Showing posts with label Detroit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Detroit. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Nigeria: A Sick Nation with a Sick President


President Umaru Yar'Adua has never been really healthy since he became the head of state of Nigeria.

Nigeria: A Sick Nation with a Sick President


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima

A silver spooned young Nigerian al-Qaeda suicide bomber failed in his desperate mission to bomb an American plane from Amsterdam to Detroit and the news made headlines all over the world, but not a word from the President of Nigeria. Why? They said he was ill and recuperating at a hospital in Saudi Arabia, but the hospital cannot be named. His vice president spoke on his behalf, but Nigerians felt disappointed. Then the US quickly added Nigeria on their list of terrorist countries to worsen the critical state of the most populous nation in Africa. They thought the shocking news was bad enough for their ailing President to be jolted to react, but there was no word again.

The condition of the president must be terrible that he could not even speak on the international political embarrassment of Nigeria in a state of emergency. He must be in coma or could he be dead?

Both the educated and uneducated have been commenting and speculating on what has gone from bad to worse with their president and his government. Rumours of his death have been spread on the Internet. But the rumours have been debunked by his press sectary and the office of the President played a BBC Interview of him addressing Nigerians that he would soon be back once his doctors declare him healthy enough to return back to work. But many Nigerians called it a hoax.

This is not the first time that spurious speculations and rumours of his deteriorating health and death have been circulated. An online political rumour website once published a fake report that President Umaru Yar’Adua was dead until the man resurfaced alive and continued his presidential responsibilities with full support of the political contractors in his cabinet, shareholders in the corridors of power and their beneficiaries.

A president that has failed to improve the deplorable living conditions of the majority of Nigerians who are living on less that one dollar per capita income in a country rated as one of the most corrupt and among the poorest in the world. They have little or no confidence in their sick president and corrupt government. But spurious speculations and rumours are the stock-in-trade of tabloids and should not be taken seriously.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

A sick political system has given Nigerians a sick President of Nigeria.

This is the simple diagnosis of the present political crisis and the only cure is not the replacement of the sick President by another sick product of the same sick ruling party, but the total quarantine of the sick political system.

Nigerians do not need any mass rally or whatever hullabaloo over the hide and seek game that the ruling party is playing with the critical state of the President of Nigeria, who was never really elected in the first place, but was appointed by rigging the last Presidential election in 2007.

Corruption is very contagious. Corruption makes people sick and that is why most Nigerians are sick.

Making noise online and offline will not frighten these devils, because they do not care about what makes Nigerians sick. In fact, the sicker Nigerians become, the better, happier and richer they would be. What makes normal humans sick is what makes these abnormal people well. Their government is a government of corrupt people by corrupt people and for corrupt people. If you are not corrupt, you cannot be in their government. Being well fitted in the costume of corruption is the de rigueur of the ruling party of Nigeria. So, it is not only the President of Nigeria that is sick, but the whole political leadership of the country. They are all sick.

It is not an easy task to find incorruptible Nigerians, except those who were born last night. It is an oddity to be honest in Nigeria. So, it is not always wise to join the majority of Nigerians pointing accusing fingers at the corrupt political contractors, corrupt workers in private business and the religious hypocrites, because most of them are not holier than those they are accusing of corruption. A thief is a thief, from the one who stole one naira to the one who stole one billion naira.

You wonder if there is anyone who has not been entangled in the tentacles of corruption in Nigeria through their common extended family system. Therefore, directly or indirectly everyone could be implicated. Nigerians should stop pointing accusing fingers and start making amends from the person gazing at the mirror...

At the national level, the ruling political party should be sacked, because this is the cankerworm of corruption that is destroying Nigeria. And if this cankerworm is not destroyed, it would eat up the whole country.


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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

CAIR: Plane Incidents in Ariz., Mich. Raise Profiling Concerns

28 Dec 2009 01:36 Africa/Lagos

CAIR: Plane Incidents in Ariz., Mich. Raise Profiling Concerns

Passenger removals may be related to Christmas Day attempted bombing

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on airline passengers, crews and security personnel to avoid ethnic and religious "profiling" in the wake of the attempted bombing of a flight arriving in Detroit on Christmas Day.


CAIR made that call following two incidents in which innocent passengers were targeted based either on their national origin or on otherwise ordinary behavior.


In Arizona, two "Middle Eastern" men were removed from a US Airways flight in Phoenix and questioned by the FBI after another passenger overheard the men speaking in a foreign language. The men were questioned and released.


SEE: 'Middle Eastern' Passengers Removed from Plane in Phoenix
http://tinyurl.com/yfh7x5t



In Michigan, police removed a Nigerian passenger from a flight after he became ill and spent what others considered too much time in the aircraft's bathroom.


SEE: Detroit-Bound Airline Passenger Was Ill, Not a Threat
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581232,00.html



"While everyone supports robust airline security measures, racial and religious profiling are in fact counterproductive and can lead to a climate of insecurity and fear," said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.


CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.


CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, 202-341-4171, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com


Source: Council on American-Islamic Relations

CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper,
+1-202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; or CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina
Rubin, +1-202-488-8787, +1-202-341-4171, arubin@cair.com


Web Site: http://www.cair.com/


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Saturday, December 26, 2009

Breaking News: Nigerian UK Student Caught Trying to Blow Up US Bound Plane

Yahoo News reported that a Nigerian UK student has been caught as he attempted to detonate a powdery substance on a US plane from Amsterdam as it was about to land at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport with 278 people on board.

The student, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, an engineering student at University College London, has been identified as an al Qaida suspect.

"We believe this was an attempted act of terrorism," said an official of the US government.

More details.