By Adeolu Akinyemi
Everyday I engage with our generation and the one coming after it, I see that we are quite politically ill informed. The average young person has bought an ideology that makes them uninterested in politics. We somehow hibernate for 45 months in 4 year cycles. We become active for 3 Continue reading
You read right. In case you are wondering, in this season of political jamboree and rigmarole. I can see heated debates going on across the sphere of Nigeria and different strategies and re-strategies going on and taking place. Alignments and re-alignments of different interests, passions and thoughts are gradually building up steam that would snowball into a major confrontation come 2019. Personally, i believe the next election would be a defining point for our nation Nigeria. The question is, how aligned are we to that move of God that is about to take place?
Governance in Nigeria has been acrimonious and caustic as it can get compared to other Federating Nations of the earth.
Its been more of entitlement, appeasement and access to the cookie jar. But for how long can this last? Is there no solution in sight towards it?
Its quite interesting the cultural bias and the chauvinistic way our so called law makers shot down the Gender Equality bill introduced on the floor of the house.
While I don’t have the full details of the bill, I feel the argument to reject the bill should be more intelligent than belligerent, emotional and tactless argument based on culture and tradition.
Came across this picture on the social media some days ago and got me really thinking. As I sat and pondered over the picture, a wave of sympathy swept over me for the man and his child caught in a political high stakes game of war he didn’t sign for. A.refuge in his own country, I can’t help but notice the sad, dejected yet determined look on his face to make ends meet to feed his daughter and himself. The fact that he was carrying his daughter points to another issue, no accommodation. And his daughter Continue reading
Nick Clegg has been accused of trying to pretend the Liberal Democrats have nothing to do with signing off arms sales to Israel, even though Vince Cable, the Lib Dem business secretary, is in charge of approvals. Alistair Burt, a former Conservative Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, said the Lib Dems should not be trying to distance themselves from the issue, after the deputy prime minister called for some licences to be revoked if they had been used for repression in Gaza.
“I think, to be blunt, they are trying to pretend that Liberal Democrats don’t sign off arms exports to Israel, which they have been doing,” he told the BBC’s World at One. “Vince Cable has been doing that for the past few years, because it’s a joint decision he takes with the foreign secretary. I hope he will have assured himself that any exports to Israel are for their external protection and security.”
Burt said it was “no bad thing” to review arms exports but the UK already had strict controls. “This country does not export goods to any country which could be used for internal repression. That is in the law. The law is carefully scrutinised, not least by an extremely good Commons committee headed by Sir John Stanley,” he said.
Stanley, chair of the parliamentary select committees that oversee British arms exports, has asked the foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, for details of any military exports that may have been used by the Israeli army in Gaza. He also asks Hammond for more details of the government’s review of arms export licences, which was announced this week.
On Thursday, Clegg made clear he thought Britain should immediately revoke any licences for arms that had been used in the conflict. However, he stepped back slightly from arguing for the suspension of the sale of all military equipment to Israel, saying this should only happen if the ceasefire broke down.
Clegg has made clear already that he favours an arms embargo, but he set out his thinking more clearly in an LBC radio phone-in. “We must respect the strict criteria laid down in law,” he said. “We must look at what’s happened in Gaza to see if those criteria were breached … If it’s shown those criteria were breached, then never mind suspending those licences, they would have to be revoked.”
Clegg said no new arms export licences had been issued during the past month of violence but there could be a complete suspension if Israel and Hamas returned to violence. “We now have a truce. I think it is crystal clear and it would be unacceptable and wholly wrong for us to do anything other than suspend those licences if that ceasefire were to come to an end and violence were to break out again,” he said.
Senior Conservative figures including Andrew Mitchell and Sayeeda Warsi, who resigned as a foreign minister over the crisis, have said there must be an embargo.
Clegg is the only party leader to call for direct talks between Israel and Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation. Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, said this was “misguided” and wrong on Thursday, but Clegg’s position was backed by former Liberal leader David Steel, who also said Israel’s government was “treating Palestinians as lesser human beings in exactly the same way the South African apartheid government treated the majority of its citizens”.
David Cameron is under pressure to take stronger action against Israel after the UN condemned its shelling of a school as a moral outrage. The prime minister has not so far joined Clegg or Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, in saying Israel’s actions in Gaza have been disproportionate.
The total value of controlled export licences to Israel – which can be for commercial or military use – was around £8bn last year. The government and campaigners agree that the vast bulk of this – around £7.75bn – is for commercial equipment, mostly cryptographic software to supply Israel’s for mobile phone networks.
Documents obtained by the Campaign Against Arms Trade under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that since 2010 there have been £42m worth of licences to export military-only equipment to Israel.
Licences granted in the past year include a wide range of hardware, from components for naval guns and drones to ammunition, submarines and combat aircraft parts.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
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“The alimentary canal of our state ministers does not digest gold”…Dr Tai Solarin.
With the recent spate of events happening in our country, one is left to wonder of our ministers or leaders particularly the presidency is interested in the welfare of their people.
It leaves a sour taste to the mouth when people elected(selected) to lead act inured to the happenings all around us. I am left to wonder the sanity if those who voted them in not to talk of questioning their own sanity that is, if they do have!!!
The spate of bombings in our nation has now reached a peak that i am wondering and asking myself, are we at war?
And of a truth we are at war! War against the forces of mediocrity that has taken over our nation, war against politicians that care only for their belly, war against figurehead presidency who does not know his right from his left. war against poverty, war against environmental nuisance, war against corruption and the list goes on and on…
All these have eaten deep into our fabric as a nation that we have lost all sense of decency and decorum to discern what matters most and what does not.
To us, everything goes inasmuch as it does not hinder bread from coming to our table, not disturb our sleep at night.
We can’t keep like this for long, its high time the docile giant in us gets up and becomes bold and courageous. High time we stop acting like idiots who allow themselves to be governed by an idiot worse off than them (Jonas).
The waters of the ocean never moves, until the tide moves with the wind…….
Times I wonder the passion with which we criticize and castigate our leaders for flaws and errors of judgement that they make.
Several time I think to myself, if i am on that seat, to what extent will i go? Will i do worse or do better?
I have had reasons several times in the past to be wary of such and times without number i have been proven right on it.
What moral right do you have to judge someone when you are susceptible to doing the same thing and even worse off?
Scriptures read, remove the log in your eye before attempting to remove the log in another person’s eye. The moral, examine yourself first before you slam your neighbour. The good book also says, the same measure you use to judge others will be used to judge you. My point, i try to put myself in the position of the victim, if am that other end, how possible will i avoid not falling into the same pit?
Contrary to what does who are close to me may think, I perform harsh appraisal and do scenario playing on myself. And each time the way i react to people who do wrong is the way I would react to myself if am the offending party.
That is to say, when i walk into a mall, i will go to the section where i want to buy…there all that appeals to me will be selling to me if you get my point.
I find it objectionable if you condemn public holders for not following due process in their dealings but try to take short cuts, yet you take short cuts for granted.
You mock them for giving a political answer whereas you readily give a political solution to issues.
You criticize for double-speak yet you do a triple speak.
You criticize for swaying with the winning crowd, yet you sway to the side of whatever issue that suits your whims at any point in time.
You castigate men for not standing firm yet when you stand….you tow the same line…
You tell men follow this path but you turn the other way..
You preach peace with one hand holding the Olive leaf the other holding an SMG…
Am i absolving myself here…..nein…far be it because it’s a thin line and I fall overboard a times. But as i said earlier, i judge myself harsh if i do it.
But the question still is;
Where is the moral authority……..
This article titled “Nick Clegg challenged over Vince Cable role in approving Israel arms sales” was written by Rowena Mason, political correspondent, for The Guardian on Thursday 7th August 2014 10.24 UTC
samaderibigbe 