The British system would never have put in a position of power a character like Professor Jega who recently created 3000 additional polling stations in the North states alone in preparation for 2015 even when he knew that Boko Haram has taken over power by force in half the area.
Thanks to the power of technology. From the comfort of my living room in New York I watched the results of the Scotland Referendum on television and, I arguably, got a better footage of it than many observers in Scotland because I watched it on a 63 inch state-of-the-art television with the sound effects of a movie theatre. I could not go to bed until the early hours of this morning and after the final tally was announced.
I could not help but think about the squander mania and the hopelessness of the Nigerian Government under President Jonathan who has wasted billions or perhaps trillions of Naira holding a useless National Conference in a Jamboree in Abuja that has no legality in Law, if you see what I see.
The feat the British Government has just performed in Scotland should have been the right way to go. Jonathan can surely lead the donkey to the brook what it cannot do is force the donkey to drink water.
Let the people decide in a free and fair referendum what it is they want to do? The geographical expression called Nigeria is just too timid or too dictatorial or primitive to allow the kind of referendum the British Government has just concluded.
It was the right thing to do by a country widely recognized as the bastion of Democracy and the home of the Great Mother of Parliament.
The American Capitol another bastion of Democracy recognizes the British Parliament as the “fons et origo” of Democracy around the world even though I would rank America a few notches more sophisticated than what I saw unfold on television yesterday night as I watched Democracy at its best in faraway Scotland.
All I kept reminding myself in a soliloquy is “Oyimbo ti se kona” meaning “there is really no comparison between the white and the black world” “Oyinbo pegede” as my 125 year old grandfather, Kabiesi Afunbiowo the First and Deji of Akure used to say before his transition in 1957.
The stark differences between the types of Democracy practiced in nearby Spain or even in Nigeria and many of the countries of the third world were clearly on display yesterday in the Scotland referendum.
Catalonia in Spain would have wished to be able to do what Scotland did yesterday with effortless ease and without anybody firing a single shot despite the more than 80 percent turnout of voters in each of the 32 voting blocks and collation centers as each of the 32 returning officers came to the podium to announce the results of the Referendum in each of their polling centers.
Not once did I hear anybody talk about INEC or whoever presided over the conduct of that flawlessly referendum.
Not once did I hear anybody thanking God for the success of that exercise like naive Nigerians would have done by taking the name of God in vain or bringing the name of God into politics by ascribing the success of the exercise to God by singing “O se, o se o, o se Baba”.
It was the British missionaries who brought Christianity to Nigeria, but today you would think it was the other way round as Nigerians stumble on each other or bend over backwards to prove they are closer to God than even the Pope or the Ayatollahs of this world in Islamic faith.
I could not find an army of police and the military and SSS parading the streets of Scotland on the orders of David Cameron, the British Prime Minister or the Head of Scotland Yard or the Head of the Military Establishment.
If you compare that spectacle to what happened in the just concluded Governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States which could be repeated again in 2015, you will weep for Nigeria as I actually did yesterday night. We are, sorry to say, a bunch of praise singers and hypocrites who will call a monkey a dog just because we are looking for some undeserved gratification.
The British system would never have put in a position of power a character like Professor Jega who recently created 3000 additional polling stations in the North states alone in preparation for 2015 even when he knew that Boko Haram has taken over power by force in half the area.
You would have thought he was going to check with President Jonathan before taking the law into his own hands like that and doing something that stupid and illegal while Goodluck Jonathan and his PDP simply looked the other way.
Professor Jega has suddenly become in Nigerian politics the moral equivalent of “Ololu” the powerful Ibadan masquerade whose authority is never questioned or second-guessed because he is doing something no masquerade was ever allowed to do at Ibadan.
If there are characters like that in the British Government, you will never hear of them and they will never go around parading their power like Jega and his top aides are now doing in Nigeria. Who the hell does the Professor think he is? If that is the man going to conduct the 2015 elections, Nigerians can forget the election. It is going to be rigged before the first vote is cast. I can tell you that. I am so pissed with the Professor for taking all of us for a ride. “Power corrupts absolute power corrupts absolutely”
You never hear of blatant election rigging or voter suppression like the type the Republicans in America are notorious for in many of the states controlled by them. The British as a people belong to a different kettle of fish as civilized people.
That is why the British Constitution is not written anywhere. It is largely based on what is proper and decent in the society. It doesn’t get better than that anywhere in the world. I take off my hat for the British. They still remain among the best in the world any way you slice it.
The just concluded Referendum is a proof to me that the British are still on top of their game and the rest of the world still have a lot to learn from them on the virtues of Democracy. The leader of the Scottish movement for independence, Alex Salmon, has called to congratulate his opponent conceding victory and hoping that David Cameron keeps his promise to create a more perfect union for Britain and the Prime Minister has admitted the referendum has changed the way the British will be governed and must do better because he has heard loud and clear what the Scots have said with their votes.
You will never hear that kind of statement from any of our political leaders in Nigeria including the President. Governor Kayode Fayemi who initially conceded victory to Fayose in the last Ekiti elections is today singing a different tune saying he was misunderstood. That was all bunkum. The guy was defeated and humiliated by not winning a single local government seat including his own. Come on. Fayose won that election arms down without any question.
What the Scotland Referendum means for the rest of the world as I hinted in my article titled “British Armageddon and dangerous repercussions for the world” is what this follow-up post mortem is all about.
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The Scots have spoken with more than a million votes and no less than 45 per cent of the total vote in the Referendum which is a very impressive showing as far as I am concerned, But 55% have said “no, not so quick”. The outcome of the election was expected but I thought the margin of victory for the “no” vote would be smaller given the fact that self-rule is the prerogative and fundamental right of the Scots.
You can tell from the statement issued by the British Prime Minister assuring Scotland and the rest of the country he is all ears for what Scotland has made clear with their vote. He was delighted because it would have broken his heart to see their great country come to an end. Without anybody pressurizing him to quit the Scottish leader, Alex Salmon announced he was stepping down right away. What a country and what a leader?
If you compare that with the PDP telling Nigerians that there is no place for another candidate to compete with Jonathan in 2015 despite the appalling state of security in the Nigerian nation under his watch, it is a tragedy of the highest proportion for the PDP to take that position. Jonathan should have stepped down even if he is nominated.
You would wait forever if you are ever expecting that to happen because his first lady would go into a coma if her husband were to do anything stupid in their opinion and the opinions of their supporters in Nigeria whose daily bread would fizzle out. Nigeria is in total mess.
The opposition that the nation should have counted upon to root out Jonathan and his PDP are equally as corrupt and clueless as the PDP. In a civilized country, Jonathan should have resigned the moment Boko Haram has destroyed his credibility. The capture of those Chibok girls should have been enough to end his presidency.
Pastor Oritsejafor’s private plane was recently searched in South Africa and more than 10 million dollars of Nigerian money was found in the plane and President Jonathan was implicated in the scandal. The President admitted that the money was given to Oritsejafor to go order arms and weapons for Nigeria to fight Boko Haram.
Can you believe that? Oritsejafor and President Jonathan are a disgrace to Christianity. Both of them should have been prosecuted by EFCC for corruption and made to face the humiliation and embarrassment.
The same Jonathan publicly admitted not long ago that there were Boko Haram elements in his government. He was known to have been in collusion with a former governor of Borno state, who is now proven to be one of the major sponsors and financiers of Boko Haram. That is the candidate the PDP is putting up as its flag bearer for 2015. Can you believe that?
I just feel sorry for Nigeria. You watch the Nigerian First lady, a permanent secretary in Bayelsa State shedding crocodile tears on television for the plight of the Chibok girls and speaking pigeon English “Make una remember God O” “Make una waka de come o” I could not believe my eyes. I thought I was seeing double. As far as I am concerned Goodluck Jonathan has forfeited his right for re-election in 2015 with his track record as President. I am sorry, but that is my opinion and I am a southerner.
Nigeria should have saved millions of lives from 1967 to 1970 and the Biafra War should never have seen the light of day if the Biafrans had been allowed to hold a referendum like the one in Scotland. The Southwest or even the North should have been allowed to do a referendum on whether or not they want to remain in the Nigerian Union.
The right to self-rule is one that is guaranteed in the ideal democracy we all wish for Nigeria. Forcing people to stay together by force against their better judgment is dictatorship which cannot and should not be tolerated in Nigeria.
Scotland has rejected secession and voted for common sense and freedom. They have gone for what is in their best interest for now. They reserve the right in the future to go for another referendum. They are not closing the door to that option if needed and I support them.
What they are saying for now is that their interest is best served in the United Kingdom. The devolution promised by Her Majesty’s Government in Westminster can only make the union stronger. The United Kingdom is working hard to make their union more perfect.
Nigeria on the other hand is doing everything to suppress dissent and to sweep most of her problems under the carpet. She can only continue to do that for so long. Sooner or later the bubble is going to burst. Our prayer is that it should be peaceful like the one we have just witnessed in Scotland. A one party dictatorship like the one we currently have in Nigeria is totally unacceptable.
Need I say more?
I rest my case