NIGERIA: POLITICS OF 'BOW AND GO'

Ok, that is it. My Obama euphoria is over!!!!…I was all high with excitement and flowing in clouds for the last several weeks, feeling like I’m smoking that good shyt and planning to be in DC for the inaugural with my flowing white babariga repping Naija in the front seat on the White House lawn when I stumbled into this -“Obama's election and the needed change, by Obasanjo. Com’on, is Obasanjo serious?…OBJ of all ignoramus Nigerian leaders, writing an exposé on Obama’s presidential election or who did he pay this time to help spout his santimonious gibberish?! Do this man have an original thought in his medulla oblongata? I’m sick of Sarah Pain-lin, but geez, OBJ just sounded like a male clone of that brain dead woman. Hear this: "Obama's movement which began in the US and which had seen the Senator through to victory in the election has swept all over the world. He out-campaigned, out-strategised, out-funded, and out-debated his Republican rival, Senator John McCain. The crowd drawn by Obama during his visit to Europe was nothing short of a movement and it was simply electrifying. I must express my admiration for the managers and advisers of Senator Obama during the campaign. They were cautious, meticulous, and painstaking; they left nothing to chance. They checked and crosschecked everything and every milieu.”
Ok, STOP PRESS OBJ! Reading this gibberish, one would have been moved to tears if only Saint OBJ had remotely practised the ideals he sooo espoused in this article. In his eight years in office, he was not only a tyrant, but a visionless and corrupt leader. His regime was characterised by a litany of broken promises to Nigerians, as he descended to the level of a despot in dealing with all opposing views. His re-election was hogwash. OBJ out-campaigned, out-strategized, out-funded, and out-debated (debate, ke?) his political opponents by using state funds as his personal treasury to entrench himself in office and to impose another imbecile 'democratic' Yardua govt.

After so many months of soul searching and being pulled by countless strings from all sides by his political thugfathers, President Yardua finally came up with a list of his 2nd batch of 'selected' ministers. It is ironic that while there is so much talk about getting rid of the Nigerian quota system, Yardua is still abiding by this rule in nominating ministers from each state of the federation. The main rukus however was over the senate tradition of“"Bow and Go" where nominated ministers were not being grilled or allowed to take questions during their confirmation hearing in the Senate, but were simply allowed to introduce themselves, then take a bow and leave. One of the loquacious senators, Uche Chukwumerije took umbrage to this mediocre, pat-in-the-back, charade of a ministerial confirmation process as a subtle form of bribery: "My point of order is my privilege and right as a Senator of the Federal Republic and as somebody who speaks on behalf of the people of the country, not just the people of my constituency, it is very much a breach by this bow and go short-circuit. By the bow and go short-circuit, you are depriving not just us here but through us the tax payers public of this country of the opportunity"
I wholeheartedly second Chukwumerije in accusing the other senators and the Senate president David Mark, who has been orchestrating this tradition or subtle bribery; for their do-nothing attitude and political scheming in confirming ministerial nominees. Dont these senators know that Nigerians deserve to ask legitimate questions of these selected ministers? And to question them on what they are actually going to contribute to the growth of the nation and in moving Nigeria forward? To question their integrity and honesty in relation to their shady past in government, considering the fact that most of them are being recycled and for never accomplishing anything while they were in past govts. Dont the Nigerian senators have to vote for or against the confirmation of a political appointee? Is this a matter of being selected as ministers for a second round of looting galore; or is it merely to fill a gap of a biased and discrimatory Nigerian quota system? "Bow and GO" is a disservice to Nigerians and should be scrapped immediately!!!!!

Anywayz, sorry I have to talk about OBJ again! Guess where Obasanjo has been hiding these days? Well, that's easy to figure out; he is hanging out in the Congo - “Obasanjo hopeful on Democratic Republic of Congo crisis. Wonders shall never end - OBJ is now a UN Ambassodor?! Brokering peace in war torn Congo? Ok, this is freaking hillarious. LOL! How can OBJ try to secure peace in the Congo when his own govt festered an open wound with militants in the Niger Delta? Should’nt Obasanjo be working to secure peace and healing Nigeria after his backward regime of 8yrs rather than lobbying for a job with the UN to make some peace outside the shores of Nigeria?…Why didn't the UN send OBJ to Borokiri or Opukushi or Harbour Creeks in the Niger Delta so he can actually be in a war front and talk to the militants there. Trust me, I am all for peace in a neighboring or African country; I do NOT ever want to see another Rwanda in our continent; but geez…..Our Niger Delta is fast becoming one; a hotbed of violence and mayhem which were allowed to flourish into a kidnap-an-expatriate-for-ransome business while OBJ was in office; and sadly enough, that business is now turning into a full blown war. How can anyone try to put out the fire in another man’s house when his own house is been gutted in a raging inferno? Now just so we don’t lose sight of what is going on in Nigeria; this is just a reminder of what happened in the Niger Delta this past couple weeks - “JTF, militants in five-hour shoot-out! Having OBJ in the Niger Delta in securing the peace will be a real peace mission.

At the start of Yardua administration, most Nigerians gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was going to be tough on corruption and combat fraud in our political landscape; with the manner in which he was dropping the “rule of law” mantra left, right and center. I was a little bit skeptical at best; looking forward to the day that the Nigerian govt. would actually do something about rogue politicians, who do not have any shame in displaying their ill-gotten wealth! However, this is nothing new in Nigeria, but today the PDP seems have taken the show of corruption to a whole new level and even with President Yardua now at the elm of affairs of the ruling political party when - “PDP rakes in billions at fundraiser!
Ok, raising money in a political fundraiser is great!…but for a PDP secretariat? For an office building? Haba! With all of the dilapidating infrastructures that Nigeria is so bedevilled with - bad roads, failing schools, hospitals in shambles, no power electricity grid, one would think that these politicians would be fundraising to fix our broken infrastructures; rather, they are all in show of shame donating billions of stolen wealth…to erect a single structure; just to curry favors from those in power or the PDP Yardua govt. This is reminiscent of OBJ fundraising to build a presidential library while he was still in office. Nigerian politicians do not need billions worth of state of the art PDP secretariat to win elections; neither do they need to show who has the most stolen bucks in the bank….they just need to fix our broken political system and ensure that they do not trample on our individual and constitutional rights in choosing our leaders; when we actually have a true election!!!

Until that day when Nigeria will have a free and fair, unrigged elections, I am going to take my "bow and go"!