Lucky is on the loose

Softer bail conditions

I cannot say that I am glad to report that Lucky Igbinedion, the ex-governor of Edo State who was indicted for corruption charges has been able to secure bail and leave prison.

I wrote last Friday that the bail conditions were almost impossible to meet and even though his lawyers seemed to be able to coral two federal permanent secretaries, the Head of Service of the Federation refused to use her office to vouch for a private citizen with his own legal travails.

When it became apparent that the lady would not be bought or prevailed upon by rotten influence peddlers the lawyers returned to the judge to seek other terms that were within the machinations of their ilk.

Now the conditions have been varied to only have people with landed property in the jurisdiction of the court and no requirement for the Head of Service to introduce any of the sureties.

Like I commented in my earlier blog this now shows that fewer people would allow their offices to be brought into disrepute by suspect criminals, no matter how much they can spend or what Senior Advocates of Nigeria they can use to scare other parties.

Proofread and correct

Mr. Igbinedion is supposed to report to the EFCC every fortnight on a Friday, it grates that sometimes one has to read Thisday Online with utter disdain because twice they have written that he should report to the EFCC every first Friday fortnightly.

The laudable art of proofreading has died a horrific death in the Nigerian press.

Even months after I have posted blogs, if I read through stuff and find errors, I correct them and repost.

King of the jungle mentality

Beyond this, I would suppose there would be a welcome party to greet the man of the people when he returns to his home state and that is very unfortunate.

We as Africans have to take our concept of leadership beyond the primitive concept of the King of the Jungle – in the jungle, animals fight, vie for ascendancy and power and maintain that office with menace and coercion.

As human-beings we have evolved beyond that rule of the jungle to expect people who gain leadership to be accountable, honest, fair and just in their leadership duties.

We cannot continue to revere leaders who have abused their positions for personal gain just because that have once been in leadership, these people should be constantly apologising for their poor leadership and their dishonest tenure rather than being regaled by the teeming mob of never-do-wells who scramble for every sop and crumb that falls off the rich man’s table.

Alas! That is why tyrants, despots, dictators and thieves find honour in Africa amongst their people – we need a serious re-education – Pretty Damn Quick!

Wikileaks - The right to know

An undying Internet presence

I happened upon a website that got its DNS entry removed through a legal process by an aggrieved plaintiff in cahoots with an Internet Service Provider.

In what might appear egregious in its remit, the judge not only asked for Dynadot the domain hosting service to remove all traces of the site from all systems that could resolve the name, they also any resolution from showing anything but a blank page.

The law as many would agree is an ass which by inference means it can only be laden with so much before it collapses under the weight of the load.

So, today as we can see Wikileaks.org no more we see Wikileaks.be, for any resourceful organisation taking a site offline only offers an inconvenience and not complete Internet obliteration – reincarnation is reality in new technology.

The need for whistleblowers

Wikileaks provides a unique service as a repository of documents posted anonymously by whistleblowers in government or corporations.

Obviously, if organisations, governments, politicians and powerful organs of influence conducted their businesses with transparency and honestly within the bounds of legality, justice and fairness there would probably be no need for whistleblowers.

Now, this is no advocacy to break the law and countries with official secrets legal codes should for matters of national interest be able to govern what gets revealed to the general public – the only problem is that it gets abused and used to conceal criminality, illegality, subterfuge and injustice.

Kenya stands out

Going through the site, it is not surprising that Kenya which stands out as a paragon of corruption amongst political leaders and their cohorts features prominent.

As it transpired the newly elected government of Mwai Kibaki engaged Kroll Inc. to investigate issues of corruption concerning the looting of Kenya under government of Daniel arap Moi his predecessor.

They produced a 110-page report in 2004 which implicates the ex-President’s sons in activities that have both of them worth just under a billion pounds or $1.8 billion.

This report is either gathering dust or being used as political leverage since it is interesting that Daniel arap Moi came round to supporting Mwai Kibaki having been unseated by him 5 years earlier.

The Kenya page shows a number of whistleblower documents that should be explosive and having people indicted and convicted but systems in Africa sometimes do to seem to deliver justice to certain strata of the society.

Dearth of Nigerian detail

The Nigeria page does not show much apart from personalities like Dr. Dora Nkem Akunyili, who as the Director General of NAFDAC runs the gauntlet of corrupt organisations and interests who flood Nigerian markets with sub-standard drugs.

Her job is made harder by sometimes unresponsive federal ministers or demi-god thugs with undue political clout like Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, we have every faith that she would prevail.

Another name was that of Chris Anyanwu who was jailed for life for publishing information about an alleged coup plot in 1995, a sentence that was commuted 15 years and she was eventually released in June 1998.

However, when Amy Goodman revealed the collusion of the Chevron Corporation with the Nigerian Army – in that the company offered transportation and logistics support – that lead to the killing of two villagers in the Niger Delta in 1998 and number of shady liaisons left a good few people in the poorest light but it resulted in a documentary that won her the George Polk Award in 1998.

The HRW expose on the unholy alliance sealed in a contract between Godfather Chris Uba and Anambra State aspirant governor Chris Ngige would have been a prime document for Wikileaks.

No fear in revealing

Maintaining the possibly tenuous Nigerian link is Dr. Martha Coleman-Adebayo (An African-American with a seemingly Yoruba name - Adebayo). As an employee of the Environment Protection Agency she found out and revealed that a United States firm was poisoning African workers and families with toxic waste.

Rather than get accolades, she was harassed and severely discriminated against within the EPA, however, what transpired after winning her case against discrimination lead to the signing into law by President George W. Bush of the No FEAR Act 2002.

The Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR Act 2002), seeks to prevent organisations or managers from engaging in unlawful discrimination or retaliation against whistleblowers.

The Right to Know - I

Once again, one has to be careful about the reasons for whistle-blowing and what is to be achieved by revealing such information. A writer for the Zimbabwean Financial Gazette wrote an article that appeared on allAfrica.com, the premise being the attacks on the right to know.

The article tackles a number of issues but in summary, one could say that if the power of political leadership derives from the people, they should have the right to know about the fitness of their leader for leadership and their ability to govern.

For instance, reporting about the health of the President where its seriousness can make the person incapable of performing their duties should be covered by access through the right-to-know; closer to home is the need to squelch the rumours about the health of President Umaru Yar’Adua of Nigeria.

Dr. Beetroot had details of her alcoholism revealed as it appeared she jumped the queue for a liver transplant having been a public advocate against the dangers of alcoholism.

The judge in a case brought against the newspaper said, “This is a case where the need for the truth is, in fact, overwhelming. Indeed in this matter the personality involved as well as her status establishes her newsworthiness.”

The Right to Know - II

Truth, status and newsworthiness pertaining to matters that have public relations façade far different from the concealed realities need scrutiny and should have the light shone on them.

• In the end, Africa has a right to know how their vast resources are being commercialised but never affecting their livelihoods for the better and why.
• They have a right to know how unscrupulous and corrupt global conglomerates under the guise of humanitarian aid poison them with drugs they would not dare test in their home countries.
• They have a right to know how their politicians deviate from the service to democracy and their constituents towards their selfish ends of self-aggrandisement, corrupt enrichment and influence peddling.
• They have a right to know that they should by merit and qualification be able to attain any goal and if that is not the case, they should know why and who is creating that unfair situation leading to tough sanctions against that practice.
• They have a right to know how the electoral process ends up with results that are not representative of their voting. Some whistleblower electoral officers in Kenya came forward to reveal irregularities with the December 2007 collations.
• If anything, they have the right to know the truth, the whole truth which does not prejudice valid national interest and nothing but the truth regardless of who it touches.

Wikileaks – a resource and repository

Basically, if we cannot obtain information of the sources about issues because of red tape, officialdom, corrupt interference or abuse of legal process, the only way to get at the truth would be through whistleblowers and they have Wikileaks to keep their identities whilst exposing rotten situations.

Support the crusade for the truth, support the message of Wikileaks in the global defence of sources and press freedom as a just, fair and importance cause.

They called the child ...

Giving names

We look at the circumstances around birth to name our kids – so goes the saying in Yoruba land.

It is such that if anyone were to document all the names a child receives, a basic idea of those circumstances can determined with some accuracy.

Some of my names indicate I was born close to a festival time and that I was far away from where my extended family could welcome my coming. (Abiodun [Born at festival time – Christmas was in 4 days time] and Bamidele [Follow me home – I was born abroad with my grandmother really wishing to see me]).

Many times when I went to my home town, each of my grandparents had names they called me and my parents were sometimes discerning enough to refer to me in their preferred appellation.

It is always an honour to be invited to name a child because you are allowed your perspective of those circumstances to come up with an edifying name.

Names with meanings

Yoruba names have to be meaningful and relevant, in fact, the child really does not get named till the 7^th day when people are gathered to party and bless the child with the new names.

Christian names are no more names plucked out of some obscure “this begat that” verse in the Bible, rather they are names that reflect a person’s devotion or gratitude expressed in a language they fully understand.

English names are not necessarily Christian and sometimes, we have fallen for thinking English is Christian when Christianity itself has its roots in Judaism which evolved from the Middle-East.

However, in a situation where your emotions are quite mixed-up between the joy of the birth of a child and the presumed insensitivity surrounding being informed about the circumstances; silence becomes golden – the child’s name is the child’s name – given by others.

That is my advice to my friend; let peace prevail.

Nigeria: Percentage Allowance Legislators

Note: The original graphic in this blog has been lost and the link to the article which I originally sourced from the Punch newspaper is unfortunately dead. The point this blog makes is that legislators take away 1,260% of their basic salary in allowances for cars, clothes, entertainment, newspapers, holiday pay, accommodation and much else.

Allowances by huge percentages

The salary that goes with the plumiest job in the world has taken on rockets and flown right into the stratosphere. Over 4 years some people would be on this Orient Express gravy train living large in such opulence that is way beyond the dreams of their constituents.

Our lawmakers in the Nigerian National Assembly would be able to claim allowances equivalent to 1,000% of their annual basic salary possibly tax free as allowances to seek accommodation, furnish their accommodation, buy a vehicle and be dressed up to the nines.

Dress the legislator

Before we get to the figures, it is interesting that they are concerned about such minutiae as their wardrobe which for men would be flowing gowns 10 times the size of the wearer.

In a throwback to the colonial days of the District Officer they would have domestic staff that would include a steward, a cook, a housekeeper and a gardener.

They also get paid for being on recess and we can assume there are two recesses in a legislative year and we also pay for their newspapers.

Missing some essentials?

However, I think for legislators, a good deal of the important things necessary to be a legislator in the West are missing and I suppose that is because our legislators who would be walking on cloud 20 are not necessarily representatives of any constituency.

In the expenses scandals that have bothered UK Members of Parliament, one gleaned that a legislator usually requires an office, a secretary and possibly an office administrator, a number of researchers and usually a number of trips to manage constituency matters – I see no allowances that cover those aspects.

My suspicion is, beyond these allowances they would still be able to claim additional expenses to cover these matters along with a chauffeur for the executive vehicle.

Nice job, if you can get it

I know not of any job anywhere that offers this kind of largesse, ordinary people are usually supposed to pay for all these things out of their basic salaries.

It would be different if the legislators really get down to doing stuff that helps build Nigeria but with them fed and fattened to the extent that they would not be able to get out of their opulent furniture to walk through the widest doors on earth, this would be gravy-train par excellence and it grates.

Hike linked to inflation?

One cannot say why the total salary bill for our national politicians has been hiked by 31.67% from NGN 41 billion to NGN 60 billion because there has to be some economic sense to flooding the economy with an additional NGN 19 billion for work that is not even in any productive sector of the economy.

It might be that the legislators know something we do not, which is inflation in Nigeria is running at over 30% and really everyone should be irresponsibly be given a salary raise commensurate with the level of inflation.

Now we can look at the figures, over 4 years; a senator would earn NGN 2 million per annum plus the 1,260% in allowances that is NGN 8 million plus 12.6 times the annual salary (NGN 25.2 million), this would all come to NGN 33.2 million or $277,638.

Not representative at all

It might look small, but this is in a country where according to the World Bank, 90% of the population lives on less than $2/day which when summed up comes to $2,920 if the person did make $2 for every single day for four years.

It is then no surprise that electioneering is a fight to the death because there are few jobs that pay like this without extensive influence peddling.

The multiplier effect of the percentage allowance scheme is quite instructive because from another perspective it shows the multiples of ones salary required in getting these basic needs and hopefully the numbers were not just plucked out of the air.

Welcome to the plumiest job on earth, being a Nigerian legislator.

Cult of the Frozen Cow

Escorting Daisy

Taking Daisy the cow by the raised hoof and chaperoning her to the Repose Enforcement Centre (abattoir would be inhumane) where she would be selflessly be engaged in the service of nourishing men, one could only reflect on man’s inhumanity to her kin.

As some of her friends stood in line without the luxury of a valet, they became exhausted that they could not stand on their feet, they still submitted to repose without the respite or reprieve that might have come from a sympathetic judge.

In the end, we have reluctant and incapable personnel forced into service putting at risk the usually unquestioned professional service of the cow and all that might be result from it.

Call back the beef

The reality is, before you to send the men in white coats over to take me away; the United States has had to recall 64.9 million kilograms of beef that might have been tainted.

Tainted, in that sick or seriously distressed cows might have entered the food chain, the bigger scare being some of the cows might have had Mad Cow Disease.

Just over four years ago there was a similar situation of a probably infected cow entering the food chain; I am still amazed that meat from one cow ended up in eight states and the island of Guam.

Spare me the details

Sometimes, it is good to be spared the details of the food processing industry because this frozen beef being recalled dates back to the 1^st of February 2006 – someone is about to tell me that I am could be eating beef that first landed in the freezer two years ago.

I might well be living in Antarctica and digging down miles to retrieve million year carcasses of long dead dinosaur meat – this is really getting crazy.

The want to kill our babies

To crown it all, the beef would supposedly end up in school lunch programmes and other federal nutrition programmes – if I had kids, I would be hysterical by now; but we all should calm ourselves down and react with a modicum of comportment.

Do not let your federal government be involved in your nutritional plan and be very wary of school dinners – basically who can you trust to do anything right?

People’s Burma or cattle’s America

In what does not look too far off from how repressive regimes clamp down on civil protest; the video, “showed crippled and ill animals being prodded with the blades of a forklift truck, kicked, given electric shocks and sprayed with high-pressure water hoses by staff in an effort to get them to their feet before slaughter”. BBC Source.

I could safely assume it was mad cowboys herding mad cows – I am off beef for the foreseeable future.

References

The Humane Society of the United States Undercover Investigation

Charged with Cruelty - The Video is quite graphic

Nigeria: Governor's reputation goes up in hospital flames

Useless Health Ministers

If this is not a case where Nigerian politics and the service to humanity has lost its priorities, focus and purpose, I would wonder what is.

I have railed before about so-called professors in medical science who have been appointed Ministers of Health and they have failed to grasp the extent and import of their briefs.

It informs the reason why for a simple fracture that the erstwhile vice-President had or the complicated ailment that the current President had before his selection required them being flown out of the country.

We have at least 4 teaching hospitals that have been in existence for at least 4 decades and we still end up with situations where one was particularly involved in obtaining sub-standard drugs from the black market that the Health Minister of the day could not be persuaded to act decisively on the report from the drug standards body; because the report was addressed to a predecessor he replaced a few weeks after the report was submitted.

If there would ever be a Health Minister in the mould of the late Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti who in spite of the strictures he had to work in, still made improvements and adjustments to health delivery in Nigeria, one cannot yet tell.

Junket beclouds purpose

The news reaching me today is appalling to say the least, a general hospital that had been built in Maiduguri, Borno State, with possibly start-of-the-art medical equipment was burnt down.

That is unfortunate, but reading the detail leaves one quite livid with rage; for the sake of stupid ceremony, the culture of junketry (for the want of another derivative of junket) that gets in the way of getting things done expeditiously and properly for the people; the hospital which was completed in June 2006 has remained closed until the day it was torched.

It had remained closed because the State Governor, Senator (Dr.) Ali Modu Sheriff, wanted the President to fly over with his entourage of leeches at great expense to the taxpayer to cut the tape to open the hospital.

So far, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria had been otherwise engaged than to do bed-pans that a number of visits were postponed until one that had now been set for March 2008.

I would contend that if the hospital had been deployed to the service that it was built to provide, it is unlikely we would be reading of arsonist attacks, rather, it would have breakthroughs in healthcare delivery hugging the headlines.

Misdirected anger

I am not surprised that the people of Bulunkutu were angry and shouting abuses at the alleged arsonists but their anger is completely misdirected and this is where the education of the masses is required for a clear thought process.

The governor stated that there was not one state-owned hospital in the country that had the type of world class equipment that could be found in the hospital complex – if that was the case, the next question should be whether the hospital was built for the people or for the opportunity to bring the President to this far-flung North-Eastern state.

It is unlikely that the President would have needed to use the facilities, the people of the state however, would have benefited from using the hospital considering other Borno State hospitals are poorly equipped and overcrowded.

The people should have been foremost in the mind of the governor and after being unable to get the President he should have settled for another delegated functionary or even done it himself.

Now, he laments the arsonists had a ploy to damage his political reputation – How do we get to elect these cretins?

This hospital should have been opened 19 months ago and it should not have lain fallow and unused for another one month until March 2008.

Another rape of the people

Not only is the governor culpable in this travesty and rape of the people, his advisers should have seen that his political reputation stems from the people not from junkets that have him play host to the President.

The healthcare delivery hierarchy should have prevailed upon him; if indeed we had healthcare delivery statistics all around the country, to open the hospital and give respite to the people who most definitely have no opportunity to jet out for Aspirin.

The anger of the people should be directed at the idiot that is the governor, just as the arsonists who were wrong could no more stand seeing a white-elephant in their neighbourhood.

I would suppose the President would be visiting next month to cut the tape and allow fire engines access to fight the fire after which he can shovel the ashes and see the hospital rise like a phoenix before the eyes of the junketeers.

Sometimes, incredulity is the norm in great Nigeria.

Today, We are Kosovans

The Flag of newly independent Kosovo (WikiMedia Foundation)

The people have spoken

Many regimes have rolled tanks over the aspirations of their people and shot bullets into the hearts of a few of the people who yearn for freedom.

Men, women and children they can kill but a hope that has become a movement for the emancipation of the people can be delayed, it can be obstructed and it can be temporarily crushed but it cannot be destroyed.

The Balkans has always been the tinderbox that has set Europe on fire much as peace in the Balkans keeps an uneasy calm in Europe.

This day, the people of Kosovo by their democratic will and earnest desire became a nation – the parliament unanimously declared independence from the Republic of Serbia.

A promise to all

Many have welcomed this realisation and others have rubbished the reality as false.

The leaders of the people have vowed to protect the minorities in their new nation whilst they forge ahead building a new identity and ready to play their part in the commonwealth of global nations.

Any nation that would not recognise the validity of this declaration should reflect of why they would deny a people their aspirations and wonder at their democratic credentials.

A treasure un-cherished

Serbia for instance claims that Kosovo is the cradle of Serbia, if it were that precious and priced as a place of their heritage they should probably have been smarter about treating that heirloom with respect and recognition.

They should have striven to unite their different peoples rather than wage wars (Wars waged in 1389, 1448, 1915, 1944 & 1999) and belligerent rhetoric against the dominant and majority occupiers who have a considerably different heritage.

The deed has been done here and hopefully, we can keep the peace and watch this nation grow into a force for good in the old Yugoslavia, the Balkans, Europe and the world at large.

We are Kosovans

There is nothing illegal about realising the aspirations of a people, the memory of the martyrs whose blood flowed to realise this dream shall not have been shed in vain.

Today, we who seek freedom and liberty with safety are together at one with Kosovo.

Today, we are all Kosovans – Long live the independent Republic of Kosovo, we welcome you.

Reference

The timeline to Kosovan Independence