Beasts of No Nation: From Fela To Uzodinma

Did the title of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti's Afrobeat song "Beasts of No Nation" inspire Uzodinma Iweala to give his first novel the same title?

Uzodinma Iweala

The beasts of no nation or vagabonds in power as Fela called them are still in power in Nigeria. And it is a great pity that majority of Nigerians have forgotten that the present head of state, President Olusegun Obasanjo was the same head of state who sent his zombies in uniform to attack Fela Anikulapo-kuti and threw his old mother over the balcony and assaulted the wives and dancers of Fela in the military invasion of Kalakuta Republic in 1978.



President Olusegun Obasanjo has not repented. Because he has invaded other places from the Middle Belt to the Niger Delta region of Nigeria since he returned to power in 1999 and left them in sorrows and tears. And what President Obasanjo did in Odi is not different from what the late Gen.Sani Abacha did in Ogoni land.



The beasts of no nation have been feasting on the masses of Nigeria. And the time has come to get rid of them before it is too late.

Uncle Sam Asked Me A Question

Uncle Sam: WHERE DID THE NEGROES GET THE MONEY?


Orikinla: Them negroes got them money from Uncle Sam's Cabin.

Where did the hunkies get their dollars?

From the useless war in Iraq.

The war in Iraq is a billion dollar mega business.
Ask Dick "the prick" Cheney.

God bless.

Attention! President George W. Bush Is Talking

Donald Duke: Portrait of A New Nigerian Leader

Born in Calabar on September 30, 1961 to Mr. Henry Duke and his wife, Genevieve, his childhood and youth were remarkable, secure and successful. He loved and respected his parents, particularly his famous father, who, as chairman of the old Board of Customs and Excise, was legendary for his integrity and uprightness.

By all accounts, he was not an exceptional student at Corona School, Lagos or Federal Government College, Sokoto. But when his spirit got out of hand, he was recognized as a very promising student! Perhaps, the earliest clue to what he was destined to become was as an undergraduate at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where, as a member of the Students’ Union executive, his passion for debates, his thorough, retentive and curious mind, one which constantly asked questions about the future of our country - all came to the fore.

The certainty and security of his early life was broken, when, at 27, he lost his father in 1988. Before then, the solidity of his life was intact - a Law degree from Ahmadu Bello University at 20, an LLM from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States at 22, a brief partnership stint as a corporate lawyer with Onyia & Duke and a full-fledged business career by 1988.

Understandably, Ahmadu Bello looms large in his life not only because he met his heartthrob, Onari, at Zaira, but also because it provided a perfect setting for the fostering of relationships which were to help structure the course of his life. There was, in this regard, his late friend, Mohammed Waziri, the former chairman of Nigeria Railways, with whom he shared the same birthday and many childhood memories. By 1992, Duke had become commissioner for finance, budget and planning in Cross River State and was later to serve as a member of the National Economic Intelligence Committee, the Federal Economic Council and as a member of the Federal Capital Budget Monitoring Committee.

When at the age of 37, he decided to run for the office of governor of his state, no one gave him a chance. Considered too young at the time and something of an outsider, a ‘Lagos boy,’ he approached the challenge of elective office with great caution and even trepidation. He took his time, learnt the ropes, and plotted a strategy. When he eventually confronted the reality of the elections, it was with such fierce determination that from the outset, victory seemed assured. For, not only did he go on to win, he has gone on to become one of the most successful, elected officials in the history of our country. Indeed, on the record of his achievements alone, perhaps, he, more than any other two-term governor, deserves a chance at higher office.

Articulate, brilliant and engaging, Duke is a firm believer in the neo-capitalist notion of a private sector driven economy as the vehicle for the rapid transformation of a developing society. Yet, he also harbours, surprisingly, some populist, left-of-centre beliefs that in a developing society, government should also work for the poor and the underprivileged. His massive rural electrification programme derives essentially from this theory. But, largely, his most outstanding achievement, the remarkable transformation of Cross River State into the preferred tourism destination in Nigeria, is driven by the belief that government/private partnership ventures are best suited for developing economies.

N.B:
Sponsored By Nigerian Times International Club (NTIC) Online

Who Should Be The Next President of Nigeria?

There has never been a free and fair election in Nigeria."
~Maryam Adamu Umar
Washington Post, 12/11/2006

I have just read the Washington Post report on the new electoral process in Nigeria with the introduction of the electronic voters registeration system. And I am amused. Because, the most important thing to the majority of Nigerians is not the electoral process. What most Nigerians want is good governance that will solve their economic and social problems. And they don't even care if the elections are rigged or not. Just give us good leaders and not political crooks and rogues in the masquerade of democracy.

Who should be the next President of Nigeria?
That is the question.

I have been close to the corridors of power and have worked in the political campaign office of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur between 1990 and 1992 on Eletu Agabi Street on the Victoria Island in Lagos. I have had the privilege of meeting with some top politicians in Abuja. And I can state here that most of the so called Nigerian politicians don't know what is politics and from their so called political activities from the First Republic to date, even a moron can see that they are political vandals and vagabonds. Because, they have only bastardized politics.

Rev. Christ Okotie:A Presidential Aspirant

The Nigerian political parties don't have what can qualify as real political offices. They only have "open and close" political shops. They open them for elections and close them after elections.

Now, with less than six months to the Presidential elections, there are no real Presidential Candidates with any organised political campaign. No political education, no political mobilization and no political sensitization of the electorate. They just print posters and handbills of their best photographs to advertise themselves as contesting candidates.

A true political leader would have been known to the electorate in over ten years of statesmanship in public service and interacting with the electorate from the grassroots.

The so called Christian Presidential Candidate thinks pasting posters on the pages of newspapers and on walls on the streets in the cities and on an obscure website is all it takes to convince millions of Nigerian voters that he is worthy to lead them? When the majority of the masses who constitute the legitimate electorate in the villages and towns in the Southern, Eastern, Western and Northern regions of rural Nigeria don't even know him or his political agenda. And if you drop him from an helicopter on the people in Katangora in Northern Nigeria, they will mistake him for another ET from a UFO. And he has not even launched any political education, mobilization and sensitization of the poor majority of Hausas, Ibos, Yorubas and the other 247 ethnic groups. And can he give us a guided tour of his party offices and wards in Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Ẹdo, Ekiti, Enụgụ, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nassarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Ọsun, Ọyọ, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara and Abuja Federal Capital Territory?

The other so called political candidates are the same kettle and pot. Clueless. And none of them is a true statesman and the women among them are only their political mistresses or political concubines of the political gamblers who see Nigeria as one big Political Casino and in fact, Nigeria is the biggest Political Casino in Africa controlled by the Nigerian Political Mafia of Political crooks and rogues whose stock-in-trade are political chicanery and robbery.

Until true statesmen and stateswomen become political leaders in Nigeria, Nigerians will continue to be plagued in the vicious circle of corruption in the corridors of power.

Governor Donald Duke is the portrait of the new breed and the ideal Nigerian leader

If you want to lead Nigeria, then you must begin the political education, sensitization and mobilization of Nigerians through public service or charity and only through your benevolent service of leadership by example will you prove that you are a true political leader worthy of the mandate of the electorate of Nigeria.

The late Malam Aminu Kano is a good model of such a true political leader.
The late Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo is another good model of a true political leader and the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikike is also a good model of a true political leader.

How many of the so called Nigerian Politicians have read the books of Malam Aminu Kano, Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe?

They have to read their books to study their examplary models of statesmanship in political leadership.

The political kleptocrats and plutocrats destroying Nigeria now wasted millions of Naira, Dollars and Pounds from our treasury on useless trips to America and Britain pretending to go there to learn from the American Democracy and from the "Mother of Parliaments". But the political pretenders actually went for tourism and shopping spree from London to Washington DC. And their Political Kingpin, the ruling President of Nigeria saw his once in a lifetime opportunity of his wildest dreams to go globe trotting to almost all the countries in the Western world and Asia and wasted tax payers money in his useless day dreaming trips in his so called quest for foreign investors. And the only foreign investors he got from his ludicurous world tour are buyers of GSM licenses and illegal oil blocs. Any dummy can sell GSM licenses and stolen oil blocs. And of course, he will jump at the slightest opportunity to mention his famous "Debt Relief" success story. And I ask him again, whose debt?
THE DEBTS INCURRED DURING THE LOOTING OF OUR NATIONAL TREASURY BY THE PAST EMBEZZLERS WHO WERE WELL KNOWN TO PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OBASANJO OF NIGERIA. AND MANY OF THEM WHO ARE RETIRED GENERALS ARE THE CHIEFTAINS OF HIS CORRUPT RULING PARTY OF NIGERIA.THE PDP.

How many of the retired military rulers have been charged , arraigned and convicted of embezzling large sums of public funds and taking bribes? And their partners in crime and political lobbyists are still in business as usual in the kleptocracy and plutocracy ruining Nigeria in the masquerade of political parties?

May I ask you again?
Who should be the next President of Nigeria?

From Jan Pronk To Donald Duke

If any UN diplomat deserves the Nobel Prize for Peace, that noble diplomat is Jan Pronk the UN Special Envoy to Sudan for his fearless confrontation with the rebels and draconian ruling Islamists on rampage in Darfur. And I have been monitoring and evaluating his progress to bring an end to the genocide in Darfur.

Sir, I have read and now understood the hypocrisy of the ruling regime in Sudan. The fact is the ruling regime in Sudan is guilty of crimes against humanity in Darfur. And your statements of facts from your eye-witness accounts proved them wrong and they believe you have seen enough. And the less you know the better for them. Because they are afraid that your evidence could be used against them when they would be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Well done sir.

Dear Orikinla Osinachi,
Thank you very much for your understanding. You are right.
Please tell your colleagues and friends, so that the people in Darfur will not be forgotten.
With best regards,
Jan Pronk
Jan Pronk's Blog

Then the best state governor in Africa, Mr. Donald Duke of Nigeria has joined us in the blogosphere and you can see his blog as he is telling the whole world why Nigeria deserves better leadership and this outstanding governor of Cross River State deserves our cooperation and support to become the next President of Nigeria. But, Donald Duke is like a diamond in the snout of a pig, because he is in the wrong political party.

Seeing is believing, if you want to see the remarkable and laudable achievements of Governor Donald Duke of Nigeria, visit the following:
Donald Duke's Blog
Donald Duke 4 President
TINAPA: The Dubai of Africa

As America Votes, The Rest Of The World Watches

As Americans vote, we watch them to see how their votes will also pass their verdict on President George W.Bush. And as the opinion polls show, Bush is no longer the choice of the majority of American voters and this fact would be the yardstick to push the Republicans out of power.

Americans have had enough of the Republican misadministration in the prosecution of the war on terror as shown by chaos caused by the war in Iraq.

Here is the mail from my real namesake, Michael Moore.

Friends,
Tomorrow night, those who sent 2,800 of our soldiers to their deaths -- all because of a lie the president concocted -- will find out if America chooses to reward them -- or remove them.

As good as things look for the Democrats, do not pop the corks and start the partying yet. Do not believe for a second that the Republicans plan on losing. They will fight like dogs for the next 24 hours -- relentless, unforgiving, nonstop action to squeeze every last conservative voter out of the house on election day. While the rest of us go about our day today, tens of thousands of Republican volunteers are knocking on doors, making phone calls, and lining up rides to the polls. They're not sleeping, they're not eating, they're not even watching Fox News. A day without Fox News? That's right, that's how insanely dedicated they are.
But the reason they have to work so hard is that, before they can get the vote out, they first have to completely turn around the massive public opinion against them. Almost 60% disapprove of Bush. Over 60% are opposed to the war. Those are landslide numbers. And the American people are not going to turn pro-war or into Bush-lovers by tomorrow morning. So it should be easy for us, right?

Yup. Just like it was when we won the popular vote in 2000 and when we were ahead in the exit polls all day long in 2004. You know the deal -- the other side takes no prisoners. And just when it seems like things are going our way, the Republicans suddenly, mysteriously win the election.

Well, it's not really that mysterious. They're out there busting their asses this very minute, right down the street from you. What are YOU doing? You're on a computer reading my cranky letter! Stop reading this! We have only a few hours left to wrestle control of the Congress away from these "representatives" who, if returned, will continue shipping our young men and women over there to die.
Here's what I'm imploring you to do right now:

1. Go through your address book on your cell phone and computer and call/e-mail everyone you know. Tell them how much it would mean to you if they vote on Tuesday. If they don't know where to vote, help them find their polling place.

2. Contact MoveOn.org ASAP. They will connect you to the folks who need you to make calls.

3. Contact your local Democratic Party headquarters. There are close races in nearly every state. They'll put you to work -- on the ground or on the phones. Or go to the local HQ for the Dem candidate running for the House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate and say, "Put me to work!"

OK, turn off the computer -- and I will, too. There's serious work to do. The good news? There's more of us than there are of them. Let's prove that, once and for all.
Is there anything more important that you have to do today? Nothing less than the rest of the world is depending on us.

Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com

9/11 And The Fears Of Weldon: Revisited

Have you read the critical analysis of Curt Weldon on the failures of the CIA and 9/11? Here is my analysis of 9/11 And The Fears Of Weldon: Revisited .