SEXUAL OFFENCES BILL: PROFESSOR WOLE SOYINKA WRITES SENATE, SEND AHMED YERIMA TO THE GUTTER

Professor Wole Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has added his voice to the growing opposition over the sexual offences bill hurriedly passed by the immediate past Senate of the 7th National Assembly. He wrote a letter to the present set of senators.

Read below:

Dear Friends and Comrades,

Regretfully, I am unable to be with you tomorrow morning. However, I extend a warm embrace to you in your resolve to keep within Nigeria’s short memory the events that have been central to the attainment of our democracy – warts and all – enjoyed today by you and me. June 12 remains the true Democracy Day despite the unprincipled efforts of some prime beneficiaries of that struggle to expunge it from a people’s chronicle.

If I had been able to join you, I would most certainly have asked you for help. It has to do with the nation’s latest alleged legislative stance against sexual abuse – molestation, rape, pedophilia etc. I am only a layman, not a“learned brother”, so any help from the learned is earnestly solicited. The question on my mind is this: is that legislative reinforcement not merely a case of rubbing Vaseline on leprosy?

BEFORE NIGERIA, THERE WAS GHANA BY PROFESSOR AKIN OSUNTOKUN

Professor Akin Osuntokun

The typical Marxian line is that incontinent intra ruling-elite squabble always carries with it the risk of playing into the hands of its class enemies; and could be generalised as a manifestation of the ubiquitous internal contradictions of capitalism and self-destructive tendency towards the commitment of class suicide. The altercation between Theophilus Danjuma and former President Goodluck Jonathan lends itself to the interpretation of this analytical school of thought and, fleetingly, averted my mind to the possibility of a replay of Jerry Rawlings style purge of the Nigerian ruling class. To a lesser degree, a similar behaviour was on display at the rancorous commencement of the eighth National Assembly. Danjuma said: “What we are hearing is that the treasury of the country is empty at the federal level. A debt of $60 billion would be left behind for the incoming government…I’m calling on the new administration to investigate what happened to our monies as soon as Buhari takes over power on May 29.

JUNE 12: BUILDING THE FUTURE FROM THE PAST

For many Nigerians, the June 12, 1993 presidential election was the point at which the nation’s political landscape was heading for a change as it was believed that personalities from a section of the country were the ones dominating the leadership of the country. Hence, it was believed that the crusade of the Hope ‘93 train ushered a paradigm shift, creating a new quest for alternative leadership outside the then existing caucus. The popularity and eventual victory of businessman turned politician, late Chief MKO Abiola in a poll he ran on the platform of the then Social Democratic Party (SDP), is still considered unprecedented in the democratic history of the nation and was greeted with massive celebration across the length and breadth of the country. On June 12, 1993, Nigerians could see a reflection of their choice at the poll taking precedence thereby summoning hope that all is not lost after all for the country. It is on record that Abiola won in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, as well as in the military barracks.

TALE OF TWO CITIES: LESSONS FOR AFRICA FROM USA & USSR

The year was 1945. And it was the end of World War 2. Most of Europe lay in ruins. The war had either exhausted or eliminated the pre-war ‘’ Great Powers’’. But two superpowers emerged, with conflicting ideologies, signalling the end of one war and the beginning of a new one: The Cold War.

1945 heralded a bi-polar world dominated by the US and the Soviet Union. These two nations, allies in the war, raced to spread their ideologies across the globe. One thing they had in common was military might. But that was where the similarities ended. Who was going to win the cold war? History gradually revealed. In October 1917, the Soviet Union became the first nation to ever attempt Marx-Engel's Utopian communist dream.

ANYONE CAN QUIT, HAVE THE COURAGE TO WIN #INSPIRATION

Arise Nigeria

Ask yourself this question, what am I really aiming at? To rise against overwhelming odds? Or to beg off with a beautiful sympathetic excuse. The world will always give you the opportunity to quit trying, one of the most powerful success principle ever preached is ‘’NEVER GIVE UP’’. Granted, it may be the toughest point of your life, but who has a smooth ride to success?

Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds; the purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace and the brightest thunderbolt from the darkest storm. The obstacles of life are intended to make us better not bitter. They are merely a call to strengthen not to quit your resolve to achieve worthwhile goals. The Chinese have this proverb that says ‘’the gem cannot be polished without friction nor man perfected without trials, it seems that trials are the necessary preparations for greatness.

MEET LEE KUAN YEW? THE GAGANTUAN NATION BUILDER WHO BUILT SINGAPORE FROM THIRD WORLD NATION TO FIRST

Lee Kuan Yew

Few gave tiny Singapore much chance of survival when it was granted independence in 1965. How is it, then, that the former British colonial trading post is a thriving Asian metropolis with not only the world’s number one airline, best airport, and busiest port of trade, but also the world’s fourth-highest per capital real income? The miraculous story of that transformation can only be told by and even credited to Singapore’s charismatic, fearless, controversial statesman and founding father, Lee Kuan Yew. Rising from a legacy of diverse colonialism, the devastation of the Second World War, and general poverty and disorder following the withdrawal of foreign forces, Singapore now is hailed as a city of the future. 

Delving deep into his own meticulous notes as well as previously unpublished government papers and official records, lee, in his best-seller book, ‘’From THIRD WORLD to FIRST- the SINGAPORE STORY: 1956-2000’’, detailed the extraordinary efforts it took for an island city state in southeast Asia to survive at that time. Lee explains how he and his cabinet colleagues finished off the communist threat to the fledgling states security and begin the arduous process of nation building: forgoing basic infrastructural roads through a land that still consisted primarily of swamps, creating an army from hitherto racially and ideologically divided population, stamping out the last vestiges of colonial-era corruption, providing mass public housing, and establishing a national airline and airport, equipping schools with one computer for every two students and connecting every home to a broadband network.

POST 2015 NIGERIA: THE BUHARI FACTOR, THE CITIZENS AND THE IMPOSSIBILITIES!

Hitherto, it is believed by a section of Nigeria that the APC, Buhari campaign was one fraught with histrionics, intangibles and bogus promises. But how better can power be absolve from political cartel bent on running the nation aground if not by any means! Lest I forget, that discourse is no more relevant. Now that a new horizon has set in with historic victory of Buhari on March 28, the focus should be on the future- relevant questions like where are we coming from, how do we get here and how do we get rid of the bottlenecks that have held us aback should agitate us. That said, it is instructive to submit that the ‘Buhari factor’ alone cannot change Nigeria: absolute change rest on all the citizens.

Yours sincerely, that Buhari will fail Nigerians is only the gospel truth but hey that will not last throughout his first four years tenure.