The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Now

  • Today and Now

    Some people are obsessed with the past; they can’t take their eyes off their failures or even their successes. Some others only care about now; their philosophy is “live, eat and enjoy all you can today because no one knows tomorrow”. Yet, some live in dread or hope of the future and they waste their present. There’s got to be a balance somewhere. Interestingly, yesterday, today and tomorrow have something in common-they are made up of time. For yesterday, time had passed, today, time is passing by and tomorrow, time is going to pass. One way or the other, we can’t keep time from passing.

    What you do with your time is what determines whether you are wise or not. Your time is your asset; you will become rich in whatever you invest it into. When you administer your time wisely, you will build your wealth gradually. As time passes without much formality, so will your wealth grow without much publicity. You should have a proper disposition towards time. Let yesterday teach you, let tomorrow motivate you, but don’t let today pass you by.

    Don’t worry unnecessarily about things you can’t control, just focus on what is within your reach.  Don’t worry about yesterday, it is gone. Don’t worry about tomorrow, it is out of reach. Don’t worry about today, it’s a whole lot of time. Focus your attention on “now” because it is the meeting point between yesterday, today and tomorrow. You never do anything yesterday- by now you must have done it, otherwise, it’s too late. You never do anything tomorrow- it is always a future projection that is constantly ahead. You never do anything today- today is just an illusion that makes you think you have a lot of time until it passes you by. You only do things now. Yesterday had a “now” that passed already. Today is full of “now” that are passing as you read this article. Tomorrow’s “now” is useless until it comes to the present.

    How much of your day do you invest in profitable activities? I’m not trying to judge you; I’ve gone through the evaluation myself. Try out these suggestions:

    • Mind your own business: if you know what other people are doing, the time they are doing it, why they do it and probably why they shouldn’t be doing it (unless it is your job to know), watch out! You are probably doing nothing yourself! Protect your time as much as you can. Avoid whatever does not help you to achieve your goals. Shut out every distraction and focus. You don’t need to know any information that will not add anything to you. Miss the gossip and gain some value.
    • Avoid time wasters: there are some people who are gifted in consuming other people’s time. If they visit you while you are preparing to attend an event, you may end up going late or not going at all. After making your plans for the day, all you need is to meet them and your plans go out of the window. I’m not being unkind, it is just the fact. Once you identify such people, find a strategy to manage your relationship with them.
    • Plan with time: any plan that is not set to time is no plan at all. At the beginning of everyday, make a list of what you want to achieve and assign time to each of them. This will give you a sense of mission. Even if you cannot follow through completely, you will have a sense of accomplishment when you evaluate your activities at the end of the day.
    • Trade busyness for productivity: have you ever been so busy that you hardly had a breathing space, yet by the end of the day, you hadn’t achieved much? It happens all the time. What happens is that we tend to spend our time on things that are urgent but we ignore things that are important. Why not do an evaluation of your day? Determine the activities that add to you and the ones that drain you? Find out the things you invest most of your time on that bring little or no dividend? Try to reduce the time you allot to them. On the other hand, when you discover the activities you spend little time on that end up being productive, increase the time allotted to them. If you do this, you will multiply your success.
    • Delegate responsibilities: I know you think no one can measure up to your standards or do things exactly the way you want them done. Nevertheless, unless you desire to wear yourself out quickly, you need help. If a leader feels that subordinates can’t perform tasks to his/her taste, it is a clear sign of leadership failure. If you train them well, they will take a lot of burden off you and you will do more productive things with your time.

  • Now, they bear our cross…

    Quite honestly, I truly understand some senators’ riotous hysteria over what they consider sacrilegious charges brought against Senate President Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu at an Abuja High Court. In a society where quotidian living is solely dictated by a visibly unwritten code of placing self-aggrandisement above every social or moral ethos, who would not? It would have been preposterous to expect these aggrieved lawmakers to maintain cold silence in the face of the grievous harm that could be inflicted on their pot of soup. We do not expect them to surrender their means of livelihood to brutal attacks by external forces, which the executive represents in this particular matter. For, if we must vomit the truth, Saraki and Ekweremadu hold the key to a further expansion of the personal wealth of these persons and there is no sense in recondite pretences about it. That is where those who question attempts to frustrate the trial miss the point. To the ordinary eye, it is a simple case of forgery that should be left to the court to determine. To those conversant with the amazing twists and turns in Nigeria’s chequered political history, it could deal a deadly blow on the fortunes of the co-conspirators who by no means came into power via the most devious coup in the history of parliamentary leadership in Nigeria.

    Shred of all the tapestry of diplomatese, Saraki and Ekweremadu ought to know that it was a matter of time before they would be called to dance to the errant and perfidious tune that propped them into the Senate’s top posts. It was not for nothing that President Muhammadu Buhari warned friends and foes to be wary of the consequences of their action or inaction at the early days of his presidency. That he made public his intention to work with whosoever the emerged as leaders of the National Assembly did not mean that he was ready to tag along with an adversarial legislature with an opposition senator as Deputy Senate President neither did it mean that he supported the flagrant abuse of his party’s decision. Therefore, I doubt if the two, mindful of the brutal politics we play here, did not adequately prepare for the swirl of attacks currently lumped against them. You do not pull that kind of ego deflating stunt against the President, shoved it down his throat and expect him to wash it down with dignified equanimity. Or have they forgotten how they kicked Buhari in the groin?

    In as much as one considers it an abuse of journalism ethics to make comments on the forgery allegations brought against Saraki, Ekweremadu, the former clerk and deputy clerk of the National Assembly, it is ludicrous that the embattled leaders would thrust themselves into the public space as the true heroes of our democracy. Of course, it is possible if the definition of that word has changed. Evidently seeking public sympathy in statements issued during the week, they put up the image of haunted victims of a dictatorial President who would stop at nothing to silence them. Upbraiding Buhari for allowing a cabal to operate a ‘government within the government’ under his nose, Saraki said the group must be behind a “nefarious agenda” against the legislature. Is that so?

    As if that was not enough heresy laden with vacuous verbosity, Saraki would rather the government focus on evolving ways of meeting the needs of the hapless citizens before they begin to lose confidence in the Buhari administration rather than dissipate energy on a legislature that has bent over backwards to foster cordial relationship with the executive. Besides, he wonders why a presumed forgery case that allegedly led to his emergence as President of the Senate should bother the executive, as it remains an internal affair among peers within the legislature. Then, he declares: “This is a cross I am prepared to carry. If yielding to the nefarious agenda of a few individuals who are bent on undermining our democracy and destabilising the Federal Government to satisfy their selfish interests is the alternative to losing my personal freedom, let the doors of jails be thrown open and I shall be a happy guest!”

    For Ekweremadu, the other cross bearer, Buhari remains a dictator whose nefarious activities must be brought before the United Nations, the European Union, the governments of the United States of America and the United Kingdom. In his letters to these bodies and governments, Ekweremadu said there appears to be a deliberate attempt to silence voices of the opposition of which he remains one even as he is the Deputy Senate President to an All Progressives Congress’ Senate President. It is really laughable that all this is happening because the duo has been legally brought before the courts to clear their names in a case of forgery! They still enjoy the benefits that come with the offices including the full complements of security forces.

    Without any prejudice to the outcome of the case, the resort to populist ideology by Saraki amuses as much as it amazes one’s sensibilities. As the country’s top lawmakers who harp on the rule of law and separation of power, he should know that the best avenue to prove his innocence is a law of competent jurisdiction. To the best of my knowledge, no one has asked him to abdicate his exalted post neither has anyone declared him guilty of all the allegations levelled against him. All the cases including the ones on forged asset declaration are before the courts. If Buhari had wanted to take the route of a dictator like some other persons did in the past, I doubt if anyone could have stopped such moving train judging from the almost limitless power the 1999 Constitution conferred on the President. We do not need to search for examples. We do know how past senate presidents were yanked off that seat without any dire consequences, don’t we? So what has Buhari done to warrant a dictatorial garb?

    By the way, my elementary understanding of the principles of separation of powers does not preclude any arms of government from discharging its responsibilities as long as such conforms to the rule of law. In fact, our democracy would be imperilled if the legislature begins to adorn themselves with the toga of untouchables. Asking the executive to steer clear of unfolding events at the National Assembly – even when they touch on criminal breach of trust, forgery and corrupt practices – smacks of legislative arrogance. If that is what Saraki, Ekweremadu and his ilk are looking for in their latest onslaught against the President, then I will humbly advise them to bury their heads in shame. If that is why they so desperately desire to extend the immunity clause to National and State legislators, they should be told that nothing could be more selfish than that.

    Talking about selfish interests, I guess it is a national malaise and it is at the heart of this case. However, if not for a selfish keenness to realise a personal ambition, we would not be here today pondering over how a party that won popular votes in a critical 2015 elections in which an incumbent president was shoved off, went into an unholy alliance with members of the same party that was routed electorally. This inordinate ambition made some persons to allow a cabal from the opposition to pull a fast one against the ruling party leadership while they giggled sheepishly on the throne of infamy. Did they think that coup was not going to have a backlash? In bearing the cross of that shameful past, let them not dilute it with the posturing of doing it for a citizenry that remains the eternal victims of their self-aggrandisement. Let them be bold enough to dance to the jagged echoes of their past misdeeds if there were any!

  • Where are they now?

    Where are they now?

    We knew we were going to miss them, but nobody thought it would be this early. We miss their flamboyance, garrulity and exuberance.  I speak of no other than some of the men who until recently were in charge at various levels of the country’s affairs.

    But this is not to say that they have all vanished from the scene. No.  Take, for instance, the former Zamfara State Governor, the distinguished Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima. Nothing was heard of him for a long time, until he moved the motion to nominate former Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki for Senate president.

    His seemingly long hibernation had given room to various speculations, with some analysts claiming authoritatively that the politician was away in some overseas institution to study how to reinvigorate the waning sharia  fire he sparked off with remarkable festivity.

    Many would recall the picture of the thief, Jangedi whose arm was sawn off for stealing a cow. Asked how he felt after he had lost an arm, Jangedi replied that he was excited because sharia had at last become a reality – thanks to Yerima’s dedication, which some analysts described as fanaticism.

    Others, without facts, insisted that Yerima had gone on a long overdue honeymoon after his highly contentious marriage to a minor, who activists described as a 13-year-old daughter of an Egyptian taxi-cab driver. Yerima, not one to run away from a fight, you will recall, defended his right. He told the army of child rights campaigners to prove that his bride was indeed a minor. “If you say we’re are wrong, tell us the truth,” the activists demanded of the senator. Instead of replying the innocuous question, Yerima mounted a legal battle for a perpetual injunction to halt what he described as a blatant abuse of his rights. Smart guy. Ever since, all has been quiet. Nobody has gone to get the injunction lifted and the senator has been enjoying without hindrances all the rights and privileges of a new groom and, needless to say, performing all the duties that go with such perquisites.

    Ali Modu Sherriff was indisputably the godfather of Borno politics. At the height of the Boko Haram insurgency, the push for him to be questioned was relentless. But, the authorities could not summon the courage to take him in for questioning. Instead, they pampered the former governor like a new baby. The Maiduguri airport that was shut down after Boko Haram insurgents violated it was often opened for Sheriff’s flights to land. As soon as he left, the airport would be shut again. Governor Kashim Shettima was never that lucky. He drove all the way to Abuja and back whenever he had to visit the capital city. Such was the royal pleasure Sheriff enjoyed in the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

    So privileged was Sheriff that he sat at a meeting between former President Jonathan and Chadian President Idris Derby in N’djamena. The bilateral talks centred on how to stop Boko Haram’s bloody campaign.

    Some dubious youths posing as mediators between the government and the fanatical sect were said to have got millions of dollars for their ‘fruitless’ exertion. By the way, where are the suspects the Department of State Service (DSS) arrested?  My apology for the digression.

    Sheriff’s presence at the meeting aforementioned became a subject of political and scholastic disputations. Why was he at the talks? Does he know, as being speculated, something about Boko Haram? Is the government hiding something from the public? The questions were many. To date, they remain unanswered. Now, Sheriff, who lost his firm grip on Borno politics, has been quiet. He is said to have gone back to his first love – ‘trading’ in  dry fish and other commodities ferried across the borders in long trucks.

    Jelili Adeshiyan (remember him?) was Jonathan’s robustious Police Affairs minister. He once granted an interview in which he denied hitting former Osun State Governor Isiaka Adeleke during a row among Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) stalwarts. His upper cut, he swore, would have landed Serubawon (scare them stiff) in the hospital. In fact, he vowed that after leaving office as minister, he would hunt for Adeleke and beat him up.

    Adeshiyan is yet to fulfil his vow, perhaps because Adeleke has been away in Abuja, ensconced in the Senate where only members are allowed to, occasionally, test their pugilistic skills.

    The former minister, a source said, has since returned to Osun from where he leapt from obscurity to the national stage, turning the police into an electoral tool of the PDP to be deployed into service in Ekiti and Osun.

    Chief E.K. Clark, the Ijaw leader, was a vociferous supporter of former President Jonathan. He was a regular caller at the Presidential Villa. He travelled far and wide to campaign for a fresh term for Jonathan whose praise he sang to high heavens. After Jonathan lost the election, the old man retreated to his Abuja abode. In no time, reporters found him and asked him to comment on that election. Clark retorted: “You want me to die because Jonathan lost the election? I won’t die.”

    The chief, who has since congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari, urging Nigerians to co-operate with him, has found a new vocation in his Edwin Clark University, Kiagbodo, Delta State, which he decided on his 85th birthday to set up as his legacy. By the way, Clark used to be a teacher who became a headmaster. Now, there is little time for Ijaw activism.

    My friend Reuben Abati and I spoke on the phone a fortnight ago. He was upbeat . “I’m jobless o,” he said excitedly, adding; “ Put it in your paper. Reuben Abati, Phd, MA, LLB, Oxford – trained; looking for a job. What kind of country is this?”

    Abati was really busy as presidential spokesman. Since he left- lost – the job, those condolences after Boko Haram killings have been coming in trickles. It was so tough that I once suggested on this page that a minister should be named for that purpose to free Abati from such mundane matters.

    So there you have it – Abati is up for hire.

    Former Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam dropped his bid for a Senate seat after being trounced by Barnabas Gemade of  the All Progressives Congress (APC) and went overseas for what he said was a long overdue health check and vacation. From the blues came the news that the police had arrested His Excellency for alleged wife battery and that he was being detained by the UK police.

    Many, who never cared to confirm the report, began to give it their own perspectives. Some said the former governor was suffering from some Post-electoral Defeat Psychosis (PeDP) that induced a strange  and unrestrained aggression in his behaviour. Others simply said it was all a kind of depression that would soon subside.

    Thankfully, Suswam issued a press release debunking the allegations as “full of mischief and aimed at slandering me and my dear wife”. The former governor remains in the UK– with  his wife.

    Former Oil Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke has not been seen in public since Jonathan lost the election. Not even the flood of allegations of multi-billion naira – sorry, a slip there – multi-billion dollar – frauds in the sector would attract madam’s comment.

    But there have been speculations on her health. Some reports said Mrs Alison-Madueke had been hospitalised in London for some serious but undisclosed ailment. Others said she had been taking a well-deserved holiday. But many have been asking: When did the former minister fall ill? If the Jonathan administration left the stage on May 29 and she was around shortly before then – unconfirmed reports said she was among those urging Jonathan not to throw in the towel – when did she fall ill? What is the nature of the illness?  Is it all a facade to avoid being called to account for her turbulent tenure at the oil ministry? We really can’t tell.

    All has been quiet in the Northern Governors’ Forum since former Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu quit its chairmanship. He was up in arms with Jonathan for contemplating a second term. He said the former president actually signed an agreement that he would spend one term. Pressed to show the paper, Aliyu said it was with a Southsouth governor.  Now that it is all over, will Talba Minna show the paper – at least for the record?

    His successor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, has been asking Aliyu, who cherished his adopted populist title of Chief Servant, to return the N2.9b he allegedly collected from the treasury and shared among top government officials on the eve of his departure.

    The ex-governor’s spokesman has described the allegation as false, even as Bello insists the money, which was said to have been obtained as a loan, must be returned to the treasury. Aliyu is said to be away in London for a well-earned rest.

    There are many other public figures whose whereabouts are of public interest.

    Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, the  former Agriculture minister, is now African Development Bank (AFDB) president. A little bird  tells me he plans to yield to the clamour by many countries for the miracle of the cassava bread that has made breakfast such a remarkable culinary delight in Nigeria.

    They deserve to be remembered quite often. Don’t they?

  • Today and Now

    Some people who are obsessed with the past; they can’t take their eyes off their failures or even their successes. Some others only care about now; their philosophy is “live, eat and enjoy all you can today because no one knows tomorrow”. Yet, some live in dread or hope of the future and they waste their present. There’s got to be a balance somewhere. Interestingly, yesterday, today and tomorrow have something in common- they are made up of time. For yesterday, time had passed, today, time is passing by and tomorrow, time is going to pass. One way or the other, we can’t keep time from passing.

    What you do with your time is what determines whether you are wise or not. Your time is your asset; you will become rich in whatever you invest it into. When you administer your time wisely, you will build your wealth gradually. As time passes without much formality, so will your wealth grow without much publicity. You should have a proper disposition towards time. Let yesterday teach you, let tomorrow motivate you, but don’t let today pass you by.

    Don’t worry unnecessarily about things you can’t control, just focus on what is within your reach.  Don’t worry about yesterday, it is gone. Don’t worry about tomorrow, it is out of reach. Don’t worry about today, it’s a whole lot of time. Focus your attention on “now” because it is the meeting point between yesterday, today and tomorrow. You never do anything yesterday- by now you must have done it, otherwise, it’s too late. You never do anything tomorrow- it is always a future projection that is constantly ahead. You never do anything today- today is just an illusion that makes you think you have a lot of time until it passes you by. You only do things now. Yesterday had a “now” that passed already. Today is full of “now” that are passing as you read this article. Tomorrow’s “now” is useless until it comes to the present.

    How much of your day do you invest in profitable activities? I’m not trying to judge you; I’ve gone through the evaluation myself. Try out these suggestions:

    • Mind your own business: if you know what people are doing, the time they are doing it, why they do it and probably why they shouldn’t be doing it (unless it is your job to know), watch out! You are probably doing nothing yourself! Protect your time as much as you can. Avoid whatever does not help you to achieve your goals. Shut out every distraction and focus. You don’t need to know any information that will not add anything to you. Miss the gossip and gain some value.
    • Avoid time wasters: there are some people who are gifted in consuming other people’s time. If they visit you while you are preparing to attend an event, you may end up going late or not going at all. After making your plans for the day, all you need is to meet them and your plans go out of the window. I’m not being unkind, it is just the fact. Once you identify such people, find a strategy to manage your relationship with them.
    • Plan with time: any plan that is not set to time is no plan at all. At the beginning of everyday, make a list of what you want to achieve and assign time to each of them. This will give you a sense of mission. Even if you cannot follow through completely, you will have a sense of accomplishment when you evaluate your activities at the end of the day.
    • Trade busyness for productivity: have you ever been so busy that you hardly had a breathing space, yet by the end of the day, you hadn’t achieved much? It happens all the time. What happens is that we tend to spend our time on things that are urgent but we ignore things that are important. Why not do an evaluation of your day? Determine the activities that add to you and the ones that drain you? Find out the things you invest most of your time on and they bring little or no dividend? Try to reduce the time you allot to them. On the other hand, when you discover the activities you spend little time on that end up being productive, increase the time allotted to them. If you do this, you will multiply your success.
    • Delegate responsibilities: I know you think no one can measure up to your standards or do things exactly the way you want them done. Nevertheless, unless you desire to wear yourself out quickly, you need help. If a leader feels that subordinates can’t perform tasks to his/her taste, it is a clear sign of leadership failure. If you train them well, they will take a lot of burden off you and you will do more productive things with your time.

  • What the President should do now

    SIR: I wish to remind President Muhammadu Buhari of his promises during his electioneering campaign. And if his words should be his bond, Nigeria would return to status quo in no distant future. In this regard I would like the president to harken to this clarion call in order to make life meaningful for the masses.

    First and foremost, salaries and other perks of the legislators, both at the federal and the state levels, including the ministers, commissioners and other government functionaries should be reviewed. Unfortunately, the issue of trimming down salaries of our federal legislators has been over-flogged right from the time of the former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Up till this moment, nobody has done anything about it. Their pay package should be DRASTICALLY trimmed down. A situation where one person goes home with millions of naira  in a month whereas, others are not able to afford three square meals a day is not in consonance with justice, equity and good conscience.

    Secondly the rail transport should be made functional in order to facilitate the conveyance of food stuff and other essential commodities from the North to the South and vice versa.The importance of reviving and over hauling the rail system cannot be over emphasized. We are experiencing high cost of things in the market today because of high cost of transportation which is eventually borne by the final consumer. Achieving this aim would no doubt make food available on the table of every Nigerian as their cost would be very cheap.

    I know this would be a hard nut to crack as the owners of long vehicles, trailers and tankers would more or less be thrown out of job. But be that as it may, the president should take this drastic measure not minding whose ox is gored, if it is his desire to better the lots of the common man.

    It gladdened my heart when I read in the newspapers that EFCC and ICPC will be merged and 42 ministries trimmed down to 19. This is a welcome development. It would certainly have a salutary effect on the economy.

    There are catalogue of other factors that are parasitic on the resources of this country but the aforementioned ones should be religiously looked into in other to achieve our aim. With time other problems would ease off.

    The President should forget about probing any person at the moment, as that would distract him from facing squarely the most important factors.

     

    • Nkemakolam Gabriel,

    Port Harcourt.

  • APC, shine your eyes well, now or never

    APC, shine your eyes well, now or never

    It may sound like a joke, but remember that jokes by the Fool in Shakespeare’s King Lear, turned out to be truths that were mistakenly ignored by King Lear, but not without some devastating consequences.

    In the July 23 edition of the Nation, Mohammed Haruna wrote in his column (back page) what some people may want to dismiss as a joke. But it is a joke serious enough to warrant our unalloyed attention. Please hear this about the just concluded Ekiti governorship election. “200,000 ballot papers thumb printed in Abj, CBN Abj conveyed to CBN Ado-Ekiti, CBN Ado-Ekiti to some selected commercial banks, some selected commercial banks to some party leaders in Ekiti land, party leaders to some ward leaders, ward leaders to 10 women per polling unit…… Each woman with 10 already in her body, they pick one each and drop 11 in the ballot box where they are bought agents”. This may look like a fantastic joke, but it is a joke worth courting. It needs a thorough investigation from its very root (considering the fact that another election will take place in Osun State on August 9, 2014). For those who may want to dismiss this as a joke, hear what Mohammed Haruna said about what Major-General IBM Haruna once said: “anytime anyone tells you something is impossible in Nigeria, consider it done”.

    The second issue that might have played out very well in Ekiti election of “stomach infrastructure” is scientific rigging. Rumours had it that ballot papers were cloned or designed in such a way that once you thumb print on the ballot papers for APC and fold it, the thumb print on the APC ballot paper transfers automatically to PDP thumb print and pronto the thumb print on APC in the ballot paper disappears only to reappear on the ballot paper of the PDP. Now, for the layman, this is impossible, and even unimaginable, forgetting that science is a product of man’s imagination that is behind scientific intelligence which gave birth to science and technology. For those who may not want to believe this, we refer them again to IBM Haruna’s statement above. It may be you are not aware of technological wonders. You may be dressed originally in an agbada outfit but technology can, without your knowing, robe you in an academic gown, or make you look like half human and half animal, leaving your head and face as you are, but decking the remaining part of your body in the like of a horse with its prominent tail. The lesson here is that  voters  should  not fold their ballot papers when casting their votes this time around.

    Let us wager then, that the alleged second rigging device (and even the first) may be true for, in believing in and acting on it, we have everything to gain, as we would have prevented possible rigging by not folding our ballot papers before we drop them in the ballot boxes.  On the other hand, and just in case the allegation is untrue, we still have nothing to lose by doing the same thing.  Therefore, we should wager that the allegation is possibly true for, by not believing in it, we have everything to lose. The exercise is our maximization of expected utility of the outcome of our decision to fold or not the ballot papers.  What is important is that we should not take things for granted in this country.

    The question now is: can we say that these diabolical two rigging devices had been tested with great successes in Ekiti state, only waiting to be repeated in Osun and later at the 2015 general elections? If this is the case, then we may say a permanent goodbye to free and fair elections and, consequently, democracy in Nigeria. After the Ekiti election where Fayose was made to beat the incumbent governor in all the 16 local governments – an incredible feat, perhaps out of the ordinary – subsequent elections might be similarly programmed to such an incredible extent that PDP would be made to win all the 36 states of the federation, including the FCT, and people like Gen. Buhari programmed to lose in his own backyard, his vote having been replaced with an already thumb printed one, or scientifically transferred to that of the PDP. All this may sound like conjectures or scientific fiction, but philosophers and scientists know very well that all scientific knowledge is conjectural knowledge, and scientific fiction translatable into reality. I must say that from these two rigging devices may be deduced an infinite number of other rigging devices that offer attractive possibilities to the master riggers, like orchestrated disenfranchisement of voters by means of late arrival and inadequate voting materials in areas where APC is strong, like it happened in Anambra State, and also the case of military and fierce security operatives to facilitate and provide a cove-up for perpetrating, with impunity, the two alleged rigging devices as mentioned above. So, Nigerians and, especially the APC, should wake up from their dogmatic slumber and begin to shine their eyes very well, first at the forthcoming governorship election in Osun State, and second at the subsequent general elections in February 2015.

    Last Lines

    E e mo wo’lu (Evil spirits have entered the town). These were the words of an elderly man in Osogbo when a convoy of about 50 vehicles of Military and Security Operatives, with some of the men masked, stormed Osogbo on Wednesday, 30 July, 2014, sporadically shooting into the innocent air in a show of federal might, trying to intimidate and frighten Osun people as if to force them to surrender, like in a war situation. It was like a military siege and very much like the Boko Haram insurgents’ seige of Nigeria under the watchful eyes of the Federal Government which should have deployed the military and security operatives to Sambisa forest rather than to Osun State where they are neither needed nor invited.  Yet, Nigeria has a democratic constitution with a National Assembly and Judiciary as the other organs of government which look on while the Executive over-runs a nation state with reckless impunity.  If the federal government hoped that the deployment of intimidating soldiers was a rehearsal of what to expect on August 9, they were disappointed, for the exercise backfired, as it exposed the desperation of the PDP to win elections at all cost, and as a do-or-die affair. Against the presence of the intimidating number of the military which was well reinforced by some other Contingents of Military and Security Operatives from the Department of State Security Service (DSS) in Osogbo, people just laughed and watched, unimpressed and unperturbed. Rather than being frightened, the people demonstrated their annoyance by raining curses and abuses on “the perpetrators of this evil”. Remarkably interesting was the drama that unfolded when people responded to the sporadic shootings into the air with intermittent shouts of “APC! APC!! APC!!!”. They did this by also raising up their hands to make the Awo victory sign “V” with two fingers. Surely, the Security Operatives did not expect or like what they saw, and must have come to terms with the reality – the fact that Osun is not Ekiti State. in the final analysis, this ugly and primitive scenario might have done a great damage to the PDP’s image, as the annoyed people swore to PROTEST the ugly show of federal might or power (which they saw as powerless power) through their votes, come August 9 and even thereafter.

  • Nail trends to try now!

    Nail trends to try now!

    CONTRAST is the name of the game when it comes to nails at the moment. Looks range from light and innocent to dark and dangerously chic this season.

    How your fingernails look can tell or reveal a lot about you; if your whole being is healthy it will radiate on your face and fingernails.

    Your fingernails need to be taken good care of. They need to be pampered.

    Painted fingers are meant to suit and enhance looks. The essence of nail treatment and painting is to make the hand look sexy, cute and pleasant.

    However, a good number of women nowadays abuse their nails in a bid to beautify. Apart from having nail polish of different colours, some use wrong colours.

    Do not go for colour because others are into it. Rather go for colour that suits your look and that blends with your wear. Too much nail polish of different colours will create a negative meaning.

    If you wish to have these perfect, alluring and inviting nails, look at the following steps:

    •Moisten your hand and nails with lotion; it strengthens the nails.

    •Keep your nails trimmed, either artificial or not.

    •Do not tear your cuticles. This will break the layer of the skin and cause injury. Instead look for remover or cuticle clips.

    •After washing with harsh soap, moisten your hand with cream moisturizing lotion.

    •Your nail polish should be determined by what you wear and the occasion.

     

    Duck feet nails

    As the name suggests, the flared finger and toe nail tips are inspired by the webbed feet of ducks and range in length and width , from a full flare to a more subtle widening.

  • Now, Ministry of Amnesty Affairs truly beckons

    Now, Ministry of Amnesty Affairs truly beckons

    It could just be the perfect answer we have groped for in this season of bloody anomie. Maybe we never realised how close we were to the solution because we have been blinded by the regularity of the sheer savagery that welcomes us into every new dawn in Nigeria. When a nation’s story is repeatedly told in parenthesis of pain, it is quite easy to lump the absurd with the normal. From the look of things, it should be clear to the dunderheads in government that they have been scurrying for answers by asking the wrong questions. While they were busy gallivanting about town, claiming to be mopping up intelligence that would assist the government in getting to the root of a country’s self-inflicted woes, little did they know that the one-in-all cure was right under their noses. It still beats me silly how these juggernauts, whose responsibility it is to think for the government, didn’t realise early that we would soon be back to the doorstep of that magical word—Amnesty——after all the bloodletting, violence and mindless killings. How come they did not know that we would end up talking peace on a canvas dripping with the blood of innocent souls?

    We may not have an accurate data of lives that have been lost as the killings persist even as I write this; what we do know for a fact is that the number runs into thousands. Many came to that tragic end in worship places; countless others were bombed to death in orgies of unmitigated violence; some were lined up and executed; hundreds were slaughtered in their homes, on the streets and even at workplaces. There were abductions with sad ending. Families were wiped out. In the sickening madness, there has been an astronomical increase in the number of widows, widowers and orphans. We do understand that, for these years, the monsters behind these killings have remained faceless, known only to those who, vows after vows, promised to bring them to justice. At a point, it was so bad that the harbinger of death was always prowling the neighbourhoods, daring those paid to keep him in check to fire the first shot. Well, they never did. And the monster acquired a larger-than-life image. And, for long, we have groped in the dark, seeking wisdom on how best to appease the one with bloodied hands.

    Maybe that was what the government did when it dangled the amnesty carrot before the Niger Delta militants some years back. To appease the ‘generals’ and comrades-in-arms in the creeks, the government bent over backwards and struck a multi-billion-dollar deal with the militants and their foot soldiers. Now do not ask me who qualifies to be called a militant because the definition, I have been made to understand, is not static. We were told that that wise move to grant amnesty to these persons, who took up arms against the state, has led to an increase in the volume of crude oil exploration from a little over 700,000bpd to over 2.6 million bpd. Henceforth, militants are now to be known and addressed as ex-agitators, having undergone training on non-violence. They disarmed voluntarily, trained on the best principles of non-violence, were placed on monthly stipends for a period and are being sponsored on vocational training both at home and abroad. It was a perfect script fit for the box office. Most ‘generals’ now live a life of affluence, rubbing shoulders with the high and mighty in the corridors of power. Many, who could barely append their signature on any piece of paper pre-amnesty, now hang out at the lobbies of the best hotels in Abuja, selling oil-lifting contract papers. They ride the costliest cars, wear designers’ perfumes, host the biggest shindigs in town and get the best police protection money can buy!

    It was, we were told, a win-win situation for all! The oil majors now have access to the rigs; government now rakes in billions of dollars from crude sales; militants have been ‘reformed’, ‘former ‘generals’ are now briefcase contractors with one of them given the mandate to take charge of the security of Nigeria’s maritime boundary and the Niger Delta, we are to understand, is being restored back to its once tranquil ambience. That was the perfect picture that has been painted about this oily deal in spite of the occasional rumblings in the creeks by yet-to-be-settled aggrieved militants! For these lucky ones, the blood on their hands has been cleansed by the sanctity of amnesty! Seems everyone is content with the graveyard peace, right? Don’t worry, just be happy!

    Question is: How does granting amnesty justify the government’sconsistent incompetence and outright lethargy in tackling headlong, the insecurity that has been foisted on the nation by different shades of ‘insurgents’ in the guise of freedom fighters? Perhaps, if this government has shown the capacity to handle the situation, there wouldn’t have been any need by the Sultan of Sokoto, the highly revered AlhajiMuhammedAbubakar (III) , that members of the Boko Haram sect should be granted “total amnesty” by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration for peace to reign in the country. It is even becoming clearer by the day that the Jonathan administration, sans the initial gragra of refusing to negotiate with ghosts, has no option than to extend the amnesty carrots to these ‘ghosts’ in absentia going by the frenetic pace with which it has surreptitiously embraced the Sultan’s fatherly advice.

    When the idea was placed on the cards by the Sultan some four weeks back,  some socio-cultural and religious groups, notably the OhanaezeNdigbo, the Afenifere and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) joined issue with the Sultan, querying the propriety of granting a ‘deadly and faceless’ sect amnesty. They threatened to ‘frustrate’ any move that could lead to a situation where the faceless persons would sit at the round table and parley with Jonathan in Aso Rock. Other anti-amnesty groups have since joined the fray, faulting what they perceived would be tantamount to an injustice to victims of the murderous sect.

    Well, they may be right. It is just that this issue is beyond them. Politics is at the heart of this latest move and no one should expect anything less than shady deals. The noisemaking is good but I doubt if it will change anything. For the avoidance of doubt, these noisemakers are not in power, neither are they in government. In the final analysis, the buck stops on Jonathan’s table. In any case, he is damned to take one decision or the other because this madness, which portends clear and present danger to our collective survival as a nation, simply cannot be allowed to continue.

    If the government cannot stop the reign of terror, it can, at least, eat the humble pie and begin some form of rapprochement. Some have argued that such a move implies that the government would be approaching the negotiation table from the position of weakness. But that, to my mind, is balderdash. Did the government negotiate with the Niger Delta militants from the position of strength when it granted them full amnesty with retirement benefits some years back? Were some of the ‘generals’ not faceless until they were flown to Abuja on presidential jet and were officially unveiled to the Nigerian public? Has anyone called for their trial at The Hague for the criminality that they perpetrated whilst in the creeks? Did we raise eyebrows when villains were transformed into instant heroes overnight? Have these persons not become top government business racketeers in and around Abuja today? In any case, has amnesty completely eradicated killings in the Niger Delta?  So, why should such palliative gesture be denied a group that has rendered government impotent in the last three years?

    My advice: It should be clear to those with discerning eyes that amnesty has become another viable business venture that would be exploited by all shades of criminals conversant with the high octane impotence in governance. Since the government cannot continue to offer platitudes at the killings of commoners and the high and mighty, it may as well take a bold step to create a Ministry of Amnesty Affairs, which should be well-funded to settle those holding it by the balls. If that is the only way to stop the daily spilling of innocent blood, then let’s kick the ball rolling. Very soon, ethnic groupings like the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) would also demand for amnesty, reasonable stipends and foreign training in exchange for their dane guns, AK47s, charms and sheer noisemaking. The oil bunkerers, armed robbers, kidnappers, internet scammers, subsidy thieves, pension fund looters, failed husbands and wives, paedophiles, hired killers and all manner of criminals in the system would have no option but to seek amnesty in exchange for their peace. Let’s face it, if politicians loot the treasury, impoverish the people, spit on their poverty and end up getting ‘justice’ with a slap on the wrist through plea bargaining, why won’t barefaced criminals ask for a slice of the cake for peace to reign since governance has become one hell of a joke? Will there ever be an end to this shameless dance on the graves of lost souls whose spirits crave justice? So much for justice! Wither governance?

    Note: This piece, which was first published on this page on March 9, 2013, has been slightly adjusted following the move by the government to consider some form of amnesty to members of the Boko Haram sect, the furore being generated over the shape and form of the amnesty committee and the fresh violence that has gripped the Niger Delta with the killings of 13 policeman last week. God bless Nigeria.