Dimeji Bankole, the Nigerian Speaker of the House of Representatives’ suggestion that Nigeria should consider coding its crude oil at face value seems a rational one, except that he did not quite explain how this should be done. While chemical “coding”, in the context Bankole seems to refer, is possible and actually used to distinguish batches of certain chemical products through the use of additives to serve as chemical markers. It is used usually in highly purified substances that have identical chemical and physical characteristics regardless of their source of origin.
Crude oil as it turns out have different chemical and physical characteristics unique to their source. In fact, no two wells anywhere in the world have been known to exhibit the same chemical and physical characteristics. Physical characteristics such as spectrophotometry, rheology, sedimentation rate, specific gravity, even color and organoleptics may be employed along with chemical characteristics such as fractional component assay, gas chromatography, HPLC, voltammetry, NMR, Pyrolysis, mass spectrometry etc as analytical and assay methods. All these are enough to pinpoint not only the country of origin of the crude oil, but the exact well from which it was drilled.
Bankole was either shooting off the cuff in the characteristic ignorance that pervades the Nigerian body politic, or was setting the stage for a future multi-million dollar crude oil additive contract for some of his friends waiting in the wings to execute yet another scam to game the system and loot the coffers of Nigeria. Besides, what is the cost of adding this so called "code", its decoding and other attendant administative costs? Assuming this is possible, what is the cost/ benefit analysis? Any leader worth his salt should be capable of critical reasoning and Bankole fails to exhibit this with his asinine suggestion.
The importance of being earnest is the only reason why I try to tell the other side of the story to the bunch of people that make up the Nigerian Polity and their cohort. Someone just tried to hijack my blog. I suspect it is the Nigerian Government trying to shut me down, but their low-tech approach is no match for someone so tech savvy as myself.
i will continue to blog about the truth and injustice perpetrated by the nefarious cabal of clowns that rule Nigeria. My brethren and sisters make no mistake I shall blog as is true to my name until the dawn of time or my last breath whichever comes first. Thence, stay tuned.
Nigerians lament the choice of Ghana as President Barack Obama’s first port of call on the highly popular first Black American President’s first official visit to Sub-Saharan Africa.Ghana, which enjoys relative peace and stability, seems a natural choice over the chaotic and fractious situations in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya, other countries deemed to have been considered for the historic visit.
Nigeria, which touts itself as the giant of Africa has been stifled and plagued with civil strife and unrests in the Niger Delta and still struggles with its democratic process with many of its public officials indicted in gross acts of corruption and various numerous crimes. During the presidential campaign of Mr. Obama, the chairman of the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission was indicted for illegally collecting what was sold as contributions to aid the Obama candidacy despite the clearly spelled out disclaimer on the Obama website that foreign donations were not eligible.
The apparent snubbing of Nigeria by the Obama administration is appropriate. Obama should not be rubbing shoulders with the criminals and thugs that make the majority of the Nigerian public officials and politicians.
It appears the Yar’Adua government is taking its cue from Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan President whose military has just decimated the once feared LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) aka -Tamil Tigers, the terrorist separatist movement that held sway in northern Sri Lanka for 26 years under the leadership of Velupillai Prabhakaran, who was killed in the government onslaught.
Like MEND and other Niger Delta militant groups, the LTTE started off as a self-determination movement for the cause of an independent Tamil Nation in 1976 and soon metamorphosed into one of the most violent and ruthless terrorist groups in the world. The LTTE engaged in bombings of government, commercial and tourism infrastructure. Kidnapping and murder of opposition voices, extortion, intimidation and high profile assassination of political figures in South East Asia was their forte. The LTTE pioneered suicide bombing as a tactic and invented the suicide belt, which was used by a female Tamil Tiger in the 1991 assassination of Rajiv Ghandi, then former Prime Minister of India opposed to the LTTE cause.
Mr. Yar’Adua should pursue this campaign to conclusion, but must prevent it from escalating into a huge humanitarian crisis. Provisions should be made for the evacuation of innocent civilians from the conflict zones. A ceasefire for 48 to 72 hours accompanied by a massive information campaign by radio, air-dropped-flyers and television announcing the ceasefire window and urging the evacuation of civilians from the conflict zones should do. Wide media coverage should be given to the evacuation process and the militants sternly warned against holding back any civilian population they might want to use as hostages or human shields as the Tamil Tigers did, and still in the end, were defeated.
The fact of the matter is that true liberation results only from peaceful resistance movements. Mahatma Ghandi freed India from the British through this method just as Martin Luther King won civil rights for African Americans through his non-violent civil rights movement. Even the Great Nelson Mandela won his battle against apartheid only after he renounced violence. There is a good reason why the ANC rules in South Africa today and not the Inkatha Freedom Fighters of Mongosuthu Buthelezi. The terrorists in Palestine make it difficult to achieve a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because of the compelling argument of insecurity that they provide the Israeli authorities by their terrorist actions.
Were MEND and its ilk Niger Delta militant groups legitimate, they would recognize how out-of-date nihilist separatist terrorist movements such as theirs’ are. A critical look at these Niger Delta militant groups reveals that they are but only the visible element of what is indeed a very large criminal industry involving the militants themselves, gunrunners, hostage negotiators, pirates, “oil bunkerers”, politicians and corrupt government officials of agencies charged with supervision of the oil industry and development of the Niger Delta. None of them really has the interest of the locals at heart.
They murder moderate locals who seek a non-violent approach, steal crude oil by breaking oil pipelines, in the processes degrading the environment through oil spillages. They use the ransoms they extract to finance profligate life-styles - Asari Dokubo, former Ijaw Youth Congress boss, and MEND sponsor, owns a couple of grand mansions in Abuja and Port Harcourt, a fleet of luxury cars and runs a harem of three wives and several concubines. The Yar’Adua government would do the present day generation of Nigerians and posterity a world of good by routing out these militant groups now before they metamorphose into larger and intractable terrorist organizations like those in the Middle East. Yar'Adua should eschew political correctness (in the Nigerian context) and do every Nigerian a favour and excise this cancer that is the Niger Delta militant movement organizations.
There are rumours making the rounds about President Umaru Yar'Adua's bid for re-election in 2011. To justify re-election should not the incumbent be seen to have presided over some economic growth and improved developmental indices? Ever since Yar'Adua was foisted on Nigerians by the Obasanjo regime in 2007, the Yar'Adua led government has presided over the worst slow-down of government and a reversal of some the good deeds of the Obasanjo administration.
Nigeria's foreign debt is said to have begun a steady climb again after the debt forgiveness of 2005/2006 by the Paris and London Clubs negotiated by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, then Minister of Finance in the Obasanjo administration. The crisis in the Niger Delta continues to escalate so much so that Nigeria lost an estimated 6 and 8 billion dollars in oil revenue in 2007 and 2008 respectively. The activities of these criminal gangs from the Niger Delta have spread to other cities in Nigeria including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, where they have brazenly operated with impunity. The security situation is dire to say the least and the law enforcement and judiciary systems are up for sale to the highest bidder. Ex-governors and other politicians indicted for gross acts of graft walk free and act as the closest confidants to Yar'Adua and his cohort while stellar law enforcement agents of the ilk of Nuhu Ribadu and model ministers of the mould of El-Rufai are persecuted unduly.
Shame on those Nigerians who are seeking the return of such an ineffectual President as Yar'Adua. The man has not championed any policy or development since he assumed office in May 2007. He is the most lackluster and inept leader Nigeria has ever had. Even the evil Abacha championed some policies and development (PTF, BPE and failed banks tribunals to mention a few). It seems as if Yar'Adua is only in the news when he goes to Germany or the Middle East for a medical checkup or vacation. It is as if the man is on a perpetual vacation, while the country which he took an oath to govern is left to the dogs and hobbled by his gang of purloiners. In fact, it would probably be better off for Nigeria if the man took a permanent vacation today and not return to Aso Rock. Being so inept, he should resign and hand over to somebody more dynamic rather than seek a second term in 2011.
As the year 2008 draws to an end, most people the world over are taking stock of the past year, assessing what was done right and what was done wrong. In the United States of America, there is an air of enthusiasm as the citizens are excited at the historic election in November of the first African American President, Mr. Barack Obama, whose inauguration comes up on January 20, 2009. Even as America experiences its deepest recession since the Second World War, there is palpable optimism and high expectations of the ability of President Elect, Barack Obama and his formidable team to turn the tide on the economic downturn.
If the optimism and excitement holds up all through 2009, America, and indeed the world may emerge from the recession sooner than later. After all, a significant determinant of economic fortune is consumer sentiment.A positive sentiment usually means more demand, which often jump-starts production to increase supply to meet the demand.Of course all these require an able team to midwife with delicate precision, and the overall sentiment is if any team can achieve this, it is that being assembled by President Elect Obama. Such is the magic of the man.
Across the Atlantic, on the continent that bore the man who sired Barack Obama, the sentiments are just as optimistic and enthusiastic.Obama’s unlikely story and eventual peaceful election is iconic of what the ideal should be, even for Africans.Obama symbolizes the hero in many an African folktale that saves the day and leads his people to redemption, something which most Africans desperately need to be rid of their tyrants.All Africans (on the continent and in Diaspora) should be proud of this fine young man and his achievements, as he has forever demystified age-old racial stereotypes and low expectations of the black man.In Obama’s word, “Yes we can.” Blacks can be anything they set their minds, all it takes is hard work and a people and system that are fair and conscientious.But there stops the import to Africans of the Obama ascension to the US presidency.
Mr. Obama just happens to be an African American who was elected to be the President of the United States of America come, January 20, 2009.His primary responsibility and allegiance is to the American people and its interests.Those interests may well be stability in Africa among others and the Obama administration, no doubt, would do anything in its power to achieve this if the American people so desire it. But in the final analysis, the responsibility for the stability and prosperity of African countries rests squarely on their leadership and citizenry.Whether it be the genocidal junta of Omar Al-Bashir engaged in the ethnic cleansing by the Janjaweed in Darfur, Sudan, or the maniacal and demented regime of 84-year old Robert Mugabe in his tyrannical bid to hold on to power in Zimbabwe, impervious to the pleas of the international community and the consequential ruin his sit-tight posture is wreaking on his country, the responsibility is squarely Africans’.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Ugandan and Rwandan backed, Laurent Nkunda-led National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP)rebel army is in a civil war with the Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe backed Joseph Kabila DR Congo government forces.This is a war involving six of the poorest nations of the world.Granted, Namibia has a GDP per capita of about $5,200, making it one of the richer African countries, but it has an HIV prevalence rate of about 21% in adults, one of the highest in the world.The other five countries have equally high HIV prevalence rates and some of the worst socioeconomic indices in the world, yet they squander their meager resources on a complicated and fratricidal war.
In Nigeria, while there is no full-blown war, the situation in the Niger Delta is just as dire.Rogue pirates and criminals parading themselves as environmental militants are on the prowl kidnapping, killing, extorting, sabotaging, blowing up oil installations and illegally bunkering crude oil with impunity while the corrupt and ineffectual government of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua sits pat.With the potential of being one of the richest countries in the world on account of its rich human and natural resources, Nigeria has been hobbled by its deeply entrenched level of corruption that guarantees it a spot in the top-tier of the most corrupt countries in the world each of the 15 years Transparency International has published the corruption perception index (cpi).
The story in South Africa is not much better, only earlier this past summer in May, South African youths took to the streets to maim, rape and murder non South-African black Africans, particularly those from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana, Somalia and Ethiopia, who they erroneously blamed for taking up their jobs and using up government resources that would otherwise have been used to benefit South Africans. Many believed this rash of xenophobia was wrought and stoked by Mr. Jacob Zuma, the African National Congress (ANC) president and putative successor to the Kgalema Motlanthe led government when elections are held in 2009.
These are some of the sad tales of the African continent that bore Mr. Obama.The same blood that courses the veins of these lot flows through those of the President Elect.Yes indeed Africans are ecstatic at Mr. Obama’s election and even more vociferous about this are all the despotic and corrupt misanthropes in government all throughout the African continent (except perhaps Mr. Mugabe who hates everything western).It boggles the mind that these purloiners in power can recognize merit and a system and democracy that works while at the same time toil very hard to entrench chaos and turmoil in their countries in their bid to self-enrich and hold tenaciously on to power.To paraphrase Mr. Obama’s controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright of Trinity Church, Chicago: “…not God bless African leaders, it's God damn African leaders…”
