Wednesday 27 August 2008

Re: The Arrest & Hunt for Nigerian Online Publishers

By Dr. Bankole Okuwa
A Rejoinder

It is obvious that no amount of honest write-up by any Nigerian is good for a positive reflection by any of the series of bad governments we have had as a people since independence. It is unfortunate. We have been blessed with a great number of incompetent, uneducated, selfish and self-centred political upstarts who are not fit to take part in building a young nation like Nigeria.

They are always afraid of being exposed for engaging in illegalities in government. Accumulating wealth illegally and at the same time holding on to power with or without legitemacy are the first principles they observe, at the expense of the people. Any journalist who tries to educate the people, write or inform the public as a right of information or speech would find himself in trouble with these dishonest leaders who are too many in our land. I wish it were possible to export them to other countries as commodities. They are more in quantity, not quality, than our crude oil.

As the first college or university product to become our head of state in an executive capacity, I expected much from him, in terms of observing the fundamental pillars upon which our constitution is based. He started well, though slowly, and spoke of rule of law and 'due process' as guiding priciples, now we begin to see that all the talk was nothing but political rhetoric. The words did not come from the heart. Mr. Yar'Adua will probably go down in history, if he doea not change, as one of those who attained the office of Nigeria's presidency with nothing to show for it.

His attorney-general Andoaka, sorry if I spelled it wrong, is a big liar, a conspirator, a man who does not value or know what integrity means, a worthless law officer who does not care about the legal corporate existence of our country. He is corrupt, through and through, in words and in deed. Nigeria does not deserve these kinds of men in political leadership.

Kingibe was just a scape-goat, his dastard approach was a person ambition to execute a palace coup. If his plan was to aid bad governance and to cover up illegalities on behalf of government, he would still be in office. We all remember Fani-Kayode in Obasanjo's government. He went to the Senate to prostrate physically and apologised without shame for all of his mis-behaviour and silly utterances when he was due to be considered as a minister in 2006.

Most of the people who hold political offices in Nigeria are opportunists who have no leadership qualities and cannot afford to take the risk that great, honest and progressive leadership requires.

Nigeria is expected to emerge as a meaningful leader among black nations because of its aboundant natural resources, but it cannot because of its aboundant dishonest and corrupt leaders.

We are watching what they would do with Jonathan Elendu. The Nigerian SSS is a disaster. They are all incredibly corrupt and nauseating characters. Thay are worse than those in uniform, I mean, the police.

okuwa1006@cablelynx.com