₦airaland Forum

Sagamit,

I rest my case.

Sagamite,

Boy, that father shown to you trained you so well, you need no more from areas boys.

The report you pulled, back it up with the result of that charge. You are a paid prostitude for propagada.

I need not decend to your level. Find your base, u hia?

This is why you do not see decent people in politics.

There was a governor name Jakande that set one day apart to meet all kind of people, first come first served. All these untrained fellows that do not respect their fathers at home pour all kinds of home trained insult they practise on their fathers on others. Typical area boys attitude. No respect no decorum.
Even if the old man was totally wrong, it was obvious that Fashola was prepared for him, aba, on what? This is what our country has turned into.

In your villages where you come from, your governors go round doing what no Lagosian would ever do. Do you guys realy believe nobody has access to the Queen, Prime Minister of the President? If you are a stranger and low class in other people's country and they treat you as such, do not bring that to Nigeria. There are Nigerians that demand and see their President. If a Olurunnibe can not see Fashola, which ordinary folk has access to him?

If the man from Iragbiji and those surrounding him called, he would jump like a cat to answer them. Fools that do not know Lagos and run home on holidays, sometimes to see their governors, do not think a prominent Lagosian has the same right. Sio o!

Sagamit,

Shame on you!

Yeah, stupid. He was arranged for fraud by an employee that stole from the company and was reported to police in J K Randle & Co. That is Nigeria for you. Your employee stole from your company, you handed him over to police only to come back and claim you defrauded the same company that is yours. It only takes a bribe of the police to that tit for tat.

I see.

You are not good on statistic either. Little did you realize that if people are talking about percentages of those that passed and you come up with two or three Nigerians that decided to practice together, only fools will believe that 100% of you are from a foreign country. No logic sense whatever. But then, your last general education is high school.

You even show your ignorance more by comparing apples with oranges in salary between where you are and Nigeria. Do you realize some of us left to come and practice in Nigeria knowing full well that we will never make the same money?

But the benefits like car and housing go a long way in Nigeria and you have to thank your God when boys and girls that were better in primary schools or high school could not go further for different reasons.

It is a privilege to serve where people know your name. Everyone could do with more money, but don't push it.

No more from me.

You need to read the implication of your 98%. Please tell us where na. I will send another bunch load trying to get out of Nigeria.

Educated? What makes you educated, please tell us. I am sure you have not read beyond that mechanical manipulation of instruments. So can a mechanic. Your general education after high school still border you. Find out what it takes to be educated before you reply me. I can not waste my time on half educated diseased brain that thinks money is all it takes to render service.

This is the type of lies that send innocent folks packing and leaving Nigeria thru the desert.

You should be ashamed of yourself. If 98% of Nigerian doctors pass, all foreign doctors may as well flood Nigerian universities before coming overseas to practice.

Your pants is on fire.

How many cars have you shipped home lately?

How may Oba, Emir or Obi rule in Nigeria?

We just got rid of military, olodo.

The Arabs are 100 years behind.

Poor souls, this is what they tell you when you visit or when they come home?

You better hang on to what you've got.

Those that are better educated than you get less money.

reindeer:
you would have done yourself some little favour by getting some knowledge before posting.
So many Nigerians qualify and pass borad exams everyday.
They work far less hours in europe, try using google for European Working Time directive and compliance.
Get informed.Makes you look erm . . you know

[
[quote][/quote]

Some people are so ignorant, especially when they call themselves"betters". Than who?

Why don't you compare yourselves to doctors in communist countries where everyone makes the same according to training? The American doctors you are comparing yourselves with are better educated and medicine is a second degree.  Tell your friends there to let you know what they have to go through in order to qualify to practice there, if they ever qualify.  

Moreover, can you work their hours to make the money?

Fire them and replace them to those willing to work for suffering patients.

It s funny how how insensitive some people are. If it was another ethnic group that was so insulted, hell will break lose. Jonathan did not even insult anyone but just trading jabs with opponent and people find it offensive.

Note worthy post I must say.

excanny:
What are you saying? You mean they should be responsible for the conversion of public funds into private investments by Tinubu and his boy, Raji?

If any other state is drained by the way Tinubu and his boyboy Fashola drain Lagos, there will be mass revolt. But what the hell there are more ara Eko than omo Eko and Tinubu loot to spend money in their states. So why care?

Those saying at least they can see what Fashola is doing in Lagos because he is a one eye man are simply naive and do not wish Nigeria well.

Nobody cares. They can always run back to their states while Lagosians hold the bag.

MUBARAK PAVING NEW ROLE FOR MILITARY IN EGYPT

This 2011 demonstration against Mubarak will produce another military President. It is a way of life in Egypt. General Naguid and Abel Nasser deposition of King Farouk of Egypt in 1952 was the 2nd revolution after 1919 mass demonstration against British and French domination. No other Arab country as Egypt, kept its traditional relationship with Sudan and the rest of Africa dating back to the black Pharaohs. In fact, African custom remains permanent in Egypt regardless of leader, ancient Barber and Arab waves in Middle East.

The precipitating source of discontent in Egypt as in many other places is the arbitrary abuse of power, abuse of human rights and flagrant abuse of the treasury to enrich a class of leaders dominating the private business and sucking money out of the Country. This is not new in third world countries but people have a limit to how much corruption they can stomach before they blow up. By African standard, Egypt is a one eye king with more than 20% of its population living on less than two US dollars a day. It takes about 2 years for 50% of male and 90% of female graduates to find jobs. Egypt can do better.

Egyptians have to be careful and learn from their own history since 1948 when they blamed certain members of the military and King Farouk for their defeat by Israel. Egypt was one of the first places USA and Russia first worked together against the empires of the British and the French. The Suez Canal economy had been a source of pain for Egypt because of its control by the British and the French with determined opposing interest of each party. While the problems challenged Egypt, military class buried their regret in hedonic endeavors that disenfranchised poor. What else does Mubarak want at age 82?

Pent-up frustration is playing out in Egypt today. The military has a history of excesses in Africa after they overstay their welcome mat. Both Nigeria's Nzeogwu and Ghana's Rawlings were expected to change the face of Africa. In Ghana, Rawlings overstayed, in Nigeria Nzeogwu comrades betrayed him. Their vision and mission against corruption is what is echoed in Egypt today asking Mubarak to go. We have too many sit tight leaders in African ruling as dictators over some selected or appointed people “representatives”.

Caution! Egyptians want Mubarak kicked out; at the same time they embrace the Army because the Police have abused people's liberty. Well, there is no difference between the Army and Mubarak. The Police are only the messengers. Those that sent Police also send the Army. It is all a matter of tactics. While the masses may be able to divide them by appealing to Army's loyalty to Egypt and not to Mubarak will eventually work, there must be room for any opponent to retreat. If they do not want chaos, “now” must be as good as “soonest” and negotiation must include military cohorts that push him out.

Algiers has also tried the freedom and democracy the masses were yearning for but it was won by the religious right of Islamic Revolution Front with little tolerance for what brought them to power. As a result, the military had to come back and installed their President. Sometimes people can be manipulated between the military, the religious fanatics and corrupt democracy. Some Nigerians may still remember the Chairman of National Party of Nigeria that gave the masses the choice of either NPN or the Army.

The domineering powers in Egypt political arena has been royals, religious and military control of secular administration. Each had had its share of corruption but religious extremists have seized on the fact that they are the least corrupt of all. An advantage used to denigrate and denounce other forms of governments including communism and capitalism. Religious conservatism has always been a pain in every country for their lack of tolerance for other religious belief or even within the same religion divided into sects.

Saudi Arabia is an example of royal excess bribing its small population (so what?) to justify passing tokens to the fellow Arabs and would not hesitate to destroy them to keep its resources to itself. We see the same culture in Kuwait. But their intolerance for other religions, culture and other forms of masses representation is appalling. This allows corruption at the highest level within the royals while those they rule dare not copy their hedonic behavior for fear of sharia law administered only to little people.

The Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt has always been part of the struggle but the extremist views of some of their members have been exploited by the military leadership and the secular administration under them. We saw the rule of religion in Afghanistan where the ancient image of Buddha was blown up as they cubed corruption and opium grown even as main source of income. After the overthrow of the corrupt Sha, Iran is still ruled by Ayatollahs without any tolerance for cosmopolitan cultures they enjoyed while in exile.

Moreover, we cannot ignore the fact that corruption that plaque communism and capitalism is not as pronounced in religious administrations. The Vatican and Canterbury manage their resources well, with the vow of poverty. It is the honesty in these religious administrations that appeals to the conscience of masses surviving while others live in conspicuous avarice. These by no means include the new churches and mosques led by religious right, jets trotting and sex craze preachers of wealth, only for the leaders.

Man does not live by bread alone but “freedom” does not feed anyone. We are going to witness more uprising, not only in the Arab countries, but also where food shortages are waiting to blow open. Harvest of wheat and other grains in heavily populated countries like China, India or Pakistan that failed resulting in famine is a factor. Flood in Australia and failed crops in Russia because of weather swing will affect the supply side. So is the higher demand for grain like corn in USA used as ethanol for engines and automobile when man has not had enough to eat. Na who born dog?

We must learn that the owners and originators of any religion, the propagators of serf, communism, capitalism or Ujamaa, do not practice these ideologies blindly as we do in Africa. Adaption of any ideology needs local checks and balance to avoid abuse by man.


Source: Farouk Martins Aresa
Story from The Nigerian Voice News:

Published: Thursday, February 10, 2011

No ethnic group finds a comfortable relations inside Nigeria, always in far places as China, Egypt, Israel etc.

Wake up and accept yourselves for what you are. What you are looking for in China is right here in Nigeria.

INFATUATION WITH KNOWN DEMAGOGUES FOR PRESIDENT

Nigeria has gone through a great deal in terms of either revolution or evolution for political and economic renaissance but the evil doers always survive. They want to be relevant and so refuse to die, quit or stay out of politics. Their blood has never flowed in spite of the amount of blood lost in war, ethnic pogrom and religious riots. Since they instigated many of these, they point accusing fingers to rivals as the perpetrators and feign ignorance for what they engineered.

It is repulsive that the members of the House that challenged the Speaker are seen in worse light than the corrupt system they challenged because they broke decorum and became violent. The appearance of impropriety in most African villages as in most civilized world will disqualify any candidate from running even for majamaja or dog catcher, but not in our politics.

Before you can marry anyone in the community, people would trace the history of your family to find out if a vagabond was your father or your great grandmother. These investigations are so diligent, it penalizes anyone that has a grandfather or mother that had turned their lives around. In many cases, those found wanting have to go outside that community to marry, preferably oyinbo. When it is time to elect a President, many of us couldn't care more!

Niger-For-Life is what many of us desire but may not achieve. No leader or astute politician in sensitive positions in China, Russia or United States would surrender their lives to alien doctors. We do not know the cost in terms of national secret, national security or demands made on our moneybags. Even our militants cannot trust their lives to Nigeria as they run abroad as soon as they collect ransom for medical checkups and treatment while our hospitals shelves are empty. If we cannot marry a man or woman with alien intelligence, we are happy to elect alien contact.

Yet, some of the candidates running for the highest office in Nigeria that stand a good chance of rallying the masses behind them are the notorious chronic looters with foreign ties, foreign convicts, drug dealers, and born again devoted preachers of democracy on how to move the Country out of where they plunged us. Some are in restitution from foreign judicial system in return for good behavior. Most of us know and agree on these shady characters until a name is put on these demagogues. Then, supporters are ready to go wild and fight to death. There is a missing link between known foreign currencies looters and tolerance of those from our villages.

You don't get it? Oh yes we do, fine fine. Our hero is your demagogue and our demagogue is your hero. Indeed, agreements amongst the demagogues to share loot, positions and power are better than amongst poor folks like us. As they wine and dine on our ignorance, we kill one another for them; sometimes over a bag of rice. This is not a case of what is wrong with us but sincerely what is the matter with me. It is that me, myself and I in more places that become us.

The solution is not in our stars but on earth right in our hands. If we look into the mirrors we may see that our tolerance rob us more than mere inconvenience but rob of our very existence. When we think we can build an island around us without caring about what surround us at home, or live in any foreign land whenever we want, we have lost our conscience at home and lost our pride abroad because nobody sees us any differently from what Africa reflects on TV.

When you see a frog in broad day light on dry land, you know there is sometime after its life. What is after our very way of existence in Africa? Those of us that run away after protests, torture and ridicule claim that we only fight and run only to fight another day. Yet there are those of us at home that are struggling, suffering and when we hear about the hard time faced by poor souls without visas in foreign lands shout: Niger-For –Life!

Politicians keep us hungry and poor so that they can satisfy our basic needs with very little and keep our lion share of income. Those in need are desperate for campaign bag of beans, bikes, cars, brown envelops and promises of jobs to propagate their influence as public relations officers in the newspapers, bus stops, staged rallies, on university campuses and even abroad. It takes a lot of loot, so an average Bobo struggling to feed his family cannot compete.

Moreover lawyers and judges in courts and election tribunals are blessed if appointed to hear one of the cases of election in dispute. The honest ones may step down from these cases citing unusual and unexpected pressures from unbelievable quarters. In order to get our due process, you must be loaded, no pro bono. If a prominent lawyer or member of the local human right groups speaks up, he is given a wound to nurse. This is why our finest stay away from politics.

Consequently, the finest amongst us that shy away from politics hate being confused with others' penchant with soiled sticky black golden fingers in money to horde overseas. Some dedicated souls that venture into politics, have to close their eyes to where their sponsors accumulate their money with the rationale that the end justifies the means. Their best answers have always been that they have to get the opportunity to rule before they can clean up the mess. But we know that when you ride on the back of a tiger, it consumes you before you land.

We may have killed the ambition of those dedicated individuals that are willing to sacrifice it all so that our Country can move forward. They do not stand a chance. We do have a few of our politicians that are dedicated but at the mercies of vultures amongst them that are waiting to collect their returns. If a single individual can hold a whole state to ransom in the full view of the judiciary, EFCC, ICPC and while predicting who will be replaced on the mark, there is little comfort if that type of authority exists in many states.



Source: Farouk Martins Aresa
Story from The Nigerian Voice News:

Published: Friday, December 31, 2010

The fact that the writer is not Igbo but an objective observer who can be said to be from Middlebelt from his writings or Southsouth speaks louder about the man Ojukwu.

Senator Bola Tinubu backs Sanusi Lamidi Sanusi
News Dec 5, 2010

By Daniel Eteghe Lagos
Following the in sistence of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria Sanusi Lamidi Sanusi that 25 per cent of the nation’s overhead cost was spent by the National Assembly last Thursday when he appeared before the various committees on the Senate and House of Representative, the Former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu, yesterday commended Sanusi for his doggedness, stressing that he respected him for holding firm to his position.

Speaking to aviation correspondents at the Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos, Tinubu noted that the fact on ground was that members of the National Assembly were busy appropriating money for themselves without any anybody questioning them which was in violation with the codes of the ethics of the National Assembly.

“Nigerians must be able to call them to question not only at the polls but at the expense of the poor, at the expense of our infrastructure, at the expense of job creation. They should call them to question, I respect Sanusi’s figure, if he has made a mistake of not standing by that data, any data from him in future will never be respected and this is the man that is in charge of regulatory agencies that impact on our economy seriously“ he affirmed.

He further stressed that the economy was tattered as a result of the misappropriation of funds that may ends up in furthering corruption and as well as making Nigeria citizens to become impoverish.

“The economy is in tatters, why shouldn’t they, who is auditing them, who is auditing all the moneys that they have been taking. I have even on good authority that they even get as far as participating in the implementation of the budget before something is approved and you have the instances where the government will say this is how much it wants to spend and arbitrarily we increase it in order to justify their increase for themselves who is the check and balances of financial integrity of the house“ he added.

While answering questions on the ground that Sanusi’s move could jeopardize in Nigeria, he said“ Which jeopardize, who are the ones misappropriating the money, if I am in charge of the custody of your values of grains I am the seller and I can take as much as I want for myself and my family and leave the rest for the rest of the community or the town, we elected them to make laws we didn’t elect business men in fact they have been dragging us to the stage that we will look for men and women of financial capacity who can legislate for us on a per time basis“

“You see they are driving us to a stage where people will not respect this democracy, we have to check them, they are becoming a treat to our democracy, you can appropriate money for yourself and nobody can question you, nobody can raise alarm, nobody can call attention to the needs of the country that is the danger, it is very dangerous to democratic institutions and projects.

Some of the auditors to the NA, to whom did they report if the auditor general of a nation speaks they will attack him, if the accountant general speaks, they will attack him, if the minister of finance speaks, the will attack him. With that there is a dictatorship tendency in violation of the fundamental rights of the peoples’ right to speak their mind and this is dangerous to our democracy so they are the one threatening our democracy “ he stated.

OLE calling barawo

thenigerianvoice.com NEWS

CREED OF THE FILTHY RICH COSTS WORKERS JOB

Preach, preach to us brothers and sisters. Presidential candidates promise to clean up of corruption in 6 months and both Houses of Thieves protest vehemently against Central Bank Gov. Sanusi, Finance Minister Aganga, Prof. Ise Sagay and Baba Iyabo himself (alias Ali Baba) that called their allowances and salaries legalized daylight robbery! While still protesting like saints; they slipped in N6.1 billion for SIM card registration into budget surreptitiously. A service that is being provided by telecom companies already. Yoruba say “won npe e lole, o gbe omo eran jo” Looting everyday, I don tire o o O!

All administrators from locals to Federal level legalized payment of about 70 percent to themselves to mismanage the Country; with the 30 percent left for workers’ salary and building infrastructures. We all have basic needs that must be satisfied. So our drive for food, sex and shelter is a natural pursuit of this animal called man. When drive goes from passion to obsession seeking more than what will satisfy us, it becomes a disease.

Too much food leads to obesity, too much sex drive leads to all types of abuses and we can drink ourselves to stupor. No matter the size of our shelter, we can only sleep in one room at a time. There is nothing wrong with the pursuit of happiness or hedonism as long as it is not at the expense of your fellow being.

The 25 percent on the jumbo pay and allowances of politicians pointed out by Gov. of Central Bank Sanusi is only at the Federal level. The denials of the House Speaker Bankole with the Senate spokesman Senator Eze raved up the anger of most people on the main street. Finally, the lopsided distribution of income is taken seriously. This Speaker would like to transfer the blame of waste and corruption to permanent civil servants that usually get promoted to politicians. Oh no, not the temporary politicians that make sure they loot far more than a lifetime before leaving.

Our politicians’ ways of creating jobs for the masses are through estacode travel overseas and telling us it is a worthy investment compared to the number of businesses brought into the Country. As they parrot one another from the military to civilian reigns, one would think Nigeria must be flowing with foreign investments and businesses when in fact we are losing long term businesses that find it hard to sustain operations for lack of infrastructure taken for granted in other countries. Yet these Agaracha must come back with the same excuses to the same land they have depleted of income and preach.

These politicians turned employers and oppressors are blood suckers dancing on the hungry bellies of their victims. The global world of workers has not benefited poor workers in the developing countries because their lower wages have only resulted in higher profit for their employers which they refuse to invest in jobs or salary increase. Indeed, they always demand from government higher concessions like free land, tax exceptions or so called “tax free” locations, free labor of Youth Corps interns to the detriment of infrastructure, education and higher cost of food and shelter.

Nigerians are not lazy. We work from our adolescents to the time of waiting on lines for pensions until in our graves. Before Ghanaians came to Nigeria in droves looking for jobs, we were in every country working, including those in East Africa and Ghana. We were businessmen, lawyers, doctors and accountants in those days compared to what a few of us do these days to embarrass others in and out of the Continent. Easy oil money dried our fortitude to sweat. Yet Africans, majority of whom are Nigerians do anything to get a job including crossing the deserts to feed our families at home.

The explosion of coal mines in China and miracle survival of coal miners in Chile remind us of our coal mine in Enugu wondering when it is going to be made profitable and safe again in spite of all the risks involved. It has sustained us for many years but managers’ lack of planning, local technology with the right investment have turned us into idle workers looking for anything we can to sustain body and soul. We have the resources that can employ us if exploited to our benefit. Unfortunately our planners have turned us into perpetual raw materials diggers for the benefit of their overseas partners.

With all our universities, politicians could only get farmers from Zimbabwe to grow our own food in Kwara; and like others using local workers for less paying jobs. That is the reason we are willing to dig for gold and other minerals in Zamfara and scavenge dumps in big cities while workers and their families get lead poisoned by hundreds. There is no more we can do to sustain body and soul. Environmental disaster in the Gulf coast of US reminds us at home of the plight of fishermen in the Delta that have lost their means of livelihood. Their children have become idle and taken to the street doing even more damage to their environment by breaking and spilling oil from pipelines.

If the filthy rich keep on demanding and getting a bigger share of the national cake with protest when exposed: like asking El Rufai for bribe to confirm, no restrain, no salary cut or no bite of conscience; there is little left for the middle and the working classes. When workers increase their productivity and make more money for their employers, those in pursuit of greed wait to see how much more they can squeeze out of their workers. Sometimes without pay, workers still go to work to maintain the dignity of labor and pride of having a place to go. In the same vein, workers are laid off when there is no need to, as long as they can get away with higher profit.

In order to justify their recklessness, our politician/businessmen point to America where Obama bailed out the big businesses and banks. They never learned that our businesses and banks are sink holes that have never recovered but got sicker after government intervention, then lay off workers. Indeed, we kill local plants with bribes on smuggled luxuries. The main reasons are returns from foreign car contracts and products.

They also point to Ireland where their European Union bailed out banks with tax payers’ money while taxing the middle class and cutting benefit for the poor. As the rich people gambled with these banks and lost their bets asking governments to bail them out, poor people are now paying with austerity measures imposed on them so that the rich can recover, promising to create jobs. We have seen the greed not only in Nigeria but in western world as if we have infrastructure to attract their promised jobs.

Create jobs at home by encouraging local ingenuity not that “monkey see monkey do”.


Published: Wednesday, December 01, 2010

STRIKES FOR DECENT WAGE PROVOKED BY JUMBO SALARIES

The politicians’ lion share of salaries and allowances are paid from the same pool where sheep’s share of minimum wage is taken. The solution is to cut the number of politicians and reduce mushroom jumbo salaries at every level to pay the workers’ minimum wage. There is a screw missing in the logic where a country can afford to pay billion naira and millions US dollars to lawmakers and administrators; leaving very little for poor workers and intellectuals. Consolidation of everyone’s pay will reduce inflation, level the playing field and bring prices down so that we can all buy basic necessities and more locally.

Most of us are tired of incessant strikes by many segments of our society. It disrupts our normal way of life in an already disorganized Country where anything hardly functions without power generators. Our children miss schools and some spend more time than they bargain for in our universities missing out on opportunities, husbands, wives and job creation or placements. Politicians cannot fool our professors that can calculate the Nation’s income and expenditure wasted in various sectors and on ghost workers.

Common now, we all know the solution to these high prices. There is nobody in Nigeria that does not know how much politicians are paid. They buy in the same market like us, price beyond our means or empty the selves before the average man can buy. So what we buy, we pay through our noses. Politicians prefer foreign contracts, goods and services because they can get their cut in foreign currency. It is no wonder they are the only ones that can afford these outrageous prices. They are the root cause of inflation.

Who will cut the salaries of these suckers dramatically and plug the loopholes by which they accumulate allowances and kickbacks? So as inflation dips, pay goes far. When the market cannot endure people willing to pay any price for their goods and landlords have to pay back the banks instead of building from looted funds to keep houses empty, rent and prices would go down with less demand from high rollers. There is too much money in the hands of politicians and their contractors driving up prices in the market.

It is only Africans they can’t afford to pay, even in their moneymaking private schools. Any worker can be recruited from oyibo country, called technical expert and paid better than Africans. Oyinbo mechanic is an engineer in Africa, made boss of African graduates. Any graduate is a professor of American standard and one of them pays a million dollars a month while African professors fight for naira pay. They donate looted money abroad but undermine our universities without their kids. They hire homeless people in oyibo countries to teach English in “international” primary and secondary schools and Africans rush to send their kids there. Like politicians; cars, housing and house helps come free.

However, our salary can hardly pay for inflated prices from rent to food resulting in low purchasing power. The landlords and the traders justify their high cost pointing to operating and prevailing market values inflated by looted funds. So those who are too decent to be kidnappers, militants or robbers, register the unfairness of arbitrary salary structure by industrial actions. Saro say na poor I poor no be craze I craze O!

As much as we blame relatives and friends for laying siege at the houses and offices of politicians for favors once appointed, they are only following the money that should have been channeled to them to encourage hard work and make them independent, not turned them into beggars. If you are not moneybags or without fat salaries and are mistakenly besieged, don’t be tempted to loot. As the inflation hit harder, relatives abroad are finding it increasingly difficult to send more money home to match or buy.

The logic of some corrupt leaders and crooks is that you can steal very little from a million people and easily become a millionaire. Since everyone starting with a million, by the end of six months to a year, some people will become billionaires and others will become poor. In other words, even if they are not crooks, it will not change the position of the poor and foolish. The cunning ones will always outdo the foolish. Politicians will tell you the amount of money they steal is not enough to make each of us rich or there is not enough money to pay minimum wage no matter what they pay themselves as salary and allowances. This is the way they justify their wayward lifestyle and tell the rest of us to suck on agbalumo.

You may have heard that the population of Nigeria in terms of our total income is less than that of New York City or California. They are saying we do not make enough money to take care of our people. In that case, a country like China or India that were starving when Nigeria had more than enough to eat would be hungrier and countries like Pakistan and Indonesia would not have left us behind despite their thorny problems.

The fault in that theory is that the amount of trillions they have stole could have been spent on infrastructures at home that could have facilitated small, medium and big businesses that people as industrious as Nigerians could have multiplied into wealth generating projects at home. Most businesses are hampered by insufficient generation of power, roads, transportation and discouraging interest on bank loans. The multiplier effect of sound infrastructure is creating jobs so that graduates can be gainfully employed depending less on government jobs and their foreign contractors.

Apart from the unfairness factor of easy money for some and none for others, most of us spend money the way we make it. Hard earn money is more likely to be put into productive endeavor than “easy comes easy goes” funds. We should not be surprised that we spend easy money on consuming frivolous foreign products that bring no return to our economy rather than on machineries that generate skilful jobs at home. It is the unfairness factor that contributes to incessant strikes in every sector.

People question the sincerity of those asking them for sacrifice in a country where those asking make no attempt to lay examples. We see crooks mounting podiums at several occasions to lecture us about sacrifice, tolerance, how to move the Country forward and the ills of corruption as we are silly. The best politicians/military have been able to do is generate more jobs for cronies from local to national level of governments to loot us blind. It is one of the reasons people go on strikes.

FAROUK MARTINS ARESA 17/11/2010 18:52:00

http://tribunengrworld.com/strikes-for-decent-wage-provoked-by-jumbo-salaries-2593929.htm

I Didn’t Endorse Ribadu – Danjuma
Saturday, 30 October 2010 03:15 Chika Otuchikere, Abuja


Former Defence minister, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma yesterday denied ever recommending former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) boss Malam Nuhu Ribadu as the appropriate person to lead the country in 2011.

A national daily (not LEADERSHIP) on Friday led with a story that Gen. Danjuma had endorsed Ribadu as president.

Speaking exclusively to LEADERSHIP WEEKEND, the former chairman of the Jonathan Presidential Advisory Council noted that he hardly mentioned Ribadu in the lecture he gave at a business lecture series organised by the Lagos Country Club.

According to Danjuma, Ribadu's name came up during banter he engaged in with Erelu Dosunmu Fernandez; that corruption has eaten too deeply into the fabric of Nigeria and would need someone to root it out. It was then that Erelu jokingly mentioned Ribadu's name.

The general said that it surprised him that anyone who overheard this discussion would conclude that it amounted to an endorsement of Ribadu.

In his speech at the lecture, Danjuma bemoaned the dearth of transformational leadership, noting that the leadership the nation had so far had, had been pedestrian and incompetent.

His words: "The nation needs a leader that would set things right, including building a virile economy capable of solving the poverty issue in the land.”

He also drew attention to the docile attitude of Nigerians to bad leadership, noting that it was about time Nigerians learnt to punish leadership that is criminal and incompetent.


http://www.leadershipeditors.com/ns/index.php

Olafolarin,

Well said.

If the resources of your state is used the way Yekini uses that of Lagos State, will the people in your state be as happy? If the people of your state are neglected in favor of other states, I guess those people will be praising Yekini as well. Charity begins at home. Go to your state and preach what Yekini does in Lagos, and see if you will survive.

As for Riba, he investigated and convicted Tinubu and swore to convict him in court. He is the same one in bed with him. That stinks to high heavens. If Labor Party is that bad, how did Mimiko of Ondo State make it?

Pure opportunist where the means justify the end.

olafolarin:
Ahahahahhahahahah


This can only be published in saharareporters.
Tinubu survived more intensed character assasination during OBJ days but still soared above the rest.
Tinubu and Ribadu's detractors will need to do more research and come out with more daunting/convincing write-ups.
Tinubu is a human being and as someone born of flesh and blood will definitely make mistakes.
Mistakes made in the uphill task of building a better society.
But he has undoubtedly inspired a new generation of young and progressive politicians/technocrats,groomed them to take active role in the our quest for a successful nation.He is the only politician in Nigeria who recruited young and well educated minds(irrespective of their state of origin)as advisers,commissioners,and head of govt parastatals.The result is the massive development we've witnessed in Lagos state since 1999.

Hate him for all you want.But you can never doubt his progressive intuition,political dexterity and de-tribalised perception in a nation of political mediocres and ritualists/assasins.

TAX AS YOU EARN DRIVE EVEN AT BUS STOPS

Those who think Africans do not pay as much taxes as those in other continents, must redefine the meaning of taxes to include special levies. Not only do we pay taxes, we get little in return for it. This is not a gripe against progressive taxes. There is no doubt that if governments are not restrained, they will tax everything that moves or stands. That is how European and American citizens justify putting a leash on the ability of government to tax them to death. Unfortunately, we pay taxes to a variety of vigilantes and outlaws to buy security and peace of mind in Africa.

Oh well, the rich also pay taxes but not to African governments. They pay city, state and federal taxes on their foreign homes, cars, shopping spree, hospitals’ bills, bogus companies to hide the cash transactions, and unsubsidized out of state fees for the education of their children. Each time they travel out, they pay heavy security and airport tax on their tickets. Most of the taxes as most of their foreign trips, they do not pay to African countries. Chei, jealousy nor go kill man.

Tax levy by governments on goods and services by pennies accumulates to provide services that cannot be provided by individuals at a profit. When people see what their taxes do and where it goes into, they complain less. If we look at other countries like Canada and United States, the complaint about taxes is not as loud in Canada. Though United States is richer, Canadian working class and the poor enjoy a better standard of living than those in United States. In spite of all the efforts in United States, to denigrate Canadian Healthcare funded from progressive general tax, it did not move most Canadians.

Another way little people are forced to pay to different outlaws is to levy them. We witnessed the struggle to collect local taxes between Governor Obi of Anambra and the Transport owners union. Some promised us heaven on earth to levy tithe. We have others that pyramid our levies into billions. We pay police, army, area boys, vigilante, mosques or church leaders. Honest folks, that neither think of tithes nor collect it, are not stupid. We still have human dignity left. But there are those that work hard to perfect exchanging it for salvation, bail and nothing. Business does it in a legalized way by selling unworthy products and services, sometimes too cheap.

The Trillion Naira Police Business is only one of many ways. Oil Farming by outlaws, bank Thief Executive managers and militants also collect. If it is true that Sabona, the militant leader had royalties from oil well, then Nigerian rulers would only share at gun point. Whoever wants a piece of Nigeria pie must have enough ammunition to fight either the army or the militants. It will be foolish to take any or both of them on with the power of prayers. Not in Nigeria anyway.

All attempts to reduce the number of police check-points levies on the roads were ignored. Some of the police confessed that it was their only reliable source of income since salary was not paid, and it’s the only means to service their patrol vehicles. We knew it was too easy for armed robbers to operate because the police always show up after the robbers are gone. It got to a point in Lagos when police were heckled as they arrived.

If we thought these were enough to overhaul the police and change the corrupt culture, we are still waiting. The touching stories of individuals and a reporter, at one point, that were loaded while waiting at the bus stop and taken to the police station to post bail was a surprise to those of us that were not so unlucky. All the signs were there that our police have become unofficial tax collectors through extortion of ordinary folks on our streets. So much money is made from the common man, they have to share billions with higher officers in charge.

If these were not investigated with the help of international organization and given press coverage in international papers, committees and probes, after our representatives did, would be set up again to examine the facts already known. We are yet to see if all these disclosure will be archived or overtaken by events and the common man will continue to pay for extortion as taxes on our roads, bus stops and tolls on existing roads.

It all falls on the people that can be easily held, threatened and punished to pay as they earned or as they drive either in their own cars or as passengers in private or public buses. Of course whatever the drivers pays to the police on the street and at toll gate are added to the fares of the passengers. One is an outright bribe on the road while the other is a legalized extortion for leaving or going back home. In the case of Lekki Toll Gate where people anger boiled over, the authorities took the people for granted on a road that existed for years before collecting toll.

The big businesses, no matter where they are, always look for loopholes in the tax system. In Africa, big businesses get away easily without paying taxes. It is very difficult to get them to declare how much they actually make on paper. In Nigeria for example, most oil companies only pay what they want. We do not know the amount of oil going out of the country and if any of their ships is caught in oil bunkering, their home governments ask for their unconditional release. If we cannot get them to declare the amount of business done in the country, we are not sure of tax required from them.

Government may not get away with it as individuals. Governments are not supposed to be in a money making business that would crowd out individual business endeavors. If business wants you to buy their magazine that you may not be interested in, all they have to do is tell some folks that by subscribing, you stand a chance of winning a million naira. More people would buy the product than pure advertisement. Swindlers get away with millions by appealing to our greed. So if we curtail our greed, we still need to do away with other outlaws that collect levies.

The yoke on a people where any daring body can just set up shop and start collecting tax, levies, dues, tolls, tithes, ransom, or whatever, without benefit, is enough to drown us.

Published: Wednesday, September 15, 2010

DRIVERS WITHOUT LICENSE RAT-RACING FOR PRESIDENT DO-LITTLE

These days we have well qualified graduates with one or two degrees starting businesses by buying and driving their own taxis, danfo and buses. Those who are industrious, with profit and soft loans buy more. If they later decided to go into politics, we can rely on their qualifications and experience. There are also ambitious men and women in Armed Forces as professionally trained nurses, lawyers, doctors and accountants but they hardly make it far. It is the illiterates amongst them that seize power without any qualification or license to excel in war, forget about ruling a country. The only experience of the Baby Generals was in loot in the Civil War.

Nigerians would not enter danfo without a licensed driver. But, as one of the African countries that started with the prospect of becoming a world leader, we have succumbed to the power grabbers less qualified than the nice danfo driver to pilot our Country. They influence militants, appoint experts that danced to their whims and damage leadership qualities of a generation. Indeed, wannabe leaders in Nigeria today are failed leadership of the past. They have ruled, they have failed and they are back promoting their past failure as experience. They contest all the time so “winner” can negotiate member of his cabinet and major contracts with them.

A prominent ambassador, Jubril Aminu told us that is how it is done in America, eh! They create political and economic leadership from a few high school and college drops outs that can easily identify with populous working-class. The whole concept of failure in leadership comes from desperation of the working class looking for solutions out of dire situation from underachievers parading themselves as guru that appeal to their emotions, not their heads. Those who have votes use it against their interest and those without votes welcome coups by military boys that have no idea of economic track record in leadership beyond their noses and self interest. They cannot balance their checkbook at home without stealing, yet vie for leadership of a country.

There is a cultural war worldwide between the educated middle-class and the undereducated working-class that must be resolved. It has worked to the benefit of the greedy rich without any conscience. They are not different from the lords of those days. Billion of cash is funneled to a privileged few within the working class to trumpet closed opportunities only open to a few that will push their interest. That is the reason talikawa in Africa or uninformed Joe the plumber abroad without broad education, skill and provision of good environment can never get to their level, but always hoping against hope. It is like window shopping but without the money.

Human behavior is so complex, it leaves some of us panting for answers why those that are dispossessed vote for or welcome power grabbers that possess everything and promise it will trickle down when they so wish. Our pride in Africa is that you can be born in poverty and still rise above it since poverty is not born in human. Some would argue that the soldiers that were discarded to war and back streets in yesteryears have become the rulers of many African countries as a realization of that principle. However, their long reign has outlived its usefulness of shock therapy. Instead of curbing selfish greed, they have perpetrated it, diminished hard work and the armed robbers have become armed leaders in civilian clothing.
When we are in desperate economic need, in distress, in unpleasant and dismal situations, we look for salvation in unusual places. There is no other way we can rationalize trusting important positions to men and women less qualified in town because they promised what we cannot honestly deliver. In order to understand predicaments, we have to put ourselves in the shoes of a well qualified physician stricken by sickness, who sought the only quack option left; or hungry families buying lottery tickets. So, they privatize government assets to cronies as jobs creation, we are impressed and when we are promised voodoo economics we lost to bankers and stocks.

Which way out? It is sheer delusion to say a country of so many million people have no answer. Nigeria has more solutions than any country in the same situation but as long as it is not in the interest of those in power, it may not be implemented and if it is implemented, it will displace those in power. So there is a self interest to keep the status quo. All they need is their cronies who benefited from their orgies to enforce their self interest, propagate news by cash in brown envelops and rebranding in foreign countries. The call for bloody revolution from unusual quarter and those well-informed cannot be surprising because of the choking effect on masses.

Africa before Independence had some of the greatest political and economic thinkers in the world that dreamt big and mighty. Africans and friends returned home after rediscovering themselves and realizing they were neither Europeans nor Americans that had to chart their own course. Along the way Herbert Macaulay, Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Jomo Kenyatta became radicals of their time fighting for their countries’ freedom out of political and economic exploitation. Joshua Nkomo, Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela fought both bush and psychological wars of nerves until they lost their claws. These men have been replaced by drivers without license, character, courage and foresight.

Ask most Nigerians about the most skillful manager we ever had, they point to Awolowo. Yet he never had the opportunity to rule the Country. There must be many skilful managers like him all over the Country trying to demonstrate their competence. Until we face realities, appoint or elect some of them from our cities, towns and villages; that selfish interest will always mire us. We got into the worst situation we could ever dream of when an illiterate that cannot hold a pen, signed Structural Adjustment into law. We have never recovered. Hundred and thousands of naira turned into millions and billions of naira without buying power wiping out our vibrant middleclass. A man, who had more than all his predecessors, cries every day that he never had as much as those after him in SAP money.

Farouk Martins Aresa

If the likes of Nzeogwu are well financed today, the success will be greater. The Army can not even defeat the militant.

Yan-Kiran-Raba Entrenched In RMAFC

February 18, 2009

Yar’Adua may not have what it takes to throw out these Yan-Kisan-Raba daylight pen robbers in Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission but give him his due for spilling out some sugar in his mouth on excessive salaries. It’s unbearable enough for looters to go into rage demanding his head. We cannot be seen as fair, feeding into looters’ rage when we condemn any good issue coming from Yar’Adua; because we see it as a ploy to play to the gallery.

Of course we know corruption in high places is the big flying elephant but it does not have to be all or nothing just as prosecution of petty thieves must not shield the obligation to go after the king fish.
Many of us cannot figure out what became of the monetization of allowance policy of the past administration.

Cars and public housing were sold with the justification that it was too expensive for a government like ours to waste so much on maintenance for a few. Some men of “timber and caliber”, Yan-Kiran-Raba, healthy but lazy, entrenched in the system have sworn that Nigerians will never see the light of the day at their inconvenience. If NEPA came alive, they would smother the day light out of it to make money. It may remind us of Ajaokuta Steel industry. These are progress killers who talk about one Nigeria as long as it is bleed-able.

We know that their allowances and loots are way more than their salaries. Out of about N1.3 trillions, over a trillion is spent on allowances alone, while junior civil servants without housing cannot live on minimum wage. Most Nigerians realize salary and allowance are comparatively small compared to their real loot under the table where all the contracts and deals are made.

This has not, by any means daunted the Commission from showering them with money that is not coming from their backyards’ products. If income generation is the criteria by which we pay our politicians, their creativity would be directed to producing multiple income generating sources.

Nigerians have been crying for years that members of that august Commission are worse than armed robbers, yet they remain unmoved and unrepentant. Only heavens know where these crack heads get their “scientific” formula for allocating salaries in an unfortunate Country reduced to perpetual mass poverty.

Some of the indices used to arrive at this senseless salary included but were not limited to the need for a living image, external reserve, oil production, average crude oil prices and inflation rate. The rich are put on welfare while the poor are left on their own.

Indeed, it is why we hardly have enough left for infrastructure, to subsidize budding agriculture, education and youth development that will prepare us for the next generation. If we cannot take care of the present and we show deliberate intolerance for others’ children with the wishful idea that we can steal enough to insulate our family overseas, we are fools. Healthy but lazy brains are now encouraged to go into politics not to serve, but simply to become instant millionaires.

Most of these politicians that are being pampered as if they live in England or United States are so unproductive; they cannot tell the difference between a light bulb and a candle except in their own houses. They lack guilty conscience when they see people on the road, in their villages and those helps who worked for them are paid pittance. In fact some of them take kickbacks from the pay of their subordinates if they are direct employees of the same Government.

You can hardly tell the difference between the politicians and the RMAFC anyway. They shower allowances on one another as if the money comes from a bottomless pit while the masses and the producer of the same income suffer as if they live in hell. It was only last year that RMAFC increased the basic salaries of these legislators to that of the executives and backdated it to a year before in spite of cries and protest from little people like us.

No institution is safe from Yan-Kiran-Raba. We have confirmed that armed robbers, mentally deranged and the well qualified are competing to get into our police and army by no less an authority than a former President. What he forgot to say was that these same qualifications were needed to get into RMAFC.

There is no way a rational well qualified Nigerian can outsmart or logically outdo robbers in power. At some point, what we see are some hard working Nigerians throwing up their hands and submitting to irrational behaviors. Join them if you cannot beat them.

Since over 17 thousand public and political office holders will be affected out of a population of 140 millions, some lament that heaven is going to fall on trickle down naira livelihoods. The main reason has to do with the fact that many Nigerians encourage corruption because they gain or wish to gain from it.

A few people have come out to tell us the type of activities they see when they visit some political leaders. Bundle of cash are given out about ten times in a single day without counting petty cash. Anyone giving that amount of money out has to get much more in.


The point is that those who have been reduced to beggars of their own money will increase. This in turn will swell into the population of street urchins. However, it is not easy out there on the streets either. For those who have ears to listen and eyes to read, the genuinely disable beggars on the street have declared war on the Yan-Kisan-Raba (healthy but lazy) bodies encroaching on their territories. It is tough enough making a living out there, influx of those who do not belong will dilute their income drastically.

Disable people do not get the sympathy and respect they deserve in Nigeria, as their counterparts in Europe and America, they warned. Any influx caused as a result of cut in salary or allowance must be balanced with adequate compensation for the disables or the Yan-Kisan-Raba invasion of every institution and community will rise. Enough is enough.

If we want to prevent another world war and promote peace, don’t mess with the disabled. Some years ago before coins went out of circulation; you dare not give them coins if you do not want it pelted on your forehead. We know many disabled are World-War veterans with connections all over the globe. All they have to do is call for help. Aren’t you scared already?

Yan-Kiran-Raba have now become nuisance to every facet of Nigerian society from the RAMFC, the legislators, the executives to the Disable bodies of the country. They have brought us down to our knees where any amount of money can not solve what other countries with less endowment have taken for granted like clean water for the masses and energy to power the basic necessities of life.  

http://ngex.com/news/public/print.php?section=article&ArticleID=1228

Abi o! I dey wonder hia meself.

Dis Guy:
what do you mean? the case is in court already, Sanusi na judge

Leadership focrage in South Africa, abi? Admission that there is no leadership in Nigeria.

This we must do foreign contract to take as much money as possible out of Nigeria will kill us. This Fashola self na real mumu as them tok.

By the time im bankrupt Lagos State, they will all move to Iragbiji with Yekini Amoda Ogunlere. Yeye de boom.

PUBERTY AND LEGAL AGE “CONFUSE” SOME OLDER MEN

Nature determines the age of puberty and increasing number of girls are reaching that age sooner than their mothers. It is the same in boys but they do not get pregnant so it is easier to hide their promiscuity. If the girls are tempted by boys their age groups, it is a problem but a disaster if taken advantage of by older men. Unfortunately, some older women have also been caught with boys under age because they feel they are matured.

It may be a conflict between nature coming alive well before these girls and boys are ready for the big league and community standard or law that demands education and grooming of our children before they get into sexual relationships with anyone. The line between nature as in the age of puberty and legal age must not be crossed however thin it may be, unless someone wants to risk community shame or banishment in jail.

The cost of teenage pregnancies weigh heavily on girls since educational development and time to be a kid are interrupted or lost in many cases. It deprives them the chances of contributing as leaders of the future. Old men or teenage boys are not the only ones that should carry the blame; ranging hormones, sex on television and peer pressure to be cool contribute their share. There are also shady businesses disguised as motherless baby’s homes encouraging and willing to take the babies for adoptions and sale.

In order to answer the real question of what really attract older men to younger girls, it is important to take the sexual span into consideration. Nature can be fooled by both animal and plants. We see plants and crops growing during unusual periods as in drying season when we have rain fall that seeds need to grow. For those in cold climate, you may see flowers come alive in the winter during mild days just like spring.

Children that are well fed balanced nutritional diet, or those exposed to growth hormones in beef and chicken tend to get bigger than their parents. So we see bigger boys thinking they are men already and girls developing most of their endowment early as well. Some mothers have to warn ladies that their sons are teenagers and must stay away. Of course the son may not like that from the mum that gives out his age.

The consequences are greater in girls because early development also leads to early menstrual period meaning they can get pregnant at that early age. It is usually hard for the father to let go his daughter at any age and can kill for his teenage girl. It does not prevent the same father from playing that double standard of looking away when his son starts looking at women desirably. Some fathers encourage their boys on his 21st.

This quality of early development is what some older men also see in teenage girls. During the slave trade, once a black girl had her menstrual period, the mother has to tell the man. What the man did to these girls is history but the evidence remains in the blood and skin color of their descendants forever. This voracious appetite while illegal, still remain with men of all shades and colors up to this day.

If the law of nature is strictly followed as some religions do favor for procreation, they use it to explain reasons for some men’s attraction to girls who have reached the age of puberty and can get pregnant, even when they are not ready biologically because of pelvic size, and legally too young to have a baby. By their reasoning, God created sexual span for men and women within which sexual relationship can take place to procreate only. That is why they do not believe in abortion or birth control. But we also know that women sexual activity goes way beyond the span they can give birth.

Culture is sometimes lagging behind modern developmental stages. In the days when girls are fully grown before they reach puberty, introduction to men that are ready to marry them may be acceptable, but not today that the stage is reached barely as a child. In the days most of our religious books were written, age of puberty was older than it is now. So holding on to the age of marriages in these books is nothing short of excuse for primordial urge. Both Christian and Muslim religions are guilty of early virgin marriages.

Mary, mother of Jesus and Mohammed’s wife Aisha were too young, in those days. Unfortunately, it is not rare to find men traveling out of their communities or countries in search of sexual relationship with teenage girls with the blessing of religion or power of money. These men are aware of the consequences as the practice is against the law in some of the countries they travel to, yet they take the risk. Out of religious belief, vile, poverty, ignorance; and custom they say, parents of these girls give out their daughters.

However, it is different in boys and men. They are capable of making babies throughout their lives with some limitations as they get older. This does not give them license to seek anyone within reproductive span to have sex with, especially when they are not capable of taking care of babies with their partners. Unlike animal kingdom, humans are supposed to exercise discretion and not give in to sexual fantasy easily.

As soon as they marry these girls home and the girls realized the man is a pedophile, they know they had been taken advantage of. A teenage wife later becomes a matured wife that may not interest the husband anymore. On the other hand, if he has slowed down, the teenage wife may want to make up for all the years lost and turn on him for younger men. This is usually the beginning of the problem in their relationships. We have had cases of these young wives complaining that they lost their childhood life and want to make up for it by starting over with a younger man after their reproductive life.

The days when relationships between opposite sexes are for procreation alone have also passed, because relationship can be for recreational purposes. There are couples that enjoy their relationships without the wish to have children. So are women that are over the age of giving births but are still very sexually active. In the age of birth control pills or devices and Viagra, sex has become more casual than it used to be in traditional culture and religions. So sex education at puberty is apt to combat transmitted diseases.


Story from Modern Ghana News:
http://www.modernghana.com/news/287732/1/puberty-and-legal-age-confuse-some-older-men.html

Published: Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Jonathan Can Contest on One Condition -IBB
Written by Nuruddeen M. Abdallah   
Sunday, 01 August 2010 06:19
[General Ibrahim Babangida]

General Ibrahim Babangida
Former military president General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd) has said that President Goodluck Jonathan can only contest the forthcoming presidential elections on the condition that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) constitution is changed.

The former military ruler, who spoke exclusively to Sunday Trust in his Hilltop residence, Minna explained that even though the Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria allows Jonathan to contest, the ruling party’s constitution has already zoned the presidency to the North.

General Babangida declared that though the Nigerian constitution allows Jonathan to contest “it will be preposterous to say that he shouldn’t. But the party he belongs to has set a rule which govern its conduct. And that party said this is the way we wanted it. And if people say he must, then they have the problem to resolve with the party.”

Contrary to claims that it was a gentleman’s agreement, the military president said that it was the party’s provision. He said that any attempt to drag Jonathan into the contest can only be done with the amendment of the PDP’s constitution.

Section 7(2)(c) of the PDP constitution states that “In pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness, the party shall adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of Party and public elective offices and it shall be enforced by the appropriate executive committee at all levels.”

Babangida said that the zoning principle was brought about by the PDP not only to capture power but also to also to allay the dominant fears of marginalisation. “It was done in such a way that every Nigerian: majority, minority, Muslim, Christians and even non-believers came together and agreed that if we win elections we would share offices. You remember the Tony Anenih letter? That letter said it all. You will find out that the distribution of power was based on the zones.”   

He said that it would be awkward to argue that the late Abubakar Rimi contested against Obasanjo, “I read those who argued that Rimi contested against Obasanjo, Gemade contested against Obasanjo and Okorocha contested against Yar’adua. I think that is the most idiotic reasoning I have ever known in life. This is because the party made a decision that the president is coming from the South-West. Whether they contested or didn’t contest, the candidate that was recognised by the party was the one that would pick the ticket,” Babangida said.


http://www.sunday.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4288:jonathan-can-contest-on-one-condition-ibb&catid=54:lead-stories

http://www.abihasportz..com/ try that

What part of you is Lagos. The part that is being screwed left right and center by Yekini Amoda Ogunlere of Iragbiji land? Comot make we hia word jo.

erniewhez:
Why are you bringing politics into this, wont u useless PDP's leave AC alone? We lagosians says we are ok with Fashola Govt. which 1 be your own? If u want to attack go and attack the MD of water works afterall they are still proposing for the edict Fashola hasnt approve it. Haba! EKO O NI BAJE, , O BAJE TI!

A midlife crisis for Africa
ADEKEYE ADEBAJO:COMMENT - Jul 30 2010 17:29

During the annus mirabilis of 1960 17 independent African states were born, creating great expectations for the rebirth of a continent. Unfortunately, while these countries celebrate their 50th birthday this year, Africa seems to be suffering a severe midlife crisis. The continent remains the world's poorest and most conflict-ridden, with about 70% of its 800-million people living below the poverty line and less than 2% of world trade crossing its borders.

Contemporary Africa still suffers from a curse invoked in one of Europe's most cosmopolitan cities, Berlin. The 1884-85 Conference of Berlin, overseen by Germany's "iron chancellor", Otto von Bismarck, effectively set the rules for the partition of Africa as the "scramble" for the continent's riches got under way. Europeans divided the continent into artificial nation states, in the process establishing a proliferation of unviable, dependent economies, imported political systems, weak and Balkanised countries and insecure borders.

This "original sin" caused untold suffering in the colonial and post-colonial eras. To compound the treachery, the travelling Cold War circus arrived in Africa in 1960, further distorting the continent's political and economic development. In 50 years of independence, Africans have largely failed to reverse this blighted legacy amid profligate corruption and autocratic misrule.

As the Cold War was coming to an end in 1989, events in Berlin would once again have an enormous impact on Africa. The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the division of Germany and Europe as well as the demise of communist rule in Eastern Europe.

But the Bismarckian curse remained to haunt Africa's future. Conflicts, some resulting from the colonial legacy of Berlin, continued in Ethiopia and Eritrea, Nigeria and Cameroon. Other crises were caused by internal ruptures. Where Africa had once feared intervention during the Cold War, now, in the post-apartheid era, marginalisation had become a greater concern.

It became increasingly apparent that Africans had failed to overcome the colonial legacy. The continent's economic and political systems were still tied to those bequeathed by imperial statesmen in Berlin. African leaders had also failed to create effective regional integration schemes to liberate their nations from the bondage of the old colonial boundaries.

To lift the curse woven by Bismarck's geopolitical sorcery, Africa has been forced to pursue a quest for three "magic" kingdoms: security, hegemony and unity.

In the area of security African actors have sought greater autonomy within the international system to promote their interests. Such autonomy has been pursued through the African Union and subregional bodies such as the Southern African Development Community, as well as the New Partnership for Africa's Development.

To break the chains of "global apartheid", a stronger African voice has been sought within inequitable international institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation.

Africa's quest for security has been evident in post-Cold War efforts to improve the effectiveness of regional bodies and to establish new governance structures such as the African Peer Review Mechanism. But these institutions have mostly proved to be weak. The UN has thus had to play a leading security role, with 70% of its peacekeepers currently deployed in Africa.

The quest for the hegemonic kingdom by African actors such as South Africa and Nigeria -- particularly under the respective presidencies of Thabo Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2008 -- can also be understood as a search for more autonomy within the international system. The aim has been to establish what Kenyan scholar Ali Mazrui described as a Pax Africana in conflict zones, while increasing Africa's leverage over the international economic system through initiatives such as Nepad.

These efforts have so far yielded only limited success. China's increasing role on the continent may result in reduced dependence on Western powers. But it is far from certain that African governments will be able to craft a multilateral approach to engaging Beijing for mutual benefit. South Africa could also increasingly find itself in economic competition with the Asian giant, creating negative perceptions of both the springbok and the dragon.

Africa's quest for the final kingdom -- unity -- has seen several of its leaders seeking to promote regional integration and build global alliances. But, as with many other continental efforts, a lack of capacity and cooperation has often frustrated this quest. The AU should carefully examine whether there are lessons to be learned from the European Union, the world's most successful supranational body. Africans must also continue to use their large diaspora in the United States to influence Washington's policy towards their ancestral home, particularly given the historic election in 2008 of Barack Obama, an American president with African roots.

Further afield, the Afro-Asian coalition born at the Bandung Conference in 1955 has largely been frustrated in its efforts to shape global political and financial institutions in ways that could increase the autonomy of the Third World in dealing with powerful Western actors.

The past 50 years, however, have however, seen monumental changes in Africa: the death of the Organisation of African Unity and the birth of the AU in Durban in 2002; the liberation of South Africa, the continent's richest and most industrialised country; the hegemonic peacekeeping role pursued by the Nigerian Gulliver in West Africa; the election of two Africans -- Egypt's pharaonic Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Ghana's prophetic Kofi Annan -- as UN secretaries general; and Afro-Asian cooperation that has seen China and other Asian countries investing, and keeping peace, in Africa in a bid to revive the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi that helped to liberate both continents.

In some ways Africa can look forward with hope to the next 50 years. Yet new geopolitical pressures are emerging that may delay the continent's achievement of its quest for true liberation. China's current building of railways and roads to secure Africa's raw materials and minerals has followed a similar pattern to that established by European imperial powers more than a century ago (although with the important difference that Beijing is not setting up administrations and armies to control countries).

Present widespread concerns among Western and South African entrepreneurs that China could exclude their firms from these territories are reminiscent of the fears that drove Bismarck to call the Conference of Berlin in 1884.

Will the world's contemporary "great powers" contemplate another economic partition of the continent, or can Africa's leaders muster the political will and craft regional arrangements strong enough to forestall such a ghastly outcome?

The end of apartheid in South Africa and the election of the revered Nelson Mandela as its president in 1994 effectively marked the attainment of legendary Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah's famous call for Africa to seek first the political kingdom. But, tragically, all other things were not added unto it, and the search for the socioeconomic kingdom continues. Until that quest is complete, the curse of Berlin will continue to hold the continent in thrall.

Dr Adekeye Adebajo is executive director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town, and author of The Curse of Berlin: Africa after the Cold War, published by UKZN Press/Columbia University Press/Hurst

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-07-30-a-midlife-crisis-for-africa