African Leaders and POWER

Power is the possession of control or command over others, and that is the exact act that various leaders have committed in all part of Africa.
The black continent has suffered various degree of bloodshed in recent and past, and all could be attributed to power share.
It is either our leaders do not want to vacate the post or they do not want the opposition to get there.
Mugabe of Zimbabwe is the most recent actor in this film of power, he is refusing to let go the leadership role he has abused for over 2 decades, despite been defeated in the March 29 election.
Kenya is still very much fresh in our memory, based on Kibaki refusal to accept defeat, innocent blood has been shed and people have to run from there homes to avoid being slaughtered.
In 2004, an umbrella group of opposition under the name Kifaya (which means Enough) emerged in Egypt to clamour for political change after 24 years of Hosni Mubarak., President Mubarak has had four six-year terms since assuming office.
In Burkina Faso , President Blaise Compaore ran again and won the November 13, 2005 poll. Compaore, a former army captain like Mubarak, seized power in a bloody coup in 1987. Trading his military fatigues for civilian dress, he went on to win two landslide elections in 1991 and 1998, never mind that the elections were boycotted by the main opposition parties, which complained that the electoral system was opaque and unfair.
In Togo, President Gnassingbe Eyadema died in office and his son smartly took over the mantle of leadership.
Also, in February 2006, Yoweri Museveni of Ugandareturned to power in a general election.
Paul Biya has ruled Cameroon since Novenber 1982, in Senegal Abdou Diouf served from 1981 – 2000 before handling over to Abdoulaye Wade.
Gadafi of Libya is the fourth longest-serving head of state currently in office and longest-serving head of government.
El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba of Gabon became President of Gabon in 1967. He was just 31 and the world's youngest president at the time. And 41 years after he still is the president.
Mathieu Kérékou of Benin Republic ruled the country for 17 years before stepping down
Our own Olusegun obasanjo planned and wanted to go for a third term but but Nigerians were able to get rid of him without any bloodshed.
It is glaring from the above that what African leaders do to remain in office is to amend the constitution to suit their evil desire to stay longer in power, they are certain of cheap victory because anybody that challenges them are either thrown into the gallows or sent to the grave.
Constitutional amendments, which extend the life of the incumbent, seems to be an agreed style among African Union member states, as no member nation has ever criticised one another for it.
It is high time Africans stand and liberates themselves from these wicked, demonic leaders.
We have to stand up for our right (because nobody will).
God bless Africa.

me and her

I know of a lady, we had it together in past but the tide of time swept out the passion and left us both emotionally naked. Time has passed and nature seems to be playing us back together
The way destiny plays us mortal, I just can’t but wonder “if only men knows tomorrow” . Right now we seem to be heading back on track and everything is happening so fast that I can’t believe my luck.
Maybe I’ve found what am looking maybe I have not, all I know is that it looks so real now and am not gonna let it go. To her i say you are loved and it is for real.

Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa.

It is no news again that sorrow, blood and tears looms largely in this southern part of Africa. This is a country regarded as the pride of Africa in some years back but as it is right now if divine intervention does not wade in, the avoidable might happen.
The turn out of event after the election state clearly that Zimbabweans does not want Mugabe any longer but as the thread in Africa whereby leaders force themselves on the people, he has refused to vacate the role and the opposition are threatening social revolution which always prove bloody and disastrous. Same happened in Rwanda and it is ongoing in Sudan.
A ship loaded with ammunition destined for Zimbabwe was rejected at the South Africa port and was seen sailing towards Angola. (The ammunition was sent in from china CNN April 20, 2008).
We call on Mugabe allies Thabo Mbeki, Nelson Mandela, and Moammar Kadaffi to please call on there brother to please step down in the interest of women and children and let peace reign in Zimbabwe.
God bless Africa

ghana 2008 a reflection of our society

Nigerian soccer fans were bitterly disappointed at the super eagle’s woeful display in the just concluded Nations cup in Ghana. Every soccer loving Nigerian has been on the look out for this tournament for so many reasons, ranging from an escape route to stress, a change from the constant political brouhaha always on the headlines, to witness the Super eagles flexing their superiority in Africa and so on. Ever since the disgraceful elimination in Ghana, Nigerians has been clamoring for Vogts head, But the problem goes beyond the unpatriotic players, uncommitted coach and scavengers of a NFA.
What happened in Ghana is just a reflection of the Nigerian government at large. It reflects the many wrong doings in the NFA or can we explain a contract that allows the head coach to work from the comfort of his bedroom in Germany while he coaches a country in Africa. (Strange isn’t it?
The I don’t care altitude of the NFA reflects the character of our leaders, like the NFA that care less about the faithful soccer fans, Our government care less about the life of her citizens. They care less about our educations, security, infrastructure, the children, the physically challenged and all.
Recently they proposed shutting down Benin bypass, because it won't stop consuming human lifes due to the bad state of the road, Lagos/Ibadan exp road is the shortest and surest road to the grave, Benin / Ore road is a very good death trap, the present administration accused the former of spending $10m & $16m on power, the result is very glaring for all to see!!!!!!
Asuu is proposing strike again which implies that the lives of our dear youth will be paused or wasted as always, very soon Adedibu will wake up and throw the whole Ibadan into chaos based on the veto power invested on him by the Federal government, the Niger / delta youth (militants) willingly choosed an occupation in kidnapping based on reasons best known to them, ritual killing is no longer a big deal, arm robbery attack is a normal occurrence, killing and looting, oppression, conruption,tribal killing based on ethnocentrism and so on………..
It is high time our leaders wake up and be responsible for the moving forward of this country, let them know it is not a pocket or account affair but the life of the unborn generation depends on the decisions they make today.
We clearly saw the unpatriotic spirit in our boys in Ghana which is a clear expression of what the government squeezed out of them. Our leaders need to instill trust into the people and make the common man believe in the color green white green again!!!!!!!
At least we have been sensible enough not to go the way of the Kenyans, Chadian, and Rwandans. Even the so called wealthy men will not live to enjoy there ill-gotten wealth if Nigerians should be pushed to the wall / war.
Enough has been said…………

kenya again!!!!!!!!!

The crisis in Kenya is an affirmation of my thread which i posted on May 30 2007 titled 'WHOSE PROBLEM'. The Kenyans are presently killing themselves under the pretense of election fraud.
The killing has left more than 500 people dead and over 250,000 has fled there homes.
After independence, Kenya promoted rapid economic growth through public investment, encouragement of smallholder agricultural production, and incentives for private (often foreign) industrial investment.
With a booming economy and tourist trade, Kenya had been considered a bright spot in East Africa. But its Dec. 27 election, which was supposed to be the pride of African democracy, sparked a spiral of violence after candidate Raila Odinga and his supporters accused incumbent President Mwai Kibaki of rigging the results.
What started as a political protest quickly turned into something much more bloody and dangerous, the recent event in Kenya brings to my memory Rwanda genocide, it all started like this. As it is now, the fight is a result of long harbored feeling between the country's two largest ethnic groups--the Luo, who support Odinga, and the Kikuyu, who back Kibaki. The two groups have been wary of each other since Kenya achieved independence from Britain in 1963, and the Luo have never held the presidency.
Two Olympian were macheted and burnt to death and there offence was for being a native of Luo, On Jan. 1, a church in Kiambaa where Kikuyu had sought refuge was burned by an angry mob. At least 50 people, many of them women and children, died in the attack.
Issues like this will hardly happen in the western world which actually makes me wonder if James Watson claims, "that Africans are of lower IQ than the westerners is true". I only can appeal and pray for our brothers and sisters in Kenya to shield sword and focus on peace.
Africans let be wise and let move on.
Enough of one step forward, a thousand backward.
Enough of ethnocentrism
Enough of prejudices
Enough is enough......

New Beginning!!!

It a new year, New beginning
It is a privilege to be alive in this New Year,
Another opportunity for all that are gone to come back for good,
An opportunity to make some more right,
An opportunity to be our brother’s keeper,
An opportunity to share more love and be more humane,
An opportunity to be much more sincere and honest in our dealings.
Basically an opportunity to live a better life than the previous.
Looking behind at the events of 2007, from the good to the bad and ugly, one cannot help but be grateful to the Supreme Being for having mercy on us.
As we go through the unknown New Year, I pray we achieve and get closer to our dreams.
IT IS A NEW BEGINNING

Will there be ever peace???

Says a late rapper “2pac shakur” in his album BETTERDAYZ. While listening to this particular track a while ago, alone in my closet I reminisced on the phrase in comparison with the happenings all around the world, I could not but help shake my head and wonder if truly there would ever be peace in the world, taking a look at the long fought war in Iraq, to the inter tribal conflict that is consuming Sudan, to the California fire out break that has defied all firepower approach in quenching it off, to a list that seems endless. I could only pray for peace to reign in the world to make it a better place.
My thought process was broken by the music of another rock artist named Nickel back “if everyone cares”, truly if you and I, your friends and my friends all care then we will see the day fewer people cries…
If you and I loves then fewer people lies…
If you and I should swallow our pride then nobody dies.
If everyone cares the world would be safer and better place….

Oprah got it all wrong

Recently, America’s TV girl, Oprah Winfrey, called on America to sever diplomatic relationships with world’s topmost corrupt countries.
Worst of all the countries, Oprah surmised, is Nigeria.
According to her, “all Nigerians – regardless of their level of education – are corrupt.”
It is very pathetic that Oprah could ascribe to a larger population, the evil act of an insignificant number of persons in the world’s most populous black nation.
Oprah’s conclusion is based on the fact that a Nigerian of Igbo extraction was caught with $500,000, which was alleged to have been stolen from a foreigner through the Internet fraud popularly known as 419.
Oprah had sponsored an hour-long programme, which ran for several days on the CNN, with the sole aim of exposing the clever tricks espoused by this group of Nigerians to con their victims.
Much has been said about the greed of the victims themselves, and I need not say more about it.
However, at a time when Americans are committing heinous crimes against children and women, nobody has tagged all Americans as murderous.
So, why call all Nigerians rogues because of the sin of a few bad eggs?
Oprah regularly tells her life story: how she was sexually abused by close relations, how she ‘walked the streets’ (Americans’ euphemism for prostitution), etc., but nobody has ever deemed it fit to tag all American men as incestuous because of Oprah and others’ experiences.
She did drugs – just like the typical American teenager, but nobody has cast all American youths in the mould of drug abusers!
So, why should an individual that is supposed to know better sentence a nation to odium for the infraction of a tiny fraction of its population?
I urge Oprah and her likes to disabuse their minds about Nigerians.
Be wary of requests for money from strangers, and if you fall for a scam, blame your greed and not Nigerians.

This is an adapt of Okoli Vitalis.

WHAT LEADERSHIP MEANS TO ME.

LEADER BORN OR MADE!
Leadership can be learned, we all have leadership potential, just as we have some ability to sing or run, some people may be better than others, but each of us has a starting point to build on with training and practice. Leadership is a process that helps a group to achieve its goals.
The person who exhibit leadership is someone that makes things happen that would not happen otherwise

WHAT MAKES A LEADER?
Leaders should be well organized and have made time in their lives and for their group; leadership is a mix of knowledge, values, skills and behaviour. Each of us has beliefs about what characteristics an effective leader should possess. Different groups will also have different beliefs or values about what “makes an effective leader than other groups have”.
It is important then for a leader to know his/her own abilities, knowledge, values and how others perceive them. For example if “trust is a quality which is highly valued by the group then it’s important for the group leader to be viewed as a trustworthy person.
A successful leader makes an effort to learn and practice skills, some of the more essential component are: knowledge and understanding, skills and ability to communicate, build teams, vision, value for individual, the group and its responsibilities.

whose problem

In the course of chat with a friend, we spoke about Africa and her problems; he was of the opinion that Africans are the cause of the problem while I belong to the school of thought of those who believe colonialism was the root of our problems.
Retrsopecting on the issue some days later, I came to a conclusion that both views were right to an extent but his view I believe had more weight, although truly speaking the white actually came to oppress in the name of civilization though leaving behind uncertainty after there forceful rule.
The question I now ask is what happened when the whites left? The Africa continent has refused to move forward taking a case study from (Rwanda 1994 genocide, Sudan killing still going on, Sierra Leone recently cease fire, Zimbabwe Mugabe making life miserable for his people) to mention but a few.
In almost all cases it’s a tribe fighting another over superiority or bad governance, when will Africa unite and leave Babylon? When will all the killing and looting stop? When shall will stop getting foreign aid? When shall we quit begging for western intervention?
All this can stop if we accept the fact that we are all one!!!
It’s high time we all come together and see ourselves as equals, as brothers and as one.
Finally, according to Anton Lembede a co founder of ANC ‘inferiority complex is the greatest barrier to liberation’. Africans need to liberate herself by seeing ourselves as ONE.
God bless mother Africa