Nigeria is a sick nation needing disruptive turnaround!
Kara meat markey in Lagos, Nigeria. Photo: Reuters
There are three clear-cut prognoses to any medical malady: It can either resolve; turn chronic, lingers and cripple the victim, figuratively; or the victim may just caput, and succumb to the illness.
That Nigeria is sick is stating the obvious, but as apparent as this may be, Nigerians keep getting smacked in the face, incessantly, by actions and developments that continue to buttress this fact. Here are some reference points in 2009: Continue reading…
James Ibori in court. Photo: Compass newspaper
Another head-scratching matter manifests again in the home country: How could a man on a 170-count charge of corruption involving the laundering of millions of dollars got discharged and acquitted by the court? At least one of the charges ought to count, right?
Well, probably not, if your name is James Onanefe Ibori, the well connected former governor of oil-rich Delta State. There are two or three possibilities of what happened: Continue reading…
Artistic impression of the Hong Kong Macau Bridge
The construction of the world’s longest sea bridge is about to begin in China. The Y-shaped link between Hong Kong, Macau and China will be around 50km (31 miles) long in total, 35km of which will span the sea, according to the state news agency Xinhua. Expected data of completion 2015. Cost: 6.7billion Pound Sterling (73bn Yuan or 11bn USD).
It’s difficult to be hopeful that men and women that can dream big dreams (as this bridge), and make such dreams reality, will emerge in Nigeria in my lifetime! Continue reading…
I love Italians. They can’t hide their emotions; they make it clear where they stand (when they not trying to pulling a fast one on you), just as one did a couple of days ago by smacking his country’s Prime Minister in face (video).
The attack left the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi bloodied with broken teeth and a fractured nose.
I can think of many Nigerians in high places that deserve the “Berlusconi treatment” because they share all of his crimes, and even more.
The Italian Prime Minister has been the subject of intense criticism over his personal life and management style, and he’s not liked much in his country. “The prime minister scores highly in polls gauging Italian popular opinion, though he has been tried on various charges 17 times since taking office in 1994. The charges include corruption, false accounting and tax fraud”, according the media report.
There are dozens of eminent Nigerians with worst crimes than Berlusconi (the second richest man in Italy, by the way)…
Let’s go smacking!
Dr. Segun Mimiko, Ondo State Governor
Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State at a lecture entitled: “Critical Issues in the 2011 elections” delivered to participants at Executive Intelligence Management Course 2 of the Institute for Security Studies said if Nigeria does not desist from “electoral debauchery” through rigging and falsification of election results, the country’s democracy may not survive.
Continue reading…
Who reasonably passes as Nigeria’s own version of the American icon, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., died some hours ago, at age 71. Chief Gani Fawehinmi [ganifawehinmi.com], the most prominent human and civil rights advocate Nigerian has ever had, died from complications of lung cancer.
An indefatigable critic of military dictatorship and corruption, in the process of his crusades for the rule of law, the hopes and aspirations of the poor and the oppressed, he fought many battles against military dictatorship as a result of which he had been arrested several times by the military governments and its numerous security agents. He was dumped in many police cells and detained in several prisons between 1969 and 1996.
In 1993 Fawehinmi was awarded the biennial Bruno Kreisky Prize. This prize, named in honour of Bruno Kreisky, is awarded to international figures who advance human rights causes. In 1998, he received the International Bar Association’s Bernard Simmons Award in recognition of his human-rights and pro-democracy work. In 1994 he and some other notable Nigerians formed the National Conscience Party of Nigeria which exists till today and he stood for a presidential election in 2003 under the umbrella of the National Conscience Party.
Gani Fawehinmi became a holder of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) the highest legal title in Nigeria in September, 2001.
More online:
http://www.ganifawehinmi.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gani_Fawehinmi
The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, used her visit to Nigeria to highlight the core national challenges: corruption, rule of law and electoral reform. One of the significant moments during the visit was the Town Hall Meeting, where she reiterated what appears the Nigerian political class has yet to realize:
“The most immediate source of the disconnect between Nigeria’s wealth and its poverty is a failure of governance at the federal, state and local level. The lack of transparency and accountability has eroded the legitimacy of the government and contributed to the rise of groups that embrace violence and reject the authority of the state.”
Continue reading…
