Beware of death by drowning
in the awning of the rippling dull
waters, the fireplaces are dead
all that sparkle
are fish teeth and eyes
By Noel Ihebuzor 06/04/2015
Category: Uncategorized
A Must-Read: My 100 Days Covenant With Nigerians: Fish Starts To Rot From The Head – Buhari
Hope these pre-election promises are still valid and indeed that they were authored by Buhari!
Corruption and Governance
I pledge to:
- Publicly declaration of my assets and liabilities
- Encourage all my appointees to publicly declare their assets and liabilities as a pre-condition for appointment. All political appointees will only earn the salaries and allowances determined by the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC).
- Personal leadership in the war against corruption
- Inaugurate the National Council on Procurement as stipulated in the Procurement Act. The Federal Executive Council, which has been turned to a weekly session of contract bazaar, will concentrate on its principal function of policy making.
- Review and implement audit recommendations by Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative including those on remittances and remediation.
- Work with the National Assembly towards the immediate enactment of a Whistle Blower Act
- Work with the National Assembly to strengthen ICPC and EFCC by guaranteeing institutional autonomy including financial and prosecutorial independence and security of tenure of officials. Make…
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Flights of fancy and flights from reality – A million other things that damaged President Jonathan
By
Noel Ihebuzor
This link line takes you to an article in TheCable that claims to examine “a million other things that damaged President Jonathan” in his re-election bid. It is wriiten by one Chidi Chima and was uploaded on Twitter via @thecableng #2015Elections . Chidi invites his readers to also come up with and contribute their views on what they think “damaged President Jonathan”.
Chidi Chima skipped Region & Religion! The reader is invited to visit INEC’s results compilation for the 2015 presidential elections and to look closely at the votings in NE, NW & SS zones. Skewed Demography, Religion & Region were at play and were the real “damagers”. This is the harsh truth and we need to tell ourselves some of these hard truths, but Chima prefers to flee from them. If, for example, the SE zone had come out and voted and given Jonathan 750,000 votes each and kept Buhari below 10% of votes cast, as was the case in most of the NE/NW zones, the results would have been otherwise. So, the game changer and decider in these elections were once again Ethnicity and Religion, not any of these fancy reasons that Chidi Chima throws up! Finally, Chidi Chima will do well to study the results for the presidential elections for the FCT and Lagos where populations and religions are more heterogeneous – the results here could be taken to reflect a more balanced representation as to how a cross section of Nigerians inhabiting a common geographical space evaluated the Jonathan presidency.
Buhari: a 20th century dictator cannot lead a 21st century economy
…And that’s why we have views by him such as these samplers:
1) ‘if elected president, I will make the (exchange rate of the) Naira equal to the Dollar’. How unrealistic, to put it mildly. You see, O ‘level economics, including the venerable OA Lawal’s would have sufficed. But you can’t give what you don’t have.(All pun intended). Even the 2nd (China) & 3rd (Japan) largest economies can’t pursue such voodoo wishes. And for a country striving to diversify its economy away from oil, the Buharinomics’ (encapsulated in the above pledge) can only send the economy back to the 20th century.
2) ‘I will stabilise the price of oil if elected president’. Hmm! Nigeria (nay OPEC) stabilise the price of oil? You see, even a cursory (o’level) understanding of oil market and politics would have saved this embarrassing pledge. Saudi Arabia (largest exporter & 3rd largest producer can’t even make such claims – in the light of obvious market & political forces). But this is Nigeria – where those who don’t understand were undemocratically foisted on the nation as minister of petroleum resources and subsequently, Head of State in the 20th century. But this the 2nd decade of the 21st century and Nigerians should know better.
3.’I will fight corruption by drawing a line, such that cases in court would continue, and from then on, no more corruption or you are dealt with’. So what happens to cases not yet found, not yet in the court before the line is drawn? No, according to this ‘magic-wand-line’ strategy, such perpetrators would go scotch free with their loot. Does this strategy tell us something. Yes. In the last several weeks, we have been assaulted by the alleged corruption in Lagos State. And according to the ‘drawing a line’ thesis these would not be investigated, not to talk of recovery and sanction.
There are legion of such statements in the APC campaign, and one wonders: can Nigeria survive with such 20th century solutions for 21st century challenges? No. It would be amount to prescribing death for survival.
Cheers as you read,
Reg Ihebuzor
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
Essays from exile: The oporoko chronicles
Ikhide writes again! A good read!
for you Mrs. C!
Princess of the Earl of Sandwich!
Your eyes are teasing me again…
I am hungry. Very hungry. And hunger drives my brain cells to a certain point of brilliance, that hell-nirvana that my adversaries, and quite a few friends, call stark raving, certified lunacy. And as always happens when hunger places my growling stomach under house arrest, I commence esoteric ruminations, thinking deeply profound thoughts, or as my detractors would say, hallucinating. I am wondering for instance, when will Chinua Achebe, the world’s greatest writer of all times, get the Nobel Prize for discovering the Internet? Achebe lives! Yes, when will that brooding god of the white man’s letters sue the United States Government for stealing his ideas about a world without boundaries? Achebe lives! It is a poorly kept secret that Chinua Achebe discovered the Internet but the white man took credit for it. Achebe…
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(Video): #Nigeria Army Operations Against #BokoHaram
Crushing an insurrection by mindless savages
#Nigeria National Security Adviser “Not Very Optimistic” about #Chibok Girls
Sambo on National security and more
The Nigerian National Security Adviser (NSA) Lt-Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retired) was spoke at Chatham House in London last week, in much publicised comments. Although Dasuki usually keeps a low profile he spoke frankly about many issues relating to Nigeria’s upcoming elections next month and the security threat posed by Boko Haram. Highlights from the NSA’s talk and answers to questions from the audience:
- He said that Nigeria will develop a new civil-military relations doctrine; to redefine how the military relates to the public – especially in areas where it conducts counter-insurgency operations. The military needs to move doctrinally from conventional warfare to asymmetric warfare. Nigeria has created a National Counter-Terrorism Center.
- He admitted that there have been “historical deficits” in the military; including the fact that the last significant weapons procurement for the Nigerian military was over two decades ago.
- He said his office will present a counter-insurgency narrative…
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Buhari’s Speech at Chatham House (Full Video and Full Text)
well rehearsed speech, interesting for what the speech writers included but more interesting for what they excluded!
Topic:
“Prospects for Democratic Consolidation in Africa: Nigeria’s Transition”
http://newsrescue.com/watch-read-gen-buharis-full-speech-chatham-house-video-text/#axzz3SrfHu1aX
The Sociology of Why People Don’t Believe Science
The Art of Knight JJ, via Tumblr
This the story of how sociology can improve public science. I discuss the social science research explaining why some sections of the general public resist research evidence. As some of you know, I’m one of around 20 Moderators who run Science on Google+. Our Community is managed by practising scientists and our membership includes researchers as well as members of the public who are interested in science. I run the Social Science stream (along with Chris Robinson who created the Community). Our Community aims to improve the quality of science posts and public outreach, by connecting the public to real scientists. This week, we celebrated the fact that our Community has grown to 200,000 members. The Community receives numerous posts each day. We want to move discussion away from people sharing their personal opinions on “fluff” science pieces that often end…
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Buharists And Their Stockholm Syndrome – BY KENNEDY EMETULU
A useful read for all Buharists
First, let me quickly make an apology. I apologize for using the term “Buharists” to describe those invested in voting for General Muhammadu Buhari in the forthcoming presidential election if he is presented as the flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
First, let me quickly make an apology. I apologize for using the term “Buharists” to describe those invested in voting for General Muhammadu Buhari in the forthcoming presidential election if he is presented as the flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC). I make the apology duly noting that those who are opposed to the reelection of President Goodluck Jonathan and a lot of who are Buhari supporters have taken to describing those in support of Jonathan’s reelection derogatorily as “Jonathanians”, especially in social network exchanges
.
Kennedy Emetulu
I mean, it is not in doubt that if you open a Buhari supporter’s dictionary, a Jonathanian is that…
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Reflections 