₦airaland Forum

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The inside story : How it all went down in Rome.

The Vatican has a way of setting everyone on an even keel. I remember how dazed I was when on my last trip during the Funeral mass of Pope Francis some weeks before, when President Donald Trump had walked into the Basilica and was led to his seat at the square.

A number of dignitaries lined up to go to exchange pleasantries with him, causing a bit of a stir and a crowded scene. To my surprise, a middle aged prim looking priest walked up to them and addressed them rather tersely, ‘ scusi,(meaning Excuse me in italian) This is St Peter’s Basilica; not the White House. Kindly take your seats please’...He was purely concerned that the solemnity of the event was not torpedoed by boisterous politicians.

The Nigerian delegation for the installation mass of Pope Leo XIV at St Peter’s Square led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu arrived early enough when there was ample time for pleasantries .

As we entered, I sighted Former Governors Peter Obi and Kayode Fayemi already seated, and I went to greet them after the President was seated.

Being patriotic citizens, they both decided to come up with me to pay their respects to Mr President who very warmly and graciously received them both in a relaxed and humorous mood after which they both returned to their seats

At the Basilica, no matter who you are, you are sitting out in that square under that scorching sun. People routinely faint and pass out from heatstroke and have to be evacuated in stretchers.

In fact, the man seated in front of me slumped during the mass. It was Seyi Tinubu who saved the day . The. bottle of water he 'traveled' all the way to the vestibule to procure was what was given the man to revive him till the paramedics came.

President Tinubu went through the entire 3 hours mass, observing every rite except Communion under that flaming sun. Afterwards, he chatted and took selfies with several nigerian priests and seminarians who came to greet him.

And can I possibly forget to mention his impeccably tailored 'power suit' which drew admiration as he walked so stridently to meet the new pontiff.

Indeed, Vatican '25 has been a profound experience!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ9CasQiqke/

Photo 4) Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu with Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah (Bishop of Sokoto), Archbishop Lucius Ugorji, (Archbishop of Owerri and President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria), Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama (Archbishop of Abuja) and Archbishop Alfred Adewale Martins (Archbishop of Lagos).

Be careful. There are people that have been paid to post. They can't defend their positions if you challenge them, but they'll keep putting out words in order to justify their pay. Don't waste your time.

Funny, he still thinks that I'll read his posts.

He has no point, he has even agreed with me that he has no point (he agreed that military rule does not guarantee a good economy, even though the basis of his entire argument is that military rule guarantees a better economy), he is just going round and round in circles without saying anything.

Why should I waste my time?

That will probably be another person that I'll block

IHate9jerianss:
SAP-Structural Adjustment Programme in other words,neo-liberal capitalist policies instead of socialist policies.The wealth of a nation in the hands of a few while the majority become wage slaves.

It began with the Babangida regime,was mostly continued by the Abacha regime but was fully implemented by the democratic dispensations beginning with the Obasanjo administration & it has ruined the economic mobility of the nation's average citizenry

Thank you for making this post. This post has made me realise that I shouldn't be engaging you at all.

The argument was whether military rule guaranteed a better economy, but you have veered off to some propagamda no nsense.

You are probably one of those people that have been paid to spread this thing (the kind of people that I described in the first post).

Goodbye, I won't read your post again.

Do you know how many people died during the SAP riots? Do you know how desperate people were to go out on the streets and confront heavily armed soldiers?

In fact, why am I wasting my time? You don't know what you are talking about.

Great economies are created by good economic decisions, not by whether we are under military or civilian rule.

Military rulers make bad economic decisions, civilian rulers also make bad economic decisions.

How can a good economy be a justification for military rule??

Is this some kind of joke??

Imagine that the justification for military rule will be that we will have a better economy? Does that even make sense??

IHate9jerianss:
Now this is getting ridiculous
I am neither romanticizing nor sugarcoating anything
How can you be talking about the 101 feeding food system when in present day Nigeria,many people practice the 000 system?

Pray tell,was Nigeria as economically,socially,morally and spiritually bankrupt as she is under democratic rule than she was under military rule?
If you say yes,then this correspondence will be over

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I AM TELLING YOU! YOU DIDN'T WITNESS SAP! SAP WAS WORSE THAN THIS! FAR FAR WORSE!

Anyway, you've already stated it. Military rule does not guarantee a better economy.

That's the fact.

IHate9jerianss:
I do remember Kingsway & Leventis.Would go shopping there sometimes with my mother.
I can't remember them shutting down but they did.STILL,the economic situation for the average Nigerian wasn't as brutal under military rule as it is in Nigeria today.
The horrific poverty in the country today,simply didn't exist back then

If it wasn't as brutal, why did we have SAP riots??

What can be more brutal than not having food to eat?.

Do you know what level 101 means?

Do you know the level of inflation we had under military rule in the mid and late 1980s

Remember, most people were government workers then, unlike now that a lot of people work for themselves and can increase their charges. There was galloping inflation and government didn't increase salaries.

Do you know how Tokunbo cars came to be? When Nigerians could not afford new cars (for the first time ever)?

Don't sugarcoat and romanticise it, we had exactly the same thing under military rule amd military rule or democracy does not guarantee good standard of living.

IHate9jerianss:
It doesnt but from my lived experience of both systems of rule,it seems much better than whatever is being practiced in Nigeria today which clearly isn't working (especially economically) for the generality of the citizenry

That's the point. You don't know what you are talking about.

We've had bad economy under military rule and we've had bad economy under democracy.

The only difference is that you have a better chance of doing something about it under democracy and you have absolutely no chance of doing anything about it under military rule and people will die. Many people will die.

This reminds me of the MMM debate on this same Nairaland.

Government is bad, therefore MMM.

How?

Did you at any time witness when the naira was stronger than the dollar? Do you know when the dollar became stronger than the naira? When cartoonists drew the picture of the dollar punching the naira in a boxing ring.

Do you know when Kingsway shut down? What about Leventis and the cinemas?

IHate9jerianss:
I will turn 39 in August 2025.
I can categorically tell you,standard of living was much better under military rule.
There was fuel scarcity (first saw it in 1994) ,harassment & imprisonment of journalists (TELL magazine etc) and rampant corruption BUT standard of living of the average Nigerian was better.
I began to notice how extremely poor Nigerians were becoming around 2001 and the situation has only become worse.

39 is not old enough to know how things were under military rule. Did you witness the currency slump of 1986? How old were you during the SAP riots of 1988? How old were you during the SAP riots of 1989??

You have still not answered my question. How does military rule guarantee a higher standard of living??

It's like someone arguing that, "I wore my sweater, so I should not get wet from the rain". How does wearing your sweater prevent you from getting wet from the rain?

IHate9jerianss:
Standard of living of the people under different democratic dispensations in Nigeria have always been poor.
There has never been an improvement.Instead, it has gotten worse under every administration mostly due to the neo-liberal capitalist policies forced unto our Govts by foreign western powers.
Before the advent of the democratic Govt in 1999,one of the major promises back then of the gains of democratic rule was the people's standard of living would improve.
Has it? Certainly not.
Is it freedom of speech the average citizen will feed on? Or tangible economic improvement of their lives?

🤣

You are running away from my question.

Nigeria was under military rule in the 1980s and SAP was implemented. People said that the standard of living was poor and SAP was sapping people. Various slangs appeared. People were on level 101, level 010, etc.

If you are too young to know, then I'll spell it out for you, level 101 meant that people ate breakfast, did not eat lunch and ate dinner. Level 010 meant that people only ate lunch.

This was under military rule in the 1980s

Once again (and don't run away from the questions)

So it is democracy that makes the standard of living high? So standard of living cannot be poor under military rule??

IHate9jerianss:
Sir,what is the purpose of Democracy if the standard of living of the citizenry is very poor?

Freedom of speech does not put food on the table.

Wonderful! So it is democracy that makes the standard of living high? So standard of living cannot be poor under military rule??

Wonderful!

Nigerian versions of the Donfeng Mengshi (manufactured in Nigeria by Epail).

People are posting all kinds of things on Nairaland and calling for military rule.

Isn't that funny?

Do they think that they would have been able to post the things that they are currently posting if we were under military rule? Do they know what would have happened to them?

Anyway, to many Nigerians the grass is always greener on the other side. Everything is always better than what they are going through. Military rule will always be better than democracy when they are in a democracy and democracy will be better than military rule when they are under military rule.

They can't see farther than today.

Akinremi twins.

Omolade (Kehinde) and Omotayo (Taiwo) Akinremi represented Nigeria in the 400m hurdles in the 1990s. One of them later joined the the US Air Force and competed for them at the World Military Games in the 2000s.

Where did those videos come from?

The issue of succession is one of the biggest problems of dictatorships. When will the tenure end? Who will take over afterwards? These questions are never fully answered and this always leads to a power struggle.

Felix Houphouet Boigny was president of the Ivory Coast from independence in 1960 till his death in 1993. I listened to him on the BBC when he ssid that he wasn't going to hand over to anyone because he was a chief in his village and by their tradition, a chief does not see his successor.

There was a power struggle between Allasane Ouattara and Henry Konan Bedie after Boigny died. Bedie won and was president till 1999 when there was a coup.

Basically, Ivory Coast suffered serious instability in the 2000s. There were 2 civil wars, presidents that lost elections but refused to accept the results, military rule, etc. Most of the videos that are being circulated are from that time.

In fact, some people are circulating the video of the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo and claiming that it was President Ouattara that was arrested.

There was no coup in the Ivory Coast, it's just a rumour that was manufactured by some people.

"Democracy is the worst form of government. . .until you try others" - Winston Churchill.

Biafran groups also spread the rumours.

That was my statememt.

Is this statement correct? Yes, it is a fact.

Anybody can use Google, Twitter, Facebook and other search engines and see that it is a fact.

Guyman02 and ChybuzzDD are wasting their time, I report facts and everybody can see that it's a fact.

All their stories are simply a waste of time. Nothing that they do will change facts.