GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

MAURICE IWU, WRIGGLING OUT OF HIS GROSS DEFICIENCY?

Icheoku says, so what if the former senate president "lobbied" you to, in your own words, "annul the election so that a fellow Igbo man can become the interim president"? What is wrong, if his "being president of an interim government of Nigeria will benefit “our people”? Icheoku is merely quoting you! What happened to your candor, revealing a supposedly confided statement from one Igbo man to another? Are you guys no longer two Igbo brothers or are you smarter than the Yoruba or Hausa fraternal brothers who facilitate their own in Nigeria? Whatever happened to the famed "Igbo-kwenu" refrain or do the Igbos no longer "kwenu?" This your present dog eat dog attitude will not take the Igbos anywhere in Nigeria; because there are so many of your kind, the Maurice Iwus of Igboland, who are sabotaging the Igbo agenda and interest in exchange for the mere crumbles from their Hausa/Yoruba masters' table.
However, Icheoku like many other Nigerians do not believe your folk-lore as you are a proven carpet-beggar, who the entire mankind will never forgive for the charade you supervised in Nigeria 2007. Since Ghana electoral commission chairman exposed your under-belly, through the laudable election he recently conducted, you have been trying every manner of trickery to shirk responsibility for the nightmare which imposed Umaru Yar'Adua on Nigerians. Try as you may, the wool you are trying desperately to pull over the eyes of Nigerians will be in vain. Seriously speaking, Maurice Iwu, are you at peace with yourself at the election nay selection which you organised in Nigeria? Can you freely walk straight-faced, on the streets of any Nigerian city without fear of being lynched for what you visited on Nigerians in 2007? Sincerely speaking, Maurice Iwu, you are a disgrace to Nigeria, the Igbo race that produced you and to the academic world where you supposedly belong?
Assuming we believe your account of the incident, does your alleged encounter with Senator Ken Nnamani, also explain why the election you conducted was widely denounced by the entire world as a shameless dislocation of democracy? Aristotle and his Greek compatriots will chase you out of heaven, were you to ever make it, for truncating their democracy? You are simply a disgrace. Icheoku says, this will be our last commentary on you and your supposed election 2007 as we have more important things to fix our minds on, than a disgraceful munchkin who has caused Nigerian so much pain with a supposed election. Professor or no professor Maurice Iwu, were Nigeria to be a reasonable country where honor matters to people, you would since have jumped off the bridge for the disgrace which you brought to democracy in Nigeria.
You have now resorted to manufacturing evidence against anybody who criticises you and very soon you will start to accuse Icheoku of being a guerrilla media. You have already thrown your dart on Wole Soyinka and now it is at Ken Nnamani, as according to you, anybody who criticise the madness which you supervised in Nigeria 2007, must have an ulterior motive for doing so. How could any reasonable person expect the PDP to win another election in Nigeria after the nightmare called Olusegun Obasanjo? Ordinarily it is a logical impossibility but for the magical wizardly of Maurice Iwu, who surprised everybody with the outcome of his 2007 madness.
Icheoku says, President Umaru Yar'Adua should save Nigerians the continued nightmare of this epitome of gross incompetence, Maurice Iwu and remove him from INEC forthwith, for a fresh beginning. The longer Maurice Iwu stays at INEC, the more Nigerians will continue to lose hope in ever seeing democracy take strong footing in Nigeria; now the laughing stock of the world, after the class-act which was Ghana's election.

7 comments:

  1. Nigeria can never have perfect election –Iwu
    From JOE EFFIONG, Uyo
    Thursday, January 15, 2009


    Prof. Maurice Iwu
    Photo: Sun News Publishing
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    National Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Maurice Iwu, has advised Nigerians to forget the notion of a perfect election, as such is only a wishful thinking.
    Iwu who was in Uyo on Wednesday to attend the South-South/South-East workshop for the commission’s public affairs officers as part of their preparations for the 2011 elections, said during a courtesy call on Governor Godswill Akpabio, that since election was a human institution, it could never be perfect.

    The INEC chairman, while acknowledging the praises poured on America and Ghana for conducting free and fair elections recently, remarked that Nigerians lack discipline to participate in a free and fair election.

    “Those of you who went to Ghana recently have not told us that there were no armed men guarding the polling stations unlike what we have in Nigeria. The difference between Ghana and Nigeria is discipline. There is discipline in Ghana but we don’t have discipline to have such election here.

    “We are talking about the rule of law; but rule of law should not be limited to obeying court orders. Rule of law means that sequence and procedures must be followed; it should include accepting electoral loss; it should include accepting the verdict of election tribunal; it should include submitting oneself to rules of election. Democracy has no room for demagogic pronouncement,” Iwu explained.

    He said the commission chose to come to Uyo to start preparing for the 2011 election because of the peaceful nature of Akwa Ibom State; adding that there was a lot of civil education to be done to make Nigerians understand the intricacies of election.

    Akpabio, in his response, said Nigeria was a complex and difficult society especially with regard to election as such no electoral commission boss would be appreciated by all sections of the country.
    Akpabio said Nigeria had made electoral progress as witnessed by the upturning of PDP electoral victory in Edo State in favour of Mr Adams Oshiomole of the Action Congress.

    “But election should not only be seen to be free and fair where the opposition wins. In Akwa Ibom State PDP won 99.9 per cent of the votes. But we still need a lot of education even within the party, because during the primaries some aspirants would admit that they had lost, but they would equally say they would not accept the winner.”

    Akpabio explained that when PDP said it would rule the country for 60 years, it did not mean that it would rig itself into power for that period, but to show responsible leadership.

    He, therefore, asked Iwu to go round some of the states whose certificate of return he had issued to ascertain from the governors how they had performed in terms of development.
    Akpabio said Akwa Ibom did not have alternative to democracy because it had brought in development never witnessed in the history of the state.

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    Nzeribe: Nnamani Lobbied to Scuttle Presidential Poll
    From Nosike Ogbuenyi in Abuja, 01.15.2009

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    The controversy over the conduct of the 2007 general elections took another dimension with Senator Francis Arthur Nzeribe joining the fray by alleging that former Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, actually schemed to be made president of the country under an interim National government (ING) in anticipation of the abortion of the transition.
    Nzeribe, who was a member of the Senate during the time of the contentious elections alleged in an interview at his Abuja residence yesterday that he took part in meetings where the former Senate President tried to push through his ING ambition which would have spelt the death knell for the April 21 presidential election.
    According to him, due to the crisis situation in the country at the period, Nnamani wanted the support of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Maurice Iwu by not proceeding with the election but the INEC proved a stubborn obstacle by refusing to play ball.
    Apart from Iwu’s refusal to buy into the plot, Nzeribe revealed that “the plan failed because most of the senators rejected the move.” He said it was after the refusal by Iwu that Nnamani decided to go for his jugular by plotting to have him removed as the INEC chairman.
    “Whatever complaint Ken makes about Prof. Iwu, I know the origin of it. Ken is an aggrieved man. He feels very aggrieved. That Ken wanted to be Head of the Interim National Government is not a secret. We all knew of that ambition. There was nothing wrong with that ambition. I would have gone for it, if I had the privilege he had,” he said.
    Nzeribe’s submission came less than 24 hours after INEC made similar allegation against the former Senate President. But Nnamani had vehemently denied the charge of plotting to profit from the electoral crisis of 2007.
    In a statement on Tuesday, he said INEC’s leadership was an embarrassment to democracy arguing the hope of having a free and fair election can only be realised when Iwu is removed from office.
    He regretted that he did not evoke provisions of the constitution to order the Inspector General of Police to arrest Iwu during his tenure as senate president. He also denied ever soliciting for contracts from INEC during his senate presidency.
    Nzeribe pointed out that if the chairman did not have a resilient character, he would have been bullied into a very terrible situation that would have made it impossible to hold the presidential election. “I have heard it said that half democracy from Iwu is better than no democracy from anybody else,” he argued.
    Nzeribe revealed that the face-off between Ken Nnamani and Iwu predated the conduct of the April 2007 elections.
    He said the refusal of Iwu to co-operate over the ING ambition of the ex-Senate president was not the first time the electoral chief had had brushes with Senator Nnamani adding that Iwu had also declined to award contracts to his companies prior to the 2007 elections. The maverick politician however saw nothing wrong with companies belonging to the Senate president or any other senator seeking contracts in INEC or any other government department, agency or ministry.

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    Iwu: America, Ghana Elections Not Better
    From: Okon Bassey in Uyo, 01.15.2009

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    Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Maurice Iwu, yesterday attacked those who claimed that the recent elections conducted in America and Ghana were better handled than those done in Nigeria.
    “I know a lot of people have been pressing the American and Ghana elections but they do not want to accept that if the things that happened in America happened here, there will be street fight”, the INEC boss declared during a courtesy call on the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, in his office
    According to Iwu, “Not many people knew that the pronouncement and the results we saw on the television screen that brought Obama to office some of the figure, had been altered because there was human error and the people that conducted the election and actual counting found out that there were mistakes and actually corrected them.
    If INEC had changed any figure, there would have been civil war in Nigeria.
    “Some of you who went to Ghana said there was a particular polling station where they counted ballot papers because the person had not accepted he lost. People who also went to Ghana will tell you that there was no armed men guarding their offices because the people behaved in a civilised manner.
    According to him, the difference between Nigeria and Ghana elections was discipline, saying, “We lack discipline to be able to engage in a process “that call for discipline”.
    The INEC Chairman berated people who think democracy is not working in Nigeria , asking them to really do a real think saying Nigeria is definitely making a lot of progress.
    “There is no room for cynic in government. The people who are cynical should find some other jobs to do. There is no room in democracy for gorilla tactics. There is no room in democracy for spurious attack on people in leadership," he said.
    Iwu who was in the state to declare open a two day workshop for public officers of INEC, South South and South East Zones said the forum was to kick off the Commission's preparation for the 2011 elections and review performance in 2007.
    “There is a lot of civic education we need to do to bring our quality to what we want it to be. Regardless of what anybody will want to say, Nigeria had made a lot of tremendous progress. We have been able to transit from one civilian system to another. Our electoral system should not be perfect because it is a human institution”, he stated.
    The INEC boss insisted that the rule of law was not only by obeying court order. “The rule of law means the same sequent and procedure must be followed. And a rule of law means if you go to a law court and submit yourself to the tenet of the law that if you lost election, you should be gracious enough to say you have lost. Rule of law also means that if you have gone to a tribunal and you lost at the tribunal, you should be gracious enough to say you have lost, ” he affirmed.

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  4. AC slams Iwu over Soyinka, Nnamani
    By Olayinka Oyebode
    Published: Friday, 16 Jan 2009
    The Action Congress has said that the continued stay in office of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Maurice Iwu, has become an embarrassment to the administration of President Umaru Yar’Adua.

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    Photo File
    INEC Chairman , Prof. Maurice

    The party added this had emboldened him (Iwu) to insult national leaders who criticised his flawed election.

    The AC said in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that with Iwu’s continued stay as INEC boss and wasting public fund to abuse those who justifiably criticise him, the sincerity of President Yar’Adua to genuinely reform the electoral system would remain in doubt.

    The party said, “`Iwu, after the disgrace he brought to himself and Nigeria with the mess he made of the 2007 general elections, should not be allowed to continue to use the power of his office to further ridicule the country and make disparaging comments about highly-respected Nigerians.

    “But his continued stay in office could well be construed - or misconstrued? as a reward for rigging many of those in authority now into office, a point that is not lost on the flippant and shameless Iwu, who seems to be milking it to the hilt.’’

    The party wondered why anyone would attempt to ridicule a man like Prof. Wole Soyinka, whose level of achievements Iwu could not even dream of, just because he (Soyinka) dares to criticise a public office holder.

    ‘’For the avoidance of doubt, let us remind Iwu that Prof. Soyinka remains Nigeria’s greatest gift to the world, the most recognisable personality from these parts, whose trade mark white hair stands for intelligence, integrity, talent and wisdom - none of which Iwu possesses. While every nation can boast of a president or whatever title its leader is known by, not everyone can boast of a Nobel laureate.

    ‘’To use insulting words against such a man - who is perhaps more believable around the world than even the government that Iwu is serving - is a joke carried too far! The danger in Iwu’s behaviour is that his position may even be seen as representing that of the government he serves, further dealing a credibility blow to the wobbly Yar’Adua administration,’’ AC said.

    The party said equally astonishing were the comments credited to Iwu that former Senate President Ken Nnamani lobbied him to stall the 2007 election so that he (Nnamani) could become interim President.

    ‘’This statement, which no one believes, provides no greater evidence of Iwu’s continuous descent into irreversible infamy! Coming over 18 months later, it is nothing short of a figment of Iwu’s imagination.

    “This is because the Iwu we know would not have waited this long to make his ‘revelation’ if indeed it were true. Is this not the same Iwu who concocted the story of a truck bomb aimed at the INEC offices in Abuja by those allegedly seeking to stop the 2007 election? And just as it came, the obviously conjured truck disappeared into thin air!” AC said.

    It said Nnamani’s best legacy - and the memory that Nigerians have of his tenure as Senate President - is that he helped to thwart the illegal third term ambition of then President and maximum ruler, Olusegun Obasanjo.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Iwu blames electoral fraud on Nigerians
    Written by Udo Ibuot
    Friday, 16 January 2009
    CHAIRMAN, of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Maurice Iwu, has blamed indiscipline among Nigerians as the major problem associated with efficient electoral system in the country.
    Iwu, who made the assertion when he paid a courtesy visit on Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, observed that Nigerians displayed lack of discipline during declaration of elections results.

    The INEC chairman recalled that after United States of America had announced election results during the recent presidential election, some errors were detected and corrected after a few days, noting that a similar scenario played itself out during the recent presidential election held in Ghana, yet the people behaved in a civilized manner and mature way.

    Iwu argued that if such incidents were witnessed in the country, most Nigerians would have cried foul and protested against the outcome of the elections, adding: “There are human errors in every election and when such are detected, they must be corrected.”

    He admitted that the country’s electoral system may not be perfect because it is a human institution, but stressed the need for Nigerians to show understanding with INEC in the conduct of elections in order to sustain the country’s democracy

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  6. Sack Iwu now, ex-Rep, Arigbe-Osula tells Yar’Adua
    By BEIFOH OSEWELE
    Monday, January 19, 2009


    Maurice Iwu
    Photo: Sun News Publishing
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    Nigeria’s electoral umpire-in-chief, Professor Maurice Iwu has come under intense flaks over his statement that Nigerians should never expect a perfect election.

    Hon. Emmanuel Arigbe-Osula, former federal lawmaker and governorship candidate on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in Edo State in 2007 said the statement was both embarrassing and preposterous to say the least.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) boss had said in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State last week while attending the South-east, south-south workshop for the commission’s public affairs as part of their preparation for 2011 elections that is was wishful thinking to expect a perfect poll In Nigeria, since election was a human institution.

    But in a swift but angry reaction, Arigbe-Osula in a telephone interview took the INEC boss to the cleaners for publicly exhibiting his incompetence for the job

    “This defeatist statement is very dangerous and a threat to our nascent, but highly flawed democracy, no thanks to INEC. He has openly admitted what the whole world already know; that he lacks the ability, integrity and positive resolve needed to continue to lead INEC”, he noted.

    Arigbe-Osula said Iwu should either resign or be fired immediately by President Umaru Yar’Adua “because he has already ridiculed the electoral reform that the President says he is committed to even before most Nigerians have opportunity to read and consider the report of the Justice Mohammed Uwais-led Electoral Reform Committee in the first place.”

    According to Arigbe-Osula, even if the President fails to see the insult and rubbishing of what he wants Nigerians to believe, (electoral reform), Prof. Iwu’s open admission of his inability to do the job is sufficiently insulting to all well meaning Nigerians who want democracy to succeed.

    It is Arigbe-Osula’s contention that Prof. Iwu’s utterances is capable of making Nigerians loose faith totally in our type of “Iwuruwuru democracy which is one of the worst in the world.”
    He said Nigerians must not loose faith in democracy as the only way out despite the hopelessness that Iwu prophesy.

    He said most of INEC staff should have been sent to Ghana to understudy the conduct of their election, but since that is late, we can at least send Iwu. “Maybe that will change his mind about free and fair election in Nigeria.” On the alternative, he said Iwu can be sent for a tutorial under Prof. Humphrey Nwosu who midwifed the 1993 election acclaimed as the freest and fairest that has ever been conducted in Nigeria, but which was annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida.

    X-raying the report of the Uwais panel, he said committee report did not go far enough to deal with the likes of the “unscrupulous people we have running INEC.”

    According to him, ‘the report should include a 10-years jail sentence for any INEC officer who supervised and participated in a rigged election, while also banning them from holding future elective position or seeking any government office in the future.

    “All elected public office holder who aid, associate, encourage, participate and benefit from electoral malpractice sufficient to alter the outcome of an election should not only have the election annulled or be replaced by the petitioner, in cases where re-elections are ordered, but must be excluded from participation in the rerun.”

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  7. ERC’s final report will determine Iwu’s fate -Rep
    Written by Onimisi Alao
    Tuesday, 20 January 2009
    Whether or not Professor Maurice Iwu will remain chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct the 2011 general elections will be determined by the final recommendations of the Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) which submitted its report to President Umaru Yar’adua last year, Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters Musa Sarkin Adar, has said.

    He told Daily Trust in an interview during the weekend, “There are areas of the report that I cannot speak on because the report has not been made public and has not reached us officially. But the report has prescribed criteria for appointing officers of the commission. We will all see details of the criteria when the report is made public. For now, I cannot say whether or not Iwu will remain to and possibly beyond 2011 or will be weeded out before then.”

    He said, however, that Iwu, like other Nigerians, would be free to reapply for the position if the recommendations would say so and if it became necessary to declare it vacant.

    He explained, “If the criteria allow him to put in his application like others who may be interested in the office, then so be it. The procedure should turn up the next person to head the electoral body who may be Iwu or anyone else.”

    Professor Maurice Iwu, it could be emphasized, has faced much fire from Nigerians and foreign observers alike over how he coordinated the general elections of 2007. Reports of rigging across the country were rife. The situation was bad enough for President Umaru Yar’adua who emerged president from the faulty electoral process to admit that the presidential election, like other elections before it, was indeed faulty.

    One significant thing he did to pacify the country was the setting up of the Electoral Reform Committee which, under former Chief Justice of the Federation, Muhaamed Uwais as chairman, submitted its report to the President late last year.

    Many Nigerians have however not been optimistic that Yar’adua’s government will work on the recommendations of the committee, not to even talk about whether or not the recommendations will successfully solve the problems that have discredited past elections

    Possibly to rest the issues, Musa Sarkin Adar urged the President to be fast in treating the ERC Report. He said, “I advise the President to hasten action on the report for early implementation by way of sending it to the National Assembly as executive bill for the necessary legislation and legal backing

    ReplyDelete