As the Nation wakes-up, to yet another massive killings of our peoples, one wonders what our now, accursed petro-dollars and its pipelines have become. It is no longer news anyways, that massive mismanagement under this administration, corruption after corruption is extra-ordinarily responsible for the lack of maintenance of this industry—OIL. Depleted pipelines, under-functioning refineries, and massive unemployment set the stage for this tragedy. The trend is purely and repetitively incomprehensible as pipelines explosions is now common-place. This is not the first time and unfortunately, it will not be the last time of this kind of rapacious disaster[s]. It is a provocation that has left families and loved ones deprived and broken-hearted. This generational evils and generational ills shall surely remain in their faces as their wicked legacies spirals out of control. It is George Santayana who ones said, “If we refuse to learn from history we are damned to repeat it.” Disasters and corruptions are widening across this frontier, however, it is seems there is no end in sight. Pity.    

Reliable source [names withheld] told us that there are traces of government agents at NNPC, and its foreign affiliated collaborators that frequently, act in concert, even as partners in these illegitimate off-shores and on-shores oil-bunkering[s]. In short, these illegitimate practices according to this anonymous informant states that, these oil-frauds and other frauds have been going on for decades as they make large returns to their masters at Aso-Villa, to the police and military brasses. These security agencies in turn do provide them with security covers with other political-stakeholders in their illegal oil-lifting. “Usually when they finish their daily lifts from these high-powered tunnels, the wretched of the earth scrambles for the spills and other scrums…..” remarked another insider. According to him this led to the recent tragedy—massive explosions.  

Bottom-line, whether anybody likes it or not, they were killed in mass and at mid-morning they were buried in mass. This provocation is irresponsible. There exists irresponsibility on the side of our purported leaders with their praise-singers who part them on the back for hard-work everyday. But for us, this irresponsibility will not go unpunished. As these innocent victims whose lives were snuffed away in this barbaric manner will seek vengeance from their hands. May their struggling spirits not rests, may theirs continue to fight these gate-keepers until justice, equity, and fairness, meets the living, including the families and the loved ones now left behind here to mourn their dead ones at this festive seasons. We the people and all peoples of good-will will continue to battle these criminal mischief-makers here in mortal fresh. We will battle them street to street, corner to corner and bloc to bloc until we re-gain our freedom again collectively under one-sovereignty and or regionally under separate sovereignties. Period. End of story. These unprovoked aggressions against humanity via mismanagements, will surely call for a prize—someone must pay a big prize. Oh Lord, hear, see, the prayers and sufferings of thou hand-works: hear; hear, thou suffering peoples below, in His name.

In their belligerent postures, predicated upon greed, either by omission or commission unleashed this havoc on humanity. They in provocation killed them in mass and in provocation buried them at mid-morning in mass. What a lack of commonsense and thoughtfulness; what a bankrupt society, that is a-washed with empty rhetoric filled with promises with zero implementationabilities. We just read that:

“The Federal Government has approved the replacement of old oil pipelines across the country, to forestall a recurrence of the pipeline explosion that killed hundreds of people in Lagos . Speaking on Wednesday in a television programme monitored in Abuja , the Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma said the corporation had secured the approval of President Olusegun Obasanjo to lay new pipelines. He added that the contracts would soon be advertised and awarded after undergoing due process.

The NNPC spokesman estimated that the process of replacement of the pipelines would take up to a year. He admitted that many of the pipelines were old and needed to be replaced, adding that the contract might be awarded to more than one contractor to ensure the speedy completion of the replacement of the pipelines, which transverses wide landmass across the country. He blamed the eruption of the pipelines on vandals, whom he accused of destroying the gains of steady supply of petroleum products achieved in the past three to four years.”

Ajuonuma blamed the corporations continued importation of petroleum products on the inability of the Warri and Kaduna refineries to work as a result of the vandalisation of oil pipelines.” Fellows, this is an interesting remarks by a government official after eight [8] year in office.

Now record, shows that as many as 20,000 or more innocent victims of similar killings and disasters occur[s] every-day; the government blames vandalization of these installations on vandals, of the struggling corporation. But the big question asked is, who sponsored and provides security and other covers to these agents? Are we doing our blame-games over the poor and powerless masses who are struggling to make ends meet in the mix of plenty? The truth is information we have shows that these so-called vandals enjoy protections from the military, police and other governmental security agencies. Conversely, if, the government is serious about stopping importation of fuels, fiscal actionable benchmark can be deployed to arrests these governmental failings by observing operational work-ethics at institutional organizational level. It is a pity, and readers must know that we have been reliably informed that government agents work in collaboration, side-by-side with these petro-thieves. They look the other way when these agents go on rampage with sometimes 50-80 tankers to these high-powered-pipeline-decks.  Little fellows, without expertise in oil-industry wouldn’t have the capacity or technical-state-of-the-art or skills to thrill-open these high-powered-pipeline-decks. It’s about time we stop deluding ourselves about the invincibility of these visible petro-vandals. That is.  As if what happened few days ago is not enough, more pipelines went ablaze and counting. Some official eye-witnesses observed:

“Pipeline caught fire Thursday in a poor Lagos neighbour-hood, causing the second pipeline explosion in three days, officials said. There was no immediate word on casualties. Adeola Adefolabi, a Lagos government official, said the blast was in a northern neighborhood of Nigeria 's largest city. A Nigerian Red Cross official, Ige Oladimeji, said his workers were heading to the site, but had no information on injuries. A blast hit a pipeline Tuesday as scavengers collected fuel spilling from the conduit…”  

At the end of the day, mismanagement and corruption has hit the land pretty hard, including refining sector, causing chronic fuel shortages. As Holiday seasons approaches, it might even get worse as fuel sells hit sky-rocket prizes even 5 times or more, higher filling petro-prizes. Blast in 1998 pipeline fire killed 1,500. The feeling amongst the population is that of contraption, gaining little from decades of oil-production in their own country, especially populations from Niger-Basin. What they’ve gained in so-far is gas flaring, oil spills, polluted lands that make it impossible to fish, farm and or get clean-stream water for domestic uses. Ecological and global warming has increased and Nigeria ’s petroleum explorations, by applications, its fallouts have caused greater emissions and are/is responsible for over 60% of greenhouse; just as western gate-keepers accounts for starched-out billions of petro-dollars in European and North-American banks. In the meantime, moneys retrieved from Abacha’s looted petro-dollars cannot be specifically explained to the public; perhaps it was retrieved and looted again. What an irony. It is called fiscal irresponsibility. The public yarn for fiscal responsibility amongst public office holders. Nonetheless, the national shame brought about by current Obasanjo and Atiku Presidency, accusations and counter-accusations are simply not compatible with the currency let alone upholding of the tenancy of the rule law. The duo have made mockery of anything constitutionality, if we have working-constitution. Or, where they exist, it is perhaps on the pages of papers not in practice. Additionally, we have become a laughing stock internationally within the committee of nations and before the rest of the civilized societies.  Folks deny where they came from these days; others want Biafra quickly to dust and gain a sense of belonging in their own land more than anything else.

Desperation is another reason for this mass murder at the hand of government agents and their sponsored oil-syndicates across the land. This administration knows that there will be no other administration with the nomenclature— Nigeria after her—perhaps what we will have is former Nigerian-States. Where it [ Nigeria ], to continue to co-exists, it might possibly be for a brief period of time, as predictions after predictions, crisis after crisis, and illogicality after illogicality pointer glares in our faces; as the aforementioned trends will continue to increase due in part, to the actions and inactions of the so-called leaders.

Clearly, this administration will therefore go down in history as the most wreck-less in their mismanagement, which, provoked and killed our peoples in mass, and in yet another provocation, hurriedly, buried them at mid-morning in mass without seeking any form of consent of family members/relatives of the deceased, not even head counts were computed as census figures are systemically-disputed regionally. Who will protect us from these unconstitutionalities and aggressions of this government in its sycophantic-behavior of running a supposedly a-system a-ground? Who will protect us from these avoidable disasters after disasters? If, it is not planes falling off the sky, it is the oil-pipelines blowing our populations away in thousands. What is it!

It seems our sophistication and development is found in armed-robbers of yesterday and today who line-up and hide from one government after another government. Oil pipelines explosions has become a norm; thusly, no shock or outrage is registered, anymore. I weep for this generation and posterity yet unborn. Screwed!

Join me to take a quick review at the beginning of Obasanjo's misrule from May 29, 1999 rigged elections till date: Over 15, 000 Nigerians lost their lives to sharia, when Obasanjo bombed Odi-oma, many Nigerians were killed, uncounted Nigerians lost their lives through air-disasters after air-disasters that could have been prevented, over 200 died in Abuja during the Miss World pageant, many have died through political assassinations, many Police have been killed, many also died during the armory explosion in Ikeja, Lagos; we also had killings at Umuaka, Obi-oku, Onitsha, Azak-ibiam, to mention just a few. This is just too much. It is another sad day for Nigeria and Nigerians. Obasanjo's misrule has been a disaster for Nigeria and we can all see now the damage this man has done to the country and continue to do; this was a man who was dusted-out from jail-house. This man may not go in May 2007 as he is creating one crisis after another to perpetuate himself in power. The man is sick and needs help, folks. For how long are we going to be deceiving ourselves that things are getting better in Nigeria ? Until all Nigerians are killed? Now, it is soldiers rather than police that are being sent to Ikoyi, Lagos and other places to curtail armed-robbery. I wonder why this is just appealing to their sensibilities that lacked commonsense, it is like an assessments-campaign after an election and it is too late those who have been killed, that left this planet-earth unceremoniously will be missed forever by their loved ones, family and relatives.  

While families and loved ones won’t see loved ones against government officials are busying themselves with blame-games, blaming the victims of this tragedy. Here is one of their wild remarks:

“Ojokoro council boss said they would be cleared immediately. He blamed the victims for the fate that befell them, explaining that he warned them to steer clear of the burst pipeline but they refused to listen to him. I went with some policemen to the site but they started yelling and throwing stones at the policemen. And you know in such a situation, the police cannot fire so that the thing will not explode. So, we have to adopt persuasive style for them to leave but they were adamant,” the council chairman stated. Hon. Adefolabi further blamed the incident on poverty, adding that something urgent must be done to stem the poverty level in the country. He disclosed that his administration would expand its poverty alleviation measures to assist the people.”

Government officials at both the state and the federal level continue to threaten the families and victims of this disaster, making it impossible for families to pickup relatives.

According to reports, folks were afraid of linking their dead with vandalisation of pipelines and scooping for fuels, rather they prefer to say that they went missing during the fire incident. Imagine what massive poverty, illiteracy and mismanagement can disastrously bring upon on a deprived, trapped, depleted and unemployed population. Your guess is as good as mine.

Finally, at the end of the day, the government has failed this population because of its misplaced priorities, pursuing selfish agendas with its cronies rather than the earmarking agendas for the well-being of its subjects; our peoples are poorer more than any other time. President Obasanjo and the Vice President, Atiku, with their cronies accomplished this feat through their colossal corruption chart-sheets and looting of the national treasuries at Petroleum and Technology and Development Fund [PTDF] is mind boggling, other unspoken staggering corruption exists at NNPC and corruption at other levels of governmental agencies including the selective EFCC’s charades called war on corruption. The looting rampage will continue since indices show that both the Northern and South-West elements of the country believe the country will disintegrate in 2007 or 2009 as predicted by domestic and international intelligent agencies. It is too little too late to ask these fellows to stop their plundering, because it will fell on their petro-dollar-already condemned-deaf-ears. Unless a miracle from the providence is launched to rescue the already wrecked-ship, one might otherwise consider it finished, folks and parasitic-elements within and amongst us shall quickly learn to live and stand-by themselves, obviously.

In conclusion, I appeal to both the dead and the living not to give up but to continue to fight on the side of truths and justicity. May the souls of these innocent unsuspecting victims of pipelines explosions and other explosions not rests until freedom is assured—may they continue in the struggle to liberate themselves/ourselves from their tormentors/terminators from the spiritual realm. As for us, we, the mortal-flesh, will continue to fight them heads-on, against the backdrop of the fact that these numerous unconstitutionalities and illegalities here on earth is brazenly suffocating, and therefore incompatible and unsusceptible with true-universal democratic-spirit.

We will fight these unprovoked aggressions against our peoples, bloc to bloc, post to post, and street to street until we re-gain again our God given freedom and liberty in pursuit of happiness and in pursuit of our rights to be free. Our freedom and liberty to determine our rights to existence, of which, includes our rights to self-determination and our rights to genuinely chose political leaderships to the respective and elective-offices including the executive, the legislature and the judiciary arms of government nationally and locally. This is expedient at this time, because in order for us to accomplish the targeted goals, a socio-political-economic liberation[s] driven by fiscal responsibility with ethic as its precursor with predictable hallmarks that gauges successes and failures. It is imperative therefore, that we affirm and take an uncompromising stand at this critical times—with, a sensible will to choose, a will to be free from totalitarianism and other forms of misguided dictatorships in the name of pseudo-democratization processes; we must eschew mangled self-serving-priorities and id; if, we as a people must jump-start a-new-in-the-rebuilding of these collapsed institutions, then sycophancy, mischief-making and politics of opportunism must be jettisoned today. Remember, either way the choice is yours. Happy New Year!

Carlisle U.O. Umunnah Is a New York Based Freelance Writer

Contact: cuu1_liberties@yaho.com 

Robot  # 1 | 31.12.2006 14:40

The duo ...Read the full article.

Abraxas  # 2 | 01.01.2007 10:59

Hi, folks! Please beware! This guy's expression of the English language is simply horrible. His understanding of issues at stake is near-zero. Please skip this thread completely, and save yourself the massive migraine headaches that I have incured unwittingly for myself, since I finished my masochistic perusal of his monumental heap of mental diarrhoea, rather painstakingly. Muchas gracias. Don Juan Carlos ABRAXAS (III)

alagemo  # 3 | 01.01.2007 12:53

As the Nation wake-up, to yet again a massive killings of our peoples, one wonders what our now cursed petro-dollars and its pipelines have become. It is no longer news anyways, that essentially, massive mismanagement under this administration, corruption after corruption is extra-ordinarily responsible for the lack of maintenance of this industry—OIL and other industries. Truely terrible.