₦airaland Forum

Kenyans protest MPs demand for salary raise

Updated 3 hr(s) 24 min(s) ago
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?

Scores of Kenyans marched through Nairobi on Thursday, waving banners branding their lawmakers "hyenas" and "gluttons" in protest against huge pay rises the parliamentarians have awarded themselves.

The protesters decried the legislators' move as immoral and demanded they slash their salaries by half rather than lifting them by 25 percent to Sh1.09 million a month.
Demonstrators outside Parliament in Nairobi. Kenyans are opposed to attempts by MPs to increase their salaries. [Photo: Govedi Asutsa/Standard]


Already among the best-paid in the world, some MPs say the fact their salaries are about to be taxed justifies the speedily debated increase.

"Public service should not be for selfish gains. Ninety percent of them are only serving themselves. They have to reduce their salaries by 50 percent and pay tax as any other citizen," Bamgi Ndolo of the Civil Society Congress told Reuters.

Many Kenyans are furious their MPs have voted to adopt a report that would hike their own salaries at a time poorly paid public workers like teachers are clamouring for better pay and east Africa's largest economy recovers from the global downturn.

Their new monthly salary would far outstrip the country's GDP per capita of Sh57,887 per year.

As the boisterous but peaceful protesters - fewer in numbers than the demonstration's organisers had hoped for - chanted "thieves" outside parliament, police had to escort some parliamentarians into the assembly building.

Normally, the next step would be for Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta to incorporate the proposed rise into a bill to be passed by parliament.

Kenyatta, however, has already criticised the increase and said there is no provision for such a raise in the 2010/11 budget. But analysts say the legislators could blackmail him by refusing to pass his budget until they get their way.

Kenyan politicians think their pay comes from Niger Delta

, By Farouk Martins Aresa ,

Kenyan politicians have too many traits like their brothers in Nigeria such as sucking people dry in the name of democracy, getting rid of corruption Czars how to move on after Independence. Their salary with allowance is one more case in point. Somehow, they have not learned from their brothers in Ghana where the padded pension of two former presidents was rejected by the cry of the people. As Ghana braces for earnings from the oil discovery, do not be surprised if politicians try again for salary increase as in Nigeria and Kenya.

In the case of Nigeria, there is Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) that legally authorizes the looting of the treasure where the income earned from the sale of the resource from Niger Delta is deposited. RMAFC members are appointed by politicians to loot on behalf of politicians because of the enormous amount of work expended to get Nigeria to the Promised Land. Recently, even the RMAFC wonders aloud if Niger Delta oil earning could cope fast enough to sustain the rate they guzzle salaries and allowances.

The salaries and allowances in Nigeria and as proposed in Kenya are not without justification. African politicians love to shop in Europe and America. So they feel embarrassed if they have to travel to these western countries to attract investments without such necessity as humongous homes in prestigious areas with luxury cars parked in front of them to impress reputable people and investors back to Africa. These are the magical factors RMAFC used to calculate their salary. You do not expect them to take investors to the ghettos to sensitize them!

This is what some of us who are so naïve do not understand. It is for that reason that Nigerian and Kenya politicians demand higher salaries and allowances more than the President of USA and the Prime Minister of Britain. If we think about the fact that those people are at home but our politicians have to travel there, it will explain the slight higher pay for our politicians. Please take it into account that our politicians also have responsibilities at home. Our people and families beseech them for the dividends of democracy.

Look at Nigeria, if we go by how long each successive administration has been going on these foreign trips to attract their investments, Nigeria would be the richest country in the world. Yet, they never shy away from using the same blatant lie to travel abroad in justification of their allowances. When we have a Continent that appreciates trading with countries outside its boundaries than trading countries with its neighbors, we are bound to make others richer. Until recently, it was cheaper to fly to Europe than to fly from West to East Africa.

African politicians are never short of reasons for the wide income gap between them and their subjects. In most cases, they give the same reasons their friends in the western countries they know and love to travel to give. That is, working class can only be employed when resources are wisely invested by the upper class to create jobs. There is nothing wrong with this point except that it is the small business women and men that create jobs that poor and working people can easily obtain. Big businesses do create jobs but in many cases for those that are well connected.

Inflation is another excuse used to deprive the working class a living wage. Harmonization and readjustment of salary structure in the civil service with politicians can close the gap in salary and allowance without injecting new money into the system; defeating the argument about inflation. Money in the hands of many raises consumer confidence and their spending boost the local economy. The prudent action to stimulate the economy in the West to prolong benefit to the unemployed, none calls for fat salary of politicians that Nigeria and Kenya politicians desire.

It is sad when our children in colleges and universities come back home without jobs when their well connected friends have been picked and others discarded as if they are rotten apples. That is the beginning of disparity in wages because the children of politicians have their looted funds to open fickle businesses and employ their children. These politicians can go to banks and borrow money with little or no collateral. When we go to banks, they demand the ownership to all we have in our names, plus kickbacks. We are better off with esusu.

The reason small businesses survive apart from selling the right product at the right time, is competence, merit and ability to work hard. Easy money is hardly invested wisely because the burning desire to succeed may be lacking. This is why we have entrepreneurs selling and buying on the street to make a little profit while easy money investors look for the biggest profit or no deal. The difference in profit translates to difference in earning and wage for the hard workers.

Consequently, we produce a generation that watches our politicians making big money out of little input that has not benefited or move our countries forward. We all work hard so that we can succeed but if it takes less than hard work to succeed, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out a way to follow the easier part to riches. The argument has shifted to those who steal and use it well to create jobs for others instead of those who work hard and create jobs.

Capitalism has a way of lifting man out of poverty if all the social net is in place for those less fortunate and those temporarily in need of help until they can gather themselves. It is share fallacy if not deceptive to claim that all those people, in spite of their education and training in trade or skill jobs are poor because they are lazy. Especially, when others are getting a break from a well place relative or have access to easy money.

In tough time such as this, we feel betrayed when our politicians think they have two heads and have to legally take earnings from dwindling resource and waste it on themselves because they have to feed each of their two heads while others have only one head to feed. If the amount of money wasted can be directed to poor and working class, they will spend it on basic consumer goods spurring higher production in the factories where more people can be employed.

On the other hand, the number of rich people in Africa is too few to spur growth in local goods and services and their taste for foreign products outside the Continent can hardly generate jobs at home. This is why the indifference in the attitude of African politicians surprises others since they are not held accountable. Capitalism with a human face is lacking in Nigeria and Kenya


http://africanheraldexpress.com/blog2/2010/07/07/kenyan-politicians-think-their-pay-comes-from-niger-delta/

MODERNGHANA.COM NEWS

EIGHT MORE YEARS OF IMPUNITY TO LOOT MAIM AND VENGEANCE

Look at the caliber of the people yearning to come back and rule us, it says a great deal about Nigeria. We should not wonder why Africa has not moved forward since Independence. In a country filled with Africans; that would be unthinkable. While many of us take cover, Nigeria is being replaced by many Me, myself and I or nobody, in the political arena. The rest of us barely keep our head above water. We cannot submit to anyone’s whim who wants to lead us by zone, brawl, hook or crook.

Rotation or zoning Presidency to certain section of our Country has its place and time in the days of threats, force and domineering power of the military. It was the Chairman of NPN who warned that there were only two parties in Nigeria; NPN or the military. If that overbearing advantage is out of the equation and arms can be bought by any violent minded organization in the world’s open market, we have to tread cautiously before we set our Country ablaze again. It is so easy to destroy, but harder and more time to build. When vagabonds take over, they bestow power and honor blindly.

Check out most of those privileged enough to be awarded national honors, many have to be a thief to be a chief. Poor folks do not make enough money to qualify for honors but if one steals from his neighbor, he gets to be called a thief under customary or Sharia law, a chief if he steals big from government or bank. Yet, Nigeria survives on the shoulders of hard working folks’ daily sweat. Since these rogues soil the decent ones amongst us, accomplished people of character have rejected the honor of being associated for various reasons.

Some of these notable Nigerians have thrown their hats into the debates of PDP zoning arrangement that has no place in our constitution. Some argue that it was made part of it under a military leader until another military leader expunged it. Whatever the merit on either side, affirmative action is instructive in cases where some people have been historically deprived of power and leadership. This is the case with South-south but hardly the case with the North.

The North held on to power for 38 out of 50 years of Independence. The cry for zoning cannot be sustained on the basis of Southern leadership neglect of the North. This is why the Northern youths would prefer leadership on the other foot that may benefit the masses in their region who have been neglected by past Northern leaders. Putting it mildly, they have nothing substantive to show for their hold on power either in Nigeria or in the North especially.

Some of the prominent leaders in the South-west and the South-east are calling on Ebele to respect PDP gentleman’s agreement are themselves hypocrites who have lost the leadership race in the past. Even more disingenuous is, if not Me, Myself and I attitude, nobody from the South. It is the same attitude that deprived Abiola the Presidency when some of this people said Abiola was not the Messiah we were waiting for. Would the wise men asking Ebele to respect an agreement, under duress of military might, reject the chance to run if called upon?

Some leaders in the South-south are crying out loud that Ebele is not the Messiah, but only Me, Myself and I. This guy came from nowhere and suddenly catapults himself into Presidency. Whatever the case, it is not that Nigeria is short of credible leaders, the polity is just too desperate, too greedy and too unscrupulous to attract the type of talents needed to move our Country out of yesteryears politics of loot, revenge, maim and kill.

The South-south has become a major player in the contest for Presidency for the first time in our history and many Arewa youths are fine with it. Some of us think the whole Country must be happy for them and celebrate the rotational clock. In the same vein, we should be looking forward to the turn of South-east whose chances were given away in return for ceremonial President. Either by merit or zone, each of the six zones of Nigeria can produce competent men.

The process of choosing leaders is highly flawed, that is why none of the democratic process has been able to cure it. Those who handed power to us during Independence detest our way of life and culture. So they did all they could to hand over Africa to those more sympathetic to their system of government which is by no means perfect because of rigging. If Africans wanted to, we could have developed a system of government or cabinet more suitable to our culture.

We fool ourselves with constitutional review every year only for colonial civil/military system to scrap it and start all over again. Our Africa military itself need review more suitable to the need of Africa than being an imitation of our colonial past. While we discarded traditional rule of chiefs and kings, we have created ways of passing power, privilege and loot to our cronies while we remain godfathers to the ruling class. We have diminished one privileged class by creating another.

It is the reason failed and destructive leaderships of the past still possess the gut to claim the right to contest for the Presidency. Call it throne of the kings and chiefs or presidency, the fact remains that we are passing the mantle of power or rulers from one dynasty to another. Instead of looking for the most competent politicians with ideas, programs and step by step plans to take us out of darkness, we are distracted by rotation of zones. This is why we failed to produce conscientious men.

Audu Ogbe is a case in point. This is basically a decent person that can be called radical but for the fact that he joined NPN in those days. Even then, he performed within the mess he found himself. Throughout his time as Minister in NPN except that we cannot call anyone a saint in Nigeria or National Party of Nigeria. He impressed many of us when he cut off electricity to the NPN headquarters because they refused to pay their bill. NPN Chairman, Akinloye, was furious.

When he returned to teach after NPN, his people laughed and heckled him for not bringing the loot back home. A man who was a minister went back as a poor university lecturer. He learned from that humiliation like his brother Obasanjo who almost went bankrupt. Both must have sworn never to be poor again. They both came back with a vengeance the second time around. So, their first experience in the poor house after holding important leadership positions like that of President Shagari, result in discouragement of government service without greed.

Unfortunately that is the story of Africa of which Nigeria happens to be an important part that refuses to lead. When praises are showered on other African countries filling the vacuum, it is almost to spite Nigeria that is stuck in reverse. Please do not let beneficiaries of the rot hear you, because they compare Nigeria to the worst countries of the world so that they can stand tall amongst the midgets, as if people in the wealthy countries were born centuries before us.



Source: Farouk Martins Aresa
Story from Modern Ghana News:
http://www.modernghana.com/news/283028/1/eight-more-years-of-impunity-to-loot-maim-and-veng.html

Published: Friday, July 02, 2010

thenigerianvoice.com NEWS

LAY OFF KAITA Jo

How do we get to death threats on Kaita? It was a Colombian player, Andres Escobar that was killed when he got home in Medellin because he accidentally diverted a ball into his own goal post in 1994 FIFA World Cup. A Nigerian was also killed over an argument over a foreign soccer club match. We have some British hooligans that cannot attend soccer match anywhere because they are noted by INTERPOL for their behavior. We have gone way beyond showmanship to displaying our instinctual crude animal behaviors. No cultured African fan kills anyone because of soccer.

Usually, it starts from the frenzy generated by crowds that were disappointed over the loss of a game by a favorite team. Like unreasonable mob justice, the satisfaction of the loss of life for some stupid mistake made by an individual when emotion is high never justify that end. African football is always intense even between sister countries. In some cases security has to be tight for regional matches within the same African country.

Soccer is one of the most beautiful games in the world. The amount of dexterity, skill, style and intelligence it takes cannot be equally duplicated in any other sport. It is even more addictive than alcohol but without the painful withdrawal of drugs. It is like sensuous dancing without sex. More important, it brings people from all walks of life, race or ethnicity, countries and classes together. When we have such a sweat sensation, some unsavory elements creep up in our fun.

We have to do everything to keep football clean so that it does not turn to boxing, wrestling or hockey and the other US “football” match. The officials have tried to make it sportsmanship so that soccer does not go the way of other sports. Unfortunately, some opportunistic players have taken advantage of that by trying to take a fall on the field in order to score a penalty.

African players have endured the crudest form of racism, not only from their fellow players but from other fans in Europe. There were some fans of an opponent club displaying banana. A young African player even cried on the field once. These insults are not easy to absorb and players must be sensitized to expect them. In fairness to international football clubs, fines and other penalties have been meted out to show low tolerance for such uncivilized behavior.

Though Kaita was not a novice to international soccer, unprintable epithet may still catch us unguarded and our gut reaction may be unpleasant in that moment of temporary leave of our decorum. There are certain words you do not use to a black man unless you want to get him to blow his cool. If you know that is what he is trying to do, deflect him in a dignified manner.

Nobody said Nigerian player Kaita was right in his reaction, no matter what unprintable abuse he got from an opponent, especially after the French captain Zidane was shown a red card for head-butt in the 2006 World Cup final. He could have approached the linesman or the referee if any of them was close by. His reaction could have been wagering his finger or fist in anger to draw attention without touching the crude mutterer. A warning could have been worst penalty.

Elizabeth Lambert was a US University of New Mexico soccer player suspended for punching or pulling opponents’ hair each time they poke her, predicting her reaction. Cameras have been able to show that she was not as violent as her opponents wanted to portray her because they actually poked or pulled her subtly first, before she reacted. Apart from trying to depict her as violent on the field, they wanted penalty against her team so that they could win.

It all depends on how individual referee wants to handle an infraction because it is difficult to second guess a decision they have to make on the sport. While we have seen a red card for similar behavior as Kaita, we have also seen many yellow cards. Kaita apologized profusely. We may have seen harsher punishment for some players than others because someone has it in his mind that one type of skin bruises more easily than the other.

However, it is unacceptable for players to take a fall or provoke another player in order to fool the referee. We witnessed so many fake falls and holding of body parts when players were simply touched, you sometimes think some players were old grandmothers with fragile bones playing on the field. They cry and roll for any little contact. As soon as they get their penalties, they are suddenly made whole and grinning like a little kid.

Since officials are playing catch up with these fake falls and twisting, punishing such behavior can be difficult. A yellow card has been given in a few cases to a pretender. Even those who are clearly the perpetrator of mischief sometimes behaved as if they were the victims. Kaita might be wrong and the French captain might have over reacted with head-butt, some receivers deserved what they got. It does not make it right but do not cry as if you are an innocent player.

The best part of it all is the joy and the unifying spirit of the games that must linger, not the disappointments. Indeed, unexpected loss can be channeled into better preparation next time around. All African players tried their best and it was disappointing to see Ivory Coast lose to Brazil by 3 to 1 after playing so well. Ghana played so well, many of us were expecting that with Kaka out like Kaita, Ghana would capitalize and win. But the 2 – 2 draw was enough to move on.

The US is still discussing their struggle from 2 nil to 2 – 2 draw. They think the Mali referee denied them their third goal but forgot that the same referee penalized their opponents heavily before the controversial third goal. On the Other hand the England team cannot forgive their goalkeeper because the ball slipped from his hand into the net, giving USA a 1 – 1 draw.

Its sports, not war.



Source: Farouk Martins Aresa
Story from The Nigerian Voice News:
http://www.thenigerianvoice.com/nvnews/28235/1/lay-off-kaita-jo.html

Published: Tuesday, June 22, 2010

MODERNGHANA.COM NEWS

FAT BELLY LOOTERS CHAMPION REFORM TO HUNGRY BELLIES

Please take a good look at most people at the high tables and front pages of newspapers, tell us those preaching morals. If you are sick and tired of crooks lecturing us about how to turn Africa or Nigeria around, you are not the only one. Of all people, those who have stolen us blind in Nigeria are prescribing solutions to us. Even the intelligence of poor people like us cannot be so easily insulted. Ok, maybe it takes a rogue to betray their loop holes so that it would be difficult for another rogue to steal. Not these vultures, they are not ready to give up.

Every day, they teach to us how to secure a hitch free election and how to rid our countries of corruption. These old recycled immoral politicians crowding out young intelligent minds still dominate the Continent and hardly lose elections with their power of incumbency. They attract the press and sometimes actually own the press to publish their magic diarrhea of the mouth to the rest of us. Fat cats giving us lessons about how to preserve mice.

Despite our cry, Nigerian politicians pay themselves so much money, it will be foolish of them to change places with any politician anywhere. Yet they fight for more, with all the allowances and estacode accrued, whether they are at home or travelling around the world. These are the people we put in charge to find solutions for majority of Nigerians with hungry bellies they deny live on less than 300 naira a day. Do we believe their solution on the page of daily newspapers?

Right now, not even an angel can tell the difference between small and fat looters. On their way to the treasury, they grease some hands with chicken change. If you dare raise hell, you are going straight to jail. In other cases, the names of clerks, secretary and other subordinates are used to collect billions. If those ones are scared enough not to query the invoice their names are written on, for fear of losing jobs or favors, they are potential prisoners without bail.

We have so many cases of the big fish blackmailing house helps and babysitters whose names have been used to collect billions. If you see the name of your relatives in newspapers attached to mansions in some high class neighborhoods overseas, knowing she has never travelled out of the country, please think twice before you kidnap her for ransom. Chances are she does not know she had that much until the name appeared in newspapers. Ironically in cases where they are used as courier for overseas deposits, some smart ones have disappeared with the money!

Are these the people we want in jail? There are cunning looters these days that have outfoxed us and we are now confused between the real rogues, the small thieves and the innocent man. Everyone deserves to be punished accordingly but in Nigeria, those who steal us blind have enough money to bribe their way from a prosecutor to a probe or from tribunals to our courts. The more they steal, the more their lawyers want and the more they become sacred cows.

Fortunately for them, people are divided on how to deal with these vultures. In Nigeria as in many African countries, they buy loyalties with their trickle down crumbs. They make sure they never pay enough so that the masses can keep on depending on them for more. It is the only way to keep people coming back to them knowing it is the source of their daily bread.

However, only Murtala Mohammed in a position of power has forfeited his loot to the State and come clean but he never lasted. His forty thieves hunted him down in cold blooded murder as a warning to defecting Ali Baba trying to be wise. Can anyone compare the Ali Baba that took over from him and almost went broke to the second coming that made OBJ a billionaire?

Babangida, Tinubu and Buhari are preaching democracy, Ibori gave a lecture at University of Benin, Soludo on mass revolution at University of Nsukka and Yerima preaching Sharia. Aliens would think Nigeria must be bereft of role models. Most of the people given the highest honors with fun and fanfare are recurring looters or killers of innocent civilians and opponents. Pity must go to those poor men that were unfortunate enough to be classed with the same honors.

So when they told Ebele not to run so that his name can be embedded in gold, we wonder who made the list of golden plaque. What we see are vagabonds telling us how to turn the Country around with a loophole big enough for an elephant designed for their return. Meanwhile, they are voraciously festering their nests with contracts none of us can ever dream of, even when they are out of power. They are the people that become godfathers, install their cronies as governors, or remain hands on as unofficial minister of “Contract Unlimited”.

Some governors, like Tinubu seeing himself as Governor Emeritus, padded his pension better than the incumbent, with official houses and cars in Abuja and Lagos. This is along the line of the usual favored contracts from the governors that took over from them. Luckily for us it does not always work out because unlimited greed split some open as they develop bad bele.

These days, contracts are the only way to go. Even when there are job openings, it is shared amongst relatives. The beneficiaries and providers of contracts are those telling us how to move our Country forward. They are ready to collect taxes or take tolls from the poor folks on the roads they did not build, just to award contracts. Allocations from the Federal and foreign loans are used for projects that suit their pockets and foreign account or partners is a must, so their percentages are secured in foreign accounts. If a previous government had sucked out its kickback percentage, contracts can be inflated again.

As a result, most aspect of life in the Country depends on contract, not meaningful job creation, productive business or agricultural endeavors. Central Bank could not get half of the agriculture loan reserved out, because food or cocoa and groundnut bags are more useful for transporting loot than back breaking tractor/hoe in the soil. It is how their children are trained to be lazy and greedy while poor kids without access watch from the sideline. What morals can they teach us?

Source: Farouk Martins Aresa
Story from Modern Ghana News:
http://www.modernghana.com/news/280898/1/fat-belly-looters-champion-reform-to-hungry-bellie.html

Published: Friday, June 18, 2010

COWARD! NO CONTEST TO OPUTA OKIGBO NWOSU DIMKA JAILS NO PRESIDENCY

Feature Article
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
By: Farouk Martins Aresa


We can detect deceit in the action of a coward. When faced with responsibilities or threat, he runs away. Do not confuse those who fight and run away only to fight another day with those who dodge and run away only to reap the benefit when it’s all free and clear. Granted, only brave men fight to death but this coward when faced with Okah coup or implicated gloom of his estranged best friend, he betrayed his word of honor, upheld the death sentenced instead of life imprisonment.

However, a coward is not an officer and a gentleman when he allowed the escape of his accomplice Dimka that killed the Head of State, Murtala Muhammed. It’s a coward that would claim the laurel of an honorable man, Professor Nwosu, who conducted Nigeria’s best election he annulled, by cowing to special interest then and later claimed Abiola was a co member of the same drug cartel. An armed robber that demanded our life or our Government, our life or $12 billion, would hide as a coward when challenged to give account of the Okigbo Report. This coward defied a defense opportunity before the Oputa Panel, on just one of his many serial killings. No pain, no gain no presidency sir.

No matter how much our differences with Abiola, Shehu Yar’Adua, Buhari, Idiagbo or Obasanjo, they all submitted to hell in jail as an humble experience that shape many leaders, not this coward. He would sacrifice a whole country to save his skin. Yet his claimed triumph is that he risked his life to keep the Country united. In that case, he is in the company of naive young butchers and opportunists drunk with power that plugged us into civil war, where brothers slaughter one another. Why not Ojukwu or Adekunle for President?

Some idealistically that think allowing this coward on the political scene strengthens us as a democracy. In that case we might as well let drug dealers, cultists, 419s and armed robbers contest the election and not discriminate between those who use gun to snatch money or life and those who use gun to snatch governments. But then this coward did it all. While at it, let us resurrect third tern project for OBJ and leave it to the electorate.

Every country establishes a threshold of decency below which anything goes. Otherwise, we will be inviting jungle justice and chaos between do or die gangsters that will invade our political arena as if we do not have enough already. In Mexico, drug dealers openly challenged constituted authorities in an uphill fight for control of law and order. What we have hunting Jamaica today are political thugs of Seaga and Manley turned drug dealers entrenched in the neglected areas. In Italy, the Mafia has not only penetrated the Government but also world businesses. Africans have enough to deal with already.

Their method of gaining sympathy and support of the masses is not new. They provide token services neglected by the governments. They build hospitals, schools, roads and social network giving money to selected unemployed they could use for their nefarious trade and reprisal jungle justice. The selfishness of our looters has limited their insight. But those they provided for in their states will defend them vehemently. Like his drug plea deal in US, two governors have acquired so much money to buy jail time in Nigeria. Anther governor introduced religious law to occupy his people as he stole them to rags.

As we encourage more of these miscreants into our politics, they will get smarter, build fiefdoms with token roads, schools, hospitals and more important get loyalists that are willing to sacrifice their lives in the defense of political war lords making it impossible to control as they cross the line of decency with impunity. No amount of democracy can sort out this type of tolerance in the polity, as they take advantage of democracy. Some of us sometimes underestimate the power of desperadoes in a do or die situations.

It is not only Ebele, most decent people want to put the coward in jail by dusting up the Okigbo Report. Abacha called for Okigbo Report to expose the coward and freeze him in his track for ever, not Ebele or anyone else. When he stepped aside, Abacha tricked him out while he remained in the Army with full powers and immediately called upon his weakest point to dislocate him forever so that he will never come back to hunt us.

OBJ and all those close to the military elite knew that was one of his weakest points. If that does not work, they all know of more damaging blows for which the coward could not enter the United States for many years until on humanitarian grounds when his wife was dying. Some of us wonder what deal he made to enter the United States. A coward never dares his soul and Oputa Panel was too close for his comfort. There was a great deal more behind the death of Dele Giwa and the disappearance of Gloria Okon.

Lamido Sanusi, the Central Bank Governor put it mildly when he said we are still affected by structural adjustment. The fact is, that is what buried middle class Nigerians. It was done by a stroke of the pen by the same evil genius staging a come back to finish the dwindling asserts that should be left to our children. He manages to be relevant to successive governments but with an iron grip supervision by Abacha and Obasanjo.

While it is true that Nigerians have suffered worse than any other people on earth by the same resources that was suppose to elevate our economic status, the silver lining is that no section or power of a click in the Country can bully us into submission anymore because of concentrated ammunitions, for sale in open market. What is left is a shadow of itself used as threats to keep a disoriented and disenfranchised people in fear.

How would you feel if someone came to your father’s house, stole him blind and got away with it but the hypocrite cried murder calling for capital punishment when the son stole his own father’s money too? Only in Nigeria will the defense be that he only stole billions but the son stole more. No sacred cow has lost its meaning in Nigeria. If we have to start from somewhere, let us make some examples out of sacred cows.

Take a look at the live oil devastation in Louisiana water and imagine the picture of Niger Delta. The coward wants to come back for more to deprive this and the next generation. Dare make a desperate move, and break the Country into pieces. Barking dogs that cannot bite dare queried Ebele about positions in the oil industries as if he was appointing cocoa or groundnut farmers. Haba, na which cain tin be this bo!

Source: Farouk Martins Aresa

http://mobile.modernghana.com/mobile/277342/1/coward-no-contest-to-oputa-okigbo-nwosu-dimka-jail.html

I do not think anyone is talking stupid here, some people just get carried away to score points. It has been educative.

Let me start with auto. You can not go by products that are not made locally alone to gauge the economy of a country. Auto actually point out the deficiency we have in the system. We used to have more car assemblies in this Country but when wholesale buyers like Federal and state government prefer imports that compete with local assemblies, they die a natural death.

The same taste is followed by individuals that buy imports even if used than new locals. So a surge in car buyers does not necessarily reflect good economy but preference and easy money from a few that have access to banks. Those are the conspicuous spenders.

Many of us may not believe Sanusi numbers but is it not true that interest rate has gone down? Who are the people who paid those outrageous rates anyway but cronies and desperadoes.

Is it not true that dollar rate fell from almost 190 to 150? where do those people get so much naira from but easy money through black market. It is also true that the spread between black market and "white" market has narrowed.

Let us be clear, all the foreigners and lenders (if there was) coming to Nigeria were here to make easy profit and take advantage of high interest rate. Now that interest rate is down, only legitimate lenders will come in. Unless some of you do not think lower interest rate is good for the local.

We must not forget that our problem from structural adjustment still prevail in our economy. But more recently, OBJ tried to correct banks flight by night requiring them to have a capital base. In order to defeat that regulation, bankers started round tripping, started inflating their real estate and securities. Even more important, they started betting on their own asserts knowing full well that it is inflated. That is what is called derivatives in USA and U.K.

Someone made a main street argument that a bank is for keeping and lending money. Yes, basically. Our problem in Nigeria is that we are cash and carry people. We buy houses and cars right out. But what is the percentage of the population that can do that, some asked.

If we want to increase trade and expand market, we have to bring more people into the market by extending credit to poor and working class to buy houses and cars. But we prefer looting by a few.

Sanusi's gut reaction is right. But it must be fine tuned. We can not spend foreign cash and open it to everyone. At some point, our ability to make foreign money will fall far short.

Na u tak am, na u hia ram.

EzeUche:
I wu onye ara nnegi wu akwuna nnagi wu onye ohi!!!!

What is missing here is that NPP was not formed by the Igbo but they were members and Zik was not the head of the Party. The head and founder of NPP was Waziri (Politics without Bitterness).

When his party was hijacked by Adeniran Ogunsanya (another foolish Zik loyalist), he delivered it to Zik. Before then Zik was out of leadership run and the result of the election proved that. NPP only end up with the two states in the East and Solomon Lar delivering Jos to NPP. For the first time Zik of Africa became Zik of 3 states. Pity.

Waziri had to form Another party called G-NPP.

Animosity and selfishness prevented ZIk from becoming either Prime Minister or Executive President. He trusted Shagari more than Awo, the same way he trusted Balewa more than Awo. And the result was his and Igbo loss.

The most important fact brought out here, at least in my view, was that Zik was negotiating with Balewa and Shagari to form a party with them even before Awo could offer him Executive positions after both elections in 1959 and 1979. But they have to blame Awo to cover their behind.

I feel sorry for Adelabu, TOS Benson, Agbaje, JMJ ie Johnson and other Yoruba who thought Zik was sincere. Sure he was, only to bring Okpara to head the party of Macauley another Yoruba who made Zik his deputy.

Obasanjo?

It is people like you that made OBJ come the second time and still you blind. This man was a head of state and he was broke in Africa. His boys had to come and bail him out. He was thrown into jail and ridiculed. Because of people like you, he learned how to steal the second time around.

harakiri:
My friend, please get your facts right before you rush into typing.The total sum of what ibori stole does not measure up to 1/10 (one tenth) of the $16 billion PHCN nepa fund that Obasanjo mis-managed.Mind you Obasanjo has been ripping Nigeria of billions since the 70's.How many do i need mention.The petroleum trust fund (PTF) fund that has been running since the 70's of which Obasanjo was the chairman. . .nobody knew about this fund until a few years ago.For over two decades, there is no accurate records of how much came or how much was "spent" from this fund.What do you have to say about that? How about Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) which was a project to alleviate food shortage in Nigeria.That farm is his personal property and nobody says jack about that. Do i need to mention Saigem census scam where he dipped his hands directly into the fund and embezzled $8 million? How many person wan yarn about and here you are calling ibori the biggest thief.It seems you were born yesterday that is why your replies are so childish and if you are a grown man, then you are still living in your second child hood.

How about IBB? And so many others. You are here talking as if ibori is the architect of Nigeria's problem.The man is a naughty person quite alright but before you start celebrating, ask yourself where it's just him that's facing the music.Anyone from Councillor to president in this country should be serving prison term coz they are all thieves.Get your facts right my friend (and your head too!)

End of!

http://ngex.com/news/public/article.php?ArticleID=1561

Niger Deltans: Now You Are The Man

Author: Farouk Martins | February 18, 2010

Good news in Nigeria is never celebrated enough because we have become almost indifferent to our sorry situation. South-south of our Country has produced a Nigerian President, executive or not for the first time. No child must grow up in Nigeria wondering if he or she can become a president based on his or her region of origin. It also comes with certain responsibilities and luggage. Ask anyone from all parts of our six geo-political zones that have produced a president.

The Yoruba think Obasanjo’s time was a lost opportunity to take Nigeria to a greater height. The Hausa think all their leaders have never raised many of them from the level of poverty internally not to mention their contribution to the rest of the Country. The Igbo wonder if it was a mistake for Zik to have refused the position of executive president offered by Awo or if the unitary declaration of Ironsi benefited them. The middle Belt presidents are no better.

Therefore, we may celebrate the accession of Ebele from the South-south to the highest office in the land but have to be mindful of his enormous responsibility for a limited time. Most of the former leaders who are asking him what they neglected to do while in power for donkey years should be ashamed. They had their opportunities and blew it big time. Ebele needs more than prayers. Nobody should set him up so high so that he could fall, no matter what he achieved.

Every former Nigeria head of state have solution to the problem in Niger Delta when they have lost power and a better one just before they gain power. But we have watched as their theories withered away and the militants either raise their demand or their demands are never met. It is their turn in presidency and we are waiting for our new President to implement peace. Not only peace for Niger Deltans, but reasonable peace across the land: in about a year!

Before anyone says it is not yet Uhuru in Nigeria, there are many of us waiting for peaceful and heartwarming Country fair to all its citizens, at least for the next one year. Yes, some success can be achieved in a year plus. Italian and Israeli governments spend less than one year and none of them have brought democracy down. Ebele’s most desirable task for maximum effect may not be the easiest attainable. So, prudent short term objectives and goals is the way to go.

It is true that euphoria of Obama presidency has worn off somewhat in the USA, but in less than a year, he cut taxes for the middle class, led the world out of economic disaster, passed equal pay for equal work for women and appointed the first Latina women to the Supreme Court. Oh sorry, that is in the USA. It should not be different in Nigeria for our local needs.

Foremost, some civility needs to return to South-south Nigeria because they were already hurt. On top of that, militants are running out of reasons for crude behavior of kidnapping our local senior citizens, babies, the meek, the gentle and bastardizing their own cause. This was before Ebele was the man. Now that he is the President of Nigeria, what are the militants going to do; he may have voided their underdog status in the eyes of the world. Behave.

A country cannot grow in the mist of chaos, hooliganism and total disrespect for the sanctity of life. People are killed across the land like animals games in the African Safari. It is easy to blame the police alone for not solving all the murders when we know that some of our high and mighty would be implicated if thorough investigations are carried out. Our children watch our behavior: monkey see monkey do.

Motherland cannot sleep while the youths are restless. It is not only the youth of the South-south that are idle, unconnected youths all over Nigeria are. If we can find rehabilitation money for some, we can start small business for others. No free handouts. Productive plan in one state must be extended all over the Country to those that have not taken up arms. Or else inkiness, disobedience, hooliganism and lawlessness become incentive to attract government handouts.

The amount of money stolen out of Nigeria is more than enough to extend the National Youth Service Corps for those willing to serve to preempt idleness for another year or two. The EFCC must follow Independent Corrupt Practices and Other related Offences Commission that has taken a lead in deploying NYSC members. These youths must be included to watch out for their legacies jealously. It is their future and the stake for them is greater. It can be one, not the only way of reducing corruption in Nigeria. The initial step of ridding their shield, Aondoakaa is done.

Those who want NYSC abolished cannot be serious. So far, it is the only endeavor that brought our youths together, poor and rich. They gained knowledge and culture of other parts of the Country and delivered services that might not be available in rural areas. We cannot let those who use ethnic riots to propagate hatred scare or dissuade them from the greater good. Some of these youths can also be deployed as investigators of crimes into our police and military.

If we want transparency in road contracts and other infrastructures supervision, a unit must be established in every establishment for NYSC as investigators. We need more of them not less. The probability is there that some companies may want to use them for cheap labor. Some regulation must be put in place where those who are not employing corps members after their first year of service are denied more members in the future.

Nigeria is spending money made from natural resources that will run out instead of brain services and manufactured goods that can last forever. We all know that but procrastinating while filing individual pockets. Some of those NYSC members may want to start their own business as a group with small business loans. Any country that refuses to invest in its youth will be overtaken by those who do. Fresh ideas of NYSC members may be useful for Ebele for the next one year.

BEST PAID POLITICIANS PITY BRAVE SURVIVALS OF DUMPS AND DESERT

Farouk Martins Aresa

Those of us that have been asked to explain so much poverty in the land of milk, honey and oil the black gold, cannot pretend we are not aware that after all our resources have been used to pay for benefits awarded to politicians, there is little left for the most of us. Nowhere in this world is greed so blatantly displayed by politicians who keep on taking more as their fellow citizens struggle hard, including those wallowing in squalor.

We need not be ashamed of those trying to eke out a living out of the dumps when we know that the alternative for them and their families is to starve. They must be praised for their resourcefulness when backed to the wall. Many Nigerians created ways out of suffering in war, in need, in desperation, in humiliation and in subjugation of modern slavery. They turned garbage into survival, yet the rich and their cronies deny they exist.

It was from the same scrap metal dump that Muhammad Abdullahi was able to build his helicopter. From polluted environmental degradation, some Niger Delta boys separated oil from water to make refined petrol business. These are entrepreneurs that need encouragement not condemnations. They shun militias, armed robbery and prostitution to be able to make a living from what most of us will never touch.

If we had caring governments not denials, those dump sites should have been regulated and organized for safety in line with international standard for sorting of refuse. These people actually created jobs for themselves. Many had come out of good homes, none of whom would have worked in dumps near towns and villages where they can be easily identified. It is another testimony that Nigerians are not lazy and are willing to work, even at their own risk. Where is the reward for making something out of nothing?

Apart from the disgrace and shame that awakened the Country, sorting of refuse and dumps are done all over the world. The sites are fed by the local governments’ garbage trunks. The difference is how these dumps are regulated so that workers there are not exploited by middlemen. So workers on the sites are left to regulate themselves. BBC has labeled them “wildcat” and “free-style” just as plastic free style pickers exist in their own country. Though dump sorters and homeless are kept in factories and shelters.

These are not glamorous jobs anybody prays for but for decades, Nigerians used to come to Lagos to carry human waste, went to London to wash dead bodies and went to USA and Fernando Po to risk their lives in unsafe factories and mines, too dangerous to count. The wise ones had managed to make it a temporary part of their lives, gotten an education before they brought the golden fleece back home to their loved ones.

BBC post: developed nations could have called for sanctions for any cause of abuse but not obscene benefit. When lion share of Nigeria’s incomes are paid to politicians in benefits for unproductive wheels of government regardless of the percentage of money left for others in the same country, we are bound to have dislocation of classes leading to high crimes, prostitution and wasted abilities into undesirable endeavors. No country pays administrators more than 10 to 20% to manage except poor corrupt countries.

It does not take a brainer to make the choice between going for the highest paid jobs in the world as politicians or as hustlers in one of Nigeria’s dumps and getting lost across the desert. The task involved in each is very dangerous and you can end up losing your life. That is why most Nigerians do not risk their lives except in politics. Many times it is a matter of choice and in other cases that of being in the wrong place at the right time.

Watch indifferent Nigerians argue: they still do not believe that most of us are poor on subsistence edge. They blame the victims, while praise singers encourage politicians and bankers for their outrageous salaries, benefits, contract to one another and selves. That is why politicians will do just about anything to retain the money flow into their pockets, including but not limited to selling out our gas for the next 20 years and borrowing from Paris Club members again since our foreign reserve and excess crude account are lower.

Dumps may be better than the desert, being used as drug courier or 419. Many of the robbers have decided on how they are going to die. It is a dangerous game when young men and women would rather die of bullets quickly stealing than die slowly of hunger. Those who decide on drugs and 419, postpone violent ends which their activities can also lead to. It is the shame of poverty, stealing, 419 and drugs that force other Nigerians into the dumps and desert knowing full well that they are risking their lives.

Lagos, Abuja and other state capitals present certain opportunities to make fast money that are not available in towns and villages. For politicians, it is an opportunity to legally make obscene salaries and award contracts to themselves or their cronies. Once other Nigerians leave their towns or villages, going back without making it is usually the last option. When people have no reasonable means of making money they fall into dire situations to make it by do or die.

Crumbs in other countries, are the ravages of the powerful politicians and their cronies in Nigeria sorted out in the dump sites by our children for materials that can be recycled and used. In addition, they trade by barter in an underground economy and build shacks on water, sands and garbage to avoid exorbitant rent. The rest of us that are not cronies are neither rich nor so poor, just living from day to day and pay check to pay checks, that is, if paid at all or in half. Salary delay was started by government.

Unfortunately, it is this fear that make politics very attractive to desperados making it a do or die profession, at least in Nigeria. It is the least of all the above evils and the most rewarding in the world. By some estimate, over 80 percent of the money Nigeria makes go on salaries to all levels of governments. Each successive leader including that of OBJ, while promising change, failed and gained from it. A president that tried to cut the benefits of politicians to conform to realities at home is threatened with impeachment.

There is no doubt that working in the dump for a living and crossing the desert has become an embarrassment to the Government only because it was publicized outside the Country. It has also shocked many Nigerians that are unaware of it into sense of guilt. Many of us knew about it, have seen them, talked to them but never counted them as one of our families. Studies and articles have been published about children working in dumps all over Nigeria without any move by any level of government.

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/farouk-martins/best-paid-pliticians-pity-brave-survivals-of-dumps-a-desert.html

Na Ali suffle now. Sting like a bee. Hit and run.

BE HAPPY THAT WE’VE GOT LIGHT FOR NOW

Farouk Martins Aresa

We were just rejoicing with kainkain and isiewu late party for the unbelievable supply of electricity in recent months when this fool of a man tried to interrupt. He called Power Holding Company a one eye man in the country of the blind. If it was not for the beautiful lady beside him, we were going to soak him. Man cannot even enjoy some little grace of NEPA before these people that hardly see anything good in our Country, including this writer, rudely butt in.

You celebrate NEPA with suya, people tell you the burnt part may cause cancer; you drink to PHC, people tell you too much alcohol cause fatty liver; and if you turn on generator, the same people would tell you carbon monoxide will kill you. No matter what you do to praise or curse NEPA, there are people ready to find fault. What can man do for which we can be blameless?

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15349&Itemid=46

Honestly, it is hard to identify their problem with Nigeria. They are full of jealousy as soon as Nigeria makes a little progress in 50 year of Independence. There was this 25 years old girl who shouted with excitement that she has never enjoyed continuous power past 24 hours until now. Please tell us if this is the time to spoil her joy. If you see light in Ghana, go there. If you see light in Benin Republic, for god’s sake, pack and go. This is Nigeria, love it or leave it!

We are so excited, nobody would believe how much money we have saved on diesel and repair of generators. We could not afford gas tanks to cook for a while, so some of us decided to bless our stoves. We can now afford to buy a tank of gas. Before you know it, our wives were calling one other talking about when they almost go blind from blowing wood or coal stoves and the houses always full of smoke. That is why open kitchen is not practical in Nigeria.

We admire some of our friends that married overseas never thinking of the days when they, their Nigerian or foreign suzies would be blowing wood stoves. These are amenities taken for granted there. We tried to cheer our wives up by reminding them of street parties, cookouts and barbeques in the summers made luscious by wood or coal. Well, that did not exactly work. But Nigeria is getting better and many Nigerians just love the night light at the moment.

Wait a minute, nothing last for a while in our dear Country. It may be time to save for solar energy initial cost. If the light suddenly goes off and we go back to spending all we have on diesel again, those ladies may go on strike. Their type of strike is different from that of labor. As for some of the kids, their foreign passports were left to expire. By the way, cooling fans helped us stay home more often instead of staying late at work or stopping by the clubs, staying late at the neck of the woods and sometimes for charity work outside, if you know what that means.

Anyway, we seek advice from neighboring countries that we sell gas and petrol to, how they handle their constant supply of electricity. Most of our folks that were used to what we are now getting are so old, their grandchildren are glad for this “constant” power supply. Some people may be over doing it though, they iron their clothes whenever they feel like while others have run out of clothes to iron. These days you just have to watch it, for fear of catching “electricitis”, that is oyibo disease of too much supply of light that could blow us up!

Since the polluting generator noises have reduced, some that are envious of those who could afford “I- better- pass-my-neighbors” generator are beginning to smile more and sometimes even extend their greetings. Boy, can you imagine this type of miracle encouraged by NEPA. We sometimes sit around and talk to one another like we have never done for years. The children seem happier and shout less: NEPA! We are moving on up and still praying that this will last.

Nevertheless, we cannot ignore those stories and rumors that have been going round that PHC of Nigeria may explode for generating and distributing so much electricity after been almost dormant for ages. There are also high demands for stabilizer in case of sudden power surge. Other friends of ours that never had fire extinguishers with their wood stoves are buying them because they do not want their houses to explode from this unaccustomed supply of electricity.

We are actually experiencing some side effects. The generator repairmen are asking friends to lend them some money since business has been slow these days. There are gossips around that importers and distributors of generators are taking PHC to task to find out how long the honey moon is going to last so that they can plan accordingly. There is this fear that some crazy people may throw monkey wrench into PHC supply effort.

If big men are not happy, we may not enjoy this light for long. Anyone can tell the difference between those of us that operate our generator around 7 pm to 10 pm, those who go past 10 pm and those that have generators on 24 hours a day. Power Holding company has recently put all of us in the same categories and the rich are not happy. It is almost like when GSM used by market women in Cotonou, became available. It took the rich a while to switch from their 090.

We are already thinking about regular supply of water and maybe the way it used to be as we are surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. We still went to United Nations for water, meaning it might take UN to supply all our needs from the ocean nearer by. Many of us have since moved beyond that, and built our wells and borehole. The supply of electricity like never before makes water from boreholes easier.

Some people are still not happy, they have been warning us about all kinds of substances in well and boreholes. If we have a choice between well water and no water at all, bless our souls with well water to clean, flush toilets and for shower. Drinking water may take a little more effort like filtering and additional chemical mixture.

Look, the point is that light and water has come one way or the other. If there is a way to get it and be comfortable at home, so be it. Unfortunately, the cost of obtaining basic services in Nigeria may be more than in the countries some other people are used to. If that is the case, before you leave those countries, bring your own light and water. Chikena!

Omolulu:
what's your proof he was on all fours with IBB? if you have no proof then know such allegations are stale

Wait for the video to get high, u hia.

[quote author=Sisi_Kill link=topic=422492.msg5856541#msg5856541 date=1270760740]Aww see what being Babangida's butt boy will get you. I'm so happy for him. . . All those yrs of getting on all fours really paid off. ^{wipes Tears}[/quote]You are been generous my dear.

On all four for stinking homosexual IBB pervert sexual urge that escaped Okar coup. Just for money. Too many short memories for the yahoo boys.

same ol, same ol. Wonder shall never end in our Country of recycled ol greedy dictators. Old soldier never die, they change to agbada.

In what other country would a cold blooded murderer like IBB even dare think of coming back?

Let's face it. Nigeria has gone to the dogs.

Just one million, eh? How many people earn that or anything close in Nigeria?

These are the new generation that are going to salvage our Country.

This is a testimony of why Nigerians accept the status quo. This generation of Nigerians have come to accept poverty in Nigeria in an oasis of the few rich. Why then do we blame MEND?

One of these yahoo boys actually assume there is no more cuuse to fight for in Nigeria, he tried to bomb American plane. He has all the money and toys like these money-miss-roads here, so he decided on outside cause. He could not find any, like these spoilt brats here, in Nigeria.

I hope that during their weddings, all the who and who looters are present as usual. And there would come Faroque Mutalla Muhamed to fight his cause at home, not in America. Only then will Nigeria be saved from these hands of cleptomaniacs, since we do not have our own Rawlings.

In the first place keep the F word out of this or go back to where your type belong in the getto. In Nigeria that may be hipp anyway.

Glad to be seen as poor. The rest of you who can not see beyond your noses are pitiful. When a few of you and your relatives corner the milk and honey of a relatively poor country that should be flowing with milk and honey; selfishly seized it and bask in euphoria like your forefathers that sold slaves and gold in return for mirror on the wall so that you can see your derek brain on fire.

How much of all the money you make are spent in Nigeria?

Children who can afford to play with white dolls they claim they look like because their father can afford it. Fathers who can not work for dollars and pounds but spend it faster than the citizens that generate them. Buying the latest sports and luxury cars they can never make or produce. Master consumers and producers of nothing.

Take a good look at yourselves in the mirror and shining toys you buy and see your convoluted brain on fire. If every rogue that front for looters of the North and South can spend money of those suffering in squalor anyway they feel, while skill managers, technical genius and traders can not get a loan because your fathers stole everything and buy houses every where, how can the country progress?

A fool and his money will soon part. It will be spent on foreign suzies, foreign cars, foreign mansions and taxes and if you mess up or disobey your masters your visas will be denied. That is why your sponsors and fathers can not remember your foreign bank accounts.

When Adenuga was driving cabs in New York, ask him how he spent his money. Now he does not have to work for dollars, he get funded, make returns and bask in bloody profit. Ordinary taxes in Nigeria, he refused to pay. When challenged, he ran to Ghana. Fire Fire and blood of the suffering masses will catch up with each of you. Ailala!

Keep coming. Omo atiro to fe gboro, bea.

Sorry, this is a country where most and I say most live on less than 300 naira a day, looking at Beyounce plastic boobs, spraying on praise singers, inviting Bush and Clinton as paid consultants with no tangible results are what make you tick. Good!

You have more gold, diamonds and oil to sell in exchange for looking glass. You can see your image and smile!

Poverty will never end in Nigeria, no be curse. No wonder you can not sleep at night with all the maiguards, step out of your palace without falling into a ditch, die slowly of carbon monoxide in your generators and exhauste pipes and then complain about white man.

deezzle:
for your information, a wise man leverages on what he has, thats what friends are for. please learn to appreciate good things so it may come to u, bro

Nobody cares!

Wait until they are denied in Lagos, then they cry like fowls.

It can't be true.

He has more sense than that. But then if you get your start from IBB and co, what they hell!

Money miss road.

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15169&Itemid=55

LAGOSIANS ARE THEIR OWN WORST ENEMIES

Farouk Martins Aresa

Lagosians never failed to entertain the rest of Nigerians. What Lagosians feel wronged on is what other Nigerians find comical. Nobody takes them seriously on issues of fairness affecting the wellbeing of OmoEko. The general notion is that any Nigerian can claim Lagos, so anyone nominated to represent them is good enough. To buttress that point, if we look hard enough, we can find OmoEko that will support any Nigerian as a Lagosian.

The fact that most Head of State keep nominating non-OmoEko for Lagos position in spite of protest from that State shows how seriously the people were taken. After all, they will just shout and forget it. That many OmoEko are mad is to put it mildly since nobody wants to be taken for granted. But the rest of Nigerians do not see it the same way. Lagos is a good example of one Nigeria, they claim.

Just wait until a non-Yoruba claims to be OmoEko, you will see other Yoruba rise to their defense. These are the same Yoruba who sit idly by while OmoEko is being cheated left and right. We have gone through this many times and it has become a recurring topic that others are tired of. The only people that are not tired of it are those who are denied or disenfranchised. Division of states is to cut the pie at the Federal level evenly so that no State is left out. Unfortunately, if a non-OmoEko is appointed to a position, his state gets two nominations while Lagos gets none.

There are other times other Nigerians come to the defense of OmoEko apart from Yoruba. They point to Lagos appointment of none OmoEko to judiciary, boards and semi-governmental agencies as characters worthy of emulation by other states. When it comes to appointments of OmoEko in their own states, it turns to a matter of rights and vested ownership. Even chieftaincy titles are not freely given out as they do in Lagos.

There used to be a time, when they claimed they could not find a qualified Omo-Eko. They have run out of that excuse. It is more or less in your face and what can anyone do about it these days. Indeed, it is generally known that OmoEko cannot win an election in Lagos without the support of Ara-Eko.

If you look at it from that point, the nomination of Aganga to represent Lagos is seen as fair and square. The role of OmoEko in this is how they shot themselves in the foot when Bode Augosto was nominated. Most Nigerians knew that he was competing for the Finance portfolio with a bigger interest group. That interest group did not even have to raise a finger since their work was already done by another special interest group within Lagos itself. As some people do now, they claimed Augusto could not represent them.

There is no true OmoEko that do not know the Augosto in Lagos but that is beside the point. You cannot find any family in Lagos who do not know his father or grandfather but that is immaterial. That the family was noted for their charitable contributions to both main foreign religions did not even count one bit. What was paramount was the selfish interest of these OmoEko that finally pulled him down before the other camp could lay their hands on him in competition.

So what difference does it make? They are few in numbers anyway. You appoint one of them, they complain, you appoint none of them, they complain. No matter what you do, they complain. You might as well appoint anybody that has lived in Lagos, jo!

Another case in point of how Omo-Eko relegated themselves is that of how Tinubu was made. This is a guy that was defeated in the primary by Funso Williams. But the Omo-Eko competing with him supported Tinubu with the notion that he would never win the primary because he was not one of them. Funso was the formidable competitor, not Tinubu. So they claimed Funso was not part of NADECO. As soon as Pa Dawodu was prevailed on and made him, Tinubu dumped them all.

Today, Tinubu is one of the champions of no indigene claim to a State over visitors. Until we are all fair to every group and every group can go from Sokoto to Port-Harcourt to claim rights over indigenes, we are only fooling ourselves. Nigeria’s problems have too much to do with hypocrisy and less to do with fairness. Again, if we are looking for justice, any court may not be a good place to look. Heaven may be a better place to look!

There were stories in Lagos in those days, that anyone that arrived in Lagos would be fed and clothed before the sun set. Accommodation, generosity and some complacency are ingrained in Yoruba culture. They even treat visitors in their midst better than their own. There is this saying that the way a son is born, so is a slave born. That was Yoruba’s view.

People have made all sorts of history and claim on Lagos. But so far, none of them have disputed that there were Omo-Onile families in Lagos before they came. Fortunately, not one of them has been able to invade the families of Omo-Onile. At the same time, some of the Omo-Onile families have absorbed visitors from different parts of West Africa, into their folds and these visitors, like all Yoruba families bear the name of the compound they were taken into. So how can anyone in good conscience say OmoEko are selfish?

The fact is you cannot differentiate visitors absorbed into OmoEko compounds from other West Africans today and if any of them is appointed into any position, their only grumble may be deeply internal. We all share that in Nigeria anyway. Some of the notables are that Abacha was not a Nigerian; Obasanjo is not part of Owu family or that Asika was not real Igbo etc.

Omo-Eko are not looking for sympathy from the rest of Nigerians, but it must be understood that every injustice perpetrated on one group foster and nourish injustice on the others. What is going on in Nigeria today is because we tolerate it when our balls are not on the line. It is surprising that some women, that have the balls, cry about injustice louder than men. As soon as it happens to our group we cry foul and become militias.

Yeah, it is the same Lagos Babangida ran out of and the place Abacha feared to visit in spite of multiple invitations from Marwa. It may be time to rediscover: Lagos does not take rubbish. Eko o gba gbere rara o!

EzeUche:
My Igbo brothas! Come back to our homeland instead of laying claim to another man's land. I normally do not support these nkita ara, but they are right about this issue.

EzeUche,

You sound like you have a place waiting for them. Where?

Those who denied Bode Augusto his chance cannot come back and position themselves for the position of Aganga. I almost confuse Aganga with the Aganga-Williams. Let him represent where the Aganga come from.

For all I care, Augusto should have been back to represent Lagos. He is a true son of the soil.

We are so short sighted and only care for immediate gratification. If you lease your house out for a generation, do you realize that your children will never live there. The same is true about African countries leasing out land to Chinese developers only to cry later on that Africans are not allowed near there.

By the time you lease out arable land, your children will cry that they can not eat or even afford food grown there. In the same Kwara, most of the products are for export. All these because we are ready to sell our birth right for quick cash that will be kept overseas.

Lease out the desert up North that everyone is running from. Between foreigners and Nigerians moving South, some of us may have to live and farm in space!

9jaganja:
What annoys me is that Muslims instead of facing their own problems and solving them, they have resulted to accusing Christians. It's even worst. At least Those priests eventually gets caught and sent to jail, But under Islamic law, it is legal to marry and sleep with a 9 years old. One of you Fulanis/Hausa just married a 13 years old girl. Won't you worry about that? 18 platoon, Jara and their writer Farouk Martins are alll buck of camel Molesters. Does the fact that Christianity is bad change the fact that Islam is?

FYI Jara is neither Muslim nor Christian so your prejudice is misplaced. Call a spade a spade, this is not west v. east, Christian v. Muslims or me against you. It is about abuse of children period either by Muslim or Christian. Kind of Zulu is Christian and children parade every year to his relief. That is not the point here. Sharia condone all type of nonsense, that is not the point here.

Abuse of Children in any form under the guise of prayer is the point here.

Beaf:
This is an exercise on "how to sell your mother"!
Enbong Jimie Idiong and his Global Corp must be stopped!

About the same way our great grands exchanged gold for mirrows.

Travelista:
People always talk about men molesting boys but almost always ignore priests molesting girls; that's far more prevalent that lecherous gay priests. I know of two priests (one in Iwo and the other in Bodija, Ibadan) that had/have ties to Regina Mundi in Iwo and those two men were disgusting. There were so many complaints about these priests but no one would believe the young girls. I know this only because I went to that school for a semester and insisted on being moved back to Lagos because of the strange going ons. I visited on of the priests on a visit to Ibadan and was shocked at what I saw while he was in the privacy of his home. I still fume about it and would love to expose these wolves in sheep's clothing; I am still a practicing Catholic but we have to be careful about putting other man on pedestals and acting as if they are above temptation.

For you to come out and say it takes courage. For a long time, anyone that dares say anything against Catholic priest are cast as devils. Even when we know some girls, as you mention, in their schools tried abortions and some died. Guess who buried them in prayers? The same priest. As the writer of this article mentioned, all those jokes about Catholic priest, where did they come from? No smoke without fire.

So if you do not want to be called a sinner and a devil, just cover it up. Those days are gone.