http://www.thisdayonline.info/nview.php?id=189744


What WikiLeaks Has Taught Me
12.11.2010
The revelations by WikiLeaks on US embassy cable leaks from Nigeria have confirmed one of my suspicions—that Nigerians are still firmly in the grip of colonial mentality. We easily let down our guard when we meet foreigners. Of course, many of the foreign journalists and diplomats in Nigeria are security agents. They are here to gather intelligence using different designations and doing different jobs. By virtue of the colour of their skin, they have access to key people in government who would prefer to talk to them rather than talk to a Nigerian journalist. The moment our leaders see a white skin, they open their doors wide. [/b]We Nigerian journalists have to endure the humiliation of relying on foreign media to report some of the happenings in our own country.


I was in Saudi Arabia two years ago for an oil industry summit. I was with a journalist who works for a foreign agency. As soon as she sighted an official of the NNPC, she excused herself, ran after him and came back a few minutes later. “Sorry Simon,” she said. “That’s the man who gives me the latest figures of production shut-in in the Niger Delta.” Inwardly, I was livid with rage. It is easier for a camel to pass thorough the pore of your skin than for a government official to oblige you with such information. It is “confidential”, they will tell you. [b]Then you have to start quoting a foreign news agency to report the actual state of oil production in Nigeria. Colonial mentality!


All these funny guys come with all kinds of funny proposals to the Federal Government, agencies and the states. They usually call it “country report” or special report. They charge in hundreds of thousands of dollars. Our people rush down the cheques to them. They publish the report and the adverts. The next day, they begin to badmouth “Muslim North” and “Christian South”. They begin to paint Nigeria as a country you should never visit because of 419, kidnappings and violence. Yet we keep wasting millions of dollars paying for their special reports every year. Serves us right. A fool and his money are soon parted.


The leaked cables indeed refreshed my thoughts on how cheaply we sell ourselves to outsiders. It is amazing the amount of confidential information foreigners have on us. We willingly give it to them. In one of the cables sent from the US embassy in Abuja to Washington, former Shell's vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa, Ann Pickard, boasted of how embedded the company was in government. She boasted that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant government department and so knew "everything that was being done in those ministries". Shell knew of the deliberations of government officials in the innermost circle. Pickard related how they obtained a letter showing that our government had invited bids for oil concessions from China. The transcript of a private meeting between a Nigerian minister and his Russian counterpart was in the possession of Shell a few hours later!


I picked up at least three messages from these leaked cables. One, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is good for us and these foreign companies will go to any length to frustrate it and make sure it is not passed into law. What may eventually be passed will be a watered-down version. Two, o[b]ur porous internal security extends even to the highest offices in the land such that private conversations of top government officials are being taped without trace[/b]. Three, despite all its claim to liberalism and democratic rights, the Western world could be as manipulative as the Chinese and African dictatorships that they so often criticise with relish. It is easier to preach a message of freedom when you are not at the receiving end!


The Pickard woman complained that PIB was "very flawed", saying it could reduce Shell’s overall value in Nigeria. She said PIB was “nationalistic”. Read between the lines. It means, essentially, that the bill is in the interest of Nigeria. These foreigners would never like it. Since we started exploring oil in 1956, the monstrous upstream industry has been in the hands of foreign companies. NNPC, Norway’s Statoil and Malaysia’s Petronas were all set up as state-owned oil companies in the 1970s.

Today, the now renamed StatoilHydro is the biggest offshore oil and gas company in the world. Petronas is ranked by Fortune as the 95th largest company in the world. It is the 8th most profitable company in the world and the most profitable in Asia. Petronas now has business interests in 31 countries. Our own NNPC remains a mere joint venture partner, nothing more. Without its partnership with Shell and co. in the upstream sector, NNPC is just an empty shell, a giant toddler. The IOCs love it that way. Many state-owned oil companies are conquering the world; our own NNPC is just a centre for distribution of contracts. Expect the IOCs to defeat the PIB, using our legislators who care more about their allowances than the national interest.


The second message I got is how porous our security is. Nigeria is a country where all kinds of things happen. Militants were building camps in the Niger Delta and amassing weapons of war and our security agencies did not pick it up. The killings in Jos and Boko Haram insurgency in North always make a fool of the security agencies. Armoured tanks are illegally imported into Nigeria via our ports. A consignment was discovered recently. Even the 18 containers bringing all kinds of arms from Iran were discovered recently and I have a haunch some must have escaped into the country in the past. Right under our nose, Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) plotted and successfully carried out twin bombings in Abuja on Independence Day.


Another militant leader, John Togo, has emerged and has been bombing pipelines recently. Nigeria is a loose country, security wise. Yet we devote hundreds of billions as security votes every year, both at state and federal levels. And there is no local government in Nigeria without a security attaché. So how come we never pick up the signals? To make matters worse, even confidential government meetings and memos are in the hands of Shell. God save Nigeria. I imagine what is in the hands of foreign governments and even the militants themselves. We were once told that the arms being used by militants were from our military armoury in Kaduna. Incredible, this country. So now we know we are not safe. National security information is not safe. We are fully bugged and we know not.


Finally, the arrest and detention of the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, for rape has confirmed what I always suspected: that there is no big difference between African dictatorships and Western democracies. If we are all subjected to the same temperature and humidity, we are likely to react the same way. Assange was curiously arrested for rape when he started releasing the diplomatic cables. A British court refused him bail. Yet a man accused of murdering his wife while on honeymoon in South Africa was granted bail by a British court same week. If it was Robert Mugabe that did that to a journalist in Zimbabwe, there would be more and more sanctions for “political victimisation”. I love liberal democracy, don’t misunderstand me, but obviously every country watches out for its own interest. There are double standards sometimes, as we can all see.


I have never been a fan of WikiLeaks because I believe every country is entitled to state secrets, but I was very happy with the leaks on Nigeria. I am patiently waiting for the Chief MKO Abiola case. I want to know how he suddenly died in a meeting with Susan Rice and Thomas Pickering, two American agents who said they were in Nigeria to negotiate his release. It would be good to know who prepared the tea Abiola drank shortly before his death. For that, I’m falling in love with WikiLeaks!

And Four Other Things,

DDC Missing
The daring raid on direct digital capture (DDC) machines at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, has further exposed the security lapses at the nation’s airports. It is the worst possible news you could hear about the sensitive equipment which is meant for voter registration. At a time when the whole world is so cynical about our ability to organise free and far elections, the last you want to hear is that the all-important equipment has been stolen. The excuse is that it is the “rats” who normally pilfer cargoes that stole the machines, thinking it was an ordinary cargo. How do these “rats” gain entry into security areas? Who works hand-in-glove with them? What kind of country is this?

Another Police Murder
A trigger-happy policeman, this time around a whole DPO, allegedly shot and killed Citizen Femi Best last Sunday at the Mushin area of Lagos. His offence? Best was said to have brushed his car, so the DPO, who was in mufti, reportedly gave him a very good chase, caught up with him somewhere at Onipanu and snuffed life out of him. Femi was a 31-year-old man with a young child. He was said to be the bread winner of his extended family. Another life snuffed out by those who are supposed to protect our lives. The other day, it was Modebayo Awosika whose life was terminated by a trigger-happy policeman at Lekki. These things happen all the time all over the country. Only few incidents get into the media. Why does it keep happening? My guess: because justice is never done.

Aganga’s Shame
What’s the difference between Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and Segun Aganga? One has balls; the other doesn’t. Sanusi, the CBN governor, has always had my respect, but the respect doubled when he was threatened and quizzed by the federal lawmakers over his statement that 25 per cent of Federal Government overhead (not the entire recurrent expenditure, not service wide votes) goes to the National Assembly. He refused to be cowed. “My name is not CBN governor. I am ready to quit,” he said. Oh my God! We need public officers who can be so sure of themselves and who are ready to leave office at any time. I[b]t is a shame that Aganga, the Minister of Finance, who reputedly made his mark at Goldman Sachs, allowed himself to be intimidated to the point of blaming the media for misquoting him over the decision to cut recurrent expenditure. He didn’t deny when it was reported. More curiously, a few days after his National Assembly encounter, Aganga said again that he would cut recurrent expenditure[/b]. Some people just don’t have balls.

Oshiomhole, Take Heart
My heart-felt sympathy to the Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, whose wife, Clara, lost a three-year battle with cancer last week. You need to know Clara. She fell in love with Oshiomhole when he was nobody. He was a mere textile factory worker in Kaduna! That is what I call true love. Are we ever going to find a cure for cancer? It’s a shame.

Nigeria is the only country where white people gain entry without s valid visa, no thanks to the corrupt immigration officials that demands gratifications from travelers

Apart from higher powered government sponsored spies that parade themselves as diplomat, International donor agencies et al; a lot of losers in their country gain illegal entry to Nigeria, presents some white elephant projects in power point to highly placed government officials and defraud the country millions of dollars, just because they are white.

I thanks God for the new generation, the truths are coming out.

Sanusi Lamido should get more than a pat on the back. Nice write-up, Mr. Kolawole.

100% truth.
the west sucks.fck democracy

This is a very good piece from the editor. Nigeria is simply a joke. The funny thing is most of these good-for-nothing leaders have lived in Oyinbo countries before. Why the skin still gives them goose bumps I wouldn't know.


We lack love as a nation; and as a people we are evil at heart. Just accept it, I mean . . . . YOU. All of us.

Besides, no respite in sight.

To ya tents, . . . . .

I love this piece!

Though there is nothing totally new in the article, still seeing it written out plain brought tears to my eyes

Simon has always been one of my favourite columnists.

When you hate your own people; your own colour; your own kith and kin and; your OWN nation, then there is something genetically wrong with YOU. With whatever specie YOU represent.


The black man needs some inward, covert and objective soul-searching efforts.

This inspires awe.

Up to scientists!

xoxo, :

Though there is nothing totally new in the article, still seeing it written out plain brought tears to my eyes

He's trying to de-mystify the whole thing for the common man to understand the evil of the west and how Africans have goofed all these while.

Forget the Nigerian dream . . . Its a failed state already

imagine leaking "confidential issues" to some pple just because they lack melanin and our journalists have dat in excess warraheck !

hmm Wikileaks sha

Much of the information released does not really qualify as confidential per say since it is mostly basic data that ought to be available to the public. For some reason, we do not seem to be pushing hard enough for the Government give us access to what we need to know of our government.

Talk about the dregs of the human society and that is a very apt description of the black man.
Yet, we claim to be brilliant. Brilliant my foot.

This Aganga was on TED recently and he reeled out all sorts of rubbish. . . ,well, facts you call it.

Some months down the line, he's incapable of rational analysis.

A disciplined standpoint is now an aberation to him. The so-called Goldman Sachs man. This is our brilliance. Our understanding of brilliance. Only in our warped psyche.

It a sad sad situation.

googles:

Forget the Nigerian dream . . . Its a failed state already

imagine leaking "confidential issues" to some pple just because they lack melanin and our journalists have dat in excess warraheck !

hmm Wikileaks sha

Even on NL,some people here are proud supporters of supplying information to the west especially through the media all in the name of white supremacist versus black-mentality.

~Bluetooth:

Even on NL,some people here are proud supporters of supplying information to the west especially through the media all in the name of white supremacist versus black-mentality.

All the while forgetting that the whites are only as Superior as we let them be.

Even on NL,some people here are proud supporters of supplying information to the west especially through the media all in the name of white supremacist versus black-mentality.

Don't mind them, there are so many brainwashed peeps on here. They keep licking the white man's boot walking around with serious inferiority complex. That's the more reason this country is in this sorry state.

The moment our leaders see a white skin, they open their doors wide. We Nigerian journalists have to endure the humiliation of relying on foreign media to report some of the happenings in our own country.

Oh well. . .
Do you blame them?
Only their doors?
Any human orifice would suffice too.

It is amazing the amount of confidential information foreigners have on us. We willingly give it to them. In one of the cables sent from the US embassy in Abuja to
Washington, former Shell's vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa, Ann Pickard, boasted of how embedded the company was in government. She boasted that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant government department and so knew "everything that was being done in those ministries". Shell knew of the deliberations of government officials in the innermost circle. Pickard related how they obtained a letter showing that our government had invited bids for oil concessions from China. The transcript of a private meeting between a Nigerian minister and his Russian counterpart was in the possession of Shell a few hours later!

What do you expect from cheap political whor-es/economically dependent retro-developmental 20th world countries of the dark ages?
Wikilealking mouths. . .wilkileaking arse*s.

The illiterates call it investments.
But Karma is the sweetest baiatch isn't she?

Little did 'they' know they were being wiki-leaked too.

What goes around comes around huh?

Too bad, it ONLY takes the same WHITE MAN. . . 

The black man is too busy with his negative criminal 419 brains. Only programmed to go back in time.

I have never been a fan of WikiLeaks because I believe every country is entitled to state secrets, but I was very happy with the leaks on Nigeria. I am patiently waiting for the Chief MKO Abiola case. I want to know how he suddenly died in a meeting with Susan Rice and Thomas Pickering, two American agents who said they were in Nigeria to negotiate his release. It would be good to know who prepared the tea Abiola drank shortly before his death. For that, I’m falling in love with WikiLeaks.

Happy with only Nigeria's revelation on the wikileaks cables? I loved the entire revelations and can't wait for more myself. They reason I can never make a good diplomat.
I usually could not keep such secrets.

We do not need Wiki leaks for this please. The same person who prepared the tea that killed Idiagbon too. His Yoruba brothers in power for rituals.
Any Yoruba man that dies. . .it has to be be his wife or his brother. FACTS!

Never mind all those assassination stories. . . too bad no autopsies are done in Nigeria. Upon examination, those bodies would be found with missing kidneys, livers, hearts, brains, lungs and so forth. All gone some 2 years before the 'final' remote control killings from the Babalawo's shrines under the family bed. . . and/or with Adeboye's help on the other hand.

xoxo, :

All the while forgetting that the whites are only as Superior as we let them be.

A lot of people have been brain-washed but all thanks to those that championed Negritude,African history would have been similar to that of Apes,tiger and other white beast as the white suggested.

Blazay:

Oh well. . .
Do you blame them?

I sure won't blame them. The Nigerian journalist have also not helped themselves. Imagine reading as many versions of the same story from as many news papers we have in the country. How many main stream media organizations reported the most recent bribery scandal in Aso rock. In fact the report first came out from SR and we all know those guys do their reporting mostly from outside 9ja. The episode has now been calmly swept under the carpet. Where else in the world can such a brazen malfeasance attempt be perpetrated by a sitting president without anything happening to him.

If the truth is to be told, we are more of our own enemies than the so called western colonial masters.

I weep for Nigeria!

Useless editor,do ur work,let others do theirs.your own work of xposing corrupt pple,u r non challant about it,yu rather paint their name in gold

9ijaMan:

If the truth is to be told, we are more of our own enemies than the so called western colonial masters.

I weep for Nigeria!

Hey . . .  It is easier to blame it ALL on the WHITE MAN . . . . you must have learnt that by now. ROFLMAO!

That way, we can continue, after all this, in business as usual mode until the next time we get another chance to once again , BLAME IT ALL ON THE WHITE MAN.

What happened in my younger sister's work-place a little while ago brought tears of joy to my eyes. A stup!D Italian manager named Erico has been victimizing the workers and shouting senseless orders like Idi Amin. The Nigerian owner refused to do anything about it till the workers revolted. The Erico guy was sacked in the most shameful manner, in front of his erstwhile surbodinates. We all need to rise up to this internal neo-colonialism. We must see these expatriates for the pest they are! Before whatever we see them as, they are ordinary men.

^^^

Show yourselves capable/even better and you won't need to dream of REVOLTING at all.

shevchenko:

Useless editor,do your work,let others do theirs.your own work of xposing corrupt pple,u r non challant about it,yu rather paint their name in gold

Do you follow Mr. Kolawole at all? More importantly, do you read newspapers at all? Why would you call him a useless editor? Damn! You must not reply to every thread!

but here's the thing.

anything anyone says anything good about nigeria half of you bastards start attacking him on this site.
you have 0 patriotic drops in your blood and often wish the worst for nigeria

then when nigeria isn't doing well you blame the politicians.

this is a country none of you will pay tax to, none of you will die for, and none of you have anything good to say about, so when it's having a hard time existing stop pointing fingers. you people don't know what a country is, and ALL of you open your legs for white people on a regular basis so why are you faulting you government officials.

Finally, the arrest and detention of the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, for ra-pe has confirmed what I always suspected: that there is no big difference between African dictatorships and Western democracies. If we are all subjected to the same temperature and humidity, we are likely to react the same way. Assange was curiously arrested for despoil when he started releasing the diplomatic cables. A British court refused him bail. Yet a man accused of murdering his wife while on honeymoon in South Africa was granted bail by a British court same week. If it was Robert Mugabe that did that to a journalist in Zimbabwe, there would be more and more sanctions for “political victimisation”. I love liberal democracy, don’t misunderstand me, but obviously every country watches out for its own interest. There are double standards sometimes, as we can all see.

Very silly conclusion in my opinion. The man lived for a period, and even operates his business out of Sweden. if he did commit sex crimes in Sweden, should he not be arrested and brought to book for it? What has arresting a man for possible sex offences/crimes to do with Mugabe or African dictators? What the heck?

The case he has in Sweden is NOT the same case he has or the US is trying to bring against him in America. Anyone with half a brain would have. not only figured that out by now but also realized that if he is extradited to Sweden, there are chances that America will not be able to get it's hands on him to charge him for espionage since Sweden's laws do not prohibit that.

9ijaMan:

I sure won't blame them. The Nigerian journalist have also not helped themselves. Imagine reading as many versions of the same story from as many news papers we have in the country. How many main stream media organizations reported the most recent bribery scandal in Aso rock. In fact the report first came out from SR and we all know those guys do their reporting mostly from outside 9ja. The episode has now been calmly swept under the carpet. Where else in the world can such a brazen malfeasance attempt be perpetrated by a sitting president without anything happening to him.

If the truth is to be told, we are more of our own enemies than the so called western colonial masters.

I weep for Nigeria!

Gbam
Gbam
Gbamology!

Only the Aso Rock bribery scandal?

How many poli-thievans have been prosecuted in Nigeria in the past 50 years?
Now some are shamefully rejoicing that Ibori is going to jail for 10 years. . . paying the British to persecute their criminals. . .
Meanwhile, someone has chopped the $500million plea deal the US has offered to Nigeria so "Manleeness" Chenney does not face trial for the Halliburton bribe scandals.
Only because. . . OBJ and co will be further implicated.

To add insult to injury. . . the British will still keep the Ibori's loot. . . .with interest. ALL investments to build their own welfare system of socio-economic sloths and drones.
No more treaties to sign around the world. . . and no more lands to colonize. So, having run out of options to finance their redundant monarchy of economic leeches. . . this is the new way out.

Nigerians will always jubilate even when getting screwed in the mouth and behind. . .as long as a white man is doing the 'screwing'.

Sanusi of the CBN been shouting for months now.
Okonjo-Iwaela did the same.
Did any one in the juandiced judiciary system in Nigeria pay attention?
Halliburton criminals have been exposed for months. . .after OBJ left office. . .while the lean and hungry lookiing Ribadu had it under his pollow for months.
What did Nigeria do?
A sick country indeed. . . a sick country full of anecephalic, loud/foul mouthed, morally-bankrupt, spiritually-depraved, psychotic citizens( with passive agressive ethnic and religious bigots). Damned souls without redemption. Poor Jesus! When he came to save the world, I don't think he knew Nigerians existed. . . or he would have made a beehive turn without a re-think. Honestly.

White man done go far o!

See as dem just recolonise us whilst we dey mumu.

Its time for African Union to start taking a leaf from South America's book with regard to control of our own resources.

Inferiority complex is an unfortunate Nigerian disease. Blessed with abundant human and physical resources, the best we can do is import goods from all sorts crazy places (most dodgy). We lack the self confidence to buy and promote goods made in Nigeria, when that isn't happening, we are pulling down capable Nigerians, our neighbours and "friends"; all because we are jealous of them or for ethnically bigoted reasons.

We worship whites, Indians and sing in Jamaican patois; while sitting on our own kind. Rather than export Icheoku etc, we create fake copies of "better" cultures and traditions that result in disconnected TV programmes like the "Nigerian Idol."
The man on the street who can't feed his kids, talkless of travelling to the UK, knows all about Manchester United and absolutely zero about Warri Wolves.

Nigeria is the only country on Earth that is like this. When will we ever wake up?

Ibime:

White man done go far o!

See as dem just recolonise us whilst we dey mumu.

Its time for African Union to start taking a leaf from South America's book with regard to control of our own resources.

Seconded !

Ibime:

White man done go far o!

See as dem just recolonise us whilst we dey mumu.

Its time for African Union to start taking a leaf from South America's book with regard to control of our own resources.

African Union?

Can we atleast get Nigerian Union first?

Finally, the arrest and detention of the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, for despoil has confirmed what I always suspected: that there is no big difference between African dictatorships and Western democracies. If we are all subjected to the same temperature and humidity, we are likely to react the same way. Assange was curiously arrested for despoil when he started releasing the diplomatic cables. A British court refused him bail. Yet a man accused of murdering his wife while on honeymoon in South Africa was granted bail by a British court same week. If it was Robert Mugabe that did that to a journalist in Zimbabwe, there would be more and more sanctions for “political victimisation”. I love liberal democracy, don’t misunderstand me, but obviously every country watches out for its own interest. There are double standards sometimes, as we can all see.

False.
You cannot even get Nigerians to support Phillip Emeagwali for 'fraudulent' self adulation. . . you are talking of Julian Assange for crying out louid.
For one. . . Wikileaks has supporters around the world. You can NEVER get a black man to do that. A continent devoid of intellectual heroes is called Africa.
If Julian Assange was a black man. . . he would have ended up like Abiola or Bola Ige. His own brothers would have hired the same Western super killers to snuff him out off the face of the earth without a trace.

Funny enough. . . Julian Assange and co had already contacted ALL involved that the cable series were gonna be released in a timely fashion. . . no surprise there.

Only a white man can do that. . . no fear of the consequences. . .all sheer guts and a matter of principles.
A black man would have been thinking of his wallet and his precious dusty black skin that lead into all evils and temptations.
Foolish, baseless empty pride without any meaningful underlying principles.
What a curse!