₦airaland Forum

Bill Gate has always supported Nigeria but corruption has not allowed polio to go...he has every right to be happy seeing the result of his investment

Objective analysis from an independent mind. Buharists, attack me on many occasions when you take them up on economic policy of GMB...for what i care, the man has not said anything...in the Machiavellian political principle, you cant hold a leader who has promised you nothing accountable...I will stamp out corruption he says...logical minds will ask...How?...fighting corruption is way easier with the barrel of the gun in 1983..not very easy on the desk of democracy that embraces dialogue, tact and diplomacy.

To wrestle power from PDP will be a battle and political calculations and permutations is key. Of all the Governors of APC in south west, why Osibanjo? I consider the choice politically wrong and self serving for Tinubu.

Here are my reasons

1. GMB will need financing and governors have the muscle to make it happen. Osibanjo doesn't.

2. Osibanjo's popularity is only in South West. Here in the north people are asking who is Osibanjo? One guy beside me said even Pastor Tunde Bakare would have been better and sellable. The guy feels Tinubu is out to sell the presidency, the way he did with Ribadu.

3.what did they promise Amaechi and Oshiomole that they will use to mobilise South south. ..Party Chairman or Ministers?..Rochas is gone back to face governorship in Imo and be sure that even if he wins the state. Imo will vote GEJ in national elections.

4..who chose the VP? Tinubu or party leadership? And who did GMB want?
5..How far or beneficial is Osibanjo's choice to APCs quest to win power at the center?

Do you see Osibanjo pulling a spinner for APC in southern Nigeria especially SS, SE and SW.

Is his choice a good permutation or self serving to Tinubu to have one of his loyal proteges as vice.

In my opinion, its a bad choice..even Tunde Bakare is more popular.

Lets analyse the choice.

Dont blindly comment if you did not read all thatt prof x-rayed...be objective for once and lets find solution to Nigerias problem...GEJ showed up in 2011 promising heavens and being shoeless. GMB is here capitalising on what we all cry foul about Corruption''

saharareporters.com/2007/01/14/crimes-buhari-wole-soyinka#.VI4SZ6fvel4.facebook

THE NIGERIAN NATION AGAINST GENERAL BUHARI


By Wole SOYINKA

This intervention has been provoked, not so much by the ambitions of General Buhari to return to power at the head of a democratic Nigeria, as by declarations of support from directions that leave one totally dumbfounded. It would appear that some, myself among them, had been overcomplacent about the magnitude of an ambition that seemed as preposterous as the late effort of General Ibrahim Babangida to aspire yet again to the honour of presiding over a society that truly seeks a democratic future. What one had dismissed was a rash of illusions, brought about by other political improbabilities that surround us, however, is being given an air of plausibility by individuals and groupings to which one had earlier attributed a sense of relevance of historic actualities. Recently, I published an article in the media, invoking the possible recourse to psychiatric explanation for some of the incongruities in conduct within national leadership. Now, to tell the truth, I have begun to seriously address the issue of which section of society requires the services of a psychiatrist. The contest for a seizure of rationality is now so polarized that I am quite reconciled to the fact it could be those of us on this side, not the opposing school of thought that ought to declare ourselves candidates for a lunatic asylum. So be it. While that decision hangs in the balance however, the forum is open. Let both sides continue to address our cases to the electorate, but also prepare to submit ourselves for psychiatric examination.


The time being so close to electoral decision, we can understand the haste of some to resort to shortcuts. In the process however, we should not commit the error of opening the political space to any alternative whose curative touch to national afflictions have proven more deadly than the disease. In order to reduce the clutter in our options towards the forthcoming elections, we urge a beginning from what we do know, what we have undergone, what millions can verify, what can be sustained by evidence accessible even to the school pupil, the street hawker or a just-come visitor from outer space. Leaving Buhari aside for now, I propose a commencing exercise that should guide us along the path of elimination as we examine the existing register of would-be president. That initial exercise can be summed up in the following speculation: “If it were possible for Olusegun Obasanjo, the actual incumbent, to stand again for election, would you vote for him?”

If the answer is “yes”, then of course all discussion is at an end. If the answer is ‘No’ however, then it follows that a choice of a successor made by Obasanjo should be assessed as hovering between extremely dangerous and an outright kiss of death. The degree of acceptability of such a candidate should also be inversely proportionate to the passion with which he or she is promoted by the would-be ‘godfather’. We do not lack for open evidence about Obasanjo’s passion in this respect. From Lagos to the USA, he has taken great pains to assure the nation and the world that the anointed NPN presidential flag bearer is guaranteed, in his judgment, to carry out his policies. Such an endorsement/anointment is more than sufficient, in my view, for public acceptance or rejection. Yar’Adua’s candidature amounts to a terminal kiss from a moribund regime. Nothing against the person of this – I am informed - personable governor, but let him understand that in addition to the direct source of his emergence, the PDP, on whose platform he stands, represents the most harrowing of this nation’s nightmares over and beyond even the horrors of the Abacha regime. If he wishes to be considered on his own merit, now is time for him, as well as others similarly enmeshed, to exercise the moral courage that goes with his repudiation of that party, a dissociation from its past, and a pledge to reverse its menacing future. We shall find him an alternative platform on which to stand, and then have him present his credentials along those of other candidates engaged in forging a credible opposition alliance. Until then, let us bury this particular proposition and move on to a far graver, looming danger, personified in the history of General Buhari.


The grounds on which General Buhari is being promoted as the alternative choice are not only shaky, but pitifully naive. History matters. Records are not kept simply to assist the weakness of memory, but to operate as guides to the future. Of course, we know that human beings change. What the claims of personality change or transformation impose on us is a rigorous inspection of the evidence, not wishful speculation or behind-the-scenes assurances. Public offence, crimes against a polity, must be answered in the public space, not in caucuses of bargaining. In Buhari, we have been offered no evidence of the sheerest prospect of change. On the contrary, all evident suggests that this is one individual who remains convinced that this is one ex-ruler that the nation cannot call to order.

Buhari – need one remind anyone - was one of the generals who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the Oputa Panel, with unconcealed disdain. Like Babangida and Abdusalami, he refused to put in appearance even though complaints that were tabled against him involved a career of gross abuses of power and blatant assault on the fundamental human rights of the Nigerian citizenry.

Prominent against these charges was an act that amounted to nothing less than judicial murder, the execution of a citizen under a retroactive decree. Does Decree 20 ring a bell? If not, then, perhaps the names of three youths - Lawal Ojuolape (30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and Bartholomew Owoh (26) do. To put it quite plainly, one of those three – Ogedengbe - was executed for a crime that did not carry a capital forfeit at the time it was committed. This was an unconscionable crime, carried out in defiance of the pleas and protests of nearly every sector of the Nigerian and international community – religious, civil rights, political, trade unions etc. Buhari and his sidekick and his partner-in-crime, Tunde Idiagbon persisted in this inhuman act for one reason and one reason only: to place Nigerians on notice that they were now under an iron, inflexible rule, under governance by fear.

The execution of that youthful innocent – for so he was, since the punishment did not exist at the time of commission - was nothing short of premeditated murder, for which the perpetrators should normally stand trial upon their loss of immunity. Are we truly expected to forget this violation of our entitlement to security as provided under existing laws? And even if our sensibilities have become blunted by succeeding seasons of cruelty and brutality, if power itself had so coarsened the sensibilities also of rulers and corrupted their judgment, what should one rightly expect after they have been rescued from the snare of power” At the very least, a revaluation, leading hopefully to remorse, and its expression to a wronged society. At the very least, such a revaluation should engender reticence, silence. In the case of Buhari, it was the opposite. Since leaving office he has declared in the most categorical terms that he had no regrets over this murder and would do so again.


Human life is inviolate. The right to life is the uniquely fundamental right on which all other rights are based. The crime that General Buhari committed against the entire nation went further however, inconceivable as it might first appear. That crime is one of the most profound negations of civic being. Not content with hammering down the freedom of expression in general terms, Buhari specifically forbade all public discussion of a return to civilian, democratic rule. Let us constantly applaud our media – those battle scarred professionals did not completely knuckle down. They resorted to cartoons and oblique, elliptical references to sustain the people’s campaign for a time-table to democratic rule. Overt agitation for a democratic time table however remained rigorously suppressed – military dictatorship, and a specifically incorporated in Buhari and Idiagbon was here to stay. To deprive a people of volition in their own political direction is to turn a nation into a colony of slaves. Buhari enslaved the nation. He gloated and gloried in a master-slave relation to the millions of its inhabitants. It is astonishing to find that the same former slaves, now free of their chains, should clamour to be ruled by one who not only turned their nation into a slave plantation, but forbade them any discussion of their condition.


So Tai Solarin is already forgotten? Tai who stood at street corners, fearlessly distributing leaflets that took up the gauntlet where the media had dropped it. Tai who was incarcerated by that regime and denied even the medication for his asthmatic condition? Tai did not ask to be sent for treatment overseas; all he asked was his traditional medicine that had proved so effective after years of struggle with asthma!


Nor must we omit the manner of Buhari coming to power and the pattern of his ‘corrective’ rule. Shagari’s NPN had already run out of steam and was near universally detested – except of course by the handful that still benefited from that regime of profligacy and rabid fascism. Responsibility for the national condition lay squarely at the door of the ruling party, obviously, but against whom was Buhari’s coup staged? Judging by the conduct of that regime, it was not against Shagari’s government but against the opposition. The head of government, on whom primary responsibility lay, was Shehu Shagari. Yet that individual was kept in cozy house detention in Ikoyi while his powerless deputy, Alex Ekwueme, was locked up in Kiri-kiri prisons. Such was the Buhari notion of equitable apportionment of guilt and/or responsibility.


And then the cascade of escapes of the wanted, and culpable politicians. Manhunts across the length and breadth of the nation, roadblocks everywhere and borders tight as steel zip locks. Lo and behold, the chairman of the party, Chief Akinloye, strolled out coolly across the border. Richard Akinjide, Legal Protector of the ruling party, slipped out with equal ease. The Rice Minister, Umaru Dikko, who declared that Nigerians were yet to eat from dustbins - escaped through the same airtight dragnet. The clumsy attempt to crate him home was punishment for his ingratitude, since he went berserk when, after waiting in vain, he concluded that the coup had not been staged, after all, for the immediate consolidation of the party of extreme right-wing vultures, but for the military hyenas.


The case of the overbearing Secretary-General of the party, Uba Ahmed, was even more noxious. Uba Ahmed was out of the country at the time. Despite the closure of the Nigerian airspace, he compelled the pilot of his plane to demand special landing permission, since his passenger load included the almighty Uba Ahmed. Of course, he had not known of the change in his status since he was airborne. The delighted airport commandant, realizing that he had a much valued fish swimming willingly into a waiting net, approved the request. Uba Ahmed disembarked into the arms of a military guard and was promptly clamped in detention. Incredibly, he vanished a few days after and reappeared in safety overseas. Those whose memories have become calcified should explore the media coverage of that saga. Buhari was asked to explain the vanished act of this much prized quarry and his response was one of the most arrogant levity. Coming from one who had shot his way into power on the slogan of ‘dis’pline’, it was nothing short of impudent.


Shall we revisit the tragicomic series of trials that landed several politicians several lifetimes in prison? Recall, if you please, the ‘judicial’ processes undergone by the septuagenarian Chief Adekunle Ajasin. He was arraigned and tried before Buhari’s punitive tribunal but acquitted. Dissatisfied, Buhari ordered his re-trial. Again, the Tribunal could not find this man guilty of a single crime, so once again he was returned for trial, only to be acquitted of all charges of corruption or abuse of office. Was Chief Ajasin thereby released? No! He was ordered detained indefinitely, simply for the crime of winning an election and refusing to knuckle under Shagari’s reign of terror.

The conduct of the Buhari regime after his coup was not merely one of double, triple, multiple standards but a cynical travesty of justice. Audu Ogbeh, currently chairman of the Action Congress was one of the few figures of rectitude within the NPN. Just as he has done in recent times with the PDP, he played the role of an internal critic and reformer, warning, dissenting, and setting an example of probity within his ministry. For that crime he spent months in unjust incarceration. Guilty by association? Well, if that was the motivating yardstick of the administration of the Buhari justice, then it was most selectively applied. The utmost severity of the Buhari-Idiagbon justice was especially reserved either for the opposition in general, or for those within the ruling party who had showed the sheerest sense of responsibility and patriotism.


Shall I remind this nation of Buhari’s deliberate humiliating treatment of the Emir of Kano and the Oni of Ife over their visit to the state of Israel? I hold no brief for traditional rulers and their relationship with governments, but insist on regarding them as entitled to all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of any Nigerian citizen. This royal duo went to Israel on their private steam and private business. Simply because the Buhari regime was pursuing some antagonistic foreign policy towards Israel, a policy of which these traditional rulers were not a part, they were subjected on their return to a treatment that could only be described as a head masterly chastisement of errant pupils. Since when, may one ask, did a free citizen of the Nigerian nation require the permission of a head of state to visit a foreign nation that was willing to offer that tourist a visa.?


One is only too aware that some Nigerians love to point to Buhari’s agenda of discipline as the shining jewel in his scrap-iron crown. To inculcate discipline however, one must lead by example, obeying laws set down as guides to public probity. Example speaks louder than declarations, and rulers cannot exempt themselves from the disciplinary strictures imposed on the overall polity, especially on any issue that seeks to establish a policy for public well-being. The story of the thirty something suitcases – it would appear that they were even closer to fifty - found unavoidable mention in my recent memoirs, YOU MUST SET FORTH AT DOWN, written long before Buhari became spoken of as a credible candidate. For the exercise of a changeover of the national currency, the Nigerian borders – air, sea and land – had been shut tight. Nothing was supposed to move in or out, not even cattle egrets.


Yet a prominent camel was allowed through that needle’s eye. Not only did Buhari dispatch his aide-de-camp, Jokolo – later to become an emir - to facilitate the entry of those cases, he ordered the redeployment – as I later discovered - of the Customs Officer who stood firmly against the entry of the contravening baggage. That officer, the incumbent Vice-president is now a rival candidate to Buhari, but has somehow, in the meantime, earned a reputation that totally contradicts his conduct at the time. Wherever the truth lies, it does not redound to the credibility of the dictator of that time, General Buhari whose word was law, but whose allegiances were clearly negotiable.

Ok

Those guys are possessed by very tiny sturborn demons from middle east....

When i said is a carefully crafted ideology to take over...people tot i was being fanatical.

If you want to understand the ideology better, study Isis operation...study Al-shabaab....The solution to Bokoharam is very far,even from Buhari....it is just time to act a script written long ago...May God keep his own

If something is not done about these movies our prisoners are acting...we shall all watch the movie in pain and duress

My answer is No and here is why

It is an ideology to take over. Not even Buhari or any muslim president from northern extraction can stop Bokoharam.

We have passed the time we were supposed to nip Bokoharam. Its too late.

Never forget or take anybody serious when they tell you they will end Bokoharam... its a political promise...if they get there and cant control it what will you and I do?

I remembered when GEJ made a promise in 2011 to do one term...i told a friend beside me that its only those who have never entered Aso rock villa that will fall for this promise.i have been entering there since1994 Abacha days..it is the best place in Nigeria. OBJ wanted to die there. If any contestant tells you he will do one term, stone him...Even Abdulsalam would have stayed if not pressure from those who killed Abiola and Abacha also...the seat was too hot for Abdulsalam to seat on..more,over he was never a strong hearted combatant general...kia kia he loothed our treasury and handed over to OBJ to pacify the west for Abiola.

Back to Bokoharam, at the time bokoharam was in a small village in Borno state, our Northern elites likened them to Niger delta militants, they called them freedom fighters...when the first state of emergency was to ne declared it was tug of war. ..they revolted that it was a plan to paint the north east as a terrorist region...the book of lamentation was full that time..anything seroously done nu our soldiers was echoed on the press...they are killing our people....Soldiers adopted carrot and stick as that advice became popular. Now we are looking for stick we no see talk less of carrot. They cried out loud, you gave amnesty to militants, give them amnesty...now we want to give them amnesia they no want...

But its now interesting, we called and beckoned on Northern elites to rise up and face bokoharam or talk to them..that they will listen to them than FG...they kept quiet because at that time Bokoharam focused on only churches, then later it was government establishments, then schools, then motor parks, then markets, then abductions, now its mosques....its amazing that the elites are mow speaking, nobody is talking of amnesty...heheehee..

We dont have insurgency in Nigeria..they are not insurgents..we are at war...they have taken territories and mounted flags, installed Emirs and you call them insurgents...you get 3 bedroom person take one room by force put matress you say na insurgency.. na lie...we are at war...Nigeria vs Bokoharam Islamic Caliphate..period.

If you think any president from the north will end Bokoharam, i want to tell you that the presidents of the following nations suffering same are muslims : Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Afghanista, all muslims presidents and bomb goes off every day.

Terror has come to stay, we can only contain and manage it...

If you share a varying opinion please share...

Ok

dotcomnamename:
[size=20pt]E easy?

Please what is stopping you too from providing solution to terror here?

Just a simple question, no hating ![/size]

Read again please, i never made claim to having solutions....i only said if you must critic, balance it by providing solutions

Seun:
Everytime I visit the supermarket, I walk by the condoms on display. I would like to buy a pack but most of the cashiers are ladies, so I can't.

Seuuuuuuun, why shall you shy....STDs no get shyness ooo

You can buy baloon with rubber ring instead...all naa rubber

I have said it that Anybody that thinks FG can stop Bokoharam is a learner. And the reason is that we are not supporting the govt and providing intel....

There are people that knows Abubakr Shekau, they know his wife and kids, what of his classmates in secondary school who still knows him...its possible he even attendeded A.B.U like me.

I have never seen the profile or biography of Shekau online published.

The FG has ran out of ideas to tackle Bokoharam and we have a bigger problem.

I know some slow.pokes will quote me insulting mr president, please feel free, self expression is the beauty of democracy but show you are not clueless too by providing solution to terror here if you have.

When ppl celebrate OBJ i weep for this nation. Yes, the govt of the day has enormous weaknesses. But OBJ lacks the moral right to accuse even the devil of corruption. He should retire and remain retire and remain retired. Obj owes all of us explanation of his eight years custodianship of our collective resources.

Meaning their regional licence becomes national automatically.
Again,
While younger ones will be employed....the older ones in enterprise should be on their way out...such is the present day financial industry culture.

Let us not pretend about this, We play money politics....

If Buhari refuse to offer bribe to delegates, he will loose honourably...and if he does, then mr integrity is gone.

hmmm,

The secrecy that shrouded that guys death is still a mystery only known to the perpetrators.

One good thing i could remeber about Abacha was that there was constant light in Abuja during his tenure.

Before NEPA takes light, they will announce on radio and afterwards, return light on schedule.

People feared Abacha more than Satan himself

If he was alive, there would be probably no Nairaland, twitter or Facebook in Nigeria.

He does nt take insult from anybody. His spy men and intelligence network was best in Africa.

There was this Egyptian woman by my neighbourhood with 9 daughters...that was the man's second home.

Anytime he came arround that house at night, we are all prisoners in our own house, After seeing the family, he will play snooker at one Snooker board named after him...Easy going Ba kwomi man but takes no nonsense.

As he was preparing for his election in 2007, you dare not stroll in Abuja city center anytime from 10pm...His boys will pick you and not just oyo is your case but ogbomosho.

Woe be tide you if you are a woman strolling at night and they picked you, those boys will make a borehole in you.

It was an era i wont forget but for the constant light and USD that he stabilised.

HMMM

As i opened this thread, i was expecting its Seun that created it cos he is a DOG lover

but was disappointed

One of the few i respect has spoken...

Honour your father and your mother that your days may be long...so says the honly scriptures

that must be her secret.

HBD ma

Bublanski:
PoorGovernment e-rat detected. U blind, you no see him tweet ni?

You are very poor in comprehension apparently.

He asked two questions in his tweet and you have twisted it to fan your hatred.

Hatred kills...wake up, stop breathing through your an.us

@ op, your heading is misleading and it shows the mischief you carry

2015 loading........98%

If you dont have your visa ready, you are on a long thing

desgiezd:
Are you sure you are talking about the Nigerian Constitution? If yes, that assertion of your is false, the Constitution never said the majority party should produce the speaker. It only says members shall elect a speaker from among themselves.

Go and read the constitution before you disgrace yourself here...if i post it here...shame on you

Lets not neglect the principle of cause and effect.

OuR CONSITUTION SAYS THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE MUST BE PRODUCED by the the majority of which PDP is.

Tambuwal has left the majority party but wants to retain his seat and you expect that PDP will not fight back...

If Tambuwal had honourably resigned, Police will not be in NASS to lock up gates or conduct the search they did.

Indeed, A lot of Nigerians were expecting a showdown when the house reconvenes, and police is part of the populace. they saw it coming

We all saw the show down coming...APC members were ready for anything, and PDP members were not ready to have him preside over them anymore. impeachment is still in the plan.( If only Tambuwal knows its a ploy to keep him busy till election is over)

Its was only logical that police will not pretend that they are not aware there will be a show down that day, hence, they had to be there to ensure lives are protected. and they sure did that. No live was lost that day.

Till now the tension and apprehension is still pretty high and Nigerians are waiting for what will happen come December 3rd or 5th when they reconvene. Should the police be there to ensure other. I think yes.

You dont need the brain of an astronaught to know that.

If police refuse to go and lives are lost, Nigerians will screen, crucify the IG.

He knew there will be tension and his men were nowhere.

Its actually a difficult country to govern.

and i pity GEJ because if foul mess and i sense rat in my roof, i will scream GEJ.

People Decieving People (PDP) since 1999

Another Problem Coming (APC) Since 2011.

These are two necessary evils, we have to decide in 2015...We shall settle for the lesser evil.

Wait, am going for lunch...I'll be back to comment

Polithiefcians, Executhieves, Legislooters

Decieving Nigerians Gullible Nigerians.

How can somebody climb fence and say its for me.

defence of democracy indeed.

See this once innocent lady who came accross Charley boy and her life took another dimension...


Note: dEMONS STILL possess people.

Mac Powder

I am in support so that Nigeria can appreciate our Soldiers