12 Feb 2008 |
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http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=102135 The article at the link above was posted by one of our so called revered journalists known as Dele Momodu. As Tom Lehrer once said `Irony died when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Prize. Dele Momodu made no effort to hide his shameless, sycophancy and took name dropping to another level of how far he had come through the system to let his or her reader knows that he is on first name basis and have access to direct number to a governor or how else to explain him statements and l quote` Made contact with the Governor of Rivers State and he was graceful to have invited me over to his house that late evening. It was our first meeting since God catapulted him to that special position, and was very delighted to see that power has not changed our simple friend Note that word again God, refuge of all that is ill in Nigeria, if greatness is attributable to how many times a nation prays, calls the God Name in a day Nigeria street will all be paved in gold but we do know better anyway that is for another day. But honestly he must be a really benevolent God if He can sits up there while all the thieves fake prophets e.t.c keep calling and doing all the evils in His name and He has not struck them down but like l said that is for another day. Back to our eloquent and eminent journalist - and l quote again In the course of our chat, Governor Rotimi Amaechi had asked how I was planning to get to the Vice President’s village in the morning and I told him I’ll be going by road, and he told me he could get me on one of the helicopters already lined up for some of the celebrity guests. I was very delighted and left for my hotel. The journey was very scary because of the fear of hostage takers but there were so many soldiers on the road to safeguard lives and properties` Have we lost any sense of proportion and no regard to etiquette of journalism that a journalist can descend to such usage of language and missing the point that the reason the journey was very scary is due to the thievery of the very same people he is just about to join and hobnob in celebrating an old man’s death? And ah Celebrity guest, yes celebrity guest, millions lives in squalor and the people elected to make their lives better are now celebrities. It gets better - read his beautiful prose below, For me the climax was when the security aides and protocol officers of the governors decided to test their boxing dexterity on one another by exchanging fearsome blows and tearing at each others throat, all in the name of trying to secure front row seats for their powerful bosses, and it was practically impossible to have every governor sit in front. The overzealous agents did not even respect the fact that the Cross River governor, Liyel Imoke was already seated as well as the First Lady of Lagos State, Mrs Abimbola Fashola, who could have been hit in the fisticuff. Also near-by was the Vice President whose presence alone ought to have driven the fear of God into these irritants. Animals masquerading as politicians, leaders, rogues who have achieved nothing worthwhile in their respective life pretending to be leaders. But what do you expect when the president of the most populous black country on earth can go to USA and proclaimed in the most undiplomatically and humiliating statement that he will never forget today for the rest of his life while addressing someone universally viewed as a buffoon president? This sums our leadership up. Now comes the irony that is lost to Dele Momodu describing the abject poverty of the village he visited while attending the funeral of the vice president of Nigeria while he grandiose his (Dele Momodu) so called place in society. Read his description of the poverty on the ground As we drove out of the village and went back to Port Harcourt by road, it became very evident why the Niger Delta is not likely to witness any enduring peace in the near future. The Niger Delta is a wasteland, the habitat of the most bitter and inconsolable human beings who live amidst so much wealth but have nothing to show for it. The roads are ugly. The houses look as dry as stockfish. Most of the people appeared drained of quality life. I doubt if all the palliatives being offered by government can assuage the deep-rooted bitterness of the people of the region. It is very hard to imagine the terrible conditions they live in. It is virtually impossible not to be a militant under such outlandish existence. The issue certainly is not about how much money is pumped in that direction but the genuine will of their new leaders to work hard on improving the living conditions of their people. The prodigality of the past irresponsible leaders must be avoided. Driving from Bayelsa to Rivers State convinced any unbelieving Thomas that most of our leaders are Godless, insensitive, greedy, tasteless, shameless, extremely selfish, All the roads looked ancient, in a place where one expected to see super highways of ten lanes, modern bridges, fast trains, trendy housing estates for the ordinary people, modern boats linking the communities, beautiful schools for the kids and such goodies of life. All you see are signs of all manner of useless contracts hastily packaged and cruelly executed by soulless human vampires who have shamelessly raped the land of their birth. The roads are without drains. The whole place portrayed a typical John Conrad's Heart of Darkness. This was hell on earth. Everywhere was dirty. The people must have given up and have chosen to live as squalid a life as possible. Or how does one explain the hopelessness of the situation But what really depresses me and shocks (yes l should know better) is the following statement by him lauding the achievements of Donald Duke I still marvel at how a young man called Donald Duke got the idea for Tinapa, and how he mustered the courage to execute it. I don't care if he borrowed too much money for the project or whether he and his wife Onari helped themselves with some of the money. At this point my heart sank. l mean here is a journalist openly supporting and praising blatant thievery and in the same breath complaining of selfish greedy leaders. Dele Momodu irony is lost on you. The little hope that l have that at least the press can hold the government to accountability vanishes and l come out of the article bitter, angry and frustrated and in the word of Chris Rock when he was describing the difference between hard working black people and nigga and said he hates nigga so much he want’s to join the kkk ,in my case l hated all those people in that ceremony given l wanted to be a Hamas bomber and at once stroke take all of them with me (l will even forgo my reward of virgins when l get to heaven). In all seriousness where are we going? Are we past redemption? So many times articles are posted here lamenting all the ills of our society but we have not really done something concrete about it. The fact is that there are 419`ers, murderers masquerading as senators. So why don’t we start by compiling all the name of the senators in the house and each one of us that cares about the way our country is being raped, pillaged will volunteer to check the background of a senator? For instance say there 200 senators in the house and l volunteer to find out all there is in public domain of say a senator, so the senator l have chosen will be under my name, anyone else can then choose another senator from the list that is not yet taken. This way we can investigate all of them and if all the names are chosen any additional information is welcome and can be forwarded to the original concerned Nigerian that chose the senator) As luck will have it some of them stayed in the western society where the rules of law are adhere to not by spouting it, If you live in UK you might be aware of freedom of information act (The Act gives you the right to obtain information held by public authorities unless there are good reasons to keep it confidential) say senator X claims he is a graduate of university Z in UK, the affected university can be asked to confirm if senator X actually attended the university. I believe there is something similar in the US. Once compiled the results can be sent to the ethics senate committee and see what they do about it and if no response let us contribute and publish our findings on one of the national newspaper in Nigeria (obviously will need a volunteer lawyer to check the legal ramification)What do you say guys no more talking time for action. Let start by giving the action a name any suggestions? Akintokun O. Abatakan
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