Kobojunkie:

By any chance, can you give us an idea of what topics you would rather like to see pinned to the top of the page? Why should YOUR selections be honored OVER mine, or EVERYONE ELSES?

Jarus:

I am the Mod MUBARAK , as long as the forum owner wants me there, and the duty of a moderator, politics at that, is to make the section as interesting and lively as possible by coming with initiatives. In newspaper sites, it is common to find opinion polls by the side, with different topics from time to time, on NVS & SR, there are opinion polls, special corners for articles on raging topics(like the Philip Emegwali conundrum, CIV crisis, sit-tight leaders etc). When NVS stickied articles on Philip Emegwali for over 3 months now, nobody says they are against PE. We try to come up with initiatives here by initiating polls and opening discussions of very important national issues, here is the result.

Ma_J_Blige:

Yea.

He died in 2002 at age 70 though.

Kilode?!:

As long as we continue to mix our cultural socio-political ideas with oyinbo western democracy, we won't even scratch the surface of our political problems.

Lekan believes the older guy should be respected, his word accepted and his interest should go above that of the younger guy, yet he wants democracy? Osoba is also using that same belief to push his own agenda.

That is the same reason why constituents believe senators should give them cash looted from the public treasury.

Our people are disconnected and confused about the workings of a western styled democratic and economic system. The politician too are confused.

Mixing up oyinbo socio-political philosophy with ours is at the root of our problems. We are a confused people, and it won't end until we get sincere and address our confusing psychological issues on a national scale. We need a cultural revolution people.

IMO, We cannot be both oyinbo and Africans at the same time and succeed. We have to choose one philosophy and make it paramount.

A son of the winner of the June 12 1993 presidential Election, Chief Moshood Abiola, Lekan, who is the candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change for Abeokuta North/Obafemi Owode/Odeda Federal Constituency, in this interview with NIYI ODEBODE and FIDELIS SORIWEI, bares his mind on the state of the nation and democracy in the country.

Between 1999 and 2010, you did not come out to contest. Why are you contesting now? How would you assess our democracy?

We’ve gone through dictatorship and my parents and a lot of other people were in the forefront in the fight against dictatorship. We didn’t want the military anymore and thank God that at the end of the day, we were successful. We now have a democracy. We have had two elections so far and each of these elections has been below par. Even the manner in which the candidates were selected in many cases was also not very good. So, we have never had the chance of having our best people rule us. Although we now have a democracy, we do not have the best people in charge of our affairs, if we did, things would not be this bad. You can hear the sound of a generator in the background. Look at how big this house is. Do you know how much it costs to run this house with a generator every day? After 12 years of democracy, we cannot fix the power situation. So, any Nigerian that has good ideas about how he can contribute something to this country should come out and try.

Your parents paid the supreme price for democracy. The expectation was that in 1999, some of your siblings would come out to vie for strategic positions, but you stayed away. What is responsible for this change of mind?
I don’t think that going for a political position is like a birthright. If your father is a good football player, it does not mean that automatically you too must be a football player. Look at Michael Jordan, none of his sons is playing basketball today. So, just because my father was a democrat, who won election, does not mean that all his children must follow that line. Everybody has his destiny. When I decided to come out as an individual, I was looking at the situation. I am not happy with the state in which Nigeria is, right now. I am upset about it and I am sure many people are upset about it. We have a lot of people who don’t have jobs. Salaries of those who have jobs are not even enough. Right now, crude oil is $101. This should be oil boom. When we had the oil boom in the 1970s, the oil was about $40 and we were only producing less than a million barrels a day. Today, we are doing like 2.2 million barrels a day and oil is $101 per barrel. It is disgraceful that we are having economic doom right now, when in Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and other countries, where crude oil is their main source of income, you see them building tallest buildings in the world and new railway systems. It is very sad. Unemployment is high. The interest rate is 24 per cent.

Do you have faith in democracy now?
You know that the good thing about democracy is that every four years or so, people have the time to chose and change their leaders. Now Nigeria is having that in April. April is a decision time again for Nigerians to come out and say, “We are tired of these people. We are tired of the PDP in the Presidency. We are tired of them in Senate. We are tired of them in the House of Representatives.” The only thing we know about the Senate and the House of Representatives is jumbo pay. We don’t know them for any other thing. These are the people that are meant to be doing oversight, making sure that the budget is implemented, making sure that roads they said they voted billions voted for, have been built. All you hear is that they are collecting jumbo pay. By the grace of God, Nigerians will make the right choice. They have already come out to register in large numbers. I hope that on that day, they will choose the right people to represent them. Americans have already said that in 2015, Nigeria is going to disintegrate. If we fail this time around, it might be like that.

Your father, mother and many other Nigerians made sacrifices for the country to enjoy democracy. Do the kind of people in power now merit being there?

We have had Obasanjo (former president). We had him for eight years. Everybody acknowledged that the country did not move forward at all. He basically did not move the country at all. He basically imposed Yar’Adua on us. Yar’Adua would never have won free and fair primaries but he was imposed on us. The election was not free and fair. Everybody knows that. You know Yar’Adua was very ill and for two and a half years, we did not see anything from him. So, whether he was a good president or not, the fact is that he didn’t have the health to do the job. We all know how that ended. Now Goodluck (President Jonathan), who was not prepared, who would not have been anyone’s choice, for the President, has now become the President. He was picked because the South-South people were making a lot of noise. To sort of appease the South- South, he was made the vice-president. If such a man becomes President, what can you say about him? What I can see about Goodluck is that December 31st, it (government) took out a $1bn and they shared it among themselves. The excess crude account before Yar’Adua died, the foreign reserve was like $13bn, now it has only $3m left, not $3bn; from the $13bn that Yar’Adua left. Goodluck Jonathan distributed a billion dollars, a day before the New Year. While everybody was going to the churches and the mosque for the New Year, they sat down, and divided $1bn. Where has the money gone? We don’t see it on the roads. We don’t see it in power. We don’t see it in security. We don’t see it anywhere.

Do you believe that INEC can conduct free and fair elections in Nigeria in April?

I think that Prof. Attahiru Jega (the Independent National Electoral Commission chairman) will try. I think he too has a lot at stake. We are going to have a better election this time around than we had in 2007. Jonathan is going around saying that he wants free and fair elections. The President is saying he wants free and fair elections, and the other day, Jega too said that he swore by the Koran. For any Moslem, you cannot swear by the Koran and play.

How would you assess the support you have got from your father’s political associates? Do you feel abandoned by them?

I am disappointed. You know, but then I am not particularly surprised. I would have been surprised if they were actually being supportive. In the Action Congress of Nigeria (the leadership), they claim they are democrats and progressives. I wanted to come through the ACN because it is the strongest party for the opposition in the South-West. I am from the South –West. They have so many supporters in Lagos, Osun, and other states. Most of the people in the ACN are the people that I have always known. People like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former Governors Olusegun Osoba and Niyi Adebayo, Governor Rauf Aregbesola. I went to them and a lot of the members, the bonafide members embraced me. They were very happy and I had a lot of support, I went to different wards, I went to meet different leaders and everybody was happy that I was coming out. Then I heard that what I wanted to get, a son of one of the leaders, Chief Osoba, was interested in it and that I should go and meet Osoba to discuss this issue with him. They (some party members) said, “This particular seat that you are looking for, Osoba’s son is interested in it. We have left it for him, so you should go and see Osoba.” So I called him (Chief Osoba) and he gave me an appointment and I went to his house. I said, “I came out for this position and they (some members) are telling me that your son is interested in the seat” He said it was true his son was interested. I asked, “What are we going to do now?” He said, “Well you can go for a seat in the House of Assembly or you can wait for an appointment.” I said to myself, “Why can’t you tell your son to go to the Assembly? And why can’t you tell your son to wait for an appointment? The fact is that I am older than your son.” That was what I was saying in my heart because I could not be arguing with Akinrogun (Osoba). He is older than me and I have to respect him.In my heart, I said, “I have more experience in politics than your son. I have been part of Buhari’s campaign team in the past. Apart from that, I have been married for over a decade or so. Your son is not even married. So, why should I step down for him. The Electoral Act states that there should be primaries.” I told him, “Sir, I will go and think about it.” I went back home in Abeokuta and I called my uncles, aunties, and other family members. In fact, Hafsat (his sister) was even there. Hafsat was even more upset than me. She said, “How could he tell you that you should step down for his son? For what? Who is his son?” She got really angry. I said according to the party’s constitution, we are going to do primaries. So I now started going around trying to get ready for primaries until, they (the party leaders) called a meeting at Akinrogun’s house, where he said that there would not be any primaries and that they would handpick candidates and that whoever was not picked should not worry. He said people not picked would be given appointments. They could go the House to Assembly. I was the only the aspirant who raised his hand. Others were angry but kept quiet. He said I should speak. I said, “ Sir, consensus by definition means everybody is in agreement. So if in a particular case, you pick somebody, and people are not in agreement, what do they do?” He said they could appeal to the appeal panel of the party. I asked who would be in the Appeal Panel? He said the leaders of the party. I asked him if it was the same leaders who made the initial decision that we would appeal to. He said yes. I said thank you very much. At that point in time, I just had to leave; I knew that was the end of the road for me in the ACN.

You said you had an edge over his son; when Osoba asked you to step down for his son, what was in your mind? Did you miss your father’s support then?

I would have stepped down. But I did not because the man was telling me about how he too was about to be killed by Abacha; about how he suffered because of June 12. And when I got home, and I was thinking about it, I said “You said Abacha wanted to kill you, but he didn’t (laughs). You are still alive (heavy laughter). Both my parents are dead. So what are you talking about? Where is my dad today? Mummy oh, I am sorry, she is in the grave. You are telling me to step down for your son? That you suffered for June 12? If you suffered for June 12, and you are still alive and your wife is still alive, then, what can we say has happened to us, the June 12 that fell on our heads? That was what happened to me. I went to join Buhari’s party. The General supported me. He called the leaders of the Congress for Progressive Change in Ogun State and told them to give me all the necessary support and they did that. I met other leaders and they all said no problem.

You are also close to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and other leaders in the ACN. Did you tell Tinubu about this issue and did he intervene?

I am not into politics to cause trouble; I am in politics by the grace of God to get into the House of Representatives to represent the people of Abeokuta North/ Obafemi Owode /Odeda. That is what I am going there for. I want to keep my eyes on the ball. It is not for me to be going from one person to the other trying to cause trouble between Asiwaju and Akinrogun. There is no way that Asiwaju will call Akinrogun to tell him that his son should step down. I don’t want anyone to step down for anybody. What I thought would have happened was that there would have been primaries. That would have been proper. When they said that they were going to handpick candidates, I realised that it was the same handpicking that they were doing in different parts of the South-West basically. It was the same handpicking that they did in Oyo State and in a large part of Lagos and Ekiti states and in other places. So I didn’t want to go and meet Asiwaju for that even though I knew that Asiwaju would not be happy with the situation. He wouldn’t be happy but what could he have done? Their policy is to handpick and their chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, said they know best who they trust to fly the ACN flag. It is just that unfortunately for them, the trust ends with their wives and their children. So if my own father is not alive, I guess no one can trust me to fly the party’s flag.

Why are you supporting the CPC?

Someone like Buhari, whom I am still supporting has picked Pastor Bakare. It is a wonderful masterstroke because a lot of people used to think that he is a religious fanatic and that he would Islamise Nigeria and things like that. So by picking someone like Pastor Bakare, everybody now knows that it is not possible. Even though in a democratic set up like Nigeria, it is impossible for you to Islamise Nigeria because, to pass any law, you have to go to the Senate and the House of Representatives, but still they use that against him. He has picked Pastor Bakare, who is very intelligent; apart from being a preacher, he is also a lawyer. He is somebody who is also into social activism. I think that it a wonderful choice by the grace of God and I pray that they will finally succeed this time around to tackle the problem of corruption. Corruption is one of the major problems that we have in this country today. If you have very good leaders like General Buhari and Pastor Bakare, then you have less of corruption.

What is you view about our lawmakers?

When people who should not be there end up going there, then they do what they should not be doing. The main thing is to bring the dividends of democracy back to their constituencies. It is not to start going to stuff your pockets. But I have met some of them; I asked them, bawo le se ma gba iru owo yi (How can you be collecting such money?). Many of them showed me text messages from their constituents – “My wife wants to give birth. Someone wants to get married.” One of them said, “Look I am sending N30,000, N20,000, N15,000 to party members. At the end of every month, N4m or N5m goes to all these people.” They said that if they did not collect the money, they would not have money to give to their people. When the lawmakers don’t give their people money, the people say they are useless. So I guess you cannot blame them 100 per cent too. This is because the financial burden on a representative or a senator is huge. But, if we can have a good government that can somehow turn this economy around, the burden will reduce. We have to sit down and decide what we are going to do about the Naira. We have to call a national summit. We should call the CBN governor and the minister of finance and ask, “How can we get the Naira to 40 to one dollar? How can we get it to 20 to one, what can we do to strengthen the Naira because the more the Naira loses value, the poorer we become as a people.” We have to do something urgently about the naira. From one Dollar to one Naira in the 1970s, it is one to 155 today. The South African Rand is seven to one Dollar. And they don’t have more reserves than we do. We have more reserves than them, they only have enough reserves for five months for import.

There is this belief that Chief (Moshood Abiola) was more pro-IBB than Buhari. Specifically, there is this rumour that chief was one of the people that caused the down fall of Buhari,

Yes, I have heard the rumour. I think it is just a rumour. Definitely, my father did not really like some of what Gen. Buhari did. But, looking back now, you see Gen. Babangida was a very close friend of my father; they were very close at some point, and then he annulled the election, a big mistake on his part. I think he has apologised, maybe not openly but he feels sorry about it. That singular move has cost him heavily.

Has he apologised to the family?

Yes, he has sent some messages to our family. In fact, when he thought he would be running, he gave some indications that he wanted to visit the family house. He had come before. He wanted to come and visit the family and talk to us. So he has made some efforts to reach out to the family.

Has he personally apologised to the family?

He hasn’t said sorry, but he said what happened was unfortunate (laughs), which I guess is close to saying it. You know I don’t want to be accusing him anymore. I know that he is not going to be coming back to power anymore so we can just forgive but not forget. We should forgive him as a nation for the annulment of the June 12 1993 election, because the Bible teaches us to “Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Also, we should focus on reviving our railways and pipelines by possibly privatising them so as to reduce the burden on our highways. We can look beyond that, you know, the man did some good things in power. He built the bridge and some other things. I think people are abusing him too much. He is not coming back to Aso Rock, except as a guest. So we can afford to be nice to him; I think he is a nice man and we just look at that mistake, which I am sure he himself regrets more than anybody else because that mistake alone has stopped him from coming back. As for my father being a part of the coup, I don’t think that military people really talk to a lot of civilians before they overthrow somebody, but even if my father was involved in that coup, I apologise on behalf of my father to Gen. Buhari.

bgees:

Just something I stumbled upon: Torres has never won a single trophy in club football. He surely walks around with bad luck, we were winning trophies before he came around. I hope he carries that bad luck to Chelsea.

tpia@:

where is seychelles.

Irrespective of the nationality of the visitor and his or her family members, there are NO VISA requirements to enter Seychelles. However, the following documents must be shown in order to obtain immigration clearance at the Seychelles International Airport:

1) A passport valid on the date of entry to and exit from Seychelles
2) Return or onward ticket
3) Proof of accommodation; including contact details
4) Sufficient funds for the duration of the stay

Visa Information
A visa is required prior to entry into Kenya. A single Entry Visa (valid for three months from date of issue) will cost US$ 25. A transit visa will cost US$ 10. No Visa is required for Persons aged 16 years and below.

Citizens of the following countries need to have a visa prior to arrival in Kenya;

1. Afghanistan
2. Jordan
3. Senegal
4. Azerbaijan
5. Lebanon
6. Somali
7. Armenia
8. Mali
9. Syria
10. Cameroon
11. North Korea
12. Tadjikistan
13. Iraq
14. Nigeria (residing outside Nigeria)
15. Ivory Coast
16. Stateless Persons

vedaxcool:

In Islam the Qur'an said muslims should follow the words of the prophet PBUH, which are the hadith

vedaxcool:

Hehehe, look who is talking, It is your guy divinereal that has spent the entire thread repeating himself over and over again, Again your grand ignorance has left you looking like a homo Giraffe(No insult inteneded) as anybody with common sense should have first asked about the Islamic methodology instead of saying reinforcement theory, In Islam the Qur'an said muslims should follow the words of the prophet PBUH, which are the hadith, if you want people to agree with you, then bring intelligable points, not reinforcement theory , maybe you want us to hail you for the theory, me no sabi, but the koko of the matter is Islam cleary respects women, from all the verses i have given I believe it is clearly beyound reinforcement theory tactics of yours, only a bigot like divine-un-real can continue defending the indefesible, again only a bigot like divineunreal will pretend that the verses I quoted do not refute his misogynist lies, but I guess you prefer us accepting anything and simple shut up when we read lies , pls Hitler died a long time ago, and this is the internet we have every right to refute what we know to be lies, and this is one problem I have with people like you and divineunreal, when they are shown the truth they become blind . May ALLAH mercy un-blind you amin.; And like I said when you do not know something simply ask a question instead of pretending to know all.

Truth has come falsehood have fled.

Lagosboy:

How do they get passports if they dont uncover their faces, lets be real as the women have never said they dont uncover their hands. The issue here is they would not remove their hijab which shows the face. Why would inec corpers make rules that are non existent.

uplawal:

Pls lets all go to politics section for now,muslims should participate in politics,like jarus is doing,lets stop this our aguements for now,and ps lets endeavour to vote for right candidates e.g Ribadu and Bukhari,dnt lets us put tribal in it,but people who can deligently serve the country without compromise from the evil people surrounding the country,and with the fear of Allah,whether youre yoruba or igbo,pls lets vote for this two candidate they are right tthinking people,and that would be stepping stone for implementing the Sharia Laws into the country insha Allah,amin.

bgees:

they ended up winning nothing because a certain 'Ibisevic' got injured. and it didn't really matter considering where they were coming from and how they played .

bgees:

In all these problems, the players have to take the blame too.

I hope we get a manager like Ralf Rangnick. The man was the reason behind Hoffenheim's phenomenal run in the Bundesliga 2 seasons ago. he is also a motivational speaker!

Saidsalla:

About those extremist in Islam,they didnt exist until when extremist in xtianity began their operation in some Islamic country. So,who is to blame first? The founder or the imitator? There's one president dat even said: God revealed to me to fight Muslims. I dont support killing a single innocent person,but I support fighting for freedom against accupiers. About women, they (before Islam)used to be inharited as properties are inharited,but Islam stopped that bad habit and ordered to give them whats inhirited from their parents or husbands. Women are buried alive b4 Islam. Islam stopped that,and commanded men to treat them good. Prophet (PBUH) said: the best amongst you is the best amongst his wives. What happens nowadays is a kind of enslavery.

enyojo:

[b]OPEN LETTER TO ASIWAJU OF YORUBA-LAND: A MUST-READ!
Compliments of the Season to you Sir and Happy New year,
I am a normal, common Kogi State indigene who resides and vote in Lagos. I have watched with keen interest for some years now how the politics of Lagos has played out. I actually began to respect you as a Governor then when you fought the tyranny of President Obasanjo to a standstill. Prior to this time, I was in the school of thought that believed that Late Funsho William legitimately floored you in your first governorship contest with him. Although you were a better politician than him, he was a better person than you. This in my view then was hinged on the fact that while he was determined to ride Lagos state of Thuggery and ‘Ogberoism’ to make Lagos the safest spot in Nigeria, you on the other side identified with Thugs and “Agberos” and at a point you said you were one. These unscrupulous boys made you Governor. This was my view then but like I said, I had to change my views when I saw your great contributions to the state. Any frank person will know that you have transcended from the Asiwaju of Lagos into the Asiwaju of Yoruba-land in the light of the take-over of your ‘boys’ of the south-west states.
The main kernel of this letter is about the recent happenings in the south-west come Nigeria.
IKORODU BY-ELECTION
The state of Lagos witnessed a protest vote for a PDP candidate in the recent State Assembly by-election at Ikorodu. Your party raised an alarm that it was rigged but everyone in Lagos will disagree with ACN on that point. The truth is that your party won in Lagos in 2007 simply because Lagosians gave a protest vote against the PDP. The reasons were that Obasanjo terrorized Lagos, “reduced” their population, withheld their LG pay, unidentified people killed Funsho William, the denied his Widow their ticket after winning primaries, finally they imposed a violent young man as their candidate. In response to all these evils, Lagosians voted en mass against the PDP. Despite the fact that Jimi Agbaje was upper most on their minds, your man Fashola won. To the surprise of the entire world, this unassuming Fashola transformed Lagos within a short period. Reports even have it that more roads where built in Lagos in the past 3 years than in the whole of Ghana for that same period! I am from Kogi and have longed for my Governor to undertake a 6-month Industrial Attachment under Fashola. No-one can contest the fact that the achievements of Fashola contributed to the fame that ACN has enjoyed so far than any other thing. But to the dismay of everyone, there are clear signs that you as a person Sir are against the return of Fashola to complete most of his projects. We know that it was your help that he emerged at first, however, it was other people who made you emerge at your own first time. I make bold to say that despite the fact that fashola’s men could not win a single seat at the last congresses, it will be very FATAL if your party fails to allow free and fair process which everyone know will throw up Fashola (on merit). If you twist the process and produce the Speaker or a Commissioner as it is gossiped, then ACN will witness a protest vote as it started at Ikorudu.
BUHARI/TINUBU TICKET
There are wild and wide speculations that there has been a deadlock in your talks with CPC simply because your UNBENDABLE condition is that you Asiwaju must be his running mate. Now that the PDP is eating up itself from the centre to every state, the next best President that can win the heart of Nigerians must posses the following: (1). An anti-corruption fanatic (or lunatic we don’t care), (2) A very strong Security conscious person (3) A person who is well grounded in Economics or has an Economic expert as Vice-president.
Buhari (on his own) has like 30-50% of these parameters. If he makes you Vee-Pee, the aggregate will drop to 25-35%. Ribadu has about 45-57% on his own merit. If either Buhari or Ribadu has a very Credible Running Mate who is well-grounded in economics (Nigeria is slipping into debts for God’s sake). At this state of our national growth, we don’t care where the pre and vp come from, Nigerians don’t care if Ribadu and Sanusi emerge (though a moslem/moslem, north/north ticket). But let it not be Buhari/Tinubu. The reason is simple: Buhari is already seen as an Islamic fanatic. A moslem/moslem ticket for Buhari in particular is fatal. Besides, People do not see you as a credible VP for this 2011 elections. They will rather stick to the Goodluck/Sambo than to risk a Buhari/Tinubu. Hopefully, if you continue your philanthropy of rice distribution with the same tenacity as Adedibu did, by 2015, you might become so powerful that you can field a Fashola as VP for another Candidate. If he doesn’t disappoint in his 2nd term(if allowed), then he might become President (if Igbos do not agree to step down for themselves as usual.
Wishing you a great Two Thousand and ELEVATION!

[/b]

rebranded:

www.Thisdayonline.com still works @OP