Pilgrimage and the Nation

    At the last count about 66000 Muslims and 30000 Christians will be going on pilgrimage this year. A whooping N70 bn will be spent largely by the three tiers of government. This is a sum of money that should ordinarily be spent on the real sectors of the economy. Juxtapose this with the latest news where WAEC is threatening to withold the results of 13 indebted state and the criminality of the political actors in this farce called state sponsored pilgrimage is laid bare. These are the same states that throw money into the Pilgrim cesspool. Government - sponsored pilgrimage is a scam. It is both a religious and an economic scam. It is a religious scam in that Pilgrimage is a personal journey and should therefore be personally driven. It is more fulfilling when a pilgrimage is embarked upon solely by the individual devoid of government sponsorship.

It is an economic scam in the sense that their is no known criteria for inclusion into the scheme. Everything goes. Inclusion is based primarily on political patronage. An exercise where public money is spent on a scheme whose inclusion criteria is nebulous should be strongly discouraged.
      Nigeria is by no means a spiritual nation (what with a corruption ridden landscape) but only a religious one. Nigeria should divest herself from investing in non yielding ventures but rather invest in sectors like education where the results are positive and can be traced directly to the investment. Recently the Adamawa government voted N200m just to pray to end the Boko Haram scourge. N200m voted for so-called 'prayer warrior s'. These are all laughable misapplication of scarce resources that the people can jolly do without.  It is criminal to say the least. 

Of flags and Correctness

     It is amazing the fact that seats (literally) of power do not show the proper coat of arms of Nigeria.The above is the picture of a Governor with the coat of arms on the back seat showing the horses in yellow colour. Sometimes the flag is shown with the coat of arms in the middle (of course with the horses in yellow). This state of affairs has unfortunately become the new normal in most state houses in Nigeria. The lecterns are also not left out.

They are most times emblazoned with this 'foreign' coat of arms.The horses in the normal Nigeria coat of afms should be white in colour. Can we safely say these public functionaries are aliens and foreigners? No wonder they don't represent the people in governance. If a student is asked the colour of the horses in Nigeria coat of arms and he answers yellow would you say he is wrong? How can our political office holders seat on chair's chairs with some alien coat of arms on the back. If these anomalies occur in such high settings little wonder that Nigeria is in such state she is. National Orientation Agency(NOA) over to you.

Of flags and Correctness

     It is amazing the fact that seats (literally) of power do not show the proper coat of arms of Nigeria.The above is the picture of a Governor with the coat of arms on the back seat showing the horses in yellow colour. Sometimes the flag is shown with the coat of arms in the middle (of course with the horses in yellow). This state of affairs has unfortunately become the new normal in most state houses in Nigeria. The lecterns are also not left out.

They are most times emblazoned with this 'foreign' coat of arms.The horses in the normal Nigeria coat of afms should be white in colour. Can we safely say these public functionaries are aliens and foreigners? No wonder they don't represent the people in governance. If a student is asked the colour of the horses in Nigeria coat of arms and he answers yellow would you say he is wrong? How can our political office holders seat on chair's chairs with some alien coat of arms on the back. If these anomalies occur in such high settings little wonder that Nigeria is in such state she is. National Orientation Agency(NOA) over to you.

Buhari's Difficult Job

     President Muhammad Buhari rode to power on the strength of his anticurruption posture.  He has been in power in Nigeria since the 29th May 2015 without appointing key officers to his cabinet. Till date no cabinet exists, which means the retired General is currently at liberty to exercise some dictatorial powers as it were.  This means the President has free rein to arrest the decay  caused by corruption on the Nigeria psyche.
 

The moot question remains: can the General go far in his avowed anticorruption crusade?  I believe the President is damned if he did and dawned if he didn't. The simple reason being that Buhari rode to power with the active support of some known corrupt personalities. Buhari was (and is)  supported by politicians of questionable sources of wealth.  To move against such characters is to open Buhari to a campaign of being an ingrate. And no doubt these powerful politicians sure know how to manipulate the media to pursue their narrow and parochial agenda. If, on the other hand President Buhari decides to go after the opposition he would be accused of selective dispensation of justice.  It therefore seems the President is balanced precariously on the horns of dilemma.  How he chooses to move forward will, to a large extent, define his Presidency. 

Buhari's Difficult Job

     President Muhammad Buhari rode to power on the strength of his anticurruption posture.  He has been in power in Nigeria since the 29th May 2015 without appointing key officers to his cabinet. Till date no cabinet exists, which means the retired General is currently at liberty to exercise some dictatorial powers as it were.  This means the President has free rein to arrest the decay  caused by corruption on the Nigeria psyche.
 

The moot question remains: can the General go far in his avowed anticorruption crusade?  I believe the President is damned if he did and dawned if he didn't. The simple reason being that Buhari rode to power with the active support of some known corrupt personalities. Buhari was (and is)  supported by politicians of questionable sources of wealth.  To move against such characters is to open Buhari to a campaign of being an ingrate. And no doubt these powerful politicians sure know how to manipulate the media to pursue their narrow and parochial agenda. If, on the other hand President Buhari decides to go after the opposition he would be accused of selective dispensation of justice.  It therefore seems the President is balanced precariously on the horns of dilemma.  How he chooses to move forward will, to a large extent, define his Presidency. 

Salary, Workers, and their Governor

  Salary, Workers,  and their Governor 

    Watching Coretv some days ago I saw some on obviously paid miscreants in Imo state demonstrating in support of the Governor,  Okorocha.  The kernel of their demonstration is that the striking workers of the state should be given the boot and that they should in turn be employed instead.  It is instructive to say here that the state workers are presently on strike due to the government inability to pay their five months (and upwards) salaries. It would have been laughable if not  for the seriousness of the matter.
 

That some group of people would want to take the place of workers who are presently on strike due to lack of salary speak volumes of their collective and individual intelligence. To think the Governor was on the entourage of president Buhari to the U.S last week.  Okorocha is however not the only Governor owing workers backlog of salary. I make bold to say these governors are either bad managers (read damagers).  Their respective administrations should be probed by the EFCC and allied anti-corruption agencies.  The livelihoods of untold numbers of workers and their hangers-on are  unnecessarily put in abeyance due to the actions and inactions of these governors