Nigeria: June the Twelfth

Present in spirit

15 years ago on this day, I was not in Nigeria to participate in a democratic movement that we all hoped would change Nigeria.

A man so rich, so successful, so garrulous that he was bold enough to say no paranormal activity that creates destitution can survive in the midst of his wealth was about to take the spoils.

My heart and mind was at one with fellow Nigerians in the hope that the changes would occur that would make life better for them at home and things easier for those in Diaspora who were busy working overtime to repair the generalised bad reputation of Nigeria and Nigerians seen abroad.

I felt the pain, the agony greater than disappointment and despair when half the results were released and then the whole election was annulled.

Not fair, not just

Those elections were supposed to be fairest and freest elections ever conducted in Nigeria and for that reason until another election is conducted in Nigeria that rivals the standard of those conducted in 1993, June the Twelfth would remain significant in the minds of any fair-minded Nigerian.

Until we have a situation where a fairly and justly conducted democratic process clearly indicates the real choices of the electorate as expressed at the ballot box, June the Twelfth would be the benchmark.

Until the truth about why June the Twelfth is atoned for by more than an apology by General Ibrahim Babangida, but by exposing all the stakeholders and malevolent instigators whose ulterior motives are yet not scrutinised in the grand disenfranchisement of the most populous country in Africa – June the Twelfth remains a festering wound the Nigerian democratic psyche.

Not so soon already

So, General Abdulsalami Abubakar cannot now advise us to forget June the Twelfth because there is so much unfinished work to be done and realised.

We as Nigerians have been short-changed too much by rotten leaders who would prefer their legacies be fictional fairy tales of things being so wonderful – well, whoever has held power must be accountable for their tenure.

They should also be ready to answer questions about their conduct in government, however, this must not affect the everyday business of government, but a properly constituted quasi-judicial body must attend to the matters of the past so that we are not haunted by those mistakes in the future.

How to learn from the past

Lessons need to be learnt about our past especially that of the Twelfth of June, we can only lessons from analysis in detail so as not to commit those mistakes in the future.

The time for pulling the carpet of these matters has passed, the time for revering leaders who have not been audited for their stewardship in the light of the state of the lives of a majority of Nigerians has passed.

The time for the truth about June the Twelfth is now and it is important for building a viable future for our country – if there be any date or datum for the celebration of democracy in Nigeria, it should be June the Twelfth and no other day.

Reflections of others on June the Twelfth

Chxta’s World

NaijaEcash

Thy Glory O Nigeria

Adedibu, Half of Ibadanland, the man is no more

Is it really dead?

Ten years ago, when I was informed that the despot General Sani Abacha had died, I was walking off Tottenham Court Road into Goodge Street, the street itself looking for a place to sit down because the story was unbelievable.

I also asked for the meat left behind to be slapped with the best side of a shovel just to be sure that he had really departed.

Earlier in this evening, I caught a whiff of news that Alhaji Lamidi Akanbi Ariyibi Adedibu, half of Ibadanland that the uninitiated erroneously describes as one person had kicked the bucket but I was not sure the cat had exhausted its nine lives and did not have a joker life to spare – well, it would appear he had used them all up.

The legacy of works reviled

Probably all that can be written about Alhaji Adedibu has been written that speak no good of a man so bad that the mourning of his demise unleashed thugs on the streets of Ibadan – the evil men do does live after them.

But like a beach whale, the evil he unleashed in Ibadanland shall slowly have live ebb out of it till he becomes part of the unpalatable history of Yorubaland.

Once again, there may be many who would not speak evil of the dead, they should not at the same time speak lies of this man, there was no reason to revere him apart from the perversity of the patriarchy of old age, but that is Nigeria..

He was an unconscionable menace, an executive hoodlum with the basest intents and a thorn in the sides of everything that tried to rise as progress in Yoruba politics.

Gone and well gone

At the death of Chief A. M. A. Akinloye last year, a man whose legacy includes nurturing people of Adedibu’s ilk it would appear the only notoriety they had not gained was that of immortality.

The man shall be committed to earth tomorrow, as a Muslim, on the 15^th anniversary of the June 12^th nullification of democratic results debacle; we might well begin to rid ourselves of those whose presence has haunted Nigerian for decades, who in death shall have gone forever.

However, I write this to bury Alhaji Adedibu not to praise him, but he would only be so well eulogised in lyrics of the musician (Alhaji Odolaiye Aremu) who praised him years ago – he summed up the man in words I cannot better.

The tribute

Adedibu, half of Ibadanland that the uninitiated erroneously describes as one person

Death that taunts before it strikes

Wicked man per excellence

The son of a witch who buys on credit and still demands a bargain

The man who deliberately harms and yet commiserates with his victim

The man who owes you and you dare not ask to be repaid

The heir rejects his inheritance, Adedibu appropriates it

Akanbi who demands two pence from a man with only two and a half pence

Adedibu went to the Ibadan city centre and came back with several chickens

He did not buy them (the chickens),

He did not steal them (the chickens),

And nobody gave them (the chickens) to him as gifts,

The chickens just ran into a monumental calamity!

Nigeria: Old Dishonest Generals Praise Abacha

Speaking lies of the dead

I can understand the sentiment that one should not speak ill of the dead, probably from the premise that the dead cannot defend themselves when something untoward has been said about them – in some circles it is just good manners.

However, just because one should not speak ill of the dead, it does not confer the opportunity to blatantly lie about the dead in some revisionist poise towards the past.

I am getting worried about how memorial or remembrance events in Nigeria provide a forum for partying, but the speech givers then provide a slant of history that would almost always be too far from the truth to be credible.

In March 2008, a gathering of “elder statesmen” and I use that moniker liberally because there are only a few for the memorial of the elder brother of our current President left us breathless with incredulity as the speakers chose the occasion to castigate each other.

Memorial curses on Abacha

So, this weekend, remembrance prayers were said for General Sani Abacha celebrating – if that could ever be right – 10 years of his death, which occurred marking the culmination of his rule of 5 years in 1998.

I think it is common knowledge that Abacha’s reign was probably the worst ever leader inflicted on Nigeria and basically he was a despot of the most maligned order.

As these occasions go, some ex-leaders were invited to these prayers that included General Muhammadu Buhari and General Ibrahim Babangida – rather than say their prayers and move on, they went to on suggest that General Sani Abacha never looted the national treasury.

Lies, blatant lies

General Babangida had this to say about Abacha as a “courageous, loyal and honest military head of state who stood for the unity and development of the country during his years in government; it is not true that he looted public treasury. I knew who Abacha was because I was close to him”.

Repeating himself to make the point even more clearly, he said, “Abacha was a courageous person who stood firmly in handling the affairs of the country during his regime. There is no doubt, during his administration as head of state, Abacha contributed his best to the nation’s economy which we are still enjoying”.

General Babangida must be suffering the first indications of dementia with the possibility that amnesia has set in because as the news report indicates, he had a different view of Abacha in 2000.

Unfortunately, General Buhari also suggested that the idea that Abacha looted the treasury was baseless, with which he has suddenly lost any credibility he ever had.

The man who took over from Abacha, General Abdulsalami Abubakar who first had the task of cleaning out the Abacha Aegean Stables now contends the Vision 2020 initiative draws inspiration from Abacha’s Vision 2010.

Are these all lies?

I would not propound any further theories about this apart from asking these men, about the following:

The millions returned by ministers in Abacha’s government, this happened under his watch. (BBC).

The return of $500 million by the Swiss banks all related to Abacha, his family and his associates. (Swissinfo.ch)

The press briefing in 2005 with the World Bank President, Mr. Paul Wolfowitz and the then Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on the repatriation of Abacha funds. (The World Bank)

The questions raised by President Olusegun Obasanjo where he opined that the Abacha family cannot have legitimately worked to earn $100 million of disputed funds. (Global Policy Forum)

The way London might have been implicated in the possible transfer of more than $4 billion by the Abacha regime which named 15 London banks. (BBC)

One cannot list the many other sources but these should be authoritative enough to indicate that General Sani Abacha was implicated, involved and instrumental to a number of deals that took money out of Nigeria illegally.

Exterminate this vermin, forthwith

I would suppose the three Generals would contend that General Abacha was keeping all this in trust for Nigeria in high-interest numbered Swiss accounts.

These generals must think Nigerians are fools who have no recollection of the past or of the facts.

It saddens me that we still have this ilk of people able to say things like this and get away with it and it makes me regret that we did not have a Nigerian Jerry Rawlings to rid us of atrocious military generals who have squandered every good thing about Nigeria for their own ends.

Ghana does not have an old Acheampong, Afrifa or Akuffo to revise history with dishonest intent, it is time we did not have a Shagari, Buhari, Babangida, Abubakar or Obasanjo coming out of the woodwork to mess up Nigerian history well after they had messed up Nigeria during their tenures in government, I would spare General Yakubu Gowon.

If these people cannot retire and keep quiet then it is probably time to make them forcibly depart their mortal coils, Nigeria cannot continue to countenance this sort of thing.

Is this the man?

A beach of uncertainty

They ululate and splash about in the water as the waves rise for the thrill of surfing – so much fun and so much joy they forget that something so good could have something lurking ready to attack from below.

Obviously, the established outfits had no match for this campaign which really had become a movement, a great movement for change that had not been seen for well over a generation.

But I did not come out to surf in these waves, even though I chanced upon the beach and I watched the waves ebb and flow, till it seemed to recede a lot faster and further away than it should.

A tsunami of change

Indeed, we should have heard the breaking news, there was an undersea earthquake and those were the signs of a tsunami coming to shore. I should run but nobody is running, oblivious of the danger and fascinated by the spectacle.

I would not take anything away from the amazing victory that has been wrought to have a shot at the Presidency of the United States, what we had hoped for eight years ago has been eradicated with the ructions of the earthquake of change and a tsunami of organisation.

One man on the hill

The platitudes, the praise and the adulation coming with the reference to colour is interesting but it is just one man on the hill – the country is still steeped in colour-driven prejudice, one man does not a revolution make.

You only have to come to the UK and see which other woman has managed to succeed Margaret Thatcher, nor is there an ethnic minority in sight on the unusual oratorical track to number 10 Downing Street.

When I listened, I could have been in church, indeed, the people need to be inspired to believe beyond themselves, but soon they would be bold enough to walk on hot coals, but what does that prove?

Those who watch would be filled with hope, those who vie would be brought to tears, this is a juggernaut that would take out every obstacle, nothing can withstand what has happened upon us.

Is this the man?

As I watch things from afar, so unusual, so different, so ground-breaking, so eloquent, so winningly overwhelming, I can only wonder as I wondered in February 2007 – is this the man they talked of in the Book of Ages?

Is this the man with the answers to all ills in the world that each time he speaks we would follow like sheep, that great leader that signals the imminent end to the world?

Having deftly excommunicated himself from his communion, I do really wonder at the signs, the signals and the gathering of the storm or the opening of the clouds.

Is this the man?

A rotten experience of shopping and delivery

Bit System, Bigger Memory

Sometimes, I do not know what it takes to snap me out of a terminal sulk and I had every reason to be quite contrary. This blog is a bit geeky.

I had been thinking of getting my mitts deep into Microsoft Windows Server 2008 but that would have required a reasonably specified system.

With a help of a friend at work who knows a bit more about assembling computers, I ordered a computer from azerty.nl placing each component into my electronic trolley after check that it was available and in stock.

The highlights of this system were the Intel Core 2 Quad core processor, 8GB of Ram and 2 1GB SATA hard disks.

Having the Microsoft TechNet Plus Subscription meant I had access to a good deal of Microsoft software for free, for evaluation and usually as Microsoft expects, we feedback to them issues and discoveries to improve the products.

My plan was to install the 64-bit version of the Operating System and the run 2 virtual machines using 2.5GB of RAM, very few systems at work are that well specified.

Then I also decided to get a lower specification pre-built system, half the memory and hard disk space – this was to run Windows Vista, also 64-bit with one virtual machine using 2GB of RAM, thus, I would end up with 5 logical systems and all the research and development can begin.

Indulging myself, I got a 22” widescreen monitor too

Beginning to fail me

The site offered to means to keep up with the processing of the order after I had parted with a smidgen over EUR 2,000.

In real-time, it then appeared not every component was available, most of the order filled up by the 3^rd day but for the memory which was supposed to be 2 banks of 4GB for 2 slots in the bespoke system.

In fact, it took 9 days for the memory to be signed off as ready and my system went to assembly.

On Tuesday, I received an email with Track-and-Trace numbers that my systems would soon be delivered and I watched the progress through out the day, from site, to office, to chauffeur and possibly my home.

When I got back home as I walked into the atrium entrance of my block, I noticed 2 boxes, I walked up to check and they were my goods.

I was livid, I could not believe that my goods had been handled with such levity and dumped in an unsecure place with no one having signed for the delivery of the goods. This was supposed to be some “professional” outfit called TNT.

Normally, if a delivery cannot be made, a second and third attempt is made before the goods are taken to the local post office for collection – I have done that so many times for good that do not even cost EUR 50.

It is not all there

It took about 2 hours for me to calm down enough to check if my full order had been delivered, though I could not think of 2 computers and a monitor being in just 2 boxes.

Well, the boxes contained the bespoke computer and the other empty boxes of the components used to build the computer. It did not dawn on me then that I was missing the monitor until later.

Imagine the thoughts that went through my racy mind all night, someone might have waked away with the lighter goods and I had to chase down the whole delivery process to prove that the goods were not in my possession.

I had paid for delivery so it was not like I was being done a favour, I believed I had an implicit contract that ensured azerty.nl after nicely pocketing my money would ensure that goods were properly and professionally delivered.

Hello?

The next morning, I called to complain and remonstrate, no one knew what had happened to my full order, it was not till the afternoon that I was informed that the goods were still on location and arrangements had been made to get them out to me the next day.

I also received a Track-and-Trace number which I did not try out till the next morning only to find that the number had one character missing.

Akin had to calm down seriously when composing an email to demand the exact number because I wanted to be at home to receive my goods.

Afterwards I called azerty.nl and for 30 minutes I went over my story as if in a recital and could not get a Track-and-Trace number for the life of me.

I was just assured that my goods would arrive, I had no problem with that, but if they were user a professional delivery service there should be a record of the transaction somewhere – well I could not get the information at all – it was frustrating, but I decided to work from home in the hope that their assurances would be met.

Not what I ordered

Meanwhile, the night before, I have powered up the beast of a server and slapped on Microsoft Windows Server 2008– Enterprise Edition with Hyper-V all 64-bit.

Then I ran Everest tools on the system, this is software that takes off the bonnet of a system better than any assembly engineer can do. I had suspected the memory I asked for was not what was installed.

Lo and behold, the system has 4 banks of 2GB RAM instead of 2 banks of 4GB RAM, not problem, it just means I cannot upgrade the memory, but then the motherboard can only take 8GB of RAM – fair enough.

However, should I not have been informed that one of the components I ordered could not be sourced and it had been substituted with another?

Given that the price of the 4 modules is higher than installing the original 2 modules I ordered, there was a whiff of hanky-panky and dishonesty in this situation, I was not being given what I paid for and something else was passed off to me as what it was not.

I was not pleased at all and I mentioned that to them, apology precipitates excuses but this was really a process gone wrong.

Arrived and dumped at the door - AGAIN!!!

At just a quarter to 4 my bell rang at the delivery courier said he had 2 boxes for me; I let him in and made for the entrance, 7 floors down by elevator, before I got there, he had disappeared and my boxes were just by the door on the inside.

I found out from a neighbour that the boxes delivered on the Tuesday were placed in the same place and someone had moved them further into the atrium. I was already too exhausted to be very angry, it was completely unacceptable.

How can a firm deliver EUR 2,000 worth of goods and not require signatures of proof of delivery?

I wrote to azerty.nl and told them I would never shop with them again and I would shop them to the computer consumer site called tweakers.net and vent my spleen on my blog.

Apparently, they do have good consumer ratings – Murphy’s Law just seemed to exact a gravitational force on my transaction.

I received a profuse apology by email and they said they were going to lodge a complaint with TNT.

Don’t keep me waiting

So, I left work early to get a KVM (Key Video Mouse) switch to link up 2 computers in my office, I already have one linking up 4 computers in my computer room; none of the shops had what I wanted and when I got to the other side of town all had closed but one.

I bought a cable off them but it took probably ten minutes to process the order because the mouse on their computer was playing up – then I paid, but the boy at the till could not make out that if I bought stuff for EUR 16 and gave him EUR 51, he should give me EUR 35.

The innumerate are taking over the world and that is probably more catastrophic than the illiterate.

Then he offered me a bag, but got distracted trying to fix their computer with a colleague, another 5 minutes that I slapped the shelf with my palm and asked that the customer be properly attended to regardless of whether their system works or not – it is not my business if as a computer store they cannot replace suspect parts.

Basically, I am a customer who does not like being kept waiting – nothing vexatious, just as the boy was about to raise his voice to me, the calmer heads in the place called him to order – I was just about to get really pissed off with computer people.

Anyway, I think I feel a lot better now; I am off to play with my new toys.

Nigeria: Removing influence from selecting the cabinet

The President and his cabinet

This is where President Yar’Adua needs to begin to assert authority as the executive President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that he has the final say about how he runs his cabinet and who he invites into that fold.

It is understandable that we have had to bear the cross of the rottenness of federal character that ensures representation at the federal level is evenly distributed across all states regardless of size, representation or population – in my view it is becoming a nightmare.

One of the problems there is, we end up with space-filling jobbers rather than the best qualified Nigerians for jobs that require competence, initiative, vision, discipline, principles and hopefully, less politics.

Too many pools very few talent pools

In fact, I would rather we had the original 12 States such that the pool of talent can be better gathered, but the tendency to tribalism and unidentifiable clans would almost always get in the way, because there are still some that believe that a job is best filled with sycophants and through nepotism rather than by merit.

Certain thugs who think they are leaders want to be able control the bodies they have put in these posts such that they can exact undue pressure and obtain favours in gratitude for endorsing under-qualified people who by rights should never be in those positions and they, the appointees know it.

But mostly there is this chauvinistic, Barbarian tendency for the power-brokers to wield political influence – there has to be chest-beating that ends with the ultimate putdown – I put you in your position you must respect me. It is a completely corrupt enterprise.

Now, it appears at the beginning of the second year of President Yar’Adua’s tenure, he has the opportunity to reshuffle his cabinet, boot out non-performers, reassign the talents and bring in fresh faces. We might expect a Government of all Talents (GOATs to be unkind).

The political system we have in Nigeria means that selection for ministerial posts would mostly go to card carrying members of the ruling party and a few stellar Nigerians we cannot afford to ignore as state quotas are filled up.

Busybody state governors

I am not surprised that state governors in some ways would want to have some say in the selection but really what they should be doing is offering a list of names and allowing the President to make his choices – they should not be promoting particular affiliations or associations – in fact, my fear is that they might have promised to guarantee posts for representatives of their state – that kind of attitude has to stop.

The cabinet is the President’s means of ensuring that his vision and the programmes of his party are executed by people he can trust, who have the competence to carry through their brief and excel in delivering results for the people of Nigeria without guile or dissimulation.

I cannot understand how the performance of a minister can be measured by the pork that has been delivered to their home states rather than what has been done for Nigeria as a whole.

Delivering pork is the work of the legislature, they are the direct representatives of their states and constituencies – ministers have a broader brief and state representation is the least significant of those.

The President’s prerogative

In fact, I do not see why the state governors should have to get on with the ministers from their states, the relationship should be benign and of no influence if any – state governors have enough on their plates to govern their states and bring results closer to the people with their commissioners than to be nosing around in the federal cabinet.

It should be the exclusive remit of the President and his advisers to determine which minister has not held their brief with competence or not performed, regardless of the state the minister represents or the concerns of the nosily idle governors.

He should put his foot down on this matter and the governors that feel so slighted because they cannot get their way should get busy with their day jobs, else the rule of law and the protection of the essence of our federalism should be the book thrown at them and the matter.

We have greater matters to deal with about Nigeria and we have to begin to accept that not every kinsman is the best qualified to perform if we are to build Nigeria into the great nation we all believe that it is.

Reference

Nigerian Tribune – The cabinet reshuffle rumours

Fashion, function and fit

Not fit for the kitchen

There was a reference in the Newsweek magazine about their online magazine pertaining to lingerie makers now being close to finding the right balance of fashion, function and fit for brassieres.

That alliteration (fashion, function and fit) tweaked something in me about things I saw so recently. Last weekend I ventured with my friend from work back to the African Kitchen where we have all agreed that the lack of competition in the Nigerian cuisine restaurant market leaves us completely robbed blind for bad food and rotten service.

However, we find ourselves returning because some of what we like takes a whole lot of time to prepare; that is not to say we, the punters, are not good cooks in our own right, but the logistics are not a walk in the park.

The codename of the restaurant has been Barawo (thief in Hausa) for the best part of 4 months – the things we suffer.

Not impressed

As we arrived, there were no tables available so we sat at the bar where this “sexy” lady took our orders. She turned around and bent down to get some drinks out of the fridge and all that should be concealed was revealed.

I am probably not as hot-blooded with a rampaging libido as many of the men that frequent that restaurant who might be excited by such views, I was utterly disgusted.

For me, I find no pleasure in voyeurism and I do not enjoy anything that leaves nothing to the imagination, nor do I fantasise about bedding such lack of sophistication – it was indecent, unflattering, dirty and debauched – I am supposed to be in a restaurant not a lap-dancing club.

In any case, she might be in fashion, but the function of the trousers she was wearing was lost as it exposed her nudity, the fit was bad and not fit for purpose – the image that lingers assaults my peace and has me in a tentative state of grabbing for a sickbag.

Seat cleaners required

Then, on the tram the other day, this boy got on and sat two spaces next to me, as I gave a side glance, my disgust with low-hanging trousers was completed with utter revulsion.

I thought, the exposure of the underwear was compensated for by longer tops, but this was not the case, he was sat with his exposed underwear directly on the seat.

That really worried me, cack-laden, stinking, gooey threadbare undergarments rubbed onto public seating that others would use unawares picking up such foreign fecal matter and what not.

I know that most public conveniences now have toilet seat cleaning facilities, would I now have to acquire seat cleaning aids for using public transport.

No doubt again, the boy was following fashion, but the function of the trousers in concealing the underwear was lost and really, the simple thing is the trousers do not fit; else they would not be hanging down.

The foolishness of this fashion is completed with the fact that the legs of the trousers seem to be long enough, but instead of folding them up, they all sweep the ground and any ground anywhere like a bridal train till the trouser hem – if that is the right phrase – looks like rags.

A short distraction

So, I shook my head yesterday afternoon as I took the long bus trip from the more salubrious 805 Restaurant on Old Kent Road – one can get a black cab there but never one back into town.

The lady got off the bus and her skirt was so short that all adjustments she made still meant it was not long enough to cover the detail and quite so short that the curiosity that might have made it interesting left one less complimentary of what any right-thinking person would call a tramp.

How people leave their homes without a double-take in front of a full-length mirror on the exit door of their houses escapes me. If you have to continually adjust the fitting of your apparel after you have left home, you are not properly dressed and you should return home and sort it out.

The things idiots do in the name of fashion.