₦airaland Forum

indianin9ja: This convo is between Indians only. Sry.

esere826

The good saints
In Nigeria, this category is less about individuals and more about a once-in-a-while characterization,
a desire for sanity we tend to adopt when we find suitable.

The saints when they are not yet in power, player hate anyone who dares get cossy with the government of the day.
They scorn their former colleagues who have been 'invited to chop' and are not sharing with them
and by so doing, push their former colleaguse into the arms of greater darkness (everyone needs a support base).

I hate this group soooooo much (although I am also a proud part of it sometimes).
All they do is bay for blood. They are easily whipped up by the political devils against the political Sinners
(and yet, these political sinners are the ones more likely to push Nigeria into progress).

The Saints are always on the look out for the speck in the eyes of others.
They love the thought of Nigeria being an elorado nation, but lack any real strategy to acheive this.
They are extremely simplistic, and stupidly believe that it is best if fellow Saints dont get into government.
The stupidity of this argument is that if good guys dont get into government,
how do we expect evil at the top to be diluted and finally eliminated.
They do not see shades of grey, and feel everything should be either black or white .

They do have their exceptional usefulness. Like the vultures that rid the earth of decomposing flesh, they constantly scan and critique the political space ensuring that politicians attempt to do the right things or at least cover their tracks

Wole Soyinka seems to understand the powerlessness of this group,
hence what I perceive is his increasing desire to encourage the one-eyed ones

...Examples of the Saints are Reuben Abati b4 getting into government, Gani Fawenhimi (God blesshis soul) and the man starring at u in the mirror

esere826
the one eyed sinners

These ones have some midiocrum of vision for Nigeria.
However, they can be extremely comfortable with the blind if they choose to, and sometimes side with them depending on the circumstance.
They break rules, steal money with style and are also comfortable meddling with the saints.
In some saner climate, their type would be considered extremely evil, but well, this is Nigeria.

Though they have investments abroad, they look for opputunities to invest in Nigerians
(not just rent seeking, but actual developmental oppurtunities).
They are intelligent and despite their k-leg tactics, they'd like to see Nigeria as a great nation.
When given the oppurtunity, they do make some measurable attempts at doing so.

Their achilles heel is that they have skeletons in their cupboards that can be used against them (by their perceived enemies)
when they go against a cartel of the seriously blind.

My examples of people in this group includes Ribadu, reuben Abati, Soludu, El Rufai, Donald Duke
........you can fill in the rest

esere826

The blind and develish
This group have no visions for Nigeria, all they are concerned about
is the appropriation of power to themselves as an end in itself,
embezling money for themselves, bedding all the ladies they can lay their hand on,
and hiding their money in overseas territories.


They lack the ability to envision Nigeria as being a great country.
Their psychological disposition is one that we could easily call wicked, but they don't think that they are.
These ones would readilly sell Nigeria to a foreign government if it would make them eternal rulers of the slaves.

Left for them, they will steal money from the coffers of nigeria without bothering to be intelligent about it,
and tell the rest of nigerians to go to hell. T
hey compromise the very pillars of what make they country exist in the first place

These types, are evident in folks like Lucky Igbenedion, Babangida, Adedibu........fill in the rest

esere826

Introduction
In politics,especially the nigerian one, it is almost impossible for saints to ascend on high
we are therefore left with a situation were in Nigeria, we we have too many bind and one eyed elites at the top,
(apologies to anyone with a disability)
While the 'saints' 'seemingly' stay outside this dirty playground and critique to their hearts content

But if you step back and take a look at this whole scenario,
you would see a viscious tug of war for the soul of the country
one that the saints because of their inherent simplistic disposition are sure to loose
I'll go ahead to characterize each of the three players.

walan: As Above, So Below...

am talkin: Please if i want all lines printed out what do i do?

birdman: Apparently the thoughts are unconscious then. Which I suspect is the case for several other threads on this same issue. I mean, why cant an issue stand on its own. Why is there an automatic need to juxtapose the aviation minister's wahala with another tribe. And why is that juxtaposition one directional. You are obviously not as "above the fray" as you would like to think. The fact is you on purpose muddied an issue of accountability with ethnic jingoism. My calling you out has nothing to do with being sensitive.

Intimate affairs abi? lol

birdman: False equivalence at work. Fashola has deported indigents back to numerous states all across the country without respect for tribe or 2nd public as you put it. To suggest this is a case of tribal interest over public duty makes no sense.

I also "like" how you have managed to generalize one article to extend over all Nigerians. More likely you already have an opinion, and found an example to support your belief which you can do easily. You can make an argument as to if Oduah's actions were corrupt or inappropriate. Fine. But enough of this back hand attempt to keep trying to rope in Yoruba into the issue.

bloggernaija: We sided with fashola because they tribalised what was done in good faith.
There is also a breaking point ,at which you to say enough is enough.
Migration to Lagos has gotten out of hands.
You only need to visit a police station at night to see the no of orphans,homeless and under the bridge dwellers from other parts of the country.

Aigbofa: You remind me of the Muslims who interpret what the next guy is saying in the same language. If you don't understand it the first time I doubt if you will the second time.

Between Oduah and Ekeh By Akin Osuntokun,
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/between-oduah-and-ekeh/163187/



I often write in fear of not being accessible and widely understood and it is with the hangover of this apprehension that I approach today’s subject matter. It has to do with the daunting task of mediating between a distinguished political science professor, Peter Ekeh, and the Nigeria public. Ekeh is a towering intellectual but he is little known outside the environment of the ivory tower although I’m told that he has of late rediscovered his roots and has gone so far as becoming the President of the Urhobo Peoples Union.

Almost 40 years ago, he wrote a paper titled “Colonialism and the two publics of Africa-A theoretical statement”. It was a masterpiece and was published in the journal of Comparative Studies in Society and History. I encourage those who have the leisure and inclination to search for it and I would be ever so willing to lend a helping hand. Ordinarily it is a work meant for the hallowed precincts of the academia but its applicability to the ongoing crisis swirling around the Minister of Aviation, Miss Stella Oduah, is so compelling that I have decided to err on the side of drawing the attention of the Nigeria public to it.

This choice will require of me a higher degree of labour in carrying my audience along; moving from theory to praxis. By the way, praxis means adaptation of theory to reality. I will similarly crave the indulgence of Professor Ekeh for any error of omission or commission in the course of introducing and adapting his theory for the appreciation of the general reader.
By nature, I do not like to offend the sensibilities of people and aggregation of peoples especially those that I’m acquainted with; but I’m also a curious person who speculates a lot and follows his reasoning and reflection wherever it leads. Besides I have this dilemma of being a member of the political elite — the very class of people who substantially invites the scrutiny and criticism of public intellectuals. And by reason of this affiliation I have many of them as personal friends and associates. I also don’t like piling on offenders and therefore abstain as much as possible from kicking functionaries who has or is receiving bashing from all and sundry.

In anguish I sought the perspective of my editor on how to handle this troubling conflict of interest. She enjoined me to learn to live with this reality if I ever want to continue with my vocation of writing. And it is with this reluctance that I presume to judge the stewardship of Miss Oduah as Minister of Aviation; and even at that, I’m enlisting her not in her own right but as a variable whose misconduct conspicuously lends itself to the applicability of one of the most original and insightful theory of African politics.
I feel highly embarrassed at the grossness of her behaviour not the least on account of impacting so negatively on her principal — who honestly deserves a break from relentless savage critique in the media and interpersonal assemblies. May God save us from friends and the company we keep; I will now quote in-extenso the characterisation of corruption in Africa by Professor Ekeh.

‘There are two forms of corruption that are associated with the two publics-the civic (read the government and the state) and the primordial (read ethnic affiliation). The first is what is regarded as embezzlement of funds from the civic public, from the government, to be more specific. The second is the solicitation and acceptance of bribes from individuals seeking services provided by the civic public (the government), by those who administer these services. Both carry little moral sanction and may well receive great moral approbation from members of one’s primordial public (read ethnic affiliation). But contrariwise, these forms of corruption are completely absent in the primordial public. Strange is the Nigerian who engages in embezzlement in the performance of his duties to his primordial public-town union. To put your fingers in the till of the government will not unduly burden your conscience and people may well think you are a smart fellow and envy you your opportunities. To steal the funds of the (ethnic) union would offend the public conscience and ostracise you from society’.

Ekeh writes with so much clarity and lucidity that I really do not think he needs an interlocutor but I shall offer one here — as it applies to Ms Oduah. I will do this by typifying what he means by the two publics. The civic public here is represented by the Ministry of Aviation and the primordial public is identified as the Igbo ethnic nationality. The attitude of the Igbo in general and specific terms is not to condemn the behaviour of the minister but to defend and rationalise her misconduct. The extreme manifestatiom of this attitude was to threaten that the Igbo will not vote for President Goodluck Jonathan in the next general election, if he dares sanction Oduah.

Otherwise profound writers have laboured to disguise the severity of her offence by dressing it in the garb of generalisation, by advancing the argument that there are legion of precedents which were not reproved and sanctioned. Biblically minded observers will call this a case of following the multitude to commit evil. Soon after the scandal became the staple of public outrage, Dangiwa Umar pointed my attention to the folly of a writer ‘See the backpage of the Daily Trust. See how irrational even a Phd holder appears when he attempts to defend the indefensible. Clearly a case of ethnic solidarity, how can we create a nation out of this geographical expression — as Pa Awo would call it’.

The theory of the two publics is validated by its general applicability to those societies which constitute the independent variable severally and collectively. The Igbos are right in their summative argument — that the offence of the minister in question is the rule rather than the exception; and that any sanction against her would amount to unique victimisation, the exception and not the rule. To buttress the truism of this rationalisation I will mention other typical instances.

The late Chief Sunday Afolabi, may his soul rest in peace, in his capacity then as Minister of Internal Affairs, admonished another deceased fellow minister, Chief Bola Ige (of illustrious memory) not to rock the boat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government to which he was called from the Alliance for Democracy (AD), to ‘come and eat’. One of the more creative recent turn of phrase reduced the phenomenon to the christening of ‘Turn by Turn Nigeria Limited’. Ahmadu Kurfi was more direct and matter of factly in his depiction ‘this arrangement provides opportunity for various groups in the exercise of real power in the governance of the country, unlike the present dispensation whereby the vice-president/deputy governor has little or no power: and act as a “spare tire” for his boss and can hardly dish out patronage for the people he represents in government’.

The twilight of the first republic was replete with stories of competition for the largese accruable from alliance with the party in control at the centre. The culture of quota and federal character became institutionalised in the mid-70s but it has deep roots in the crass nepotism that defined the latter days of the first republic. The less than meritorous appointments of vice-chancellors to the federal government-owned universities was cited as a unique manifestation of this culture.

The Premiership of Chief S L Akintola became the avenging angel for the Western Region when he reoriented the region from opposition politics to a happy union with the Tafawa Balewa-led federal government. This pratice was echoed in the appointment of General Shehu Yar’Adua who was skyrocketed in rank over his seniors to become the deputy to General Olusegun Obasanjo in his capacity as Military Head of State in 1975. The lucky towns and villages of high ranking government officials usually attract lopsided development infrastructural facilities and were conferred with the status of destination of choice for the location of institutions especially tertiary institutions.

The citation of certain offices as ‘lucrative and juicy’ has gradually become accepted as the idiom of appointments to choice offices and posts — often inciting fierce struggles among contending ethnic groups. To be found in this charmed circle are the minitries of works and the FCT; comptroller-general of the Department of Customs and Excise, the chief executives of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF); and the Central Bank of Nigeria — to mention a few.

We equally hear of a number of offices, ministries and government agencies warehoused as the exclusive preserve of sections of Nigeria. There is a Yoruba adage that rationalises abuse of office for personal gain as ‘when you are given a hoe to till the ground, hoeing to yourself takes precedence over any other direction’. The theory espoused by Ekeh cannot by any stretch of the imagination, be interpreted as tolerance for the penchant of personalities like Ms Oduah, it only seeks to explain the typicality of her impunity and imprudence.

Her extenuation inheres in the generalised syndrome of corruption and abuse of office in African societies. In the manifestation of this syndrome what is criminal behaviour in public offices regularly gets rewarded at the primordial level. And the larger the capacity of individudals to misappropriate pubic offices and resources for personal benefit and the benefit of her kith and kin, the more prestigious the honour and chieftancy titles reserved for the perpetrator of the act of felony.

It is apt that to bring this exposition to an end by giving the honour to whom it is due. Professor Ekeh concludes as follows; ‘if we are to capture the spirit of African politics, we must seek what is unique to them. Our problems are maybe understood, hopefully solved, by the realisation that the civic public and the primordial public are rivals; that in fact the civic public is starved of badly needed morality. Any politics without morality is destructive. And the destructive results of African politics owes something to the amorality of the civic public’ — the state.

temiosunrinde: Thanx @ op, it keeps writng. VALUE when I drag b5.b9
Am having problem adding the nos

0monnakoda: Please try and reason like an adult. Wishful thinking is the stuff of children.
Has Bloomberg registered with CAC in Abuja or will they operate as an offshore entity.
Any adult hearing this news will seek more information before passing judgment.
Is there an example of any other country in the world apart from the USA that has benefitted from Bloomberg TV I would like to know

Ishilove: Am I imagining things or is this lady older than Peter?