Omo Njale, Omo Fe’wo Your Yoruba Case Against Goodluck Jonathan By Pius Adesanmi

Fearing a humiliating defeat on February 14, 2015, Ogbeni Goodluck Jonathan and the criminals he has painstakingly surrounded himself with contrived to postpone the election. He spent the respite thus gained on two things:

Pius Adesanmi Photo Credit: Sahara Reporters media

(1) orchestrating a belated positive surge on Boko Haram in the far north to gain cheap political mileage; (2) relocating Aso Rock to the southwest where he proceeded to spend weeks pissing and shitting on omoluabi – the very core of Yoruba personhood. Without omoluabi, a Yoruba person is nothing. To piss and shit on omoluabi is to completely eviscerate the core being of the Yoruba person. To go and do it in his homeland is worse than Netanyahu going to whip Obama’s ass in Washington.

Pius AdesanmiSahara Reporters mediaThe only equivalent I can think of is Akukalia going to destroy Ebo’s Ikenga right inside Ebo’s family shrine and in the presence of Ebo’s ancestors. Akukalia paid for this unheard-of travesty with his life.

Goodluck Jonathan must pay for the vitiation of omoluabi right there in the Yoruba homeland with the loss of his office.

This is neither the place nor the time for me to delve into omoluabi for the non-Yoruba reader. For Omoluabi 101, google and read “Ti Oluwa Ni Ile”, a lecture I delivered to inaugurate Afenifere Renewal Group-USA in Michigan back in 2011 (http://saharareporters.com/2011/09/30/ti-oluwa-ni-ile-pius-adesanmi).

How did Goodluck Jonathan piss and shit on omoluabi in Yoruba land? His was a three-pronged attack. Yoruba land is currently awash in dollars (for the privileged) and naira (for the less privileged). President Jonathan was not content to relocate Aso Rock to Yoruba land. He also relocated the Central Bank and proceeded to flood the land with cash. The closest thing to this scenario was in the 14^th-century when Mansa Kankan Musa of the Mali empire flooded Cairo with gold on his way to Mecca. President Jonathan and his henchmen were determined to buy every living being and every non-living thing in Yoruba land. They bribed Oba, they bribed Ijoye, they bribed eru (slave), they bribed the owner of eru, they bribed the house rat and told him to announce to his kinsman, the bush rat, that dollar was flowing in the streets of Yoruba land.

Yet, your history, your culture, your worldview, all the spiritual principles at the centre of your Yoruba personhood, everything you have ever known about omoluabi comes down to an ontological opposition between oro (wealth), ohun ini (material possession) on the one hand, and omoluabi on the other hand. When your ancestors built this foundational opposition between oro, ohun ini, and omoluabi to define your race and your essence, they were not by any stretch of the imagination glorifying poverty or criminalizing wealth.

Far from it! They were thinking of higher ideals of personhood and values, while insisting that the road to wealth must be that of hard work, honesty, and integrity. They wanted to ensure that nobody would assume that wealth – either properly acquired or ill-gotten – was a guarantor or procurer of bibire (good breeding). These are the ancestral values that Goodluck Jonathan went to piss and shit on when he relocated the Central Bank to Lagos, Oyo, Ondo, Osun, and Ekiti states and tried to buy everybody. How dare him! Those of you who took his money are now egregious violators and betrayers of omoluabi. I will return to how you may redeem yourselves presently.

The second violence that Goodluck Jonathan has wrought on omoluabi has to do with his now infamous semantic hair-splitting between stealing and corruption.

He and his unprincipled spokespersons have continued to insult the nation’s intelligence by cutting, slicing, dicing, and spinning this evidence of Dr. Jonathan’s ethical purulence. In omoluabi, your ancestors were not interested in the finer details between stealing, looting, and corruption; between slaughter and murder. In fact, your ancestors hated hair-splitting, equivocation, or vacillation when it comes to naming and condemning stealing and unethical behavior. That is why they came up with the proverb in the title of this treatise. If your son is a thief (omo njale) and you go about metaphorizing and euphemizing, saying, “my son is light-fingered” (omo mi fe’wo), the Yoruba will condemn you immediately on the basis of omoluabi. They are not interested in the difference between “omo njale” (stealing) and “omo fe’wo” (light-fingeredness). In the province of omoluabi, stealing is stealing, equally bad, equally condemnable, irrespective of scale and metaphorical hue.

Nigeria has had a succession of very bad leaders. I challenge you to prove me wrong: none has ever dared to inaugurate a legitimate national debate between right and wrong. Babangida institutionalized settlement. He never argued that settlement was right or that there were gradations to the badness of settlement. He just did it because he could. But he respected us enough not to try and inaugurate a national debate on the difference between settlement and bribery. Ditto for Obasanjo. Obasanjo’s was an era of unregulated looting and plunder, for Baba is a talented thief. The culture of corruption under him was legendary. But Baba is not on record to have ever inaugurated a national debate between looting and plundering. For even making us spend valuable national time on the difference between stealing and corruption, Goodluck Jonathan deserves the hottest place in hell. That is how seriously this man has destroyed national ethos. And this is the worldview he brought to Yoruba land to piss and shit on omoluabi. The money he shipped along to distribute to you is a product of corruption, not stealing and that somehow makes it right in his deranged mind.

Goodluck Jonathan’s third and final assault on omoluabi lies in the sort of leadership he has tried to foist on you. All of a sudden, hastily pardoned criminals, indicted thieves, accused murderers, and indicted drug pushers have been given unlimited funds and transformed into your race’s public face in the most brazen case of social engineering in recent memory. When you look at the public sphere of the southwest and listen to it, the airwaves now belong to FFK, Ayo Fayose, Buruji Kashamu, Bode George, Iyiola Omisore. Looking at this awful list, it would seem that criminal indictment, present or past, is the singular qualification you need for Goodluck Jonathan to pump money your way and attempt to elevate you above Wole Soyinka or Tunde Bakare in Yoruba public leadership/speakership. This calls for sober reflection.

I promised to return to those of you who collected Goodluck Jonathan’s filthy money during his mad spending spree across Yoruba land. Well, the deed is done. You have committed the offence. You cannot now return it. It’s one of the travesties of our condition: impoverish the people and the crush their dignity by offering them money to buy votes at a time they need to feed and pay their children’s school fees. Why will they even listen to somebody like me who says it is unethical to collect the money but has no immediate solution to their problems?

It’s a vicious cycle that can only be broken by integrity. And that is what we hope to start with General Buhari. You have collected Goodluck Jonathan’s money. Vote against him tomorrow. Vote him out of Aso Rock. Use his money to organize victory parties all over Yoruba land once the results are known. Use his money to organize his sendoff to Otuoke. They call you an owambe people. They call you a faaji people. They say you are an ariya people. Celebrate Goodluck Jonathan’s defeat with loud ariya all over the land. Join King Suny Ade in singing:

Ariya has no end

Ariya has no end

Ariya is unlimited

Ariya is unlimited

Troops recapture Boko Haram Headquarters, Gwoza

The Director of Defense Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, has said the troops of the Nigerian Army have captured Gwoza, the central station of the Islamic Caliphate, announced by the Boko Haram radicals in the North-East. Olukolade said in articulation in Abuja on Friday that the city tumbled to a joint operation completed by the ground strengths and the military pilots of the Nigerian Air Force on Friday morning.

According to him, the troops killed several of the insurgents and captured many others. The Defence spokesman added that troops levelled the operational headquarters of the insurgents and seized several arms and ammunition from them. He said the military had liberated all communities erstwhile occupied by the insurgents as of Thursday when the battle to reclaim Gwoza was raging.

He said,

“Just this morning, the gallant troops of the Nigerian military in a concerted and well-coordinated land and air operations, liberated Gwoza, the headquarters of their(Boko Haram) so-called caliphate, which they renamed Darul Hikima.

 

“This was preceded by successive sacking of terrorists from towns and villages leading to Gwoza, the main target. Several of the terrorists died and many of them captured in the process. A lot of arms and ammunition have been recovered and the administrative headquarters completely destroyed.

 

“A massive cordon and search (operation) has commenced to locate any of the fleeing terrorists or hostages in their custody.”

He explained that the military observed that some of the fleeing terrorists were heading to the borders, where they might have encounter with troops of the Multi National Joint Task Force, who are under instruction to contain them.

 

Don’t disappoint GEJ, ex-NDDC boss, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu tells Ndigbo

With just one day to the Presidential election, a former Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, has urged voters, particularly of the Igbo extraction, not to disappoint President Goodluck Jonathan of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.

The PDP chieftain in an interview with The PUNCH said Jonathan remained “the best option” for Ndigbo, considering the numerous  gestures of his administration to the race.

He said he did not expect Ndigbo who had remained the main support-base of the President to fail him at the poll, arguing that ” it is better to work with the devil you know than the angel you do not know.”

Ugochukwu, however, expressed faith that Jonathan would sweep the poll considering his laudable achievements in key sectors of the economy.

The 2007 Abia State PDP governorship candidate also appealed to Abia electorates to help deliver all PDP candidates in the state, saying Abia had fared better under the party and “cannot afford to be in the opposition.”

Predicting a peaceful poll, the ex-NDDC boss begged the opposition not to resort to violence in the eventuality of defeat contending that, “it is inevitable that PDP will win.”

He admitted that the use of card readers in the election would significantly check rigging, if properly managed, but expressed fears that as a new technology, experimenting it with crucial elections as the Presidential and National Assembly polls could be risky. He debunked insinuations that he was promised the Senatorial ticket of Umuahia Central zone as compensation for his reconciliation with Gov. Theodore Orji in 2011, saying that he never struck any deal with the Governor.

The former Editor of Daily Times said he never felt shortchanged at the emergence of Gov. Orji as the PDP candidate for the zone, and declared his full support for his candidature which, he noted, was according to the people’s wish.  He, however, said he had not retired from active politics but vowed never to contest for any elective position again.

OPC, ex-militants in ilegal military uniforms to attack opposition – APC

The All Progressives Congress has raised the caution that ethnic militias and ex-aggressors, now wear fake police and army uniforms to unleash disorder on the restriction and disrupt voting, particularly in the South-West without prevention.


In an announcement in Lagos on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the gathering said Oodua Peoples Congress individuals were sighted at Owu -Elepe in Ikorodu Local Government Area on Fridaymorning, changing into fake police and army regalia.

The party said the advancement affirmed the alert prior raised by the gathering that fake garbs of security organizations were being sewn in the capital city of a South-West  state. It additionally said the ex-militant had been issued with fake military uniforms and sent in a few zones of Lagos, particularly in the Lekki-Ajah axis, to instigate inconvenience. APC said the ex-aggressors in military outfits were moving around in unmarked private vehicles, and their assignments were being facilitated by security agencies.

It said,

”In his national broadcast to the nation on Friday morning, President (Goodluck) Jonathan said he was under oath to protect the lives of all Nigerians and the security of the country at all times. How can he do that when
his supporters have engaged the services of ethnic militias, whom they have clothed in police and military uniforms, to engage in violence and election manipulations?

”If indeed the President means what he said, when he warned, in his broadcast, that ‘all necessary measures have been put in place to ensure that any persons, who breach the peace or cause public disorder during or after the elections are speedily apprehended and summarily dealt with according to our laws’, then he should immediately call his supporters to order and direct the security agencies to arrest those going around in fake police and military uniforms,” APC said.

In the mean time, the party has likewise cautioned the country to what he called the ‘brazen actions to rig the elections in Rivers State’, where all unique results sheets have been uprooted and photocopied to pave the way for the PDP to compose bogus result of the elections in the state. It alleged comparative moves to control the races and take part in monstrous thumb printing, beginning on Friday evening, with acquired PVCs, which it included was likewise taking place in Rivers as well as in the South-East.

APC said the APC agent at the INEC office in the Port Harcourt, Emma Edeeyah, was arrested this morning without cause.

”These developments are worrisome and do not bode well for a free, fair, transparent and peaceful election. We are therefore calling on local and international observers to pay a close attention to these desperate measures aimed at thwarting the will of the people,” APC said.

We’ve no confidence in Akwa Ibom REC – APC

 

The Publicity Secretary, All Progressives Congress, Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Samuel Udobong, hosts said the get-together does not have trust in the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Austin Okijie.

Udobong, who talked in Uyo on Friday, affirmed that the REC had an “untrustworthy relationship” with the state senator, Mr. Godswill Akpabio, and the standard bearer of the rulling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, in the state, Mr. Udom Emmanuel.

Udobong said,

”We don’t have confidence in this REC because of his recent activities with Akpabio.  “We also hear that they have printed result sheets that are now being stored in the Government House and he can only use them with the cooperation of the REC.  “We  want the governor to know that every plan he has with Akpabio has been revealed and he should be prepared to conduct a free and fair election.”

 He, however, said the party had created situation rooms in the state, where every abnormality or case of misconduct should be reported and addressed to.

“The PDP is planning to harass voters and intimate observers from other parties and we are calling on security agencies assigned to election duties to do their job to prevent electoral violence,” he said.

Meanwhile security personnel, including members of the  Department of State Service, were seen patrolling the Brooks Street, Obi-Imoh and Oron areas in the state.  Residents have expressed fears that the menacing presence of the security operatives could create tension and scare voters.   But the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Gabriel Achong, has assured residents that voters would not be molested in the state.

He said,

“They are patrolling the streets to ensure that residents are safe. If we don’t put the police on the streets, they will be complaining that we have left them without security.   “The police are supposed to be everywhere. We are working with the Navy, that will be checking the waterways and securing riverside areas. I’m assuring Akwa Ibomites  that nobody will be molested.”

Environmental Sanitation: Lagos says Movement restriction still in force

The Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, in an announcement on Friday, said an advance had been held up against the court judgment, which proclaimed as unlawful the confinement of natives’ development amid the month to month ecological sanitation exercise.

Ipaye said the state had similarly requested a stay of execution on the said judgment, including that the investigative court had settled April 16, 2015, to manage on the movement for stay of execution.

He said until the Appeal Court decides the case on way or the other, the development limitation approach stays in power.

“In accordance with the established legal principles, it is believed that the status quo will remain and environmental sanitation with movement restriction will continue until the determination of the application,” Ipaye said on Friday.  “The court is deemed to know and is obliged to consider all relevant provisions of the Constitution and existing laws before arriving at its judgment. “The above provisions of the Constitution and the law of Lagos State provide for the performance of normal communal or civic obligation for the wellbeing of the community.

“The public health of the community therefore overrides the personal interest of the applicant,”Pedro argued.

According to him, the environmental sanitation exercise and the attendant movement restriction is equal to any normal communal or civil obligation recognised by law.

Suicide bomber attack hotel in Mogadishu

A suicide bomber has attacked a popular hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, with his explosives-laden car, according to government officials.

The African Union mission to Somalia, confirmed to Al Jazeera that there had been an explosion and gunfire at the Makka al-Mukarama hotel on Friday.

A Somali police official said a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car at the gate of the hotel.

It is believed that several government officials were trapped inside the building.

Officers blamed al-Shabab for the attack.

“Al-Shabab fighters are on the top of the building and inside the hotel.  Some government officials are inside the hotel,” Major Ismail Olow, a police officer, said.

Photo: Timaya shows off his home

He imparted the photograph on instagram and composed “Your story can be the key that can unlock someone else’s prison. Keep moving, keep hoping, keep trying and trust me u will get there…Grateful”

The National broadcast by Pres. Jonathan on the 2015 election

President Jonathan at the beginning of today tended to the country in a TV telecast where he approached everybody to turn out en-mass to vote in favor of leaders of their choice. See What he said bellow…

Dear Compatriots,

1. As we prepare to go to the polls tomorrow, I have come before you this morning to express my immense appreciation for the opportunity you gave me to lead this great nation of ours in the past four years.

2. I also wish to place on record, once again, my sincere gratitude for the support you have given my administration without which the significant progress we have made in recent years would not have been possible.

 

3. In spite of the many challenges we have had to contend with since 1999, our present democratic dispensation continues to endure and grow stronger in keeping with the yearnings and aspirations of our people.

 

4. We have all worked very hard to nurture and strengthen our democratic institutions and promote the good governance practices which they were designed to deliver for the better well-being of  our people.

 

5. I believe I can say without fear of contradiction that we all clearly cherish the democracy we now have and will never willingly give it up for any other form of governance.

 

6. This much-cherished democracy of ours is about to be put to the test once again.


7. I urge you all to troop out en-masse to peacefully perform your civic duty of voting for leaders of your choice tomorrow.


8. As we do so, let us all – political party leaders, contestants, party members, party agents, supporters and ordinary voters alike, be very conscious of the fact that the eyes of the entire world are on us.


9. We must therefore comport ourselves in a manner that will further strengthen our democracy and consolidate our place in the comity of truly democratic nations.

 

1. I made a commitment on assumption of office to progressively deliver freer, fairer and more credible elections in our country. In keeping with that commitment, the Federal Government has given the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) all necessary support to ensure that it conducts very successful elections tomorrow and on April 11.

 

1. We have all been assured that INEC is fully ready for the elections. I believe that we can all trust that they are certainly more ready now than they may have been before security issues and other concerns necessitated a re-scheduling of the dates for the 2015 general elections.

 

2. As an administration, we welcome the fact that millions of Nigerians who were yet to receive their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) as at February 14, and would therefore have been unfairly disenfranchised if the polls had gone ahead  on that date, have seized the opportunity of the re-scheduling to collect their cards and can now exercise their right to votetomorrow.

 

3. We are also glad that our gallant Armed Forces have successfully stemmed the seizure of Nigerian territories in the North-East by the terrorist group, Boko Haram.


4. They have recaptured most of the communities and territories formerly occupied by the insurgents, making it possible for thousands of internally-displaced Nigerians to begin returning to their homes and communities.

 

5. I heartily commend the very courageous men and women of our Armed Forces for the immense sacrifices which they continue to make in defending the nation and protecting its citizens.

 

6. I also thank all Nigerians for keeping faith with us over the past six weeks.

 

 

 

7. I call on all political parties and politicians in the country to allow the free, unfettered will of our people to be expressed without any hindrance in the coming elections in keeping with the hallowed principles and tenets of democratic governance which we all profess.

 

8. The will of the people freely expressed through the ballot is the bedrock of all democracies and ours cannot be an exception.

 

9. Let us all therefore be prepared, as true democrats, to graciously accept the outcome of the elections as the rightful choice of our people from whom all political powers in our democracy must emanate.

 

1. My administration has done its utmost best in the past four years to deliver on our promise to positively transform our country.

 

1. Tomorrow’s election is another very important milestone as we continue our march towards the fulfillment of our God-given potential for greatness.

 

2. The election offers us another opportunity to empower leaders of our choice once again, and to show the world that genuine democracy is alive and well in our beloved nation.


3. I will like to restate my belief that no political ambition can justify violence or the shedding of the blood of our people.

 

4. I reaffirm once again, my personal preparedness to ensure fair play during the elections and to deploy the resources and institutions of state only in the manner prescribed by our laws.


5. Let me warn, however, that as President, Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, I am under oath to protect the lives of all Nigerians and the security of our country at all times. I will never abdicate my responsibilities in that regard.

 

6. Democracy allows dissent. It encourages differences and even fervent disagreements. But elections must never be mistaken for war or an opportunity to set fellow citizens against each other and tear our beloved nation apart.

 

7. Those who may harbor any intentions of testing our will by unleashing violence during the elections in order to advance their political ambitions should think again as all necessary measures have been put in place to ensure that any persons who breach the peace or cause public disorder during or after the elections are speedily apprehended and summarily dealt with according to our laws.


8. The nation’s security agencies are also fully prepared and ready to deal decisively with any group or persons who attempt to disrupt the peaceful conduct of the elections or cause any form of public disorder.

 

9. Our dear country, Nigeria is the largest democracy amongst black nations of the world. We are a nation of great accomplishments, with a proud history of evolving affinities.

 

1. Let us go out tomorrow to vote peacefully and set a fitting example of political maturity for other emerging democracies to follow.

 

1. I wish you all and our dear nation, very peaceful and successful elections.

 

2. May God Almighty continue to bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

 

3. I thank you all.

Photos: Nigerian Young Professionals Support Families of Nigerian Fallen Heroes

At “An Evening with the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeriaon Sunday night in Lagos, President GoodluckEbele Jonathan, GCFR was presented with an Heritage Bank’s Cheque of N10 Million Naira by Mr Moses SilokoSiasia (Chairman, NYPF) on behalf of the Nigerian Young Professionals to support families of Fallen Hero’s andidentify with the Nation’s Armed Forces at this time of frequent attacks by the insurgent.

EFCC denies freezing Rev.Father Mbaka's accounts

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has denied reports that they froze the account of Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka.


There were media reports yesterday that Fr Mbaka had revealed amid his sermon on Wednesday March 25th that the EFCC had frozen his bank account and that he was welcome to their Port Harcourt office for addressing. He apparently said he went to the bank on Tuesday March 24th to cash some money to purchase foodstuff for the poor who had recently come back to Enugu from the North and the check he presented was rejected.

EFCC Spokesperson Wilson Uwujaren release an announcement late yesterday denying that the organization froze his account. See the statement bellow.

“The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,EFCC has been drawn to reports in a section of the media claiming that the Commission had frozen the accounts of Enugu-based Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka of the Adoration Mass fame. The commission wishes to state that there is no truth in the report and should be discountenanced.” the statement read

Photo: Angry travelers sit on tarmac in Abuja

Angry travelers who were to travel to Adamawa and Gombe states from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja got so furious and chose to assume control over the landing area and sit in dissent after their flight was wiped out yesterday night.

A portion of the travelers said they were at the airplane terminal for their 9am flight however the carrier continued deferring the flight until 9pm when they informed them that the flight had been cancelled.

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