The Nation Newspaper

Tag: genius

  • Evil Genius at 75

    Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), former military president who, at the height of the June 12, 1993 presidential annulment crisis boasted that he was not only in government but also in power, is 75.

    Perhaps as a special birthday self-abnegation,  he declared he was no evil genius.  Too late!  The genius of the evil rascal pork-marked his reign as military president, with all its blood, all its gore (from those executed for failed coups); and the ultimate in the political equivalent of the unforced error in tennis: annulment of MKO Abiola’s victory at the 1993 presidential election.

    By that single stroke of avoidable rascality, IBB snatched villainy, when his lot could have been honour, given that he conducted the freest election ever in Nigerian history.

    But how about this for some birthday purgatory over past chances fluffed; and opportunities lost — and wilfully too!

    “I am not the evil genius that quite a lot of people consider me to be,” — really? “By virtue of the job I was doing, I was bound to be misconstrued; and my actions interpreted as evil.” Well confessed!  “I consider what people say as an opinion, as long as I am not what you think I was, I feel satisfied.”  Plain truth, or another empty bluff?

    Anyway, the general, who went by the nickname Maradona, complete with his own “hand of  of God”, made sure he threw sops, just to capture the yearning of the moment — the imperative for part-time parliamentarians to cut the cost of governance.

    But it was both what he said, and how he said it, that set the alarm of the mind ringing, particularly for the perceptive, who can read between the lines.  Hear the Maradona himself:

    “In 1989, we proposed that the membership of the National Assembly should be on part-time basis.” he recalled. “If I have the opportunity to change the course of events in this country, either as a president (sic), I still believe in that very strongly, all in an effort to cut the cost of governance.”

    That proposal may be a historical fact. But still, it sounds so rich for a man who ran perhaps the most profligate government, bar Goodluck Jonathan’s, with its democratisation of corruption, in Nigerian history.

    But the niggling riddle, it would appear, is the hope that seems to spring eternal in IBB’s heart, in apparent fixation with the presidential chamber: “If I have the opportunity to change the course of events in this country …”.

    Now, what the hell was that?  Legitimate hope of the committed, or the audible hallucination by a soul who had everything to make a positive difference, as a military dictator, yet wilfully  blew it all by his bad choices?

    If Babangida ever has the opportunity to change the course of events — perish the thought!  After eight years of untrammelled power, which he ended with the voiding of a free election, a reckless action that nearly plunged a country that gave him everything into war?  Excuse me!

    That, by the way, leads to the final puzzle — when will IBB apologise for the evil of annulling the June 12, 1993 election, in which he violated about every decent rule?

    For starters, that plunged his country into a needless crisis — clearly unpatriotic.  Then,  the brazen and anti-democratic act of annulling a people’s democratic choice, freely made — utterly condemnable.  Of course,  the grave perfidy to a friend. IBB started the macabre drama  that climaxed in MKO losing his life, after spending his four-year presidential term in the Abacha gulag. With a friend like IBB, did MKO need an enemy?

    Hardball’s message to IBB at 74? Apologise to Nigerians for betraying their trust; and to MKO for betraying his friendship — and do it when you still have life!

    For a 75-year-old — though Hardball wishes you many more years yet — time is running out!  Such a heavy burden is not what anyone prays to take to his maker.

  • Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu and the burden of genius (2)

    •(Intrigues as petroleum minister grapples with challenges of office)

    Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu is a supporting actor in President Muhammadu Buhari’s ‘change’ fiction or drama of ‘change’ if you like. At a glance, he seems an ideal ambassador of ‘change’ but has he the political and ideological bent to actualise Mr. President’s anti-corruption crusade in the oil sector? Has he the nerve to turn his office into something more than an economic labyrinth and political jailhouse? If he fails, his name and reputation will suffer for it.

    There is no gainsaying the Nigerian corridor of power is booby trapped to thwart genius. A rabble of genii has fallen in recent past to her decadent pleasures and cruelties. By their deeds, they become a profanation of sterling stewardship in public office. After Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Reuben Abati to mention a few, one gets the feeling that entrusting a genius with a Nigerian public office is an exercise in futility. It’s akin to tying the Mediterranean with palm fronds for storage against drought.

    Time was, when the argument was entirely against the ‘system’ thus making a case for the genius. But a new school of thought emerges and it advances the perspective that the genius should no longer be let off the hook by the simple technicality of his perceived powerlessness against a corrupt system and hostile work environment. That is simply one way to look at it and it is a grossly skewed portrait of the status quo presented in defense of the genius.

    Managing a public office is no walk in the park, particularly in Nigeria. Yet the Nigerian genius with an Ivy League education and impressive track record eagerly accepts to serve the country, with promises of hope and positive change. It is always fascinating to see such individuals however, morph into grotesque apparitions of the patriots they were meant to become. Annoyingly, they do so with unpardonable cheek and a swivel-it-finger-in-your-face stance.

    Kachikwu should be different. He should be that interpreter of ‘change’ who keeps his wits about him. He shouldn’t fall to the lure of the decadent and all powerful ‘system.’ Can he?

    His predecessors suffered irreparable loss of self. Kachikwu shouldn’t. Avarice, extreme confidence and god-complex are familiar hyper-states that destroyed preceding genii. These familiar evils stifled their minds and enslaved them to vulgar luxury and other unimaginable obscenities. Lots of promising folk have extinguished in name and status on this charred, crimson path. It takes a man of unusual integrity and strong personality to tower above such decadence.

    In the unfolding drama of ‘change,’ greed is the depravity that Kachikwu should shun. The ‘young oil Turks’ and the aging cabal dominating the oil sector have overtime, evolved an enduring culture of acquisitiveness, self-centeredness and mediocrity as the benchmark of stewardship and moral fibre in the sector. With the connivance of the immediate past administration, they created and sustained a daemonic lyre of gluttony and lust as the language of transaction and service in the oil industry.

    Consequently, the need for competence and accountability was serially altered into an imperial hankering for unearned dividends and mechanised pilfering. Public service in the oil sector thus split in two, taking on the forms of a vulgar gladiatorship by perverse civil servants and leisure-class banditry by aberrant oil magnates.

    At the twilight of the last administration, Nigeria came face to face with the garish licentiousness and dishonesty of the characters that ran the oil industry aground. President Buhari swore to retrieve the country’s looted funds from these bandit breed. To this end, the nation is treated to a tragicomedy of the feverish hunt and prosecution of culprits at home and abroad. While it is too early to give the president kudos for operationalising his anti-corruption crusade beyond platitudinous jingle, one cannot but appreciate the haunted glares of the culprits as they scurry for safe havens abroad, their trails littered with their plundered and pasty spoils.

    Kachikwu had better take in the imagery of nemesis and remorse. Let it guide him as he serves as the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    Lest we forget Kachikwu’s assurance to Nigerians that although the challenge of cleaning NNPC will be a bumpy ride, it will be exciting. He promised that it will eventually yield positive results. Positive results for whom? It’s about time the NNPC boss understood that Nigerians are more aware and interested in their affairs. Nigerians are paying his salary and they deserve more than his subtle retractions and fragile excuses.

    Until the lingering fuel scarcity became the plague of the country, fuel was being sold at N86.50 per litre. That pleasing reality eventually morphed into a grisly and enduring nightmare. Nigerians expect him to evolve a regime that would make fuel more affordable to the citizenry and eliminate insititutionalised corruption in the NNPC. Nigerians expect him to furnish the country periodically, with details of the workings and actual proceeds of the oil industry. It is not only the president that he is accountable to in such respect. There are a lot of other products refined from the nation’s crude oil; in the spirit of accountability and his touted love of transparency, let Kachikwu furnish Nigerians with transparent account of the workings of the oil corporation periodically. Nothing should be done in secret anymore.

    It’s about time Nigeria stopped watching helplessly as her public officers, NNPC top executives inclusive, meet with oil magnates in hotel lounges and suites abroad – I hope Kachikwu really understands this. Any such meeting done in secret with a select few often reek of suspicious or malicious intent against the progress of the nation’s oil sector and the country in general.

    It could be rewarding fellating Kachikwu’s ego but that would be disastrous to his persona and career as a public servant. Nigeria needs Kachikwu to evolve and uphold professionalism and a moral culture impervious to degeneration and machinations of the oil industry’s bogeymen.

    If Kachikwu succeeds at his current brief, the ricochet of his exploits would serve a greater purpose than justifying President Buhari’s second term agenda, if actually the president nurtures any such ambition. Besides ameliorating the pains of the citizenry, his sterling success and patriotism at his job, will stand him in good stead for more significant leadership role in future. Kachikwu needs to evolve an enduring moral code unyielding to any baggage from his past – if any such baggage actually exists – and amenable to higher responsibilities in future.

    Agreed, moral codes could be somewhat obstructive, relative and counter-productive, particularly when pitched against a vicious circle of leeches and reprobates but ultimately, moral codes are of inestimable benefits to civilisation. Without them, we are vulnerable to the degenerate barbarism of gluttony, amorality and wanton tyranny of the self-seeking and covetous. It was a lack of moral code and personal ethics that ruined the names and reputation of immediate past genii in Nigeria’s power circuits.

    Picture a future with an unsullied Kachikwu, Okonjo-Iweala, Babatunde Fashola, Reuben Abati and their likes in sensitive public offices and as drivers of the Nigerian State. Imagine a future whereby such men and women are peacefully ushered off the corridors of power after meritorious service in the interest of the collective – that would be a future to die for no doubt.

    Kachikwu should understand that public service and valour need to be humanely planned, not cashed in upon or taken advantage of with a haughty smirk and condescending smile. There are all sorts of questions and consequences to ponder before the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, adopts his next economically or politically expedient measure.

    Let’s hope Kachikwu understands that at the end, he would be judged by how adroitly he scorns or tones to minimum, the arrogance implicit in leadership and the corruption characteristic of power. Right now, Kachikwu is too ordinary. Nigeria needs him to be extraordinary.

  • Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu and the burden of genius (1)

    •Intrigues as Petroleum Minister grapples with challenges of office

    In few months, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu will be seen as a national boon or disaster. He will be hailed as a round peg in a round hole or tirelessly maligned as the fig that lets down the leaf; the affliction that has to be concealed or expunged. Until then, Kachikwu will stew in metamorphosis. The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) dissolves into multiple identities characterised by the oil industry’s familiar bogeys, even as you read.

    His transformation is akin to Daniel Orowole Fagunwa’s mythical forest ghommid’s. Other beings pass through him  as if he were a wraith. He is like Fagunwa’s ghommid, who transforms into a tree, an antelope, a raging inferno, a bird, water and a menacing snake. While Fagunwa’s mythical creature assumes more or less the characteristics typical of its new category of being, Kachikwu struggles to preserve his individuality, mostly the capacity to think and act humanely, against the power and intimidation of Nigeria’s oil cabal.

    Yes, Kachikwu, despite his brilliance and touted vigour, may hardly be a match for Nigeria’s predatory band of oil Turks and cliques in the energy sector. But his office demands that he assumes a front, thus his frantic posturing and pretension to purpose and valour. It would be delightful however, to see Kachikwu succeed where his predecessors failed woefully but he needs generous doses of forthrightness to do that. He needs to be a man or the best form of public servant that his employer, President Muhammadu Buhari, wants him to epitomise. Can he?

    Despite his initial braggadocio or what is known in street parlance as Initial Gra Gra (IGG), Kachikwu seems woefully handicapped to effect the needed turnaround in the nation’s oil sector. Perhaps he isn’t, he simply glamourises the knack for making ill-advised commentary and pledges before assessing his capacity to withstand backlash and deliver on his words.

    Take for instance, his circus acts in the nation’s oil sector – his recent “I am not a magician” riposte to Nigerians groaning under the weight of the lingering fuel scarcity predates a recent report by The Cable, an online medium, that credited Kachikwu with the information that the nation’s refineries are working at 30 percent capacity as against the minimum 60 percent required to generate profit.

    He was quoted thus: “Personally, I will have chosen to sell the refineries, but President Buhari has instructed that they should be fixed. After they are fixed, if they still operate below 60 per cent, then we will know what to do…The 90-day ultimatum for the refineries to be fixed will end in December and Port Harcourt Refinery looks like the only one that will meet the deadline, but we will wait and see what happens at the end of the 90 days.”

    It is over 90 days and if you take the pains to skim over the folds of officialese and doleful cliffhanger nuggets contained in his disclosure, you just might find that Kachikwu may have tacitly prepared our minds for one of his several failures or his only failure perhaps. Earlier, he said that in view of the nation’s low refining capacity, there was need to establish more refineries in the country. “I am pushing to build new refineries next to our existing plants in order to boost the nation’s refining capacity for the common good,” Kachikwu stated, explaining that the new refineries will be developed by private investors and that NNPC will simply provide them spaces close to the existing refineries to enable them share key facilities such as pipelines and storage facilities.

    If you consider this in light of his alleged preference for selling off the refineries, you could be forgiven for getting lost in the NNPC head honcho’s maze of double speak and embarrassing retractions. Following his recent cancellation of the oil swap deals instituted by the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and his Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, the NNPC boss did a cartwheel to tactfully rescind his decision.

    Apologists of Kachikwu claimed he was only doing the president’s bidding but critics of the NNPC boss earnestly aver that President Buhari couldn’t have taken the decision without the knowledge and approval of the NNPC boss. Whatever the case, Kachikwu is either a talisman that the presidency reckons with or a human sound bite employed to unquestioningly rubber-stamp Mr. President’s caprices. Is he?

    It would be recalled that major oil tycoons became jittery and desperate to save their businesses in the wake of the NNPC’s cancellation of Offshore Processing Agreements (OPAs) and Crude Oil Swap (COS) deals entered with them. This was because their businesses plummeted in the absence of the several shady deals entrenched by the immediate past corrupt regime. Likewise, the federal government placed a ban on 113 oil vessels for perceived infractions. The presidency has since lifted the ban on the 113 tankers and the NNPC has tacitly reinstituted the controversial OPAs and COS, it would seem.

    Earlier, the Ahmed Joda-led Presidential Transition Committee had recommended to President Buhari to carry out a comprehensive audit of all OPAs and COS deals entered by the NNPC. The committee said the audit would help government identify and claim any reimbursements for excess crude oil lifted under the controversial OPA and swap arrangements to establish the quantity of products delivered based on a fair and transparent audit process. Kachikwu subsequently hinted that all Production Sharing Contracts, (PSCs), Joint Venture Contract Agreements (JVCAs) and all other contracts between the NNPC and its various partners would be reviewed to reflect actualities in the global oil and gas industry. He stated that as part of the measures to optimise the marketing of Nigeria’s crude oil and secure new market potential, the number of off-takers for the proposed 2015/2016 term contracts, which would emerge after a planned rigorous competitive bid had been pruned from 43 to 16. The corporation however, extended invitation to few oil companies affected by the cancellation of the deal.

    Despite Kachikwu’s show of running the process in the spirit of transparency, fears abound that the he is impotent against the intimidating clout and pressure from certain quarters that he favoured the same corrupt oil firms responsible for the misfortunes bedeviling the nation’s oil sector.

    Given his sterling achievements in academia and the private business sector, Kachikwu seemed every inch capable for the onerous task of sanitising the grossly corrupt and ailing oil sector, at his appointment as Minister of State, Petroleum Resources and NNPC boss. A doctor of Law, Kachikwu graduated with distinction from the University of Nigeria (UNN) Nsukka and he was the best graduating student from the Law School, winning seven of the available nine prizes in 1999. He holds the LLM Harvard Distinction and was best graduate in 1980 with specialisation in Energy, Petroleum Law and Investment. Kachikwu has more than 30 years experience in policy- making positions in the petroleum industry serving in various capacities thus he seems well equipped for the job but for a snag, he is a Nigerian genius.

    Nigerian genii seldom fluorish in public office. Ultimately, they serve as puppets or impractical characters enabling the greed and mediocrity of their principals or associates in corridors of power. Kachikwu, like such genii, has betrayed little character or justifiable individuality so far.

    However, in the wake of his controversial “I am not a magician” statement and his subsequent apology, Nigerians, despite their impatience, need to exercise greater patience with him. His high office couldn’t have obliterated his fabled genius, as it did, the smarts of his predecessors after all.

    Yet if a public officer truly reflects the character of his principal or employer, the presidency becomes the teat from which Kachikwu sucks his new identity. The impact so far, has been enlightening. Nonetheless, Kachikwu is either a failure or success in process.

     

  • Students present Genius Next Door

    To mentor the youth, a group of students from first and second generation universities has collected the memoirs of successful individuals in academics and the business world to guide students on how they can excel in their chosen careers.

    At the presentation of the book titled: Genius Next Door, which was held at the Cooperative Building of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Science Education of the Bowen University, Prof Samuel Ilori, who delivered a keynote address, said a genius was a person with exceptional ability which may be natural or acquired. He said a genius possessed exceptional mental ability and endowment.

    On how students could expand their academic potential, Prof Ilori, said: “Students can achieve academic excellence through good mastery of the course and assimilation by meditation. Proper understanding of the course and overnight reading and effective study make student to be successful.”

    A literary icon, Prof Daniel Izevbaye, noted that there were many unrealised and unfulfilled geniuses among the youth. He said without passion for excellence, genius would be useless. “Don’t be discouraged by your background. Persistence, passion, determination get you there,” he said.

    Alex Adegboye, a senior pastor at The Stone Church International, said reading biographies of great men would help the youth to discover themselves. He said: “I have books about wicked people that ever lived. It is through the study of books that I found Jesus. Everything exists in books. Don’t base your life on what people say. Read to be informed. Do something with your life. Education should help develop your area of strength. No two people are equal. We have special abilities. Make yourself a genius.”

    Ademola Adesola, a Senior Special Assistant to Govenor Rauf Aregbesola on Media, said that the only advice he had for the young people was to read extensively. He bought copies of the book to be distributed to schools in Osogbo.

    Kunle Ajayi, co-ordinator of Graffito Initiative, said it was never too late for anyone to become the person he dreamed to be. “Our moment of rebirth arrives when we recognise our inherent creative value,” he said.

  • Achebe: a tsunami of crocodile tears; Wanted: Genius Grants in budgets, books in schools!

    Achebe: a tsunami of crocodile tears; Wanted: Genius Grants in budgets, books in schools!

    Chinua Achebe whose ‘Things fall apart…..the centre cannot hold’, has given Nigerians and others worldwide, in 50 languages, happy rehearsal times, exciting copycat wrestling scenes, many jokes, the fruition of a myriad love unions, many pre-examination sleepless nights and a legion of pleasant memories. Thank you, Sir. May you Rest in Perfect Peace. Amen! Note ‘Chinua Achebe’ does not flag red for ‘spell check’ on computers as the name is ‘recognised’-an accolade speaking louder than ‘GCON’ Awards. Achebe studied with a ‘wonderful school library’ and started medicine in the University College, Ibadan, only to change after a year –Nigerian medicine’s loss and world literature’s gain. So many in medicine write seriously – an old ‘disease’ needing a new name–mediliteratitis or mediliteratureitis. You choose! But contrast his literature book access in Umuahia 1944 to our 2013 bookless, libraryless and a nearly illiterate youth and readerless society. What price a book- Achebe’s death?

    Weep with those who will cry a ‘tsunami of crocodile tears’ in the corridors of power. Many of those crying loudest championed the truncating of education, practical science and book availability during 1983-2013 and some now actually sit in senate perpetuating mischief! Boko Haram started, surreptitiously, then as Boko Haram Phase 1, with falling standards, federal government anti-reading policies and withdrawal of annual grants for library books and sports. Phase 2 is the bombs, burning and executions. There were probably more literature books in Chinua Achebe’s primary and secondary schools and University College Ibadan in 1944-50 than now – 50 years and $600,000,000,000 later. He nearly died in a Nigerian pothole and moved to the USA where care of the physically challenged is a human right, not a human wrong and a First Lady ‘alanu’ Easter hand-out photo-op. No doubt some government organs and many people who could have, but did not, provide the needed 17million books, will pay a few millions for a ‘befitting burial’ – the one thing Nigerians are expert at- funeral extravagance and financial waste in the abuse of culture!

    Meanwhile the schools will remain bookless as we await another ‘irreplaceable icon’ to die. The Nigerian presidents, blessed with inexplicable longevity, who failed in every sphere including education, are mostly still alive. Is this their punishment- to witness a failed education system in a failing state with failed ‘simple science’ refineries? Do they have any conscience as they spew out ‘obituary sound bites’? If he, the great Chinua Achebe, could not influence Nigeria to buy books for children during 82 years of an illustrious literary life, what hope have we with our petty articles, like this, in an ignored and vilified press? Literature, culture and the arts are entrepreneurship strategies abroad, creating events and T-shirt and other memorabilia and also wealth. But do Nigerian banks and corporate Nigeria know that?

    Let us weep real rain forest tears for our children’s booklessness even as those with power achieve nothing and weep a tsunami of crocodile tears and advise on education. What stopped any one of six Presidents and over 100 state governors giving a N5m or N10m Annual Achebe Grant directly to Achebe for ‘anything artistic local or worldwide you like, Sir’ knowing that an economically beneficial work of literary genius would result. But they dish out billions for NASS and political office holders and open our vaults to pardonable thieving governors.

    The professional must take back recognition from politicians. Education does not require another billion naira Summit in Ladi Kwali Hall. It requires books, posters, sports and science equipment in Nigeria’s 70,000 schools and 1,500,000 classrooms. Even President Jonathan’s reading project needs many books, Nigeria cannot develop with just a narrow national reading book list. No nation will survive if all pupils read only the ‘famous four or five Nigerian authors’. Nigeria probably has over 5,000 books written by 1,500 Nigerian authors needing a readership. When did a minister, commissioner, principal, teacher, parent or student visit any good bookshop or publisher last? In spite of booklist corruption, the literature list can be broadened by simple mathematics like buying fewer copies of more books, just as we used the ‘The St Gregory’s book Way’ in St Gregory’s College in 1961. There the literature teacher came to class with six copies of five titles. Each of the five class rows had a different book to read and exchange every two weeks with another row. In 10 weeks every student had read five books and the exam was in week 13 for the price of one book per student. In a year 15 books are read, in three years 45 books were cheaply read by each and every all students between forms 1 and 3. A student who has read 45 books has a different take on life than most.

    Anyone seeking to immortalise an already immortalised Chinua Achebe, should allocate budgetary funds for ‘Genius Grants’ for other icons before everyone who is not a politician dies or emigrates. In Nigeria last week, NANS and other youth organisations shamelessly took 10 plus full page colour congratulatory adverts for a young former youth senate president. Where did that approximately N5m come from? What an insult to Nigerians and an abuse of Nigeria’s political learning process. Note that 100 ‘we have lost an icon’ obituary pages@N500,000, totalling N50m will not put books in schools – failing yet again a ‘dying wish’ of Chinua Achebe.

  • Romney as ‘evil genius’

    Romney as ‘evil genius’

    Who says campaign of calumny is a Nigerian thing? Or what do you call a campaign advert in which President Barack Obama’s strategists painted his rival Mitt Romney as the ‘evil genius’.

    The ad was inspired by the moment when the Republican candidate turned to moderator Jim Lehrer and said he would defund the Public Broadcasting Service.

    ‘I’m sorry Jim, I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS,’ he said. ‘I like PBS – I love Big Bird, I actually like you too, but I’m going to stop borrowing money from China to pay for things we don’t need.”

    Democrats exploited the incident for a sarcastic campaign advert.

    The 30-second video mocks Romney for taking aim at the public broadcaster rather than cracking down on financial fraud.

    Sesame Street, however, criticised the Obama campaign for exploiting their character and demanded that the advert be cancelled and removed from the internet.

     

    Obama winning the ad battle

    A study released last Wednesday showed that President Obama and his allies have aired more adverts in battleground states this month despite being outspent by Republican nominee Mitt Romney and GOP groups. The study also shows that Romney is getting less for his money .The Obama campaign and its supporters spent $77 million on 112,730 advertisements from October 1 to 21, according to the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks and analyses political ad spending. Romney and his allies, by contrast, spent more, $87 million, on 15,000 fewer spots.

     

    Blackmailing the voters?

    The International Tribune Herald, which is the global edition of New York Times, carried a report last week which said strategists for both President Barack Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney have gathered private information about voters and are exploiting them to get them to vote on election day. According to the report, such information include whether or not they are gay or lesbian, their crime history and others that they may ordinarily want to keep from the public.

    But, on record, both candidates insist they respect people’s privacy. If it is true that they are exploiting such strategy, it may as well mean blackmailing them to vote.

     

    Of third party candidates and independents

    It is as if only President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are running for America’s presidency. But, it is not. There are third party candidates and independents. Third party candidates are of parties other than Democratic and Republican. Independents are standing on their own.

    The third parties include Socialist Party and the Peace and Freedom Party.

     

    Why Americans vote first Tuesday in November

    Hear what an expert says: “In a rural republic that was very religious, nobody worked or travelled on Sunday.  So, this gave people who had to walk or ride their horses or wagon or whatever, gave them a full day to get to the polling place, the voting station in their county.  It also was in November, which was the right time window for the expiration of the presidential term.  You had to hold your election sometime – certain amount of time before the expiration of the term.  It was also good to hold it in November because the harvest had been collected and the farmers had some spare time on their hands.  And also in the northern states in November, the roads are clear and dry, you haven’t had major snowfall, there’s no mud, it’s easier to travel.  So these are some of the arcane reasons that led us to establish our election day on Tuesday after the first Monday in November.”

     

    A controversial election result?

    Under the United States Electoral College system, President Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney need to win at least 270 of the country’s 538 electoral votes to be president, rather than simply the majority of votes from voters. With pollsters predicting a close race, the Electoral College result could possibly yield a controversial election outcome.

    Florida, whose 29 electoral votes are the biggest prize among states considered too close to call, Ohio, which has 18 electoral votes, and others are being bombarded by Obama and Romney in the last days of campaigns.

     

    ‘Voter intimidation in Florida, others’

    There are attempts to confuse voters in Florida, Virginia and Indiana. Voters have received phone calls telling them there was no need to cast a ballot in person on election day because they could vote by phone.

    Reuters quoted Kurtis Killian, a Republican from St. Augustine, Florida, as one of those who have reported receiving calls that encouraged them to vote by phone so they would not have to go to the polls.

    Killian said he received a call from a man who identified himself as an employee of the Florida Division of Elections.

    He also said he refused the caller’s offer to cast his vote by phone then reported the call to local elections officials.

    “I know there is no such thing as phone voting,” Killian said. But “for someone who can’t get out easily,” such as elderly or disabled voters, “they might go for that because it would be convenient for them. Once you think you voted you won’t go to the polls. My vote would be cancelled out.”

    Virginia’s State Board of Elections received similar complaints from at least 10 people – most of them elderly – who said they had been urged to vote by phone.

    Reuters reported that in Ohio and Wisconsin, billboards in mostly low-income and minority neighbourhoods showed prisoners behind bars and warned of criminal penalties for voter fraud, an effort that voting rights groups say was designed to intimidate minority voters.

    Some employers, such as David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers who helped fund the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, are pushing their workers to vote for Republican Mitt Romney for president.

    Efforts to mislead, intimidate or pressure voters are an increasingly prominent part of the political landscape.

    “We’ve seen an up-tick in deceptive and intimidating tactics designed to prevent eligible Americans from voting,” said Eric Marshall of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, who manages a coalition that has a telephone hot line that collects tips on alleged voter intimidation.

    They also cite groups linked to the conservative Tea Party movements that are training tens of thousands of people to monitor polling places on November 6 for voter fraud, a plan criticised as an attempt to discourage voting.