3rd term Shenanigans
My convalescence is taking quite some time - after the amoeba (which Nigerians pronounce 'a-mow-eba' instead of 'ameeba') came gastritis/ulcer and internal bleeding (from all the drugs). I've lost a lot of weight and am weak, but I'll get there in the next few days. Its a tough mental/spiritual challenge being sick!
Meanwhile, the papers seem to be full of stuff going on 3rd-term wise. I read a story in Business Day I think on Monday about how the Reps/Senators were being offered US$1,000,000 to vote for the constitutional amendment but they were squabbling about it - they want to be given the money up front in cash, rather than after the fact and by cheque. If its true then it sounds like the whole political edifice is wrotten to the core. Let's hope there's some stiff uncompromising resistance to this kind of outrageous corruption.
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12 comments:
Feel better!
Ma fi ara le, Jeremy. Can't even fathom that you still have the might to write. Be well!
Poor you! I can imagine thousands of Nigerians in your situation, but does the government really care?
BUMS! I can actually hear them...
mistah speakah: "oda odah"
mrs. woman: "heah heah US$1,000,000”
mr. man: “up front"
Ogbeni chief professor senator: "in cash"
mistah speakah: "sit down, you wretched fools"
However, on a more serious note, considering the demeanor of begging, in a number of countries, where the law simply imposed a rule of conduct: “no begging”, I would think criminalizing waste with a strong set of laws can halt this spiral. The law should make wastage a MISDEMEANOR, whether it be one's hard earned money or inheritance/gift. From the age of 16 years upwards, it should be a crime if expended thoughtlessly or carelessly, or on useless or profitless activity.
I think the time has come to turn in a new direction, irrespective of civil rights, legality, morality, or public debate and policy, without fear of upsetting the delicate balance of rights and responsibilities so essential to urban civility. Our governmental systems have failed to properly recognize that the resources (wealth) of the people deserve some constitutional protection. Since the discovery of oil in 1956, over over $300 billion! wasted!
Are there's me sitting here in London moaning on about my gastric flu. I don't know how lucky I am!!!
Take care Jeremy. I am certain you'll beat this one.
i really dont know how to react to the endemic shamelessness being exhibited by some members of the house of rep. I really wonder how we can move forward with people like. But having said that......we should just sit down and criticize, we need to do something, which I can't really figure out now, to be candid.
Hi Jeremy,
Glad to hear from you, sad that you are still fighting off the bug.
Indeed, you should see what I had to go through in secondary school with the a-mee-ba/a-mow-eba thing, especially when the teacher almost always gets it wrong.
Then monopoly with Leicester Square and Marylebone Station.
However, you got it right "wrotten" (sic) to the core, signifying worse than rotten.
The peddling of influence based on how much a conscience or a heart of stone can be bought for to meet ulterior motives is appalling.
Nigeria being awash with oil money expended with spendthrift impunity on personal ambitions rather that building the country - no, we are in no need of debt relief, not by one pfennig.
Like Ajoke said in her piece about leadership and inter-generational equity; shameless old men have their noses in the trough with their grand-children.
Where there is no integrity, we are in trouble, where there is no shame, we are in deep, deep trouble - Walahi!
Feel better Jeremy....amazed that you are able to keep dropping the knowledge through it all
to be honest, i do not see any other way for Nigeria to stand but the criminalisation of waste (including spending on mediocre projects.
I do not believe our people failed to ask the Fulani to return home at the time the British were asked to. Had we done this, millions would not have died when Biafra was invaded, in fact Biafra would not have been invaded because there would have been no plan in the first place to displace the Ibos and others of their oil deposits. I read somewhere in the TIME of the 1960's that Gowon led government's plan was "to split the regions into 12 states, 3 (only one of these for the ibo’s) out of the east, gerrymandering most of the ibo’s and minority tribes (i.e. Ibibio etc) into one landlocked state and separated from their oil deposits near the niger river delta"
Am not calling for another revolution but I think the fulani should return home. There is no other road to peace.
Who's offering the dosh, and where is it coming from?
Is it OBJ, or is it his private supporters?
$1 million (per person) is serious money. No one offers to give away that kind of money (at least not in Nigeria) unless they've stolen it from somewhere, and unless they have hopes of stealing more of it.
Is it the general sense in Naija that OBJ is raiding the treasury? Or that he's being funded by Babangida?
Who's offering the dosh, and where is it coming from?
Is it OBJ, or is it his private supporters?
$1 million (per person) is serious money. No one offers to give away that kind of money (at least not in Nigeria) unless they've stolen it from somewhere, and unless they have hopes of stealing more of it.
Is it the general sense in Naija that OBJ is raiding the treasury? Or that he's being funded by Babangida?
J.
You're not playing the Donald Byrd loud enough. Hang in there buddy.
S.
I know a Nigerian biology teacher who fought an unending battle to make sure that her hundreds if not thousands of Nigerian students pronounced "amoeba" correctly....your casual generalization at the beginning of this piece does her (and her students) injustice....
Hope you're feeling better now
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