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.

Showing posts with label indian election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label indian election. Show all posts

Thursday, April 23, 2009

INDIA ELECTIONS, A CASE STUDY FOR MAURICE IWU'S INEC?

As the biggest democracy in the world continues with their one month-long general election, Icheoku says Nigeria's Maurice Iwu should pay special attention to understand how India gets it right? With 714 million registered voters going to the polls through a one month period, Icheoku says the electoral body that could pull such a feat is worth understudying? We therefore call on Nigeria's "Independent" Electoral Commission to send some delegation to India to study how the biggest democracy in the world could successfully organise such gargantuan elections without much shenanigans? It is also instructive that for the past 60 years, the Indians have been playing this their yeoman's electioneering feat, without much hitches or as many court challenges of the results, as the 2007 Maurice Iwu's fraud in Nigeria? This by itself is a feat which very electoral body in the world, including Nigeria's INEC is encouraged to see what the Indians are doing right and emulate their example.
As rural as India is, with a widely varying geographic and climatic zones which has somewhat being described as constituting a hellish logistical nightmare; Indians still conduct free and fair elections throughout their vast territory and adjoining islands, from the snow-covered mountains in the Himalayas, to the deserts of the Rajasthan and in sparsely populated islands in the Indian Ocean. India's electoral map is one heck of a maze that it takes an entire one month to conduct elections, in parchments of constituencies? Elections in India is such a huge undertaking that it is conducted in five phases, with voting on April 16, 22, 23, and 30, then May 7 and 13; with the results announced a few days later on May 16, 2009. The undertaking involves 1000 political parties, 800,000 polling stations, 543 constituencies, 1.1 million electronic voting machines manned by four million election officers and six million security details to solely monitor the elections? Icheoku says what a mammoth exercise in electing a leadership?
And this is a country with so many poor people and acute illiteracy among its population, that over 700 million of them still live below poverty line, on less than $2 per day and without basic education? Yet they can organize elections for 700 million of their registered voters! But Nigeria with less than 40 million registered voters cannot organise an election that is free and fair; but qualifies as a "selection of a band of thieves by a band of menacing thugs and their cabals", who subsequently loot the nation's coffers dry? Until there is a re-thinking by the sack of manure in Nigeria high-ups, and with surgical intervention in INEC, it is going to remain same old same old and Nigeria as always, will be worse for it! Inept leadership produced by a fraught electioneering system. Icheoku says, Maurice Iwu's INEC could use some of this Indian magic which has been on display since 1947 and cause it to rub off and change things in Nigeria? One other thing worth emulating from the Indian election, is the practice where each registered voter's picture as well as their identity card are included in the electoral rolls? With this in place, how can there be ghost voters or electoral fraud as obtains in Nigeria?

Pictured right is chief election commissioner of India, Shri. N. Gopalaswami, 62, appointed by the president on the recommendation of the prime minister, who is steering this ocean-liner of an election? He is reputed to be no nonsense, very loyal, honest and dynamic person! Story has it that as one time municipal commissioner of Surat, his party's leader had approached him with
a bribe of 5,000 Rupees but he reported him to the chief minister and had police arrest him for attempt to bribe a government official? Tell that to Maurice Iwu of Nigeria and he will say your head is not correct?
Established in 1950 as a permanent constitutional body, the commission initially had only a Chief Election Commissioner but now has three officials including a Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners. They reach decisions by a majority vote of 2 to 3. The President appoints Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners. They have tenure of six years or up to the age of 65 years, whichever comes first. They enjoy the same status and receive salary and perks as available to Judges of the Supreme Court of India. The Chief Election Commissioner can be removed from office only through impeachment by Parliament. At the state level, the election work is supervised, subject to overall superintendence, direction and control of the Commission, by the Chief Electoral Officer of the State, who is appointed by the Commission from amongst senior civil servants proposed by the concerned state government. The Secretariat of the Commission has an independent budget. Among its duties, India's Election Commission ensures a level playing field for the 1000 political parties. Now it will be easier for Nigeria to model her electoral reform with what works, the Indian example! With India's 1000 political parties as a backdrop, the attempt by the leadership in Nigeria to clobber the whole polity into the PDP should be condemned as an affront to freedom of association?

In India, the opinion of the election commissioner binds the president unlike Nigeria, where the president dictates to him who "wins" which seat? Also the judiciary does not intervene in the actual conduct of the polls. Once the polls are completed and result declared, the Commission cannot review any result on its own. As regards to legal challenges involving the office of the president, such can only be filed before the Supreme Court? India's 35 constituent States and Union Territories are grouped into election blocks for convenience of management. Admitted that INEC allegedly visited India in the past to see how they execute this humongous task, but who knows if it was not just a means to share some estacodes? The conduct of India's election has been described by some observers as the largest single event in the world? Simply stated, the India's model of staggered election will work miracle in Nigeria; and Icheoku says, if India can do it why not Nigeria?