13 August, 2009
Hilary hits Nigeria: Your problem is failure of governance
Hilary hits Nigeria: Your problem is failure of governance
By Our Reporter
Thursday, August 13, 2009
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• President Umaru Yar’Adua welcomes Mrs Hillary Clinton, the visiting Secretary of State, USA, to the State House, Abuja on Wednesday. Photo: The Sun Publishing |
United States Secretary of State, Mrs Hilary Clinton, Wednesday night delivered a damning verdict, blaming Nigeria’s inability to take her seat among the 20 top nations in the world on failure of governance.
Answering questions at a Town Hall meeting organised by the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) and the U.S. Embassy in Abuja with the theme Nigeria: Towards a better future, Clinton noted that Nigeria could have featured at the last meeting of the G20 nations, but for myriad of problems, notably corruption, bad governance and the concentration of wealth among few top people to the detriment of the masses.
She asserted that it was up to the citizens to shape the country’s future.
Clinton also identified faulty electoral system as a setback. And to get things right, she stated unequivocally that Nigeria must have a truly independent electoral council that would guarantee free and fair election and give the citizenry the much-desired benefits of democracy.
While stating that the foundation of democracy was trust, the US Secretary of State, also reminded that such democracy should be nurtured by free election, just judiciary and a solid democratic institution.
“We recognise that Nigeria is at a cross-road and it is imperative that citizens be involved and engaged in helping to chart the future of this great nation. “Today I’m in Nigeria, a country that produces two million barrels of oil a day, has the seventh largest oil reserve than any country in the world.
“But according to the UN, the poverty rate in Nigeria has gone up from 46 per cent to 76 per cent over the last 13 years,’’ Clinton said.
She gave reasons why Nigeria was still at a crossroad to include the destructive legacy of colonialism, devastating civil wars and other external forces.
“But as President Barrack Obama said in Ghana, the future of Africans is up to Africans and the future of Nigeria is up to Nigerians,” she said.
Clinton further said: “The most immediate source of the disconnect between Nigeria’s wealth and its poverty is the failure of its governance at the local, state and federal levels.
“The 100,200 million barrels of oil importation are staggering, but they do not tell you how many hospitals and roads could have been built.
“They do not tell you how many schools could have been opened or how many Nigerians could have attended colleges,” she said.
Clinton quoted the World Bank recent statistics as stating that Nigeria had lost 300 billion dollars during the last three decades as a result of all of the problems listed above.
“Therefore, it is imperative that we look at where Nigeria is today and in the spirit of friendship and partnership of a country that has made its own mistakes and had its own problems.
“We look for ways to help one another, in particularly to help the people of this country,” Clinton stressed.
On the seven-point agenda of Yar’Adua’s administration, the wife of former US president expressed her government’s support. She, however, expressed conviction that the success of the agenda would largely depend on the efforts of the citizenry.
Clinton believed that the civil society and the media had much to do, stressing that everyone should come together to uphold the tenets of true democracy and be the watchdog.
She wondered why Nigeria had not got her efforts at true democracy rewarded, when countries such as India with about 600 million voters, as well as Indonesia with only 10 years democratic experience, were making commendable headway.
Nigeria, according to Clinton, had a future but she quickly added that there was the need to have free and fair election in 2011.
She, therefore, challenged Nigerians to work hard to achieve genuine democracy emphasizing that, “it is up to you, it is your responsibility.”
On the Niger Delta issue, Clinton assured Nigeria of her country’s support for the peace process. She said from what she was told, government had taken the right steps towards achieving lasting peace in the region.
Participants at the forum included members of the civil society groups, women group, labour and the media.
30 July, 2009
"REBRANDING LAGOS" Alla Nerone
Putting a litttle order and neatness in Lagos... alla Nerone of the
Roman empire......some suffering though..
By: chukbyke@Lagos 30/07/2009 (between Mile 2 & Orile)
01 July, 2009
25 June, 2009
Police smash 5-man kidnap gang in Enugu
Police smash 5-man kidnap gang in Enugu
National NewsJun 24, 2009By Tony Edike
ENUGU—THE police in Enugu has arrested a five-man kidnap gang that specialized in kidnapping prominent businessmen and personalities in the South East states.
Also recovered from them by the police were two AK47 riffles and one Barreta pistol.
Members of the gang were intercepted at a police check point manned by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Enugu State Police Command on the Enugu – Onitsha Highway Monday evening, the police said yesterday.
Vanguard learnt that the gang had already confessed to the kidnap of a prominent Anambra billionaire businessman and Chairman of Pokobros Group of Companies, Chief Paul Okonkwo in Awka, on June 5, this year.
They claimed they collected a ransom of N70 million from the businessman before he was set free few days later.
The gang also claimed responsibility for the killing of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Central Police Station , Awka, CSP Akpan, and a junior policeman shortly after kidnapping Pokobros and the kidnap of an Isreali woman married to an Igbo man, Mr. Ezenwa.
They also claimed they kidnapped a businessman from Ideato, Imo State last Friday shortly after his late father’s burial and was taken to Ihe town in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State where he was held until the SARS operatives rescued him on Tuesday.
One of the arrested persons took the police to the hideout where the businessman had spent about five days while his family was being contacted to pay a ransom for his release.
The Police gave the identities of the kidnappers now in detention at SARS base in Enugu as Emeka Uzonwanne alias “Chiefo” from Uga, Anambra State said to be leader of the gang; Anayo Okorougbo from Agbor, Delta State; Ogbonnaya Sunday from Obollo-Eke, Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State; Kingsley Mammah also from Obollo-Eke; and Chidi Onyechi from Amokwe, Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State
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ITALY: POLICE BLITZ, 30 ARRESTED, 2 DOCTORS
HUMAN TRAFFICKING: POLICE BLITZ, 30 ARRESTED, 2 DOCTORS
(AGI) - Roma, 24 June - The Italian Special Operations Task Force (ROS) are arresting 30 suspects of human trafficking, slave trade and exploitation of prostitution in Italy, Nigeria and several European countries, on orders of the local anti-mafia department of Ancona. The operation focuses on a transnational organisation which takes Nigerians illegally to Italy and reduces them to slaves by force. Various cases of abortion have been recorded with the help of two Italian doctors and two Nigerians, against whom arrest warrants have been issued by the public prosecutor's office of Rome. The details of the operation will be announced in a press conference this morning at 10.3
23 June, 2009
I am Hungry, Please Re-brand me
I am Hungry, Please Re-brand me
By: Salisu Suleiman ssuleiman@gmail.com
I am Nigeria. I have millions of acres of arable land and billions of cubic litres of water, but I cannot feed myself. So I spend $1 billion to import rice and another $2 billion to import milk. I produce rice, but don’t eat it. I have 60 million cattle but no milk. I am hungry, please re-brand me.
I drive the latest cars in the world but have no roads. I lose family and friends everyday on roads for which funds have been looted. I lose my young, my old, and my most brainy and productive people to the potholes, craters and crevasses they travel on everyday. I am in permanent mourning, please re-brand me.
My school has no teacher and my classroom has no roof. I take lecture notes through the window and live with 15 others in a single room. All my professors have gone abroad, and the rest are awaiting visas. I am a university graduate, but I am illiterate. I want a future, please re-brand me.
Malaria, typhoid and many other preventable diseases send me to hospitals which have no doctors, no medicines and no power. So my wife gives birth with candle light and surgery is performed by quacks. All the nurses have gone abroad and the rest are waiting to go also. I have the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world and future generations are dying before me. I am hopeless, hapless and helpless, please re-brand me.
I wanted change so I stood all day long to cast my vote. But even before I could vote, the results had been announced. When I dared to speak out, silence was enthroned by bullets. My rulers are my oppressors, and my policemen are my terrors. I am ruled by men in mufti, but I am not a democracy. I have no verve, no vote, no voice, please re-brand me.
I have 50 million youths with no jobs, no present and no future. So my sons in the North have become street urchins and his brothers in the South have become militants. My nephews die of thirst in the Sahara and his cousins drown in the waters of the Mediterranean. My daughters walk the streets of Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, while her sisters parade the streets of Rome and Amsterdam. I am inconsolable, please re-brand me.
My people cannot sleep at night and cannot relax by day. They cannot use ATM machines, nor use cheques. My children sleep through staccato of AK 47s see through the mist of tear gas. The leaders have looted everything on the ground and below. They walk the land with haughty strides and fly the skies with private jets. They have stolen the future of generations yet unborn and have money they cannot spend in several lifetimes, but their brothers die of hunger. I want justice, please re-brand me.
I can produce anything, but import everything. So my toothpick is made in China; my toothpaste is made in South Africa; my salt is made in Ghana; my butter is made in Ireland; my milk is made in Holland; my shoe is made in Italy; my vegetable oil is made in Malaysia; my biscuit is made in Indonesia; my chocolate is made in Turkey and my table water made in France. My taste is far-flung and foreign, please re-brand me.
My people are cancerous from the greed of their friends who bleach palm oil with chemicals; my children died because they drank ‘My Pikin’ with NAFDAC numbers; my poor die because kerosene explodes in their faces; my land is dead because all the trees have been cut down; flood kills my people yearly because the drainages are clogged; my fishes are dead because the oil companies dump waste in my rivers; my communities are vanishing into the huge yawns of gully erosion, and nothing is being done. My livelihood is in jeopardy, and I am in the uttermost depths of despondence, please re-brand me.
I have genuine leather but choose to eat it. So I spend a billion dollars to import fake leather. I have four refineries, but prefer to import fuel, so I waste more billions to import petrol. I have no security in my country, but would rather send troops to keep the peace in another man’s land. I have 160 dams, but can not get water to drink, so I buy ‘pure’ water that roils my innards. I have a million children waiting to enter universities, but my ivory dungeons can only take a tenth. I have no power, but choose to flare gas, so my people have learnt to see in the dark and stare at the glare of naked flares. I have no direction, please re-brand me.
My people pray to God every morning and every night, but commit every crime known to man because re-branded identities will never alter the tunes of inbred rhythms. Just as the drums of heritage heralds the frenzied jingles, remember - the Nigerian soul can only be Nigerian - fighting free from the cold embrace of a government that has no spring, no sense, no shame. So we watch the possessed, frenzied dance, drenched in silent tears as freedom is locked up in democracy’s empty cellars. I need guidance, please re-brand me.
But then, why can I not simply be me, without being re-branded? Or does my complexion cloud the color of my character? Does my location limit the lengths my liberty? Does the spirit of my conviction shackle my soul? Does my mien maim the mine of my mind? And is this life worth re-branding? I am not yet born, please re-brand me.
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