GEJ - The autocracy just arising

GEJ – THE AUTOCRACY JUST ARISING
When in 2011 the Otuoke man of Bayelsa State was elected as the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I had two vivid hopes. I believed he was going to be the breath of fresh air, I hoped he would be the vehicle of transformation in the clearly misdirected marriage of inconvenience, Nigeria.
To brighten my hopes, he began talking intensively about transforming the Power Sector, eradicating corruption, re-building the transportation sector; enhance transparency and due process in the oil and gas sector and a host of other juicy packages which he said he brought. I believed I was not overtly hopeful because these intentions sounded like a real force of dedication and a positive drive towards a better Nigeria.
I must categorically state that, within the last few years of his leadership, the electricity situation has been greatly turned around. At least for the first time in years, my town could boast of a week-long not-too-interrupted power supply and we could sleep peacefully at night with the fan working without having to wake up in the middle of the night due to excessive heat. I truly loved GEJ for his giant strides in ensuring stable electricity. Claps!!
His efforts in the transportation sector also caught my attention and made me think this village former poor boy of Otuoke was going to be the reference point in the re-building of the broken walls of development in our dear nation Nigeria. After a long period of being moribund, the Nigerian Railway Corporation eventually roared back to life and even though still using the usually noisy and slow-as-snail trains, we could at least boast of having something travelling the rail lines. Thanks GEJ!
However, I began having conflicting feelings about this Doctor of Zoology during the Fuel Subsidy removal saga of January 2012. Personally, I was in support of the total removal of fuel subsidy, but I found problems with the approach employed by our dear husband of Patience. He came around with the bombshell as a New Year gift and despite public outcry for dialogue between stakeholders to fashion out modalities to execute such economy-changing programme, the dark-skinned Ijaw man decided to go ahead without worry. At the time, he occurred to me as an incarnation of Pa. Mobutu Seseseko! How can a democratically elected President not bother about the complaints of the people?
I was almost forgetting the fuel subsidy saga when he began having personality issues with Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa State. Before the tussle could drag on for long, whatever Mr. Sylva had left of his personality had been wrecked by the sheer determination of our ‘oga at the top’. Just early this year, Mr. Sylva landed in EFCC net and I guess for him, unless some miracle happens, it is the beginning of the end. Why GEJ, why? Where are the freedom of speech and freedom of association rights in your copy of the Nigerian constitution?
Lest I forget, Olagunsoye Oyinlola also fell under the hammer. It is an open secret that the Okuku Prince has always been a pro-IBB person, call it military loyalty or whatever, it is your choice. He was clearly not disposed to the GEJ agenda before 2011 as there was no campaign office for GEJ in Osun and there was simply no structure put in place to assist the then acting President. Co-incidence or otherwise, Oyinlola was chased out of office by a controversial court judgement and his tale of woes began. As if that was not enough, he was again bundled out of the seat of the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by another controversial court judgement. Is it that whoever is not with Goodluck must be disgraced?
I loved this Otuoke man from the start, he was brimming with promise when he came in, but like Morgana of the fictitious film Merlin, inside his seemingly good heart, the darkness of tyranny is already growing. He started like the one who was going to be the fair king, but in his supposed fairness, an ugly face of a dictator is rearing its head.
Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi is the latest casualty in the GEJ autocracy agenda. What offence exactly can we say this Rivers man has committed to merit the series of witch-hunting moves targeted at him by the camp of Mr. GEJ? Do we talk of the grounding of his state’s plane, or the attack on his personality through the State Executives of the PDP in Rivers State, or the attack on him in the Nigerian Governors’ Forum? Even if it were to be the reckless talkative like the Headmaster in the 37th State of the Federation (the State of Osun) should he have merited such attacks?  
As if all these were not enough, what do we call his suspension from the Peoples Democratic Party on the grounds that he stubbornly dissolved the Local Executive Committee of the PDP in Obio Akpor Local Government of Rivers State when an action of that manner would have merely been termed ‘internal crisis’ in another state? Or, do we assume that he was suspended because he had a ‘stubborn’ star which had more ‘goodluck’ than that of GEJ that made him win the NGF election against all presidential odds?
Why should a man be so attacked because he had differences with the sitting President of a nation? Where is the freedom of speech in our constitution? Where is our freedom of association? Where are legality, sanity and fairness in the actions of Mr. GEJ and his ‘kitchen cabinet’? What kind of autocratic leader is GEJ quickly becoming? What kind of stubborn drummer is he that we all must dance to his tune?
Within this Otuoke born Ijaw Doctor of Zoology and husband of Patience is the spirit of a tyrant fast growing, in his heart a thick mass of rock is building, in his eyes a fiery fire of a ‘Sango-ish’ magnitude and his government is quickly changing the face of democracy to AUTOCRACY! Or, is he trying to bear serious likeness to the forcefully ousted Ivoirian well-loved democrat turned very-hated autocrat, Gbagbo? Whatever he is, GEJ should watch the autocracy growing in his style and deliver unto us the true fresh breath that he promised.
My pen rests!

My Integrity Issues with Ogbeni - Part 1

So many times when I write about the government of Ogbeni Aregbe, a whole lot of people tend to misinterpret my criticism as being that borne out of my political sympathy for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that was sent packing on the 26th November 2010. However, I may be in agreement with the PDP on certain policies of theirs, yet I disagree with them on other major issues.
Speaking in clear terms, my feelings against Ogbeni Aregbe is not borne out of political affiliations of mine, but out of the complications surrounding his integrity. I mean, his integrity is very questionable. Do not rush, I will throw more light.

EDUCATION
When Ogbeni came in, he made several public outcries concerning the deplorable state that he met the education sector in Osun State (I refuse to call my state the State of Osun), and castigated his predecessor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola over non-performance in this vital sector. He promised, as most politicians will do, that before the end of their first tenure in office, his government would have developed the education sector to enviable points.
However, 3 years down the line, what do we have? Let us do a checklist.
He began a policy whereby all students and pupils in Osun State are to wear the same uniform. My issue with this move is, where do we put student identification in this policy? How exactly do we curb truancy when a student of Ogiyan High School far from my house can easily mingle with students of ADS High School without being singled out? I would have loved for this policy to have been in place since my days in Secondary School, it would have afforded me the opportunity to sneak out of school in broad daylight without the fear of being caught!
He began the building of Mega Schools in a bid to improve infrastructural facilities in the education sector. Three years down the line, all these buildings are still works in progress with most of them being between 40-50% completion stages. This means so far, Ogbeni has had no contribution to the improvement in infrastructure of the education sector of Osun State, rather, his contributions are still struggling in the pipeline while our students and pupils still utilize the ‘Oyin Ni O’ buildings of the Oyinlola administration which Ogbeni claimed were death traps. One other thing that is called into question is, how can an Engineer (as he refers to himself) fail to complete one-storey buildings in 3 years? Or, is he a ‘kangaroo’ Engineer?
He has made so much noise about the ‘opon imo’ thing saving some phantom billions. My question against his integrity in this case is, how durable will those tablets be? If they are a cheaper alternative to paper textbooks, are they durability alternatives too? I believe textbooks can last for as long as 25 years and even more if properly handled, can those tablets last 5 years at all? Is this not some kind of policy that will result in wastage eventually? This is a serious question of integrity.
There has been so much noise about the school feeding programme. He makes this much noise that will make one wonder if those pupils are being served with gold plates or if this is an entirely new policy. Truth be said, this programme was started by Oyinlola, and Ogbeni’s effort is just a continuation of something commenced by Lagun. How peculiar are his efforts?
Let us look in other directions too.

PUBLIC HEALTH
On a visit to the State Hospital, Asubiaro I discovered that every structure standing in the premises of that hospital was built by the Oyinlola administration same with most of the hospitals in the state. This means, Ogbeni has had no meaningful contribution to the improvement of health care delivery in the state. What will be the merit of his administration in this regard?
The Mosquito net intervention of the Federal Government was almost hijacked by Ogbeni placing banners around the centres where the nets were distributed signalling ‘State of Osun Distribution of Mosquito Nets’. This move puts his integrity in serious question. Why must he attempt to usurp the efforts of the Federal Government?

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MOTIVATION 101

THERE IS A GREAT SOURCE OF POWER IN EVERY MAN

Wallace D. Wattles wrote, “There is a Cosmic Intelligence which is in all things and through all things. This is the one real substance. From it all things proceed. It is Intelligent Substance or Mind Stuff. It is God”. He describes the existence of a greater power in man, the nature of that power and the personality of that power – GOD.
In Emerson’s essay on the “Oversoul”, he wrote that, “Man is a stream whose source is hidden...I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin from events than the will I call mine”. He continued thus, “Meantime, within man is the soul of the whole, the wise silence, the universal beauty to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal One”. He also supports the notion that there is a greater power in man than what he calls his mind or his will.
Wallace and Emerson believed man could not be capable of his ingenuity except from the presence of a power inside of him, greater than his own will. Man, isolated and left alone is incapacitated, useless at best. But, the presence of a higher supernatural power in him gives strength to his will and purpose to his living.
The reality of the making of every man is that, man is made of flesh and bone, blood and water alone which lend no helping hand to the attainment of his purpose. Flesh and bone, blood and water are not even enough to keep him alive let alone make him great. The life in him that keeps these tissues and parts alive, which cannot be medically returned when it departs, is proof to the fact that there is a power within him that goes beyond his will alone.
Napoleon Hill wrote that, “Nature has wrapped up in the impulse of strong desire that something which recognizes no such word as impossible and accepts no such reality as failure”. A strong desire is a man’s will in connection to the greater power within him.
Inspiration is a common word in the dictionary of achievers as a channel through which they receive ideas for newer discoveries and inventions. However, inspiration does not just occur, man cannot command it to happen; it is a sort of ministration from his spirit to his mind. This spirit that ministers to him is the greater power that exists inside of him. For inspiration to happen, it takes the man being in harmony with the greater power in him, the spirit that resides in him.
It is this greater power living in man that great prophets of present and of old have come in serious contact with that has empowered the words of their mouth and given them the power to speak and see it come to pass. They have identified the power living in them and have submitted to its will and are thus strengthened through the power of that inner man.
For you to live above ordinary and achieve beyond the state of an ordinary man, you must come in contact with that power living within you and have it lend credence and power to your desires and your life. It is the ultimate success guide that the power to succeed, is in YOU.