₦airaland Forum

And his famous escape outfit:

https://nigeriaworld.com/images/news/big/politics/governors/alamieyeseigha-as-woman2.jpg

Diepreye "Harry Houdini" Alamieyeseigha

Can you imagine a guy who has had both James Ibori and Uduaghan as governors poking fun at the not-even-proven-in-court criminality of anyone else?

Imagine, Ibori with $3+ billion in his bank account. . . chilling in Dubai. Probably skiing in that in-door ski resort they have

Na wa o

There is a proverb in the bible about logs of wood. . . somehow seems very relevant.

And then there is the cross-dressing Alamsiegha, as well. Goodluck's former oga.

Heh, if you want to play games of innuendo. . . two can play at that game

@Eko Ile: I have zero interest in wasting my time on this fool. But I don't like innuendo, and thought it was important to clear it up.

Otherwise people might think he is some sort of convict on the lam (like James Ibori).

I'm not saying that Tinubu should be considered clean in the "court of public opinion."

But in the eyes of the US court system? Tinubu is clean as a whistle. Or close enough, anyways.

@birdman: Heh. Not the first or the last time that has happened. Logic is not his strongest point.

^-- What sort of m.oron are you? Do you not understand that being accused of committing a crime (indictment) is not the same as being convicted of committing it (conviction)?

All the ingredients are there for this state to flourish over the next four years. There really aren't an excuses for under-performance. I hope that Amosun meets the high expectations we have for him.

Right. But he wasn't convicted. Indicted, but not convicted. . . thus is innocent under the eyes of the law.

This is better than can be said for say Peter Odili, Alams, James Ibori, etc

Written by Tope Adaramola
Wednesday, 04 May 2011
By all standards Ogun State is a front liner in the Nigerian nation. The state could be described as a watershed of some sort when it comes to numerous feats the country could be reckoned with in all areas of human endeavours. The state is reputed to have produced great men and women who lead the pack in the realm of politics, literature, accounting, law, journalism, and even soldiering. In specific terms, it still remains incontrovertible that the likes of Obafemi Awolowo, Professor Wole Soyinka, Akintola Williams, Ransome Kutis, MKO Abiola etal, hail from this state, which in recent times had described with the sobriquet, “Gateway State”.

Politically, the state has been synonymous with progressive politics partly because of the radical orientation of early nationalists, some of whom hail from the region. From the populist Action Group (AG), to the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), to the Social Democratic Party(SDP), and to the Alliance for Democracy(AD), and lately, the Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN), Ogun people have always been at home with progressive politics, even at the expense of being at variance with what is usually described as mainstream politics. However, there was a significant shift in this political mooring during the 2003 elections when, for the first time in history, the entire South-West region was railroaded into the conservative political jacket of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in what many concluded was midwifed by then President Olusegun Obasanjo. Willy-nilly, the past president saw to it that there was a complete paradigm shift in the region.

But while still under the stranglehold of the PDP, Ogun State people, like their ilks in the other South-West states overtly and sometimes covertly, continue to harbour the thirst for their first political love or affiliation. Fortunately for the progressives, their desire was ostensibly given the needed fillip through the lack lustre performance of government under the PDP. This situation was further accentuated by irreconcilable intra party intrigues and acrimony. The PDP in Ogun State was shredded into two polemical sides with each of them producing powerful commanders, notably President Olusegun Obasanjo on the one hand and the incumbent governor, Chief Gbenga Daniel on the other. As the crisis continued, peace, progress and tranquillity which used to be the hall mark of the state took a flight, and borrowing from the words of Chinua Achebe, “the centre could no longer hold”! The political crisis dragged on with fiery intensity to the recently concluded general election giving the people the golden opportunity to finally ventilate their long desire for change through the democratic process.

The PDP and its adversarial kin-the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN)- a party that was described as a baby of political necessity- suffered devastating defeat in the hands of the Action Congress of Nigeria at the poll which produced Senator Ibikunle Amosun as the governor. It is noteworthy that Ibikunle Amosun, an Accountant by profession, had earlier taken a shot at the Oke Mosan office under the All Nigerian People Party (ANPP) in 2007 but was believed to have been denied of victory. Like the Trojan horse, Ibikunle picked up the coveted ticket of the ACN under which he contested and won the election. ACN’s imminent hold on power in Ogun State and other South-West states definitely lends credence to the belief that the party has become unstoppable, like the German Blitzkrieg, in its bid to sweep away the last vestiges of conservatism, personified by the PDP from the entire region and by extension, Nigeria.

But be that as it may, the task of rebuilding Ogun State has become that which must be taken with all sense of urgency, purpose and responsibility.

The euphoria of the reclaimed mandate should galvanise the ACN to give the people good governance capable of justifying their freely given electoral mandate. The government under Ibikunle Amosun must get cracking in earnest, bearing in mind the saying of Benjamin Distraeli that “the secret of success in life is for a man to be ready before his time”. Without prejudice, it is an acclaimed fact that the Governor- elect is a marathoner, a long distance runner, who has remained undeterred by the political bulwarks put on his way at various times by his adversaries to becloud his vision for the Gateway State. Whilst it is agreeable that the task of governance is enormous, the in- coming government would do well to prioritise its programmes for the people of the state by strategically going into research on what could constitute their source of joy. Among other things, Ogun people are yearning for a return to their pivotal place in human resource development. Education, from primary to the tertiary levels should be given priority as no nation or state could be greater than the level or quality of its human resource. The morale of the average worker in the state should be buoyed up again with emphasis placed on reward for quality service delivery in the public service, devoid of sycophancy. Being the engine room of governance, the state’s civil service should be given the latitude to deliver. It is sad to note generally that the vegetated state of the civil service accounts greatly for the incessantly poor performance of the political class.

Genuine youth empowerment projects should be also be urgently considered to maximise the potentialities of the growing population and re-channel their energies to productive ventures. Since idle hands they say is the devil’s workshop, incidence of criminality and insecurity perpetuated mostly by youths in the state would become a thing of the past when ingenious programmes are designed for them . Holistic vocational schools should be encouraged to arrest the dwindling quality of human capital from the non-formal sectors. The surging army of okada ridders in Nigeria, today, sadly points to the downward spiral in the interest of the youth in the trades and artisanship. This trend must be minimised in Ogun State
Also, there is the dire need to give the state a structural facelift, particularly in terms of provision of good road networks. The pitiable state of roads in the state had continued to stultify genuine economic growth , and is leading to avoidable waste in man power. It is regrettable that Abeokuta, the state capital has regressed to an unenviable position of one of the worst state capitals in terms of road networks with unsightly filths and cavernous potholes dotting virtually portious of the roads. The state should as a matter of necessity, take good advantage of its present political harmony with neighbouring states of Lagos and Oyo states to develop infrastructure, especially along the fringe communities and log on to the mega city project vision.

In conclusion, the Amosun administration would also do well to mend the psyche of all Ogun indigenes, particularly those ethic groups who may still habour ill-feelings of loss in what they may have been made to see as the political compensatory logic, freely peddled prior to the election. The task of rebuilding the Gateway State is enormous, requiring diligent, foresighted and people-oriented leadership and, of course, with the cooperation of all and sundry. I have a strong feeling that it would only take a little time, but there is great hope that we shall be there.

Adaramola is a Public Affairs analyst based in Abeokuta.

http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/opinion/21376-ibikunle-amosu-the-task-of-re-building-ogun-state

Rossikk:
ekt bear said:

You mean like the kind that told you Saddam had nuclear weapons, that Libya was invaded for ''humanitarian reasons'', and that a man sitting in a cave in Afghanistan somehow engineered three aircraft to crash into public buildings in New York and Washington?

No. You will not find this sort of news in those ''legitimate'' newspapers.

lwkmd

https://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/foilhats_400.jpg

[quote author=Chyz* link=topic=658521.msg8255238#msg8255238 date=1304477476]We'll see. I definitely not again you all's progression. The influx of Igbos back to the East after the Niger River port is finally up and running will definitely have things booming in the East(Anioma included). It'll allows give you all more room to do what ya do in SW, since there would be less Igbos.[/quote]If a river port is what will make you happy, so be it. Me, I'd have tried to build a deep seaport (kinda like this Olokola seaport that I'm told is now stalling.) But whatever makes you happy.

chiogo:
Yeah. I'm sure it's the same reason why they're still THIRD WORLD NATIONS. What's the point of a large GDP if it's of no usefulness to the citizens? That's like a school like harvard with all its endowments having poor equipments and inadequate resources for students.  

But what do I know about politics. All I know is that MOST Nigerians live below the poverty line so what the heck?

Basically, you focus on making the pie big (high GDP growth), then worry about how to divide it afterwards (reducing poverty rates, income inequality).

Makes no sense worrying about how you divvy up a small pie. . . no matter how evenly you divide it, everyone will be hungry afterwards.

At least, this is my understanding of the best way to do things.

The poverty rate stuff is probably because so many people leave. Like, large scale immigration from Mexico to the US has likely poverty rates there. . .those guys leaving would otherwise be doing nothing productive.

I dunno. The four most important states economically important states in Yorubaland (Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo) are under competent management for at least the next four years. So if they do things properly, we'll be able to reduce the gap economically between us and the SS. . . all w/o this additional oil derivation.

Anyway, we shall see.

@Chyz*: Fair enough. . . differences in philosophy, I guess. For me, growing a large GDP is more important for third world nations. Focus on reducing inequality afterwards.

But yeah, economically, in no way is the SE ahead.

[quote author=Chyz* link=topic=658521.msg8255122#msg8255122 date=1304475632]Economically-no. Already proven on nairaland time and time again.Go dig up the info, son.[/quote]SW vs SE economically? SW minus Lagos has a higher GDP than the SE, if one believes the data from this Canback database. Add Lagos on top and the difference becomes overwhelming.

SS is economically ahead though, for obvious reasons.

Politically-no that your brothers the north have f'ed up where are you all now? Under the Ile.

That remains TBD. Let's wait about a month or so and see how things shake out.

^-- whatever floats your boat, do what you like

I hope that if (God forbid) you need to drive someone to the emergency room, you don't post first on Nairaland about it, lol

There is something to be said for living peacefully with those different from you. Very admirable.

We shall see. . . Chicago imo is not a better team than Atlanta. OKC might be better than the Grizzlies, but I dunno if they can handle the Griz front line

Hehe. Heat are looking good Celtics are looking like relics

[quote author=Ileke-IdI link=topic=659459.msg8254794#msg8254794 date=1304468775]Ghanaian men are better, for real.
Unnecessary ego blowing.[/quote]You better tell these Ghanaian women that, not us. They are the ones blowing ego, not us

hehe.

Tempted to link my friend to this article

OAM4J:
I really dont support the 35% women representation. Let the office be occupied by the most capable (male or female)

And about time women stick to  their gender equality principle, they should win and get political offices by merit and not just because they are women.

If it were merit alone, then women would probably be close to 50% (unless we believe that women are less talented at leadership than guys.) Yet for some reason, they are not anywhere near this #.

That should tell you that more than merit goes into this stuff.

Anyway, let's do the 35% for 20-30 years, then hopefully at some point after that it won't be necessary.

I like the idea of additional women's representation, and think it'd help. There is no way that men alone have a monopoly on talent on this planet.

There are probably some studies that have been done on the relationship between women's participation in democracy and good governance. . . wouldn't be surprised if it helps a lot.

Right, but there is no outside the box thinking in what you wrote.

When teaching math, you want to use the least amount of machinery possible. The simpler the technique you can use to get an answer, the better (unless the more complicated technique gives additional insight.)

And there isn't even any technique in what you wrote, just additional machinery introduced (sets, subsets, cardinality, set complements) for no real reason.

It is dumb, and confuses what should be simple. Not creative or smart.

That is why I say that FUTO wouldn't do very well in real math competitions, where there is a premium on clear and direct thinking.

I'm sure that OBJ stole a lot of money. But that doesn't mean the economy didn't do very well, also.

Anyway, the point of this wasn't to really defend OBJs tenure. . . he certainly didn't do as WELL as he could have. Nigeria would have done better over that 8 year time period with a better leader. . . if we had power, for example.

But let's not paint a revisionist picture and make it out to be that Nigeria regressed over that time period. It improved. . . just not as rapidly as it could have.

No. Oil is included in "industry."

I'd suggest you take a bit of time and read that report (or at least the pages I mentioned.) That way, you'll need to make less assumptions about what is obvious and what is not.

In a math competition, FUTO would do just as badly as the aboki school, if that joke is any indication of how they teach.

Well, here is a breakdown from the Department of State:

Economy
GDP (2009): $339 billion (agriculture 33%; industry 34%; services 23%).
Real GDP growth rate (2009): 6.1%.
Per capita GDP (2009): $2,300.
Inflation (2009): 11.5%.
Natural resources: Oil and natural gas (37% of 2006 GDP), tin, columbite, iron ore, coal, limestone, lead, zinc.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2836.htm

And another analysis from the UNDP:
https://i56.tinypic.com/2ldj4t3.png
(see page 49 and 50 of this: http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/Nigeria/NigeriaHDR20082009.pdf).

There is a bit of inconsistency here I suppose. . . Department of State thinks it is the largest component (37% in 2006), UNDP thinks it was about 26% in 2006. Anyway, point is that Nigerian economy couldn't have grown that rapidly during OBJs era if is was from oil alone; the non-oil sector of the economy is pretty big.

I'll dig up a quality reference. . . but hopefully it should be clear that saying 95% of Nigeria's GDP is oil makes no sense.

GenBuhari:
We all know the Nigerian economy is 95% oil prices

That is not true. Oil is not even the largest component of Nigeria's economy.

I'm sure he stole a lot. . . probably billions of $s.

But. . . the oil sector of the economy isn't the only component of the economy. . . or even the largest.

And although the oil sector may have grown over his 8 years in office (hard to say though, given that the militants reduced production a lot), that alone was not what caused Nigeria's per capita GDP to increase from $294 when he took office to $1123 (http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?q=nigeria+gdp&d=SNAAMA&f=grID:101;currID:USD;pcFlag:1;crID:566&c=2,3,5,6&s=_crEngNameOrderBy:asc,yr:desc&v=1)