A Political Experiment: I'm Out!

Last night, as with most nights of recent, I went to bed sad. For no just reason, I would just become really sad. 

Then it struck me. Spending the day assimilating bad news is really not the best way to live life. The bad news? Nigeria. Nigeria is bad news. At least EVERYTHING that has to do with politics. You can almost never hear a political story about Nigeria that is not bad. I do not know of others but anytime I remember how a sitting president was 'dashed' 200 million shares with no repercussions, or that EFCC is 'after' the latest criminal Governor knowing ABSOLUTELY nothing will happen to them or another hundreds of billions would be used to subsidise fuel AGAIN (probably more than last year when the pump price was lower), or that the achievement of a sitting President for one year is appearing in a Time magazine poll alongside Pipa Middleton, or.. I can go on. Anytime I assimilate these things, I get visibly and emotionally angry. It is personal. it is not just a story. I know how great Nigeria is supposed to be. 

But nothing boils my blood quicker than when I hear a Nigerian "yoot" say tweet, "we will not allow it" to the latest government decision,  It reminds me of how helpless our case is. Of course I am not vindicated in any way.

So I have decided to experiment. For the next 6 months, I will remove my mind from EVERY political news in/from Nigeria. Gradually, I will weed myself from all the 'bad news' sources. Yeah, once I see any political discourse on my Twitter feed, i'm sorry mate, you have to go. Nothing personal, I just want to be a happier person. Let me be the last to hear that Jo Boy has done something stupid again, or Deziani's latest scandal.  I am sure knowing if Saraki is being detained by EFCC is of no actionable importance to me. “Did I hear what Onyuike Okereke said?” Nope! and idontwannaknow.  “What about Ribadu’s report?” istilldontwannoknow

Of course the implication of this is that when the Nigerian Twitter rebels are able to liberate Nigeria before my 6 month review date comes up, I would not be counted as one of the liberators. That makes me sad :(. Gentlemen and ladies, enjoy the glory without me.

*Applies to international Politics too.

** I sincerely applaud the micro-minority that are trying hard to improve Nigeria.

*** After 6 months, I will review my position. (Not that it affects anything really.)

**** I'll be focusing of trying to get my startup off the ground and trying hard to positively impact the Nigerian technology space.

***** If you have 5 mins, read this post

#OneNigeria

Posted by Oo Nwoye 

Mali soldiers loot presidential palace after coup

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Mali soldiers loot presidential palace after coup

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Libyan human rights abuses 'deeply concerns' Ban Ki-moon

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On the trail of Boko Haram

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Why I Detest OBJ. And My Prayer For Him.

I would have used hate. But that requires emotional commitment. OBJ is not worth it. I detest the fucker like I detest cancer. My man Abdulmalik Mahdi summed it up in a single tweet

Posted by Oo Nwoye 

My Problem With ElRufai

If you read Mallam El Rufai’s Thisday Column on Fridays (syndicated with his blog), it is clear that he not only has a good grasp of the problems with the Nigerian state, but also knows the concrete steps that are necessary to fix things.

However, my (and quite a number of other people) only problem with Mallam is his failure or refusal to acknowledge the mistakes he made/was part of in the past. He was a very core part of the OBJ group that imposed a sick man Yar’adua and his non-able bodied deputy on the Nigerian state. Why? I have absolutely no idea. It is because of this terrible move by Obasanjo, El Rufai and their gang that Nigeria is in this present state.

OBJ is of the past (<- ogun and ayelala, do your job na). For El Rufai to be really credible for the future, he has to acknowledge and apologise for his role in getting us where we are today.

Why is this important?

Like I said in a previous post of mine, knowing what to do to fix Nigeria has never been the problem of Nigeria. The problem has always been finding the person with the willpower to do the right thing while in power.
 
If Mallam wants another chance (I know he does and I do too) at sorting Nigeria out, acknowledgement of and apology for the past needs to be made. Recognizing past mistakes shows he might not repeat them again. It will demobilize 90% of the argument his detractors have and turn maybe 50% of them to his supporters. My people are too forgiving. They’ll say “Abeg free El rufai, the guy don apologize. Make im killl imself join?”

The only saving grace El Rufai has to be taken as a serious person for the future, is his awesome performance as Minister of the FCT. His performance was excellent. Without it, he would have just been another version of the sad Segun Adeniyi.

Why do I care?
When El Rufai decides to run for president, (he will), he most certainly will be on my shortlist of 3 from which I will decide on who to actively work for. I do not want any unnecessary baggage/distraction while on the quest to save the sinking ship called Nigeria. The earlier it is sorted, the better for us all.

PS:

Posted by Oo Nwoye 

How Can Jonathan Succeed? Here's A Brilliant, Radical Idea.

Let's take over the government. No, not a coup. Now read.

In my previous post, I argued that it is a waste of time fighting Jo boy because he is simply not in charge and more importantly, were he in change, he does not have what is required of him: good, strong and purposeful leadership.

His limitations in themselves are not that bad, however,

1. Jo Boy randomly listens to advice from random people.
2. Most of those he listens to certainly do not have the interest of the country at heart.  While most of others are grossly incompetent (I exempt people like Sanusi, Nnaji, Jega and like three others from this)

So how do we make good of this very bad situation? i.e a puppet presido with the wrong string holders. Get the right people around Goodluck 'not a lion' Jonathan

Here is my theory:

It is easier to get rid of those traitors (Hi Mr Abati!) and incompetent ploitical jobbers right now, that to wait for 3-6 more years (7 year term??) and say "I told you so" and hope the non-existent opposition (most of which are sour grapes primary election loosers) would take over and do good.

Yes, you read me right. We (forward thinking citizens) all should just join PDP. It is going to be much easier to take over the evil PDP than to win them in a general election. It is just the painful simple truth.

If we succeed, then the random people Jo boy will be taking advice from would be 'our people' so while it would be PDP flesh, it would be a renewed soul.

Take a second and imagine this:

• Ribadu as Chief of Police
• Bakare as Attorney General
• *El Rufai as head of the national policy think tank.
• Fashola as the head of Governors forum
• Oby Ezekwesili in Education
• Colonel Umar in Security
• OBJ as a prison inmate
• etc etc.

Posted by Oo Nwoye 

Why I Will Not Criticize President Jonathan Again.

Before you make any assumptions, nothing 'don hit my account.' My reason for not criticizing Jo boy is simple.

The 'man' Goodluck Jonathan is not in charge of himself. Focusing on criticizing him is the same as doing so for that unruly 2 year old baby. For the baby, you hold his/her minder responsible.In most cases it would be the parents.  In the case of Jo Boy, his minders change at random. For the baby, the minders most probably have the baby's interest at heart. In Jo boy's case, they certainly do not.

Jonathan's gaffes are monstrously amusing. We cannot claim we did not seeing it coming. Last year, he was told to ban the Super Chickens for not doing well in a tourney they did not prepare for. Ban he did! Hell broke loose, unban he did. In a twist of reverse fever, he unbanned the importation of furniture and other rightfully import-prohibited goods. Hell broke lose, reban he did.

He randomly pulled out a 7 year tenure out of his hat. Back into his hat he will soon put it. Same for fuel subsidy. Increases, decreases, puts soldiers on the streets, removes them, reads speech, commissions bus, YouWin then you dont win.etc. Absolutely no method to the madness.

Of course he approves every proposal that hits his desk without asking the most basic of questions. The ID card and plate number scams come to mind. 

At the moment, he is not so sure about being SURE.

Jo boy randomly babbles about how he will tackle Boko Haram, Power etc (depending on who whispers in his ears that minute). Unfortunately, random whispers are worse than leaving the man alone.

Having a zombie baby puppet as President is not always a bad thing. With a tight-knit team of great minders and controllers, he will work wonders. Nobody will care about the race, sex, religion of those truly in control because the president would be who they see. However, when you have resident-mode incompetent randoms pulling the strings, you have the Jo boy administration.

Henceforth, President Jo boy gets a pass. He who is not in charge, shall not be focused on. It is simply a waste of time. We cannot keep fighting a man for not giving what he does not have. "e no dey, e no dey".

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.- Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love, 1963

How then do we move forward? I think I have an idea. My next post will answer the question.

PS: I've just been told gbagaun too plenty in this post. Let us deal with this once and for all. I cannot spell. And I just don't see typos. E no dey. 

Posted by Oo Nwoye 

Can We Please Stop Inciting More Violence

After seeing the picture from Benin City, I am temporarily coming out of hibernation to plead for caution as we circulate pictures and sensationalize stories. All it does is brings us closer to war. The sad thing about war is that all participants of war lose. (except gun runners) The luckiest of us will end up being refugees in other lands. 

Posted by Oo Nwoye