₦airaland Forum

Gbawe:
a smart potential government that plans to be effective cannot afford to make enemies of those who are some of our best performers and technocrats.

Sensible, sensible!

Limaoscar:
Our mandate bro is to pray for our Leaders/ex-leaders so there can be peace and quietness in our land and not tov take sides with with rumour mongers and those with ulterior motives.

That is NOT My mandate sir! and I hope it will NOT be the mandate of most Nigerians.

Our Mandate should be the enthronement of an egalitarian society where leaders are answerable to the people, a society and culture that supports that accountability and demands it at every stage. A society that values justice and equity.

My own mandate is to make the seat of leadership uncomfortable for usurpers and megalomaniac fo.ols like OBJ and the late Abacha -Clueless leaders who live(d) in wealth while their people suffer.

Pieces of dung who preside(d) over the retrogression of their peoples standard of living.

Mumu murderers who bombed and violated their own women and children -remember Odi? http://www.hrw.org/legacy/press/1999/dec/nibg1299.htm  while conspiring with foreigners to loot the public treasury -remember Halliburton? http://allafrica.com/stories/201010140319.html  

Have you lost family to avoidable bad roads before?

Have you ever lost loved ones to an avoidable death in a rag tag unfunded public hospital?

Have you been harassed by a policeman and abused because you can't afford a bribe?

Did you or your kids attend schools where teachers will rather sell wares than teach because these leaders withheld their wages?

Did you hawk barefooted in front of the same building where your parents work because their wages ain't paid by the same powerful, untouchable "big man" that owns the skyscraper?

How do you pray for people like that? God punish "let's pray for leaders/exleaders"

which kain leaders?  

Arsenal better make this stick.

mukina2:
thanks Ajali
lol nope am not creole and yeah they have Yoruba ties, because i noticed that some words we use are also being used by Yoruba, .ours is called Oku tribe.

You are one of the dispersed children of Oduduwa!! maybe from the Okun Akoko-Kwara-Kogi axis, we claim you forthwith whether you agree or not

Nice thread BTW.

^^OK, you are one of those who believe that Bini or "Ile-Ibinu" is the Original home of Oduduwa and Yoruba's are descendants of the "Benin Prince" Oduduwa, I will not argue against your assertion or account.

I will use your own assertion and reading of history to affirm the supremacy of Ile-Ife and the Yoruba Children of Oduduwa over Benin or Igodomigodo as you called it.

You -and those who seek to reverse centuries of Royal and spiritual Yoruba history- accept that Oduduwa and his son Oranmiyan were Bini Royalty who hold both spiritual and royal authority over the Bini people; right?

Then Bini people should pay obeisance or homage  to Ile-Ife, the "new home" Oduduwa moved to during his lifetime. I believe failure to accord Ile-Ife and Yorubas that singular honour is dubious, hypocritical and disingenuous. 

If the Binis accept Oduduwa as their heir king and ancestor and they accept Oranmiyan as his rightful heir apparent and owner of the Bini throne, why do we have a Bini Oba(yoruba word) getting crowned without the express permission of the Ooni of Ile-Ife and the Yoruba People?

Although I do not buy that "anchor baby" Story about Oranmiyan hurriedly impregnating Enogie of Ehor's daughter to give the Binis Oba Eweka but even if we accept that;

How does it translate to the supremacy of Eweka over Oduduwa and Oranmiyan; Eweka's Grandfather and Father respectively?

I mean, since both Oduduwa and Oranmiyan were still alive when Oba Eweka was born, and Oduduwa according to your account actually sent Oranmiyan back to Bini, then it should hold that the seat of Oduduwa at Ile-Ife should have a superior position over that of his grandson at Ile-Ibinu. It's just common and cultural sense for it to be so.

If Oduduwa moved to Ife and sent his son Oranmiyan back who then renamed their former abode "Ile-Ibinu" before moving back to Ile-Ife then that suggests that they've found a new seat for their spiritual and Royal authority.

It's like how King Djoser [ 3rd dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh} moved the seat of the old Kingdom and the royal capital of Egypt to Memphis, where he established his court and employed the services of the great Imhotep to start those great structure and pyramids. Who dared question his spiritual authority and the supremacy of his new city? It seems no one even remembers the name of the old kingdom city anymore. I can't find it. I digress.

So, since Oduduwa subsequently continued his royal lineage at Ile-Ife, All Binis should have either moved to Ife with their king [not uncommon in those days] or at least pay homage to his new seat. He is king "god" afterall and the custodian of Bini culture. Right?

I think Binis should have a re-think and recognize the supremacy of the Ile-Ife throne the same way Oduduwa did? Princes ought to pay homage to the seat and throne of their fathers. abi no be so?

Ife should be the spiritual home of the Bini Obas and their subjects.

All Yoruba's and direct descendants of Oduduwa the "Bini King" deserve that respect from our Bini subjects. It's just right. Right?

^Let Allah fight his own war, let your god pronounce his own judgement and carry it out. Condemning an anonymous poster to aljaana or hell will not make Allah or Jesus greater than they already are. What about mercy? what about tolerance? I thought Mohammed and Jesus both preached those. The earlier our world is rid of all these religious nut cases the better for us all.

Going by reports, this is real bad.

I saw those protests on TV too. This generation of Nigerian students can do it, but they need mentors, they need a catalyst. It's not easy to be idealistic or inspired when your lecturers are busy collecting "course blocking" fees or tending to their photocopy machine shops instead of researching and imparting knowledge and ideas.

I see hope though because a society without idealistic change-conscious students can as well pack it up, march to the sea and drown.

^^good post. Thanks for posting!

Variants of this issue had been discussed on NL before but, we should not get tired of asking; as you wittingly put it "A luta Discontinua?"

Yes! I idolized some of those Student leaders too. I remember when I first read Bola Ige's Kaduna Boy and Soyinka's Ake I was a teen and I wanted to be in the University so badly and become like them too.

Nigerian universities deflated that excitement. I got to the University and I could neither find those "heroes" nor find the inspiration to be like them. I only saw cultists and many who were passionate about getting the hell out of Nigeria!


Anyway, My hurried opinion is that there are many factors but, the most glaring to me was the intellectual flight or brain-drain that occurred in the 70s after our parent's generation gave up on Nigeria, the Military and their many unfulfilled promises.

For example; University of Ife lost Papa Soyinka, Ibadan lost Osofisan, Kole Omotoso and a host of other post-Soyinka radicals to foreign universities. I will not attempt a list of the radical intellectual change-agents we've lost. I simply can't list or remember them all. but I believe all regions of Nigeria lost the services and mentorship of our radical and finest minds during that Military era.

Of course some grew old and died and some just threw in the towel and caught religion. (e.g Enoch Adeboye was a lecturer right?)

I know this same phenomenon occurred in other countries; The US media often complains about the apathy of their current generation of students. I believe My Naija generation got a very raw deal though. I mean, we were a young nation in the 70s and early 80s and we badly needed our best minds to mentor the youth and build the nation. Unfortunately, time and circumstances truncated that process.

With all due respect to the good lecturers who still labour to teach in Nigerian Universities, I think we lost our best and brightest and the student population were left with very little inspiration.

So, I can't blame student leaders for the "Discontinuation of A luta" the blame lies with the society they were born into.

Imagine a Lecture room taught daily by radicals like Chinweizu and Contrarians like Wole Soyinka or bright minds like Papa Achebe? I doubt those students will find anything funny about OBJ's "I dey laugh"  retort or his dumb "siddon kampe" comments. 

I doubt students that are constantly exposed to those kind of minds will accept Alao Akala as their governor or celebrate the perfidy and incompetence of politicians like Oyinlola. I doubt they will go to a charade organized by treasury looters and boldly re-enter their campus gates.

We are a cheated and wounded generation. I just hope the new returnees and the few idealistic home based holdouts will join forces and rescue our society from the hands of these imposed charlatans.

More importantly, I hope we will continue to use every opportunity we have to share knowledge, collaborate and challenge those who resist change, even if we have to scream at ourselves on NL sometimes 

I found this NL discussion from earlier with some good articles --> https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-3800.0.html

I enjoyed your post bro, good looking out! hopefully others will join the discussion.

the viper:
if there is justice in nigeria,we should do a general clean up of leaders who have used,abused and killed us.
but i know that that day will come.

Based on the recurring nature of human history, you can surely take that assurance to the bank!

violent:
wht d fck?

Yes ke! {My sermonizing opportunity}

Now, those are the kind of kids and Youth a society breeds when it elevates under performers like Alao Akala, celebrate Oyinlola, glorify Abacha, send age cheats to world competitions and find excuses for Yahoo Yahoo boys.

Our society went to the dogs a long time ago. . .

Next time you go, take a glance at the "big big" chairs we place in front for Public treasury looters to sit on when they visit our places of worship. . . or simply visit an average Nigerian School and experience the level of class discussions when we manage to have one. . .

I'm still hopeful but, we sure have some massive work to do.

SMH. .

AjanleKoko:
Technically, he did 'bring' Facebook to Nigerians.
First President to use social networking to interact with Nigerians. Facebook in particular.
Sometimes a statement can mean different things, when you look at it in different contexts.

Y'all are getting as bad as the English press these days

You are being extremely nice with that spin and I'm confident you know it;

which begs the question: why do we have a mumu that can't communicate effectively as an information minister when we have Nigerians like you?

justise:
look at my signature

fstranger aka strangerf aka stranger aka kobojunkii aka kobojokobo aka fstranger2 aka fstranger1 aka killmukina aka rapemukina aka praise101

Only you?!! 

Wetin be rapemukina?    Odikwa serious o!

I can't believe I've been responding to your posts sha. I'm actually laughing at myself here. 

Report him to Mod, hopefully he/she is not a Mod. lol

justise:
I was being sarcastic

Did you not see: are you in any way ding donging Mukina, the superMOD?

I have been banned hundred times already by Mukina for abusing Ibos, and here we have a lunatic running amok with his "Kill all Yorubas slogan."

I am just trying to pokefun at the hypocrisy of the so called MODS, especially Mukina

Since I wasn't aware of your posting history, your sarcasm went over my head, I get it now. Thanks for clarifying.

what's your other ID?

[quote author=~Bluetooth link=topic=572421.msg7384050#msg7384050 date=1292963748]I can't wait for him to spend another 20 years in kirikiri for the pending cases. [/quote]Methinks he should just opt for public execution maybe at the national stadium or somewhere on 3rd Mainland with his back to those rails. *that is if he's lawfully convicted** we don't want to be unlawful like his boss Sani "the dark goggled one" Abacha  AKA The terror of Aso Rock.

oge4real:
I lost my appetite since I heard this news, I am reviewing my opinion about GEJ.

^ I don't believe the Lagos govt. released him yet. I think they just acquitted him of some of the crimes, according to reports, he still has other ones to answer for including the Kudirat Abiola Murder.

I don't think it's about GEJ at all, he's held by the Lagos state Government for crimes committed in Lagos.

pro01:
Brilliant. Some of the posts I read on NL assure me that my country has some of the world's finest young minds as citizens.

***But unfortunately, some of mankind's biggest oafs also carry Nigerian Passports, and that is also evident by some of the atrocious posts I read on NL***

Your analysis and POV is spot on. It is despicable and extremely provocative for anyone to even suggest that a hardened anti-democratic bigot and serial killer like Mustapha should benefit from any kind of democratic dividend - including freedom and other fundamental human rights. Someone on the first page of this thread was talking nonsense to the effect that 'revenge is not justice' and whatnot. How obtuse is that! An eye for an eye we both go blind, yes, and why not? Isn't it perfect justice for you to, at the very least, also lose your sight for INTENTIONALLY making me lose mine? So a monster like Mustapha commits all manners of atrocities and he should not be made to suffer the consequences? Not even ten trillion litres of liquefied remorse/repentance  should be sufficient to qualify certain categories of offenders for even a drop of forgiveness and compassion.

From the look of things, it is clear that the Federal Governmen's prosecutors do not have sufficient material evidence to nail the case, otherwise he would have long been convicted and executed. It is tragic that folks like him, Ishaya Bamaiyi, Frank Omenka and the rest would go on to enjoy their loot all around the world after visiting untold humiliation, sorrow, tears and blood on other Nigerians. Too bad. This, once more, confirms the banality of evil.

We should keep pushing these voices of retrogression back whenever we have the opportunity to.  

I'm glad you mentioned Omenka, I read he is hiding somewhere in Brazil, -probably reading this NL post and happy that people like justise are Nigerians.

If Omenka was so brave and so strong why didn't he stay around after Abacha's death?

My hope is that when we get the country of our dreams( I believe we will) we should strive to make it unliveable for those who believe they can murder our people with impunity and get away with it.

For NL's who became Nigeria-concious after 1999 or after Seun started NL you can google Frank Omenka or read the links below and yes also read those who have a contrary opinion and come to your own conclusions

http://allafrica.com/stories/199911300150.html

http://www.dawodu.com/oduyela12.htm


If we don't set the right precedence, those who seek to murder and kill our people will continue to do so with impunity and get away with it.

phreakabit:
Too bad you see it that way. IMO, let the living live, while the dead RIP. I think he is a honorable man, for carrying out his orders! You would have done the same, had it been you.

No vex sir! I did not create the law. Mustapha signed up for the Military, not me, he should have weighed the consequences better, I'm confident he did.

He signed up to die defending Nigerians so I'm sure it will be a pleasure for him to face the firing squad if convicted by Nigerian Law

BTW, most of the honourable military men I know died defending their people not Killing them.

Let's make Al-Mustapha Honourable!

Sagamite:
You will be converted one day in the name of SANGO!

Hahaha, No way! I still believe the 401 Irunmoles are with me on this one!

[quote author=~Bluetooth link=topic=572421.msg7383665#msg7383665 date=1292959222]The same military that gave absolute power to Abacha so he can kill anybody as he likes ? Rubbish.
My point is clear.The guy should face justice for his crimes whether he was carrying out an order is never the point here.
A former Nazi soldier was imprisoned sometimes this year for his role in the extermination of jews;a mission of his boss HITLER ![/quote]Actually, I was trying to quote the poster you replied to. Sorry about the error, I modified the post.

phreakabit:
Its not like it was murder! Was it? He was only carrying out orders.

No sir, I'm sorry, it's murder, if it's unlawful and pre-meditated.

[b]Murder:[/b]the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought.

If he killed them, without any law to back up his actions, he should be tried and killed too.

As a gallant obedient Nigerian soldier, Al-Mustapha should gladly accept that fact and die with his head held high. LOL

Sagamite:
He is reetarded, he is a fooool, a moooron and a cretin!

- He is justifying the use of the army to kill people of the state when the army is meant for use for defence of the people from external threat.

- He is comparing the killings that occur in armed warfare between armed adversaries of different states to the murder of unarmed and defenceless civilians by the army of his/her own state.

- He is justifying killing of civilians without trial.

- He is advocating and justifying the killing of civilians by any individual that seizes power without mandate and ruling against the populace choice.

An utter CRETIN he is!!! His mentality is fcked up!

LOL

Damn! The way things are going I might have to swallow my pride and agree with you that we need to segregate our people by class and "cull" some undesirables.

But, no jare! I'll still hold out hope

Lk Adeola:
Hmmm! Just short of words. If we should look @ it critically from the order hand. The order was from his boss and he MUST not decline. Don't forget that's what Military is all about.

NO! Wrong!

Read Military law before you jump to such conclusions, a soldier is obligated to obey
Lawful/constitutional direct orders. The military is not a secret cult, it is a professional organisation with rules and codes.

AL-Mustapha, if he killed those Nigerina citizens without a trial and without a justification based on Military law (I bet he can't find any) will have to be killed too. I'm so sorry but, that was the job he signed for.

justise:
Cleared by a competent court of law

What else do you want guys

Drop it already!

For the Ibru case. Now they have to Kill him for the Kudirat case if he is found guilty. It is only fair. Right?

justise:
I watched Opt panel like mad

I read every Tell magazine, and Guardian, of that era. I know what I am talking about.

Yes, Ebola engaged in ANTI-STATE activities, so did Drat, So did the lucky Alex Boru.

It is not my job to decide what is anti state vs what is not, That is the job of the COS and the security whatever in charge of keeping the country safe, Di ya and AIDS were planning a coup for real, against the president of the country. I can go on and on.

The SW mostly was anti the government, and we were proud of that. The government felt threatened and they did what any military government of that era would do. BTW, for records, Ebola was not killed by Al Mustap ha; Drat? Maybe.

Again, I repeat, it has been great injustice for him to have been held in Kirikiri for 11 years for absolutely no good reason. He ought to sue the government for damages. Because he is a nice guy, i doubt he would sue Nigeria.

Wrong, Wrong!

I read those papers too and watched the panel broadcasts! I arrived at a totally different conclusion, but I will humor you.

Let us agree that they carried out "anti-state activities";

Yes, Abiola engaged in ANTI-STATE activities, so did Kudirat, So did the lucky Alex Boru.

It is not my job to decide what is anti state vs what is not, That is the job of the COS and the security whatever in charge of keeping the country safe, Di ya and AIDS were planning a coup for real, against the president of the country. I can go on and on.

Did Abacha try Kudirat, Alfred Rewane and co ?

where they tried and convicted of crimes like they did Diya and co?

So what is the justification for their killings? based on what law? which trial? which convictions? those were Nigerian citizens killed by Al-Mustapha (based on your admission) without the luxury of the court trials he's enjoying right now.

We will have to agree that Al-Mustapha goofed by carrying out an unlawful order and he should be killed!

We need to train our Military guys better or Maybe Al-Mustapha slept through his "direct orders and the law" lectures.  

Al-Mustapha should be killed!

justise:
Armed resistance my foot.
Yeah, the US army went to Iraq to fight the Russians?

Like the Iraqi army, to start with, were on the same level as the US Army?

Lets call a spade a spade. AL Mustapha killed defenseless people, so did the young marines. The Iraqi army on so many levels were no more than the innocent souls Al Mustapah ordered killed. For god sake, The US Army spends 400 billion dollars/year on their Military compared to the peanut the Iraqis spent, not to talk of the many civillians, children and women, that were killed, all in the name of liberating Iraqis.

Again, he had a job and did it to the best of his ability. The people he ordered killed posed tremendous danger to the security and peaceful existence of the country; hence their death, unfortunately.

Let the Iraqis worry about their dead. we are discussing Nigerians murdered by a Nigerian soldier.

Again, he had a job and did it to the best of his ability. The people he ordered killed posed tremendous danger to the security and peaceful existence of the country; hence their death, unfortunately.

NO! he failed at his job!

Based on our hypothetical, he obeyed an unlawful order.

If Al-Mustapha killed those people based on Abacha's direct order, call it occupational hazard or whatever, he should be sentenced to death.

No sensible military anywhere including Nigeria will write a law that forces Military officers to obey unconstitutional orders.

He had a right to refuse Abacha's orders and suffer the possible consequences as a "gallant Nigerian soldier" -including death.

He made the wrong decision, but there is still hope. We should help him out by making a gallant warrior out of him, he should face the firing squad!

So since we are arguing based on the assumption that he actually killed Nigerian citizens based on Abacha's orders

justise:
What exactly did he do wrong?

The last time I checked, "Obeying your superior" isnt a crime.

What is the difference between Al Mustapha and the young US marines sent to Iraq to liberate Iraqis?

The difference?

Iraqis soldiers are foreigners not American citizens.

Kudirat Abiola and Alfred Rewane were Nigerian citizens. Come back with another comparison/analogy.

A soldiers ultimate duty is defending Nigeria against external aggression.

Covert or overt killing of Nigerian citizens without trial, without due process. (even the military has due process) wether based on the orders of a Military commander or not should be punishable by Death!

*we are arguing based on the assumption that he actually killed those people*

Ymodulus:
underage

So you mean you are too young to remember the Abacha years(even the 1999 arrests) but, you are old enough to conclude that "Yorubas are illiterates" in your NL siggy?

Gotta love Nairaland. . . SMH

Ymodulus:
Pls who is Al Mustafa?

This might help;

Dr Sabella Ogbobode Abidde

Major Hamza Al-Mustapha – a former aide to Sani Abacha – continues to be held without trial in Nigeria, No matter how dubious a person's reputation may be, Nigeria needs to move away from the anti-democratic legal practices that characterised its former military regime, Abidde concludes.
Worldwide, there have been more than a thousand 'trials of the decade' or 'trials of the century'. Among these are the trial of Socrates in 399 B.C., the trial of Galileo Galilei in 1633, the Salem witchcraft trial of 1692, the infamous Alger Hiss trials of 1949–50, the apartheid-era trial of Nelson Mandela of 1963–64 and the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial. And then there were the Nuremberg trials, which took place in Bavaria, Germany, from 1945 until 1949, and of course the recent Slobodan Milosevic trial at The Hague, which ended after almost five years without a formal verdict because Milosevic suffered a fatal heart attack.

Even in Nigeria, there have been some very famous court trials – real and shambolic. For instance, in November 1962, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and 28 other members of his party, the Action Group (AG), were put on trial for treasonable felony. In the intervening years, great men like Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Gani Fawehinmi were also dragged through the court system on trumped-up charges. University students, journalists and members of the intellectual class were also dragged through the system. Sometimes, the verdicts are clear; at other times, the cases simply 'disappear'.

Every so often, however, we have instances were the cases go on and on and on, almost without end. One such case is that of Al-Mustapha (and his alleged co-conspirators). Indeed, peculiar circumstances may elongate trial durations. Under such a condition, the accused and the general public are made aware of the reasons why, unless of course there are issues of national security at play. In the case of Al-Mustapha, the government, it seems, have simply decided to abridge his constitutional rights. If not, how else can they explain a decade-long trial, a trial without an end in sight!

Retired Major Hamza Al-Mustapha was the chief security officer (CSO) to the late General Sani Abacha. Amongst other charges, he was accused of 'planning or helping to plan the murder of Mr. Alex Ibru, publisher of The Guardian newspaper'. Al-Mustapha may not be a nice man, and indeed, he may be one of the most despicable human beings that ever traversed Nigeria. But that’s not the point; he is not being held simply because he was not a nice fellow. He and his alleged co-conspirators are being held because of a series of criminal complaints made against them.

Why are they still being held a decade after the allegations were first made? Why is Al-Mustapha still being detained without a speedy and fair trial? A recent report by the Punch newspaper (Friday 26 March 2010), stated that the 'Absence of electricity supply at an Ikeja High Court on Thursday stalled the ongoing trial of Maj. Hamza al-Mustapha … Our correspondent, however, observed that there was power supply to all other courts except that of Justice Olokooba…' Other media houses also reported this strange event.

Is Al-Mustapha a security risk? We don’t know. Did he endanger the wellbeing of the nation? We don’t know. Is he a murderer? We don’t know. Did he conspire with others to kill the innocent? We don’t know. We don’t know the answers to these and other legal questions because the courts, either at the state or federal level, have not made a legal proclamation. A decade later, we still don’t know. Must it take another decade before he knows his fate and for us to know the answers? This is a travesty, a violation of his rights.

Sadly and unfortunately, the Nigerian Bar Association and civil society in Nigeria have not deemed it fit to protest this illegality. To detain a man – whether we like him or not – for this long is unconscionable. His continued detention is against the law and common sense. Whatever Al-Mustapha did while an aide to General Abacha should not factor into how the courts treat him. If he committed prosecutable offences, well then, let justice take its course – fairly and speedily. Prosecute him now or set him free; prosecute him now or let him return to his family.

We cannot now embrace the same things we abhorred during the military regime when fellow Nigerians were detained without fair and speedy trials. We cannot condemn Al-Mustapha and then turn around and do to him what we are alleging he did to other Nigerians. Revenge is not justice; bosom-for-tat is not justice. Throw the Criminal Code of Conduct at him, throw the constitution at him, but do it in a fair and just manner.

What manner of law allows the government to incarcerate a man indefinitely, and what kind of people turns a blind eye to the illegal dealings of its government? The continuing detention of Hamza Al-Mustapha and others should be denounced by all peace- and democracy-loving Nigerians. If the government can arbitrarily detain fellow Nigerians then none of us must feel safe and secure. At a time when we should be reaping the benefits of democratic rule, our government is, essentially, kidnapping fellow Nigerians. If after 10 years they cannot secure a conviction, how many more years do they need?

As responsible and civic-minded Nigerians, it is therefore up to us to faithfully protest and vigorously condemn his continuing detention. It is our duty to help protect Hamza Al-Mustapha’s civil liberties. By doing so, we help to strengthen our position and our freedom before this and future governments. We safeguard our own constitutional rights if we help guarantee the constitutional rights of fellow Nigerians. We cannot and must not leave this or future governments to their own devices. No. We’ll be courting disaster if we do so. Therefore, we must demand that the government conclude this case within 90 days, or set the accused free. Let’s demand justice, not just for ourselves and for our friends, but also for our enemies and our critics.


* Dr Sabella Ogbobode Abidde is with the Department of Humanities at Alabama State University. Outside of the academy, he is a noted public intellectual who has written extensively on African and global affairs.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/63692

http://www.usafricaonline.com/nigeria_almustapha.html


Or you can just google his story.

There've been a sort of growing civil movement clamoring for his release on the grounds of justice and equity -mainly because he's been in detention since 1999 without a judicial sentence.

A lot of us remember him as a dangerous Abacha Henchman and a possible murderer, but we do not have the proof.

All we know is that he was one of those close military associates of General Sani Abacha -The Dark goggled dictator who made Nigeria a living hell in the 90's.

Jarus:
Political Implication of this picture:
1, Gains sympathy from deeply religious Southerners, and will be a bumper electoral advantage for him. This will add to his humility and divinity credential.
2, Gains further hatred and electoral disadvantage from the Muslim masses of the North, especially the illiterate ones[size=15pt] (and they are in millions). [/size] All an opponent needs is discreetly circulate the pic across these highly religious-sensitive masses, and in Hausa language, attach a short message. It will take years to erase the message from their mind
3, The 'liberals' will criticize this. They will talk and shout. They will call it presidential subservience etc. It may reduce his estimation in their reckoning but will not affect their political choices.

Illiterate Southern Christians are in[b] Millions[/b] too.  Just saying

dayokanu:
Iwaju ni pepeye ma n ko omo si, Gbogbo igba ti awa o ba ti se ibaje araiye, Iwaju la o ma wa lojokojo, Ehin ehin l'omo edire nto iya re.

Won o ma bo leyin wa

Ase! Mo fi owo kan ile, mo tun fi kan aya. Awure!