10K and other monies.

Some intelligent people say Buhari and Osinbajo are buying votes with 10K to traders across the country. They add some spice to this narrative by saying Permanent voter's cards are also collected by the government before the recipients get their money. Some who are more intelligent have told us that only the PVC numbers were collected.

I don't know who can help me with some answers. Please how does collecting a PVC from a bought or potential APC voter guarantee APC votes in February 2019? Is it that the APC took these cards or the numbers as hostages? Do these voters not need these cards on election days to get accredited before the actual voting starts?

Can a potential voter simply walk to his polling unit on election morning without a card and expect to be accredited because his name is on the register? Are these intelligent people suggesting that some APC agents would be at each polling center all over the nation where voters have been allegedly bought with 10k to ensure that INEC officials allow them to get accredited to vote? Perhaps the APC is collecting cards now so that they can redistribute them across the country to all those who got 10k just before the election.

I don't understand how some Nigerians reason anymore especially those who got some education. It is these same folks who persist with this Sudan theory as well as other inanities. 

Nigeria overtook India as the country with the highest number of poor people and they rejoiced. They complain that people are hungry and jobs have been lost but when they hear about relatively small amounts given or loaned to young graduates, petty traders or vulnerable old people, they begin to convulse and abuse the government. These same people probably didn't complain when far fewer individuals were each awarded millions of Naira as part of Jonathan's YouWin program.

They insist that it's vote buying; some ask what ordinary ten thousand can buy or do. How many of them can readily dash another 10k without flinching? How many of them can borrow a small scale trader or artisan 10K and not suffer a nervous breakdown if the fellow is unable to pay or absconds? 

Some brainy folks try to avoid questioning the program directly, they instead question the timing. "Why didn't they start since 2015 or 2016, why now?" There is nothing that can impress these folks. Should the program have been delayed and be made a campaign promise for the next election? These brains would have mocked them silly. 

If 10K to traders is vote buying, then school feeding is vote buying. N-Power is definitely purchasing votes, so is the pensions and arrears paid to laid off workers like those from the defunct Nigerian airways, those from Biafra and any other group that had previously been forgotten. 

Unfortunately for some of our elites, there won't be any ONSA-Dasuki funds to share to the Afeniferes of this world and to religious mercenaries. Just 10K each is available if they don't mind. Osinbajo will be in a market near them, they can join the queue with their PVCs in hand if they don't think 10K is too small.

GOOD OVER EVIL.

President Muhammadu Buhari [PMB] was recently in Poland where he participated in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice. Some intellectual Nigerians have made it a habit of insulting the president and they would have done same if he did not show up in Poland. They would have called him an analog president oblivious of global trends and asked what he was doing when other world leaders were gathered in one place.

One cannot deny Buhari’s antagonizers their fix; a few of them used social media to express their rage at one of the activities performed by Mr. President while in Poland. PMB met with the leaders of Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Netherlands and Estonia; discussions were largely about Trade, Investment and Agriculture. His meeting with the Dutch Prime minister was a follow-up meeting while it was about Global Politics with the PM of Estonia. Stuff like these did not resonate with certain Nigerians, it was his visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum where he laid a wreath in tribute to Holocaust Victims that irked them.

One fellow explained her disapproval by linking the Holocaust to Biafra while another was angry that he could visit a memorial but not states plagued by Boko Haram. I am still trying to find out which states she referred to. I confronted a friend on Facebook who had shared the post about Buhari’s wreath and the states hit by Boko Haram; I wanted to know the justification for criticizing the President for doing something that political leaders and diplomats do all over the world. I informed those pushing these stories that President Jonathan laid a wreath five years ago at the Yad Vashern Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem and I asked them if they had posts on social media condemning the man.

My friend decided to justify himself when I told him his activities on social media against PMB were borne out of hate for the man. He claimed it was not hate but that he could not trust the man who visited Qatar, a nation that has open channels with Hamas. He said Buhari’s wreath laying was dishonest.

How does one discern honesty by looking at photographs of a diplomatic activity? What does honesty have to do with anything? Was Theresa May being honest when she danced on her recent tour of some African countries? Should anyone really care if she danced with or without honesty? Queen Elizabeth II visited the United Arab Emirates in November 2010. She visited a tomb and the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi where she donned a scarf and took off her shoes. The Supreme Governor of the Church of England wore a scarf and went without shoes into a Mosque. 

Elizabeth II without shoes in Abu Dhabi

What if that happened in Nigeria? Our super-religious folks would have had plenty to trend with on social media. I am a ‘religious’ person and I arrived at my position almost 25 years ago without any parental guidance or societal coercion. I have observed [based on their expressed thoughts] the political ideology of many who have the same faith as I do, and I have found it difficult to explain. I refuse to believe that the shameless expression of hate towards a certain human being comes from truly spiritual people.

Some prayed death his way and one fellow earned plenty retweets when he announced that he was exiting the Redeemed Christian Church of God because he could not fathom how Vice President Osinbajo who is a Professor and a Pastor could be in Buhari’s camp. What wrong did Buhari or Osinbajo do to them? Most of the things they reel out as evidence against the men are flimsy and just broadcasts of what some paid anarchists pushed out to earn political advantage. Those who ridiculed an entire ethnicity, region or religion because of the man they have been trained to despise have now openly or ‘codedly’ declared for someone who is like him because their revered spiritual leaders have tilted in that direction. They have quickly forgotten all their profiling and curses; they now lay claim to divine backing to end slavery and poverty in the land. One court jester who happens to be a senator was recently recorded dancing and singing in front of an exotic car parked in what appears to be part of his living room. The irony of his action is that he was singing about poverty and hunger in the land and how Buhari was the cause.

How does someone despise PMB because he met with Qatar and voted against Israel with respect to Palestine? Is there a written code somewhere that Nigeria must support Israel in whatever that nation does? Is Israel backed by every nation in the world? Does voting against Israel in some issues mean we cannot still have diplomatic ties with them? Canada have diplomatic relations with Qatar just like many others do. The Clinton Foundation got $1million from Qatar when Hilary was US Secretary of State, do the Clintons not know that Qatar has ties with Hamas? The United States and Britain use an air-base in Qatar for some of their military operations in the region. The people we think are ‘defenders of the faith’ have their hands soiled and cover up matters from time to time. The world is evil and yet good; atrocities have happened and will continue to happen. Crimes do not have any unique religious, national or racial coloration, even those we look up to are imperfect with many neck-deep in committing, aiding or covering up crime against fellow men.

The United States of America have Saudi Arabia as a strong ally and not even the recent gruesome murder and dismembering of Jamal Khashoggi is able to affect this romance. What is the difference between what happened to Khashoggi and the many atrocities that have been linked to the USA? Was the CIA not involved in toppling Nkrumah? What about the execution of Fabrice Lumumba or the events that preceded the Vietnam war? Should we talk about the Iran-Contra affair? What about the Slave Trade and the atrocities that accompanied colonization which has left the previously colonized still suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? In the mid-1980s, Ronald Reagan and some top officials in his government were caught in a mess that involved money and weapons in Nicaragua, Iran, Israel and Lebanon. USA supplied military hardware to Iran prior to the Revolution there. An arms embargo followed which President Reagan supported and continued when he assumed office. Reagan was also in support of the move by the Contras to topple the Socialist government in Nicaragua.

Weapons were sold to Iran despite the embargo and the money obtained was used to fund rebel activities in the South American nation. When some American citizens got taken in Lebanon by Hezbollah, the narrative was directed to involve Israel and a move to source for Iranians to help rescue the kidnapped. It appears Israel related with Iran on America’s behalf and this hostage situation was what Reagan used to explain his actions to sell arms. An Israeli adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister at the time, Amiram Nir played a role in this affair. He was apparently hung out to dry and was going to sell his story about the scandal to the press. One name was mentioned, George H. W. Bush who was said to have been briefed by Nir. Bush denied knowledge, Reagan’s rating had dropped, and Bush was busy running for president in late 1988. Nir died in December 1988 following a plane crash in Mexico but his death remains controversial with more than a few conspiracy theories. These are some of the evils that accompany politics and power.

Religious folks are not spared from these types of situations even though such should not happen. Should we act as if some of the Nigerian religious leaders haven’t erred alongside politicians? Some have helped to launder images and monies to foreign lands, should we deny these? As much as people insist that these leaders must be respected, and their actions or inaction not questioned, I find it rather weird to keep quiet when these people in vantage positions speak untruths about Nigeria, her people and her politics. Some of the things that have been said are worse than what set some nations alight and cannot be proved to me to be words from a deity. I might ignore heresies but half-truths or full-lies about Nigeria and utterances which are of the supremacist nature are some of the things that irritate me. We should be the ones pushing for transparency and demanding restitution instead of the cover-ups that we now assume is the godly thing to do. Let us not act like the Australian pastor who knew about his father's crimes but failed to act for many years despite being in the position to only for the matter to return now when his father is long gone. 

It is dangerous politics that is being played in some Nigerian states and Benue is one of such. It seems everything is all about ‘militia herdsmen’ there. The governor as reported in a September 1 2018 story published by Punch Newspapers told the state Chapter of the Christian association of Nigeria that the people of the state should arm themselves by obtaining their Permanent Voter’s Cards in order to resist further invasion of Benue land by herdsmen under the guise of grazing. How will voting for him ensure ‘herdsmen’ are resisted? He takes every opportunity he gets to talk about the state’s enemies and how some other parties that favor herdsmen are conniving to take over the state. There is also the case of Jimi Agbaje in Lagos who took to Twitter to express the same rhetoric about Igbos in Lagos which failed him in 2015. He or whoever is responsible for his social media platforms described the situation as antisemitism. I don’t understand these people anymore.

What is Good over Evil? There is a tussle within many people, to do good or allow oneself to drift with evil currents. The urge to constantly spread lies about Muhammadu Buhari knowingly or otherwise cannot be termed as good. You mock a man for having a modest number of cattle, but you celebrate those whose resources you cannot justify because it aligns with your sentiments. You profile entire groups and you are convinced you are expressing faith? Before you utter the next word or share that jaundiced post, ask yourself if you fact-checked and if what you are going to release will build-up or destroy. Don’t let arrogance or ignorance bring embarrassment your way, let it end in 2018. One fellow who described himself as a physician tweeted that certain anti-hypertensive medications had been recalled and urged people not to take them. He soon had over 5,000 retweets and 2000 likes but the problem was that he followed up the main tweet with information about a specific brand of the drug. Trust Nigerians to activate panic and WhatsApp sharing modes. It was clear that many ran with the root tweet which had no specifics. Other Twitter users noticed the problem and advised the young man to delete the first tweet which had caused confusion for many. Many Nigerians do not look beyond the superficial and those who read the first tweet ran with it as gospel. The problem was not that this man tweeted something misleading, he categorically said that he was not responsible for people failing to read his follow-up tweets. Despite the pleas from others to realize the danger his tweet had caused, he remained defiant.

Please do not think your actions or inaction are without consequence. There is life beyond social media and your supporters club. Do not let religiosity cripple you so badly that you endorse untruth and fiction as truth. Do not let evil cause you to hate your fellow man because society, history or your name tell you to. There is good in you, let it triumph over the evil that lurks. The President of the UAE owns significant real estate in Seychelles and gets to transfuse that nation with monetary fluids from time to time, I wonder if our people would refuse such gestures if we had the chance. 

NO TIME FOR JOKES.

I got to watch a lot of British television shows as a child courtesy of the Nigerian Television Authority. We got a steady dose of shows like Pigeon Street, Terrahawks, Tom Grattan’s War, The Prince and the Pauper, Yes Prime Minister, ‘Allo ‘Allo, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, Jane Eyre, Dempsey and Makepeace, Rentaghost and many others. One show was a source of science fiction entertainment and it starred Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor Who. The 13^th series of this show aired in 1975 and it had ‘Terror of the Zygons’ as its first serial.

Zygons were an alien race capable of shape-shifting; they captured humans and used them as templates to take up human forms in order to infiltrate and conquer earth. Another serial from this season of Doctor Who was ‘The Android Invasion’ where another alien race [Kraals] attempted to use 'androids' to take the place of humans.

Zygon (wikipedia)

Nigeria has recently become a source of comic material for some TV show hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and Trevor Noah, with both men making time to talk about Mr. President being a clone. This kite was first flown by the secession advocate and Jew, Nnamdi Kanu who had previously promised to deliver the head of Muhammadu Buhari to his followers. Mr. President was sick and away for a while prompting many to wish and pray death for him. Kanu said the real Buhari wasn’t the one who returned after his convalescence; a doppelgänger deployed from Sudan returned in his place.

It makes a lot of sense that thousands of Kanu’s acolytes believe this theory; they made sense of his directives “to burn down the zoo” and found nothing wrong with his requests for financial aid to buy weapons to ensure Biafra’s sun rose again. They have used laterally inverted images of Buhari writing with both hands and his seemingly defective left ear lobe as evidence. They have also claimed his palm and finger prints have changed. These people cannot be helped; I am tempted to infer that it is not the country that failed them, I do not know what or who did. Kanu soliciting for funds

There are those intellectual ones on social media who are delighted that Buhari has become the butt of the joke on the international scene; they have posted about how his ‘failure’ to respond to suggestions that he was either cloned or replaced by a body double has brought embarrassment to the country. These individuals are probably fans of the orange-tanned tweeting president but they expect their president to respond to an inane subject the way they want to hear it. It is these technology savvy people who have been broadcasting daft theories about cloning and Jubril from Sudan while tagging international news media outfits, developed nations and the United Nations to their posts but it is the man who doesn’t bother about kindergarten matters raised by a certain Jew who has caused us embarrassment. There are also those who try to sound brainy regarding this matter. They say stuff like, “the stories are most likely not true but Buhari should speak to dispel the rumours.” It is either one believes that the President is the original or a double; there are no buts. What is apparent is that certain individuals have found it difficult to separate their reasoning from their prejudices; their attempt to mask their bigotry with grammar fools no one.

I could publish a fictional article in a newspaper tomorrow and title it “Aliens from Pluto take Aisha hostage, Replace Buhari in Aso rock” and I will rest assured that some preachers will in no time use the manuscript to preach sermons to tens of thousands. This is what present day Nigeria has become where certain men will tell tales of how Zygons and Kraals are involved in plundering Nigeria, striking fear and sowing seeds of discord in the hearts of the people. We have heard calls to Christians to spill blood, offer heads to God as offerings and open Hades but some people want us to embrace the bearers of these messages and continue to lift holy hands. No sir/ ma! No one is perfect, but I don’t subscribe to any brand of supremacist ideology or stereotyping of any group. Fake news thrives in the land and even the more established media outfits are not spared. How does one explain a Channels TV news editor inserting an unrelated image of Ibrahim Magu into a story about an APC event which was broadcast across the country? The owner issued an apology and Premium times that ran a story based on this news report retracted their hurriedly written tale about Magu attending a party event he was no where near. Are we supposed to believe that what the Channels TV editor did was simply an error like his boss explained?  Channels and Magu

Some Nigerians want us to be like developed countries. They want our politics to be about issues, but they become febrile when they hear campaign is about roads, rail, primary health care, empowering small business etc. They always demand that we step up to the global terrain but what they forget is that these so-called developed countries didn’t become what they are now overnight. Their past politicians once campaigned to build roads and provide basic healthcare, things modern Nigerians scoff at now. Do we have the infrastructure required to move on to greater talking points?

Some Nigerians have ridiculed the government’s policies to grant loans to small business; the People’s Democratic Party have termed it vote buying for 2019. Which one did the PDP give to the poorest Nigerians from 1999 to 2015? They have a problem with N10,000 to traders, school feeding and stipends for vulnerable people but they didn’t find any issue with fewer people benefiting from the YouWin program initiated by President Jonathan. They have called PMB a dictator and attacked all his attempts to ensure that those who had not benefited anything significant from past governments now do so. They somehow prefer elitist private sector-controlled ventures. Saraki was heard in an audio recording assuring his supporters in Ilorin that an Atiku presidency would restore their fortunes. He lamented that he could not get his people juicy appointments where contracts of N1 or 2 million could have been signed for them to be able to get benefits to buy lands, build houses and buy cars. These are the people complaining that there is no food in the land and angry that APC is buying votes with TraderMoni. These same individuals have a certain Dino Melaye in their camp, a fellow with many exotic vehicles in his garage and they are egging on a man who moved about $40,000,000 dollars to the United States of America through his wife. They have even said that he is more Fulani than Muhammadu Buhari who cannot speak Fulfude. Atiku more Fulani

Atiku tweeted that Nigeria was better off under PDP from 1999 to 2015. This is a party he left twice after throwing many jabs at them. Nigeria was so good in early 2007 that he had a knee surgery in London; he had it so great that Obasanjo withdrew the presidential jet that was supposed to fly him to USA in December 2006 because of their rift. I must have lost at least two years to Academic Staff Union of Universities [ASUU] strikes during the PDP years. I travelled back and forth on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway for seven years as a student of the University of Ibadan and that road was not fixed; that is how good we had it then. If we mention Yelwa, Langtang North, Jos, Ajegunle, Odi, Warri, Zaki Biam, Dogo Nahawa, Tim-Tim, Kuru Karama, Zonkwa, Kafanchan, Matsirga etc, they will ask if we are in a mortality census competition, so I won’t mention them. They say more Nigerians have died in the past three years than ever before but that is a fat lie.  Human Rights Watch reported that over 15,700 people were killed in just Kaduna state from inter-communal, political and sectarian violence from 1999 to 2011. Should we mention the bomb blasts or talk about what happened in Buni Yadi? Why do some people think they can rewrite history and get away with it? In any case, Atiku Abubakar and his Dubai squad are playing their politics, let us see if they will have the aces come February. Human Rights Watch 2011

Some of our religious leaders have joined politicians to help announce hunger in the land. I wonder how some of them know and what they have done to truly help the people. What I have observed is mostly eye-service and self-preservation, the breeze of poverty and hardship hardly blows in their direction. This is the reason why gossip and newspaper satirical articles have now become scripture to announce freedom from slavery. I am open to anyone joining politics and I think everyone should be educated on this irrespective of religious or educational backgrounds. I think one or two religious leaders should take the plunge into full-blown politics, at least to show good and godly example. The least most should do is to preach unity and encourage their people to aspire for political offices in order to serve. There are a few church leaders that were part of parliament in the First Republic so let’s not be too quick to disapprove. The love of money has corrupted the landscape, perhaps we need to encourage more men and women with updated self-control to help turn things around.

We say we want Nigeria to be like America, Canada, UK, Scandinavia etc. but we don’t want to count the cost and pay the price. We want to keep papering over our cracks and exploiting our weaknesses. Perhaps Nigerians, especially our church leaders and politicians can learn a thing or two from the man who was voted in a 2004 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation poll as the Greatest Canadian.

Thomas (Tommy) Douglas [1904-1986] was Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944-1961. He was a Baptist preacher who ventured into politics in 1935 after witnessing firsthand what Canadians had to face during the Great depression of the 1930s. The nation had economic trouble, the people lacked but there was money to fund a war. He buried young people who died because of causes that could have been prevented and he didn’t complete his Sociology PhD program because of the painful realities before him. He embraced a Socialist ideology and joined a party with same. He started with the House of Commons before leading his party to defy all odds and take control of the province. He was opposed by the top capitalists of that era; those from the Oil and Mining industries were against him, the top retail business also did. Some likened his ideology to Hitler’s and the people were warned that he would become dictatorial. Mortgage companies threatened farmers with foreclosures because he promised to protect them. The media also turned against him all to prevent his party’s win.

Tommy Douglas

Douglas pushed for free medical and Hospital care for pensioners, cancer patients and those who were on government support. Although his Masters thesis favored eugenics and how only mentally certified people alone should be permitted to marry, his time as premier contrasted his younger years. He protected the physically and mentally challenged instead. He pressed for Universal medical insurance to remove the divide between the healthcare providers and the people. This was met with resistance especially from the doctors who thought they would be financially shortchanged. A strike ensued but the program became reality in 1962 after he had stepped down. In other words, Douglas’ proposal on healthcare is a template that spread across Canada and got copied across the globe. The man is credited with many other feats such as Employment Insurance, Paid Vacation, Minimum Wage, Pensions and the Charter of Rights which was a first in North America. Electricity and paved roads were some of the things he did to stimulate agriculture in his province and improve the economy. If we want to be like these developed countries, should be not adopt some of the things they did and still do? These countries have all sorts of benefits for the elderly, children, indigenous people and immigrants. They ensure taxes are collected and nobody shouts, “witch hunt.” Douglas ran for the Country’s top job; he was not successful but his perseverance and authenticity reverberated through a country he adopted as his home and he was deemed worthy to be crowned the greatest Canadian ever edging out people like Alexander Graham Bell [telephone], Terry Fox [ran across Canada with one leg], David Suzuki [Professor of Genetics], Frederick Banting [ensured Insulin is not beyond the reach of those who need it after co-discovering it] and Pierre Trudeau [15th Prime Minister] among others. He may not have any National monument or heavyweight title in his honor, but the man lived and did his best. We may not be too familiar with the name Tommy Douglas but I’m certain we know his grandson, President Thomas Kirkman of the Netflix series ‘Designated Survivor’ a.k.a Jack Bauer [Kiefer Sutherland].

Pierre Trudeau

Pierre Trudeau had to deal with what can be regarded as one of the toughest periods in Canada’s existence. He was Prime Minister at a time Quebec which was also his province of origin threatened to break away from the Union because of carried over animosity from the French-British war. By 1970, The Quebec Liberation Front [FLQ] had already morphed into a terrorism group to force the issue. A British diplomat and Pierre Laporte [the Minister of Labour in Quebec] were kidnapped with Laporte getting killed days later. Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act and the Police had powers to arrest and detain without bail while soldiers were deployed. When people tell you, certain things cannot happen in developed climes, please pay no attention to them. No serious government will watch on as arsonists destroy the land. I think the interests of the majority on certain issues such as security, healthcare and economy should be protected despite what the fat cats think.

There are those who secretly support those who divide us as Nigerians because of their pride or selfish interests. There are those who previously hated any old Fulani Muslim man but who now dance to the tunes of one who fits this profile. There are those who still run with the cloning theory, 'Islamization' agenda and no WAEC certificate theories because they think they know better. You all are entitled to your positions but all I am interested in is the final retirement of those whose wealth we cannot explain and the silencing of their diviners. If you insist on believing tales by moonlight like Doctor Who fighting against androids and shape-shifting aliens that have replaced humans, against sound logic and commonsense, your religion and your background have failed you. I believe the decluttering process is yet to be complete after which the playing field will be made level for serious folks to lead us from where Buhari stops. If there is a major wound with dead tissue and all sorts of foreign bodies, a debridement is required before any type of dressing or management can progress. We are in the final debridement phase, it’s not going to be by sorcery but sheer hard work.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria and all Nigerians. Don't let hate and bigotry destroy the humanity in you.

What is your genuine reason for hating this man?