Ahmad
A week can be a pretty long time in politics. Last week, saw the height of spin when Tanimu Yakubu, Yar’adua’s Economic Adviser turned himself into a megaphone of sorts, telling Nigerians in a well-coordinated performance, that was syndicated in many newspapers, that the ailing president spoke to key government officials, on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010. The absurdity of becoming the spokesperson for the vice president, senate president and speaker of the House on that occasion was probably lost to him and the other people orchestrating the machination of spinning Nigerians into further confusion. Of course, the individuals concerned were obliged to play along. It is a very old game of courts. During the reign of Akbar Muhammad Jallaludin, one o f the most famous of the Mughal rulers of old India, a court adviser asked a visiting peasant regarded as a wise man in the presence of the King, just what he (the adviser) was thinking at that moment. If he failed, he would be beheaded. The wise peasant thought for about a minute and replied: “You are thinking that our king is a very, wise king; the best in the whole universe, he cares for the entire society and you’re praying, that long may he reign”! The adviser acknowledged immediately that the man was right and applauded!
Even if Jonathan, Mark and Bankole did not speak with President Yar’adua, they naturally had to play along in an elaborate game o f deception which the ‘Katsina Mafia’ has foisted on our country. Furthermore, isn’t Yakubu Tanimu said to be one of the most important of the sidekicks of the president? He can therefore hijack the role of presidential megaphone at least for that instance; because the truth is that they had boxed themselves into a corner with the medieval manner they have handled information in respect of the president s ill-health. They brought the template they used in Katsina, when Yar’adua was said to be out for about six months, during his first term as governor and thought Nigerians can be manipulated like people were in Katsina state. They did not reckon with the restiveness of so many sections o f the country neither did they seem to be bothered about the unfavourable reputation they’ve been earning for Nigeria. But if anybody thought that the paralysis around was a product of genuine naivety, even Donald Duke, himself a PDP member, noted that they fail in governance, but they have not stopped awarding contracts!
An equally interesting piece of the jigsaw was the belated attempt by the PDP governors, led by Bukola Saraki, to become more assertive after the initial untruth that Saraki and Yuguda saw Yar’adua in Saudi Arabia and he was in good shape. It is now clear that we were lied to by the governors, because they were not allowed to see Yar’adua. The new thing is that the impasse has led to a re- assessment of the political situation; the governors do not want to tie their political fates to an ailing president whose condition they were unable to verify. That was why they launched a “solidarity visit” to Goodluck Jonathan. The circumstance seemed to have favoured Jonathan, just for a week and the Katsina Mafia was rattled that the elaborate charade was about to blow away like straw in a storm. Tanimu Yakubu‘s group played g fast one by roping the vice president, senate president and House speaker into the telephony loop and on Tuesday this week, delivered-what in French is called a coup-de-poing by getting what was said to be President Yar’adua’s voice on the BBC!
A patriot will ask just why the BBC and not NTA and Radio Nigeria? Was our man elected in Britain? Why must the charity of those who rule us always begin abroad? Do these chaps realize what patriotism really mean? Do they have an iota of respect for the Nigerian people at all? Maybe these were not the considerations for them at the moment. They have at least diffused temporarily the wild rumour of the past week that the president was dead. But they cannot sleep easy, because the mass mobilization and street manifestation movement has been re-launched. On the day that Yar’adua was made to speak for 58 seconds on the BBC, Nigerian civil society activists reclaimed the streets to remind those who manipulate Nigeria in smoke filled recesses that this country belongs to the Nigerian people. Yar’adua is Nigeria’s president, even when he also belongs to his family and his sidekicks; and for as long as he remains the president of our country, Nigerians have a right to information about his state!
THISDAY Newspaper invites war criminals to celebrate Nigeria’s Independence The front page of THISDAY newspaper of Wednesday, January 6, 2010, carried a carried a report that former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair and former US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, have been invited to attend an Awards ceremony to celebrate Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary. Of course a newspaper has the right to invite whosoever it chooses to, but our media must also be sensitive to international opinions as well as respect the memories of our nation’s heroes and the struggle to achieve independence.
THISDAY said these two individuals “will be discussing the theme: ‘Nigeria in the next 50 years”. The paper then regaled us with a very impressive CV of these two imperialist politicians as if that was all there is about them. It is an unforgivable act of omission to ignore the fact that the two individuals ARE WAR CRIMINALS!
Tony Blair as British Prime Minister, was the notorious lapdog of George W. Bush, who joined the illegal American invasion of Iraq in 2003, on the basis of lies and dodgy and “sexed up” intelligence that Saddam Hussein could weaponize nuclear missiles in 45 minutes. Subsequently, there were no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq after the invasion and occupation. Condoleezza Rice was the National Security Adviser to the George W. Bush administration which launched the invasion on the basis of fraud and lies, ignoring the UN. More than one million Iraqis have lost their lives and millions more have been injured or are in exile. These are the war criminals that THISDAY newspaper has chosen to invite to grace an occasion to celebrate our country’s independence. It is mind-boggling and unacceptable! Nigerian civil society groups must make it impossible for war criminals to enter our country by launching a campaign against the imitation. A few months ago, they launched a campaign against a proposed visit of President Omar El-Bashir of Sudan, for alleged crimes in Darfur. This is the time for our civil society groups to launch the biggest campaign ever against mass killers of the people of Iraq. Tony Blair and Condoleezza Rice should not be welcome in a country of decent people and Nigeria is a decent country. These two individuals have blood dripping from all parts of their body and the flesh of Iraqi children is hanging on their teeth. They should be facing their fate at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, not visiting Nigeria!
