₦airaland Forum

believe it or not, people really do say "Can i ask a question"? duh!. . .you just did!

Join a protest group against the national assembly pay

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_172688036087964

why shouldn't i?

Does it not worry Jonathan, that when a Nigerian buys imported toothpick or cassava or textile materials in place of the locally manufactured one in the market, that Nigerian is paying for someone’s wage in faraway China. While at the same time running down the local manufacturer who simply cannot compete with the Chinese where cost of production is far too cheaper.

Exactly!!!!!

Hi, my name is violent, and this is your lucky day

Former Nigerian ambassador to the United States Jubril Aminu speaks on the controversial electoral bill, Sanusi's tangle with the legislature and consensus candidacy. Excerpt:

Assessment of the legislature

When you are going to judge an institution, you cannot do so from the point of view of a short term. If you allow me, I will say there is an improvement. This National Assembly could have become the centre of serious ethnic and geographical strife in this country, particularly politicians helped and engineered the media. It is possible for the place to become very sharply divided, to the extent that it ceases to be an agent for national unity. But they are doing well.

From 1999 to 2003, I will say we had only one challenge; which was the impeachment of the President. But from 2003 to 2007, we had the challenge of the third term. The president wanted a third term, but the national Assembly stopped it. I like Obasanjo, so I did not like it at that time. But when you look at the decision, it was in the interest of the country. Then we had the unfortunate sickness and untimely death of President Umaru Yar’Adua and the ascension of Goodluck Jonathan. That was also a very challenging time for the country. Again, it was the National Assembly, which people always abuse, that rose to the challenge to provide the solution, thereby saving the country from another crisis. So, we have a National Assembly that people abuse any way they like, but when it turns out that we have real critical issues, people turn round to them. So far, we have solved most of these issues. I am not saying we have solved everything. But we have solved most of them.

Concerns over the remuneration of lawmakers

Who are the Nigerians that are worried? It is you media people who are worried. I can take you to my village in Song, you will see that they are not worried. So, people should stop this nonsense of talking about allowances and how much the members are getting. This is moreso because when you investigate, it is not true.

People are not able to look at the big picture. They only look at the small thing, sensationalize it and use it to abuse very credible and highly responsible Nigerians just because they are lawmakers. Four million naira a month is nonsense. You see, since I said it in the Senate, I will repeat myself here. There is a war against the legislature by interested people; principally, governors. And they have corralled a lot of troops from media people, political commentators and others to fight us. In doing this, they use all sorts of names on us. Where do we have this kind of money? Do we print money? Is the treasury in the National Assembly? How could the National Assembly have so much access to money? Every kobo we spend in the National Assembly comes from the Executive. They talk as if we have got some kind of machine guns and we go round taking government money. How do we do it? Can anyone tell us?

Conflict with executive officers

The ministers have a lot more access to money than we have. The governors too. This is just a war against members of the national assembly which is very well known to all Nigerians. Recently, it was intensified in the form of electoral bill where we felt that in amending the Constitution, we cannot amend the law for one person or against one person. We do not even make a law for one moment. We argue and argue before we make a law. It is not fair for the Executive to have freedom to bring into congress people who are their own loyalists. Can an Ambassador ever vote against the President? We had a case of one governor in 2003, two days before the convention, he appointed 65 Special Advisers and Special Assistants and put them all as delegates to the convention simply because he wanted to control the votes. And we said this time around, we cannot have such. Yet, whatever case we make, you refuse to print it in the papers. The composition of the National Executive Committee of the parties, we were forced to find a way of counter-balancing the excessive powers of the governors. All the parties fund themselves from the government they control.

They refuse to collect money from their members, which is what happens in advanced democracies. Since the money is from the government, those who have the money control the party and obviously have more power. So because the financial control is so loose, people who are in charge of money can take the money out and use it for their purpose.

That was why we said since the party apparatchik are under the control of the governors, it is only the legislature that is a little bit independent. The party Chairman sits in front of the Governor and they compile the names of the delegates and bring it. Even now, in a lot of states, they have already nominated the names of the delegates to the party primaries.

That was why we did what we did. People are now finding ways to fight us. I hear that some people have budgeted about N200m to fight our electoral law. Let them go ahead. Normally, we should get the support of the media and the people, but we do not.

Criticism of legislative oversight

If I have any criticism about visitation, it is that the amount of time we are able to spend on one visitation is too small. I always tell them, for instance, how do you spend one hour on a visitation to a University. What will you be able to see? The National Assembly knows that these contracts are not being executed.

We come from villages, where these roads are said to be built. For about three years now, we were told that contract for the Song to Maiduguri road was awarded; but up till now nothing has been done. They tell you they have no money. Sometimes they will say they have no executive capacity. There was one time when it looked like controlling capital expenditure was like controlling the economy or managing the economy.

Sanusi’s stance on the expenditure of the National Assembly

Sanusi (the Governor of the Central Bank) is a very principled person and he is very logical. Do you know the implication of apologizing, you are tying yourself. He felt he was using information given to him supposedly by a competent government source in the ministry of finance.

You cannot crucify him for using information from a competent source of government. The only thing wrong with his comment is to go and discuss it at an international event, outside the country. But then in this country, we have not developed the ethics that, whether you are in opposition or government, you must not talk badly about your country to outsiders. Our people always do that. So you cannot single out Sanusi on that one.

Northern consensus candidate

There is a danger in over blowing the importance of the exercise and there is also a danger in under rating it. You should not over rate it because this is just, in my view, a private arrangement more or less made by four or five individuals.

This did not involve any party; it did not involve any cultural or religious organization. We should, therefore, look at it as a private arrangement. They have their right to do so. So far they have been able to keep their agreement and have respected it. That is why it should not be underrated. The electoral importance of what they have done is directly proportionate to each person’s reach. If you have somebody who enjoys and continues to enjoy a large following, others will join.

Political plan for 2011

I do not consider myself a career legislator. When I went to the United States of America as an ambassador, I was already 60 years of age and by the time I came back in 2003, I was already 64. I told them then that I do not also consider myself a career diplomat. I will not do anything that I do not enjoy.

So I am still consulting my Oracles. The Fulani Oracles are very slow in responding. I still have a couple of weeks to make up my mind. From the point of view of enjoying the pressure of doing the job, I think I like it.

“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

Gbam!

Just like i am more likely to consider the figures coming from my village drunk than take Aganga seriously

When you're obviously in pain, damn near in tears, someone says to u " Are you ok?"

what time is the 8:00 lecture?. . .seriously?

if you love her, you'd let her go, that's just dumb! Why would I wana let someone I love go??!!!

This game is to examine and laugh over some dumb things people say everyday. . . .

jaygetta:
Rhino?! Tricky Di*cky is a frigging Woolly Mammoth.Nigeria better slow its roll Before someone at the Pentagon[b] suddenly "discovers" that Nigeria is the main supplier of Uranium to Rogue states, including, N.Korea and Iran![/b]

lmao!

i don't see any sense in this thread. ROTFLMAO

efcc that cannot take care of nigerian corruption madness will be looking towards cleaning a very clean america.

seriously?

That is another angle to corruption. Corruption is not all about Naira and kobo but attitude, behaviour and conduct in one's life

Lmao

and where are the leaders of the Nigerian Labor congress?. . .shouldn't Nigerians be staging a demonstration?

^^^

You shouldn't be like the Pharisees who knew every law, every rule, every historical events and lived their life according to the law. . .you should instead seek to let Jesus grow in you on a daily basis, that is the only way you can tell what is a sin before God and what is not.

Simply reading Bible passages will give you the knowledge. . .it's just like reading any other book. . .but the only way you can be truly saved from sin is communing on a regular basis with the Holy Spirit!

Don't seek Bible passages to justify what is right and what is wrong. . . . if you do, you will be attempting to win your own salvation, which will never be possible. . .the Bible says Jesus is the only way to the Father. . .therefore, seek for a closer communion with him, only he can tell you if drinking is wrong or not!


Besides, i think most of the verses have been quoted out of context. . .i observe that most people just lift a verse from Bible to suit their own need at a point in time or the other. . .this is not exactly the right way to go about things

I am calling for a one day mourning for Late Bawolomo on NL,  . .that is, everyone abstains from opening new threads or making posts in any other thread save a condolence thread opened on his behalf.

This will drive home the point that Nairalanders feel the loss of a senior member and that we collectively condemn his the circumstances leading to his death.

NL being one of the biggest traffic drivers on a global scale is sure to pass our message across in clear terms.

I feel numbed to even imagine that an air headed dolt would come here with all sorts of ethnic/bigoted statements. .

evilspirit:
have you forgotten that  panama president was arrested in panama by US.and nothing happen, Manuel Noriega

--- General Manuel Noreiga was a de-facto dictator ---de facto means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law"----

----- The Republic of Panama declared war on the United States, which means that US citizens in Panama weren't safe, it's the US's responsibility to protect its own.

--- The General being a military dictator was known to have abused human rights and was a drug dealer, the US felt just to restore democracy and combat drug trafficking.

You can't arrest an elected President of a sovereign state.

The US can't even arrest a foreign diplomat unless they obtain a permission from the government of such country to waive such person's immunity clause.

A president can only be arrested if found guilty of war crimes by the UN security council as stated in international humanitarian law.

Summary: If Atiku is elected as a President, he can't be arrested in the United States!

. . .

tolu001:
I'm beginning to like this man, he stood his ground, stood by the figures he proclaimed and that is an important attribute of a man with good integrity

He came out better than his boss, Aganga.

I honestly believe that Nigerians should push for the government to establish an Independent body {an example is the IPSA in UK} whose responsibility will be to create a fresh approach to the system of paying representatives

Gbawe:
Not entirely true. Nigerian Presidents and caucuses have always influenced the emergence of "business as usual" Senate Presidents and house of rep Speaker like David Mark and Dimeji Bankole from ward and constituency level. 'Influencing' the Legislative arm for the better may then start from ensuring both houses are not headed by "business as usual" appointees. The cleansing process will be gradual but it can be done beginning from ensuring that , at ward and constituency level, the right men and women make it to the legislative houses. I dont want to belabour the point but I think we all know that Nigeria is not yet a pure democracy .

smart points!

Influencing the appointees in the legislature, however is against everything democracy stands for, besides their are over 300 members in the house, more than 100 in the senate, these individuals are unruly and not all of them can be influenced or convinced to shelve personal interest for the cake of the country.

I think personally, Nigeria should be consolidated to fewer states, the lesser the governors we have, the lesser the number of representative we have, the better it is for the country!

Gbawe:
I am truly saddened at how the few good men we have in Governance are treated by the criminal majority. This is why I wan't Nigerians to shun ethnic sentiments when they vote. We are seeing total lawless behaviour everywhere , under GEJ, because leaders now know that they can behave as badly as they wan't , without fear of sanction, under a President who is keen not to offend anyone for the sake of a dangerously selfish ambition that is harming Nigeria every single day and threatening our national existence. Look at what OGD is doing in Ogun State !!! The Senators and reps are busy , every day, attempting to pass partisan laws giving them more influence and  pecuniary advantages !!!!

My brothers and Sisters , because of what has obtained for decades, our nation is now controlled by criminal vampires who will not rest till they suck the blood out of Nigeria. We must gain a President who is ready to battle and banish these bloodsuckers . To that end we should forget any PDP aspirant if we sincerely want a great nation. A sagacious President , with behind the scene actions, would have ensured that Sanusi , and indeed others who want what is best for Nigeria, are not bullied, embarrassed and hounded out by shamelessly indolent looters who see themselves as political leaders and lawmakers. Our political space is now full of criminals who ensure that progressive reformers are frustrated out. We need a President capable of reversing this odious trend.

love d enthusiasm. but the truth is, the President has almost no control on the National Assembly. . .it is the other way round.

ShangoThor:
Fashola/Sanusi team would turn Nigeria around within a term.

Not with crooks in NASS

the legislature controls the executive!

@Post

Odunnu!

. . .whose turn is it to laugh?

Now what the f*** does mean?

guarantee a high return rate of members to the House in 2011

Is it in the President's position to guarantee such?

I bet this was probably recorded without the pastor's consent and that's unethical.

But in all, it threw more light into the dark