Bongo-Bongo Politician Should Have Resigned Earlier

Godfrey Bloom is the name of the man but he is better known as the “bono-bongo” politician following an irresponsible statement he made about Britain giving aid to “bongo-bongo land”.

Funny, isn’t it? “Bongo-bongo land”. How creative. I’m sure most government officials would have chuckled in secret. The sad irony is that there’s nothing funny about racism, sexism, homophobia or any hate crime for that matter.

As if we needed further evidence that UKIP is a party full of racists.

When the “bongo-bongo” politician made that statement insulting millions of people he should have been called to order and punished but the truth is that he was merely following his party’s racist manifesto so nobody saw anything wrong in what he was doing.

The problem is that racism is a hate crime and a racist doesn’t only hate blacks, Jews and Asians he has little or no regards for people who look different from him. So, it was only a matter of time for Bongo-Bongo’s sexist side to be revealed.

The surprising thing about him calling women “sluts” is the fact that it surprised people. It shouldn’t surprise anyone. This man has no regards for other people especially people who don’t look like him. Nobody looks exactly like him (thank goodness for that) so essentially it’s the rest of humanity he really hates not just immigrants and women.

On the other hand he should have been left on the job so that the full extent of his hatred should have been revealed.

He even had the audacity to call a television presenter racist. Talk of the pot calling the electric kettle black.  

The Samantha Lewthaite Saga

In the aftermath of the Kenyan tragedy various unconfirmed reports have pointed accusing fingers at one Samantha Lewthaite, the widow of Jermaine Lindsay, one of the bombers suspected of being behind the London bombings of July 7 2005.

There is yet no conclusive evidence that she knew anything about the attack before it took place let alone mastermind it. In an editorial column in the I, Independent’s sister newspaper, journalists were cautioned against jumping into conclusions about her involvement as no evidence “that could stand up to a court scrutiny” has been brought against her. This is very true and journalists are supposed to report verified facts not conjectures and opinions.

We hope the same message applies to the Mirror that reported in their 24^th September 2013 issue that “reports indicate” the said Samantha Lewthaite was arrested in Nigeria earlier but was released after bribing her way out. The report even went to describe the state of corruption in Nigeria. What the reporter was trying to infer is that if not for the corruption in Nigeria the Kenyan atrocities could have been prevented. Nothing could be further from the truth.

We await independent confirmation of this arrest of the suspected terrorist in Nigeria but we believe it will never come.

It’s yet to be determined what game the Mirror is playing with that report, sowing seeds of discord between Kenyans and Nigerians, lamenting the loss of British lives and blaming it on Nigeria or just plain old irresponsible journalism.

It appears British tabloid press has been starved of stories ever since the hacking scandals and have resorted to manufacturing facts to fill up column spaces now.

It would be good to get an apology from the Mirror if the story cannot be independently verified and if it is we will be the ones who would issue an apology for this post.     

What A Political Party Should Stand For

It’s the ‘conference season’ in the United Kingdom. This is the season when British political parties have their annual conferences.

The Liberal Democrats had theirs last week, Labour’s conference is ongoing and the conservatives will be having theirs next week.

A lot of prominent members of the parties speak during this season but the highlight usually is the speech given by the leader of the party. Most of the attention is usually given to the three main parties, conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats but the other fringe parties usually have their meetings as well because parliament would not be in session during the period.

A lot of journalists look forward to the speeches given by the present Prime Minister and his opposite  number, leader of the opposition most of which would have been given to them in advance.

At the 2013 Labour conference, Labour leader, Ed Milliband made an hour long speech without referring to any notes only taking sips of water occasionally. It was almost the highpoint of the conference season in 2013 when he made the ‘one nation’ speech last year without referring to his notes and gave a wonderful memorable speech. The content of the speech was as impressive as the format of the delivery.  

At the 2013 conference he made several electoral promises if Labour controlled government after the next general elections. He made a promise that when elected energy bills would remain frozen for about 20 months. He also made a promise, jokingly, that he would not allow himself to be pictured without his top.

That is how political party conferences should be. An opportunity where leaders of various political parties would be able to present their manifestos to the electorate.

That is not the case in Nigeria. Parties are not known for what they intend to do for the masses but who is joining whose faction. There was a PDP convention recently and the highlight of the convention was that seven governors declared a new party and we now have two factions of the ruling party.

Nobody remembers who said what or what promises were made. It’s only about personalities and in some cases violent intra party clashes.

The reason why party conferences in Nigeria are different is not difficult to figure out. The politicians are not interested in what is beneficial for the people only what’s good for them.    

Evil Of Tribal Politics

In Nigeria despite the myriad of problems plaguing us nobody can say what ideologies any of the main political parties stand for. We all know the personalities that make up the parties but not a single one of them pursues any ideology.

Which of the parties lean to the left of the political spectrum and which ones lean to the right? Scratch that! 

How many Nigerian politicians can explain what the left and right sides of the political spectra mean? But, boy, are they rich? That’s all that matters to them.

They all have manifestoes as this is one of the conditions that have to be fulfilled before registration but the manifestoes would be gathering dust somewhere now.

Nigerian political parties are tribal based, at best. If you come from a particular tribe you are expected to affiliate yourself with a certain party. That is the myopic nature of politics in Nigeria.

Like racism, tribal politics is simply a tool in the hands of the ruling class to keep the ruled permanently divided. Why we still fall for that trick after over almost a hundred years of nationhood I cannot understand.

As Nigerians we all want the same things: constant electricity, jobs, reduction of poverty, proper health care delivery service, good schools, good roads, security, an efficient crime fighting outfit just to name a few. 

These are the things the average Nigerian wants regardless of gender, class or tribe yet we continue to fall into the trap of tribal politics, which as stated above keep us divided and perpetuate the same people in power pretty much for the past fifty years.

We need to learn to stand up and make a demand for these things from whatever government is in power. The local government area a politician hails from is completely irrelevant. The question we need to ask ourselves is this, “Can he provide responsible leadership”?

Reason For Blogging

You’re free to call this post the introductory post to this blog. I have been blogging for a while when it occurred to me that I really haven’t explained the reason behind the name of the blog, “Naija2015”.

Only none Nigerians would wonder what is the significance of the year 2015? The significance is this, that is the year Nigerians would be going to the polls again to elect a new President and replace most of the present elected officers.

Elections are over a year away but politicians are already jostling for positions. It is a well known fact that welfare of the citizenry is the last thing on the mind of any Nigerian politician. As a matter of fact the only thing on his mind is money, money and money.

The first sign that the political season was upon us was the schism between Rivers State governor, Rotimi Ameachi and Jonathan Goodluck, Nigeria’s President. You would have thought they had a difference of opinion regarding policies, no sir! Apparently, there’s suspicion that the governor is eyeing the President’s job come 2015 or is in league with those who want to replace the President or something to that effect. I do not even want to accord them the dignity of knowing what's going on between those two.

Nigerian politicians are shameless! It’s not as if politics in other countries are free of intrigues it’s just that politicians in other countries are civil about it.

Thomas Jefferson once said, “Where the people fear the leadership, there’s tyranny and where the leadership fear the people there’s liberty.” It’s not as if Nigerians fear the leadership just that one has absolutely no respect for the other, which is far worse than tyranny. In North Korea, the people fear the leadership and this whips the people into line to get things done even if there’s corruption amongst the ruling elite. In Nigeria, the people don’t respect leadership, leadership has no regard for the people and there’s is zero patriotism.

Surely this cannot continue. Something’s got to give!  

TBC

House Of Reps In Shameful Rowdy Session

Nigerian Law makers sitting in the House of Representatives were engaged in a rowdy session on Tuesday after some members protested against the recognition of the Abubakar Baraje-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by Speaker Aminu Tambuwal.

Any outsider would be forgiven for mistaking the floor of the House for a market place as legislators took to speaking with raised voices, howling and shoving one another around when law makers loyal to the Baraje-led group engaged in contentious arguments with the Bamanga Tukur-led faction over the appropriateness of the Speaker’s recognition of the Baraje group.  

It all started when the Speaker of the House announced a communication from PDP to members of the party present at the Assembly but did not mention which of the two factions the communication came from. He however read a text after the announcement saying, the communication was from the “national working committee of the party led by Alhaji Abubakar Baraje”.

At this juncture, certain Law Makers, presumably the ones loyal to the Tukur faction, started a protest, condemning the Speaker’s decision to recognise the Baraje-led group by making an announcement originating from that faction in the House. Some other Law makers, presumably ones loyal to the Baraje faction, cheered the Speaker’s decision. With certain Law makers booing a decision and others cheering, it was only a matter of time before pandemonium broke out and it lasted for about thirty minutes.   

When sanity eventually prevailed, the Speaker made an announcement that the Tukur-led faction also gave a notice to hold a meeting with the PDP caucus of the house for 3pm but later withdrew the notice, which was why he did not see the need to bring it up on the floor.

When the commotion was eventually resolved and civility resumed, the House carried on with proceedings on the order paper and a vote of confidence on the leadership of Tambuwal was moved and carried by the lawmakers.

The motion for the vote was moved by Hon. Kingsley Chinda (PDP) from Rivers State and seconded by Hon. Goni (Yobe, PDP).

Meanwhile, the Baraje-led group is set to commence a meeting with the PDP caucus any moment from now at the premises of the House.

Atiku's Blog

It’s almost unimaginable that you could find those two words in the same sentence. Actually, its not so unimaginable, really. You could have a sentence saying, “Atiku exposed in recent blog post” or you could find a find a headline screaming, “Atiku may sue blogger for defamation”.

Those are the kind of sentences that people may expect that will include Atiku’s name and the word ‘blog’.

That is not the case as it is. Apparently, Nigeria’s former number 2, former PDP chieftain and politician extraordinaire has joined the growing list of Nigerian bloggers and has set up his own blog. Yup! If memory serves me right, his first post was sometime in July.

According to him, it’s an attempt to engage the youths of the country via Social Media. Well play Mr. Former VP. The question is, what informed the change of heart? When Mr. Atiku was Vice President for a total of eight years what did he do for the youths? What policy can he refer to today that is helping the youths that he championed? Can’t think of any.

People like Atiku don’t have the time to sit down to write blog posts. He would employ a ghost writer to do that for him. Sikena!

Please don’t get me started on the comments! All of them self serving, carefully selected comments with each commentator praising him to high heavens. Evidence of rent-a-crowd or what?

Mr former VP must have hired some crafty thousand-dollar-an-hour political strategists from the US who must have told him that the secret behind Obama’s double election victory in the US was Social Media engagement. So off he goes to start a blog in preparation for 2015. Social Media becomes magic bullet to win elections. No sir! As long as elections remain free and fair in this country (and there’s no guarantee that they are, anyway) any future electoral campaign will be contested on the strength of your past performance and not your ability to find the best ghost writers to write good blog posts.

   

Thank You, Russia!

There is a ten-part documentary series produced by Oliver Stone, prolific American producer who is responsible behind many Hollywood blockbusters, in which the US and not the Soviet Union was portrayed as the main aggressor during the cold war years. 

According to Oliver Stone, the two super powers came very close to a disarmament of nuclear weapons with then Soviet leader Mikhal Gorbachev meeting Ronald Reagan in Iceland if not for Ronald’s Reagan reluctance to abandon his ill conceived star-wars programme. A programme that later turned out to be an exercise in delusionary Phantasmagoria.

Most people in the West or under Western influence (pretty much the whole of Africa and most of Asia) would find the concept of the USA being the main aggressor almost inconceivable but recent events seem to justify that notion.

When Obama mentioned the use of Chemical weapons as the “red line”, which will bring an American intervention into the Syrian crisis when crossed, he was probably confident that Assad would not cross the line but no one said the rebels wouldn’t cross the line and try to blame it on Assad in order to provoke an foreign intervention.

It was very hilarious watching British Tory MPs argue passionately in support of a military strike against the Assad regime in order to save the poor, innocent women and children of Syria from the murderous Assad – seriously? As in, seriously? The same MPs who have supported benefits cuts and forced disabled and bed ridden people back to work in the UK have suddenly become the saviour of the women and children of Syria. Maybe they should start by trying to save the women and children in Britain first.

These same people who cannot stand Polish and Czech immigrants living among them suddenly developed a compassion for Syrian refugees overnight, puh-leaezeee! The worst kept secret about the Syrian intervention debacle is that Damascus is only the route to Tehran for these MPs. Al-Assad’s only crime is his association with Iran. Britain and America know that once the ruling party in Syria is done away with they are a step closer to conquering the Ayatollah of Iran and a complete domination of the oil rich Middle-East.

Worst kept secret because the Russians and the Chinese are very aware of that fact and instead of provoking an all out war the Russians have come up with the compromise that has delayed the intervention if not prevent it completely.

It’s very interesting that in a diplomatic confrontation between Russia and the US Russia would emerge as the more sensible partner and chief peace negotiator and the whole world, including Westerners, would heave a sigh of relief, saying, “thank you, Russia”.

The Boy Who Got Away

The above caption refers to Daniel Oikhena  also known as the ‘the teenage stowaway’. Unless you have been in hibernation for the past three weeks or so you would have heard about the boy from Benin who stowed away on an Arik flight from Benin to Lagos.

Unconfirmed reports say he thought the plane was going to America – fat chance, direct flight from Benin to America? Anyway, he should consider himself lucky the plane did not cross the Atlantic with him trapped in the tyre hold – he would have died from hypotherma.

Daniel’s story typifies the hardship being faced in Nigeria by millions of people in the country. This young boy risked everything, his life, being caught, freezing to death or being crushed to death to escape a life of endless poverty and suffering and he succeeded! No, Daniel didn’t make it past Nigeria’s shores but his act of bravery has turned him into a mini celebrity. Daniel has succeeded in running away from the thing he feared most – slow death by hunger.

Latest reports say Daniel has been given a scholarship to complete his education and was even photographed standing alongside one of Nigeria’s better governors, Adams Oshiomole’s, who seized the occasion for a good photo-up in the run-up to general elections in the country.

In the very unlikely event that Daniel succeeded in getting to the US, - now I say, ‘very unlikely’ because at the altitude the plane would have been flying, he definitely would have frozen to death – he probably wouldn’t have it so good. Scholarship and photo-up with a popular politician. He was even well dressed and wearing a wristwatch in the picture.

One hopes Daniel would make good use of the second chance he has been given in life and make something good out of his life.

If he is short of ideas on how he could reap from his good fortune, he could always sign a book deal or appear on talk shows. Oh, wait a minute...that only happens in America, where he was planning to escape in the first place.