Whither Nigeria: 6 months to election, where are the presidential aspirants? - Vanguard News

Whither Nigeria: 6 months to election, where are the presidential aspirants? - Vanguard News

Bishop Kukah’s Grave Misreading By Okey Ndibe | Sahara Reporters

Of Diaspora Bashing, Naija Pessimism and Other Issues: Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah vs Prof Okey Ndibe - Part Two

"Anybody who reads Kukah’s attack on me without the benefit of reading my original piece could run away with the impression that I’m a haughty, condescending guy who regards fellow Nigerians as ants. Yet, any literate reader who reads my column would come to a different—in fact, opposite—conclusion. I had complained in an earlier column that Boko Haram was butchering Nigerians as if their victims were chickens. Rather than abate, the scale of the horrific killings continued to escalate, with little serious action by the political leaders who are paid (in fact overpaid) to protect Nigerians. That worsening tragedy forced me to bemoan the plight of Nigerians whose deaths went largely unnoticed, as if they were ants."

"That Bishop Kukah sought to mischaracterize my piece speaks volumes, I suggest, about his politics. His line of attack was certainly curious. Faced with the specter of Boko Haram, he chose, instead, to lash out at critics of the government’s inept response. For him, there was little moral distinction to be made between Boko Haram and social critics. Indeed, given the severity of his rebuke of me (and other misguided “brethren in the Diaspora”), the bishop appeared to regard me as more dangerous than Abubakar Shekau who proudly boasted of abducting and enslaving more than two hundred schoolgirls! In fact, the bishop was so vexed that he all but called on the Nigerian state to declare me persona non grata (in line with what he presumed that Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe and other African countries would do to my ilk)!"

"Curiously, nowhere in Bishop Kukah’s lengthy lecture did one find an expression of outrage about Boko Haram’s carnage to match the fury he marshaled against me. Which all betrayed a dodgy stance on the part of the bishop. I am amazed that this bishop expended so much breath to portray me as an enemy of the people precisely because I challenged the government to live up to its duty to protect Nigerians’ lives and property. How his attack must have shocked the bard he was invited to honor!"

"So here are a few questions I’d like to address to the dear bishop. The Catholic Church to which you and I belong teaches the inherent dignity of every human. What, then, accounts for your silence about the 2,053 innocents callously killed by Boko Haram? Where, in your lecture, was there that stipulation about the irreducible dignity of human lives? Are you at peace, sir, with the incessant massacre of hapless Nigerians? You were in such haste to berate me and other foreign-based critics simply because we ask more of Nigerian leaders and security agents. Are you satisfied, bishop, with what the government has done so far in response to the scourge of Boko Haram?"  By Prof Okey Ndibe

Benjamin Netanyahu and the Speech That Didn't Exist

allAfrica.com: South Africa: Benjamin Netanyahu and the Speech That Didn't Exist 

Why Can't We All Just Get Along: The Futile Attempt to Pitch Blacks Against Jews in the Social Media Over A Non-Existent Story Credited to Bibi Netanyahu, the Prime Minster of Israel. 

The first time I saw the story on Facebook, I knew it was a hoax or a deliberate contrivance by mischief makers to evoke anti-Jews sentiments or hatred within the Arabs and African Communities in and around the social media world. Glad that someone was able to debunk the authenticity of the hate-filled speech. 

Wole Soyinka: 80 Years Of Genius & Prophetic Outrage By Matthew Hassan Kukah | Sahara Reporters

Of Diaspora Bashing, Naija Pessimism and Other Issues: Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah vs Prof Okey Ndibe - Part One

"The measure of the greatness of a people or even individuals is based on how or where they stand in moments of trials and tribulations. Nigeria is going through such a phase now. Since the outbreak of the tragedy that is Boko Haram, one has seen another side of our citizens that is quite tragic. Rather than trying to stand together to rise beyond this in hope together, I find some of my fellow citizens creating more confusion and using the insurgency as weapons of politics. The President and the security agencies have become the objects of attacks and vilification and yet, there is very little that is being done to point at the way forward. I know that as day follows night, we shall pull out of this tragedy that we face as a nation. But the least we can do is to stand in the comforts of highways and homes that someone else constructed and thrown stones at ourselves and our people simply because we are living off someone else’s sweat." 

"In a recent piece, Okey Ndibe literally overreaches himself and engages in what is at best a verbal overkill in his Naija pessimism. He says he regrets writing and calling Nigerians chickens. Now, he realizes that chickens are better off than Nigerians. Rather, he says, Nigeria has become the federal republic of ants. Does Ndibe now imagine that he has ceased to be an ant because he resides in the comforts of the United States, a country that was constructed on the back of the same ants hundreds of years ago? This is most pathetic, despicable and grotesque to say the least."

"Can anyone in all honesty call a nation of 170 million people, doing their best despite the difficulties, a nation which has produced and parades some of the most brilliant and gifted people in the world, a nation with perhaps the most vibrant and informed media outlets in the developing world a nation of ants? If Ndibe were a Ugandan, Rwandan, Zimbabwean or indeed, from most African countries, would he write this and still come back to his country? Indeed, the answer is that there is hardly any other African that can write this rubbish about their own country, even if they had no family in the country. How much further can you overstretch logic and common sense? Do ants win Nobel Prizes or has Mr. Ndibe lost his own anthood by sojourning in America? This is my dilemma, how to recreate our new narrative." - Rev Matthew Hassan Kukah. 

Blogger's Comment: 

With all due respect to the Honorable Man of God, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, I beg to take exception to his digress on the recent piece by Mr. Okey Ndibe as appeared above. From an objective perspective, Mr. Okay didn't really qualify or label Nigerians as ants as the Man of God eloquently portrayed. What Okey alluded to figuratively was the nonchalant attitude reminiscence or often exhibited by our political leaders when it comes to protecting defenseless Nigerians in our midst. For instance, when a vehicle tramples upon a chicken or runs over one, the left-over on the highway is still visible to the naked eyes, but not exactly with respect to the unfortunate ants. An Ant trampled upon is gone forever - easily forgotten. Gone from our sights and gone from our consciousness as spectators. In other words, the victims of Boko Haram's savagery are inconsequential - easily forgotten. Unsung heroes, gone so soon - from our sight and from our consciousness as a nation-state. That's what has become of innocent Nigerians trampled upon (murdered) in cold blood by Boko Haram and other sectarian killers. As of today, no one can possibly give an accurate account of the number of innocent Nigerians mercilessly slaughtered in and around the geographical northern region of Nigeria in the past three years. That brings us to the question: what has become of a nation the beautiful - a nation and its people characterized as the happiest people on earth just a few years ago? The Man of God did not provide means to unraveling the lingering bloodbath in his backyard. He deliberately, and yes, disingenuously misinterpreted Okey's core message, with a view to discrediting him and strengthening his (Bishop Kukah) diaspora pessimism narrative. Yes, he did not address or provide answers or solutions to the underlying issue covered by Professor Okey Ndibe in his piece - the brutality, the savagery, and wanton killing of innocent Nigerians by a band of heartless marauders masquerading as religious sects. On that ground, I find the Bishop's mischaracterization of Okey and his work distasteful and uncharacteristic of a man I hold so much in high esteem. I beg to move.

Disclosure: I love and admire Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah more than I love or admire most of his peers in the media or religious circle. I came to know him many years ago as a fearless public affairs commentator, a real patriot, based on his numerous essays covering national issues on the pages of the Guardian Newspaper of Nigeria. And on numerous occasions, I have mentioned his name as someone I would readily vote for to be the President of Nigeria. I still hold him in high esteem and will still vote for him, if ever he runs, his instant views about Okey and the often vilified diaspora based social media commentators, notwithstanding.

Please find Below The Professor Okey Ndibe's Contentious Piece in Its Entirety. Do Consider The Context in Which The Comparison (Nigerians and Ants) was Made, and be the Judge.

Something really, really dangerous has happened in Nigeria. It is the reduction of human life to the scale of an ant. It is not about to happen; it has happened already. 

Forget all the talk about 2015 and the coming general elections. Forget the debate about the PDP and the APC. Ignore the news that Nigeria has vaulted into the largest economy in Africa. Don’t bother about the bloated national conference and its tiresome deliberations. The most urgent issue in Nigeria, the issue that ought to keep Nigerians awake, is the evident abrogation (not devaluation) of human life.

The evidence stares us in the face each passing day. Day after day, Nigerians are massacred in some savage attack. Nigeria is a country in the grips of a blood lust. It’s as if, every waking day, there’s a promise of senseless death coming the way of some hapless Nigerians. Death or bereavement by Boko Haram has become a daily occurrence, even a guarantee.

In the last week and a half, Israeli authorities spared no resource to find three missing, abducted schoolchildren. When their remains were discovered, apparent victims of murder, the Israeli government stepped up reprisals against their suspected killers. Human rights organizations have flayed Israel’s excessive and indiscriminate use of violence against Palestinians. I’m troubled by such overreach. But the lesson is not lost on me: Israel reminds us how a nation-state behaves when any of its citizens is killed or even put in harm’s way.

From the explosive, strife-torn Middle East to the streets of Philadelphia in the United States.

Last Saturday, a roaring fire consumed residential blocks in Philadelphia. The deaths of four children in the fire brought home the gravity of the tragedy. The horrid event was near the top of radio, television, online and print news coverage. Driving last Saturday, my radio tuned to National Public Radio, I heard a local public official say, “A very, very tragic thing has happened to the city of Philadelphia today. We lost four beautiful children.”

I didn’t get the official’s name, but his voice carried a stamp of conviction. His words moved me. And then, suddenly, a deep sadness settled over me.

Here’s why. It occurred to me that, in Nigeria, no government official talks like that about children. No, they don’t think that children are beautiful, their lives precious, and their death—whether in a fire or human-made bomb explosion—a tragedy. If a Nigerian official describes children as “beautiful” or their death as tragic, it’s hardly ever from the heart, hardly a heartfelt sentiment. Instead, it’s likely because some speechwriter smuggled the words onto a written text. 

I did argue in a previous piece that Nigerians had been reduced to the level of animals, their death at the hands of vile, callous terrorists eliciting little outrage and no reaction. I had contended that Nigerian lives were so thoroughly discounted that the killing of a Nigerian hardly carries more weight than the killing of a chicken.

Then it recently struck me, quite suddenly, that I had exaggerated. I had erred in lifting the Nigerian to the level of a chicken. I’m afraid that the Nigerian has been so dehumanized, so terribly debased, that s/he invites comparison, not so much to a chicken as to an ant.

Here’s the difference. Chickens have a visibility that ants don’t. If a car runs over a chicken, there’s a carcass to remind onlookers of what happened. Not so an ant. The death of an ant is often invisible because ants are, on the whole, too small to be noticed. Even when we walk, we often step on and squelch many ants without taking place.

This sense of dying unremarked, I’m afraid, has become the lot of the Nigerian. Nigerians appear oblivious to the parade of tragedy stalking their land, to the unceasing line-up of lives sacrificed daily on the altar of sectarian violence.

Somebody could argue that Nigeria’s media feast on reports of terrorist attacks and their maimed or murdered victims. But that’s hardly a refutation of my point. Nigerians are slaughtered in massive numbers, every single day, so that the victims’ lives no longer count, even when some newspaper brings us the news.

There’s sheer fatigue in the international media about Nigeria. Boko Haram would have to top its continued abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls to awake the curiosity of the battery of foreign media correspondents covering West Africa. Were it not for the presence of American operatives, I would have been willing to bet that the search for the missing Chibok schoolgirls had been suspended. In the Nigerian imagination, more than 200 abducted schoolgirls might as well be 200 crawling ants!

Nigeria has become a Federal Republic of Ants ruled (note the word “ruled”—not governed or led) by a greedy, grasping bunch of politicians with insatiable appetites. In this misshapen republic, everything, every value and every human presence, is subordinated to the rulers’ relentless pursuit of lucre. The rulers are too busy, too focused on looting, to notice the ants they trample underfoot. The ants are too riveted by the ardor of scrambling for the crumbs that they pay no heed to those of their number ground to death both by the rulers and those who presume a divine mandate to kill.

For me, all the talk about fashioning a new Nigeria, all the stipulation about new terms of office and the creation of new states, all the celebration of Nigeria’s stride to the position of Africa’s top economy is poppy cock. A nation must have citizens to make sense at all. Nigeria has humans scaled down to ants, instead.

That’s the dangerous thing happening in Nigeria. The first, most urgent order of business in Nigeria is to recreate its people into dignified humans. Unless this is done—until this task is accomplished—the space called Nigeria doesn’t even begin to make sense. - 

Something Really, Really Dangerous By Okey Ndibe

Nigeria: Why Nigeria Should Appeal ICJ Verdict On Bakassi - Maiyaki, All Africa.com.

Nigeria: Why Nigeria Should Appeal ...: allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Why Nigeria Should Appeal ICJ Verdict On Bakassi - Maiyaki THE BAKASSI UNENDING SAGA: Exploring new grounds for...

Terrorism: Nigeria Has No Territorial Ambition, Sambo [the National Security Adviser to President Jonathan of Nigeria] Assures Cameroon - THISDAY LIVE : A Rejoinder

Sir,

Yes, we do not have any ambition to acquire any territory in Cameroon, but certainly not with respect to the Bakassi territory - a Nigerian territory that The Obasanjo Administration ceded to the Cameroonian Government on a platter of gold.  It is our land, our territory, our home, and a central component of our inalienable rights as a sovereign nation-state. And when the time comes, we will secure it, recover it, and reclaim every bit of it. So, speak only for your administration. You cannot force a given people out of their traditional God given land within a given sovereign nation and handed it over to aliens to assume ownership and control based on some vacuous and convoluted decisions that do not hold substance or support in fact, reality or precedent.  

Don't tell me it was not just that simple. It was. Did anyone, the UN, The Hague, Vienna, or any international organization involved in the settlement of the dispute seek audience with the affected people (the owners and age-old inhabitants of the land) or their concerns or their consent before the forced relocation and alteration of citizenship? How come there was no plebiscite, a vote, or an opinion poll? This is a question of ethics and values.

Obasanjo gambled with our territorial integrity/sovereignty, because he wanted to be the good boy of western leaders and in the good book of western international institutions/organizations in view of his aborted third term ambition. Resolving ownership of Bakassi Peninsular shouldn't be a "Hague" affair, and it shouldn't have been. You don't cede land voluntarily by arbitration. You cede or acquire land by conquest. That is a universal historical fact. 

What took place at Bakassi Peninsular was an aberration. It was inhuman and a deprivation of one’s inherent right, a sheer betrayal of a group of people by a nation-state they so much loved and believed in, and look up to for support and protection.

The Obasanjo administration gave the Bakassi people two options: If you choose or elect to stay behind in your house or in your land, you automatically rescinded your Nigerian citizenship and become Cameroonians. On the other hand, if you choose to retain your Nigerian citizenship, you MUST evacuate yourself and your belongings; abandon your house, your land, your culture and your age-old traditional heritage for a new settlement and culture to be created for you in the image and likeness of Obasanjo and his thoroughly passionless presidency and advisers. Majority of those who stay behind, did so, not necessarily because they love and cherish Cameroonian citizenship, but for the uncertainties that shrouded their exodus and new settlements in Nigeria, especially in regards to jobs and sustainability. 

Obasanjo and his advisers stay in the comfort of their Abuja mansions and stay blinded to the plight and anguish of a people who did not choose to be Nigerians, but are Nigerians by birth and by inheritance, and therefore, entitled to every right, privilege and protection deserving of a full blooded Nigerian.

In the words of Mario Balotelli, the Italian soccer star: "I'm Mario Balotelli. I'm 23 years old and I didn't choose to be Italian. I strongly wanted to be Italian because I was born in Italy ..." Every resident of Bakassi Peninsular has every right to declare like Mr. Mario Balotelli: I didn't choose to be Nigerian. I strongly wanted to be Nigerian because I was born in Nigeria. And Nigerian I shall be.

America own Alaska and Hawaii - thousands of miles away from Washington State. In 1982, the United Kingdom invaded and sacrificed their lives and blood to force the Argentine Military Forces out of the British Falkland Islands, thousands of miles away from Great Britain. No, not Nigeria; we took counsel with foreigners and foreign institutions and agreed to abdicate our sovereign right over Bakassi Peninsular. Same people who will readily sacrifice anything to hold on to any territory they considered part of their extended family or of any strategic or economic advantage/importance. Yes, we provided them the opportunity to dictate to us what to make of our own territory, our inheritance, our heritage, our own Bakassi Peninsular. It is a shame. And it is patently inhuman. It should not have happened. We should fight to reclaim it, if we have to; every bit of it - Hague or no Hague, or Vienna or no Vienna. Mark my word. I would like to round up by reinstating the fact that no nation cede land or territory voluntarily or by arbitration. You cede or acquire land by conquest. That is a universal historical fact.

Are the Recent Economic Numbers Stupid?: Democrats and the Failure To Spin and Celebrate Success in the Face of Unprecedented Accomplishments.

http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/are-the-recent-economy-numbers-good-news-298896963505
Hardball with Chris Matthews. Please highlight the link above, right-click on it, and click on Go to ...

Blogger's Comment:

It is Deja vu all over again. Mrs. Hilary Clinton and most Democrats running for reelection for Congress are acting evasively amidst fantastic and unprecedented accomplishments of The Obama Administration - talking and walking defeatist instead of triumphantly. They are unwilling to celebrate success or identify with President Obama and his record of achievement in the past six years. Vice President Al Gore exhibited the same level of naiveté during his 2000 Presidential race with then Governor George Bush of Texas. Al Gore ran away from a huge success story of The Clinton Administration in order to be "his own man." And at the end, he paid for it. He was defeated, in spite of the fact that he was a viable component of the President Clinton's miracle team of eight years. Yes, the same Vice President Al Gore who debated and flawed the irrepressible Ross Perot on CNN Larry King Live on behalf of the Clinton's administration in their first year in office. Sadly, when his appointed time came, he miscalculated: It was the House Republican Managers who wanted President Clinton impeached. Not the American voters.

About a month ago, I had my mind made up to send a brief message through this Blog and on my Facebook Timeline to Democrats and Hilary to remind them that playing Al Gore in the face of glaring improvements in the unemployment rate as well as in the housing market and on Wall Street is not the right way to win election. Problem was, I didn't have the time to develop or expand on the framework of the essay. However, watching Hardball with Mr. Chris Matthews this evening, I realized that I am not the only one wondering why Democrats are unwilling to spin and celebrate their achievements under President Barack Obama. They are watching while Republicans are spinning their success story into failure.

About fourteen years ago, Vice President Al Gore deliberately distanced himself and his campaign team from President Bill Clinton, because of the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Mr. Al Gore wanted to be "I am my own man" by all means. To consolidate that objective, he settled for a running-mate who brought nothing of electoral value to the ticket, except for the fact that the guy was the first, and if I am not mistaken, the only USA Senator, and a Democrat for that matter, to rise up on the Senate floor to lampoon President Bill Clinton for a conduct that was not an offence or impeachable when it happened. At the end, though Al Gore succeeded in being "I am my own man" to the delight of Clinton's adversaries and antagonists, he woefully failed to integrate Clinton's unprecedented performance - performance that he was part of - into his presidential campaign.

Disappointingly, Al Gore didn't win in Arkansas (President Bill Clinton's own State). And he didn't win in Tennessee, either - his own State. If Al Gore had collaborated with President Bill Clinton in the campaign and won in either of the two States, electoral college vote counts or not; Florida or no Florida; intervention of the Supreme Court or not, Vice President Al Gore would have defeated then Governor George Bush for the November 2000 USA Presidential election. He succeeded in being "I am my own man", but failed to be the President of the United States of America – a position he rightly deserved and earned more than any candidate at that point in time.

Presently, Democrats, especially those running for re-election as well as Mrs. Hilary Clinton (a leading candidate for the Democratic ticket in the next Presidential election) are making the same mistake that Vice President Al Gore made. The reason for that is quite obvious: President Obama is not doing so well at the poll. And Republicans have succeeded in spinning the Affordable Healthcare Law into something of a voodoo policy or job killer. However, the job reality on the ground does not support their diabolical mudslinging. The unemployment rate has dropped down considerably to about 6 percent under President Obama. Yet, Democrats running for Congress are finding it difficult to rebut Republicans campaign of calumny or craft a pragmatic narrative for re-election. If the Affordable Healthcare Act is a job killer as Republicans want Americans to believe, why then the noticeable improvements in the unemployment rate? I do not have much to say or write about the political harms that Hillary and Democrats are inflicting on themselves presently.

Suffice it to say that they have forgotten what the situation was on Wall Street and on Main Streets when Obama took over from President George Bush Jr. They have forgotten the unemployment rate then. They have forgotten that bonus and end-of-year partying and packages were alien on Wall Street then. They have forgotten the name Osama Bin Laden. They have forgotten the two wars. They have failed to realize that Arlington National Cemetery is more peaceful now than seven years ago. They have forgotten the unprecedented breakthrough in health care coverage for the poor and the middle-class as well as the resuscitation of the auto industry. And they are not seeing the bubble in the Banking and Housing sectors.

As usual, Republicans are wining in spinning failure and socialism. President Obama doesn't need any talking points from his speech writers, from me or from his special advisers to market his performance to the America people. He has the talking points right in front of him. He was - and still is - the major player: the main character in the unfolding events. He should take his performance and ongoing programs to the road right now for the sake of posterity. No one knows it better than the King.

Finally, Mrs. Hilary Clinton should not run from her record - Benghazi or no Benghazi. She should strive to celebrate her accomplishments as Secretary of State and don't turn her back on the President under whose administration she did so much for so many all around the World. And she should never contemplate playing Al Gore. The attacks on her from GOP shouldn't be unexpected. She is a formidable candidate and a dreaded opponent. Mrs. Hilary Clinton is electable and more pragmatic than any presidential candidate we have seen in generations. Run, Hilary, Run.

Apc, Please Get Serious, Articles | THISDAY LIVE

Apc, Please Get Serious, Articles:  By Dele Momodu

"APC must kill all sentiments and return to the path of sanity. Its leaders must be prepared to sacrifice individual ambitions and support their best materials to succeed. The next Presidential election is not going to be easy. The Party stands no chance unless it fields a Presidential candidate and Vice who can ignite the passion of novelty and freshness in our youths. Its general candidates at the other polls must also fire the same imagination and innovation.  The traditional voters are too few and totally rigid to give APC the required figures to win at the polls. The Party should search far and wide for accomplished and respectable Nigerians and give us a semi-shadow cabinet to look forward to. With the right balance, APC will be able to galvanise first time voters into coming out en masse. Over 70 percent of them are still floating and undecided at this moment." - Dele Momodu

Uproar as delegate faults Northern census figures - Vanguard News

Uproar as delegate faults Northern census figures - Vanguard News 

"The delegate, who urged his fellow delegates to address the injustice that led to the creation of more states and local government areas in the North, however   made a specific reference to the disparity in the number of local governments in Kano and Lagos states, adding that while Lagos with the highest number of people in Nigeria has only 20 local government areas, Kano state with a population close to   that of Lagos, has 44 local government areas."

"This led to uproar on the floor apparently from the Northern delegates who were not comfortable with his submission."
"Refusing to be intimidated by the uproar, Agbonmwanegbe said that Nigerians do not have the capacity to conduct a free and credible census."

"He therefore called on the United Nations to assist in conducting Nigeria’s census if the country must have credible results."

"All their efforts to shout him down proved abortive, as the conference chairman, Justice Idris  Kutigi ignored their calls."

"A Kano state delegate and former Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Ibrahim Baba Ahmed who could not hold back his anger flouted the procedure rules of the Conference where screamed, saying, “Arrest him! Arrest him now!”

"Agbonmwanegbe continued “I did my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in the north. So, I know what I saw during my service years. I can authoritatively tell you that there is injustice in this country. How can a state like Katsina or Kano have more local government areas than Lagos which has the highest population? It is obvious that there is injustice and this should be addressed?"

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/uproar-delegate-faults-northern-census-figures/#sthash.FURB0gcT.CkLCFXoH.dpuf