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.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

NIGERIANS MUST DISCARD OLD THINKING - BOLA TINUBU

"Mandatory rotation of elective positions in Nigeria is an affront to democracy and places us further down the road of selection rather than election. It exalts mediocrity and access over talent and worth. This type of mind-set is what had fed the anachronistic and false distinction between indigenes and settlers that has cost so many lives, destroyed so many communities and marred our national identity.  We must apply the constitutional guarantees in this kind of situation. If we must deploy tanks and armed soldiers for peace, we have already lost something. 

After the civil war, the military sought to re-fashion Nigeria in its own centralist image. They thought the way to manage the country’s diversity was to bury it under the suffocating control of an all-powerful centre. By imposing a unitary state on a naturally federal society, the military sought to substitute a chaotic diversity with imposed uniformity, which they thought was necessary to promote order and development. Unfortunately, all the supposedly democratic dispensations since the civil war have substantially mirrored the over-centralised and unduly bureaucratic military political cultures. The consequence of this rigid model retards pluralism rather than advancing it. The Nigerian state thus presents the baffling paradox of appearing at once so powerful when protecting the narrow interests of the elite, yet so fragile in providing the barest services of a modern nation to the bulk of the populace. 

Nigeria is run like a closely held private corporation with a revolving ownership.  While the leaders may change, one thing remains constant. Those who run the corporation, run it solely for their own benefit. A nation that does not respect pluralism and the diversity of its own people can never achieve her full potential. A disregard for pluralism means a disregard for the peculiarities of citizens. Any nation that operates with such herdsman mentality will only end up diminishing itself. To free ourselves of the old mental shackles, we must discard old thinking.  We cannot do this by talking as we have talked before. The problem is that we have not produced an alternative world view. People must think and act on something.  Before they leave the old, you must offer them the new, which is superior or more preferable. The nation that we model our government on has a saying, ‘from many, one’ to signify America’s unity.  We have distorted this fine saying in our own regard. Our motto has become ‘from many, even more. 

The progressives want to change the way we interact politically and economically to bring greater democracy and economic development.  The conservatives believe in the status quo, hence have gotten us into this hole. The progressives believe in the development of new ideas and its operationalisation. I believe when the progressives win power, they will be able to lift Nigeria out of the hole by turning our riotous diversity into cooperative pluralism. No more the lack of continuity in development planning which has seen different governments enunciate different and often confusing socio-economic policies." (Culled from speech delivered by Bola Tinubu at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, Plateau State.)

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