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Leadership is ‘the lifting of people’s vision to a higher sight, the raising of their performance to a higher standard, the building of their personality beyond its normal limitations’ (Drucker, 1985).{mosimage}This is very difficult for me, writing about a person instead of an issue. But I cannot resist writing about the political philosophy of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.Long before 1999, I have watched as this man fought on the side of progressives and later went on t...Read the full article.

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Balberdash i say!!utter tripe

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My vote for the most corrupt, greedy governor. I wonder how much you got paid for this drible. As a real estate developer in Lagos I know how he sqeezes us like a mafia don. What planet are you from? Drive through Lagos and tell me if 50% of the vehicles would pass an MOT. Look at the roads. Take Akin Adesola in Victoria Island loads of money spent for a piece of crap half to Tinubu half to Arab contractors and compare with a city like Calabar which at least works. Ask him why he can no longer travel out of Nigeria. People like you who kneel at the altar of these inept fools obviously want to wallow in the trough with them, that's why Nigeria is where it is. You obviously haven't absorbed anything from being in Indianapolis. People like you make me puke!

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This article is soooo rude and an afront to Lagosians. I do sincerely want to believe that you are either not a Lagosian or you have not been to Lagos in a while.
Where do you draw your efficiency of Tinubu's administration from? Are you saying Lagos State do not have its own citizens who can do better than his aides and are you aware that Tinubu himself is not even a Lagosian at all. Can he point to his family's heritage in Lagos, forget the 'my father has a house in Surulere' people.
Lagos State is surrounded by water and yet millions of Lagosians still have to travel miles to get potable water for their homes.
Lagos State, at its outskirts, have arable lands that can be used for massive agricultural development as practised in Europe and the US and yet common gari is as dear as a Rolex on your wrist.
Lagos State is busy selling houses to Nigerians at prices that even oil company workers will groan to pay. Do you know that in your Indianapolis, likewise in the UK, you dont have to be a banker to buy a house?
I do not need to go on here talking about what could be done and is being left undone by the 'one who's eyes is popping out'.
Tinubu is a shame to progressives and he is only there to butter his own bread like 99% of Nigerians in government (sorry i cant call them leaders cos they are not worthy of such an expression). People like you and I who have seen the better side of things away from our Nigeria should be able to express the way forward for the millions of Nigerians wallowing in poverty and not come here, either bribed or not, to eulogise any Nigerian in govt.

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thank you jare, for that reply what else can we call ineptitude when someone controls a state for 7 GOOD years and ordinary effective waste mgt mechanism he cannot bring up. VERY PHILOSOPHICAL INIT BROFF THE WRITER?.HE SHOULD PACK IS TINS AND LEAVE MEN.IF TINUBU IS DT COOL HOW DO U DESCRIBE DONALD DUKE. NO WORDS MEN
OBJ GO RULE DT CONTROL TILL TINS GET STABLE, HE DOESN'T MIND IF HE LOSES HIS LIFE ALONG THE LINE.

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This Is Ridiculous And My First Reaction Was To Laugh.

I Agree With The Above Responses And Also Want To Ask The Author The Political Philosophy, Which To My Mind Is Missing In This Article. Perhaps It Is Not Clear - Is It About Forgery And Getting Someone To Advise You To Apologise Later Or What.

The Progressives? Hmmmm...... Any Philosophy???????? Hmmmmmm.....


Honestly , This Article Is Anything But Progressive

Taslim

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Bola Tinubu is a teef! Not thief oh, but rather, a teef! Oooooole! The conditions EVERYWHERE in Lagos are deplorable! What has he done? Zero! Odo! The only roads that have been fixed are the ones that if your last name is "Tinubu" AND the street is in front of your house, then they will send town planning or whoever to come and fix it.

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George Bode: We will support Obasanjo for a third term because he had done well in the area of infrastructure development, education, health, telecommunication, power and economic reform. What drives the president is the fear of God's punishment if he failed to follow the wish of the almighty on his role in the salvation of Nigeria. One thing the president fears is the punishment that may befall him if he fails to follow the wish of the almighty God in playing his role to revamp the country.

Gani Fawehinmi: Obasanjo was not being sincere when he said that he was ready to die for Nigeria. His statement was propagandist martyrdom because it would not serve any useful purpose. He should be told in clear terms that he is living in a cocoon world of self-delusion if he does not know that most of his reform programmes have brought untold hardship, abject poverty, rampant unemployment, high cost of fund (interest rate), collapsing education and its standard, degenerating infrastructure, traumatizing health procedures, gross insecurity of life and property, lack of water, lack of electricity, etc.

General Buhari: The nation is under siege by an incompetent, corrupt and insincere leadership. Its actions or inactions in the last seven years have put the majority of our citizens into abject poverty. The massive unemployment leaves many youths with no other option than crime and thuggery to vent their frustration. There is a heightened level of desperation on the part of the leadership, particularly in the way the constitutional amendment is being handled. In their lust for power, they are prepared to put their selfish interests before the wider interests and well-being of the country. If they cannot get their way, let there be no Nigeria. This is how callous and irresponsible they are”.

Governor Tinubu: Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) received a N15 million bribe from the third term facilitators. Let them challenge me. I have it on good authority
Don’t be intimidated. But be resolved. If you allow things to go unchallenged, then you deserve whatever you get. No freedom or democracy is won on a platter of gold. No freedom is won without the commitment of some good people, the leadership and the general public. It happened in Ukraine, Kenya and Ghana. We must be people that are resolved and determined to take our freedom. It is taken and not served. No one serves the power and liberty a-lar carte.

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This is why some of us want absolutely NOTHING to do with some of you, because you do not know exactly what you want from the rest of us. If you wanted ONE UNITED SOUTH or ONE UNITED NIGERIA, the laws were there for you to use to achieve your objective. But you refuse to use the laws; instead, you have killed more Nigerians/Southerners for your own selfish gains than at any other time in Nigeria history. Nigeria is today more divided and more impoverished than before 1999.

One thing you have consistently proved is that you are sons of lies and would use propaganda and misinformation to run down anybody who wants to develop Nigeria.

If anybody criticizes your self-interested and divisive tendency, you call him a Yoruba hater. But nobody has done and said more things to rubbish the Yoruba tribe than you and your actions and words.

I implore all honest/serious Nigerians here to please take your time to read the following two articles about Tinubu and Obasanjo. One was written by an Igbo man and the other by a Yoruba man. Tinubu had worn all court cases against Obasanjo. OBJ refused to release the funds in dispute.

After winning all the court cases, Tinubu even agreed to a settlement proposed by Yoruba elders. This was when Fami-Kayode called OBJ the lion of Aso Rock. OBJ is still holding Lagos State funds till today in violation of the rulings of the Supreme Court and in total disregard of his words to the Yoruba elders.

If Taslim or Paul Adujie or Palamedes or any other OBJ propagandist knows the section of the Nigeria constitution that gives OBJ the rights to disobey the rulings of the Supreme Court, please let him state it here. Even President Bush of America can never disobey the ruling of any court in America.

To be honest with you, some of you are your own worst enemies, not the Igbos and not the Hausas or the Ijaws.

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The ‘lion’ of Aso Rock
Vanguard, August 2, 2005
By Chuks Iloegbunam

The problems surrounding the creation of additional local government areas in Lagos State seem over, thanks to the wisdom and counsel of Prince Bola Ajibola, a former Federal Attorney General, and some eminent Yoruba elders. Thanks also to Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos for demonstrating a healthy respect for his fathers.

Lagos won all the legal battles. The Supreme Court said the Federal Government had no right, under any circumstances, to withhold the funds of any states. The Supreme Court also said that Lagos was right to create local councils. But unconstitutional might was used to arm-twist Lagos.

Obviously Prince Ajibola et al saw what many may have conveniently forgotten, which is that, in the naked partisanship of the current dispensation, anything and any number of citizens could be sacrificed for ego-tripping and the cornering of perceived opponents. Wasn’t Savannah Bank killed on a morning it was still functioning properly? Wasn’t the action taken because its owner was adjudged to have rubbed a god the wrong way? More than three years after, are not most staffers of the murdered bank still in the jobless market? And are not all the depositors still waiting in anguish to be paid their entitlements.

If the Lagos administration had not listened to the voice of elders, the people of the state could well be crushed completely to the dust because might is right and the pronouncements of the Supreme Court are null, void and ultra vires insofar as a god is concerned. “Now they know that we have a lion in the Villa who would do what is right, no matter whose ox is gored”, said a presidential spokesperson.

Fantastic. Except that the lion in question seems afflicted by the syndrome of selective valour. Otherwise, why are the people responsible for the abduction of Anambra’s Governor Chris Ngige still in freedom two years after the treasonous crime? And why have those that orchestrated mayhem in Anambra last November never been prosecuted?

A parable for these times
A Kaduna-based banker-friend sent me a “short story” which she hoped I would enjoy. I have decided to publish it here, in the hope that my readers would also enjoy. Here goes:

Three Nigerians — one Hausa, one Igbo and one Yoruba — sat somewhere in Saudi Arabia, sharing a smuggled barrel of beer and feeling rather safe. But, all of a sudden, the police stormed their hideout and arrested them. After the sort of trial expected in a theocracy, they were handed the death sentence. But, since it was a national holiday, the Sheikh decided to commute the capital sentence. He ordered that they should be released after each had received 20 lashes of horsewhip on his bare backside.

As the convicts prepared for their punishment, the Sheikh made an announcement: “It is my dear, first wife’s birthday today and she asked me to allow each of you one wish before your whipping. You can wish anything, except wishing not to be walloped!”
The Hausa man thought for a second and then mouthed his wish:
“Please tie a pillow to my back before whipping me.” His wish was carried out. But the pillow lasted for ten lashes, which meant that the second half of the thrashing impacted on his torso, sending him shivering in anguish. The Igbo man smiled. If a pillow lasted ten lashes, why, he could get away without any skin pain. “Please tie two pillows to my back before flogging me.” This was done and the happy fellow with the Igbo man sense only heard the 20 lashes delivered but felt no pain at all.

The Yoruba man took in everything that had transpired. Because he was grinning from ear to ear, the Sheikh and his lieutenants thought he was going to ask for, perhaps, the impenetrable shield of 30 pillows. But before he could make his wish, the Sheikh remembered. He remembered that the man shared the same ethnicity with the Nigerian President. “Hold your wish a second”, the Sheik said. “Since you share the same ethnicity with Baba, the greatest president to come, not just out of Nigeria but also out of Africa and the entire Black world, you are permitted to have two wishes!”

Upon hearing this the Yoruba man lifted both his hands in celebration, just like a professional pugilist that had finally floored a most stubborn opponent. When his hands finally came down he spoke. “Before I make my wishes, I must first thank very seriously your most royal and merciful highness”, said the Yoruba man. “May Allah bless you ten times every day and a million times on each Friday.

“Now, to come to what we are talking about, which are my wishes. The first one is this: I wish to receive 100 lashes with the strongest, toughest whips available.”
“If you so desire,” the Sheikh replied with a puzzled look on his face. “And your second wish?”
“Tie the Igbo man to my back.”

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RIGHT OF REPLY: Onyema, Lagos LG, and "Baba Carry Go"
Vanguard, June 22, 2005
By Tunji Bello

After reading Mr. Onyema Ugochukwu’s Tinubu should do the right thing “on this page a few days ago, I began to understand better why President Olusegun may never get a true picture of the reality of Nigerian situation. Those who surround him only feed him with what he wants to hear and when that happens, they always echoe: Baba carry go!, meaning, the great leader can never go wrong.
If not because I knew his pedigree as a distinguished veteran journalist, I would have said that he had only duplicated the obnoxious interpretation of the supreme court judgment being peddled by the illiterate wing of the Lagos PDP executive. Do we then wonder why their lordships of the Supreme Court ruled for the second time against the federal government that “our judgment is written in English language” and not latin. But I can understand the dilemma of my senior brother. This is a season where speculation about ministerial reshufflement is rife, hence there is need for everybody to catch Baba’s attention in order to show that I am still loyal ! The Local Government Fund debacle has become the hottest platform for this. Moreso, when the tenure of more powerful NDDC chairmanship post has expired. Afterall you don’t expect Mr. Ugochukwu to start contesting supremacy with my friend, Femi Fani-Kayode, for the same post of Special Assistant as to who best propagates Baba’s causes.
Mr. Ugochukwu began by telling us that five states of Ebonyi, Nassarawa, Katsina, Niger and Lagos had had their allocations withheld on the order of Mr. President in April 2004 following the creation of new LGs and that unless they reverted, they would not have their allocations released. That while the four others (mainly PDP states reverted) only Lagos became “stubborn” and decided to challenge the order in court. Mr. Ugochukwu wondered why Lagos should have disobeyed this “headmaster ruling” and instead proceeded to the court for adjudication. Yet, the supreme law of the land, our constitution, stipulates that in any dispute between the Federal and the state, only the Supreme Court can adjudicate. For abiding by the constitution, Lagos has become stubborn and wrong. When I read this last week, my mind went back to Mr. Ugochukwu’s statement some years back when as president of the Guild of Editors he postulated that “only a democracy built on a rule of law can endure in Nigeria”. Now see what political appointment has done to those of us journalists in government.
Most importantly, I find Ugochukwu’s interpretation of that Supreme Court judgment patronizing and tendentious. Perhaps if he had taken it to Chief Afe Babalola’s chambers, the interpretation would have been given a facelift. With his own publication, the office of Lagos Attorney General now has about nine versions of Federal Government interpretations. These are the Abuja version ( postulated by Mr. Akin Olujimi, the Attorney-General of the Federation), Mr. Adeseye Ogunlewe’s version, Ogunlewe’s many Special Assistants’ version, Accountant General cum Lanre Razak’s Guaranty Trust Bank version, FERMA officials’ version, Ashorobi’s Lagos PDP Chairman’s version, Adeniji, the controller of works version, Femi Fani-Kayode’s version and lastly Ugochukwu’s version. All this would need to be published for Nigerians to actually see how mischievous those who ruled us have been playing politics with the lives of Lagosians.
In the first place, the Supreme Court in a bold English language never gave a condition for the release of Local government funds withheld by the President as Onyema seemed to want to misinform. The best way to understand the judgment is to ask what relief did Lagos seek from court? Lagos never asked that it be allocated money for 57 local governments. The substance of its case and which the court gave affirmation to is that in the spirit of section 162 of the 1999 constitution and as affirmed in the Supreme Court judgment in Attorney General of Abia State v AG of the Federation on the revenue allocation, the president has no power whatsoever to withhold any money meant to any tier of government due from Federation Account. This, the Supreme Court agreed with by giving an order of perpetual injunction against Mr. President. There was no condition attached to this injunctions (please read again). The implication of this judgment is that even the excess revenue from oil the president is presently withholding is illegal. And if this should be challenged by any state. Mr. President would certainly have no where to hide.
Lagos also sought from the court to affirm that it has power to create more local governments. This the court affirmed but said the process is inchoate or incomplete until it is listed by the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court never asked that it should revert as being mischievously misinterpreted (read the judgment again). The reason is simple. Even every baby lawyer knows that it is a trite law that once you have duly exercised constitutional power to create, no order of court can reverse that power. The only thing is that the court will not affirm its legitimacy since the process is still on and not fully completed. The court cannot stop a process that has been constitually put in motion. This is why the learned justices did not ask for reversion. In any case, Lagos has never asked the government nor the court for money for 57 LGs. What it has always requested for and still asking for is that the money due its original 20. We have never asked for any extra money. It is like I am entitiled to free tuition for 4 children like any other citizen and I now have 12 children; the state can only continue to honour the obligation for the education of the 4 kids. Whatever happens to the remaining 8 is my business. This is a point PDP people seem to miss.
What President Obasanjo has been doing is to stubbornly disregard the Supreme Court judgment restraining him from withholding Lagos allocation. This is contemptuous. If he feels Lagos will not use the money for the 20 LGs, this he cannot prejudge. It is for him to first obey the court and release the money, and if Lagos subsequently allocates the money to the new LGs, what he will then do is to go back to supreme court to give him the power to stop subsequent allocation until Lagos stops applying the money to the new LGs. That is what the rule of law is all about.
On a final note, aides like Ugochukwu and PDP hirelings seem to have forgotten the fact that we are politically and morally on a stronger platform. In 2002, Mr. President because of his second -term ambition and the battle for survival convinced all Governors to suspend local government elections.
Illegal caretaker committees were put in place in all states despite constitutional provision that “system of elected LGs is hereby guaranteed”. The same President never stopped releasing LG funds then and yet he has sworn to a constitutional oath. In the same vein, Yobe state has been running new LGs until recently. Yet the president never withheld its allocation. Is the case of Lagos not political victimization?
Since 1967, Lagos has remained the only one of the original 12 states that has remained intact, while the rest have been further divided into 35,. Yet Kano, in which Jigawa was carved out of, has over 40 local governments with a population of 4million. Courtesy of past military heads of states. Jigawa with a population of less than 2million has over 30 LGs.
They get more fund allocations than Lagos. Yet, Lagos, the industrial capital of Nigeria with a population of 15 million people has 20 LGs. Those ministers and partly chiefs who claim to be representing Lagos in the PDP would one day bury their heads in shame when the history of the era is finally written. They are wondering that inspite of their organised frustration of Lagos, that we are still commissioning new roads, building new housing estates, rehabilitating schools, commissioning rural electrification projects, making our general hospitals as first choice for good health care delivery for many before their own LUTH, and still clearing refuse daily even when they sabotage us by dumping on the Lagos bridges at night, in order to make us look bad in the eyes of the public.
Perhaps they may not know this, we just need to hands off the so -called Federal roads for two days in Lagos, and see whether Lagos will not be grounded by refuse and traffic congestion. Of course, this is where the quality of Asiwaju’s leadership has demonstrated a clear difference from the maddening crowd.
As for Ugochukwu’s argument that Lagos propaganda seems to be succeeding, as an experienced media man, he ought to know better.
Propaganda can only succeed if it is built on truth. If it is built on lies, it won’t go far. Do we then wonder why the federal propaganda on the economy getting better is not succeeding with the public?

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Mr. Anibaba,

Some of us here have suggested that you were masquerading on NVS as an objective commentator. Now comes the news that Obasanjo has nominated a certain Dr. Anibaba as the minister from Lagos. Is this the inevitable unmasking some of us have always expected about you? Are you related to this nominee and does this explain why you've been assidiously carrying water for OBJ? Please kindly respond to the straightforward questions.

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Mr tadd you wrote
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If taslim or paul adujie or palamedes or any other obj propagandist knows the section of the nigeria constitution that gives obj the rights to disobey the rulings of the supreme court, please let him state it here. Even president bush of america can never disobey the ruling of any court in america."


Let me quickly bring you back on line. Ajia's article is not about obj and tinubu. It is not obj vs tinubu. So dont distabilize us with your diversionary tactic.

The article is titled " the political philosophy of bola ahmed tinubu" and not obj vs tinubu. So this comment is uncalled for. Indeed you may write an article titled obj vs tinubu. Then we shall comment on it. But to assist you i will like to say a few things. Obj is not a university graduate and does not pretend to be one. His educational career is well documented and no one has ever questioned the schools he attended. Obj is identifiable. Most people dont yet know the real identity of some of our leaders. The other time we were told that shugaba was not from nigeria. But for someone from the south west not to have a real and true identity is a taboo. Please do the article.

And for your answer on the supreme court decision please read my article title "lasg: the limits of propaganda" you will be forced to admit that the supreme court judgement was in two parts. And as expected you chose to look at your rights and closed your eyes to your responsibility. Do you sound like an unbiased fellow to me? Nooooooooo

And you dont have to attack us, taslim, adujie and palamedes. We have not said anything out of place. In my own case i simply asked the author to present the philosophy of his excellency in a clear manner.
And as for my comments on forgery, it was the author , mr. Ajia who started it when he wrote:

"the blight of his career must be the certificate forgery scandal, if this is true, he ought to come forward to the nigerian people and apologize for this error. A good leader must be above board all the time. Since you do not have to amass many degrees to be an effective leader, you do not have to lie about one."

Please spare me o. This is not obj/tinubu contest. According to muhammed ali, it will be a " no contest". But dont let us go to that extreme let us deal with the matter in this article by ajia.

Taslim