The next time the Nigerian police shoot a bus driver because he refuses to give them a bribe they should get the same treatment. How many times have our politicians sanctioned the military forces over their brutality towards their own? The Police have killed ordinary folk and mostly nothing happens because of the culture of impunity which has been there from the time they were an arm of a colonial force which treated everything and anything with contempt. We should withdraw their legitimacy. The idea of a police force is outdated in the face of new global economic realities and the rise of community based security.
If our government will not protect us then it is time to rise and do something wherever we are. If the army can invade communities and kill Nigerians in their own country then which lie are we telling ourselves. The same people we are deceiving ourselves are our protectors because the corporate overlords want to maintain territory will turn on us in an instance like mad dogs . Are we citizens of a country where we can be safe knowing that we belong to a society which protects and nurtures or are just slaves on a plantation with most slaves living in poverty while less than ten percent live a middle class lie of a life. If there was no threat from the Boko haram group and you were not rich would you say the average soldier or policeman is there to protect you given their record of destruction inside Nigeria ? At the slightest provocation they begin to burn and loot like an occupation force so why will people in their right minds support or help them? The irony of the same army which was involved in the Asaba (1967) and Odi (1999) massacres and left destruction in their wake when they visited Fela Kuti's residence (1977) doing the unthinkable and throwing his aged mother out of a window now running scared when confronted with an enemy who can fight back is not lost on me. .
Democracy without justice is a demonstration of craze. Politics is not the best way to enhance human life. Politics as democratic capitalism is a dangerous lie. Leadership is a not a cash and carry business . It is a matter of life and death with serious sanctions for failure. In this game of politrics they play people who should be treated like crime gang bosses parade democratic credentials and use public works to enrich themselves while millions of Nigerians are condemned to a life unexplored through poverty and the lack of protection from organised criminal rackets in the civil service and political sector. Some will never know if their daughters can play tennis like the Williams sisters because they are not rich enough to afford basic gear. Some will never get to the point where they can develop a cure for diseases such as Ebola or HIV. Most will be waiting for the global community to sell them everything they need including NGOlitis. Many in Nigeria cannot even afford to visit natural wonders like the bar beach without paying N200 to touts to enjoy what was once free. They will bribe to get official documents and our elected officials will continue to pretend they do not know that you have to pay a bribe to get a Nigerian passport , secure driving papers , go across land borders or get your electricity connected. Wetin concern politicians when they can fight over who is the more efficient thief to chop and clean mouth while stealing our commonwealth and then have an army and police to keep us in check and inane entertainment to hypnotise us.
Remember the next time they try it be ready. Life anywhere is sacred. If Nigerians are not safe in their own land then they have the right to protect themselves. If their government has brutal criminal elements then Nigerians have the right to resist them. if dem dey burn burn make we give dem back times two. Then dem go serious.
Free yourself jare. Dem don use dem own hand put kerosene for cloth now you get fire for hand.
http://www.nairaland.com/421679/extra-judicial-killings-how-police
Saturday, 6 December 2014
Thursday, 4 December 2014
Mami Wata - Bembeya Jazz National
A gem from the great Bembeya Jazz National of Guinea. West African music.
Sunday, 30 November 2014
Finidi George -Ayetoro featuring the W.A.F.F.
In afrobeat when we say you dey be like Finidi George that is the highest compliment. It means you are a doer not a talker. That you understand what it means to be selfless and be the provider of ammunition for others to shine with.
yeah yeah. Listen here to how football is a metaphor. For life.
Truly Revolutionary Movie {Quilombo}
Afrobeat is a way of life. You ask questions of yourself and your people. It is as serious as our lives you know.
It represents the intellectual aspirations of a people. It is social liberalism by Africans and focuses on class struggle.
.
The secret history of Afrobeat is here. Seek and you shall find. Look not where they want you to look amidst personal excess and hypersexual images of our avatars but check out the message of freedom dignity and defiance we preach.
What you see is not what you get.
My father died on the 3rd October 1999. He had been battling cancer for a year or so but it wasn't detected until it had spread to other organs. That is another story. The story of a disastrous health service we had especially around the 90's. My intention with this post is to draw attention to another even bigger problem we have in society. That of misunderstanding and questionable judgements.
On my way from the funeral in Ilesha I stopped by in Ibadan at the invitation of a retired justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria who had a reputation as a progressive amongst many . He was from Ilesha and he and my father were from the same neighbourhood as well. I was aware of their close relationship as on different occasions my father would host the justice and his friends when he received a national honour and also when he retired from active judicial duty.
On getting to Ibadan I drove to his residence and we got talking.
The justice went straight to the point. He wanted to know what our plans as a family were for our shareholding in a bank which my father had promoted with his friends. He warned me that Nigerians were sharks and he thought the best way to go forward was for me to tell my mother that we should nominate him (the Justice) as our family representative on the board where he would be able to make noise on our behalf and use his connections to help us.
I was speechless. I had thought that probably the justice had called me to offer some help to the family knowing that my father died without having all the perks other chief executives enjoyed. We never had a house abroad and we never lived outside of Ikeja where his only house outside Ilesha was. My father had died as he lived, a simple man , and many of the Nigerian elite came to his funeral to praise him and say he was the most honest man they knew. So I thought wrongly that the help to be offered would be maybe some cash or some practical advice that would be of benefit to me my siblings or my mother who was now a widow.
To ask me to tell my mother to nominate him to the board of a bank her husband set up when her late husband himself had never discussed such with us was a shock. I immediately told the justice that we had no such plans and he had given express instructions to us to leave the bank alone. If they offered us a seat on the board we should take it but we should also know that we were in no position to be strong financial partners given that we didn't have deep pockets. I finally said also that the family had met and had decided that if there was an invitation to us from the bank regarding a board seat I as first son would take it up.
So what the justice thought we needed and what we thought we needed were two different things. Obviously.
Our conversation ended not long after that and I left. That was the last time the good judge was in contact with us. Like most of the people who came to my fathers funeral he forgot about us and went on doing his thing getting more acclaim and talking about Nigeria's problems like the incorruptible judge and man of integrity he was. He did not ask me about my children or those of my siblings and we have never had the benefit of his influence unfortunately. His ideas and ours were obviously different. If I was uncharitable I would suppose he was trying to take advantage of a situation. At best I would surmise that he was trying to do the thinking for a group of five or more people without asking for our opinion. The same way our political leadership always try to think for us like we are children without knowledge aspirations and hopes.
What you see is not what you get. Chikena!
On my way from the funeral in Ilesha I stopped by in Ibadan at the invitation of a retired justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria who had a reputation as a progressive amongst many . He was from Ilesha and he and my father were from the same neighbourhood as well. I was aware of their close relationship as on different occasions my father would host the justice and his friends when he received a national honour and also when he retired from active judicial duty.
On getting to Ibadan I drove to his residence and we got talking.
The justice went straight to the point. He wanted to know what our plans as a family were for our shareholding in a bank which my father had promoted with his friends. He warned me that Nigerians were sharks and he thought the best way to go forward was for me to tell my mother that we should nominate him (the Justice) as our family representative on the board where he would be able to make noise on our behalf and use his connections to help us.
I was speechless. I had thought that probably the justice had called me to offer some help to the family knowing that my father died without having all the perks other chief executives enjoyed. We never had a house abroad and we never lived outside of Ikeja where his only house outside Ilesha was. My father had died as he lived, a simple man , and many of the Nigerian elite came to his funeral to praise him and say he was the most honest man they knew. So I thought wrongly that the help to be offered would be maybe some cash or some practical advice that would be of benefit to me my siblings or my mother who was now a widow.
To ask me to tell my mother to nominate him to the board of a bank her husband set up when her late husband himself had never discussed such with us was a shock. I immediately told the justice that we had no such plans and he had given express instructions to us to leave the bank alone. If they offered us a seat on the board we should take it but we should also know that we were in no position to be strong financial partners given that we didn't have deep pockets. I finally said also that the family had met and had decided that if there was an invitation to us from the bank regarding a board seat I as first son would take it up.
So what the justice thought we needed and what we thought we needed were two different things. Obviously.
Our conversation ended not long after that and I left. That was the last time the good judge was in contact with us. Like most of the people who came to my fathers funeral he forgot about us and went on doing his thing getting more acclaim and talking about Nigeria's problems like the incorruptible judge and man of integrity he was. He did not ask me about my children or those of my siblings and we have never had the benefit of his influence unfortunately. His ideas and ours were obviously different. If I was uncharitable I would suppose he was trying to take advantage of a situation. At best I would surmise that he was trying to do the thinking for a group of five or more people without asking for our opinion. The same way our political leadership always try to think for us like we are children without knowledge aspirations and hopes.
What you see is not what you get. Chikena!
Sunday, 23 November 2014
Shamelessness and the road less travelled
Politicians in Nigeria are showing us what it means to be unprincipled inglorious and just plain power mad. In most forms of government honour dignity and compassion are required but not it seems in Nigeria as presently constituted. Last week in the United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland an election was held as a result of a defection by a member of parliament from the ruling coalition to another party. Mark Reckless the legislator in question did win the election and thus confirmed what the rest of the public knew that his constituents preferred him to any other. In Nigeria the head of the house of representatives defects to the opposition three months to the general elections and doesn't have the decency to either resign or submit himself for an election by his colleagues. predictably the government are rattled and them not being wise go on the attack. Both government and opposition now begin to trade insults and praise each other based on dubious democratic credentials. The Nigerian intellectuals who are aligning themselves with either side will be judged harshly by history and by the people. Journalists who take sides
Which politician has shown a compassion for the next man. Why do leaders look down on the people to whom they have a responsibility?
We hear of a governor shouting at a widow to go and die. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hI8jdZ33Zs. After a public outcry it is spun by his advisers into a photo op and she is given N2million. Watch the feudal serf relationship being played. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSGVcQMyUzI
We hear of presidents shouting at people who have gathered to remember victims of bomb blasts and letting them know that he was doing a favour by being present at the occasion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnMP45F5YBM
History will judge most of these people. Vagabonds in power.
I was at a dinner party once and there was an interesting conversation going on between two people. One was informing the other and the rest of us who cared to listen that her uncle a former governor and his family were going to continue feeding off the resources of the state ad infinitum. I wonder when they will choke on the booty.
The Nigerian army has been an army of occupation used to crush dissent and to keep the people in check.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odi_massacre
No part of the country is spared from abuse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om_rCPLoqfA
The chickens are coming home soon.
Which politician has shown a compassion for the next man. Why do leaders look down on the people to whom they have a responsibility?
We hear of a governor shouting at a widow to go and die. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hI8jdZ33Zs. After a public outcry it is spun by his advisers into a photo op and she is given N2million. Watch the feudal serf relationship being played. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSGVcQMyUzI
We hear of presidents shouting at people who have gathered to remember victims of bomb blasts and letting them know that he was doing a favour by being present at the occasion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnMP45F5YBM
History will judge most of these people. Vagabonds in power.
I was at a dinner party once and there was an interesting conversation going on between two people. One was informing the other and the rest of us who cared to listen that her uncle a former governor and his family were going to continue feeding off the resources of the state ad infinitum. I wonder when they will choke on the booty.
The Nigerian army has been an army of occupation used to crush dissent and to keep the people in check.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odi_massacre
No part of the country is spared from abuse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om_rCPLoqfA
The chickens are coming home soon.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)