Future Nigeria

Turai, Obasanjo and Others, Game Plan Unfolds...

2010-05-05T21:54:00.000-07:00

Regretting the death of the Nigerian President, Umaru Musa Yar'dua, it feels like a plot unfolded. The script writer being Olusegun Obasanjo, main character as Turai. The cabals as co-players. But playing with a human life is too much! Anyways, death should mean rest to those who really know where they are going and to whom they are going in the great beyond. For Musa, he ceases from the stress of Nigeria in a way. Whatever reason for which he was kept in Saudi like it's the best in the world and returned to Aso Rock home health or herbal nursing! Only God knows what was the plan in Turai's heart. Her husband deserved more than he was given, all in the name of some power-play, while a human life was at stake. Whoever does not struggle to save a life can as well take it if opportune.
Goodluck to Goodluck once again. On a lighter mood, if any man is standing behind you in any position, make sure he does not bear Goodluck, if he does, remove him as quickly as you can before his luck removes you.
Nigeria must move on as the plot continues to unfold. Obasanjo's best offer for a successor has finished his term. Unfortunate Yar'dua, he took the baton from an unsuccessful regime. We knew this result before the game kicked off, didn't we?
I do not pray for the dead, 'Rest in Peace' is not my thing. The decision has been made while he lived whether to rest or to suffer on, but my prayers are for those that remain; O God of Creation, direct our noble cause, guide our leaders right, help our youths the truth to know, in love and honesty to grow and living just and true, great lofty height attain, to build a nation where peace and justice reign. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria. AMEN!

Goodnews! Yar'dua Recovers Health. Office Recovery?

2010-04-22T08:04:00.000-07:00

The ailing President Umaru Yar'dua was said to have had a better recovery or at last has been raised from the dead even though he is yet to make a public appearance. Will Nigerians rejoice over this development or what? The President, even before his ailment has been ailing indeed since his resumption of office in 2007. He has been incapacitated in every way one can think of. If only he had been making any notable impact on both the political and economic life of the nation; his recuperation might be a joyous moment for the Nigerian people. But as it is, people are satisfied seeing a Goodluck on the seat of power; at least having a change of taste of whatever they all promise to give us. Let's have a new promise even if it will go unfulfilled as usual. Well, we should thank God for the restoration of health, but he should spend his time now to be with his family and go home to rest. Turai can keep him now for as long as she wants. Returning to the office of the Presidency will not be celebrated. We have enough of that already and Jonathan is stronger for now to complete this out running tenure of office.
The set of people who might want Umaru back in office are the likes of his cousin, who hinted The Sun Newspaper about President Yar’Adua’s imminent return earlier yesterday, Architect Ahmed Yar’Adua, "who is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of National Inland Waterways, while speaking to Correspondents. He emphatically said his cousin was recuperating fast and would soon return to office." What do you expect from a cousin? But is better Umaru returns home safely to his people. Nigeria is not Yar'dua's clan.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida: The hope for Nigeria?

2010-04-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

The problem in the Nigerian state is such that defies any intelligent analysis. Our unsolved issues have given birth in their millions to some seemingly incurable diseases. Some of these diseases have become flesh themselves and now dwell among us with Nigerian passports, claiming citizenship. I lament seriously the downfall of the giant of Africa.
How can a disease claim to be the cure of a nation's illness? How can anyone be bold enough to mention that name ever again in Nigeria? The evil genius has insulted our collective intelligence once again. Why will Babangida not be trying to come back to power? A man who has not been cleared of the allegations of treason and felony in the case of June 12 election; murder in the case of Dele Giwa; and the countless number of corruption and abuses of office. A man who for his power drunkenness delayed the Nigerian transmission into democracy from 1985 to 1994 and still was not willing to let go. Should he or his generations after him dare to come forward ever again in the arena of democratic leadership of Nigeria? This is nothing but a show of shame. An advertisement of an incapable state; where the foundations of law and justice system are laid to rest.
This man should be voted for prison, and for life in jail for that matter. He does not belong on the streets of Nigeria, talk much of being in the corridors of power.
He is the very disease of Nigeria, he can never be the cure. All he can do is give his last blow and see the country to an end beyond recovery. He is the evil genius.
Can Nigerians' votes really count? If they will, let him run on the worst political party platform that he wants, and the vote of the people will. But unfortunately I doubt if we are having an election or another selection. People's Deprivation Party has enough trouble caused this nation than to remain a political party. It has transformed successfully into a major Nigeria curse.
Enough is enough, let us vote for once and elect the people we want into power, we have voted for those we did not want enough. We wonder how they got there. When shall we truly celebrate true democracy, where it is the vote of the people that speaks not a few 'majority'.
Baba Iyabo' ruled for eight years and after so much failure still thought he owed Nigeria a favor of selecting one Turai's Toy. I hope by now these people should know that we know what we want.
Babangida's record of eight years of brutality and shopmanship are still speaking for him as the hole in our nation. He has done enough. We need no more. Let the people's vote speak and see who the hope really is. Surely not those who have failed in our very eyes. We need a change indeed! A total overhauling of our SYSTEM! The labor of our heroes past must not be in vain. The future of the unborn children must not be sold. Money is not everything. We are not surprised at the noise of 'Babangida is our man' from those who have lost their consciences for money. They sold their souls and are nothing more than the living dead. Many more will be bought to sing any song they like; when God sings His own song, it might be the dirge of the celebrated like he did for Abacha. So their song is not new, let them sing on, all I know is that the God of Creation shall speak forth someday and bring this great SHIP to a safe shore by the hands He has anointed for the rudder.
O God of Creation, direct our noble cause!
Felix

Bishop Oyedepo's visit to Yar'adua: He owes his members some explanations.

2010-04-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

While Nigeria seems to be losing everything, it will be irreparably bad if she loses the prophetic directions of the few men of God with integrity she has been blessed with. For the past five months, the Acting President, the now number one citizen of the country is yet to set his eyes on Umaru and it doesn't seem yet a crime against the office of the Presidency to us enough to take a drastic step to address the issue. All we do now is to have an Acting in place of a practically non-existent President. Everyone seems now to keep fingers crossed as we have always done until the abnormal becomes the celebrated norm of the land. This Nigerian arm-folding is our greatest curse. We don't have enough strength to fight a cause for too long. The oppressors of our souls already by now understand that too well, so their evil schemes will surely prevail if only they could turn deaf ears to the ailing masses a little longer. Our curse soon takes effect once more and we get settled and everyone folds the complacent and indifferent arms again. We don't look so long enough to why we must fight to win now or fold arms to fight another time. The voice of the people is constantly being squashed and here we are always living to fight another time wars we could have won once and for all. He who refuses to conquer leaves the battle for his children to fight.
It may be just normal that darkness covers the land at the moment, but the worst is around the corners when there will be no light left to shine even if we do not want the darkness no more. The so called "private matters" involving a visit of some clerics to a wanted president, as declared by majority of Nigerians including the Acting President, is a private breach of trust. The cleric should stare clear of these embarrassing situations if they will not be able to speak to the yearnings of Nigerians. I was wondering what Bishop David Oyedepo will tell his church people on Sunday following his visit. Will he pretend that those people do not want a report on the state of their President's health? Will he act like he is not responsible to them? I wish he had never been part of the visit; I will advise, if possible, rather than stain your hands and say it's nobody's business. Do not join them in playing on the intelligence of Nigerians. These members of the Living Faith Ministries International deserve to know something about the visit or have an apology for not being able to tell.
One will keep wondering what it is they all see that they cannot tell. A corpse in Presidential garment? Or what? Not telling breeds more curiosity and it is worse that the Presidency of our nation is being thus mocked and ridiculed by the Umaru's family. It is not a crime to be sick. The whole is greater than the part, we cannot continue to drag our nation's nobility in the mud of mockery and insensitivity to the pulse of its own people.
Let the prophets stay in the prophetic designation and act right always.
O God of Creation, direct our noble cause, guide our leaders right, help our youths the truth to know...
Felix Bamirin

Goodluck Jonathan, Any Luck for Nigeria

2010-04-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

Goodluck Jonathan, now the President of Nigeria or Acting President, I beg your pardon. The man has been lucky all his life. He always got into offices he would never have been considered fit for unless he got their through the misfortune of another. What a luck! Too bad, Yar'dua's illness will not let him finish his portion of the Nigerian misfortune as President of the nation. The pity party we would have thrown for him simply has been overridden by those nurses who are trying to nurse his illness rather than nurse him. His state of health means so much to them that they would perhaps not want him to recover. Or how shall we explain the attitude of Turai and the Cabal? Have they not abandoned nursing our president for nursing his illness?
Sadly still, the tension that rose about whether or not Jonathan should take over place of power was sheer noise that promised no good fortune still for our ailing country. We may congratulate Jonathan for goodluck, at least now he has his name written as President or Acting President in his life time and he stand to enjoy the entitlement accrued thereto, but is it any luck for Nigeria as a nation? What magic would this lucky fellow perform that we never saw any inkling of while he's been in power in other capacity? What good will a man do who was part of the passing administration and yet proved no good.
Here we go again, the same set of rulers, same rogues, same faces, have no greater place they are driving the nation except the same where they have assisted their predecessors to take it.
I do not know how many people truly and sincerely hoped for any change in Nigeria or an improvement in the nation's economy to be brought by a Goodluck's administration.
Nigeria, Nigeria, we cannot be going in the same direction hoping that our destination will be any difference talk more, better. Until there is a true change in power, the system that operates currently in Nigeria needs a total overhauling to have a tangible better promise for the welfare of the nation. Old things must truly pass away and all things must be entirely new indeed at the realm of power and policy making to attain the future we desire.
We have enough embarrassment with the misrepresentation of the good people of our country with the poor few whose conditions are most pitiable by the kind of obsession they have for power when they have nothing to offer, it is time to project the correct image of our country with good people who have been pushed to the backgrounds for fear of being corrupted or even killed.We must continue to demonstrate that power belongs to the people under God and they deserve a good life and respect for the freedom to choose their leaders.
God bless the good people of Nigeria, God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
Felix Bamirin

Leadership at the centre of Nigerian problems!

2009-10-09T08:46:00.000-07:00

There's a Future only if...

2009-10-01T02:11:00.000-07:00

Nigeria at 49, anything worth celebrating? Giant no more. Not in sport nor in economy.
No future is automatic. Not all conception arrive at delivery. If wishes are horses, beggars can have the glory of riding one. One can be born great and die mean. One can be born an eagle and die a duck. The difference is the PROCESS! It is never enough to dream becoming a star, it is more vital to build ladders to your dream.
Nigeria remains a blessed nation with nothing to show for it since 49 years of independence. She has won many undeserved titles; the Giant of Africa and the most corrupt nation in the world; how can those go together for a country? Nigeria and Nigerians alike need more than good wishes, what we need is action. We need to act in the direction of our wishes. Can there ever be an arrival at a destination without a movement? When direction remains the same, how can we expect a change in destination? Leadership in Nigeria has unfortunately been moving within one familiar circle of touts and animals called man of different colors but the same content. Leadership without a philosophy of life, leaders with no vision. They have been to great places and yet they cannot reproduce what they see in this homeland. They will rather go there for vacations and send their children to school in developed countries and mind not if there are schools in Nigeria or not. No wonder the educational system will shut down for months and yet they are insensitive to the havoc it will create tomorrow.
The problem is really not about where we are, but about where we want to be that we are not reaching neither are we moving in the direction of where we want to be.
Will the glory of this nation remain a dream? Will the wisdom and prophecies of Awolowo prove abortive? Will the labors of our heroes past now be in vain?
What shall we do? Make more criticisms? Pray more? Or shall we just keep praying that some day it will be our own turn so we can serve our own purses and our children with the delicacies of these no man's cakes? Shall we sit still hoping that someday things will be better without no plans? Or shall we hope that after a while we shall get our visa out of the country only to go constitute a nuisance to others who have diligently built their own countries? What seed are we sowing today that can guarantee our harvest tomorrow?
The future we hope for will only come,
If we shall all do something differently henceforth. If we pray more and pay for the good of the nation. If we the masses are ready to wriggle power from the few at the cost of even our very life. If we are ready to fight for the freedom of our nation from the enslavement of corrupt leadership. If we shall honor the nation above personal gains and comfort. If we are ready to enthrone justice at all cost and live by a rule of law that regards no man.
This land flowing with milk and honey will continue to flow with milk and honey that we may never taste, if something different is not done right now!

Frauds in Nigeria, whose faults?

2009-08-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

When fraud becomes a culture of a people, it's so sad because it goes so deeply entrenched into the system that it hardly has any known cure. Crime is a human problem though, in all nations of the world. But somehow it has become particularly identified with some nations more than the others. Unfortunately, fraud is not only identified with Nigeria, it is so evident and so prominent that there is no denying of it; even when you want to be a patriot by not just tarnishing the image of your "dear country" yet you cannot just help it because it hangs there right in front of you ready to blow you away.
Fraudsters in Nigeria are becoming much more sophisticated while the Nigerian detective and preventive system are far from being developed. No wonder crimes are often committed and people get away with. Once a criminal is not caught on the scene of crime, there is no hope as to whether or not he would ever be caught again. I was shocked to find how easily people can be apprehended for crimes in the United States. You hardly would get away with it. For instance, you can cash a cheque without necessarily using your ID all the time. It sounds like, 'do it wrong if you like, we will get you' Why can't Nigeria have a system like that? Thank God for security doors. That's only for armed criminals, but your security doors can't stop a brilliant fraudster, you know. The door is nothing but a total embarrassment to the bankers 'esteemed customers' who will sometimes have to remove everything to their belt just because they are unfortunate to keep their money with you. How 'esteemed' are the customers? Someone says it helps for the Nigerian context. Yes, I agree but what would they do to prevent the fraudsters who will not come in with arms? What will they do with those who come in with forged checks? What will they do with bank managers who cheat their company or the bank staff who withdraw people's money from within the system? I think apart from embarrassing the innocent customers with security doors, it may cost less to beef up the system a little bit more. We live in a country that does not know how many people are living in it; talk much of having a social secutrity identification for its residents. You can't trace nobody nowhere. So sad! The complexity of the Nigerian situation doesn't seem to get us a quick fix for every problem being faced in the country! Leadership is it! The very core of the problem is leadership. There is no leadership in Nigeria, that is why Nigerian leaders are themselves prone to crime. The battle against corruption by Obasanjo's civilian regime ended up becoming a political game because the fight must not be thorough or else, Obasanjo himself will not escape it. Lawmakers are law breakers so you wonder who will then initiate a thorough fight against frauds. Is it the fraudsters themselves who fraudulently get into power? Or the law breakers who make laws from which they are exempted? The whole Nigerian system seems to me to be fraudulent! It is so sad.
However, when we blame leadership for our predicament, we are also blaming everyone within the system. Are there not leaders who will never lead among the populace? That is the problem! For fear of being killed they go into hidings.
The leader that has refused to be is you! It will be further saddening if the future of Nigeria will remain bound to corruption by the present just because someone is afraid of standing for her even at the cost of life. We are all praying for our beloved country but the heavens are waiting for someone who might someday be ready to pay for Nigeria. What sacrifice will be too much for the nation's health?
People can risk their lives for political powers but no one is ready to risk their lives for what's right.
So the question is who is at fault with the current rate of Nigerian frauds? The system as a whole, the way it is now, is a breeding ground for more fraudulent activities. Until the system changes, nothing changes!

The Nigerian Sad Story!

2009-08-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

It is sad how things are in our nation Nigeria. Sometimes we do not just understand what our problems are. We just know that things aren't going right. The fact is the complexity of the problem makes things look so gloomy and obscures any sense of hope. The Nigerian problem is never that of unavailable resources but 'too much of it', so much that it bred selfishness and greed in the strong and the powerful who use their power to amass as much as they can and ensure that it goes only within their own circle of influence and doesn't get to the masses. The country is thereby impoverished while a few group of people become sweatlessly enriched. Hmmn! Rich people in an acclaimed, "Poor Country", all amount to poverty anyway. It is the sad story of poverty ever told. Some people in Nigeria are so rich that they possess more wealth than even the leaders of some other developed countries, yet they belong to a poor country. Sad story of poverty indeed. Having so much doesn't mean the same thing as prospering. A man's life consist not in the abundance of what he has. That is exactly the Nigerian poverty story, so poor in the midst of abundance. What we lack is not resources but resourcesfulness. The biggest wastage ever have been that of time in traffic congestion and students staying at home endlessly hoping that someday, the Government will be sensitive; wastage of people with brilliant minds and bright futures in avoidable auto wrecks, unequipped medical facilities, unemployment increase and political killings. We have a system that is well accustomed to waste of every fashion and kinds.
The saddest story is that we do not really know what our problems are. Political office holding has become the easiest way to make the easiest kind of money. Waste! If we do not know what the problem is, we are not near a solution yet. What hope have we when we are born Nigerians, a choice we wouldn't have have made if we had it? Is someone somewhere thinking about the way out apart from the propaganda of the existing political system. They keep having Visions they never conceived, no wonder they would shift it over and over again. Are we safe if we would just sit here still for Vision 2020, when Vision 2010 got aborted for reasons they themselves know not of. Will we sit here still and and watch the next innocent generation inherit poverty of spirit soul and body only because they are born Nigerians?
Running out of the country hasn't and will not likely solve our problems. We won't sit here still till we die in poverty of the whole person. Neither will we keep waiting for a Moses or a Joshua that do not exist anywhere. If we must wait for a Moses to deliver Nigeria, then we must have preserved him from the waste that goes on in the country, from the Nile of corruption and greed.
Even if the Moses will not grow up in our time, we can build our own little basket that can float him around the Nile, so that someday whether we are alive or dead, he can carry our influence that can never die into the corridor of power and champion the cause of restoration and rescue for the beloved country, Nigeria. A Moses shall rise, who will sing the Anthem religiously and as an allegiance. That Moses can be you or someone that will carry your influence.

NATIONAL ANTHEMS
Arise O compatriots
Nigeria's call obey
To serve our Fatherland
With love and strength and faith
The labor of our heroes past
Shall never be in vain
To serve with heart and might
One Nation bound in freedom
Peace and Unity.

O God of creation
Direct our noble cause
Guide our leaders right
Help our youth the truth to know
In love and honesty to grow
And living just and true
Great lofty height attain
To build a Nation where peace
And justice shall reign

NATIONAL PLEDGE
I Pledge to Nigeria my country
To be faithful, loyal and honest
To serve Nigeria with all my strength
To defend her unity and uphold her honour and glory
So help me God