Africa is replete with wasteful leaders. The late Omar Bongo (1935-2009) of Gabon was one of them. As of 2008, Gabon, a country with an estimated population of 2 million had a debt of 2.4 billion dollars courtesy Bongo. He lived an ostentatious life.
In the midst of grueling poverty, he had 66 bank accounts, 183 cars, and 39 luxury properties in France. In 1999 it was discovered that he starched more than 130 million dollars in the private banking unit of New York Citibank.
Bongo in concert with his friends in the West borrowed 4 billion dollars for a failed railway project in Gabon. A large chunk of this amount found its way back to European banks.
Gabon remains one of the poorest countries in the world due to the character of its leadership.
With its abundance petroleum resources the country should be an emerging power, but like Nigeria, its elites have plunged it into hardship and pain.
Omar Bongo Ondimba was the President of Gabon for 42 years, from 1967 until his death in 2009.
From the 2021 report of Grand View Research, Inc.,the global coconut bye-product market size is expected to reach 95.64 billion dollars by 2025. If farmers, investors and government deepen coconut production and value chain, Nigeria stands
to make about 20 billion Naira yearly through exports.
In 2019, Indonesia was the largest exporter of coconuts in the world, followed by Thailand and Vietnam. The three countries held about 23 per cent share of total exports, while Cote d’Ivoire, Malaysia, the Netherlands,
Mexico, Guyana and India, all together, made up 17 per cent of the total exports.
Despite the huge potential, total local production could only meet about 20 per cent of the national demand, making Nigeria a huge importer of coconut. In December 2021, the Director-General of the
By championing the idea of Judicial Commissions of Enquiry to look into the atrocities of SARS, government plans to imprison the people. Government intend to trap the people, then unleash the chain, and lock the door, and throw away the key.
Do not fall for it.
The reform of the police is a function of the structural redefinition of the state. It cannot be resolved by a Commission of Enquiry or the National Assembly - SARS. The Assembly has been consumed by greed. It cannot do good.
The character of the police is a derivative of the values that guide the state. The actions of the police that birth the rising protest is an interpretation of the character of the state. The killer SARS is a representation of Buhari’s character.
#ENDSARS: A SENATE PRESIDENT IN DIRE NEED OF EDUCATION
From the reaction of the leadership of the Senate, the ongoing agitation for a new Nigeria loses its essence following the acceptance and implementation of the “demands” of End-SARS-Movement.
I arrived at this interpretation after reflecting on the Thursday 15 October 2020 call by the President of the Senate, Mohammed Lawal for protesters to stop the movement to redemption having gained the confidence of government to disband the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
Speaking in the senate, he argues:
“The government has responded, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad has been disbanded. All the five demands of the protesters have been accepted... I believe that when protesters’ demands are met, their goals should have been achieved. Therefore,
Members of the political leadership class in Nigeria are not selfish for pursuing their own good but because of their hatred of the common good. They are dead to the people because they live only for themselves.
This is the reason Nigerians must watch carefully the ongoing process to reform the police. Such a leadership cannot effect reforms in the general interest. They will engage in fireworks to show they are responsive.
They will come up with committees for reform, running from pillar to post to impress their angry people. Once tension is doused the situation gets worse. VIGILANCE!
To improve the character of this leadership requires courage and the conviction that a new order is possible.
Britain handed over the command of the Nigerian army to indigenous soldiers in 1965. The outgoing General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major General Welby Everald had preferred Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe to succeed him,
but his recommendation was rejected leading to General Aguiyi Ironsi, the most senior officer taking charge of the army.
When another opportunity came for Ogundipe after the bloody July 1966 coup, he was overlooked again because it was felt he will not be able to control
soldiers from the north who were not ready to take orders from a Head of State of southern extraction.
The executioners of the July coup are Murtala Mohammed, Theophilus Danjuma, Martin Adamu, Shittu Alao, Musa Usman and Joe Garba and others. After a successful coup they wanted