Sunday 29 March 2009

Nigerians abroad our worst enemy

By Prof Dora Akunyili
Nigerian Affairs
Given her passion, zest and commitment to assignments, the Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, cannot be said to be afraid of challenges. With an enviable pedigree, she has succeeded where others failed. But, will she succeed this time in the uphill task of re-branding Nigeria? She provides all the answers in this interview with Sunday Sun read more

Ivorian stadium stampede kills 22

More than 130 people were injured in the stampede at the Houphouet-Boigny arena in the West African country's city of Abidjan. About 36,000 spectators were in the stadium, where hosts Ivory Coast beat Malawi 5-0 read more



Saturday 28 March 2009

African Envoys Celebrate Africa Day

Reported by Archie Bonka
Written by Hakeem Babalola
News Report

The annual Africa Day took place on May 26 at the Hungarian Military Museum, where African diplomats hosted Hungarian government officials, business executives, foreign dignitaries and eminent Hungarians involved in African affairs.

Djembe drums were positioned to welcome the dean of the African diplomatic corps, Joao Miguel Vahekeni, and the Hungarian Minister For foreign Affairs, Péter Balázs who was the honourable guest.

Vahekeni, who is also the Republic of Angola ambassador, smiled his thanks as he welcomed Hungarian government officials, foreign dignitaries, business executives, and invited guests to the event. His Excellency was overwhelmed with gratitude for the sponsors' contribution towards the success of another Africa Day in Hungary. He reminded those he refers to as friends of Africa to work hand in hand in terms of partnership, especially in this time of global crisis.


Meanwhile, Balázs said there is urgent need for African leaders to find a permanent solution to the conflicts which is a drag on the continent's economy. He added that the Hungarian government has identified a way for partnership with Africa in the framework of the European Union saying, "the priorities are on the long term projects in cooperation with non-profit organisations as well as the civil societies".

Nigeria, Sechelles Islands, Tunisia, South Africa, Morocco, Angola, Egypt, Algeria, Malagasy and Gambia used the occasion to showcase the positive side of their countries. Booklets, leaflets and fliers were displayed to promote the continent's diversity, landscape, tourism, business, arts and crafts, and education. However, it was observed that a booklet on 'Solid Minerals Development In Nigeria' still has the picture of Military man, Sani Abacha, as the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces thirteen years after the dictator's demise.

Some Hungarian civil societies notably the African-Hungarian Union, Afrikaert and African-Hungarian Platform were also at the event. The main sponsors of the event are BMW, AHU, Egypt Air, and Danubis Travel. African fashion show and music were some of the side attractions at the occasion which although well attended, left out African communities living in Hungary.


Friday 27 March 2009

Tell him his 'thing' is not 'sweet'

By Juliana Francis
Frank Talk about Lovemaking

For crying out loud, please tell me in clear language what the heck is wrong with telling your spouse that you don’t enjoy his/her lovemaking!... Absolutely nothing if you ask me read more

Sunday 22 March 2009

Ayoka's Evil Deed Hauting Her: A Rejoinder To Nigerians Betrayed Me

By Dr. Adebisi Adewole (PHD)
Nigerian Affairs

How interesting it is to see how quickly Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo is being hunted by her quilt. Adebayo organised and participated in a grand design fraudulent election re-run in Ekiti, she declared a false result, returned an unpopular candidate and imposes the unacceptable party on the people of Ekiti, only to turn round and blame the people of the state for the crime she committed against them.

It is paradoxical to see how Ayoka’s epistle to Nigeria titled ‘Nigerians betrayed me’, was calculated to rub salt on the wounds she inflicted on the people of Ekiti state and exonerate herself. She shamefully accused Nigerians, the Nigerian press and the people of Ekiti of cowardice and lack of courage. She painted herself as the failed ‘messiah’ of the Ekitis and she told Nigerian in her open letter only after she had done the damage, not before, as she was only speaking to herself, not even to her children and grandchildren, that she ‘positioned herself in the corridor of power’, certainly the PDP corridor, with whom she dined and wined and begged for positions, in order to execute a master plan to begin a revolution.

She hypocritically told Nigerians in her letter that she wanted to join the league of the great women of the world by doing something ‘spectacle’. But Ayoka failed woefully, as she only ended up doing something debacle, as a result of her catastrophic, narrow minded, selfish and miscalculated false ambition.

Nigerians are not foolish, and they do not take stupid afterthoughts that Ayoka is dangling to limit the damage she had caused. The social guilt is already on her head and that is what she will have to leave with for the rest of her life. Mrs Ayoka Adebayo must know that she cannot be a woman of respect and self dignity in the eyes of the world again as she would like Nigerian to see her, not even in the eyes of her PDP collaborators. Indeed she is a symbol of betrayal, hypocrisy and greed. With the role she played in the Ekiti election re-run and its aftermath, she had exposed her ignorance and her open letter to Nigerians portrays a mere afterthought and sense of guilt.

Ayoka Adebayo said she ‘had read about great heroines around the world, including our Nigerian women of the likes of Moremi Ajasoro, Nwayeruwa of Aba revolt, Funmilayo-Kuti and Queen Amina of Zaria’. The question is, what has she learned from her reading? Truly Ayoka may have read about the great contributions of her role models, it is clear that she has so far remained a mere reader, not a learner. What Ayoka must know is that each of these heroines stood and fought for the purpose(s) they believed in, and they succeeded with humility, and where they failed, they accepted failure with dignity and did not turn round to play the blame game. True heroes and heroines are not of little minds. They are focused at achieving results for the benefits of their people. They did not fall by the roadside, like Ayoka Adebayo did; instead, they follow their cause through to the end. The Moremis, the Kutis, the Nwayeruwas and the Aminas led clearly a defined and identifiable people with clearly defined purposes, which they adequately communicated to their followers, not hidden as that of Adebayo.

They knew their people and their people knew their leaders. We challenge Ayoka today to tell the whole world who her people were in her debacle and where they are today, who she was leading and what her purposes were. Clearly, whoever her people were, they were not the people of Ekiti, and not Nigerian women. You cannot claim to lead a revolt and turn round to blame the people for your failure. It is not only unacceptable, it is also unforgivable.

The shamed Resident Electoral Commissioner claimed she saw horrible things during her sojourn at the ‘corridor of power’ and as an electoral commissioner. That meant she had opportunity to get out of the corridor or to remain with the devil. She chose to dine with the devil. I wonder where her grandchildren were at that time when she was bringing home the sweet proceeds from the house of horror. They did not plead with her to resign at the time, instead they were together eating from the cursed fruits greed and corruption. It is only unfortunate that the grandma has brought her grandchildren into her eternal shame.

She betrayed Nigeria and her own grandchildren by making the public to believe that the pressure from her grandchildren made her to give up. It is not your grandchildren grandma, it is you, and you must be prepared to take the responsibility for your own action or inaction. My own mother is 78 years old and she has dignity and not happy with your unforgivable behaviour. May be there are things that you have not seen or know as a 74-year old that you need to see and know from people who are older than yourself.

You have no grounds to blame anyone for your own action. In India, Parvin Ardalan, the 39 year old woman journalist did not blame anyone when she was arrested for helping to set up a campaign with the aim of gathering one million signatures petition for a fairer deal for women; In Mynama, Aung San Suu Kyi, did not play the blame game since she has arrested and put under house arrest. These strong and visionary women of dignity are currently being tortured by their governments for leading the people of their country.

Therefore, Ayoka, cannot blame her flexible, chameleonic behaviour on the people of Nigeria. The more she does this the worst it will become for her, for we now know what we did not know before. We know that she has no conscience, let alone a Christian one, we know that she is resident commissioner for greed and selfishness, we know that she is now the leading world acclaimed woman coward, we know that she stands for nothing and has lost everything, and we know that the evil she did has started to haunt her.

No matter how hard she tries to explain or justify her misdeeds, it is too late for her. If her open letter to Nigeria, reporting Nigerians, was a devise to test the waters, she must know that the waters are too hot for her to swim in. Nigerians are waiting for her memoirs, but she can be sure that the people of Nigeria will respond adequately.

God Bless the people of Nigeria

Dr. Adebisi Adewole MA, MBA, PhD (FHEA,CMILT, MIOM, MNIM)
Fellow of the British Higher Education Academy
Senior Lecturer in Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain Management
London Metropolitan Business School (LMBS)
London Metropolitan University
London N7 6PP
0794 731 0619

Pope Visits Africa, Talks About Condom

Friday 20 March 2009

Champions League

Results of the Q/Finals
Villarreal 1 v Arsenal 4
Manchester United 3 v Porto 2
Liverpool 5 v Chelsea 7
Barcelona 5 Bayern Munich 1

Tuesday 17 March 2009

Re: Nigerians Betrayed Me

By Bankole A. Okuwa
Rejoinder

Dear Mrs. Adebayo,

I am sorry about your situation in Ekiti as the Resident Electoral Commissioner. Nigerians are no cowards. The history of revolutions will teach you the peculiar spontenuity of rebellion in societies which are victims of oppressive regimes or dictatorships such as ours.

Your expectation of instant revolt is not misplaced but the Ekiti election manipulation may not be enough to put Nigeria on fire. The Judiciary had dispensed justice in some states gubernatorial disputes. Our plural socio-political setting continues to militate against a national peoples' rebellion in the rot that is called Nigeria.

The Igbos will think twice before joining any national revolution. The Hausa-Fulani have and enjoy their narrow perception of Nigeria as a semi-democracy. Sharia to them is more relevant to socio-political development than the Nigerian constitution. In reality, Nigeria is not a simple political embodiment as you seem to describe it in your write-up.

You have started a course which will gather some rebelious momentum as time goes on and Nigerians in general will learn the need to relate the fate of one Nigerian to that of another, regardless of region, ethnicity, religion and other natural or artificial differences. The time will soon come but not with the Ekiti incident which is purely a Yoruba problem in a Yoruba state.

The political struggle in the South-west; that is, in Yoruba part of Nigeria is a consequence of some obnoxious attempt to impose an unjustified, inept, false, undisciplined and unprogressive political order on a people whose political advancement was generally ahead of that of other parts of Nigeria, even before Nigeria's political independence.

People of the Action Group, UPN and AD political orietation are being forced by political manipulation against their choice of leaders in an age of re-surgent and popular democratic order in Africa. Late Uncle Bola Ige was murdered in order to put the Yoruba people in this difficulty.

The people of the old West are resilient enough to reject the yoke of corruption, election rigging, political stagnation, political ineptitude and retrogression. All the governorship election disputes in Yoruba part of Nigeria owe their legal challenges to the unfortunate ambitions of those who want to impose themselves on an un-willing people.

Election rigging in Nigeria is undoubtedly Olusegun Obasanjo's political legacy. Did he see election rigging or a semblance of it in South Africa's general election to which he was invited as an observer, last April? Nigerians know that their imposed political leaders are crooks from the top to bottom.

I shall look forward to reading your memoirs when published. Revolutions don't start by mere expectations of the action or reaction of a people. It starts when you least expect it. Nigeria's revolution will come but I pray the Nigerian army and the police have no role to play in it, otherwise all purposes of revolutions will be defeated in Nigeria again.

People's revolution in Nigeria will be led by the Intelligentia and students of tertiary institutions before others groups join. Do not despair Mrs Adebayo, you have done your bit.Bankole

Bankole A. Okuwa USA. May 17,2009.

Thursday 12 March 2009

Nigerian Diplomats Are Incompetent: A Response to Hakeem Babalola's Article

By Bankole Okuwa
A Rejoinder
The Nigerian government from time immemorial lacks efficiency and ability to handle the problems of Nigerians anywhere on the globe including at home. Our Embassy officials are uncouth, untrained, impolite, irresponsible and outright lazy. They antagonize Nigerians that they are supposed to serve. They treat non-Nigerians better than Nigerians they are supposed to serve. read more

Saturday 7 March 2009

Nigerian Documents Invalid in Hungary

By Hakeem Babalola
Special Report
Re-published

Virtually every document issued in Nigeria is unacceptable by the Hungarian Immigration unless such documents are duly certified by the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Hungarian Embassy all in Abuja Read more

Friday 6 March 2009

Nude Women, Wandering Conscience

By Hakeem Babalola
Nigerian Affairs


Nude Women
In protest against the re-run governorship election in Ekiti, a group of women clad in white expressed their dissent with their breasts exposed. They walked round Ado-Ekiti breasting the storm - of election rigging. According to reports, only the elderly women allowed the public to see the two soft fleshy milk-secreting glandular organs. The youths among them protested with their clothes on. Perhaps they are not as naive as the elderly. They probably know the game better than their elders, and so it was unnecessary for them to entertain the on-lookers with their boobs (no pun intended). Thank God the younger women did not emulate their elders in this regard otherwise such nude amusement would have caused confusion more than Iwu's INEC. It would have hijacked the purpose and seriousness of the protest and that would have been disastrous, even more than Madam Ayoka Adebayo's zigzag resignation letter. Adebayo is the Ekiti Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) who said she was pressurized to do against her will.

This is not the first time Nigerian women would remove their clothes in protest. In 2004, scores of half-naked elderly women in Akwukwu Igbo, Oshimili local government area of Delta State, protested political developments in the state (Champions). In 2005, some Bayelsa women decided to protest naked in support of their son, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, Bayelsa former governor who was widely reported to dress like a woman in an attempt to escape the British police arrest over money laundering. In 2008, women of Obodogugu-Ogume community in Ndokwa area of Delta State protested naked over inter-ethnic crisis (Vanguard). And we should not forget the 1929 Aba "Riot" when our courageous mothers protested against injustice of that period.

I quite understand the need for women to voice their opinions and express themselves in anyway they know by taking active part in the politics that will promote development in their country of birth, including nude protest. I have no problem with such show of solidarity, especially when elections cannot be adequately conducted even at the local base. The Ekiti re-run elections were expected to run smoothly considering the fact that it involves just thousands of votes, but the so-called Nigerian factors prevented that. Such "arrant nonsense" may have been a bitter pill to swallow for our women in Ekiti, hence they must strip naked. Oh, my goodness, a group of women going naked in public as a protest should be taken seriously. Such action means violent anger. Hum, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. I hope Maurice Iwu and his INEC officials are watching and listening attentively. For where?
I repeat, I do not bear any grudge with the naked women in Ekiti. However, I am constrained to ask a question, a subtle question that I think could defeat the purpose of their action. Now, was the nakedness a gesture of genuine protest or that of fake political protest? I am asking this question because, according to the report, most protesters are connected to the opposition party AC (Action Congress). Although the protesters gathered under the aegis of Ekiti women for Peace and Development, "they were led by a former commissioner for Women affairs in the state, Chief Ronke Okusanya, while the deputy governorship candidate of the Action Congress, Mrs Funmilayo Olayinka and wife of the governorship candidate, Mrs. Bisi Fayemi, joined the procession".

So these naked women were saying categorically that Fayemi be declared winner of Ekiti gubernatorial re-run. Did these women act on their own volition or they were just baring and dancing to the political drum of AC chieftains? Instead of out-rightly supporting a certain political party, these women should have naked for fairness and justice and equity. They should have avoided been coerced and used as a political pun. Did someone or a group of people coach them? What if the other party had also organised women to protest nude? Our women should not allow themselves to be manipulated by either party. By the way, what did Okusanya achieve during her tenure as Commissioner for Women Affairs? I believe only genuine protests either nude or fully clothed will actually send a clear message to the rouges that dominates both PDP and AC.

Wandering Conscience
Who would not fall in love with a 74-year-old woman whose conscience directed her to reject all pressures to manipulate the results of Ekiti gubernatorial re-run. Initially, the octogenarian had won the hearts of many Nigerians for tendering her resignation letter instead of succumbing to undue pressures from wherever. For standing her ground, she was quickly declared wanted by the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro. She later met with Maurice Iwu, the controversial INEC chairman. Subsequently her letter of resignation was rejected by Umoru Yar'Adua, the president who has been chewing due process since his appointment as Nigerian president. Wait a minute; did Auntie Dora take her re-brand brigade to Ekiti? She must do that kia kia (urgently).

By resigning her appointment as the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Madam Adebayo had spoken her mind even though she later rescinds her decision. Now that Madam Adebayo has said that she's still a member of Iwu's family, there is problem with her inconsistency. I am afraid she might have helped set a political fire waiting to engulf both parties. Losing party may use her words as an excuse for its lost. Madam Adebayo needs to search her conscience again and summon another courage to tell the nation from where the initial pressures came from, but even if she did that, who would believe her story? And that, I think, is where the danger lies. Well, eminent Nigerians are solidly behind her. For example, our Prof. has issued a warning that nothing must happen to her. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has also associated with her saying, she should be left alone.

Obviously, Madam Adebayo had seen or heard something that shocked her conscience before she made up her mind to resign as Ekiti Resident commissioner. Her resignation letter purports to express a courageous woman whose Christianity background would not allow her to go amoral to the extent of deceiving the voters. And so she pen a poignant resignation letter to the commander-in-chief, Alhaji Yar'Adua of PDP who refused to accept such impromptu and suspicious letter saying, although he would like his PDP party to win but the will of the people is more crucial to the sustainable democracy than attempts to impose the might of the federal authority against popular aspirations. God talk but where is the action?

"It is with heavy heart that I am writing to inform you of my resignation as the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Ekiti State. In accordance with the rule of law, the on-going election in Ekiti State was supposed to be the election that will enhance the image of INEC, electoral process in our dear country Nigeria and the whole black race. Unfortunately, the circumstances changed in the middle of the process; therefore, my conscience as a Christian cannot allow me to further participate in this process".

And so Madam Adebayo's agony began. She had to choose between being a heroine of democracy or that of democrazy. Unfortunately, Madam Adebayo, in my view, chose the latter after meeting with her boss, Iwu, who is being publicly condemned as a partial umpire. The pressure Madam Adebayo had initially rejected came back to taunt her, because after meeting with Iwu, she announced she was still the honourable Resident commissioner. Why did she change her decision so quickly? Isn't her advanced age a plus for courage and wisdom? Nigeria's environment is definitely a case study. A "do or die affairs" that has destroyed almost every good thing.

Although Madam Adebayo laughed off the rumour that Tinubu gave her N200 million, she needs to tell the truth nothing but the true story of what transpired before, during and after her resignation. The only option left for this 74-year-old grandma to serve as part of the solution, is to tell Nigerians what she saw or heard which hasten that "heroic” resignation letter. Anything other than this may cause further disorder and extreme confusion. I believe her conscience as a Christian cannot allow her to do that.

Copyright 2009 mysmallvoice@yahoo.com

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Nigeria Is Not Yet A Nation

Nigerian Affairs
Nigeria is not yet a nation, says Prof. Wole Soyinka, who calls for Obasanjo's trial...Being text of a lecture delivered by Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, as part of activities marking the centenal birthday celebration of Chief Obafemi Awolowo held at the MUSON Centre, Lagos, on Tuesday, March 3 read more