A Sweet Wind Of Change, A Silent Revolution

Something good id happening in Nigeria. A bloodless revolution is happening. Who would have thought that in Nigeria, Ex- Governors will be prosecuted not given Cheiftaincy titles and courts will rule in the favor of the common man. FCDA can be ordered to pay damages to people whose houses were illegally demolished. People can not just behave any way they please just because they are in Government.

We still have a long way to go but I really believe something good is going on and this will teach people in Authority to be responsible, It is good to know that our leaders can be held responsible for their actions.

I went to work in a village this weekend and in the focal group discussion I learnt that Children eat meat once a year only on Christmas day. This is in Nigeria a state where the Governor is accused of stealing 17 billion. It is disheartening to see this malnourished children when one man will use funds meant for these children to buy 300 cars and send his children far away from the Horrors he has inflicted on people he was elected to care for.

It is really a happy moment for me and my colleagues because when you work in a place where you witness the gross neglect of Citizens by Governors who will go about collecting best Governor awards all over the world and Come on Bisi Olatilo Show to display their latest cars Yet, children in their states are suffering from gross malnutrition.

I am not one to complain and whine about government but making these Senseless people account for their actions really makes me smile, not because I hate them but because it sends a message to others that nobody is above the law.

Thank you for this thread i support your motive,but it is painful that we still have many bad belle people leaders in this country not only the governors but the truth is that the governors are to blame because of their inefficiency of management due to greediness in their lifestyle.for example imaging an errand man of Nigeria Labour Congress carrying 3 phones worth of 50k at the sametimes and own 2 private jaguar car and lots of money,he is not doing no other work than fighting for people right isn't it, and local governments councils have turned to money making centre,so that is why i am support privatisation systems emphasised by former president OBJ because this government public office holders see the position as an opportunity to make their life better than everybody instead of them to use it to make common nigerian proud.may God change perpetrators of corruption ooo.

Thanks Aisha and Michael,
I just finished reading a fomer governor's confession.In fact the most annoying thing is that he is a REVEREND.Imagine!Where do we turn to when people who are suppose to be light are doing the opposite.
Just as Aisha has put it, a sweet wind of change is really blowing, Though it may quite a while, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
KUDOS TO EFCC.

I am really excited. I just hope we have the will to follow it through.

Atimes one hears or reads things that brings tears into one's eyes. Some children eating meat just once a year? Leaders diverting money for these children to their private pockets and then use such money to send their wards to schools abroad. Children hawking pure water and other wares in traffic hold-ups at great risks to their lives. Malnourished children everywhere. What does the future hold for these children? Doesnt Nigeria belong to all of us anymore?

Without embezzling money, occupying these offices alone is enough to make one moderately comfortable by the legitimate income that one earns and the attendant doors that such positions would open. But our so called leaders are a shameless greedy bunch. Elections are massively rigged that the citizens can not get their choice candidates into offices through their votes.

Just as Aisha has correctly pointed out, the judiciary appears to be the only hope in the horizon and we pray that the fearlessness and the fortrightedness of the judiciary continues. This will definitely make the politicians sit up and do that which they are voted to do and those among them that have no ideas about governance would rather not seek elections to serve. (My only worry is the Court Of Appeal - their judgements lately have been worrisome).

This is one of the most interesting and moving posts I've ever read in this forum, I am really moved to tears. God bless the Aisha lady for this post, I pray that God will have mercy and restore Naija to her lost glory.

Rubbish! Why should we attack political rivals in the name of probing them. How many people from the ruling party have been probed yet?
NIGERIA NEVER CHANGE

n-guage:

Rubbish! Why should we attack political rivals in the name of probing them. How many people from the ruling party have been probed yet?
NIGERIA NEVER CHANGE

If these Governors are guilty of corruption they should be prosecuted. Your line of argument is overused and incoherent. Let us discuss issues please, not that line of political rivlas.
I spent this weekend in a village in Jigawa because we want to start a project there, and I saw a lot of Children with Kwashokor, So i was curios and asked during our focus group discussion and inquired about the diet of the children . Our initial project is an intervention project to reduce maternal mortality in Jigawa state.33/100, this means for every 100 pregnant women in jigawastate, 33 will not survive. It has the Highest maternal mortality rate in the whole world and we went to discuss with the community members on that but now we have to rewrite the project to include child nutrition.
N-guage, These people had a governor for 8 years who is being accused of stealing 17 billion Naira, Do you know how many children 5 million Naira can feed well for a whole year? I am talking practically. Do you know why women die in Jigawa during and after childbirth?
1. Bad roads from the village to the hospitals (State Roads)
2. No money for treatment.( Thank God Pregnant Women are now handled as emergency cases, Hospitals now attend to women in labor witout deposit)
3. Poor nutrition leading to anemia.
So what do i care if the Governor was Opposing the Government which in any way he was not because he supported third term.
All we want is for these Governors to account for their deeds and return the money so that Pregnant women will not die giving birth and Children can have fish, eggs and vegetables to eat in the state where a Governor stole 17 billion from

oh please, you must be a PR guy/girl for PDP. Its simply not going to work that way. ''Scooter'' Libby is going to jail despite the fact that he is a republican.  Does that happen in Nigeria?

I am not A PR person for any party or Organisation. I am a Volunteer and a social worker. Nothing i said in my post is political, If you want to argue, please argue logically, it is nt just about shouting and making noise, Please contribute something to move Nigeria forward.
People like you just want to keep complaining, Please by all means complain away but the truth cannot be hidden. A thief is a Theif it does not matter if you are in PDP or ANPP or AC, What i see is what i say

n-guage
Saminu Turaki, Jolly Nyame, Chimaroke Nnamani and Joshua Dariye are all members of the ruling party PDP.

They are all members, right. The same way Ladoja was a member of PDP in oyo state.

n-guage:

They are all members, right. The same way Ladoja was a member of PDP in oyo state.

and your point is. . .? Tell us or you stop sounding like a broken record

they are members, that are not really members (FIGURE IT OUT YOUSELF). Politics is not childs play, you guys sit by your computer and just post  uneducated thoughts.

Pls. when will this kind gesture be extended to OBJ boys?

Odili, Igbinedeon. Ibori e.t.c

thank you sir dj4wealth. someone is on my side.

are you in hurry? relax everything will be witness very soon by you.And for those who support privatisation ,is the process for it fully examine? obj only bought all our heritage that is not privatisation we understand. the man just did it as if he own Nigeria, he deliberately acquired our heritage so that he can permenently be in otta and still be controlling the whole nation when he vacated the seat.

N-guage & co,

This is not a question of whose side and what bloke one belongs.
The fact unarguabely remains that indeed a wind of change is blowing in our nation.
Never in our history has Responsibility and Accountability of public officers(incumbent and ex-) been questioned with such potent alacrity.
Concerning the issue of selective approach, i did rather say,
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a step.All defaulting public officers cannot be arrested all @ once. Infact anticipation of death is worse than death itself. All thes culprits are pissing in their pants awaiting the dooms day.

Be that as it may, Its no longer business as usual. Lets embrace this change and say bye-bye to all political shenanigans.

i understand what Aisha is saying and what n-guage is saying, they are both right and only time will tell if this is really a wind of change or something politically motivated

Pls, pls, pls, let's not loose focus of this topic. Its so easy for many of us to talk about opposition being prosecuted and all that but that is not the focus here. Nigerian children are suffering untold hardship in all fronts and the people who have the mandate and the authority to make a difference in their lives are diverting funds to be used for them into private pockets. This is not acceptable to God and to man. It should be condemned in strongest terms. So many children who would have been great men tomorrow have ended up being bus conductors, area boys, rogues, political thugs et al and that is if they dont die of kwashiokor at their tender ages. How do you feel whenever you are in a bus or in your car and you see a child hawking pure water runing in-between vehicles in a traffic? Are you happy to see "small boys" rushing to clean your windscreen in a traffic, albeit unsolicitedly? Or when they beg for alms? Glowing futures and destinies are being wasted here. It is such a sad story and it often brings me to tears.

We must know that the difference between us and these children is the education that we have had that is now being denied them. There is a need for everyone to join hands together to "remake this world".

If you have a topic about prosecution of opposition people, please post it and we will all contribute.

@n-guage
my guy u are missing the point!
it will be injustice if the ex-governors that were indicted where innocent!!!! but theyre guilty!!!!! so whats the problem? even if the indictments were politically motovated; at least someone gets to pay for corruopyion in this sickenly corrupt country

the REAL wind of change will come when LEGISLATORS begin to impeach thieves from office, when the common man's vote starts making a statement at the polls and when governors who steal no longer cling to the "immunity clause" to stay in office whether they are members of the ruling party or not.
As far as i'm concerned all these is a charade meant to decieve.

I'm glad these governors are in jail but WHERE are the bigger fish?

Thank You very much Deseized. I am just happy that these people are being made to face the consequecies of their actions. It is really sad what they do to Nigerians especially childern and it will have been sadder if they were not prosecuted.
No matter the motivation, political or otherwise, it will make these new Governors sit up and do what they are meant to do. Justice is being done, Justice to near starved Children and pregnant women. These are things i care about not if the governors are politcal rivals or not. If they are innocent it is a different matter but they stole they peoples money with so much impunity
@david, Long time.
I told you Nigeria will get better, Change comes gradually, and we will get to that point sooner than you expect. I am smiling because, i think i will see a better nigeria in my life time.

[/quote][quote author=n-guage link=topic=67742.msg1316376#msg1316376 date=1185196109]
thank you sir dj4wealth. someone is on my side.

I don't think you actually understand what this topic or the poster is all about, are you just taking this personal? There's nothing politcal about this post, but rather social. I think your brain is only filled with politics. If you were one of the children affected, I'm sure you would think differently, may be correctly. If you've never experienced poverty before, I pray you don't ever, because not many people were born into wealth, including the ill-gotten one. Some of us are where we are today because of our selfish leaders. Thank God for His grace to turn a servant to a king. Ask people who were in secondary schools between 1979 and 1985, they will lecture you on the effects of "Austerity Measure" on their education and social well-being. Those of us who are now a bit privileged should take the issue of people who are suffering as a matter of importance and sound our support loud and clear for any just move to make positive changes in the society.

I don't know what our people understand by opposition. who is opposing newly elected president? those that are presently apprehended were third term pillars so what is opposition here? turaki, namani and Nyame are captain that led the third term that latter derail to failure. and the stolen public money was used in funding it. let be sincere once.
my people allow EFFCC to exercise his duty stop condemning them if you have a family among this crooks the nemesis has started with you and your family no way 4 u to skip out of this gbabe.

Please. when will this kind gesture be extended to OBJ boys?

Odili, Igbinedeon. Ibori e.t.c

God bless you, even OBJ himself

i understand what Aisha is saying and what n-guage is saying, they are both right and only time will tell if this is really a wind of change or something politically motivated

abi?

Aisha2 ,I must confess that i was touched by your post . It really opened my eyes to many things and confirmed my worst fears which is that there is absolutely nothing that will stop the government from going after its percieved enemies. What has continued to baffle me really, is how they have been able to camoflage their real intentions behind anti-corruption and sell it to the point that people are actually applauding them while they are busy strategising on better ways of looting. It only pains me very deeply when otherwiswe wonderfull people like you Aisha2 appear to be carried away by the deception of this PDP led government. For starters can you name one serious Obasanjo loyalist that has been seriously disturbed by the EFCC talkless of arrested. It is on record that the major looters are actually Obasanjo's loyalists. People like Peter Odili, Tony Anenih, Chief Bode George, Andy Uba, e.t.c. My sister you may need to learn to read between the lines. Some of the arrested govenors who were former PDP members people like Orji Kalu are under tremendous pressure to come back to PDP and knowing nigerian politicians too well, it becomes necessary if not expedient to get these governors on the negotiating table in a manner that will put them in a poor bargainig position. Believe it or not it is a well known PDP tactics.  Back to the election almost all if not all the disqualified candidates were in the oppossing parties. But to make themselves look good a few PDP local government chairmen and house of Reps aspirants were added to the list. Please my dear there is not sweet wind of change blowing in Nigeria. It is just that the PDP orligarchs have deep resentment for those  not in their league enjoying state resources like them. On a personal note, Iam fully convinced that until Nigeria goes the full length against corruption like Ghana under Jerry Rawlings, every  other thing we are doing is nothing but rhetorics.

dinachi:

Aisha2 ,I must confess that i was touched by your post . It really opened my eyes to many things and confirmed my worst fears which is that there is absolutely nothing that will stop the government from going after its percieved enemies. What has continued to baffle me really, is how they have been able to camoflage their real intentions behind anti-corruption and sell it to the point that people are actually applauding them while they are busy strategising on better ways of looting. It only pains me very deeply when otherwiswe wonderfull people like you Aisha2 appear to be carried away by the deception of this PDP led government. For starters can you name one serious Obasanjo loyalist that has been seriously disturbed by the EFCC talkless of arrested. It is on record that the major looters are actually Obasanjo's loyalists. People like Peter Odili, Tony Anenih, Chief Bode George, Andy Uba, e.t.c. My sister you may need to learn to read between the lines. Some of the arrested govenors who were former PDP members people like Orji Kalu are under tremendous pressure to come back to PDP and knowing nigerian politicians too well, it becomes necessary if not expedient to get these governors on the negotiating table in a manner that will put them in a poor bargainig position. Believe it or not it is a well known PDP tactics. Back to the election almost all if not all the disqualified candidates were in the oppossing parties. But to make themselves look good a few PDP local government chairmen and house of Reps aspirants were added to the list. Please my dear there is not sweet wind of change blowing in Nigeria. It is just that the PDP orligarchs have deep resentment for those not in their league enjoying state resources like them. On a personal note, Iam fully convinced that until Nigeria goes the full length against corruption like Ghana under Jerry Rawlings, every other thing we are doing is nothing but rhetorics.

My post is not to glorify or vilify ayone, am just happy that Govoernors PDP, ANPP,PPA and any other party are prosecuted for the great inhumanity they have committed to thier fellow humans. Please let us not get carried away with unnecessary sentiments. If they said enemies of PDP were not guilty of stealing then they have nothing to fear, but if you go on a site visit to one of our work sites and see the effect of the wickedness of these Governors on their people then you will understand my passion about they arrest and detention.
My brother, please go to Jigawa state, you will see the impact of currupt leadership am sure then you will review your conspiracy theory.
Those of you saying Its PDP going after its enemies, none of you have said the prosecuted Governors are innocent.

I do hope that all these criminals will be brought to book if not now certainly later. Let us get it right, I know people after they have looted our money, hide in the name of opposition when they are arrested or threatened. The question is, did you steal? If yes, then forget hiding under opposition to attract sympathy, because there will be no sympathy for you. You can’t claim you are in opposition fighting for the masses, yet you go ahead to loot funds that will be channeled to improve the lives of the same masses. Another thing, EFCC should present evidence before making any arrest. Obasanjo and his group should not be left out in this revolution to recover the stolen funds. EFCC Boss has just said in today’s Punch Newspaper that he has no plan to probe Obasanjo. That’s wrong. Check out the source. http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200707231115726 However, I feel ashamed that a Rev. Nyama could allow money control him. Let him too face the music. Nigerians are suffering and is very painful to see children dying of hunger. Very painful.

lol to aisha for your post. if i say that your post did not touch me i make my self a liar. you said that somebody stole 17 billion.i was shoked the day i saw that in a paper people are dying in nigeria but what baffles me most is the kind of money i hear everyday is billons ,triilions nobody now metions millons small time the will start going into zilloins may God have mercy upon this people. some doesn't even have money to go to hospital while this criminals go to abroad just for medical check up.

dinachi:

Aisha2 ,I must confess that i was touched by your post . It really opened my eyes to many things and confirmed my worst fears which is that there is absolutely nothing that will stop the government from going after its percieved enemies. What has continued to baffle me really, is how they have been able to camoflage their real intentions behind anti-corruption and sell it to the point that people are actually applauding them while they are busy strategising on better ways of looting. It only pains me very deeply when otherwiswe wonderfull people like you Aisha2 appear to be carried away by the deception of this PDP led government. For starters can you name one serious Obasanjo loyalist that has been seriously disturbed by the EFCC talkless of arrested. It is on record that the major looters are actually Obasanjo's loyalists. People like Peter Odili, Tony Anenih, Chief Bode George, Andy Uba, e.t.c. My sister you may need to learn to read between the lines. Some of the arrested govenors who were former PDP members people like Orji Kalu are under tremendous pressure to come back to PDP and knowing nigerian politicians too well, it becomes necessary if not expedient to get these governors on the negotiating table in a manner that will put them in a poor bargainig position. Believe it or not it is a well known PDP tactics.  Back to the election almost all if not all the disqualified candidates were in the oppossing parties. But to make themselves look good a few PDP local government chairmen and house of Reps aspirants were added to the list. Please my dear there is not sweet wind of change blowing in Nigeria. It is just that the PDP orligarchs have deep resentment for those  not in their league enjoying state resources like them. On a personal note, Iam fully convinced that until Nigeria goes the full length against corruption like Ghana under Jerry Rawlings, every  other thing we are doing is nothing but rhetorics.    

i agree wit u, tell them o jare

I don't see no change taking place in Nigeria, all I am seeing is political opponents and trouble makers getting their ass checked. When we get a person in the character of Jerry Rawling who can come and wipe out all this rotating power grabbers, then there is hope for Naija. You can not clean your house and sweep all the rubbish under the carpet, you clean, dump, and burn the rubbish.