful work of exposing N7 billion fraud annually at JAMB by Professor Oloyede, there has been a fall in the cost of JAMB forms.

    What politicians in positions they themselves identified during pre-election campaigns as ‘Opportunities to Serve’ in National Assembly (NASS) and government have failed to learn from history is that as often ‘fraudulently elected’ members of the board of ‘The Business called Nigeria’, their preoccupation with selfish status quo and greed-driven Parasitic Profit-taking from ‘The Business called Nigeria’ has prevented progress of ‘The Business called Nigeria’. Also they place too much faith in ‘Unitary’, a militaristic, autocratic, one-size-must-fit-all the 365 ethnic populations. The truth that ‘diversity and differential growth were much more federal even before federalism came to be bastardised and bring much faster development’ has been suppressed, opposed and vilified. Decentralization or deregulation will allow new businesses to spring up and new directions to be explored beyond the conservative elite’s narrow interpretation of the business of governance.

    Urgently Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 elections -SDG 16.