I think one approach that could have been use, when they discovered the location, was to send an Imam and see , if they can hand them over to the imam. Look they will kill kidnappers victim if they are attack, they dont much value much. They believe they will get virgin in heaven for every killing. And men love virgin.

The best approach is to ask an imam to help secure sure a victim. and I dont think, it will be nice to have the nigeria police around that area, when ever people are kidnapped. Most nigerian dont like the nigeria police. Even for just seen the nigeria police around the area, they will kill the victims.

the best approach will be to get an imam next time to go into the location and secure the victim. they may release him to them. if he is a very popular and pro northerner imam. there are not many pro northern imam any more. most nigeria politician are not popular among their people. they just claim they won election. this is one of the problem.

look the approval rating of Gani fawehinmi when he was around in Nigeria was over 90% all over nigeria even in the north.. There is no politician in Nigeria now who has approval rating of up to 30% they buy crowd. And pay people to come. Which is a major problem. This is one problem. And that was why, it was only buhari from the north who could run , even in Yorubaland, there is also the same problem. Even in Igboland. People dont trust the politician because they are all mostly shading people.

And this is the major problem.Nigeria use to have fine gentle politician in the past, who were even poor people like aminu kano, waziri, awolowo etc.but now every politician have stole from nigeria. that there is problem with finding any form of leaders in most ethnic group. Most are either criminal or a theif. So the people of Nigeria lack confident in all of them.

Godman_n: It will be very unwise to invite any of the NATO countries into Nigeria in the disguise of fighting Boko Haram. I have maintained that Boko Haram was a creation of NATO secret agents as a tool to destabilize Nigeria. I remain convinced that the long term goal is to secure Nigeria oil as they have done in Angola, Sudan and most recently in a very crude way in Libya. The granting of independence to Southern Sudan keep coming into my head. I can't hold back believing that the whole Niger Delta terrorist and Boko Haram share same sponsors. Their approach may be difference, the active men on the field mya be different; but the patron remains the same person.

Whoever that does not know how the western secret agents "program" people for their goal should try to find out. The men supposedly fighting for teh liberation of Niger Delta and the Boko Haram who claim to be fighting for "Sharia" will never know who is funding them. These funds are moved through layers of international businessmen, drug Barons and Arms dealers that it get very complicated to figure out its source and its true motive.

Even President GEJ I believe has been unknowingly set up working for the agenda to break up Nigeria by these western powers.

Mark you it will never be for our good. It is for the sole good of the "Super power". Never deceive yourself that a tiny Oduduwa, Biafran, Niger Delta, etc republic will be democratic and pro-people. Try know the history of dictators in Africa, and will see that all were product of these western countries. The most wicked Idi Amin and Mobutu inclusive.

So brothers, let not trust an enemy. We are better of solving our problem ourselves. These people are the makers of our problem.

He that have ears, let him hear.

this is the ultimate sentence bro. . . so full of realities as they are.

OzReal: ^^^
"My dream for Nigeria is a super power that will stand to represent the much marginalized black-man in the committee of Nations. If we cannot achieve this, we are a disgrace to nature and God. And there is no way a tiny Oduduwa, Biafra, Arewa etc republic can achieve that.

The masters that destroyed our land and put us into slavery five centuries ago know all these."

You have spoken well in your last post, and presented some facts to back up your argument. But I only have a few things to say in reference to the quote from your post above. What I have to say is this : Your dream can NEVER be realised, at least not in our lifetime, or possibly in this century. I say this because it is my fervent belief that there is something inherently amiss with the black man; although, there is no logical explanation which i can provide for this position(but i just believe there is something wrong somewhere). You mentioned that we were enslaved by force(which is very true), but don't forget that we also had brothers who colluded with the invaders to capture some of their brethren. In fact, let us not go too far back in time: take a look at those we call our leaders all over sub-Saharan Africa and any other nation that is populated by a black majority and tell me if what happened during the era of slave trade is different from what is happening now(complete disregard for the welfare of brothers in pursuit of material gains. We have gained independence since 1960, yet we have managed to regress(and continue to do so) with no end in sight.
It is time to stop blaming foreigners and acknowledge that we have big problems, and that they won't go away until we address them properly.

Let me tackle our area of disagreement: Why it is easy for a black man to work against the interest of his people. I take this to be your point of disagreement with me.

As you said, there is something inherently amiss with the black-man. This is no other thing, other than[b] our conquering by the "White Race" - The Arabs and the Europeans[/b]. The facts is that because we were conquered, we lost our past and the essence of our being. Our conquerors were fast to brainwash us into believing that we are inferior. Even our educational system was structured as a tool to further enslave us. Everything about us was painted as bad while everything about them was painted good. The things about them that would have been obviously bad, if we are to know them were hidden from us. Our adopted Religions of today (both Islam and Christianity is part of these). {Note that I am and will remain a Christian}.

So we are in a state of "inferiority complex" in our relationship with the West

In addition to this, they have been making continuous effort to keep us down. These efforts are not really carefully planned just to keep us down. They plan them as a way to better their own economy. Keeping us down comes as a side effect and not necessarily a consciously planned result from this.

A simple scenario, they sponsor coup to remove our leaders that fail to "co-operate with them"; they wire-tap our leaders phones to know our secrets, they weep up lies and sentiments agianst Leaders they do not want; they move money during elections to support stooges against our "true leaders", etc. Have you taken time to observe Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe? I see him an unintelligent big stooge of the West. While believing that Mugabe is not forthright, I also think Tsvangirai does not represent Mugabe's opposite. Have you thought on why Tafawa Belewa was empowered over Zik and Awo among so many other things?

You can see that we are already down, owing the past activities of over 400 years ago. Our masters know how to manipulate us and this they have been doing. In any group of people, you can always get someone to use to destabilize them, if you have the money and the power. Today, the West have the money and the Power; and that is why it is easy for them to destabilize us, for their own gain. If we have the power and the money, we can destabilize even America. Let us take God for example. Despite being God, Satan was able to get Judas among the twelve for his chosen role. I prefer saying that in every twelve, their must be a Judas.

But the fact also is that there are natural laws, that will turn the table against the West. Their intellectuals know this, and can only try to stop it, as they have been doing. That is why today, China, Brazil, India, Old Russia is gaining a voice. That was why America rose over Britain. That was why Britain rose over the old Roman empire; who at a time in the past, called the British a timid intelligent people that can never get civilized. Yet these British rose to build an empire that at a time controlled a third of the world.

If you can read the old testament very well, you can imagine, how many hundreds of years that old Egypt was the biggest power on Earth. And for you information, the then Egypt was a Black Empire, that was conquered by the Arabs. The Blacks of old Egypt which extends to parts of the present Sudan and beyond were massacred and driven out of Egypt. Remember this same Arabs would have done same to Europe but for the Crusades lead by the Catholic church. Of course, there were the Babylonians Empires, and the Greece before the Romans, the Ottoman Empires. So the world, civilization and super power status, are in a constantly changing cycle. No one can predict them; and no one also can stop them. The factors that drives this cycle are as natural as man; to change them is to destroy our very essence. I call them natural laws.

The way we organize and run our society is one of the factors. The way others organise theirs, allowing us to "cheat, steal, etc" from them is another factor. Our relationships with other countries, our resource base and so many other things that we cannot dictate are all among the factors that can influence the emergence of "Super power".

Now, they have created in Africa, states in pepertual conflict. With this, we cannot organise ourselve. With it, they can ever manipulate us. With it, our intellectuals will never develop. A man that is hungry will never think well. A man that is hungry, that has a history of poverty will always be easily bribed. Also note that poverty breads ambition; and ambition makes one easily corruptible. These are the factors that make us different from the whites.

Years ago, the white race never believed we are "genetically" the same with them. Those scientist among them who share this belief must have ran several experiments to prove this, to no avail. So we can agree that we are biologically the same with the white. Also from what I know of culture and psychology, and from observation from the migration of people; we have black raised in Europe and America who has excelled far better than average white. We also have whites who grow up here, that have got used to our corrupt lives. So the present characters we attribute to the blackman is a matter of culture. It is a product of nurture and not nature. Given the right kind of government and effective implementation of our laws, our people will change.

I will say that given a disciplined government like that of Buhari/Idiagbon for 5 years, an average Nigeria will become disciplined and less corrupt. That we are corrupt today, is because our government through wrong policies and ineffective implementation of our laws, made corruption a norm. When you live in a society where the corrupts are the better-offs, you will have more tendency to be corrupt. Over a long time, every one will take to corruption. That is what happened to the black-man. If a government can punish enough of the law breaker and compensate those that work hard enough, the right culture will emerge in us. The say, that where comfort, money and power is, is where the human minds go to. We are corrupt because corruption brings comfort, power, money and sex in our today's Nigeria. It is the fault of our government; it is the fault of whoever gave us ineffective and corrupt persons as leaders. The West obviously gave us these leaders if you look closely. From Tafawa Belewa, to Gowon, IBB, etc have a not too hidden hand of external influence. Idi Amin, Mobutu, Compare are all products of Western manipulations.

So what we are in, is an accident of history that will self-correct whenever the factors are right. Our is to play our role; and pray that the other factors adds up.

Our role is to find a way of installing "the right kind of leaders on top". Believe me, if we do not have a good President, a good governor will find it extremely difficult to operate and will fail. A good minister will either resign and fail with the President. So will any other officer under him. You can only operate within the framework allowed by the man on top. The actions and inaction of the man on top will always restrict the man below.

So I support any action that can produce our most intelligent and most humane as our leaders. If a million Nigerians can die (including myself), as Chukwuman Kaduna Nzeogwu was quoted to have said in 1966, for this to happen, so be it. Needless to say, that I have observed that in the West and every other progressive country in the world, they have a system that produces their best (I call them 1st eleven) as leaders, while we have be left with a system that prompts, the criminals and never do wells among us, as our leaders.

These are my honest thoughts.

blackcat1: @Godman_n and @ OzReal
God continue to bless you two for your wisdom. [s]If only we had 100 of you in power in Nigeria things will surely look up for our nation[/s].

If only we had 100 of you in power in Nigeria things will surely look up for our nation was not necessary because with the rate at which oil is gushing out, the whole 100 would equally do more (if not worse) than the present crap crop of leaders in power.

niddamugu:

If only we had 100 of you in power in Nigeria things will surely look up for our nation was not necessary because with the rate at which oil is gushing out, the whole 100 would equally do more (if not worse) than the present crap crop of leaders in power.

Why will you believe all of us, including yourself will do worse that what we have not? If you can read my last post, I will want you to tell me where I was wrong. All we need to break out of this cycle of bad leadership and irresponsibility in power is to have a person, who is Intelligent enough, Brave enough, and Humane enough. His humaneness will take away any element of selfishness. Bravery will allow him take difficult decision that will have to be taken for our good and also refuse the urge to favour "his own people" - tribe, church group, friends and families.

Intelligent will make him know who to trust and who not to, which advice to take and which not to.

That is what we need.

As for your blanket that all of us, will be worse; I will put it to you that not all Nigerian leaders have been bad, not withstanding their mistakes. Buhari and Idiagbon did everything right. It is only the overwhelming influence of the West and a criminal cabal that overpowered them by helping IBB stage his coup. Muritala tried but same West (in fact CIA) set Dimka up in his stupid coup. Nzeogwu did the right thing, but the men of lesser character he worked with betrayed his course.

Our problem is that we have enough un0informed people that will always allows criminal emerge as our leaders. Not because we do not have people that can change Nigeria.

Jonathan was elected not because he has any atribute of being able to govern. Shagari, same; Obasanjo was of same making. Tafawa Belewa, Gowon both lacked what it take to govern a people. IBB was a confirmed drug dealer and could not have been able to govern. Abacha minus the killing he perpetuated during his stay in power despite being an evil man could have enforced some kind of order in us. Idiagbon would have been a wonderful messiah.

So we have people among us that can change our country but for the factors I enumerated above. I want you to give me facts that will disprove me. Not just "your opinion"

Let me tackle our area of disagreement: Why it is easy for a black man to work against the interest of his people. I take this to be your point of disagreement with me.

As you said, there is something inherently amiss with the black-man. This is no other thing, other than our conquering by the "White Race" - The Arabs and the Europeans. The facts is that because we were conquered, we lost our past and the essence of our being. Our conquerors were fast to brainwash us into believing that we are inferior. Even our educational system was structured as a tool to further enslave us. Everything about us was painted as bad while everything about them was painted good. The things about them that would have been obviously bad, if we are to know them were hidden from us. Our adopted Religions of today (both Islam and Christianity is part of these). {Note that I am and will remain a Christian}.

So we are in a state of "inferiority complex" in our relationship with the West

In addition to this, they have been making continuous effort to keep us down. These efforts are not really carefully planned just to keep us down. They plan them as a way to better their own economy. Keeping us down comes as a side effect and not necessarily a consciously planned result from this.

A simple scenario, they sponsor coup to remove our leaders that fail to "co-operate with them"; they wire-tap our leaders phones to know our secrets, they weep up lies and sentiments agianst Leaders they do not want; they move money during elections to support stooges against our "true leaders", etc. Have you taken time to observe Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe? I see him an unintelligent big stooge of the West. While believing that Mugabe is not forthright, I also think Tsvangirai does not represent Mugabe's opposite. Have you thought on why Tafawa Belewa was empowered over Zik and Awo among so many other things?

You can see that we are already down, owing the past activities of over 400 years ago. Our masters know how to manipulate us and this they have been doing. In any group of people, you can always get someone to use to destabilize them, if you have the money and the power. Today, the West have the money and the Power; and that is why it is easy for them to destabilize us, for their own gain. If we have the power and the money, we can destabilize even America. Let us take God for example. Despite being God, Satan was able to get Judas among the twelve for his chosen role. I prefer saying that in every twelve, their must be a Judas.

But the fact also is that there are natural laws, that will turn the table against the West. Their intellectuals know this, and can only try to stop it, as they have been doing. That is why today, China, Brazil, India, Old Russia is gaining a voice. That was why America rose over Britain. That was why Britain rose over the old Roman empire; who at a time in the past, called the British a timid intelligent people that can never get civilized. Yet these British rose to build an empire that at a time controlled a third of the world.

If you can read the old testament very well, you can imagine, how many hundreds of years that old Egypt was the biggest power on Earth. And for you information, the then Egypt was a Black Empire, that was conquered by the Arabs. The Blacks of old Egypt which extends to parts of the present Sudan and beyond were massacred and driven out of Egypt. Remember this same Arabs would have done same to Europe but for the Crusades lead by the Catholic church. Of course, there were the Babylonians Empires, and the Greece before the Romans, the Ottoman Empires. So the world, civilization and super power status, are in a constantly changing cycle. No one can predict them; and no one also can stop them. The factors that drives this cycle are as natural as man; to change them is to destroy our very essence. I call them natural laws.

The way we organize and run our society is one of the factors. The way others organise theirs, allowing us to "cheat, steal, etc" from them is another factor. Our relationships with other countries, our resource base and so many other things that we cannot dictate are all among the factors that can influence the emergence of "Super power".

Now, they have created in Africa, states in pepertual conflict. With this, we cannot organise ourselve. With it, they can ever manipulate us. With it, our intellectuals will never develop. A man that is hungry will never think well. A man that is hungry, that has a history of poverty will always be easily bribed. Also note that poverty breads ambition; and ambition makes one easily corruptible. These are the factors that make us different from the whites.

Years ago, the white race never believed we are "genetically" the same with them. Those scientist among them who share this belief must have ran several experiments to prove this, to no avail. So we can agree that we are biologically the same with the white. Also from what I know of culture and psychology, and from observation from the migration of people; we have black raised in Europe and America who has excelled far better than average white. We also have whites who grow up here, that have got used to our corrupt lives. So the present characters we attribute to the blackman is a matter of culture. It is a product of nurture and not nature. Given the right kind of government and effective implementation of our laws, our people will change.

I will say that given a disciplined government like that of Buhari/Idiagbon for 5 years, an average Nigeria will become disciplined and less corrupt. That we are corrupt today, is because our government through wrong policies and ineffective implementation of our laws, made corruption a norm. When you live in a society where the corrupts are the better-offs, you will have more tendency to be corrupt. Over a long time, every one will take to corruption. That is what happened to the black-man. If a government can punish enough of the law breaker and compensate those that work hard enough, the right culture will emerge in us. The say, that where comfort, money and power is, is where the human minds go to. We are corrupt because corruption brings comfort, power, money and sex in our today's Nigeria. It is the fault of our government; it is the fault of whoever gave us ineffective and corrupt persons as leaders. The West obviously gave us these leaders if you look closely. From Tafawa Belewa, to Gowon, IBB, etc have a not too hidden hand of external influence. Idi Amin, Mobutu, Compare are all products of Western manipulations.

So what we are in, is an accident of history that will self-correct whenever the factors are right. Our is to play our role; and pray that the other factors adds up.

Our role is to find a way of installing "the right kind of leaders on top". Believe me, if we do not have a good President, a good governor will find it extremely difficult to operate and will fail. A good minister will either resign and fail with the President. So will any other officer under him. You can only operate within the framework allowed by the man on top. The actions and inaction of the man on top will always restrict the man below.

So I support any action that can produce our most intelligent and most humane as our leaders. If a million Nigerians can die (including myself), as Chukwuman Kaduna Nzeogwu was quoted to have said in 1966, for this to happen, so be it. Needless to say, that I have observed that in the West and every other progressive country in the world, they have a system that produces their best (I call them 1st eleven) as leaders, while we have be left with a system that prompts, the criminals and never do wells among us, as our leaders.

These are my honest thoughts.

Once again you have you have presented an excellent argument, and I agree with all you have said. I'm not for foreign interference in solving our national problems; but given our history as a people(race)in general, and Nigerians in particular, I just don't see any significant progression made anytime soon. Let us take a look at Egypt : Left to the Americans, Mubarak would still be in power now(perhaps, the might still put one of their stooges in power), but due to the unyielding Egyptians they had no other choice that to call for his resignation. Heck, look at the recent subsidy protesst and how we were sold out by the leaders of the NLC. My point is that ultimately, power rests with the people, and not until we as a people begin to challenge the enemies within, we would continue to be at the beck and call of the external forces.

@ niddamugu : na true you talk o, but as Abe Lincoln said : the way to test a man's true character is to give him power. But make no mistake, we still have a lot of men of true character well capable of leading this country to glory, it's just that they would not be given a chance due to the current system we have in Nigeria.

Godman, I feel your passion but unfortunately, you have not proferred any clear solution(s) except promoting yourself as a "Goodman". What you intend doing is working to transform the leadership of our gr8 country Nigeria when you get "up" there. My take is this: for any system to work effectively, that system must be driven by the right policy (document). And what does this mean? It means our policies are not just right. It does not matter who is at the top provided he is working within the confines of the policies, then all will be well. Our constitution is very very faulty.

Take the bible for example, if a christian cannot prove his words or actions from the bible's perspective, then it is either right or wrong depending on what it is.

My simple transformation idea for this country is to set up regional government as of old. If we say we have 6 geo-political zones, then let's have 6 regional heads of government and these heads would report to the man/woman at the center. Government parastatals also should be regionalised i.e. all ministries can and should not be present in all regions except for peculiar ministries. E.g. what is Niger/Delta ministry doing in Abuja, or "Boko Haram" ministry doing in Lagos? This is just a tip of the iceberg. There may be fear of revenue allocation (the reason why the center seems a fortress), every area should control its resources and the policy should also state what percentage should go to the center. Besides, the policy would have stated what remuneration should be due to whoever that wishes to assume that position. That way, we can be rest assured that there is no "monkey business" anywhere. Only sincere people would want to go to the center to work because there is "nothing" to loot.

What has been going on since the last 20 years is - plant your crops on your farm, harvest your crops and bring them to the center (incur cost on transport and logistics), from the center take fraction back to your base and develop infrastructures and where necessary support can come from the center to assist your development (which never comes).

In summary:

1. revisit the constitution
2. create regional governments
3. Allow for resource control
4. The center should policy formulator not revenue "allocator"

OzReal:


Once again you have you have presented an excellent argument, and I agree with all you have said. I'm not for foreign interference in solving our national problems; but given our history as a people(race)in general, and Nigerians in particular, I just don't see any significant progression made anytime soon. Let us take a look at Egypt : Left to the Americans, Mubarak would still be in power now(perhaps, the might still put one of their stooges in power), but due to the unyielding Egyptians they had no other choice that to call for his resignation. Heck, look at the recent subsidy protesst and how we were sold out by the leaders of the NLC. My point is that ultimately, power rests with the people, and not until we as a people begin to challenge the enemies within, we would continue to be at the beck and call of the external forces.

Thanks very much. The power lies with us. But we need to inform enough of our people. That is a task we have to continuously keep doing until progress is made. Thanks again for your wonderful thoughts and belief

niddamugu: Godman, I feel your passion but unfortunately, you have not proferred any clear solution(s) except promoting yourself as a "Goodman". What you intend doing is working to transform the leadership of our gr8 country Nigeria when you get "up" there. My take is this: for any system to work effectively, that system must be driven by the right policy (document). And what does this mean? It means our policies are not just right. It does not matter who is at the top provided he is working within the confines of the policies, then all will be well. Our constitution is very very faulty.

Take the bible for example, if a christian cannot prove his words or actions from the bible's perspective, then it is either right or wrong depending on what it is.
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...
...
In summary:

1. revisit the constitution
2. create regional governments
3. Allow for resource control
4. The center should policy formulator not revenue "allocator"

Are you aware that Britain does not have a written constitution?

So, a country can actually work without a "document" as you called it; if the "ruling class" is guided by good conscious.

This however does not take away, the fact that we may need to revisit the Constitution. But believe me, our problem is beyond the constitution. E.g, our constitution explicitly barred ex-convicts from ruling us; but we now know that one James Ibori was able to rule us against the constitution, thanks to a criminal elite (both in police, the Judiciary and the Presidency).

My point is that a crooked Executive will always found ways around any written constitution with the corruptible judiciary. What about the known Halliburton, Siemens and Mercedes scandals? What has our executive (The Presidency) done to punish the criminals? Nothing. You can see that, at the very top of the leadership, is an insincere "gang". Unless this "gang" is displaced by a people's oriented elite (call them "humane gang"; no constitution will work.

Britain was able to govern themselves without a written constitution because they have a society where no one can impose his inordinate will on the people (mark you I am talking from experience having lived among them). This is not our case here. I have looked at this in terms of the billionaire business class. There are thousands of people who can cough out millions of dollars to fight a corrupt (unfair), prime minister who refuses to go in line with established norms in Britain. Their country can be compared to a village where no particular individual can impose his will on others inordinately.

What we have in our country is a government that is near-God. Once you become a President, no one can stand up to you in our country. So an insincere President (as most of them have been) chooses to implements the laws only in ways that favours him. That is why Ibori was considered a saint under Yar'adua and became a criminal that will be harassed under GEJ. It is all about their personal interest and not of the country.

Owing to the way our nationhood emerged (the whole concept of colonialism never took the people into decision making), our government is "god" that cannot be challenged. Secondly, owing to same path of the emergence of our country, few people exist (with real financial worth), who can stand up to whoever is in government for a fight. Our government as presently constituted controls everything. Unless someone has big businesses outside the shores of Africa, the government can always find a way of bringing down whoever stands up against it. Remember the case of Abiola and Abacha. They crippled his business empire.

In this note, the regional government is a good idea any day. First it makes more economical sense by reducing the cost of government. Secondly, it builds a government that can have enough resources to stand up to a mis-governing Presidency, as against our present weaklings called state governments. But the fact is that the people in power will never allow it, because they are insincere. Allowing it amounts to political suicide which they are not willing to commit.

Sincerity and selflessness is key. No President can succeed without dropping those two traits. Everyone that has ruled us wanted to succeed but their selfishness always creates ground that will work against their success. Selfishness brings success on the short term to their political gains, but destroys the country both in the short term and the long run. This is the problem. We only need one motivated enough to be able to forgo his self interest and also to be able to risk his life. I believe that whoever wants to transform Nigeria must push some buttons that will necessitate attempts on his life by both national and international "forces". Let not discuss this forces and how they will come.

The whole idea of appointing people they can trust ( As GEJ did in NSA, Police, SSS, Army, etc) breeds incompetence that always leads to destruction. These are reasons why no "good plan or program" will ever work in this country.

So it is not about suggestions. It is about making sure that we have "sincere" people that can make intelligent decisions. There will always be "good", sycophantic, bad advices to leaders. And they comes in thousands. What makes the difference is the willingness of the leaders first to pick out the best advice - using his own intelligence (that is why intelligence is important); secondly forgo his personal gains for that of the society. This can obviously come from a selfless humane person.

So I don't believe our problem is suggesting solutions or creating a miraculous "document" called constitution. Our problem is the inability of our leaders to be intelligently selfless and the inability of our masses to force same on whoever wants to rule us; or elect those with the characteristic as leaders.

Remember what I said previously, ever society have good and bad people. What makes the difference is which of these two groups is in possession of the leadership. Or put in another way, which make up the "gang" that rule.

In addition, I do not see the need for name calling as depicted in you suggestion that we are projecting ourselves as "Goodman". I don't think Nairaland is a political forum where politicians sell themselves. It is more like a gossip and learning forumn for me. So the need to project myself does not arise. If you have said, to educate, inform, indoctrinate, brainwash (in a positive sense), etc; i would have accepted. If enough of us act rightly, Nigeria will change. And the only way to get enough of to act rightly is by sharing ideas. That's my take in this, guy

Godman_n:

Are you aware that Britain does not have a written constitution?

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In addition, I do not see the need for name calling as depicted in you suggestion that we are projecting ourselves as "Goodman". I don't think Nairaland is a political forum where politicians sell themselves. It is more like a gossip and learning forumn for me. So the need to project myself does not arise. If you have said, to educate, inform, indoctrinate, brainwash (in a positive sense), etc; i would have accepted. If enough of us act rightly, Nigeria will change. And the only way to get enough of to act rightly is by sharing ideas. That's my take in this, guy

1. Different strokes for different folks - How about the USA? Can you say the same about their constitution? In Britain, at the micro level, they are guided by policies, but you can say the above about the center. The case of Nigeria has gone beyond where you cannot put pen on paper to guide you and with the right policies in place, the country can achieve greatness.

2. Accept my unreserved apology. It was not intended to cast a shadow on your person. Meanwhile, in putting the policies in place, there should be massive enlightenment campaign to the populace, at least with people like you and me and Nairaland in general, we can achieve.

On a personal note, don't you think the center is too weak to make and take critical decisions? (Boko Haram in mind)

Afro_Blue: [img]http://warriorpublications.files./2012/01/colonial-submission.jpg?w=300&h=243[/img]

roflmao Guy no no well at all

niddamugu:

1. Different strokes for different folks - How about the USA? Can you say the same about their constitution? In Britain, at the micro level, they are guided by policies, but you can say the above about the center. The case of Nigeria has gone beyond where you cannot put pen on paper to guide you and with the right policies in place, the country can achieve greatness.

2. Accept my unreserved apology. It was not intended to cast a shadow on your person. Meanwhile, in putting the policies in place, there should be massive enlightenment campaign to the populace, at least with people like you and me and Nairaland in general, we can achieve.

On a personal note, don't you think the center is too weak to make and take critical decisions? (Boko Haram in mind)

Thanks for your apology. There is no had feelings. Just for us to understand each other.

I believe Abuja is rather to powerful. I believe Boko Haram is not a serious issue, if GEJ is serious and sincere. So many thing is wrong with GEJ's emergence as President. I believe the Northern political clique was wronged by their Southern counterpart.Zoning should have been upheld and respected. Even if we chose to drop it, they would have discussed it on the table. The South begged fro zoning. The same south dropped zoning when it suited us. That is to selfish and stupid to me. If I am from the north, I will be very angry. It was the anger among other factor that gave rise to the killings after last election. I actually predicted it and did warn people to take cover.

I also find it difficult that some politicians are behind Boko Haram and GEJ could not get them arrested. I think GEJ is very incapable of ruling. I believe he cannot even control Patience. Could anyone try Boko Haram with either Buhari, IBB, Abacha, Obasanjo? GEJ is a weakling that is not cut out for leadership, but the corruption in Nigeria produced him as our President. That is teh problem. He has enough tool at his disposal to fight Boko Haram but Corruption and nepotism with his king of sycophantic mindset will never allow him do the right thing.

Boko haram I have continued to believe is part of a complex mechanization to divide Nigeria. I believe it has serious international angle; but a serious minded President could have fought back. This GEJ does not know how to do.

@ niddamugu

In summary:

1. revisit the constitution
2. create regional governments
3. Allow for resource control
4. The center should policy formulator not revenue "allocator"

1. Great point. In my opinion this should be the first step towards redemption for our country. In fact, I think a parliamentary system of government would be better for us to operate because it would be less expensive compared to the presidential system we currently operate.
2. Also great. This is because it would devolve the enormous powers currently possessed by the central government.
3. Another good point; however, taxes should be paid to the centre in direct proportions to the earnings made by the regional zones various states.
4. Also very good.

Now to what I think would be the most important step towards progress in our country would be a vigorous reformation and strengthening of our democratic institutions, especially the judiciary. Currently, what we have as the judiciary is an embarrassment to any democracy in the world; the magnitude of corruption in the judiciary stinks to the high heavens. This is the same judiciary that dismissed all charges against one of the greatest looters/criminals this nation, perhaps the continent(Africa) has ever known. This is the same judiciary that would sentence a man who has stolen a tuber of yam to about ten years in jail, while gangsters and rogues like Bode George and Tafa Balogun were sentenced to a few months in jail(This is despicable ). If we are to progress as a nation, there is no question that the judiciary must be reformed because it is our last hope in checking the excesses of men of questionable characters in governance. Abeg I wan go drink beer sef

Its high time something is done to these Boko nonsense! UK you have the go ahead to fight them, but please make sure not to kill innocent people.

Just like they did in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya abi? Kai!!! Naija get "intelligent" people plenty.