₦airaland Forum

Yesterday,rumours were rife that the President was dead. The gossipers and rumour mongers of Nairaland had a field day peddling the rumour. As at today AlJazeera carried the news that the Nigerian President has been admitted in a Saudi Hospital and officials have refused to comment. Now, we know that the situation is serious. Nigerians are not new to the President's predicament. He has spent more time in Saudi and German hospitals more than all other local and foreign trips put together in his about two and a half years in office. This is not the first time that Yar'Adua is rumoured to have died. However this particular episode which the Nigerian people and indeed the international committee is awaiting its happy or tragic ending brings back memories of the death of the bespectacled demagogue Sani Abacha. It came as a rumour,government officials guarded it as a state secret,the BBC alerted the nation while local media who where under siege only dared to collaborate the news when it was obvious that the death of an important figure such as the Nigeria's President could not be hidden for a long time. At the end of the day,Abacha was dead and could not resurrect to instil fear in lives of ordinary citizens with his “fellow Nigerians” usual opening remarks which heralds all his address of anti-human decrees to the nation. What makes Yar'Adua case unique and quite different from Abacha's is that the President has always been inches away from death as he is known to suffer a terminal disease,while the enormity of the problems of the nation helps to compound and worsen his condition. His latest picture in Saudi Arabia depicts a man who has that exact ghostly looks Michael Jackson bore in his last days on earth. He sure looks like a skeleton parched with flesh.

Well meaning Nigerians have raised their voices to call for the President's resignation or better still a decision to abstain from the 2011 elections. We live in a country of absurdities. A country of the impossible whose strides in corruption,bad governance and underdevelopment is unbeatable and condoned. Within an interval of two days this November I read in the Vanguard where some group of people in the PDP began to tout the Kaduna State Governor,Namadi as the President's replacement come 2011.The next day the PDP Publicity Secretary as reported by the same Vanguard came out to disown the group stating clearly that there is no vacancy in Aso Rock,that the sickly President is going for 2nd tenure. That he will declare his intention in a not distant time in the future.

It now behooves sane people to ask on what basis is Yar'Adua thinking of returning to Aso Rock. In a post on my blog recently,I elucidated “10 Critical Reasons” why Yar'Adua should resign now or better still for pride's stake serve out his tenure if his health permits him and abstain from the 2011 elections. This reasons are obvious and more importantly the first articulated reason is his reoccurring deteriorating health palaver. Nigeria in this present state requires a healthy individual who will leave a lasting legacy in the lives of suffering Nigerians amidst the enormous wealth inherent. The state of the nation has degenerated to the extent that many Nigerians favour suggestion from some quarters that the Ghanaian model be employed in ridding Nigeria of those who have held us hostage for so long.

I would have expected the President to put aside his second term ambition and pursue vigorously within the remaining months of this administration,such noble gestures as these listed below in other to emerge a national hero, even in an event of death,as have not been experienced since the days of the independence struggle.Moreover if he is able to achieve these strides,we can even vote him into Aso Rock come 2011 in any health condition even in coma :

1.A true electoral reform which will encapsulate a full implementation of the UWAIS report to ensure a credible election which is the foundation of economic development,liberalization and emancipation of the Nigerian people

2.A solution to the Niger Delta problems which entails an immediate implementation of the Ledum-Mitte Report fused with all-inclusive negotiation with all interest groups in the Niger Delta not limited only to the Aaron Team;

3.Deliver to the Nigerians people over 10,000mW before Dec 31,2010;

4.tightening and prosecution of all incidence of official corruption with not less than 10 years without option of fine for convicted cases.

The expectation I have highlighted above does not require huge funds to accomplish. Even if they do,God has so much blessed us with the necessary resources to accomplish them. With over N18bn/day and over $40bn/year in revenue plus over 36billion barrels of crude oil reserves and huge gas deposits,all that is lacking is the political will to turn the nation around.
If Yar'Adua abstains from the 2011 elections,there will be a vacuum. A northerner is needed to replace him,but the north should be aware of the implication of handing over power to any man who will want to stay put in power till 2019.Therefore I have my personal opinion on who we can vote for the presidency come 2015 so that will we can avoid the unthinkable that can be our lot in 2015. That I will make public when the President is confirmed dead or alive.

Furthermore,I remain a strong believer in rotational presidency as panacea to national unity. If successive governments since 1960 had concentrated on developing this nation,that development would have served as a bond that will bind us together. The average Nigerian is an industrious person whose pursuit for happiness transcends religious,ethnic and traditional beliefs. No wonder that you can find Nigerians in all parts of the globe in search of greener pastures because their fatherland has failed them. Albeit, this liberal disposition to life is not shared by some members of the republic who believe that their religion is more important and that it must play a vital role in their everyday life. This has resulted in frequent disturbances in the northern part of the country in recent times. However,a greater population of this union are strong believers in a better life and does not belong to the overly fanatical and over zealous class.
In line with the above,I believe that the North ought to retain the Presidency till 2015 when it will be the turn of the South-East as one of the pivot of the republic to take on the reins of power. The issue of the rotation of the presidency in 2015 will be the strongest and toughest test of the how sacrosanct the unity of this country is. The Igbos cannot be relegated to the background while a section of the country continue to plunder and rape this country and continue to slide it backwards. The precarious state of the nation has given rise to the Niger Delta struggle which the President is trying to manage in the haphazard nature which past leadership are wont to. The outcome of the 2015 elections will remind the South-Easterners of the need to reconsider their membership of the Nigerian Federation. The only condition that will pacify this feeling but not eliminate it is an accelerated development of the nation,credible elections and serious improvement in the lives of every citizen possibly to the level Ghana is today. But, from an assessment of the polity,it is quite obvious that Yar'Adua and the PDP are not thinking in that direction. When the party is bent on ruling for 60 years by fostering a sick man on the country,paying lip service to official corruption,and failing to improve the life of Nigerians,while the sick President who like every man places premium on his existence on planet earth before his country is bent on dying in power,revolution looms. Man cannot be oppressed forever,he will surely revolt and Nigeria revolution will be bloody and unprecedented.

We are talking about of N7.740billion of funds that is meant for police projects.You will not blame the judge that acquitted the guy.The country is not serious on corruption.The guys that tended the petition do not have address,no tangible evidence and as such cannot come out in the open for fear of their lives.At the end of the day,N7b gone and we still await another fraud.We never prove that government officials are stealing the funds meant for development in the law courts but the state of the nation suggest otherwise.We are immune to suffering.sorry for Nigerians.

Hugo Chavez is branded as a terrorist.The US and Britain hate that country so copying their style will infuriates them.Its high time that the third-world/poor countries realize that they are on their own.The developed countries of the world are using them.By ensuring relative stability,the are guaranteed all the natural resources they need.We have to get our house in order first and save ourselves.God is on our side in the sense that he has given us the much needed resources to survive and succeed.

How exactly do you mean? You want to contest elections? You should define what you want to do before you seek advice.This is not a sane country.Imagine the kinda of replies people are posting here for you? So define yourself before you get reasonable advice or anything?

its not a matter of typing on your keyboard.I believe that you are one of those scavengers from the north who knows that if this happens,their land will become desert.

For pragmatics like myself,I still believe and will continue to defend the fact that no bank went under because of Soludo's consolidation and not Sanusi's bailout. If we had all those over 90 banks as at the time of the recession,many Nigerians would have committed suicide by now. Because the banks will fold, while the management of these banks will attribute the failure to recession whereas the real cause is bad loan administration and poor corporate governance which is purely a made in Nigeria problem. There is one point pundits of Soludo and Nigerians don't realize. Soludo said categorically that recession will not affect Nigeria financial system . Was he right or wrong? He was right,the problems with Nigeria banks was not caused by recession. The problems bedeviling the banks were bad loan administration and poor corporate governance in other words private sector corruption as we have witnessed in recent times.
I wonder how many banks Sanusi would have bailed out. Many banks in the heat of the recession closed shops in the U.S. But there is no panic and the shareholders and customers are not perturbed because they will get their money back. Their system guarantees that. Our government that has been on steady decline since 1960 would have been helpless and the failed banks stories and episodes we had some years back would have resurfaced. I wonder how Sanusi and EFCC would have been able to catch over 50 CEOs and say like 500 EDs who would have been roaming the globe with what would have remained of depositors and shareholders funds.
Sanusi should give Soludo credit for leaving a structure for him to bailout. Soludo cultivated the farm,what Sanusi is doing is weeding the farm. He should stop all these gymnastics and face the job.

Hear Soludo “ I am not bigger than Jesus Christ who left his bigger and good position in heaven and came down to earth to rescue sinners”
Does Soludo think himself a saint or the messiah Anambra has been waiting for? I love and respect Soludo for many reasons. He is an intellectual,he saved our financial sector from collapse and he is not corrupt. He has laudable plans to transform Anambra State into the Dubai of West Africa. Is it possible? Yes,what we need to lift Nigeria out of this doldrums is the requisite political will,every other requirement is inherent and abundant. Nnewi can become the Detroit of Nigeria as he desires and Onitsha transformed to the Dubai of Africa. But in other to achieve this,he should realize that he is in bad company-PDP. He is a sheep in the company of wolves. A friend of a thief is also a thief. He can bring about this revolutionary change if only he can tame and curtail the corruption and bad leadership of the PDP which is the bane of Nigeria's development.

However,when a man begin to compare himself to God,it is heresy and I cannot be a party to that. The Invisible may strike him down or thwart his dreams and goals. From my understanding of that statement,Soludo is invariable saying that he is a saint. I wonder how many people are saints on this planet. I would love Soludo to retract this statement and find other ways of expressing the emancipation he desires for his people lest The Almighty visit Soludo in anger and he will lose this election.

Its not about being patriotic neither will the overly religious nature of Nigeria or optimism save Nigeria from disintegration on or before 2015.Call me a prophet of doom,I don't care because I have my reasons for marking this assertion which is in consonance with an already established study/prediction by the U.S. It is about being pragmatic and realistic. Countries such as Soviet Union,Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia would not have met their fate if wishes were horses,citizens of war-torn,unstable and failed states like Somalia are not in love with their predicaments either. Am putting together a book where I will state my reasons. The good news in my book is that Nigeria has about 5 years to get it right. All the reasons are very obvious just like in these words below.

“Election rigging may lead to the end of this republic. America was not ignorant when it said that if Nigeria continues in the trend that in 2015,Nigeria would cease to exist as one entity. We are still behaving like 2011 is a hundred years away. We must isolate areas of consensus and agree on that. Some of the big issues that divide us should be put in abeyance,and some of the fundamental issues that unite us should be emphasized so that we can have a fairly free and fairly fair elections come 2011.Controversial issues always derail the process”
Ondo State Governor,Dr. Olusegun Mimiko,proffering solution to the problems of election rigging.

This is news advert publication of Friday November 19,2009 Punch.

To be frank,it was the word ventriloquism that drew my attention to this articlet. Please read with along with me. The real subject I have written here.

The CBN DEBACLE:VENTRILOQUISM OR SELECTIVE AMNESIA?

The CBN Governor told shareholders of the banks which he said were distressed that they have lost their investments to the borrowers and to the government which had injected funds into banks. He further described their share certificates as “pieces of paper”.That was after he gave indications at the Stock Exchange in September that the banks were being rescued.

Vanguard,Monday,November 2, 2009 reports:
“We are merely being charitable when we talk about shareholders. Look,you have lost your money.”-CBN Governor

The News,August 31, 2009 reports:
“Because we do not intend to own the banks,I see this as a temporary capital until they can raise new funds”-CBN Governor

During his meeting with the chairman of the five affected banks,the CBN Governor,Sanusi Lamido Sanusi said: “At the option of the Central Bank of Nigeria,the advance shall be convertible into fully paid-up securities of the bank” (meaning: CBN shall have assumed ownership).

What else can be deduced from the CBN boss's classic case of inconsistencies but the fact that the man either suffers memory problems or he is deliberately creating confusion? His statements smack of deceit,for how can a public officer say one thing now and negate it the next minute? And can such a man be trusted to effectively run the nation's No 1 bank? Are his actions so far not a reflection of his apathy towards shareholder,and perhaps the plight of the common man?

According to Rewane Bismarck,a well-respected financial guru in The Guardian of Sunday,November 1, 2009: “ The CBN does not determine the value of shareholders' fund;the market does. The CBN is not in the market;it is a regulator”. If Mr CBN Governor considers himself competent,how come he fails to recognize this basic tenet of shareholding? Or does he hope that by speaking from both ends of his month he can bamboozle the shareholders of those unfortunate banks into relinquishing their share?
MR CENTRAL BANK GOVERNORS,NIGERIANS DEMAND AN ANSWER.

Renaissance Professionals signed by Victor Shodipo,Ikeja,Lagos

See how people are snaring at the magnanimity of the ignoramus pazo you are.I can see what you call wisdom.Other countries are in the moon and progressing forward and you think we are wise.

The online community is an avenue for reprobate like you to seize the opportunity to display their ignorance and stupidity.You are the same person who has posted if Nigeria is a failed state.I want to believe that you are a university student or illiterate. You either lack experience or you don't read wide to be knowledgeable enough.The language you speak is another man's own.Th type of government you practice came from another land,even the clothes you are putting over body comes from there.You think that you will apply your African sense to these things and they will work.

.We have been doing the same thing for 50 years and instead of progress we are moving backward and you don't see anything wrong.You are one of those insane Nigerians who needs to be annihilated so that we can move forward.

I want to believe that you are this guy

Is yar'adua an old man.the guy is sick thats why he is like that

Nigeria can never make progress with Status quo.

Why?

Having considered the physical structure of the both chambers of the National Assembly,It is not difficult to see the reasons why our lawmakers can never help this nation's progress. I have try to observe the seats built for this men and women who in their temerity refuse to make good laws such as FOI bill,constitution review and other cogent issues facing this nation. I have been able to observe the seats on which the parliaments of the G20 nations seat and make laws. There is sense of urgency in their seating position,the are constructed in such a way that lacks any form of seriousness.

Ours is built with a sense of laziness,well reclined as if the National Assembly is their bedroom,the seat is so relaxing that they can sleep on it. It's magnificence and opulent removes any sense of urgency in our lawmaking. This situation is compounded by the huge salary attached to the office while the situation is made worse by the electoral fraud that catapults this people to power. They are not accountable to the citizens.

Check out the chambers of the G20 countries and see what I mean.

China built 3-Gorges Dam for $25bn in 4 years and added 10,000mW.Obj spent $16bn and reduced the power generation capacity to below 2000mW.What other evidence do you need?

can't you do the job? lol am going to deal with that in my next article 2015 and Nigerian unity.but wait oh,if we can't one person in over 140million people.I move a motion that Nigeria be swallowed up by the earth.

IMMEDIATE past President of Ghana, Mr. John Kufuor, has urged Nigeria to learn from the strategies adopted by the Ghanaian government in reviving its economy.

At Nigeria Britain Association - Akintola Williams Annual Lecture yesterday in Lagos, Kufuor cautioned against sacrificing the rights of Nigerians in the Federal Government's renewed efforts to reposition the economy.

He said Ghana was able to revive the economy without sacrificing the constitutional and political rights of its nationals by adopting policies with human face.

Dwelling on the policies his country adopted to accelerate the growth of his country's economy, Kufuor said: "First, government adopted the Highly Indebted Poor Country Initiative to stabilise the macro economy. The success of this policy secured debt forgiveness totalling $8 billion within the first four years of the government."

He added that his government pursued the restoration of infrastructure in terms of roads, energy and telecommunications, with emphasis on Information and Communications Technology (ICT), ports and water supply.

The former president said the administration also enhanced the provision of social services in terms of healthcare and education at all levels to buttress the centrality of human resource development.

"This encompasses the launch of National Health Insurance at affordable premium, which within three years covered over 56 per cent of the population of Ghana; and free and compulsory Universal Basic Education (UBE) for all children from age four to 16 at the expense of the state," he added.

Kufuor stated that the government also modernised and commercialised agriculture, which he said, engaged over 50 per cent of the population in employment and doubled the production of cocoa from 370,000 tonnes to over 700,000 tonnes yearly.

Ghana, he added, embarked on the promotion of good governance in terms of transparent and accountable government and enhanced support for law and order by improving the conditions of service and equipment of the judiciary, the police and other security agencies.

Kufuor said: "Promotion and support for the private sector by the state government cut back its borrowing internally to enhance access to credit by the operators. A Ministry of Private Sector Development, first time in the history of the country, was set up to facilitate the empowerment of the sector. Public sector reform was also launched to institute the concept of Public-Private Sector partnership as the cornerstone of socio-economic development."

He disclosed that these policies yielded positive results within a very short time as the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) quadrupled from about $4 billion to over $16 billion between 2001and 2008. "By 2006, Ghana was able to wean itself from the conditionality of the multilaterals to access the International Bond Market for the issue of $750 million which was oversubscribed to over $3 billion," he declared.

He also urged the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) under the leadership of Nigeria and Ghana to urgently fashion out policies and negotiating skills to stand its members in good stead vis a vis any concessionaires or partners they might have to deal with.

The policies, he emphasised, should also be such that the commercial, industrial and revenue benefits from the commodities will spread fairly to the entire populations of the nations involved.

This, he said, will make for peace, stability and the development of the peoples and countries in the region.

Source:Guardian

This is the Day II “Critical Reason” as contained in the publication “10 Critical Reasons Why President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua Should Resign Now” on http://nigeriarevolution..com for your perusal. Kindly point out all the “sic(s)” you can find. Am sorry for a ll the grammatical suicide. The writer proofread it,so you can imagine how possible it is to see all the mistakes. Am correcting them on my blog and also here so that I don't spoil some people's day. Thank you.

I saw a post by black where he stated that Nigeria has gone mad.This is a country that has four refineries that are not working and you can imagine the madness that is playing out right now. as posted by back2back.

II. Antidemocratic Impulses.

“ It has been well noted that every democratic state is sustained by political criticism,but,at the same time,every government feels threatened by this very criticism”
- Eduardo Andre Bertoni

The antidemocratic nature of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has continued to rear its ugly head in various forms since the inception of his presidency. This negative tendency inhibits the advancement of democracy. Yar'Adua government's intolerance of a critical press is evident in the intimidation, harassment, assault, arrest and unlawful detention of journalists by agents of the state. News photographers have had their expensive digital cameras seized and smashed by over-patriotic agents. Sardonically, these breaches of human rights and press freedom occurred under the nose of a President who likes to project himself as the guardian of the rule of law.

The RSF 2007 Index released in 2007 by World Public Opinion which rates media freedom in various countries ranks Nigeria at the 131st position with 70 percent of public opinion calling for more press freedom. In our democracy, press criticisms of the federal government are interpreted as hanging offences. Critical comments are seen by nervous security agents as plots to undermine the nation and a threat to national security. The most recent is the crackdown and threat by the government to revoke the licence of African Independent Television (AIT) owned by DAAR Communications over a news commentary program 'Focus Nigeria' anchored by Gbenga Aruleba. The State Security service (SSS) invaded the TV station to retrieve a proposed 30-minutes video footage which was to be aired. Read the full story here.

This is not the first time as the administration has a track record of clampdown on journalists and media houses. The regime drew widespread local and international criticism when it closed down two television stations, African independent Television (AIT), and Lagos-based Channels TV for reporting “unfriendly stories.” Late last year, Yar’adua invoked an obsolete law dug up by Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa to sue Abuja–based the “Leadership” newspaper for alleged criminal libel. Nigerian political bloggers Jonathan Elendu (who cannot leave Nigeria) and Emeka Asiwe (who has not been heard from since his arrest in October) are victims of Yar'Adua's intolerance of a critical press.

True democratic leaders respect the freedom of the press and protect them in their various countries. They tolerate all manner of criticisms. They recognise media freedom as one of the major pillars of democracy. We know the role of the traditional media and the internet in the West. They articulate,debate and voice their support or opposition to various government policies and actions. In the US, they help to keep the executive who has immunity clause attached to his office on check. True democratic leaders never threatened to close these media houses down or revoke their licences. Instead,through press releases and conferences these leaders clearly state the position of their government on such government policies and actions that attracts widespread criticisms. In some instances where the public is fed wrong information, they straighten it out. Instead of resorting to dictatorial tendencies of suppressing the press,the leaders rally round public support in their favour through the implementation of people oriented and popular policies. Because these media houses constantly juxtaposes their analysis and opinions against opinion polls,when government enjoys positive results in the polls, the criticisms automatically decline. However,these criticisms are never eliminated completely because individual opinion can never converge on every issue in this dynamic world we live in.

True democratic leaders encourage the use of the internet as an avenue for its citizens to express their opinion and participate in governance. The reverse is the case in Nigeria. What is obtainable in Yar'Adua's administration is a “rebranding project” designed by Information Minister Dora Akunyili whose sole aim is to stop top local and foreign-based Nigerian websites and blogs critical of the Nigerian leadership. It aims to achieve this goal through an “anti-bloggers project” of $5m by funding the setting up of new websites designed to deceive unsuspecting readers with “patriotic rhetoric.” The government plans to roll out 50 of those websites before the 2011 elections.

The National Assembly has failed to pass the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill because this government of the day does not support it. If this government is truly democratic,this is the kind of bill it should rally round public support for its speedy passage. While the President calls for the removal of the immunity clause has deterred the lawmakers from passing their own immunity bill, which has scaled through the second reading to give themselves immunity like the governors,president and vice-president. The President should state his position on the FOI bill and better still on every national issue as it obtainable in sound democracies. It is disheartening that some members of our Parliament boldly tell us that the proponents of the FOI bill have not made their case clear on the passage of the bill. If Yar'Adua gives his total support to this bill,it will spur the reluctant lawmakers to see more reason to pass this bill into law. The lawmakers who are always behind Yar'Adua are at the forefront of opposition to this bill when it considered for passage. The FOI bill will compliment the removal of immunity when the later scales through. The current norm is also not surprising because a government that threatens media freedom will be the least supporter of such law that will ensure free access to secret government information which could be used to hold government officials accountable.

It is indeed shocking that this government does not realise that carrying a national passport is a right of a citizen and not a privilege. The story of former Minister of Federal Capital Territory,Mallam El-Rufai, and former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,Mallam Nuhu Ribadu is familiar to Nigerians. The Federal Government sent a memo to National Intelligence Agency (NIA) directing that both men be barred from consular services or renewal of their passports. It is also not news that this directive was issued because these men don't make complimentary remarks about the government at any occasion they attend both home and abroad. It is beneath the status of a democratically elected government to resort to such cheap underhand strategies in order to deal with an opponent. If the Federal Government obviously tackles these men because of what it sees as a campaign of calumny then it will need to seize more than half of the entire population of Nigeria's passports! Nigeria are disillusioned and bad month them at every given opportunity. Although the government has reversed its self, it is unbecoming of them to conceive this unwholesome some idea at first instance. Perhaps Yar'Adua only needs to hear of the joke going round now in which a man was said to have walked into a restaurant and ordered two pieces of 'Yar'Adua'.When the restaurant owner requested what Yar'Adua meant,the man replied,'Snail'.Now should the Federal Government not take offence and find out the proponents of this joke and withhold their passports?

This not the kind of leader that Nigeria deserves now in this critical time that we need deliverance neither is this what we need in 2011 elections. We have suffered long enough in Egypt.

am doing a picece on 2015 and Nigerian Unity.when I finished I will make it available to Nairalanders to understand the implication of 2011 and 2015 for Nigeria's Unity.

[b]This is series "10 Critical Reasons Why President Yar'Adua Should Resign Now"[ as published on http://nigeriarevolution..com/2009/11/10-critical-reasons-why-president-umaru_5947.html I will post the no 1 reason today and will post the subsquent reasons daily for the next 9 days.For full details check the blog above./b]

“The structures,functions,purposes,powers and duties of governments must serve the interest and satisfy the aspiration of the people” -Gani Fawehnmi

“I think it that it's very important for African leaderships to take responsibility and be held accountable. I think the people of Africa understand that” -Barack Obama

It is no more news that Nigerians are disillusioned and disappointed with President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's 30 months administration. The thought of articulating critical reasons in order to suggest resignation to the President has been on my mind since this administration marked its two (2) years anniversary on 29th May 2009.Those two years were devoid of any achievements except unfulfilled promises riddled with a sick,rudderless and confused leadership. The TELL magazine September edition cover story “Is Nigeria a failed State?”,reminded me once again of the need to call on Mr. President to resign given the decrepit state of the nation which is still on the decline. However,the timing was wrong as that period was the peak of the unconditional amnesty offered to the Niger Delta Militants by the President.

I deemed it fit to give the President an opportunity to redeem himself and present his government as a genuine leadership with altruistic agenda. A leadership that will look backward at the past so that it will not make the same mistakes,looking sideways at alternatives so the you know your options, and using that vision to move the nation forward. Leadership is a quality Umaru Musa Yar'adua has failed to show in his 30 months in power. Meanwhile as the year was drawing to an end Nigeria's performance in global indices bench making politcal,economic,business and human capital climate was at its lowest since the advent of democracy in 1999, as the nation's ranking emerged from many organisations and groups. Nigeria's dismal performance was elicited by a decline in all the major indexes of 2009 in comparison to 2008 dashing all hopes of an improvement. A quick view of the various rankings can be found here.

Furthermore,I am more compelled more than ever to make this clarion call to our President because of many issues which include but not limited to the following;the House of Representatives have declared the Implementation of the 2009 budget a failure;renewed threats by Henry Okah Leader of Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has shown that the unilateral handling of the post amnesty period which many like myself have always warned against portends real danger for the nation(see my warning here);clampdown on the media,deregulation and Mr President's health status.

Before now many Nigerians have called on the President to resign but the Presidency had dismissed them as politically motivated. In other not be misconstrued as political but to be seen as a genuine call from a concerned citizen, I have taken my time to chronicle my “critical reasons” in about 30 pages which I expect the President or his assistants to go through and respond to if they do not represent realities on ground. On the ground that they are true I would want President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua GCFR to consider two options. Firstly,he should resign in the interest of over 140 million citizens of this country or secondly, serve out his four (4) year tenure and willingly quit the 2011 elections. Let us put tribal sentiments aside and critically examine the points marshalled out herein which are easily verifiable and are made more glaring by realities on ground. In our polity, tribal sentiments takes precedence over national interest,therefore it may be difficult for the President to give way to unbiased,sound and correct reasoning. Resignation may be viewed by a section of the country as a betrayal of trust or a sell out. If Mr. President considers resignation as a sign of weakness,then the second option which is willingly withdrawing from the 2011 election becomes expedient.

Just as morality and Christianity plays a major role in United States (US) politics,I am not ignorant of the fact that the North needs to retain power till 2015 because we cannot run away from the fact that the principle of rotational presidency is critical to the continued unity of the nation unless we want to replicate Yugoslavia in Africa. I will deal with the issue of how the North can still retain the presidency in the absence of Yar'Adua in my conclusion of this clarion call but right now let me go straight to the crux of the matter- “The 10 Critical Reasons”.

1. Sick President,sick nation
2. Antidemocratic Impulses
3. Level of Development
4. Post-Amnesty
5. The Evil Wind of Deregulation
6. Justice Uwais Report and Electoral Reforms
7. PDP and Internal Democracy
8. Vision 20:2020 Our “Pipe dream”?
9. Support of Impunity
10. Ostracising the International Community

1.Sick President,sick nation

"The veil of secrecy surrounding Yar'Adua's health can only lead to unhealthy rumours, which will in turn create an atmosphere of panic over his (President's) health status – with dire implications for the country's overall well being. As the President, Yar'Adua is the father of the nation. The health of the father cannot be kept as a secret from his children."

-Lai Muhammed. Action Congress(AC) National Publicity Secretary

The state of health of President Yar'Adua has continued to pose the greatest challenge to his ability to lead Nigeria. Yar'Adua's health has remained controversial in his 30 months in office. In the heat of the Presidential campaign last year, Yar'Adua reportedly slumped and was rushed to a German hospital. Rumours of his death followed, but he later recovered and returned to Nigeria. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo called him by phone from the stage at the ruling party campaign rally so he could confirm he was still alive after rumours spread to the contrary. As the 'anointed successor' of President Obasanjo he coasted to victory despite his poor health status. He even admitted that the electoral process that brought him to power was 'faulty'. In Western democracies, I wonder if he would have survived the rigorous intra-party primaries not to make mention of the Inter-party campaign plus a dozen and one debate with extensive media coverage. It is made “made in Africa”, that is why it is possible for him to succeed. A continent where democracy is only practiced in the volume of books where it studied,read and digested extensively by students and scholars of government while its simplest form of practice which is universal suffrage has continued to elude Africans.

We live in a country of absurdities where the medical records of the Presidential candidates are not made available to the citizens before election and that of a sitting President is treated with levity. Nigeria is in dire need of leader who is medically fit. So that he will march that fitness with the needed political will to run an effective government in order to move this nation forward and ease the suffering of the common man. Assuming Nigeria was one of the Fortune 500 companies,in Yar'Adua's current state of health can he jostle for the CEO job with healthy,strong and agile candidates?The Office of the President is very demanding and as such requires physical energy and fitness. Undoubtedly productivity can be hampered by such illness as Yar'Adua's long history of kidney-related ailment and a renal transplant years ago. Even,medical practitioners will attest to the fact that such sickness affect the patient physically thereby reducing the productivity of such individuals.

The huge task of leading the government of a big nation like ours will surely compound the state of health of a healthy individual not to talk a sick man. Take a closer look at President Obama and observe that he has grown more grey hairs while he now looks older than he was one year. That trend is associated with Offices of Presidents all over the world. The mental pressure the office exerts is heavy and as such tiring. No wonder Yar'Adua looks gaunt, tired and emaciated in his appearance. The man is a ghost of himself. Yar'Adua's straight forward motion is noticeable as he looks dull,tire and worn out as if he will faint at the next moment. I have tried to find out why the President always has to recline one-sided on the Presidential seat when he is shown on TV chairing the Federal Executive Council (FEC). Several questions come to my mind. Possibly something is responsible for it or that is his style? Is there something he is seating on? Or the seat needs to be changed? If the seat is bad,Nigeria can afford to change it. Even normal activity of walking a few yards at a time gets Yar'Adua exhausted as revealed in news reports.

However,speculations on Yar'Adua's health has surpassed speculation on Wall Street. The opposition has accused government officials of telling lies over the President's health in recent times. Media houses have made brisk business on these wild speculations. At some point Yar'Adua threatened to pursue legal actions against some media houses for speculating on his health. Moreover,the President has embarked on over 15 medicals in only 30 months in office making it 2months to one medical trip,albeit over N10billion that was used to upgrade the Aso Rock Clinic according to media reports,following the huge outcry over his constant jetting out for treatment. One of this medical treatment lapsed into a whopping 8- weeks trip( two months).He has travelled to Germany and Saudi Arabia for medical trips more than he has visited every other country for national diplomacy put together. At one time on his medical trip to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia under the pretext that he was going for lesser hajj. Yar’adua was stuck in his Saudi hospital for more than two weeks. In fact he did not return until a number of People's Democratic Party (PDP) officials travelled to Saudi Arabia to warn that his hold on power could be threatened by any further absence. I have to conclude that his covert code for medical trips is hajj or lesser hajj.

It is also on record that the President has been represented in over 60% of all invitations both local and abroad while he shuns some completely. There are several programmes where the presence of the President alone can boost morale of the citizenry. One of such important events was the post-amnesty summit in Kaduna where he was conspicuously absent. He has not visited many states despite the fact that Nigeria is his constituency and not the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).How will he understand when the man in Badagry,Calabar,Opobo,Okigwe, Sokoto, Maidugiri, Akwanga, Oshogbo, Ilorin and Warri is shouting that he is suffering. The praise singers and sycophants around him can never give him a true state of the nation. He needs to see things for himself first hand so as to have a mental picture when he is taking decisions. We were witnesses to how former President Obasanjo's cronies advised him to run for third term only for him to announced to the world that Nigerians said so. We were told that Yar'Adua is an introvert' that is why he does not honour invitations. He can afford to be an introvert in his small Kastina State which constitute less than 5 percent of the population of this country. This is Nigeria, it needs urgent attention. I cannot divorce his introvert behaviour from his poor health status. The only invitations he cannot afford to miss is the decamping ceremonies of his son in-law governors and their likes to the People Democratic Party (PDP). Meanwhile he has sponsored a bill to stop it. What a contradictory sick President!

Undoubtedly, the President's health status affects his ability to give unreserved and detailed attention to every file that comes to his table from his ministers,advisers and assistants on national and international issues in a bid to ensure that they falls within his vision and goals regarding the progress of the nation. I must draw this conclusion because he spends long period of times in German and Saudi hospitals for medical check ups and treatment. Is Yar'Adua not like every other human being who shelves work when they are in hospital or better still reduce the work load when certain issues are inevitable? Moreover during these medical trips are abroad. I wonder if the ministers DHL the files for him to approve or brief him through on online video conferencing? Possibly when he jets out everything has to wait or the business of governing Nigeria is conducted via telephone? Does the Vice-President take charge when he is supposed to be in charge? Or better still the vice-president and ministers take decisions on his behalf in his absence and have it reversed when there is wide public disapproval on his arrival? The disconnect the health issue creates is glaring.

Although Yar’Adua’s health condition has become a drainpipe costing Nigerian taxpayers several millions of dollars annually. The funds spent on his health can save thousands of poor Nigerian children who have no access to good medical services. If the nation is making progress,we will excuse him and take solace in the fact that he performing. But the nation is on the downward slide and we have continued to pay this huge bills. However,that is the least of my worries. Do Nigerians understand and consider the security implication of having a President with a chronic kidney problem(a terminal disease)given our undesirable history with overzealous men in uniform. I wish Yar'Adua long life. Neither will I toe the line of all those people who wanted Zik of Africa dead by their constant rumour. We saw how the 'Genius of Africa' ended up outliving all of them. But when the President's health becomes an impediment to national progress and a possible threat to the stability of the nation and he fails to recognize it,someone must have to voice out in the interest of over 140 million dejected citizens. The history of the United States is as important to them as their future, Obama exposed this in his book “Audacity of Hope” by always considering the position of their founding fathers before drawing his conclusion.

In Nigeria, the reverse is the case. We tend to be too forgetful. Given our bizarre experience less than 15 years ago we must but have to admit that we are sitting atop a keg of gunpowder which can be trigger off by the slightest action. The military always intervened when vacuums were created in the the leadership of the nation using the excuse of coming to maintain law and order to perpetuate themselves in power. With the current state of the nation,it will only be good to imagine what such a vacuum if created in Aso Villa can cause. The cache of arms recovered from the militants should give us an idea of the proliferation of weapons. A percentage of these weapons can trigger off conflicts in many African countries. We have had about three cases of container load of ammunition seized by Customs in Apapa and Calabar Ports. Who knows how many have successfully slipped into the country.

With the recent trend in militancy and weapons proliferation,any military intervention will surely encounter armed resistance from the likes of Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra(MASSOP),the Odua People Congress(OPC) and the dreaded Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta(MEND) or even Arewa Youths depending on who it favours. That will signal the beginning of the end of Nigeria and possibly a fulfilment of the US prediction of Nigeria disintegrating in 2015 or a catastrophic civil war. I will deal extensively with Nigerian Unity in my next article '2015 and Nigerian Unity'.For this reason alone the President should consider these options of resigning or serving out his four (4) year tenure and quit the 2011 elections to forestall such occurrences if he believes that the unity of this country is sacrosanct and also in the interest of national progress.

I believe you are not a Nigerian! lol

A man walks into a restaurant and ordered two pieces of 'Yar'Adua'.When the restaurant owner requested what Yar'Adua meant,the man replied,'Snail'.

“We also told government team that its argument that the economic meltdown makes deregulation necessary is not in tandem with trends in the other parts of the world like the United States (US) and Europe where the meltdown has meant government stimulus package for the economy and the citizenry. As other forward looking countries have shown,this not a time to cut social spending;rather this is a time to increase social spending”
-Omar Abdulwaheed Nigerian Labour Congress(NLC )President

“I am not afraid of tomorrow,for I have seen yesterday and I love today”
-William White

Among the 140 million citizens of this country called Nigeria,how many can stand up with their heads high and affirm like William White “am not afraid of tomorrow,for I have seen yesterday and I love today”. As we all know,life in Nigeria today horrible for the poor and downtrodden,even the rich are not spared.

On the 2nd May 2009,President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, in a press conference informed Nigerians that there is a cartel within Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) which has held the energy sector hostage and he vowed to fish out this “legion of extraordinary gentlemen” and deal with them. This cartel in NNPC ensures that despite the millions of dollars sunk into the refineries annually in the name of turnaround maintenance,the refineries fall short of their refining capacity failing to meet local demand. This situation, they know,will enable them to continue importation of petroleum products so that they can make huge profit associated with international trade.

This cartel reminds me of the scintillating US Reality Series 'Prison Break' where a corporate Mafia lord, “the General” used countries as his experimental fields and the citizens as his experimental rodents. Funny enough Nigeria alongside Indonesia and Laos were mentioned by Agent Don Self the government FBI agent as one of the countries the General had tried his experiment on. The US government had to dislodge the US Chicago Mafia families who had a grip on virtually all segment and major businesses of the US economy,in the first half of the 20th century. The Mafia families could fix price at their convenience and they sometimes brought the nation to a stand still with the their gangsterism and brutal mob war.

We have four refineries which cannot work due to inefficiency of government which is fraught with corruption,mismanagement and poor governance. Even the abundance of the basic raw material for the refineries cannot make the refineries work. We have pipelines running from the oil fields running straight to the refineries. What would have happened if we had to buy crude oil from the international market for these refineries? Probably,we will not have had any refineries at all just as Nigeria cannot boost of one car manufacturing plant. The ones that were established after independence have all closed shop. We now have to import all brand new Toyota/GM cars from South Africa. Is this not failure of government in the highest order?

We prefer to export the crude oil to Western countries and then stupidly go and buy the refined fuel at international price given the high disparity between Naira and Dollar, because we have petro-dollars to waste. This is madness. Obama will call it the “disastrous polices” of Africa leaders. Instead of breaking the jinx of poor governance and corruption and bringing this refineries to full capacity, they chose to dangle the evil carrot of deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry in the face of helpless Nigerians who been at the mercy of successive retrogressive governments since 1960.

What is deregulation,It is a policy initiated by the United States Government by the Nixon administration after the post-war economic prosperity of the US that lasted till the introduction of Deregulation policy by 1974. That prosperity has been on upward movement. Wikipedia defines deregulation as “ the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces. Deregulation does not mean elimination of laws against fraud,but eliminating or reducing government control of how business is done thereby moving toward a more free market”

However at the time of implementing deregulation,the per capita income of the US was $4,445 which has a 2006 value of $16,031.Moreover the US being the champion of deregulation is a pacesetter and have achieved milestones in several aspect of human endeavor. Our per capita income is less than $400.Over 70 percent of our population live in abject poverty.

This is a nation where successive governments have exhibited high level of poor implementations of the proposed plans attributing failure to corruption. Policy inconsistencies,implementation inconsistencies, policy reversals, policy terminations, lack of implementing capacities by political actors are the bane of underdevelopment since 1960 and lack of political will from the FG is the reasons for the failures in all sectors of the Nigeria economy. Take a look at Nigeria's Report Card in tabular form (http://nigeriarevolution..com/2009/11/nigerias-2008-2009-report-card-and.html) vis-a-vis global indices bench making political,economic and human development climates for 2008 and 2009.

The shallow comparison of the deregulation of the telecommunication sector to the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry has shown that wickedness and lack of consideration for the poor has blurred the thinking faculty of our leaders. If there was a way to get into my TV,I would have jumped in to lynch the minister who was making this comparison. He needs to go back to kindergarten. Our government lacks common sense. These men don't queue up at fuel stations,taxpayers foot their bill, by the time they are leaving office,not only the huge salaries they have earned and all the contracts they given themselves,they loot the nation dry.

Since the advent of GSM,we still have a telephone density of less than 70 million out of 140 million citizens. Moreover, every subscriber is not an active one and while the active ones can chose to control his or her usage of phone services. Deregulation is a policy that will affect the unborn,the lame,the beggar,the poor,every living soul in this country will feel the effect. It is not by choice, it by existing with the geographical space called Nigeria.

One of the Telecom company says that it incurs N700 million per annum in fueling it generators and this cost are transferred to the subscribers. With the epileptic power supply,you can not question that claims even if they put the cost at N5bn. The same scenario will surely repeat in the petroleum industry given the failure of government in in every aspect of regulation.

Even when Ghana had not discovered oil in large quantity the leaders understood that entrenching democracy and reducing poverty is the key to national development. The former President of Ghana,Kuffour ,once said,without disconcert,that he would not hesitate to spend huge chunks of money to subsidize requisite infrastructure and business-especially oil and electricity-to ensure the welfare comfort of Ghanaians. Hence,today,Ghana is running its third year of hitch free,uninterrupted electricity and the cost of oil is subsidized as a matter of government conscious policy to alleviate the energy needs of the citizens.

This same Ghana which is not practicing deregulation is a darling of the inventors of deregulation,the United States. Obama has described Ghana as “a model in Africa”. As Obama observed “ there is correlation between democracy and prosperity”,the country is on course and have bettered the lots of its citizens. Trust Nigerians,we will soon start hearing of Nigerian estates and even cities in Ghana because everyone is rushing to that country because you don't need visa to get in.

With the current recession the US Government has now started calling for greater regulation of the market. The United States is moving back towards greater government control and regulation of the private sector doling out outrageous sums of over $700bn for bailout and nationalization of failing companies. Then our government who has failed Nigeria for 50 years and this administration who have seen decline in every indices of political,economic and human development want to deregulate the downstream sector of the petroleum industry. Other petro-dollar countries such as Venezuela,Iran,Saudi Arabia,Qatar,UAE and Angola subsidize several needs of their citizens such as fuel and electricity. Until they attain a certain level of economic prosperity akin to that of the G20s,where such state is in favour of free-market economies they will now deregulate the economy and leave the fate of the citizens to the vagaries of greedy capitalist.

The government of Nigeria whose corruption,mismanagement and poor government despite earning over $600bn since 1970, has become a subject of scholarly debate,conferences and and study, many of which I encountered in the course of this write up,has vowed to inflict untold hardship and suffering on its citizens,instead of pursuing democracy and good governance which will in turn bring prosperity.

I will not hesitate to believe that it is still this same cartel that is pushing for deregulation. Its seems Yar'Adua made a slip of the tongue when he mentioned the cartel so instead of staying put,to avert the wrought of Nigerians who will soon expose these evil men by themselves,they have changed tactics-deregulation.

Why can't this government who contracted oil majors to drill our crude oil also partner with successful refineries in the world to bring the existing refineries back to full capacity? If fuel is refined in our refineries will government have to subsidize it? Won't the cost and logistics associated with importation be removed cutting down the cost of fuel? Now,embrace true federation so that states can also take charge of their own oil fields and own refineries? No way! If the FG's refineries are owned by Lagos Government,I bet them by now they will be producing at full capacity and there will be no need for deregulation. The issue will boil down to supplementing the output if it not enough to meet local demands or more refineries built as $4bn can comfortably set up a refinery.

The FG gives the excuse that government is not a good of manager of business. Okay,because of poor governance,corruption and mismanagement that have plagued the business of governing Nigeria since 1960,which was even the excuse the military gave for intervening in 1966, and it has not improved since independence,its high time we deregulate government so that government can become efficient. Yes, lets deregulate all unelected offices-MDAs for efficiency. Deregulation shows that Yar'Adua's leadership is rudderless.

Many are saying that deregulation will eradicate scarcity of the commodity. That many investors will come and flood the market with products and crash the price. Nigerians indeed do not take cognizance of the fact that importation depends on the dollar and given our exchange rate we will always be at a disadvantage. Price of crude oil is on the increase and the western companies will sell the imported fuel given the price they buy our crude. They higher the price of crude, the higher imported products which is compounded by importation cost and other logistics. And we are not the only country that determines the cost of crude oil. So no matter the volume that is imported,there is a certain price that the importers will not go below so as not to run a loss. The cement industry is a typical example,despite opening up the sector for many investors to import the product, the price of cement hovers between N1500-N2000.

It is a failure of government and indeed shameful that the only commodity we have comparative advantage is going to become inaccessible to its citizens. In the Western countries and Asia economies,commodities that they have comparative advantage are cheap. In my 28 years of life in this country,prices have been sky-rocketing and the standard of living has been on the downward slide. Their is no price stability for more than one year.

If Nigerian Government works,at this point of our national development we should have been exporting refined fuel and electricity to other African countries while we sale crude oil to the west. This will create jobs and earn this useless government extra revenue to squander. We will wait not for OPEC quota to increase our foreign exchange earnings. What Nigerian leaders don't understand is that there are certain aspects of the economy you do not deregulate so as to protect your citizens until you attain a certain level of economic development. Why didn't the US deregulate until 1974 after about 20+ years of prosperity? Have they not heard of protectionism?

When mediocre ministers deregulate I hope everyone will be able to fix his usage of the transportation system or even abstain from it and start trekking long distances or revert to Ojo Maduekwes bicycles. People will reduce the number of times they eat because food prices will be affected as prices will go up because it depends on the transportation system. Then all the companies who depend on generators to produce goods will also control their production so that they will not incur cost because of epileptic power supply or move to other countries and we now begin to import everything from abroad.

Then we will have shortage of common goods such as biscuits and sweets. The Chinese are there to fill in the gap. Even the imported goods will incur extra cost when they land in Nigeria because trucks will lift them from Apapa to all over the country. Madness,absolute madness! People are suffering at N65 and you want to increase the cost of petrol with almost 100 percent and you call it a good policy. That 70 percent of Nigerians live below the poverty line is mere statistics to these people whose wisdom has failed us for 50 years. You have not improved their lot. Increase minimum wage to N52,500,it is then that they will start beaming with intelligence to define inflation for you and cling on recession. This shows that our government does not know the economic state of Nigeria. We have been in depression ever since and it is getting worse. Arrant nonsense!

I wonder if these government ministers know that powerful cartels are wont to 'price fixing' in developed free market economies. If they cannot curtail them now is it when you don't regulate them that you can. Most Nigerians have corruption in their subconscious,while Nigerian businessmen who are know to be notorious and are acute capitalist will not fail to resort to price fixing so as to make maximum profit. If not for the arrival of the “Inventor of Sanusinomics” ,they would have collapsed Nigeria's financial system with corruption,poor credit administration and billions of bad loans. One man alone owed N108bn to several banks.

If there is any aspect of life of this nation that the government has managed well,then we can buy their idea of this deregulation. Present and past leadership have failed us and everyone has lost fate only praying for deliverance. The government continues with policies that can increase prices and lead to national unrest, We continue to import policies without aligning them to the realities of our nation before implementation.

In the US,social spending item in their annual Federal budget is more than any other item in government expenditure. The United States still subsidizes cost of petroleum products for its citizens. Although it has transferred the subsidy from petroleum products to alternative sources of fuel to discourage the dependence on oil. It is still subsidy. They pay Social Security Benefits to every citizen who is in need of it so that they can be insulated from poverty when they retire,lose their jobs or belong to the low cadre of the society.

A Labour leader at made this analysis at demonstration against the deregulation in Abuja. Going by figures released by government as one of its reasons to remove the subsidy,N650bn incurred as cost of deregulation translates to about N700m per day. We have 140million citizens. Then every citizen stands to gain about N5 per day as the only social spending the government offers its citizens. What the extremist proponents of deregulation tell us that the money used for subsidies can be plunged into other sectors of the economy for accelerated development. Then I ask them,can we account for other monies from the over $600bn earned from oil which we sunk into these sectors since 1970? So what is the guarantee that appropriating the funds meant for subsidy for other sectors will not follow the status quo?

France Model of socialist capitalism is being adopted by other countries in this economic recession. Instead of raising the standard of living of Nigeria and tackling poverty. Our ministers under the supervision of Yar'Adua prefer the outdated killer version of capitalism that other countries have abandoned in favour of capitalism with huge bailout which simply means part nationalization and increased government regulation of the private sector. They want to deregulate because they will give themselves the licenses to become the importers and continue to amass wealth while the common man suffers.

Labour has sworn that there will be blood and the masses are solidly behind them. We want to copy the United State only in implementing unfounded polices without the requisite economic realities. Thank God for Obama who shunned us and sent Hillary to come and tell us to wake up from slumber. When the US implemented deregulation in the 1970s it had attained a high level of economic development. The standard of living of the citizens was in the right shape to cushion the effects. As the chief advocate of free market economies,they wanted to allow the natural laws of demand and supply to take prominence so as to fully understand the theories that have existed in their books; before destabilizing Soviet Union and enforcing democracy and free market economies on the world. The recession has jolted them to know that you can't practice free market economies in isolation. Karl Marx must be having a good time popping champagne in the great beyond.

Let us call on "obstinate"Yar'Adua to resign now before Nigeria collapses after swallowing his bitter pill of deregulation or better still let him start planning for a successor in 2011.

Excerpts from an article to be published on 9th November 2009 on (http://nigeriarevolution..com/2009/11/there-will-be-blood-labour-on.html) titled “10 Critical Reasons Why President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua must Resign Now”.

Global indices bench marking political,economic and human climate of Nigeria for 2008 and 2009.

Freedom House Index Partly Free (2009)Partly free (2008)

Health Status of President Index Saudi-Germany Institute Worse(2009) Bad(2008)

Mo Ibrahim Foundation Africa 35/53(2009) 34/53(200)

Legatum Prosperity IndexTM 98/104(2009)

Harvard UKSG Index of Governance Africa 38/53(2009)

World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index 99/133(2009) 94/133(2008)

UNDP Human Development Index 158/182(2009) 154/177(2008)

World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index 125/183(2009) 108/175(2007)

Transparency International Corruption Perception Index 121/180(2008)

Economic Freedom of the World Index 111/141(2008)

Heritage Foundation Economic Freedom Index 117/183(2009)


Milken Institute Capital Access Index 88/122(2008)

Bertelsmann Transformation Status Index 66/125(2008)

Credit Ratings

Moody's Not rated
Fitch BB-/stable
Standard and Poor's B+/stable


Do the following quiz;

If Nigeria is a company in the US,would it have made the bailout list? YES/NO
If Yar'Adua was a Fortune 500 CEO,would they retain him? YES/NO
Does the credit rating of Nigeria affect the behaviour of Nigerian borrower? YES/NO
Source: http://nigeriarevolution..com/2009/11/nigerias-2008-2009-report-card-and.html

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is set to sign a $24 billion economic stimulus bill providing tax incentives to prospective homebuyers and extending unemployment benefits to the longtime jobless who have been left behind as the economy veers toward recovery.

The White House signing ceremony Friday comes a day after the House, displaying rare bipartisan agreement over the seriousness of the jobless situation, voted 403-12 for the measure. The Senate approved it unanimously on Wednesday.

The White House said the bill, which also includes tax cuts for struggling businesses, builds on provisions in the $787 billion stimulus package enacted last February that aim at spurring job creation.

Lawmakers stressed that the fourth unemployment benefit extension in the past 18 months was necessary because initial signs of economic recovery have not been reflected in the job market.

"The truth is that long-term unemployment remains at its highest rate since we began measuring it in 1948," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said. About one-third of the 15 million people out of work have gone at least six months without a job.

The bill would provide another 14 weeks of benefits to all out-of-work people who have exhausted their benefits or will do so by the end of the year, estimated at nearly 2 million. Those in states where the jobless rate is 8.5 percent or above get an additional six weeks.

The unemployment rate is now 9.8 percent and economists are predicting that there will be tens of thousands of new job losses as new job market figures are released.

The extra 20 weeks could push the maximum a person in a high unemployment state could receive to 99 weeks, the most in history. Unemployment checks generally are for about $300 a week.

The tax credits, added by the Senate, center on extending the popular $8,000 credit for first-time homebuyers that was included in the stimulus package. The credit, which was to expire at the end of this month, will be available through next June as long as the buyer signs a binding contract by the end of April.

The program is expanded to include a $6,500 credit for existing homeowners who buy a new place after living in their current residence for at least five years.

The credit, said Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley of Nevada, a state particularly hard hit by the recession, "will allow more people to purchase a home in my district and help stop the continued downward spiral in housing prices caused by the foreclosure crisis."

Prolonging the life of the homebuyer credit has been a priority of the real estate industry, which says it has been instrumental in beginning to turn around a market that was a major cause of the economic downturn. About 1.4 million first-time homebuyers have qualified for the credit through August, and the National Association of Realtors estimates that 350,000 of them would not have purchased their homes without the credit.

The other tax credit allows businesses that have lost money in 2008 or 2009 to get refunds on taxes paid on profits during the five previous years.

The Senate spent more than a month crafting the package and working out partisan fights over amendments, angering lawmakers and others who pointed out that 7,000 people lose their unemployment benefits every day. The National Employment Law Project estimated that 600,000 workers exhausted their benefits in September and October while Congress debated the legislation.

The lead sponsor of the bill in the House, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., reminded lawmakers that they'll have to revisit the issue again before adjourning for the year. The bill applies to benefits exhausted this year, and "Congress must act again before the end of this year to continue the extended unemployment benefits that we are now improving."

The more than $21 billion cost of the tax credits would be paid for largely by delaying a tax break for multinational companies that pay foreign taxes.

The cost of the unemployment benefit extension, about $2.4 billion, is offset by extending a federal unemployment tax that employers must pay.

Source:Yahoo! News

Obama to sign jobless bill assistance $24bn/Yar'Adua cancels $4b Subsidy

LAGOS—The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), is threatening to call off its ceasefire with the government if foreign oil companies do not leave the region.

This is coming barely fews days after its leader, Mr. Henry Okah, had a private meeting with President Umaru Yar’Adua in Abuja.

MEND had subsequently ordered an indefinite cessation of hostilities following the decision of the Federal Government to engage in serious and meaningful dialogue with it and other groups towards achieving enduring peace in the region.

Okah told Al Jazeera Television Service yesterday that the government has not stuck to its part of the deal and that “there will be a resumption of violence very soon.”

Many of the armed groups argued that they were fighting for a greater share of oil revenue to remain in the Niger Delta and complained of the pollution caused by the industry.

Attacks on pipelines and industry facilities – along with the kidnapping of oil workers – since early 2006 have cost Nigeria, the world’s eighth-biggest oil exporter billions of dollars a year in lost revenues and added to volatility in global energy prices.

The Minister of Information and Communication, Professor Dora Akunyili, was quoted as telling Al Jazeera that, “We need to establish peace in that region. It is only when peace is established that meaningful dialogue can follow and sustainable development would naturally be in place.”

Source http://nigeriarevolution..com/ & Vanguard

President Umaru Yar’Adua on Monday evening met with the Minister of Defence, Maj.-Gen. Godwin Abbe, and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, over the fresh threat of violence in ,

I just stumbled on this news by The Punch newspapers have already posted this news yesterday.I posted it again this morning.An all out war is looming and the new found peace might elude Nigeria because of what I will state as I did in my blog site yesterday "Yar'Adua administration unilateral usual disposition of Nigeria leaders in handling our national affairs spells doom for us. Democracy is all about consensus building. Since every interest group in the region wants peace and development why not make the paradigm shift and start a multilateral approach by engaging everyone in an all inclusive summit. This is a subject of consideration the advice I have for Yar'Adua which I will post here before the week runs out"

You need to subscribe before you can read The Punch news so I couldn't get the complete news.You can read the full details of the Interview where Okah made his fresh threats.http://nigeriarevolution..com/.War and instability is looming.

A 22-year-old ban on people infected with HIV entering the US was officially lifted on 2 November, with the new rules taking effect in 60 days. AIDS activists have hailed the move as a major coup in the fight against stigma.



"This comes as very good news for us," Michael Angaga, regional coordinator for the Network of African People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAP+), told IRIN/PlusNews.



"For so long HIV-positive people have felt isolated by one of the greatest nations in the world, which should be spearheading human rights." Angaga said he looked forward to seeing the new rules rapidly implemented in US embassies around the world.

Source:Guardian


In 1987 HIV was added to the list of communicable diseases that could prevent infected immigrants, students and tourists from obtaining visas to enter the US without special permission. President Barack Obama's announcement on 30 October marked the end of a process started in 2008 by then US President George W. Bush, who signed a law repealing these restrictions.



"We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the AIDS pandemic, yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people from HIV from entering our own country. If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it," Obama was reported as saying.



Samuel Kibanga, national coordinator of the National Forum of People living with HIV/AIDS Networks in Uganda, commented: "This shows that America can now see the reality that people living with HIV are just like any other people, deserving of the right to free movement - the travel ban was discrimination of the highest calibre."



The UNAIDS International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights state that any restriction on liberty of movement or choice of residence based on suspected or real HIV status alone, including HIV screening of international travellers, is discriminatory.



Governments usually give two main reasons for imposing travel restrictions on HIV-positive people: to help control the spread of HIV, and save host countries the cost of HIV-related treatment, but Kibanga said these regulations merely drove the problem of HIV underground.



"People fear to reveal their status when travelling. It is better to be with someone who feels free to be open about their status than one who is hiding it," he said. "That way we can all fight AIDS as partners."

Nigeria's main rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), is threatening to call off its ceasefire with the government if foreign oil companies do not leave their land.

Henry Okah, the group's leader, told Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege that the government has not stuck to its part of the deal and that "there will be a resumption of violence very soon".

Many of the armed groups argue that they are fighting for a greater share of oil revenue to remain in the Niger delta and complain of the pollution caused by the industry.

Attacks on pipelines and industry facilities - along with the kidnapping of oil workers - since early 2006 have cost the world's eighth-biggest oil exporter billions of dollars a year in lost revenues and added to volatility in global energy prices.

Dora Akunyili, the Nigerian minister of information, told Al Jazeera: "We need to establish peace in that region. It is only when peace is established that meaningful dialogue can follow and sustainable development would naturally be in place".

You can watch the interview on Al Jazeera Website thru the link below.You can also catch up on my account of all the words of Henry Okah at this blog site http://nigeriarevolution..com/

Nigeria's main rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), is threatening to call off its ceasefire with the government if foreign oil companies do not leave their land.

Henry Okah, the group's leader, told Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege that the government has not stuck to its part of the deal and that "there will be a resumption of violence very soon".

Many of the armed groups argue that they are fighting for a greater share of oil revenue to remain in the Niger delta and complain of the pollution caused by the industry.

Attacks on pipelines and industry facilities - along with the kidnapping of oil workers - since early 2006 have cost the world's eighth-biggest oil exporter billions of dollars a year in lost revenues and added to volatility in global energy prices.

Dora Akunyili, the Nigerian minister of information, told Al Jazeera: "We need to establish peace in that region. It is only when peace is established that meaningful dialogue can follow and sustainable development would naturally be in place".

You can watch the interview on Al Jazeera Website thru the link below.You can also catch up on my account of all the words of Henry Okah at this blog site http://nigeriarevolution..com/

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/11/200911195852610722.html

Nigeria's main rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), is threatening to call off its ceasefire with the government if foreign oil companies do not leave their land.

Henry Okah, the group's leader, told Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege that the government has not stuck to its part of the deal and that "there will be a resumption of violence very soon".

Many of the armed groups argue that they are fighting for a greater share of oil revenue to remain in the Niger delta and complain of the pollution caused by the industry.

Attacks on pipelines and industry facilities - along with the kidnapping of oil workers - since early 2006 have cost the world's eighth-biggest oil exporter billions of dollars a year in lost revenues and added to volatility in global energy prices.

Dora Akunyili, the Nigerian minister of information, told Al Jazeera: "We need to establish peace in that region. It is only when peace is established that meaningful dialogue can follow and sustainable development would naturally be in place".

The main point of the interview where the MEND leader dismissed the 15,000 repentant militants as criminals and that only about 500 are genuine.He also declared that 'thousands and thousands' (his exact word ) are ready to fight and that the militants can call off the truce any time soon.
Read more http://nigeriarevolution..com/

I thought I was a lone ranger.I am currently preparing an article where I have articulated 10 critical reasons why Yar'Adua should consider resignation or better still forget about the 2011 elections which I will post on http://nigeriaoutlook..com/ as from tommorrow.Unless he wants to disintegrate Nigeria soon.

Hear me Oh people of the world! Evil is been glorified in broad daylight.The world is going crazy.When a man ignores all the 'kokoletes' and 'buddies' and he desires his fellow man, something is definitely wrong with him.The world has got enough troubles already.But I know that when the crack the human genome they will find that gene responsible for this evil act,so that it can be destroyed at birth.As for the ladies there is nothing wrong with them licking each other as long as the still allow us to hmm! hmm!

Please permit me to post my reply in pidgin english."why they no go run,as their plan na to kill us finish,dey dey buy fuel? even after they leave office, dey don steal enough to wey go fit buy fuel for 1milion people.I go soon end for them".