FEATURE ARTICLE

Temple Chima UbochiSaturday, June 21, 2008
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Bonn, Germany

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A NEW DAWN THAT IS ALL-ENCOMPASSING:
IT MIGHT NOT BE TOO FAR AWAY FROM NOW (PART II)

The bird dancing on the road has something beating the drum for it in the bush (Nnunu na agba egwu na uzo nwere ihe na akuru ya nkwa no na ohia) (Igbo Proverb) A man�s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart, his next to escape the censures of the world. (English Proverb) We are not rich by what we possess but rather by what we can do without. (Immanuel Kant) He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature. (Socrates) To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness. (Chinese Proverb) Lomhlaba Unzima, Lohmhlaba (This world is a harsh place, this world). (Zulu Proverb) Beware of one with a honeyed tongue and a sword in the belly. (Chinese Proverb) Better be ill spoken of by one before all than by all before one. (Scottish Proverb) Wisdom is attained by learning when to hold one�s tongue. (Chinese Proverb) It is no time to go for the doctor when the patient is dead. (Irish Proverb) You won�t help shoots grow by pulling them up higher. (Chinese Proverb) Though you live near a forest, do not waste firewood. (Chinese Proverb) Don�t speak unless you can improve on the silence. (Spanish Proverb) Young pigs grunt as old pigs grunted before them. (Danish Proverb) No one can be caught in places he does not visit. (Danish Proverb) There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience. (French Proverb) A company is known by the men it keeps. (Chinese Proverb) Let no man deceive you with vain words. (Biblical Proverb) Let every fox take care of his tail. (Italian Proverb) A man�s ruin lies in his tongue. (Egyptian Proverb) All sins cast long shadows. (Irish Proverb)


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Continued from Part I

irst, I must apologise that the photo that was supposed to appear in the Part 1 of this article didn�t appear during the publication. It was inserted later and I am sure many must have read the article before the picture was fixed. The photo should have helped the reader understand more the points I made in that part of this article, I am sorry for the non-appearance of the photo in time. Any reader that haven�t seen the photo by now and would like to, should go back to the Part 1 of this article for it.

There was another salacious or lecherous pictures moving underground of three University of Port Harcourt girls who stole a Whiteman�s money and forgot that they were snapped nude by the Whiteman, only for him to track them with those pictures later. It was alleged that the girls duped an expatriate of thousands of dollars in his hotel room, but unfortunately for them, they forgot that the Oyigbo took pictures of them naked the night before. In annoyance, the white guy posted their pictures to several other white guys working in the oil industry, warning them to beware of Port Harcourt girls, that they should always make sure that their physical cash is hidden whenever they are with any Port Harcourt based girl. It is most likely that the girls have been rusticated, since the white guy also sent the same mail to the university authorities. I can�t show the picture here because of its salacious nature.

Tell me what a white man was doing with three girls at the same time? Tell me for what reason the white man should take nude pictures of the girls, if not because of selfishness and stupidity? May be, the white man wanted to sell the pictures in his home country. That was not an isolated case, I am sure that most of the whites in Nigeria are exploiting our girls� weaknesses and taking advantage of the ugly situation in the country to make a mess of our women.

The best part of it all is that I was reliably informed that one of the babes in the picture is from Mbano in Imo State and recently got married to a Nigerian in USA who paid through his nose for the traditional marriage and Iga nkwu (wine carrying) ceremonies. The guy has even filed in for the lady at the American Embassy and then the pictures landed on his computer screen. I was told that the guy is �finished�, regretting all the money he spent on the bitch, but, he is lucky that this kind of non-sense happened now, before that girl moves to America, because she can do the worst in States.

As I said in Part 1 of this article; the whites in Nigeria are temptations to some wayward Nigerian women. The way Nigerian women are flocking to white men because of money is reprehensible. What the three nude posers did is indefensible, but is it not exploitation by the white? The problem is that we may never hear the other side of the story and the girls having debased themselves by posing nude like Eve in the garden of Eden with their legs spread wide apart are ruined for life unless they change their names and relocate to a far away place. Nobody will believe them even if they were victims of the white man�s sexual escapade. If Nigeria is a country where things work the way they are supposed to, the girls would have been sought for and charged for stealing if the evidence is there and the white man arrested and charged for sexual exploitation, but, it will never happen. The new dawn I envisage will never condone all these nonsense.

Nigerian government should also share in the blame here, maybe the girls wouldn�t have indulged in such a shameful act had Nigeria being better place for all. The society�s worship of wealth might have also contributed to this, because things weren�t as bad some years back.

The point I was trying to make in Part 1 of this article as regards to the west sending their excess foods to the poor in poorer countries is that there are poor countries like Haiti, Jamaica etc that are in the western hemisphere and Albania, Romania in Europe where there are a lot of homeless children that are now street urchins, sleeping in rat infested big waste pipes underground and scavenging to survive. The west can help out with those excesses rather than throwing them away. More to that, there are destitute homes, orphanages etc all over the western countries and other satellite countries surrounding them like Kyazaystan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus etc that are not having enough for their inmates, as such the west can send the excess food to them rather than destroying them. As regards to Africa, we don�t need food handouts from the west, rather all we want is for them to remove the farm subsidies and to open their markets to African products so that African farmers and producers can compete on the basis of equality. On the other hand, the African governments should help their farmers develop the capability of processing their produces into finished or semi-finished products before exporting them to avoid them selling their produces for peanut to the multi-national or western companies that will process the produces into finished goods and sell them to Africans at exorbitant prices.

African political leaders tend to blame the west for everything wrong with the continent just to cover up their inability to provide the needed services to their people. The west didn�t tell the African leaders to embezzle the wealth of their nations; the west didn�t tell the African leaders to steal and stash their peoples wealth in foreign countries; the west didn�t tell the African leaders to be indifferent to the needs and aspirations of their people; the west didn�t tell the African leaders not to build and maintain the infrastructures; the west didn�t tell the selfish Nigerian (African) leaders not to build new roads and to maintain existing ones; the west didn�t tell the leaders not to update the health, educational and aviation sectors to the level obtainable in the west. Most importantly, the west didn�t tell the Nigerian governors and local government chairmen not to use the allocations to their states and local governments to improve upon the lives of the people of their respective constituencies. The west didn�t tell ex-governors like Kalu, Ibori, Igbinedion, Nyame, Dariye, Akume, Nnamani, Udenwa, Fayose, Tinubu, Turaki, Odili, Yerima and almost all of the 2007 class to embezzle their states fund and left their states in a more pretty worst shape than when they took over.

Yar�dua is jetting off to Germany every now and then to treat himself leaving the business of government unattended to claiming that he has been patronising the German hospital since 1986 as they have his medical record, but, he was the governor of Katsina State for eight good years and knowing the kind of illness he has, he failed to establish a specialist hospital in his state then that can handle his kind of illness and that of others. It was not the west that told him not to have foresight to establish a befitting medical outfit in Katsina State that can cure kidney ailments. He has been a president for a year now, that is enough time to put the National Hospital Abuja in a better shape to handle his kind of illness and that of others, but, he failed and I am sure no western government or person adviced or forced him not to do the right thing in the health and other sectors.

It is ironic that all the ex-governors (Kalu, Ibori, Nnamani, Igbinedion etc) on trial for corruptly enriching themselves are now applying to the different courts handing their cases for their international passport to be released so that they can travel abroad for medical check up, but, during their tenures as governors, they failed to build and equip at least one specialist hospital in their respective states that would have taken care of their medical needs and that of the other people, instead they embezzled all the monies that could have been used to provide the needs of their states.

Although people like Kalu, Ibori, Nnamani that are applying for the release of their passport are using medical check-up as an alibi to cover-up their ulterior motive of running away from justice, but, luckily the courts have come to terms with their tricks and are beating them to their games. Kalu claimed that he will die if he fails to go for medical check up abroad, but, he built no single specialist hospital in Abia State and didn�t equip the existing ones, the eight years he misruled the state. Now the court has granted his request to go for medical check-up abroad, but, not without stringent conditions attached. I love what the court did and I hope that Senator Chukwumerije and Chief Dubem Onyia are already packing their bags to go replace Kalu in jail because he will not come back again.

On the other hand, Kalu is an artful dodger, he is clever, he might travel abroad and returns within the stipulated time frame in order not to put his sureties into problem, then he will tell the court that he �forgot� something in America and will need to go back and pick it up or that he developed a different sickness that is not Asthma that he now claims to be suffering from and as such needs to see his doctors again with the hope that the conditions for the release of his passport the second time around will not be as stringent as now and will not tie his sureties to it. Kalu is in a fix, he is torn between betraying his friends and putting them into trouble by absconding for good or going and coming back to face the music. I applaud the court�s ruling and do wish Kalu well from his �sickness�.

The Sun Newspapers of May 13, 2008 with the caption: �Medical treatment: Court approves Kalu�s overseas trip!� wrote:

�On a day Nigerians remembered June 12, 1993 presidential election, former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, got a nod to travel out of the country for medical treatment.

Justice Adamu Bello of a Federal High Court ordered that Kalu�s International passport be released to him for a limited period of three weeks to enable him travel abroad for medical treatment.

Kalu�s reprieve was predicated on the condition that Senator Uche Chukwumerije and Chief Dubem Onyia, who stood surety for him, grant their consent through a written undertaking guaranteeing that he would return to face trial within the time granted, failing which they shall not only forfeit their bail bonds, but also take his place in the dock�.

�SAINT ABACHA?�

I have been saying it that Nigeria is a country built on lies, deceits and cover-ups and these are crystal-clear examples. For the new dawn, these men mentioned below should have no part in it and must be done away with somehow.

I deliberately avoided writing on the statements credited to the three past military rulers, Generals Muhammadu Buhari and Abdulsalami Abubakar and former military President, Ibrahim Babangida, that the late head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha, did not loot the treasury which have sparked off angry reactions from Nigerians who were all witnesses to the years of locust that the Abacha era was. I found the statements so repulsive and as blatant affronts on the intelligence of all Nigerians. Such statements are insults on all Nigerians and now I see the reason Nigeria can�t change without a push. Anybody looking for a better Nigeria with this bunch of fools and idiots (who think that Nigerians have short memories to remember just after 10 years of Abacha�s exit) still hanging around, can wait for eternity. Nigeria can get to the new dawn ONLY without this trio or else, it will continue going in circle without any change.

I avoided writing fully on this issue, because, engaging my time on what this trio non-entities said (they are nobodies, despite their forcing of themselves into the highest power position) will be according respect to them, which they don�t deserve. Before now, I had written off all Nigerian past leaders prior to 1999, save, for Buhari who I had a little respect for, but, now he has lost that my little respect for him with such a statement of his. I had sympathy for him in his case against the (s)election of Yar�dua, now, he can go to hell; Nigeria don�t want a leader like him either, if he found it appropriate deep down in his heart to make such an unguarded statement. We don�t need such a careless-talking leader.

But wait for a minute: I would like the trio to explain to the whole world why Abacha broke the world record as the greatest looter of all times, if he is a saint? The trio don�t have to sell Abacha postmortemly to Nigerians, because, we all knew him well and the scars he left on our psyches are yet to heal. We are still suffering the havocs Abacha wrecked on our intelligence; it is an affront on all of us to hear anybody trying to make him look good now. Like I once wrote: Abacha �raped� Nigeria front and back using all styles you can think of. If Nigeria is a breathing thing, it wouldn�t have recovered uptill now from the looting onslaught Abacha unleashed on it. So it is disgusting to hear �birds of the same feather� and accomplices to the unspeakable crimes committed by Abacha against Nigeria to start portraying that dead madman in a good light. Nobody is buying that from them. Let the trio tell us how Abacha won the title of the world biggest looter. That was not a good way to launder the soiled and stenchy image of a friend, clean. It is unimaginable that the Swiss government few days before said that they have repatriated almost all the money stolen by Abacha and stashed in their banks , they even gave the sequences used in bringing the money to Nigeria and the amount at every sequence, it was stupid on the part of the trio to have committed such a blunder with their comments few days after the Swiss government�s acknowledgement, no wonder they are all dunces who don�t calculate the implications of their actions/words before engaging in them.

I am challenging the trio to tell Nigerians what Abacha didn�t do wrong. To start with, this was a man that shouldn�t have risen beyond the rank of a colonel in the Army. He was a dunce! More to it, he was schizophrenic, a psychopath and a sex maniac.

Who don�t know that Abacha took over power to break all available records in the world as regards to the embezzlement of state�s fund? He helped his friends and the trio defending him now, in stuffing out life from the entity called Nigeria. By the time of his death, Nigeria and Nigerians just existed for the sake of it. The entire infrastructures were already non-existent or were in their worst stages ever. Abacha never gave a damn. He hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa and others and allowed Shehu Musa Yar�Adua to die in prison. Due to economic and productivity decline of Abacha�s government and the ones preceding it (that of Shagari, Buhari and IBB), many Nigerian professionals left the country for Europe, USA, and the Middle East. Above all, Nigeria, once reputed as the giant of Africa was seen in the international stage as a failed state.

This trio has defended a murderer like them, but, let them not forget that no body pours away innocent blood and gets away with such atrocity, no one throws away blood without repercussion; if you want to know, look at Bush, the President of America, how he looks now; he has aged (more than his real age) in a twinkling of an eye and his comportment these days depicts him as a man that is wrestling to remain sane. The bloods of people he wasted in the un-necessary war he declared in Iraq have started to hunt him. At home (Nigeria), think of the families of those �strong men� that were buried in the olden days with human heads or with human beings and how those families have fared now? I am sure such families encountered mysterious deaths afterward or the number of deranged persons in them are greater than those that are sane.

�SAINT BABANGIDA?�

The Vanguard Newspapers of June 13, 2008 with the caption: �Abacha, Akpamgbo annulled June 12 � Nwosu� wrote:

�CHAIRMAN of the defunct National Electoral Commission (NEC), Professor Humphrey Nwosu, has named the late Gen. Sani Abacha and one-time Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Clement Akpamgbo, as the principal actors in the nullification of the June 12, 1993 election won by the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola.

Prof. Nwosu at the launch in Abuja yesterday of a book chronicling preparations and events that followed the election exonerated the then military President Ibrahim Babangida from the events that led to the annulment, saying Babangida gave him the strongest support for to the elections.

Nwosu in the book revealed that Babangida �allowed the election to be conducted against the wishes of most of his military colleagues.�

I know Prof. Humphrey Nwosu personally; during my university days, he was one of the beloved lecturers in my department, others so loved like him were Prof. Nnoli, Rev. Fr. Dr. Ejiofor, Prof. Elochukwu Amucheazi, Dr. Ray Ofoegbu and Prof. Miriam Ikejiani. Prof Nwosu was loved because of his straightforwardness, forthrightness, his �saying it as it is� and his disarming smile. Nwosu is an intellectual colossus and a giant; he is more than 2 meters tall and has a massively built body frame. He always stands out in a crowd because of his physique and was first among his equals. Prof. Nwosu taught me at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in the mid 1980s, I am now so upset by this book that I can�t help criticising my respected teacher.

How time do change people: I am finding it hard not to go hard on my teacher, it is unbelievable that he is try to launder IBB�s dirty and soiled name by exonerating him of the atrocities of June 12. What Nwosu wrote in his book belittled and demystified him. Instead of that rubbish, Nwosu should have continued keeping Nigerians in suspense by holding his peace and respect intact. Afterall, he achieved nothing positive coming out fifteen years after to add virtually nothing to our knowledge of June 12. Everything he wrote in that book is peripheral, non-tangential and is tantamount to rhetorics.

IBB as the president then was ultimately responsible for every action taken as regards to June 12. It is an insult on Nigerian sensitivity for Nwosu to suggest otherwise by allowing himself to be used by IBB to lie to Nigerians and the world. I hope Nwosu by absolving IBB is telling us what we all know that IBB is a useless man who can�t take control and as such is not fit to rule us again. It is ironic that Abacha and Akpamgbo Nwosu blamed are deceased and can�t defend themselves.

Those trying to launder the soiled name of IBB clean are only wasting their time, people say that you can wash and comb a pig, but, a pig still remains a pig and no amount of �detergent� or �soap� can clean the stench called IBB. IBB can never smell power in Nigeria again no matter what Nwosu or another person does in trying to be his image maker. IBB and his ilk have no place or role when the new dawn comes.

TO BE CONTINUED

SELECTED FEEDBACK

BENARD ETOAMA wrote:

Temple,

I could not help but to salute you on this well thought out truth as it is in the piece you posted again. Titled; Nigerians Abroad. I�m still an ardent follower of your school of thought. Your piece is quite an assignment on our visionless leaders, who have refused to let truth and justice rule their conscience. How do we start educating our people, to start seeing the need to enthrone change for a better Nigeria? Our people are giving the impression that nothing good can come out of our country. But, if I may ask, by what means, do the leaders constantly siphon these monies out of our country? Who are their agents? Why do the international communities always close their eyes when it comes to bringing the loots of the poor nations back to their countries, why do they frown when the stolen money is leaving or flying out of their country?

You have simply raised a thought provoking discourse, and I salute you for this.

Ben, from USA

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