₦airaland Forum

honeric01:
I wonder what she has done that merited her the glorified title.

Rubbish.

When she was in Bayelsa, what did she actually do as the 1st lady of bayelsa? i need to hear from the pro-jona jona.

Not that I am averse to starting small, like they say, little drops of water make a mighty ocean but for me that approach will take years to start having an effect (if it is not killed-off quickly by the current crop of corrupt leaders). Very few doubt the good-works of Okonjo-Iweala despite rumors of poor governance and corruption issues. She put her foot down and did what had to be done to spur immense economic reforms whose impact can still be felt today, but what happened when OBJ started eye-ing 3rd term in Office? He disgraced her out of office together with Oby-Ezekwesili. The government of the day will always hire good hands to keep the wheels of this country's greatest revenue generation engine going. (Crude Oil) but when it is time to start stealing, they simply disgrace you like they did to Nuhu Ribadu.

A Leadership Revolution has to occur and it has started in different forms with angry voices who say NO MORE!! to bad governance and corruption. but there are key issues that must be addressed regarding the building of foundations that will support such a massive revolution.

1: Political Awareness
2: Ethnic Friction
3: Religious Friction

When we have fully addressed the imbalance in the above three issues, we can now approach the issue of True Leadership with the assurance that we have become an Irresistible Force of Nature, embracing all that is intrinsically good and crushing supposedly immovable objects like corruption and poverty    (I mean that)

Political Awareness

By far the most important of all issues that we must address. Since the coming of Democracy with the death of Abacha, Nigerians have come to the realization that politics, especially on the national level can no longer be ignored. As important events force these issues into our lives we in turn are compelled to discuss them. This is where the problem starts. How many times have you tried to have an intelligent political conversation with a friend, fellow worker or family member only to discover that two of you are talking on completely different levels? What starts off as a well intended interaction quickly devolves into a struggle to avoid insult or seriously offend.  Nairaland Political posts bear conclusive evidence to this statement. We argue so much that the goal is lost in argument and the wrong mindset is developed, fed and maintained so much that people now have expert knowledge of political situations they have not heard, seen or experienced in their entire lives.  Sad
We must stop and correct this mistake NOW! by recognizing the various levels of Political Awareness and educating ourselves and fellow revolutionaries.

Level 1. Political Illiterate – A person who is politically illiterate might know who the President is or perhaps the Governor of their state but that’s usually about it. They don’t watch the news. They have no knowledge of the issues and don’t know the difference between a PDP, AC, LP, APGA etc. This person does not vote or even care to vote. They are not necessarily poor and un-educated, they simply do not care.

Level 2. Politically Misinformed – This category is for those who have latched onto an extreme sect, an emotional issue, a movement or a charismatic personality. They are often dogmatic about their views and prefer partisan rancor because they would lose an objective debate. They often know little if anything about other perspectives. They have a slow growing awareness of politicians but are primarily focused on those they dislike. While this person might be passionate and loud about their views, they are also often hypocritical when it comes to the practice of these views. Politics is a stylish walking stick for them. So in turn this person will usually claim to vote but often does not.

Level 3. Politically Informed – This is probably where most voting Nigerians lie. This person knows who some of the government officials are, they know some of the issues and can tell the difference between various parties and their candidates (and God-fathers) They might be strongly motivated on one or two issues. They might pick their candidates based on personal appeal rather than party affiliation. They lean towards stability, moderation and bipartisan movements. This person votes in almost every general election.

Level 4. Political Activist – This individual gets involved. Here you have a person with a good grasp of the issues, who can recite the details of sects within each party and has worked on at least one election. This person reads books about politics, keeps up with the daily news and might write articles or a blog with a political hook in it. They have a preference for direct contact and search for an abundance of information wherever possible. They learn how to build coalitions in order to advance their agendas. This person knows who all the candidates are and votes in every election.

Level 5. Political Expert – At this level the individual is the one making the news instead of following it. The expert might work in government, knows all the issues, knows all the candidates and power players sometimes personally. This person is likely to have worked in many elections. They understand the language of diplomacy (and thuggery) and can strategize with institutions and the grassroots communities when necessary. They can, show sensitivity to different viewpoints and hidden agendas. appear on talk shows, they might write political books and their opinions carry weight in the political community. They always vote and do so publicly.

We must identify each levels of deficiency in Political Awareness and strive to move into levels 3-5 where the impact of our activities have a strong import on the Political landscape.

Ethnic Friction

Nigeria is an ethnically diverse nation and each ethnic group is vocal about its representation in the various spheres of national governance and leadership. Being politically vocal is different from being politically active, once again the issue of Political awareness comes into play the wrong way. Being ethnically diverse should not cause us to lose the importance of a united national ideology. some for example view PDP as a group bent on devouring the economic resources of this nation. While PDP may have embraced political ethnic diversity unlike most stronger parties. The question of ethnic origin and claim often results in the absence of true leadership due to the fact the the political region on which such a candidate chooses to launch his political ideology is largely controlled by an ethnic majority that he does not belong to.

We must strive to recognize that ethnic rivalry in politics only creates a distraction allowing corrupt political elements to forge ahead and claim electoral victories they would not ordinarily have been able to claim. There are true Igbo Leaders as there are True Hausa Leaders and Idoma Leaders and Yoruba Leaders and so forth. Buba Marwa was loved by Lagosians as much as Fashola was and he was a Hausa leader nonetheless. We must recognize leadership qualities regardless of the ethnic ties or origins a politician belongs to. Once we can rise over this key challenge, we can begin to build a truly de-tribalized political base for a united leadership revolution. Political thieves that revel in corruption have no tribal reservations. the only tribe they know and belong to is CORRUPTION

Religious Friction
With a population of over 150 million people, Nigeria is the world's 6th largest Muslim nation and the 3rd largest Christian nation in the world. such numbers on the political arena is not take lightly. With such an enormous political potential, it often comes as a disappointment when the two major religious groups have very little in terms of lobbying power in the nations political machinery. Rather Religious energies are diverted to genocidal conflicts that only serve to divide a largely united group across political and ethnic lines (further creating animosity and aversion to diverse political ideologies) ODUUA vs AREWA, NDI'GBO vs. ODUUA, IDOMA vs TIV etc no one needs a sore reminder of all the religious and ethnic driven clashes in Nigeria in recent times  Sad very few politicians even consider religious groups as important in their agenda Imagine that!! Angry

We need to recognize that our unique Religious affiliations presents one of the largest and power-groups very few political platforms have access to and we have failed (disappointingly) to apply that potential into influencing the political landscape.

Kobojunkie:
It's funny how in the developed world, when you repeat that saying to some, they look at you like you have lost your marbles. ROFLMAO!!

Uyi Iredia:
okay >>> your talk of a universal position is clear >>> but how does this relate to my point against thehomer

rasputinn:
Amos Adamu is a disgrace,why has the EFCC not prosecuted him??

Uyi Iredia:
whaddya mean by submitting a universal position ? >>> you are right when you say I have an introspective bias but, don't we all ?

Uyi Iredia:
the inference is wrong, really ! >>> and let me state that the sex of a discussant on women's rights issue can lead to a modification of[b] how to best present my point[/b] >>> however, I may or may not respond differently to the male or female >>> this, of course is subject to my whims >>> and not responding does not automatically mean I have no cogent point to make

tensor777:
Absolute rubbish. In England there is no culture of directing vitriolic abuse or raining bitter curses on people. Those curses won't even be published in the first place.
Fine you can criticize a leader's policies and programs or even his actions but it should never descend to the gratitously personal level.

rebranded:
We have no reason to be borrowing when the price of crude oil keeps going up

what kind of economics did Aganga study?

Ujujoan:
Are you still confused

Meanwhile, I can't wait to hear what 'God' will say when the lose!

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has registered 54.9 million prospective voters nationwide – as of last Monday. Its projection is that the number of would-be voters will exceed 62 million by the close of the exercise tomorrow.

INEC chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega’s spokesman Kayode Idowu, who gave the figure in a statement yesterday, said the registration was going on as projected.

"About 54.9 million people had been registered nationwide as at Monday, January 31, 2010 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the on-going voter registration exercise.

"With barely two days to the end of the seven-day extension, the daily average nationwide has lowered to 3.2million, as against about 4.3million per day a week earlier. It is expected that the daily average will decline even furthermore as people get registered.

"Going by the present level and pace of registration, it is projected that no fewer than 62million people will be registered by the close of the registration on Saturday, February 5, 2010," Idowu said.

He, however, did not release the state-by-state breakdown.

In Enugu, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Josiah Uwazuruonye, announced that no fewer than one million eligible voters had been registered.

Dr Uwazuruonye told NAN on Wednesday that the commission was ready to register even more people to ensure a credible register.

Uwazuruonye said the commission spent a lot of money trying to make the registration successful and would do more if need be.

"We supply about 30 packets of ink to each of the 17 local government areas daily.

"Nigeria is a country where many people complain of one thing or the other, but we will ensure that people do not lay a lot of complaints by providing materials to every centre," he said.

The voter registration suffered another hitch yesterday in Lagos, following the shortage of ink and ECIA forms used in printing cards.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the areas affected by the shortage include the densely populated Alimoso, Ayobo-Ipaja and Oke-Odo council areas.

The ECIA form is used for manual registration of eligible voters while the ink is used for thumb printing before registered voters are issued with their cards.

A corps member, Mr Emmanuel Samuel, told NAN that INEC only provided five copies of the ECIA forms at the centre for the additional one week for the exercise, which he described as inadequate.

"What this means is that we are not able to give out the temporary voter cards to people that we have registered.

"We are now doing it on a first come, first served basis because we still have over 200 people who have been duly registered but they will not be able to collect their cards because of this problem,’’ he said.

Prince Bisi Yusuf, Chairman, Ayobo-Ipaja Local Council Development Area, said the hitches had not been fully addressed in the area, saying only 35 per cent of eligible voters in the area had been registered.

"The shortage of materials has hampered the registration in this area. We have provided inks to some of the centres, but we cannot provide the ECIA forms," he said.

In Abuja, the problems associated with the slow processing capacities of Direct Data Capture machines have refused to go away. Housewives, youths and other prospective voters in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) now do vigil at registration centres.

Prospective voters go to registration centres in their area at midnight, to begin registering their names in notebooks or sheets of paper that registration officials use to allot serial numbers between 8 and 9a.m., shortly before registration begins.

The number given by the officials determines the placement of those queuing to register while those who fail to arrive in time lose their chance.

The practice is common at registration centres in Wuse and Garki areas within the city and in satellite towns, such as Lugbe and Kubwa.

"ALLAH KA WARGAZA SULE LAMODI DA SAURAN TSINANNUN ABOKANSA, ALLAH KA WALAKANTA SULE LAMIDO DA TSINAN NUN ABOKANSA, ALLAH KATONAWA SULE LAMIDO DA ABOKANSA ASIRI, ALLAH KA TSIYATA SULE LAMIDO DA TSINAN NUN ABOKANSA, AMEEN DUK NA ANNABI YACE AMEEN"

Kobojunkie:
What has doing it at ward level to do with ease of detecting duplicates?