₦airaland Forum

You And What Army Waka Come


When Boko Haram first encountered Nigerian Army, their obvious question was: “Na only you waka come?” Unfortunately, the Nigerian Army did not include one of world Most Badass Elite Fighting Units from all countries. This has major implications for Nigerians because they cannot understand why an Army that got laurels all over the world for their participations in World War I & II, peace missions and greeted as saviors in Liberia could not perform bravely at home.

Our fathers and grandfathers that were known as Burma (now Myanmar) Boys told us many stories about the honors and conquests they made on their return to Africa. African countries produce some of the “badass or badest” elite fighting units since World I and II. The same is true of world peace-keeping missions. In individual African countries, our national armies’ reputations are less than stellar. They are well known for coups and abuse of their civilians.

The first coming of Rawlings in Ghana was widely received because he questioned the wisdom of those in a coup d’état on 24th February 1966 that overthrew Kwame Nkrumah while on a peace mission to Hanoi Vietnam via Peking, now Beijing in China. Since then, no African leader has commanded such respect or taken so seriously with such an honor outside the Continent.

Rawlings was a Lieutenant when he took over in Ghana. Sergeant Doe was able to stage a coup in Liberia and got away with it. We shook our heads each time because we knew both of these officers could not have taken over power in Nigeria. Those that tried saw their power usurped by more senior officers. The junior officers are left to administer jungle justice as they see fit to Police, those of us they call “bloody” civilians; sent to invade and impede the Press in June 2014.

There were three famous Army leaders that still command visceral reactions in Nigeria today. Abacha will be remembered among other exploits, for leading an end to the religious fanatics, Maitatsine. Ezeogwu led abortive coup against corruption that plunge the Country into civil war and Adekunle the Black Scorpion for his mercilessness against the rebellion during the civil war. The irony is Nigerians wish they have Abacha today leading the fight against Boko Haram.

Our Army is supposed to protect us from external aggression. It is only in dire circumstances, when Police can no longer contain a situation, do we require the assistance of the Army. It is usually said there is no bad soldiers but bad commanders. Obviously the Military Police has not been effective against its own. If those commanders cannot contain soldiers in their care, it becomes the responsibility of their Generals to rein them in.

Therefore, Nigerian Army has concentrated its grip against “bloody civilians” at home. There is hardly a month without brutality against civilians and sometimes against Police. Each time this occurs, a committee is set up and by the following month another incident would overshadow the previous month. Since the end of military rule, the incursions of these soldiers into civilians’ lives remain traumatic and people’s cry to end it has fallen on deaf ears.

In cities as chaotic as Lagos where too many people occupy tiny space and crazy traffic, so many fatal accidents are just unacceptable. Certainly, more need to be done to reduce these fatalities. Recently, another fatality occurred when Lagos State Rapid Transit System knocked a soldier down cold. As usual, soldiers came out from their barracks to beat up people and set some buses ablaze. Nobody could justify the death of anyone, but rapacious arson is unacceptable.

We have soldiers terrorizing their own civilians and Police when they could be fighting terrorism in Sambisa evil forest. There, soldiers and a General took to their hills. But can burn buses in the city; next, move on to burn houses. May be we have to turn to Boko Haram to scare them away from the cities. Even Defense Minister of State was called a “small boy” and a “bloody civilian”.

It does not take much to get these soldiers out of their barracks. One or two of them can go back to the barracks to complain that they have been mistreated at a bus stop. The rest of them will troop out and cause mayhem at any pointed location regardless of who is at fault. So if one soldier is unhappy, you have breached the wrath of all of them. The lack of respect for human lives and total disregard for the rule of law where needed, is confounding to say the least.

Though the Police has also taken advantage of the same civilians they are supposed to protect, the roadside checks abolished by the Chief of Police has reduced fatal encounters and constant bribes and harassment. When broke, greedy police still surreptitiously mount check points.

Despite this inexcusable relationship with civilians, you will pity them when the soldiers unleash their jungle justice on uniformed police officers. During these periods, police officers with the tasks of keeping order on the streets remove their uniforms and disappear into thin air. Some of the soldiers would go as far as the Police Station looking for officers to beat up because they think they are above the law. In order to avoid trouble, police ignore soldiers’ public infractions.

We have to implement discipline in our Armed Forces against their attacks on civilians and on one another. Internal discipline must be swift and exemplary. Our Police and Army reflect who we are as a country. A nation where lawlessness is perpetrated with impunity sends message to others to behave the same way. Discipline within the Armed Forces should not require special panel or committee for enforcement of discipline. Is it because we do not have to import that?

It is an insult to say we have no solution to the problems that plaque us when we know how to apply discipline; without importing it. It does not have to be at the time of Buhari/ Idiagbon or watered down EEFC after Ribadu glorious days. A country that knows what ails it and refuses to apply solutions it has within will always suffer and disintegrate as a fish that rots from the head.
- See more at: http://abujavoice.com/you-and-what-army-waka-come/#sthash.jcIXIMrQ.dpuf

On the long run it might be cheaper to Let Niger Delta Go. The rest of the country has had their runs on the chicken that lay the golden eggs. The golden eggs are dwindling and the chicken is getting old. Niger Delta must have the rest to itself. Until lately, most of the billionaires that made it from the oil sector are far from the environmental disaster created by oil spill and of course, oil farming done by locals or damages done by fanatics destroying their villages.

OPINION: BEFORE EBELE HANDOVER: OIL SECTOR “SOLD” TO RIGHTFUL OWNERS
Posted by: THEWILL_ Posted date: December 23, 2013 In: Opinion


Do you love Nigeria as your Country without oil resources or just want your opportunity to loot? As Ebele term ends, no amount of Party and family business distractions will control the oil sector. Nigeria/Biafra War boiled down to control of the oil resources. Issac Boro did not die fighting Biafra so that the rest of Nigeria can hijack oil loot forever. Ebele will “sell” to the rightful owners before Nigeria gets its hands on it again. I swear!

Privatization is the method Nigeria uses when we want to allocate other people’s money (OPM) to cronies and sympathizers. In this case, bootlickers know whose praises to sing and if they do it well, even if they are far from the oil regions, they will be rewarded accordingly. Professional singers know that and they are already lined up for or against Ebele. It does not matter who is wrong or right or what letter is written by whom.

There are different ways to skin a cat. Ebele can use National conference to achieve the same goal or privatization or outright looting. There is a reason EFCC has no money but Ebele “ have already directed the coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance to make adequate financial provisions so that this conference will take off immediately we enter next year.” Those Nigerians still thinking there is a rational way to commandeer oil sector are few.

In his remark, the Chairman of the National Advisory Committee on National Conference, Senator Femi Okunrounmu said that the committee travelled extensively across the length and breadth of the country during which they interacted with the large cross section of the people across socio, economic and political divide.

OBJ O, Danjuma O, IBB O, Tinubu O, Ihejirika O, Gowon O, Iweala O, Lukman O etc. juggling for loot will find empty barrels of black gold. By the time Ebele and Co. finish this term in office, there will be nothing in reserve to pay a dog catcher. Ask the Arab, by the time chivalry got to south of West Africa looking for gold, tsetse fly dealt severely with them. Gold had moved. If your reason for one Nigeria is to come back and loot again, Ebele has moved the loot home.

Look, look at these people fighting for what does not belong to them in the name of love of Country. It is immaterial whether Ebele will run for the second or third term or not. By the time he is ready to leave, most of these politicians will be fighting over another country, not Nigeria as we know it. It is a pity that Nigerians are arguing past one another without facing the real issue. The days of milking the oil sector for a few is gone.

The days of milking the oil sector for a few rightful owners has come. All the noise about what Niger Deltans did or did not do with the resources given to them is history. The first mission is to gain full control of the sector. Then, they can settle who and who is looting, selfish and greedy within themselves. The first order of business is to gain control of all oil profit.

On the long run it might be cheaper to Let Niger Delta Go. The rest of the country has had their runs on the chicken that lay the golden eggs. The golden eggs are dwindling and the chicken is getting old. Niger Delta must have the rest to itself. Until lately, most of the billionaires that made it from the oil sector are far from the environmental disaster created by oil spill and of course, oil farming done by locals or damages done by fanatics destroying their villages.

Let us start by paying our politicians based on the amount of resources generated from their states. The cost of living does not have to be the same in every nook of the country because income from oil resources from one region is used to measure salaries, prices, inflation, and school fees even in the villages and small towns. It is hard to keep up with trillions and billions of unapproved or unaccounted for, in the books because it is OPM (other people’s money)

How long the owners of Nigerian oil resources will float on their riches is a different matter. The demand for oil is not as great as it used to be. Oil reserves are discovered in Lake Chad near the North and in Lagos. Imo and Ondo already have oil. United States is becoming energy efficient and oil divergent in its thirst to other renewable resources. Indeed, United States may become exporter of oil too. So the market for oil as we know it is dwindling.

Even the Ijaws are surrounded by people who will never support their self-determination fight because they have been cheated or fought against resulting in loss of lives and property of the itsekiri, Benin, Ilaje, urhobo etc. They will never be in the same country dominated by the ijaw.

It is said that the head of each Ijaw canoe houses and Amayanabor are more powerful than the well-known political leaders that perfected the act of lootings. Many of them are independent Nigerians that have fought Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa to a standstill in the past and will do it again.

Moreover, within the Ijaw, they are like the rest of Nigerians. So there are those closer in family history to the Yoruba sharing Adimu or Oduduwa with them. There are also those affiliated with the Igbo sharing variation in names. The Ahoada have more in common with Igbo than Ijaw. Bayelsa itself is made largely made up of sub-ethnic Ijaw, Nembe, Ogbia, Epie and Atissa of the Yenagoa land. They have different and unique cultures and languages. As it is commonly said, locally an Ogbia man is an Ogbia man, but in the national politics an Ogbia man is an Ijaw man.

The only unity amongst the Ijaw right now is their cause against Nigeria as a whole. People tend to support and empathize with the underdog. Sorry, Ijaw are no more the victim they used to be. They are actively looting their own resources in their comfort zone against the interest of their majority that work hard, played by the rules and got educated instead of getting militant or terrorist training in Libya or Afghanistan. Ebele, softly softly O.

Written By Farouk Martins Aresa
- See more at: http://thewillnigeria.com/news/opinion-before-ebele-handover-oil-sector-sold-to-rightful-owners/#sthash.TC2wTX4P.dpuf

For a long time, we have neglected those youths that play and abide by the rules. They went to schools and colleges if they are fortunate to have parents that can afford them, but only to come out idle without productive adventures. Their heroes became criminal kidnappers of children and grandparents, converters to foreign religions that determine who is fit to live or die, and blackmailers of governments for their share of the loot.

The State of Rhode Island United States is where the Yoruba Elders International Society gathered to showcase field solutions to the ticking time Bomb of youth’s unemployment on 11/2/2013. We are sick and tired of promises, theories and predictions of a glorious Country in the year 3000. Fortunately, we have pockets of site studies that are bearing fruits. Mind you, critics caution that these experiments may not be sustainable.

Solutions must come within individual African countries and states, not United Nations or World Bank. So Osun State Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) engineers were invited from Osun, their World Bank supporter, experts from various fields and youths for their contributions on what is working, not what can or will work in the future. Most recognize the enthusiasms of the Governor of Osun State bent on making a difference.

So are Governors Okorocha from Imo and Kwakwaso of Kano amongst others. While Okorocha enticed primary school children with pocket money, Kwankwaso did with food for children that attracted their siblings to schools. The success of these individual states can be replicated in other areas throughout Africa. The days Fela Anikulapo sang about WATER from United Nation while we are located by Atlantic Ocean may be gone.

Each of the Governors has his critics but enough people give them their dues. A well fed child pays more attention in school than one with a hungry belly. Food or pocket money is a route to a better goal for a productive educated youth population. The youth bulge in populations around the world can be productive. Indeed, we have no choice. Biggest employers of idle youths are Boko Haram, MEND, OPC, MASSOB and as political thugs.

For a long time, we have neglected those youths that play and abide by the rules. They went to schools and colleges if they are fortunate to have parents that can afford them, but only to come out idle without productive adventures. Their heroes became criminal kidnappers of children and grandparents, converters to foreign religions that determine who is fit to live or die, and blackmailers of governments for their share of the loot.

This is the same resources that should have been planted seeds for primary agricultural industries. The fear of youths with machine guns and their leaders openly dealing with international arms dealers in terrorist camps have shot security industry into number one preoccupation of governments. They claim that, without security nothing else is possible. A vicious circle they could have prevented in the first place with job creation.

The fear that most of the experiments by individual states are not sustainable must be taken seriously. While Osun State provides food, uniform and builds schools; young university graduates are also employed temporarily in agricultures and apprenticeships that can multiply into their own businesses. These businesses can then employ others.

So far it has reduced the crime rate in Osun State. In the early eighties Jakande started Lagos State waste to riches by converting it to power to generate electricity and signed contract for subway from Yaba to Lagos that could have created millions jobs. Enemies of progress without brains in military uniforms killed both, losing millions already paid. Without planning, they made up governments according to their whims and caprices.

However, much more has to be done because Osun like the rest of the states depends on the allocation from the Federal Government. No state can base it economic program solely on allocation from outside. Each of the states must be able to generate enough income to sustain its programs. It was preached many times over that no country can depend on just finite natural resources, such as oil because of international market risks.

Ogbeni Aregbesola had been confronted on this sustainability question when he visited Harvard University. He claimed if he could only supply 25% of Lagosians demand for meat, he could make money. He wants to turn his State into economic food basket for Lagos and other states. He may have been trying to be modest because his zeal to be economically self-sufficient is betrayed by his ambitious program to employ the youths in his State and turn it to attraction like the old Western Region did for Africa.

No country in the world is worth its substance if it cannot feed its population. Food is power and can be used domestically and internationally to gain influence. Nigerians that are old enough would remember when we used to feed the whole of West Africa. Later, youths were brought up to turn their back on agricultural industries. It got so bad; we went begging in Zimbabwe. We could not find high tech farmers from our universities?

So far the Kwara cassava farming with Zimbabwe farmers has resulted in modest if not mixed results. Generous long term loans and foreign exchange concession provided may not have yielded enough in returns as takeoff for economic power. Endeavors with high initial foreign investments, which is what most Nigerian politicians prefer, take forever to bear fruits. That is why local initiative is a must in any African country or state.

Nigeria was a promising regional power in the sixties; somehow we lost focus because we were in a hurry to jump from agricultural industries to steel industry. Needless to say at this point, we were fooled. Ajaokuta Steel Industry never took off with the secondary factories and businesses that were supposed to anchor on it. We are now going back to where we should have started after wasting trillions. Sadly our local looters are worse.

It should have been realized that those we relied on would never build a competition that would rival theirs in the international market. Even if we have well educated youth population, their skill must be tailored to meet primary industries. Many highly skilled local professionals do not have enabling environment to practice. Indeed our talents are ignored for foreign engineers, physicians, welders etc. suited for laundering currencies.

What we learned from the yearly Yoruba Elders International Interactive Workshop is that we have local talents with deep mental faculties that are willing to harness the resources around their environment to make success out of our youths. The notion that Rome was not built in a day insulted these talents. We were all created at the same time and Africans spread and populated the rest of the world from the cradle of civilization.

TINUBU CRIES BLOODY MURDER – NIGERIA BANS TAX CONTRACTORS
Posted by: THEWILL Posted date: October 24, 2013 In: Opinion

No matter how some of us feel about Governor Emeritus Tinubu, the powerhouse of Southwestern Nigerian politics, he may have finally met his match under Okonjo-Iweala. Ban on tax contractors has been discussed and digested only to be forgotten because nobody implemented it. In spite of this writer’s differences with Ngozi, she is dead right on this one. There are different ways to skin a cat; you can also hang it by the balls.

The reason for the implementation of this tax policy is even more economically sound than the political motive. Yeah, it’s like everybody was speeding but only one person get caught and brought before the court. Once the Nigerian Police get a good grip of this tax policy, most of the people violating people’s meager pockets by demanding taxes in every nook and corner of Nigeria must be severely dealt with.

We cannot be against taxes as long as the money is well spent on services the people can be proud of. Most of the Scandinavian countries and Canada pay high taxes and they are rewarded accordingly. Nigerians are taxed for even waiting at the bus stops by different thugs that are actually Political contractors. They introduce illegal levies or tolls and employ thugs who too many times punish citizens to enforce compliance.

It is not that we sympathize with Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) in the country since they do not pay the lowest workers enough in wages but they complain of multiple taxes and levies country-wide. 79 different taxes they claim is an exaggeration. That taxes prevent expansion and were responsible for the shutdown of businesses and relocation to neighboring countries is the usual cry of businesses everywhere.

What we cannot ague with is that multiple taxations increase the cost of doing business in Nigeria, discourages local trade and investment and also gives a negative perception of the Nigerian business environment. Foreign investors in Nigeria have already taken into account the fat profit they make which is impossible to make anywhere else. This is the reason they tell one another to hold their noses and make a killing in profit.

There is no reason to dispute World Bank report which indicates that for every 100 naira that businesses have to pay in taxes, they pay about 35 naira in compliance costs by taking Federal, State and local taxes into consideration. We also know that most of them if not all, never report their true profit. It is well hidden in gross cost. The oil companies are good example. They will rather declare profit to their governments than to Nigeria.

When it comes to harmonization of taxes and levies across the Federation, it is overdue. There are too many cooks in the kitchen. By the time you count tax collectors, mafias demanding protection money, government officials collecting bribes not to mention traffic and police officers extortion; you wonder how Nigerian small businesses survive.

Lekki Toll booths are just a symptom of greater malaise affecting the whole Country. How individual states and political godfathers get away with it for so long is nauseating, to say the least. Despite protest by the young and old people across Lekki road that was built by Jakande, decorated with flowers by Fashola; they are bent on milking folks dry.

When fish farmers, stewards, maids, drivers, cooks and old pensioners that hardly receive their money in or on time complained, they were told it is not their business because they are not rich enough to drive cars. By that logic, one would think that old pensioners must not drive in and out of their houses because they bought houses around Lekki; or what non-drivers pay does not include toll levied on public transports.

Well, fish farmers, Jakande house owners and pensioners must sell their modest houses and move out of Ajah and Lekki areas to avoid paying tolls. If they ever live longer than the sale price of their properties, they should lie down and die, abi no be so!

Please do not underestimate Tinubu. There are plans in the works to sell some interest at inflated prices dictated by him in exchange for properties, expressways, tax collecting agencies and companies: back to Lagos State or even to others. All he has to do is get a bank to lend Lagos State the money and pay him off. By that transaction, he would have severed his connections, let others hold the bag. Nobody may trace the loss back to him.

This is turning out like the housing bubble that started in U.S causing economic collapse that led to world recession. What they did was inflate houses prices to those that could least afford it and get them bank loans knowing full well that it was backed by mortgage insurance. In this case Lagos State Government will be stuck with all the unsustainable highly inflated expressway and Eko Atlantic projects loans while Tinubu laughs to Bank.

You must remember those students that inflated their school fees with bursars breaking their fathers' back on cocoa farms to enrich bursars (foreign contractors). Whenever we say it costs about a billion naira or one million dollars to build a kilometer of road in Nigeria, people think it is an exaggeration. In reality, newly awarded 127.6 km Lagos-Ibadan expressway reconstruction is expected to cost N1.30 billion per km. Lekki new road running about N3.5 to 4.15 billion naira per km. Yet, nobody probe or query them.

The people of Lagos must bestow an honorary Lagos State Citizen on Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. There are many people that deserve the honor but it is during her time that the determination comes to implement a ban on Nigerian Tax Contractors. There are other titles that can also be given to her in case she wants something different. Lagosians have to keep it in mind that there is nothing Tinubu has not given away as bribes in Lagos.

This is why it is important to pray for Tinubu so that he must not get sick or die. Lagos State has more to lose if anything happens to him than to gain. As long as he is around, he could be called upon to disgorge all his ill-gotten loot from Lagos State. Nobody in the whole wide world has ever gouged a state unscathed, as much as Tinubu.

Written By Farouk Martins Aresa
- See more at: http://thewillnigeria.com/news/tinubu-cries-bloody-murder-nigeria-bans-tax-contractors/#sthash.vt2g7mC1.dpuf

Since Young Black Men Avoid High Maintenance Ladies

Matching African young men with the young ladies has not worked very well these days. Traditional weddings, naming ceremonies, religious and cultural events where they meet one another are not enough. Our wish is different from theirs. They are definitely staying longer at home and parents are becoming apprehensive. The young men claim that they want to be financially secured in marriage and save for their own houses.

Young men are coming up with excuses while young women claim there are not that many choices out there of single black men they meet on social networks. Both claim the same friends most of them grew up with are high maintenance ladies and boys. Some of these young men and women grew up in a sheltered environment, went to some best schools in the world and are now qualified professional in their own rights.

The problem starts from “rich islands” where they were brought up. Most Africans countries have government reserve area (GRA) and other specially developed areas where the rich or who and who in these societies buy properties. The roads are perfect, internally generated electricity is reliable and treated water supply abundant. Crime if any are few and parties last until early hours of the morning within these islands.

Some girls never dated boys outside. It was only yesterday their parent did not want to see them with any boys, girls pointed out. Some parents are in successful business, high government officials or work for companies providing accommodation for staff. In the heydays of university campuses of Fourah Bay College, University of Ibadan and Univ. of Ghana, were locations that could rival them. One can forget about - see Paris and die.

The houses and roads in these new islands, never mind the poverty surrounding them, would blow the head of these boys and girls that are now men and women that cannot afford the same luxuries. But then, even grown men get lost in their dreams. This writer was so impressed with old FESTAC in Nigeria, he spent daily evenings looking for one of the boys quarters to rent. He got much more when an apartment was allocated to him.

So you can imagine how these young people feel. The fear of leaving home is one of the problems these men have to deal with, now we are pushing them to marry because they are getting too old to be bachelors. After all, we conquered that fear when we went to boarding schools and colleges, then got married in our twenties. Those that thought it was easier outside Africa later told sad stories of full time school and full time work.

The main complaint is many of the spoilt girls never drank pure water in their life and as adults only drink wine and champagne with their meals. Most of them do their groceries at super markets, shop for materials and trinkets in Dubai, London, Paris and New York. Their vacations and some weekends are not even spent in Africa. They only drive exotic and dangerous race cars that have no room for their parents on the roads. So, many turned out to be high maintenance, growing up with silver foot in their mouth.

When mothers usually more anxious bug boys about getting married: boys answer how they can afford such high maintenance ladies. That type of reluctance of the young men makes their mothers curious if their fathers have been complaining to their sons about the mothers' spending habits. No ma'am, the boys would answer. The men do not have to complain about wives but the children are not blind, despite being over-pampered.

A man that knows his place will not complain about wife spending habit to his children otherwise he risks being called stingy. Moreover, the richer they are, the better off he is keeping his mouth shut. Especially those with women they married when they were dirt poor. Anyone that has seen divorce lists of what they ask for, must understand what a high maintenance lady is. The older women can be richer by the order of the court.

The rich and well educated young ladies are not going to be hanging around forever waiting for the rich young men they grew up with to marry them. Many of them spread the search for a suitable husband around the globe to men of all colors, many willing to be second wives and others experiment with other women as lesbians. There are also some well educated women with good careers willing to marry poor men.

This is a different type of problem. Haba, they are now competing with poor women for their men. These rich and spoilt brats are leaving their rich and luxurious islands daring into the ghettos or shanty towns to marry the poor men. They claim love is blind when the fact is the young men they grew up with cannot keep up with their expensive taste. Check out the weddings of the rich and famous and compare them to those of talikawa.

The opulence when the rich daughters marry the rich young men defies poverty around them. Many men and women of “timber and caliber” are invited. It is usually a parade of who is who in the society. They usually have two weddings: traditional and English or Islamic. They may hire J.Lo or Beyonce to sing. It creates an opportunity for children to meet one another and start dating with the hope that they will marry in the future.

The parents of the bride may give a Mercedes Benz while the parents of the groom may give a house, sometimes from one of the rich islands. One would think that poor people would know their place. No, they copy the rich no matter where the money comes from. Many would borrow money for a wedding and feed all comers lavishly only to starve the following morning. This may be the beginning of the end of their sumptuous wedding.

The poor young men change to high maintenance bunch. They completely forget where they came from. Some may even move in with their wives' parents. Like the rich young men that claim they are saving for their own houses. Their rich wives complain the poor men never want modest cars, love expensive restaurants and buy expensive items without caring where their wives got the money. Many keep a bunch of girlfriends too.


Source: Farouk Martins Aresa

http://www.thenigerianvoice.com/nvnews/126963/1/since-young-black-men-avoid-high-maintenance-ladie.html

Published: Saturday, October 19, 2013

texaco1: he is the one that is not respecting himself.all the fights he has been fighting how many did the fg bankrolled?there is no law that compels govt to foot this bill.if the fg isnt responding why cant he try other cooperate organistaions or multinationals?at one time he said he will be sleeping at the gate of pdp national headquaters as if he is a pensioner.he is the one bringing himself to ridicule ,maybe with this incident someone will have pity on him and bankroll the fight.but who will want to spend millions on a fight like this ?he should try state govs maybe one of them will sponsor the fight

It is so difficult to distinguish the sheep from the lion in Nigeria as a whole. Involvement of the Judiciary our last hope of justice in corruption, even on a small scale is disheartening. The report that one Funke Ogunbiyi, the daughter of a Justice of the Supreme Court went to Justice Okechukwu Okeke and demanded he reverse himself on a matter already executed is disturbing. If it was one of our uncles in those days, that girl would not sleep at home that night. Na who born dog?

The Chief Justice of Nigeria Mariam Aloma Muhktar, may God bless her soul, was just trying to clean up the mess in the judiciary and many Nigerians are relieved at the fresh hope of justice. We were trying to recover from the last nightmare between the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloyius Katsina-Alu and the suspended President of the Court of the Appeal, Justice Ayo Isa Salami when this allegation by Justice Okeke raised its head. Then came a pension rogue of 203 million fined 1,500, by Justice Talba.

Instead of rushing to condemn anyone, further details showed some stinking odor around some Justices themselves for which they were warned before retirement, suspended or should have been fired. Now Okeke, a respected Justice unafraid to rule against governments, may even have been innocent of any allegation. But his allegation against a seating Justice of the Supreme Court is equally hasty. Okeke was linked to the notorious Speaker of the Lagos State who was alleged to have given Justice Okeke half a million dollars bribe advance and the other half after he would have been discharged.

These are very honorable people that have served the Country for a long time. While it may be true that this Funke Ogunbiyi actually approached the honorable Justice, it is premature to implicate her mother. Nobody should underestimate this new generation of Nigerians that learned from corrupt elders. There might have been some discussion at the dinner table for which Supreme Court Justice Clara Ogunbiyi was unhappy with some rulings she could not do anything about. It did not mean she sent her daughter.

Looking further into the case of 5A George Street Ikoyi, it showed that the residents are HPCN staff and have the erudite lawyer, Falana to represent them; that the building should not have been forfeited to the Government as Ms. Ibru’s Oceanic Bank saga negotiation. The case becomes clumsier and difficult to distinguish the head from the tail. Right now we do not know who is the hero or the valiant as Justice Okeke must be encourage to speak out if he thinks he could have been wronged or damaged somehow.

Corruption in Nigeria has been used to embellish the most innocent and humble. If you do not play the game with them, they will find ways to get you involved. In other words, you cannot be cleaner than them. Since the Lady Chief Justice made up her mind to clean up, many of us have been praying that she must not stumble. Nigeria needs someone like her to take on the big boys and win. Corruption has been so endemic in the system, it takes a durable and indefatigable human to wrestle it down.

As for Funke Ogunbiyi, we would rather take the words of Justice Okeke over hers. She probably went to his office as reported just because she thinks she is the daughter of a Supreme Court Judge. Whatever her age, she needs family members to reprimand her for trying to soil her mother’s reputation. Nigerians in high places must also remind their children and grandchildren not to embarrass or soil their names, especially in public places. Some of us boast too much in front of her children.

It is hard enough being a judge without looking for trouble. They preside over difficult and extremely dangerous individuals that may take the law into their hands. If that is not enough to worry about, they need to get a good part-time job as teachers of children in public schools. Their presence there and similarly disadvantage places is enough to instill humility and discipline. The Chief Justice of Lagos has been visiting different prisons to release those locked up for years without bail for minor offences.

Recently, the son of one of the Justices was kidnapped. Trying to recover from such ugly incident can be traumatic. Some months later, the wife and the daughter of the same Justice Bode Rhode-Vivour were kidnapped again! Gathering life savings if you are not corrupt to bail out your love ones from kidnappers, is not what we wish on the innocent people that are not oppressors.

Our judges must behave accordingly and realized that even when they have the same blood and flesh like everyone else, they must grief, reflex and merry privately and modestly. However, penury in our old age is not only scary to justices, but to all of us. A country that do not treat people that have sacrificed their younger days toiling for the betterment and future of the Country deserve to live the rest of their lives in peace without worrying about their old age. Na weytin, Bodi no be leather nah.

We also know that nothing is more lucrative than being appointed Election Tribunal judge. If you did not celebrate your appointment, some of your relatives would. It is like winning a lottery. Some people say it will not change them. Your relatives tell you to speak for yourself, because if it does not change you, it will change them! How can anyone in any high place in the Country explain that he or she did not use that influence to take bribe, steal allocation, pension and salary?

Indeed, that may be a sure way to invite your relatives to kidnap you until you come up with their share.

According to Abu Nusaybah, while visiting Kenya to study, Michael Adebolajo and a group of guys were picked up and interrogated by the Kenyan authorities from a village, and when he declined to speak to the security officers, Michael Adebolajo recounted that the Kenyan officials told him, “you are not in the UK, you have no idea what we will do to you.” According to the interview, Michael Adebolajo’s eyes watered as he said he could not tell his friend what was done to him, that he was shy and ashamed to say what happened to him. His friend said he was sexually tortured and abused by the authorities, and from then on he changed. He became introverted, aloof and distant.

Read more: http://newsrescue.com/sexual-abuse-by-kenyan-authority-mi5-bugging-triggered-adebolajos-change-friend/#ixzz2UMeF0HGV

Mammie, why are Africans so poor? The mother looked at the program on television the child was watching and answered: Just look at Nigeria. She put on one of Fela’s vinyl records on an old gramophone made “centuries” ago and the voice sang: Buy Africa! Africa’s problem is much more but Nigeria captures it. Unfortunately, Nigerians do not see themselves as poor. If you showed poverty on Nigeria’s TV, it was defamation.

The rich live in an island of false sense of security, paved streets inside their estates, regular supply of water and electricity and their own work, play and shopping centers like anywhere else in the world. So who in his right sense would label that as poverty? After all, a friend mused, there are classes of people everywhere in the world, so are Nigerians. It is true, there is no types of houses or cars you cannot find in Nigeria.

One of our most noble deeds is to fight and care for the poor. The rich can fight and do fight for themselves. They make, write and enforce the laws to favor themselves. The liberals amongst them fight for the basic human rights from which the poor benefit. But make no mistake about it, many poor people remain poor out of bad habits that impede our progress. The rich invest their money, the poor waste the little they have.

Once you have a full time job and spending more money than you are taking in, it does not require a financial planner to say that is the way to the poor house. This is where our tastes and way of life come in. There was this friend that claimed he would never live or date people outside of certain posh areas. The other friend decided to build in a modest area rather than pay another two or three years rent in an area. That is a choice.

When the new generation banks started paying high salaries to graduates, we told our kids that left steady poor paying jobs to save and invest it in real estate and for their pension. They thought they would never get old. It was the same advice to their cousins in Diaspora that did not realize that their duration in high paying jobs would not be as long as their colleagues. Those who failed to heed the advice lived to regret it.

There is this song about money – ti m’ba lowo lomode mi ma ni la’gba. The best time to make the money you will live on for the rest of your life is when you are young. Waiting to get older to make it is an act of malpractice. Some people never had their first house until they were fifty. Those were late bloomers. We are not all that lucky. Some never had, not because they were lazy, but because of circumstances beyond their reach.

So why are we surprised that Boko Haram, MEND, MASSOB and OPC strive very well and are even represented at the highest levels in the Federal and states governments. You cannot flaunt riches to the poor and expect them to be satisfied with window shopping. If anything it’s surprising that the situation is not worse. The poor are so condescending; they tolerate abuse to the highest order in Nigeria. The poor are not blameless.

The poor direct their anger to their closest neighborhoods making them dangerous, to their own families and relatives making who to trust doubtful, and kidnapped the most vulnerable or defenseless demanding ransoms because those are the ones they could reach. But pour out all their venoms against politicians because they are graduates that cannot find jobs. Apart from militias, who else has the attention of the politicians?

If the poor people fail trying to make it and hostile environment make it improbable, no one can blame them. That is the reason we want equal playing field so that everyone would stand a chance based on their own effort. Nobody should be condemned to a life of poverty because of the neighborhoods, homes, schools or area/zip code they come from. Those fighting for the rich are selfish because they only care for their pockets.

Those familiar with this writer must have read that: if one million people are given a million in any currency or naira each; by the end one year, some would be poor again while others would be richer. Of course unforeseen disaster, swindlers and excessive obligation must contribute. It does not excuse safe investment, good judgment and cutting our coat according to our sizes. The poor would rather copy bad taste of the rich.

Some fell on bad times, others into bad relationships or unfortunate marriages. As for those that claim they never made enough money to make ends meet, how did their friends and colleagues making about the same amount of money able to build a house and send their children to modest school? They would rather party and spend lavishly for the moment with those richer than them.

Greed has a little place in all of us as long as it does not blind. Gambling in one form or the other is a good example of greed. When we are told that we stand a better chance of being struck by thunder than winning a million, our friends said you got to play to win. Poor people spend so much money gambling, it becomes a regressive tax. The rich can gamble all they want, it’s proportionally smaller part of their income.

Moreover if the rich lose all their income gambling, they stand a better chance of making it back than the poor. Their contacts, class and favors may still be useful. The same is not true of the poor that is struggling to make it rich. There is nothing special about the rich, more than glamor: glories of our births are shadows not substantiality.

The best way rich people make money is to pool money from as many people as they can. The smaller the amount pulled, the larger the crowd. Indeed most companies make more money selling to more households at a lower price than at a high price. As getting more people to buy coca cola than buying cognac. The more purchasing power the poor have, the better for the businesses. This is not working because we refuse to Buy Africa.

So if you are so smart, how come you are not rich? Answer: if you are so rich, how come you are not smart?

http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/the-poor-are-not-blameless.html

warlei: good post,our leaders nid mental assesment.

donedy: I'm not saying that I believe the Alafin, but I think you're the one suffering from delusion in this scenario. Had it been he spoke with white Jesus (god), you would have believed him and not call it inanimate. Just look at the inferiority complex of a black man like you.