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what has really changed?

Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

A lot has changed since May 29.

The fight against corruption is very actively being pursued on the front pages of newspapers and on news headlines, largely.

A system of establishing guilt and conviction before trial is being trial-tested. Someone is reading “The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland” and  trying to apply some of the bizarre happening there to real life situations.

Nigerians are beginning to discover that all the rotters and knaves in this country belong to only one political party. The other party is peopled by Knights and saints. Never mind if some of principal characters in this club of saints were in this club of looters, knaves, rotters and robbers just not too long ago. Crossing over a line of defection has more cleansing and whitening power than the River Jordan had in biblical times.

The price of crude oil has changed and some die-hard government loyalists can’t still make up their minds whether or not to blame GEJ for this.

The Dollar-Naira exchange rate has worsened and the blame for this must be placed where it belongs.  Blame GEJ, the man from Otueke.

Our theory of change (ToC, also called the logic model) was revised to allow for creative flexibility and damn outright obsequiousness in our efforts to explain some observed positive changes – body language is now being ascribed more explanatory powers.

A lot has changed indeed. Change is happening!

 

 

 

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SORRY, BUT BUHARI IS NOT FIGHTING CORRUPTION | By Ayo Sogunro

Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

Recommended reading!

ayosogunro's avatarAyo Sogunro

AYO SOGUNRO PRESEN

Nigerians have an understandable—if somewhat childish and sometimes nasty—habit of singling out a trait in one of their rulers and examining critical arguments from the perspective of that trait every time. Take the Jonathan administration, for example: when critics raised an issue, Jonathan apologists would direct the argument to “But he is a nice (or good, meek, humble) person” or worse: “You are saying this because he is from an ethnic minority”. Or in Lagos, when Fashola’s spending was criticised: “But he is working, compared to others.”

This social behaviour is generally amusing, but it becomes dangerous when it starts to repress the space for critical thought.

And now, with the budding sycophancy of the Buhari regime, this attitude continues. Buhari apologists tend to review every criticism of current Nigerian politics and government from the perspective of: “But he is fighting corruption”.

Hey, Buhari is disregarding the rule of law. “But…

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Second Sunday of Advent 2015

Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

By

Noel Ihebuzor

 

Great readings for this Sunday of advent.  Five take-aways for me –

  • Reassuring and repeating themes and messages in all the readings and the psalm – our future will be better than our present and broken hopes will be restored.
  • A reminder for us to be grateful to God (even in our current hardships) for the many gifts He has bestowed on us. Many more are coming. Let us hang in there in faith, hope and charity. Salvation is round the corner.
  • An invitation for us all to prepare for the coming of our Savior.
  • A call for us to remove all obstacles that stand between us and the coming of our savior.
  • A cheering announcement of the imminence of the arrival in our hearts and hearths of His Eminence, our Lord and Savior.

All five have an appeal for the dire times the people of Nigeria are currently going through – times marked by ever changing promises, policy vagueness, reneging of assurances that were freely, distortions and accelerating slide to despondency.

Warm greetings from cold, damp and windy Manchester.

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Elnathan’s song: Born into a war on a boiling Tuesday

Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

Ikhide does a comprehensive review insightful, teasing and appetising.

Ikhide R. Ikheloa's avatarPa Ikhide

“Let your women study,’ Sheikh said, ‘and let them vote. Let them learn how to read. The wives of Christians read and write and our wives cannot even read the Quran. There is no sin if a man accompanies his wives to go and queue up to register or to vote.”

– Born on a Tuesday, Elnathan John p116

The writer Elnathan John is something of a celebrity renegade in the African literary scene. He rules the waves on social media, this eccentric and eclectic Twitter Overlord who sits perched on an imaginary throne, dispensing carefully crafted snarky but profound tweets that throb and seethe with controlled rage and truth, tweets that often develop lives of their own in the re-tweeting and re-telling, as they utilize the magic of the multiplier effect to replicate and go viral in infinite directions. Elnathan could probably make a nice living by allowing ads on his…

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Posted in Politics, Prose

Avoiding corrupting practices in anti-corruption campaigns

Posted on by Noel Ihebuzor

by

Noel Ihebuzor

Anti-corruption rhetoric and dramatics are now very popular in Nigeria. I totally support campaigns to rid this country of corruption but I also insist that such campaigns must carried with the right level of professionalism, detachment, neutrality, integrity and honesty. Anything short of these is plain dishonest. Anything short of these really amounts to the continued enthronement and celebration of corruption in efforts to combat it. where anti-corruption are not neutral, detached and honest, then they are likely to abuse their powers and influences, applying inconsistent rules and procedures in their treatment of persons and agencies. Double standards also represent critical threats to anti-corruption campaigns as they throw up different evaluations and reactions for the same behaviour. Such practices, where they occur, amount to corruption!

Here are a few reflections on this subject matter.

  • Double standards are outcomes of corrupt thinking. A nation of double standards will thus remain corrupt.
  • You cannot have one set of scales for persons in one party & another for persons in the other. Such a habit results from a corrupt mind set.
  • If you practice selective hysteria for allegations of corruption against persons in one party, then your mind is gradually being corrupted.
  • If you practice selective targeting in your campaigns against corruption, then your campaign is already steeped in corruption.
  • Anti-corruption practices must be fair. They must be conducted without any trace of favoritism or fear. Fail to do these and the campaign fails
  • To be credible, anti-corruptions must be consistent, even handed and transparent. They must be devoid of all forms of double standards.