Dayokanu carry on. Me I don tire to dey explain.

It's either people's memories are short - like 7mins long pere, or they are deliberating burying their head inside Olumo Rock.

“Where are the northern governors? We hear of multi-billion naira that is spent to erect fences around the government houses; then what happens to the citizens? We must take stock and also take responsibility.”

Danjuma sef dey give self- righteous advice.

How about you return back all the proceeds from the oil block Abacha illegally dashed you without any due process whatsoever??

How about you stand with those calling for Subsidy Probe Prosecutions and sponsor civil society groups to fight this rot. As in put your stolen wealth where your mouth is, sir.

[size=20pt]“Dieziani Allison-Madueke Called Me Over 20 Times In Quest To Become Minister For Petroleum,” Claims Henry Okah In Affidavit[/size]

May 2, 2012 - 05:36





In an affidavit to be filed in a South African court, detained Mr. Henry Okah claims that in just the first few days of April 2010, after Mr. Goodluck Jonathan became Acting President of Nigeria, one Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke called him over 20 times for help to become Petroleum Minister. 

 

In her calls, Ms. Madueke explained that she “was competing for the post of the Minister of Petroleum with the now Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr, Odein Ajumogobia,” and asked for assistance “to tip the scale in her favor.”

 

In the 42-page affidavit, Mr. Okah claims Mrs. Madueke specifically asked him to speak to President Jonathan and “put a good word for her,” furnishing him with up to date information on the president’s availability via calls and text messages.  Mr. Okah then spoke to President Jonathan in the early hours of April 5, 2010, he says in the affidavit, following which Mrs. Madueke later called to thank him for his contribution in influencing her appointment as Minister for Petroleum.

 

Okah says in the affidavit that he reluctantly accepted to speak to Ms. Madueke at the prompting of now presidential adviser, Mr. Oronto Douglas, who, he said, called him on April 4, 2010, saying that Ms. Diezani Allison-Madueke was desperate to speak to him.  Mr. Douglas underlined Mrs. Madueke’s need of Okah’s assistance in persuading President Jonathan to appoint her Minister for Petroleum.

 

In March of 2010, Mr. Jonathan had sent Douglas to meet Okah in South Africa, according to the affidavit.  During their meeting, which took place between March 31 and April 1, Mr. Douglas informed Okah that the Northern region of Nigeria was doing everything to prevent Jonathan from being the president.

 

Mr. Okah has been in a South African Prison since October 2, 2010. He is charged under the Terrorist Act’s Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Act, Act 33 of 2004. He has been denied bail by various courts in South Africa.

 

Okah was linked with the 2010 Independence Day bombing of the Eagle Square in Abuja.  Okah is facing charges that Chima Orlu, who allegedly supervised the operation, acted under his instructions.  Prosecutors allege that he was in communication via phone and SMS with Mr. Orlu and another co-perpetrator, Ben Jessy Ebere.

 

In Mr. Okah’s new affidavit, he affirms that on the day of the bombing, he received a call from Mr. Moses Jituboh, the Head of Personal Security to President Jonathan, who asked him to continue to cooperate with the President. 

As Mr. Okah asserted in 2010, following the bombing, Mr. Jituboh also asked him to shift the blame of the bombing to radical elements in the North.

 

Following the emergence of new facts, Mr. Okah is reapplying for bail. In his response to new information in his police docket that contains evidential material that will be used in his trial.  Okah is facing trial at South Gauteng High Court that is estimated to last over 18 months.

 

He is pleading with the court to grant him bail because the case against him is weak and the state cannot provide evidential material to support their case.

 
The case will begin on October 1, 2012 by which time he would have spent 2 years in jail.

The State has lined up over 50 witnesses from Nigeria to appear in court in South Africa. Okah also plans to call over 100 witnesses in his defense.




http://mobile.saharareporters.com/news-page/“dieziani-allison-madueke-called-me-over-20-times-quest-become-minister-petroleum”-claims-

Mr. Okah says the President and his aides organized the attacks in a desperate political strategy to demonize political opponents, and win popular sympathy ahead of the 2011 elections

 

Henry Okah, the detained leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), blamed for the 2010 Independence Day bomb that killed at least 10 people with many more injured, is to tell a South African court the attacks were sponsored by President Goodluck Jonathan.

That, he said, came after the president and those working for him, had engineered similar attacks earlier in March 2010.

“It is my belief that President Goodluck Jonathan's government working with a faction of MEND planned and executed the bombings of 14 March 2010 and 1 October 2010,” Mr. Okah said in an affidavit deposed at a South African court.

The president's spokesperson, Reuben Abati, could not be reached to comment for this story. Calls to his mobile telephone was neither answered nor returned.

The sworn affidavit is expected to be filed at the court between Tuesday and Wednesday as Mr. Okah renews his bid to secure a bail after spending more than one year in a South African jail.

His trial is set to start October 1, 2012, exactly two years since a devastating blast that occurred less than a kilometer from the Eagles Square in Abuja where President Jonathan was attending Nigeria’s 50th anniversary.

The militant group, MEND, which authorities said Mr. Okah headed, claimed responsibility for the attack. Mr. Okah has denied membership of the group and plotting the attacks.

Instead, in a shocking deposition that further deepens the complexity of an already convoluted case, Mr. Okah, who lives in South Africa, said Mr. Jonathan and his aides organized the attacks in a desperate political strategy to demonize political opponents, and win popular sympathy ahead of the 2011 elections.

“The purpose of the 14 March 2010 bombing in my opinion was to create an atmosphere of insecurity in the Niger Delta where President Goodluck Jonathan at that time, was fighting to oust the governor Mr. Emmanuel Uduaghan whom President Goodluck Jonathan intended to replace with his Minister for Niger Delta, Mr Godsday Orubebe,” Mr. Okah said in a 194-page affivadavit obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.

“The bombing on 1 October 2010 was a platform for the elimination of political opposition from the north in the form of General Ibrahim 8abangida. The bombing of 1 October 2010 was also intended by the President Goodluck Jonathan Government to create anti North sentiments nationwide in order to galvanize support from other sections of Nigeria against other northern candidates in the Presidential elections,” he said.

The allegations first came to light in an interview Mr. Okah granted Arabic satellite television, Al Jazeera in October 2010 weeks after the blast. In the interview, he blamed the attacks on Mr. Jonathan’s aides and claimed he was arrested for refusing to influence MEND, to retract its claim of responsibility.

Since then, Mr. Okah has been denied bail at least twice, with one at the South Gauteng High court, Johannesburg where he is filing a new application for bail based on “new facts.”
Ahead of the start of trial October, Mr. Okah confirmed he has been availed with the details of evidences planned to be used against him.

The statements and exhibits, contained in a police docket obtained by the investigating officer, bear allegations the Nigerian government- now through its South African counterpart- put forward against the alleged former militant leader.

The previously known details contain claims of alleged phone communication between Mr. Okah and the those who carried out the attacks, allegedly on his orders, computer records, photographs purporting to show incriminating images and other materials.

His new appeal for bail is based on those evidences which he describes as being “extremely weak”. Mr. Okah said none of the exhibits had been substantiated to be linking him to the crime, and concluded that based on those claims, “It was unlikely that the state will be successful in a criminal prosecution against me.”

Despite Mr. Okah’s repeated denials of links to MEND and its attacks, his narration paints a picture of a former powerful figure whose influence over ex-militants, was courted by politicians, in the same breath regarded as a threat.

He spoke with Mr. Jonathan several times on phone, a telltale aspect of a long-standing relationship he said started in 1999 while the president was the deputy governor in Bayelsa state.

While the nation faced a leadership crisis during the sickness of late President Umar Yar’adua in 2009, Mr. Okah emerged a prominent figure in the aftermath of a successful amnesty programme for the Niger Delta militant, initiated by Mr. Yar’adua.

Politicians knew he could influence the ex-fighters and even what continued to go on in the oil rich creeks. It was a role President Jonathan needed, Mr. Okah’s statement pointed out, as did prospective opponents for the 2011 election like former military ruler, Mr. Babangida, and even current petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.[/b]

Mr. Jonathan repeatedly sent his aides, including Godsday Orubebe (Niger Delta minister), Oronto Douglas, and others to him in South Africa, to seek his support, he said.
His indifference, amid reports he was rooting for Mr. Babangida, as well as his refusal to rein MEND in on the statement, informed his arrest, Mr. Okah said.

He claim he was close to Jonathan so much so, Mrs. Alison-Madueke, then a minister of Mines and Steel, needed his support for President Jonathan to pick her ahead of Odein Ajumogobia, for the petroleum slot.

[b]“The last call I received from Ms Madueke was at 6:41:35 on 4 April 2010 during which she thanked me for my contribution in influencing her appointment as Minister of Petroleum,” he said.

He said he was in touch with the president’s close aides when the October 1, 2010 bomb came off, and had no inkling his arrest was being planned.

deandavid: my fellow deltan as u claim, so you suggest we remain like this and watch as your fathers and mothers are robbing us, i suspect if you are a deltan, you are one of those pdp loyalist and uduaghan's boy that have sold your generations to money.

I pity you. I know from your argument, ynu will suggest ibori,be freed. Tufiakwa 4 u, u no b my brother, if all the ss people feels, standing against a corrupt govt is a yoruba thing, i will rather stand will the yoruba than to stay oppressed. But i know what am talking about, deltans are angry, jst wait make the protest start first.

Abi o. Delta different from delta nah.

There is a delta where people can't afford good medical care and a delta where some people fly to the best hospitals on earth because they have cattarh. The same applies all over Nigeria BTW.

Those benefitting from the system want no change and no accountability. Those left behind have no choice but to seek change and more accountability because their well-being depends on it.

naijababe:

Only me Na where my name go kon dey o? Eku'ya ana o

Name Ke? What do you need a name for when you have all those important titles?

alj harem:

wetin be IIE sef

International Institute of Effizy

naijababe: Titles are wonderful when dealing with the Nigerian Police, abeg!

Chief. Engr. Dr. Mrs. Forexologist, Otun Iyalode of Lagos Naijababe. DS.c Ph.d Cantab, FNIE, IIEE, IIE, FIET, MBA, OFR. PSI.

Iba!

The Only Caliphate in Nigeria right now is the Crude Oil Caliphate.

Nigeria will not change until the Crude Oil Caliphate changes it or is forced to change it.

Sokoto or whatever Caliphate or empire is played out. Access to crude Oil money is the true Source of Power and influence here.

Well, until we get frustrated enough to correct that

OlowoTee: I'm sorry, but i was going to ask when do we prepare for mass protest over the d BokoHaramss ? Aren't they deadlier?

This is also a protest against Boko Haram.

The same Corruption and incompetence that made the Police and other security agencies incapable of fighting a rag tag bunch of murderous lunatics is what they are protesting against.

BTW, These same people have called for the government to come down heavily on boko Haram.

We all know a corrupt money wasting government cannot put resources forward to secure their people's lifes and property, they will rather loot and steal Police pension funds and give contract to their cronies than equip the police with necessary equipment and training

If we can force them to reduce corruption maybe we will have enough resources left to actually fight Boko Haram both directly and indirectly.

get it?

Very True. But I bet a lot of Libyans once thought their people won't revolt. Same for Syrians and Tunisians.

E get as suffer dey reach, wey snail go grow sharp teeth.

olajide_07:

Just looking at it, it takes a lot of openness to be a public officer, I would try not to say to much about this, but let me also emphasise, that it takes a meaningful policy direction, and not an abrasion to go in the right direction, and like I said without anybody trying to say to much, we also know the rot in the system, but like lawyers would say "he whom comes to the law -equity- must come with clean hands",

rather then going round in circles let's take just one aspect of it allocation (which I know about as a hustler) of daily PMS, AGO from NNPC depots as, of, today, my brother is into the business and I also tried so many things out, before I settled for what I am into now when I left banking mehn, I hustle sha!,

it requires that before you are given allocations you must have met up with some various criteria, you must either have a petrol station, tankers for logistics support supply or tank farm and other documentation, these are the major things which on merit you should have before you are awarded allocation, and if not you wouldn't be given allocation.

now their are so many of us that neither have any of the above but we go out and market on behalf of their cronies or associates if I am permitted to use that word, facilitate payments on behalf of buyers, through our banks upon delivery, and get paid at a mark up.

Now what has happened all allocations for the past 12-16months are given out by her "DAM" and GEJ just like OBJ, through an appointee (a Mr. Mom****-in PP**) now its given to their political associates, whom are members of the PDP, or those that they want to pay for a favour for just like ipa*d**** or have a positive baise for their relations, and that is where the first rot was exposed

I would have scanned a copy of the "hard copy as is referred" -allocation, but it would seem out of place with the name of some of the organisations in question, because I also participated in sourcing for buyers for the products for a commission (I guess since my brother is involved I am) "we are called facilitators" on a local scale, they/we in turn come out and sell the papers at a mark up of between N2-N6 per litre now we are just looking for buyers but what actually is happening is once we get buyers and these products are lifted the allotee goes back and collects the subsidy from F.govt., making money from the sales without lifting a litre from the depot, and get subsidy back from F.G.

Now as facilitators in abj Ho**y wel* was hawked for months, int*gr*ted oil was hawked for months via vis others, the bottom line is whom own these companies and whom signed the allocation (a, mom***-name incomplete and the agent working on their behalf) let me not forget to say the above companies have been blacklist by the facilitators in abj, to the story at hand this vehicle is used to settle PDP members and GEJ associates/cronies while she also settles her own people on a small scale Cap**l oil.

Now you would ask why this story because we are in the present we can't correct the past but we can determine the future how by formulating policies that wouldn't be to elitest of bujuastic only for the rich how by making things all encompassing and for people that apply for allocation to be told the reason why when they applied they were not allocated as against them looking for a PDP top short business card to attach to a proposal/profile let's stop their

Hmm. Una dey see so?

I asked on the Soyinka SS Summit Speech thread:

According to the report below, Wole Soyinka today stood with the Save Nigeria Group to call for civil action based on the Subsidy Probe reports, he called for protests. We know he will stand in front to lead it. He's done it many times before.

Now the question is this: Will these same big men stand with him?

Will the leaders and conveners of this conference, for example, stand with their keynote speaker?

Will those of them with political power and influence put aside their selfishness and stand with the man they claimed they respect, the man they applauded just few days ago? Will they?

Will they fight for the people they paid lip service to just a few days ago?

Will they put their resources forward to fight for the recovery of SS oil wealth that was wasted and looted by the people indicted in that report ?

Will they?

http://mobile.saharareporters.com/news-page/prepare-mass-protest-over-subsidy-scam-soyinka-tells-nigerians-nan

According to the report below, Wole Soyinka today stood with the Save Nigeria Group to call for civil action based on the Subsidy Probe reports, he called for protests. We know he will stand in front to lead it. He's done it many times before.

Now the question is this: Will these same big men stand with him?

Will the leaders and conveners of this conference, for example, stand with their keynote speaker?

Will those of them with political power and influence put aside their selfishness and stand with the man they claimed they respect, the man they applauded just few days ago? Will they?

Will they fight for the people they paid lip service to just a few days ago?

Will they put their resources forward to fight for the recovery of SS oil wealth that was wasted and looted by the people indicted in that report ?

Will they?

http://mobile.saharareporters.com/news-page/prepare-mass-protest-over-subsidy-scam-soyinka-tells-nigerians-nan

Double

Most of those that gave Soyinka a thunderous applause after his South South Summit Speech will oppose this protest and do nothing to help Soyinka, SNG or their dehumanized people.

Na now dem go remember sey na dem pikin dey Aso Rock.

Haters full thread

^
His name is Chinweizu Ibekwe. He prefers just Chinweizu I believe.

@ Cheikh, bro, I must confess that I'm kind of surprised that Chinweizu is not very well known in Nigeria though..he's a legend in the Pan African afrocentric movement. Maybe I should not be surprised.

Generally, nigerians are not too interested in big political or philosophical ideas, even pan african ideas. Big ideas like marxism, socialism and all did not grow beyond university classrooms in Nigeria. We are too preoccupied with daily survival and we've never had a political movement based on a specific ideology. Come to think of it, that is kinda amazing for a country this large.

BTW, Chinweizu's work/column was serialized in a Nigerian newspaper a few years ago, businessday or something iirc.

naijababe:

Quite a rant there Personally, I see the vast majority of Northerners as victims completely powerless of freeing themselves from the blood sucking creatures they have been cursed with and unless the less ignorant south reach out, I 'm afraid nothing will change from now till thy kingdom come.

@ kilode, I'm sure you know better than to think that the votes that a candidate aspiring to an office in Nigeria gets is a reflection of their abilities or record. My friend, get involved in a bit of grass root politics, it's quite an eye opener.

My sister, I've seen a bit of grassroot politics myself and I get your point.

Of course their victory in the election was not a reflection of grassroot support. But what I'm concerned about is lack of proactive grassroot opposition.

There is a kind of opposition that is benign, more like an endorsement of impunity. That is the type we need to snap out of.

It is not enough to shrug your shoulder and say I don't support Mr A, you must be active in your opposition to the same Mr. A. And I must say that I saw a bit of that in the riots that occurred after the April elections -in the North. But it was a little too late.

Now, I'm just wondering why anybody will want to vote for these same people next time or fail to actively oppose them.

PapaBrowne: I know most people wont read this but trust me it is a fine piece. I read it on thisday today and I must admit it is one of the best piece I've seen in a while!!

Regionalism is the way forward. Thats the only solution to the quagmire we have found ourselves.

Papabrowne, If so, why is President Goodluck Jonathan not pushing this. Why is it so difficult for his administration to push this sensible solutions to the top of their list?

Keep in mind, his party controls both the Senate and the Houses of Assembly and Civil Society groups will most likely back the move.

What is our first Southen minority president waiting for?

I'll like to have your thoughts on this.

Paragraphed:

LeJeun3: I must begin by thanking you for the honour of this invitation to address you. I am glad that I did not have to decline, pleading the truthful excuse that I am, unfortunately, still saddled with a heavy load of unfinished business elsewhere. In any case, I have come to accept that it is a condition of human existence to be saddled with this particular affliction - unfinished business – that sense of an incomplete mission. 

The difference between one individual and the next is perhaps that some know this, while others do not. With individuals, this distinction does not matter a great deal. We go into retirement with a sigh of mission accomplished, convinced that one’s self-imposed, fortuitous, or mysteriously transmitted mission in life has indeed been fulfilled. Or perhapswe simply shrug our shoulders inresignation, saying, ‘Enough is enough, let others take over from here.’ No matter the variant, we are still buried with our own self-assessment, accurate or misconceived.

 A sense of mission, and the identification of such a mission varies from individual to individual, from institution to institution, from community to community, with or without relationship to one’s social status or formal responsibilities. 

For instance, you might read that the United Nations is sending a fact-finding mission to the Sudan to check onal-Bashir’s compliance with its latest directives.

Or that Amnesty International has sent a fact-finding mission to Burma, to see whether the Burmese military dictators were truly easing up on their stranglehold on Burmese democracy, ensure that the mere concession of an electoral exercise, or the release of the opposition leader Aung Suu Kyi, is not mere cosmetic, an excuse to clamp others into detention or retain despotic powers by other means. 

Peace missions, or peace initiatives – sometimes known, in the latest Nigerian parlance as Peace Advocacy - are also just as commonplace.  A former head of state in this nation went on what he considered a peace advocacy mission to a group of rampaging psychopaths who had laid siege to the nation. 

We may argue from here to eternity aboutthe appropriateness of that motion, especially its timing, but at least he had some credentials for his undertaking, and it would appear that the proposal came from some of those who thought– rationally or with pathetic naiivette – that he might play a useful role in stemming the tide of blood. 

The former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, was sent on a mission to Syria, in an attempt to stop the Butcher of Damascus using his people for target practice, and endeavour to bring both sides to the negotiating table. Peace missions - or advocacy - come in various shapes and guises. Quite a number of them are self-ascribed. 

Many successful ones, such as that undertaken by a little known Irish group, worked quietly, unpublicized but effectively to bring an end to the decades long civil war in Mozambique. 

By contrast there are others which only end up afflicting their target areas with all the bristling paraphernalia ofwar, appropriate to themselves a disproportionate amount of the security resources of a nation to inflict peace on a perfectly peaceful environment, and with maximum gaudiness and ostentation. 

Variously also deflected as a thank-you mission, they move from state to state with all the extravagant baggage and panoply of feudal potentates visiting vassal states.

They seize up traffic in throbbing commercial capitals, bring all motion to a halt, insisting on a gift of peace on a state which never evinced any indications of warfare nor asked for peace evangelism. 

The places where the nation may be said to have be at war are known all over the world, not just within Nigeria, but they do not venture there. No, it is to states which are in the throes of peace, which evince no need of peace healing, that the ministrations of such peace physicians lead what end up memorably as carn ivalesque caravans of disruption. Traffic is tied up. Security is tied up. Productive motion is tied up. Commerce is tied up. Governance is tied up. Individual, corporate, even leisure schedules are tied up - all to pander to bristling head-ties tied up in a floating parade of gorgeous fabric, sterile,provocative and contemptuous of the rights of others to their own desperate mission, the mission ofgenerating the life-sustaining morsel for family and self. 


A vanity parade born perhaps of boredom or a feeling of neglect, this banal extravaganza, which attained obscene heights with the military, has transferred to our supposedly democratic environment under various pretexts, guzzling funds and guzzling the productive time of others. 

Productive motion is held to a standstill and citizen rights are trampled upon. This disrespectful misappropriation ofpublic space that exists primarily for the movement of goods and humanity, especially by the unelected, by mere appendages to constitutional power, has become a culture of spousal aggression and can only beget a response of disrespect and ridicule from those it most affects. 

There are numerous, far more creatively effective ways of bringing the train of peace evangelism to places in need, or not in need, and these do not involve the usurpation of the daily mission of millions by the mission of any one individual. 

Where were we? Oh yes, we were embarking on the theme of missions. Every individual does have, or is entitled to have his or her own self-assessment of the level of achievement of a life mission – it does not matter in the least what that mission might be. 

The sense of satisfaction in the fulfillment of that mission, or regrets about its non-fulfillment remains primarily an individual assessment, and one that accompanies each individual to his or her grave. 

With nations however, there is little room for such indifference, and the reasonis simple: individuals vanish but nations endure – at least in one form or another - and nations impact on the quality of existence of each transient occupant. 

Each occupant therefore has a stake in the fortunes of the nation, a stake that, proportionately speaking, equates the eternity that we have optimistically conceded to the life-span of the nation. 

The unfinished business of nation being is thus not one to which we, as individuals, can afford to remain indifferent. 

In many more ways than we like to admit,the nation defines its citizen. 


This means that the citizen remains unfinished, a creature inthe limbo of identity, leading an improvised, unsecured and uncertain existence, until the nation itself can boast of a recognizable and functional identity. 

I do not refer merely to unfinished business as in governance business - policy making, planning, execution, andso on. No, I refer to that far more fundamental, unobtrusive, but nonetheless comprehensive seizure of nation being. 

[b]Some nations are wise enough to acknowledge their state of incompletion, and take steps - even while the business of governance remains uninterrupted - to tackle this essential business head on, addressing the very history that brought them into being and examining the factors - both positive and negative - that have shaped their existence since they began to recognise, and conduct themselves as nations. 

Others muddle on, immured in an impenetrable carapace of complacency. They list their achievements, both internal and external - economic buoyancy, a prestigious foreign policy, low level of unemployment, a highly literate society, eradication of diseases, uninterrupted electric power, potable water and other indices of enhanced civic life, even IMF and World Bank approbation etc. etc - as proof ofthe claim that they have “arrived”, and can confidently assess themselves as nations, beyond the mere naming. 

They refuse to recognise that some at least - not necessarily all but some part - of a suppressed social malaise or political fractiousness can be traced to the basic issue of the unfinishedaspect of their self-constitutive process. [/b]

This includes those who cannot boast of even these medals of achievement, those who, long after any self-respecting nation should have been weaned, continue to insist that their endemic negative symptoms are merely “teething problems.” Such nations are clearly on a self-destruct trajectory. 

Permit me to cite as analogy the ordeal of one of my children who, one day, during a routine basket ball game, collapsed and passed out. Until then, he had experienced intermittent breathing problems – they were put down as mild attacks of asthma and allergy – you know, increase in pollen counts with seasonal changes and so on. 

Until then however, nothing as drastic as an actual faint had ever occurred. Fortunately, one of the paramedics who were called to the scene felt that this was more than a mere asthmatic attack, or equally benign incident – and so began a series of tests which merely increased the bafflement of the diagnostic clinics and their specialists. 

A period of round-the-clock monitoring was prescribed. He was banned from any further sporting activities and was strapped to a gadget that communicated directly to an emergency centre for any sign of recurrence. 

No matter where he was, a fully equipped ambulance was on call, ready to rush him to a clinic in case of a life-threatening recurrence – all this, while various images of his heart, lungs, full body and brain scans were subjected to analysis. The trouble was that some of these scans gave off contradictory images, which simply drove the doctors to distraction.

 In the end, the mystery was solved. His condition was a heart tumour, but not just any tumour. It was that uncommon type which has a habit of sinking back into the wall tissues of the heart, and then pulsing outwards, so that sometimes the instruments showed only one, but at other times, two or three growths. Evidently these extrusions would sometimes impede the regular flow of blood, which had led to his passing out in the first instance.  

In one of these sophisticated machines, one could actually watch the tumour change shape and contours, flattening back invisibly into thewall. The option had already been decided upon - open-heart surgery – but it was necessary to
do a thorough study of the behaviour of this pulsating growth before embarking on the drastic process. 

That decision was only the beginning. The surgical team had to go back to school – that is, they were compelled to look up prior cases,consult surgeons who had carriedout similar operations. Video recordings were exchanged. Finally, D-day. It was, I must confess, an unnerving experienceto see your son’s heart taken outof his body while he was attached to an artificial heart that kept the blood pumping to his system. 

As if that was not enough, we learnt that, after theheart was re-attached and resuscitated, it suddenly stopped beating. Injections, administration of electric shocks– the surgeons did what they were trained to do and he survived.  Now, why have I bothered to go into details? Simply to ensure that you do notoverlook the mission that has – I presume – brought us here today. 

The realities that compelled you – again, presumably – to demand of yourselves what is missing from the delivery of responsible governance and thus, seek strategies for their fulfillment. 

You know that if that youth had been in our part of the world, hewould be long dead. And that applies to many deficiencies thatyour citizens face – not merely in terms of the quality of life they lead, but even the very threats to survival in numerous fields of routine activities. That is Lesson One.

 Many here have at least one such story of deliverance, of an extract from real life that barely escaped tragedy. Others were not so lucky. The stories they have to tell did not have such a happy ending. 

We must not however lose sight of the analogy, which goes deeper than the incidental vagary of the health of one individual, but concerns the corporate body.


{Read that analogy again if you did not get i   |sorry my Edit|. }



 Even the greatest pundits can be wrong about the health of any organism - human,institutional, or national. 

I am speaking h ere of the deceptiveness of appearances – those of you who are soccer addicts would have read recently of the collapse and death of an Italian player – my eye caught the news because the story reached backwards to refer to similar tragedies, sudden deaths of other athletes who had evinced no sign whatsoever of a weakness in their anatomy. It happens all the time. 

This nation must surely recall the shocking case of Kanu. Institutions are no different – just see how the banking system in the most advanced countries suddenly collapsed, creating a domino effect that saw seemingly robusteconomies collapse one after theother. But here again, we are still speaking simply of parts of a functioning totality, not the entirety. 

A deep malaise may defy the most astute diagnostic minds, leading to a complacent reading of its state of health. If however, there is a sound, fundamental structure that holds the totality together, that totality will override flawed mechanisms of the parts – this is what is pulling many European nations out of the rut.

Lucky, therefore, is that entity that is urged from time to time to examine and re-examine the verywalls, tissues and muscles of the heart that pump blood into its system. That it is beating sturdily does not mean that there are no tumours embedded within its very interstices, waiting its moment to strike while bounding confidently fromone field of undertaking to the next, overriding one hidden trauma after another, but progressively weakened by each trauma inducing experience.

Most mortals do need to be left alone to find their feet after any traumatic experience. The nation is no different, the most enfeebling traumatic experiences in the Nigerian instance being both the civil war and years of military rule.

[b]There is also the affliction of illegitimacy –the dubious legitimacy of a large percentage of representatives of the people’s supposed political will at the centre, at the federal and national assemblies and even in the lodges of executive governors. 

The percentage of occupational illegitimacy did admittedly decrease over the lastelections but, we still do know, and they know that we know, that even in a seventy-five percent perfect election, properlyconducted, a vast number of the present ‘honourables’, senators and governors, could never have caught the sheerest whiff of the wood varnish on the seats they now occupy. 

Some of these are the most vociferous, most assiduous in their denunciation, indeeed demonisation of the verynotion of a genuine convocation of peoples, that is, a convocation outside the sanctuary, privilege and self-interest of the homes of illegitimacy, the convocation of a people who wish to examinetheir present and decide their future. 

Let me declare here that Ihave taken a decision never again to add my voice to that call, having joined with others - two of whom are now dead – to let the judiciary pronounce, at the very least, a symbolic judgment on whether what now passes for a ‘people’s constitution’ is indeed any such product of a people’s will, or yet another product of illegitimacy hung around the nation’s neck like a noose.

 That I shall no longer add my voice to that call however does not mean that I abandon the right to examine, even if only as a contextual exercise, the antecedents of that call, its provocation, the distortions it has endured, and continues to endure, the potential consequences of its rejection, and perhaps the true motivations of its opposing or evasive voices. [/b]

Northwards from this very spot where we are gathered, a daily decimation of our humanity pronounces its diabolical judgment on the structure that still struggles to deserve the name nation, calling in question, through its fiery monologues, the very legitimacy of our nation being. 

Let me take this opportunity however to stress to us all within the nation that this ongoing catastrophe is not the burden of any one part of the nation by itself, but a fight of survival for the totality of its humanity. 

The antecedents of the present national crisis may seem particularized, the carnage concentrated on a geographical sector – at least for now - the solution nonetheless remains the responsibility of the entiretyof the constituent parts. 

There is an immeasurable gulf between taking up arms against the state and declaring war against humanity. 

I recall a cry from a stricken heart – metaphorically speaking this time – when the United States of America invaded Iraq under the pretext of looking for weapons of mass destruction. The Arab League happened to be holding its session at the time, and its Secretary-General was reported to have exclaimed: “the inhabitants of hell have been letloose”.  Several members of that League thought he was merely being alarmist. The US president, George Bush certainly thought so too, especially once he had overrun the defences of the deluded tyrant Saddam Hussein. Several years after, not merely the Middle East, but the entire world is still attempting to cope with the rampages of the successors of those fiends from hell, unleashed through past global defaults admittedly, but also ministering to their own innate demonism, determined to drag the rest of the world down into their own private and collective hells. 

What applied to Iraq is both pertinent to, and apparent in Nigeria – evade it how we will. 

The rejects even of hell have indeed been let loose, but many prefer to shy away from the question: who let them loose. 

How long was the present scenario in preparation? 

For how long was the mind-set of its direct perpetrators nurtured, for how long were impressionable minds doctored, warped and thenhomicidally re-focused? 

Was it through secular ideological indoctrination – let us say, a Marxist revolutionary orientation? 

Or was it through the theocratic, serving however the power obsession of a minority? 

This is a basic enquiry that should precede all else. However, the nation has elected, in the main, to climb aboard the conveyance of evasion, bound forthe bunker of denial. 

Those who unleashed the denizens of hell are among us, they did not come from outer space, they are known, and they know where their myrmidons retreat while they prepare their next outrage on the populace. 

I invite you to take a hard look, for instance, atthe photos of those killers of the Italian and British hostages, finally trapped in Kaduna. 

Do you seriously think that they – and hundreds like them - are independent actors in the ongoing rampages? 

Does anyone still believe that they sponsored themselves to training grounds, on this continent or outside, in some infernal regions, for their deadly mastery of weapons of human evisceration? 

Their sponsors are not phantoms. Theyare real. They exist among us. But, phantoms or not, today, they are afraid. 

Their own agentsof destruction have turned upon them, demanding evidence of preparations of the theocratic utopia that was dangled before them, a utopia founded on theocratic myopia that nerved them to acts of total disregard for fellow humanity and a passion for self-immolation. 

How do we disable such forces? 

Let me insist on the negative – not by appeasement. Not by utterances or gestures of appeasement. 

Those who seek to dominate others do not understand the language of appeasement. To them it translates as endorsement, multiplies their self-righteousness and urges them to even greater acts of contempt for humanity. 

Dialogue is a cultured, always commendable device – in principle. However, I must call attention to a fervent contradiction – within this general field of dialogue - that appears to have escaped certain among our pundits of dialogue at all costs. 

Here it goes: On the one hand, those very voices are on their knees urging dialogue on the assailants. On the other, those whose call for dialogue – but on a wider, national scale - holds out the possibility, at the very least, of a holistic apprehension of the far-reaching causes and prescriptions for remedial action for the guarantee of a future, are told to go and have their heads examined.  Therein lies the contradiction. 

A force for blind violence comes to the fore, a force that manifests utter contempt for that very civilized facilitator of co-existence called Dialogue, yet, hardly has the first prickle of blood been drawn before the chorus goes up - let’s invite them to sit down and talk. 

Tell us what you want and we’ll see what can be done. And even before that, there were already callsfor Amnesty. The sequence is important – let us keep this in mind. Now, what is this supposed to indicate? 

That only through the language of terror can one make oneself heard? One side says, let us sit down peacefully, as free peoples, and work out a new order of internal relationshipsand overarching governance. 

The other says, I already have my own unilaterally concluded order of internal relationships, divinely ordered, beyond questioning by mere mortals, subject to no tests of rationally, equity or experimentation. 

To the first, the response that hits their ears is – nothing doing. To the other however – at least from those responsible for the health and survival of the nation, the response is, ‘please, come and talk to us.’ And for their pains, what has been the constant reward? 

A few hundred souls in their daily routine of scraping a living from the sales of basic, life sustaining products of farm and manufacture, and yet a hundred more, gathered on their okada motor-cycles, waiting to transport those marketmen and women to their farmstead and homes, workers to their factories and homes, are unconscionably blasted to eternity. 

Thus comes into being the ordination of two competing sovereign states, one pleading for dialogue, the other contemptuous of the very word. Yes indeed, ‘sovereignty’. 

The sovereignty of the nation, we are lectured, is non-negotiable, and that mystic possession – sovereignty - would be imperiled if the constituent parts ofthe nation do indeed embark on a dialogue of free peoples.

 It’s a very portly word – sovereignty – mouth-filling, and chest expanding. It is designed to stop all arguments. Merely pronounce that a form of action is a threat to the illusionary banquet called sovereignty and the world is supposed to go into seizure from sheer surfeit. 

One can only marvel at what happened to this patrimony of ‘sovereignty’ when a Buhari, a Babangida or a Sanni Abachaterminated preceding sovereign claims with a mere radio announcement accompanied by a martial tune. 

Some of the more hysterical among our current voices, opposed to a people’s dialogue, did not wait for the military spittle to dry out on the air-waves before they vanished into the obscurity of their villages. In this case however, today, Dialogue as a voluntary undertaking, an operative stage in nation-being, as an expression of collective will, increasingly voiced even in hitherto unexpected sectors, is being derided. Sadly, one can sometimes understand causes for the vilification of this recourse. 

Only a few days ago, the clamour for Dialogue – the genuine kind that is – was joined by one of the most nauseous and obsequious, self-ingratiating servitors of the repellent dictatorship of Sanni Abacha. Such incidental bed-fellows make one despair but, as we say, this is a democracy, and even those who seek to sanitize their past by a cynical revision of a history through which we all lived and survived – thank goodness - must be given a hearing. 

The message, not the messenger – that must be our meager consolation. I merely play the devil’s advocate.

[b] I have lost all interest in the call for a National Conference and, at the very end, my prescriptions shall be made plain. 

For now let us also offer a material solace to those who are morbidly afraid of a national dialogue. 

In the highly unlikely event that such a mythical National Conference concludes its work with a rational agenda that garners the approbation of an overwhelming majority, leading to a clamour for instant implementation, such demurrers would only be bowing to the clearly articulated will of the people, as opposed to a bunch of adventurist individuals in uniform.   

This, of course, is only an extreme speculation, designed to douse the dismissive, unreflective, more sovereign-than-thou, what-we-have-we-hold, what-exists-is-holy mentality that has corrupted the reasoning of some of these opposing
voices. It is actually a liberating position, abandoning the chimera of a National Dialogue. It leaves one free to confront one prospect, the most challenging prospect of all– the future. Where else does one look at this stage? 

The future naturally, leapfrogging the chancy route of what a dialogue might bring, seizing the future by the throat and demanding of ourselves – what can we make of that future, with or without dialogue? 

But first, what do we see when we do turn to that future? 

Yes, let us first direct our gaze at that future, which means – let this present speak to the future. So, what does it say? 

I urge that we address ourselves dispassionately, not fantasize, not simply projectthe future of our escapist desperation. We shall let our present interrogate that future, and what does it spell? Peril. An imperiled future, and that means – an imperiled generation of a nation’s humanity. 

We obtain a preview of a future that is finally divested of the surviving scraps of the opportunities that many of my generation enjoyed when we were indeed pronounced as that future that is now our present. 

In practical details, what the present projects objectinely as its offspring, is a vista of brain wastage, thanks to unstable tumours that peek and vanish,undetected, and when detected, are left uncorrected. 

A future that is very much in doubt, a future tarnished and devalued by a succession of incontinent, irresponsible leadership, decked in both civilian and military outfits, but mostly of the military. A future where the intangible yet reinforced pillar of civilized society – such as justice - has become available on the open market. 

I am making no new assertions and, do not take my word for it. Revert to internal motions for reforms such as the Justice Eso commission of enquiry into the judiciary and also call to mind various pronouncements of the National Bar Association.

Ask yourselves how it comes about that one ofyour former members of this very governorship consortium is currently basking in immunity, having succeeded in obtaining a judicial injunction against prosecution for his crimes against the future, perpetrated while in office. 

[b]Do we need to point out that as a nation we are covered with shame that it took an external court of justice, of the former colonial masters, to finally put an end to the costly shenanigans of another of your former brother governors, one who held the forces of anti-corruption at bay, led thema merry dance all the way to Dubai until he was plucked out of his imagined sanctuary? 

And what of that judge, thejudge who freed him of over a hundred and fifty criminal charges here, in this very nation, pronounced him innocent of blasting the very future of the generations under his watch by a career of systematic, unconscionable robbery? 

Why are we surprised therefore to find ourselves faced with a future where all sense of community has all but evaporated and only predators roam the streets, making their own laws of survival as they proceed. 

Yes, they make their own laws, for even these know that without law, written or unwritten, there is no community, and without community, all talk of nation is vain. 

Nations are built on the palpable operations of community, otherwise they are empty, artificial and hollow. 

They collapse with the tiniest pinpricks of unrest, they drift into oblivion with the slightest winds of external pressure.[/b] 

So, that learned judgeheld the strings of community in his hands, the judge who pronounced our elusive governor free of all blemish, that custodian and administrator of justice, our question today is - is he still passing judgment in this nation, or has he proceeded on retirement leave to Dubai? 




Prof. Soyinka, Nobel Laureate is a social critic, freedom fighter and people’s intellectual.

nuclearboy:

Abeg Kilode,

What are these groups and how can one join them? We have 3 years & the earlier we start, the better!;

For now, I'll recommend these 3 groups below. Give them a good look and join them, they need all the help they can get.

If you prefer the old hands, you can look into Save Nigeria Group and the CLO.

Whatever you do, just try to vote credible people, punish underperformers and looters and more importantly, get those whom you have influence over to do the same. If your people make bad choices, it's bound to affect you. Even if you run away from Nigeria, you'll still have to carry the burden by subsidizing them with western union.



http://eienigeria.org/about-us

http://my.20millionyouthsfor2015.org/register.php

http://www.nigeriansdemand.com/the-manifesto/?mobify=0

Eko-Ile thanks for the link.

Strife-Torn Nigeria Is an Investment Magnet
By Chris Kay and Maram Mazen
April 26, 2012 

 
Nigerian troops wield AK-47s at the Transcorp Hilton Abuja in the capital, while security guards scan for car bombs at the hotel’s entry checkpoints, snarling traffic. Down the road, police block access to Holy Trinity Catholic church on Sundays as worshipers congregate.

Nigerians have been living with high security alerts since attacks by an Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, intensified with a suicide bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Abuja in August. 

Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for a surge in gun and bomb attacks, including a Christmas Day bombing of a church in an Abuja suburb and multiple blasts on Jan. 20 in the northern city of Kano that killed about 256 people. The group, whose name means “Western education is a sin,” seeks to impose strict Muslim law on the country. 

The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria warned American citizens on April 17 that Boko Haram may be planning more attacks in the capital.
Yet economic statistics do not portray a country in the grip of a national emergency. Nigerian Eurobonds are so popular that their yield is near a record low. The currency, the naira, is Africa’s second-strongest performer against the dollar this year. The economy is expected to grow 7.1 percent in 2012.

Just as important, foreign and local investors seem unfazed by Boko Haram’s violence. The attacks have been isolated to Abuja and northern states, home to the Muslim population and a Christian minority, while oil facilities and the commercial hub of Lagos in the south have been undisturbed.

“The latest escalation of Boko Haram’s terror attacks is disturbing from a security perspective,” says Christian Mejrup, an emerging-market portfolio manager at Denmark-based Global Evolution, which holds Nigerian treasury bills. “From an economic perspective they are negligible, since they are still isolated to the northern part of Nigeria.” The 17 southern states, which cover one-fifth of Nigeria, produce about two-thirds of the growth. “All the sectors that are growing fastest are in the south,” says Jude Uzonwanne, head of the Nigeria office of Cambridge (Mass.) investment adviser Monitor Group. “The north’s economy is still geared towards subsistence agriculture.”

The multinationals want to stake out territory in a country of 160 million whose population is growing 2.5 percent a year. That translates into a need for more electricity, more houses, and more food and drink.

Nestlé is boosting the capacity of its local plants to make food seasoning, chocolate malt, and cereal. “There’s huge potential still, and on top of that the population growth is just staggering,” says Martin Woolnough, chief executive officer of Nestlé in Nigeria. Standard Chartered CEO Peter Sands said in March that Nigeria is the bank’s biggest business out of the 15 African countries it operates in. “We’re in Nigeria with a huge population and a rapidly growing economy,” he said. 

In April, Siemens signed an agreement with Scanpower, a Nigerian company, to build a 1,600-megawatt power plant in Lagos. “As one of the fastest-growing megacities in the world, Lagos is seeking a significant improvement in its power supply,” says Michael Suess, the head of Siemens’s energy business.

 Dangote Cement, Africa’s biggest supplier, is building a 3 million-ton plant in Calabar, Nigeria’s southeastern seaport; that cement can go into home construction. Brewer SABMiller is planning a $100 million plant in Onitsha, in the southeast.[/b]

The north is not sharing in the bounty. United Nigeria Textiles and other textile makers, once thriving foreign currency earners for Nigeria, have shut mills in the north amid competition from China and other Asian producers. About 74 percent of Nigerians in the north live in poverty, compared with 63 percent in the south, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. 

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in January declared a state of emergency in parts of the north, where Boko Haram, inspired by Afghanistan’s Taliban, has told Christians to leave. The government is “on top of” the threat, Jonathan said recently. Nigeria is “a safe place for investment. We are a stable country.”

Boko Haram’s reach may yet extend to the south, as it has already attacked centrally located Abuja, says Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, managing director of New York-based DaMina Advisors, which focuses on frontier investments. “It may be only a matter of time before Lagos is attacked,” he says.

The split in development between the north and the south may cause serious trouble someday for Nigeria. For now, it’s just one more business risk.

No reason why any Northerner should vote any of their leaders currently in political office back to power in the next election.

I will rather shoot myself in the head than thumbprint the name or face of someone whose action and inaction has led to the death of so many and poverty of millions of my people.

Leaders must be punished, laggards must be held accountable, that is the only way this democracy can work for your people.

onandon: The power thing is sickening, something is making majority of Nigerians ignorant and it's poverty. People just focus solely on putting meals on their tables while these thieving politicians suck our wealth. No one cares, "all man for himself" .. My brain is too advanced for this so called country to dull, I'm leaving soon, can't stand the bondage anymore. I'm sitting here sweating like a fool cos of lack of power supply, a friend traveled out of the country( to S.A) for the first time, he came back after 2 Weeks and he was almost crying when he was comparing S.A to Nigeria. He was so emotional about the whole thing that he was hitting his hand on the table in anger while talking to me. Why can't I just wake up put on my TV turn on the a/c and have my girlfriend come over to chill? Why can't I stock the fridge up with food and drinks ? I'm just laid down here sweating like mfckr in this hot weather after spending money on an air conditioner, nepa bills and tax. Men what d fck ! I'm leaving soon, fck patriotism.

Channel the frustration bro. Channel it. Or you can try a few of my suggestions above.

Better still, I can recommend a few groups working hard to ensure Nigerians vote In credible leaders at the next election. You can work with them before you leave. Because even if you go abroad, you'll probably still have to subsidize a few family members from abroad. You can't totally escape Nigeria.

I wish you well bro.

Fstranger, Ki lo n sele? Bawo ni east coast?

BTW, Sango still has no passport, Olukoso Oko oya can be anywhere he wants, anytime.

Lol@ Gbawe and Alhaji, Hmmm, just trying to help ni o.

I really feel sorry for OP though. It can be frustrating. But Generator noise is a rich naija man's problem though.



#random: I wonder why Seun hid our location signatures deep inside the profile page.

subterfuge: Come-On what is really happening in this GENEGERIA.My area still in ToTal black out!!!!!
Getting really sick of the Loud sounds and Heat and Carbon coming from these generators arround my house. Will it ever stop?
Some idiots say that Nigeria, soRry. GENEGERIa is too large for jonathan to rule!!!
Is that an acceptable excuse for. 100% power failure ans gen bokoharam menace

I feel your pain.

Bros. BTW, seeing that you posted this four days ago then came back again to scream about it. I'll recommend vacation.

I'll recommend places far from Lagos, places where electricity won't even matter.

There is a village/town close to Ikogosi warm springs in Ekiti State, it's a small town with one or two manageable motels. You can rent a room and spend your day listening to stories from old folks or hanging out with local people in the evening after their farm work. Very friendly people, Very relaxing experience.

There are several other quaint towns close to the SW that will offer similar peace and tranquility with little to no generator noise and fumes. Many in the North, East and SS too.

I can list them if you are interested. It's all about your desire for peace and quiet. Most locals understand or just tell them you came to write.

If that is too far from Ikoyi, I have a few other ones closer to Lagos:

1. Visit the nearest catholic church/retreat or convent and ask to stay with them for a few days, very relaxing, very rewarding quiet time. Making a charitable contribution will help.

2. Take a drive to Eleko or one of those beaches Far from the city, rent one of the Beach houses or tents and pay those local boys to guard at night for a few days, just enjoy quiet walks during the day and relax at night. No need for electricity.

3. If your income permits, drive across the border to Cotonou, rent a small motel, visit the markets and walk the streets during the day, rest at night, There's light!

There are several quiet and small towns close to Lagos, Hanging out on the front porches with old folks at Ilesa was a good experience too.

Bros, I wish you well, don't let these people run you mad.




BTW, did you vote during the last election?

Given their background and history, Mullen and Giuliani are prime targets for any religious terrorist trying to go out in a blaze of glory. Can't blame them for being extra careful.

Especially in a Country like ours where It's hard to separate religious Boko Haram from Political Boko Haram, better not to put yourself in a position where you are used as a pawn in a game of violent intrigues.

A group that bombed two offices of the chairman of an event on the eve of that event can't be clearer about their intentions.

Nigeria is essentially at war.

^
Thanks na typo.

Awon jegudujera. .

^
By naming a road after him in Kwara Perhaps.




Hopefully Saraki will escape into exile - where Nigerian looters go to face real Justice.

Awon irandiran jagudas

Growth graph of Ilaje stock on Nairaland since Ilaje44 started this topic.

I suspect the man is a marketer for the new Ilaje tourism board

^
Thank you for posting that. I guess I read Abimbola's opinion after that controversy. So he changed his position to now acknowledge the acceptance of Iyanifas.

Like I said earlier, culture and personality will always influence dogma and religious views.