Lord Anunoby,
I hope that you are feeling both hale and hearty...
Your "it is much better that people's minds are shaped by facts and reason" tallies with Spinoza – however it is you yourself who have disqualified these facts as often nothing other than misinformation out there in the public sphere. Even in the information age - and this is especially so in some of our more advanced African democracies, the vacuum created by a lack of correct information, even about Ebola, can give rise to or be filled by all kinds of rumours and speculation which can spread "like a bush-fire in the harmattan." The most virulent form of this kind of misinformation is in political propaganda and this particularly intense in the run up to elections. Imagine someone propagating a rumour that if candidate x wins the Nigerian presidential election he is going to introduce the death penalty or is going to publicly hang all the thieves - once the evil genie of misinformation is let out of the bottle it's difficult to correct and the more some rumours are denied, the more they grow in intensity.
Ignorance, tribalism, and blind devotion to some political icons will continue for some time to come - at both the local village and national level.
The long and short term solution of course is universal primary education and citizenship education and the understanding – "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"
For now you are still treading water with Muhammadu Buhari, saying that "The man was part of a coup that overthrew an elected government" more precisely worded, they overthrew a corrupt government.
Of course in a more literate society the Buhari camp would have probably looked forward to taking up your challenge - in an American style or even a Nigerian style presidential debate; however such a debate on national level – in the Queen's English or even in the pidgin lingua franca is fraught with the aforementioned dangers - distortion, misinformation and the analyses, and reportage of such a discussion/ debate by the partisan press and the spin doctors could leave us all in a quagmire or crucible that's a lot hotter than where we were before. For example how successful has Mr. Buhari been in dispelling the malicious rumour that has taken root in some people's imagination, that he is one of the sponsors of Boko Haram - when there's sufficient psychological berth to moor such a rumour - simple based on any purported religious sympathy?
For example Netanyahu at UN: 'ISIS is Hamas, Hamas is ISIS' You may well ask, are they indistinguishably so?
You have volunteered that you would be my campaign manager for the presidency. Well that's exactly what my campaign platform would be: " no to corruption : a president that will transform the dreams for country into reality" of course this planned transformation is a process that will take some time - and the first one I'd hang ( if he did not vomit my money) would be that Bank Manger of Savannah Bank at No 10 Aba Road in Port Harcourt , but for the fact ( real fact) that I don't like to see this sort of thing.
CH the galley slave is feeling very hungry so he is now going to prepare a very kosher dinner wash it down with equally kosher wine and review what's been going on in Sweden the past couple of hours and maybe update his blog
On Monday, 29 September 2014 19:02:45 UTC+2, Anunoby, Ogugua wrote:
...
The election of any country's president is serious business. I understand that many people involve their feelings, emotions, and sympathies (mostly based on misinformation) in matters of politics and public affairs. My thinking however, is that it is much better that people's minds are shaped by facts and reason. The more this is the case, the less it is that the people would vote against their interests. Nigerians have voted against their interests too many times already.
My assessment is that many Nigerians would agree that their country has so far, not elected a president that will transform their country into a one of their realistic dreams. It is time they have such a leader in my considered opinion. Buhari's supporters presenting him as "the one". May be he is. They however do not seem to a want to have an intelligent conversation on why Buhari is who they say he is.
Buhari is a former Head of State and military dictator. He forced himself and his brutal rule on Nigerians. The man was part of a coup that overthrew an elected government. He does not seem to have any regrets. He may therefore not have learned as he need to do. He has been wanting to lead Nigeria again, this time as an elected president. He may be said to be applying for that job. Does he have a resume? Yes he has. Should the resume be evaluated by the electing public? Yes. Buhari's supports do not seem to want this evaluation.
My suggestion to Buhari's supporters is to go past Buhari's eligibility for the office of president. They should take seriously the matter of the possibility of him being elected.
From: usaafric...@
googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com ] On Behalf Of Cornelius Hamelberg
Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2014 9:50 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - WHY ARE THEY AGAINST MUHAMMADU BUHARI?
Dear Lord Anunoby,
You leave me wondering about your sincerity when you say to a penniless soul like me, "I am ready to be your Campaign Manager if you show interest."
Really?
Any questions about the legality or otherwise of Brother Buhari's corruption-free campaign finances had better be answered by Brother Buhari himself, if he is so disposed or obliged to you and the Nigerian electorate, to answer such questions.
Although I resist falling for patronage from any oga or mami wata I had a few benefactors in Nigeria (Diete-Spiff and Joe Ellah were the first in Rivers), I had a few in Imo state, a good one in Lagos, in Cross Rivers State, one from Kaduna and one from the then Gongola State --- and apart from the week when I lost both my father and my stepfather, whether or not we were not paid for six months by the Rivers State government, my pocket was never empty. How much more so Brother Buhari?
Brother Buhari, a son of the soil who has tasted power before is a different kettle of fish altogether. You clothe him with messianic tendencies (I guess that you clothe any would-be leader of Nigeria who would utter the one word "redemption" or " redemption of the nation", with the toga of Nigerian messiah-ship and here you must remember that more than 99% of the Jews during the time of Jesus of Nazareth who operated in the Galilee 99% of the time (his crucifixion was in Judea), rejected him as Mr. Messiah (assuming that he ever existed or ever made such a claim) his opponents asserted, "You are not HIM!"
At any time you so desire you can move the conversation on to Goodluck Jonathan. I assure you that I like his humility and I have nothing against him whatsoever. He is qualified to be president of Nigeria and he is the president of Nigeria - I just wish that he would clean up the environmental degradation of the Delta area which after all lubricates much Nigeria's economy.
All other things considered, such as improving the economy by putting a stop to the leakages through corruption, and all the kind of things that would want to make Hamlet commit suicide, in a straight fight between Brothers Buhari and Jonathan their attitude towards Israel would be one of the determining factors for me. At this point most of us know precious little about their positions on Israel.
What I do know is that under Buhari, Nigeria supposedly enlisted the services of Mossad to try to bring Umaru Dikko to justice. That's the kind of man that Buhari is: to leave no stone unturned in trying to repatriate the country's looted gold, back to Nigeria.
On the Israel front we also have Goodluck Jonathan and his entourage famously praying for Nigeria on the banks of the Jordan River (an event that caused philosophy Professor Segun Ogungbemi to seethe all over with "Are there no dirty rivers in Nigeria?") At the time of the Nigerian president's pilgrimage I thought that this was political dynamite and not only Nigeria's Northern Muslim leaders would be fuming at Goodluck Jonathan, but also the Boko Harami people and some of their good friends and weapon suppliers from further up North, and of course now, their brothers-in-arms in ISIL...
Still on the Israel front, a few weeks after the Chibok girls were abducted the media tells us that President Jonathan also enlisted Israel's expertise in the counter-terrorism sphere, although we don't know to what extent such aid was enlisted.
One last note – again by word of mouth and popular rumour, nothing confirmed but it has been repeatedly said that to some extent, external forces at work contributed to thee down fall of the Buhari-Idiagbon duo - that the duo was getting " too big for their boots" and wanted Nigeria to have a permanent seat on the Security Council etc. etc. ( of course for the good of Nigeria)
Of course, you know that I too am willing and able to be one of your campaign managers , but who would be better in the propaganda department than Lord Anunoby himself ? I guess that you would first declare your assets and then the Nigerian electorate would wait with bated breath to see your increase in good fortune after just a year in the saddle....
Sincerely said,
CH.
On Saturday, 27 September 2014 13:26:33 UTC+2, Anunoby, Ogugua wrote:"As for the equally partisan Lord Anunoby who says that Brother Buhari has been running his presidential campaigns for quite some time, so, where is all the campaign money coming from? From contributors of course (how do you think Brother Obama got elected?) Lord Anunoby does not ask where the money in the war chest which lubricates Goodluck Jonathan's campaign engine is coming from..."
ch
This conversation is on Buhari and not Jonathan in my opinion.
That Buhari has not had a paid job since his last one during the Abacha dictatorship is a fact is it not? He has therefore not earned any employment income for a long time now. He is a pensioner with a many defendants. While he and his financial and investment advisers only are privy to his savings and investment income, his pension benefits are estimable- there are all paid by government. I understand his supporters to be saying he is not corrupt, always lived on legitimate earned employment income as a public servant, owns or runs no businesses, and now lives off his pension benefits, savings, and gifts from his well-wishers. They seem to be saying that he is not rich and has cannot be funding his endless presidential campaigns from personal funds. They now say that he does so from "contributors of course" They do not say who these contributors are. They could be Nigerians and/or foreigner therefore. They could even be Nigeria's domestic of foreign enemies.
Is it presumptuous to expect a man and politician that Buhari's supporters say that he is, to not understand that there are legitimate questions about how an unemployed, uncorrupt, and incorruptible pensioner is able to conduct an unending presidential campaign with other people's money and to answer the questions without further delay?
Buhari's advocates seem to be so consumed by their loyalty to him that they refuse to see beyond their noses. They apparently do not see the gaping holes in the cases they continue to try and fail to make for him? They seem to believe that the man's due is a rightful coronation as president given that for them, he is the most and perhaps only righteous and therefore most qualified aspirant to the office of president of Nigeria today. He might be but where is their evidence beyond anecdotes, presumptions, and suppositions? Why are they unable to see that this coronation might not happen until important questions about the man's past and presented are answered satisfactorily? Why are these supporters unable to see that the questions will not go away and that time is not on their man's side? Do they not know that the man is controversial as a person and a politician?
There are times one's critics are the one's best friend. This I believe is one such time. Buhari may indeed be the man his supporters say he is. He may have good intentions. Good intentions alone do not make a person deserving of political office. Actions are important too. Not many of those have been seen of him in my opinion. If Buhari wishes to run for the office of president in Nigeria in 2015 presidential election successfully, he is consider without further delay, encouraging or leading a public conversation on his role as military dictator, his many unwise public statements which understandably portrayed him as a parochial and partisan politician, and what have caused him to continue to migrate from one political party to another. He should publicly address the questions asked about him and which questions make many people cringe at the thought of a likely Buhari presidency of Nigeria in all and different parts of the country before he throws his hat in the ring.
I wish him well.
oa
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@
googlegroups.com ] On Behalf Of Cornelius Hamelberg
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2014 9:07 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - WHY ARE THEY AGAINST MUHAMMADU BUHARI?
Sir,
Your words, redolent of a deep-seated bias, bring a chill to the heart:
"It is not an ex-military junta like Buhari that can heal Nigeria. A leader without flexibility and deep sense of values for human life, a blood thirsty tyrant, a crude minded religious zealot who can sell the nation to jihadists cannot govern Nigeria."
You may have chosen your words carefully but you know that they are not an accurate description of my man Muhammadu Buhari, but maybe of some other Nigeria military rulers of the past...
Brother Buhari issued this statement on April 17, 2014: "I am not a violent person and, other than my professional calling as a soldier, I have never been associated with violence, I abhor violence and have never advocated it. I have always been a law abiding person who insists on due process and the rule of law in all my private and public affairs."
His record is corruption-free and to many Nigerians he represents a moral force in the APC – he is that force. In my opinion, the times are not normal and that's why the death penalty should be introduced in Nigeria to deal with the exigency of excessive corruption although you and Danny Glover might oppose the death penalty on these grounds. Not ad hoc trials conducted by military tribunals , after which you line them all up to face the firing squad – but real court trials in which they are condemned to death by the overwhelming evidence against them (and the looted money returned to the state coffers of course). For this an impeccable judiciary is required. The death penalty might just instil the fear of death by hanging/ firing squad/ lethal injection in those who have no fear of the Almighty or sense of solidarity with the long-shuffering and Shmiling Nigerian people.( Hopefully Brother Buhari & APC don't announce any such advanced plans for WAI - because the corrupt elite will be digging their heels in deep , to have none of it...
As for the equally partisan Lord Anunoby who says that Brother Buhari has been running his presidential campaigns for quite some time, so, where is all the campaign money coming from? From contributors of course (how do you think Brother Obama got elected?) Lord Anunoby does not ask where the money in the war chest which lubricates Goodluck Jonathan's campaign engine is coming from...
Among military men who have been heads of state you have Dwight Eisenhower, Charles de Gaulle , and Ehud Barak, Israel's most decorated soldier , to name just three who have been successful heads of state....
Will there be any rigging in the forthcoming Nigerian presidential elections? I have no idea, but it could cause plenty of trouble..
There will always be disagreements about the Biafra War and Biafra's leader Emeka Ojukwu the head of state of what was once Biafra. Will we ever be able to put that war behind us?
And by the way (maybe a missing piece of history) is it true that Ojukwu took out his belt and severely lashed Umaru Dikko at a party when Mr. Dikko said to him, "Yes, it's me and I'm back in town"?
Over here the noon deadline is past and Mr. Löfven says that he's going to announce the next Swedish government next Friday...( Sabbath , Yom Kippur) but the dance is not over yet....
On Thursday, 25 September 2014 08:31:02 UTC+2, seguno2013 wrote:Prof,
"Gen. Buhari and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, if I must add, have some traits in common: both driven by, and probably, obsessed with the passion to serve the country, save the dying nation from itself. In my opinion, bot
Thanks for your lucid and insightful contribution to the debate. I don't think your comparison between Pa Awo and General Buhari in your posting helps much. The best comparison should have been between Pa Awo and Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State. Even at that it is with some qualification. Mr. Fashola is by no means a military man and he infused discipline in the minds of Lagosians. It is not an ex-military junta like Buhari that can heal Nigeria.
A leader without flexibility and deep sense of values for human life, a blood thirsty tyrant, a crude minded religious zealot who can sell the nation to jihadists cannot govern Nigeria. Nigeria does not need an-ex military Messiah period.
Nigeria has become more sophisticated more than before more so in this age of information networking around the globe and a taste of nascent democracy.
Segun Ogungbemi Ph.DProfessor of Philosophy
Adekunle Ajasin University
Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State
Nigeria
Cellphone: 08033041371
08024670952
On Sep 24, 2014, at 5:16 PM, Ademola Dasylva <dasy...@gmail.com> wrote:MUCH ADO ABOUT GEN. BUHARI !!!
Oga Ogungbemi, etc.,I have read the different postings on General Buhari, and I feel very sorry for Nigeria. Unless we have a complete re-orientation and a holistic national psychic retrieval, Nigeria will for a long time continue to grope in the dark alley of its complacent and lethargic quest in search of, if at all, credible leadership to steer back on course the otherwise highly endowed State-ship, Nigeria. A country which unfortunately been deliberately agrounded by some incompetent, clueless, egocentric, unpatriotic, corrupt and shortsighted leaders in the past. Unfortunately, the present administration is characterized by, and indeed, synonymous with all the vices and much more.
Buhari was a dictator, no doubt about that. But for God's sake, what else does one expect from a military ruler whose mandate did not come from the people? Again, Buhari was cruel, or wicked: that he passed a decree against drug pushing, sentenced some young folks retroactively to death, etc. I suppose people are just being sentimental over these issues. The military would not have had any reason for their "intervention" or had any business presiding over the governance of this nation if our politicians had not messed us, and things up. The politicians of Major Kaduna Nzegwu's time were saints compare with what politics has become in the present day Nigeria. Major Nzegwu called them ten per-centers (10%er). Today they are Eighty per-centers (80%ers) in a country where NOTHING gets DONE unless you "belong". During the Buhari/Idiagbon regime the Nigerian society was and, still is, grossly without discipline, it was, and still is, largely decadent, corrupt ... with impunity. Of course it wasn't enough excuse for the military incursion, I do agree, it is an aberration to have a military rule, but since they found themselves in power they ruled the best way they understood. of all the military rulers and military apologists, Buhari distinguished himself as a true patriot. He succeeded in instilling a measured discipline both in the military and the civilians. It was a dose of "chloroquine treatment" that helped to shake off the nation's festering malaria of impunity at the time. And to a great degree, it worked. Unfortunately, Nigeria has since relapsed into its old self-destruct twin-malady of corruption and parochialism. The crop of politicians we have today, and the politics in place today are not what the Gani Fawehinmis, Beko Ransom Kutis, etc. and a multitude of others including those of us students including Femi Falana, Wole Olaoye, Malam (Unife years), and other patriotic students in some other universities in the mid-1970s to mid-1980s who believed in the cause of those great heroes had fought, died or hoped for!
The current Minister of Petroleum was allowed to sit-tight in office 2011 while her Ministry was under probe, the aftermath of the nation-wide protest against fuel price hike then. A properly governed country would insist on her resignation at the commencement of the investigation, but not Nigeria. She carried on and had the morals to pontificate as if the investigation was not an indictment of her corruption infested administration. And for the outcome of the probe, it ended up as a "barren exercise" it was meant to be; the culprits are the sacred cows' children, ... of Party chairmen, etc., who understandably operate different constitution and laws by and for themselves. So the report was certified dead before it was submitted.
This same Minister of Petroleum, a couple of months ago, allegedly spent public funds on aircraft charter for personal engagements, at a cost running into millions of USD, NOTHING tangible came off it. Similarly, the immediate past Aviation Minister was hand-in-hand with Mr President in Israel while she was being alleged to have purchased two old "tokubo" bullet proof BMW cars for several millions of naira, funded with tax payers money, amidst executive cover-ups and very unintelligent lies! I can go on cataloguing similar and worst cases, but for the time constraint.
Right now, the case of the unfortunate Chibok girls is not likely to die that easily, ditto the Boko Haram insurgency. They have become an albatross hanging on the neck of Mr President who also doubles as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. He was even reported to be flirting with a key suspect of Boko Haram patrons and sponsors. No well informed and decent citizenry will ever want such a government back in power in a country as endowed as Nigeria. A government which some months back claimed to have located where the abducted girls were kept, and only for hopeful parents to find out the nation was being fooled! That government cannot be said to be serious. The careless handling of the BH is yet a lousy mark of FAILURE that cannot be ignored or forgiven so easily. Soyinka's recent reaction was to show his grave concern about a government which either fails to know or wake up to its basic responsibilities to the people, or his worries about members of a cabal in government who do not ordinary have any business being in government.
Somebody had argued recently that all that Nigerians needed was a good man as President. And by his reckon, Buhari was far from the benchmark of "a good man". In the Nigerian context, President Jonathan Ebele Goodluck is a good man, why? He would not rock anybody's boat, corrupt officials and politicians can go unpunished as long as they support his 2015 dream of returning to Aso Rock; etc. And right now, no one is bold enough to challenge all the mess these wicked politicians have plunged Nigeria into. It makes the Buhari factor relevant in today's politics in Nigeria.
GEN. BUHARI
Gen. Buhari and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, if I must add, have some traits in common: both driven by, and probably, obsessed with the passion to serve the country, save the dying nation from itself. In my opinion, both have had the misfortune of being often misrepresented, their intentions have been variously misinterpreted, and they have remained, to the best of my knowledge in recent times, the most MISUNDERSTOOD of all great Nigerians alive or dead. And if you asked me, they remain the realistic answer to Nigeria's hydra-headed problems, but in sheer ignorance, they are despised and hated the way a sick child hates chloroquine treatment. Well, Chief Awolowo is now of the blessed memory, so his case is more or less settled. As for General Buhari, he was mischievously accused of being a patron of BH by the ruling Party, yet they had failed to prove their allegations beyond "wicked and cheap blackmail". His adversaries are desperate to destroy him politically because they know that he is the only Nigerian, so far, who can ruthlessly deal with their criminal activities. If by any chance he is voted in as President, today, take it that half the Nigerian problems will be over. Reason: most, if not all, the corrupt politicians and technocrats that have stolen this country silly, will flee the country and go on compulsory self-exile! Good riddance I would say to that. The General would probably clamp on them, throw them in jail, seize their ill-gotten wealth, and seek repatriation of our stolen wealth starched in foreign banks in the best possible way. I am sure he would sanitize the military and restore discipline that has long been lost since the time of Gen. Babangida, and would possibly check the constant meddling with the Defense budgetary allocation by corrupt politicians, etc., and halt the current politicization of the military which has destroyed the morale of the officers and men. He probably would whip with "koboko" the citizenry back to their senses, and make everyone to sit up, and get serious. And my friend, if you happen to hate to be disciplined when you genuinely deserve it, then you are the proverbial "Chichi-do-do" bird who loves and relishes maggots but hates the excreta that produces the maggots.(meaning: you hate corruption with passion, but you love to bask in the euphoria of corrupting influences and habits). I haven't seen any presidential aspirant till date in Nigeria who can match the "madness" and "crudity" of the current ruling party, it will require the passion and patriotic team work of the likes of Buhari to literally wrestle this dying Nation from the claws of its butchers. It is a redemptive assignment he needs our encouragement, not pettiness, to accomplish for the sake of our generation and generation yet unborn.
Ademola Dasylva
On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 7:23 PM, Segun Ogungbemi <segun...@gmail.com> wrote:
Oga Cornelius,
Your favorite leader, General Buhari is a man of principle but you know that anyone who plans to lead a country must have a good profile. What I am saying is that Buhari does not have what it takes to rule this nation again.
Do you think people like General Babangida would like to be his Campaign manager? Do you think Civil Rights Organizations in the country will campaign for him? Do you think a person of pedigree of Buhari will get the votes of the people he has ruined their lives?
You cannot flagrantly disobey the wishes of the people you will in future need their support and get it. If you want to step on a wet ground, you need first to wet it as the Yoruba adage goes. Buhari has not wet the ground he wants to step on hence he cannot enjoy the good texture of it.
My piece advice to your Leader is to support someone that has the respect of most Nigerians in the forthcoming election. Nigeria is not for ex-soldiers alone. It belongs to all of us including WE SWEDEN. I am ready to be your Campaign Manager if you show interest.
President Jonathan has not signified his interest to run in the next election. You don't campaign for someone who has not shown interest in the race? Do you?
Ogun agbe yin o. Aase.
Segun Ogungbemi Ph.DProfessor of Philosophy
Adekunle Ajasin University
Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State
Nigeria
Cellphone: 08033041371
08024670952
On Sep 23, 2014, at 3:38 PM, Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:Sir Segun Ogungbemi,
I cannot be silent when I see my man being buffeted like this. It's clear that when it comes to casting stones on this one specimen of God's creation, known as Muhammadu Buhari, you are now one of the ring leaders.
Your demands are not little oh!
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