A Pyrrhic Victory for Nigeria

Pyrrhic
from Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who defeated Roman armies at Asculum, 280 B.C.E., but at such cost to his own troops that he was unable to follow up and attack Rome itself, and is said to have remarked, "one more such victory and we are lost."


Forget all the legal technicalities or 'jagba jantis' as my peeps will say, spewed by the Presidential tribunal judges to justify their decision, we all know no 'real' elections took place last year. I suppose the dilemma facing the judges is the implication of annulling 'elections that never happened'.
Anyone who loves Naija will shudder at the thought of INEC (currently headed by a delusional Maurice Iwu) organising another major election. One doubts if they could successfully organise an 'owambe' party.

T.I.N (This is Naija)
Considering the number of election results cancelled, you would think Maurice Iwu and other top officials of INEC would have done us all a favour and resigned, but ahem.. this is naija now, where the concept of responsibility is as alien as regular power supply from PHCN.
So I'm not surprised that INEC, according to news reports, is now "basking in the euphoria of Tuesday's dismissal of the two major petitions against the last April presidential elections".

According to INEC's chief spokesman, Mr. Phillip Umeadi
"INEC has consistently held that the outcome of the 2007 presidential election reflected the intent of Nigerian voters. The firm and consistent assertion by the commission on the outcome of the election derived from an advantaged insight as well as an impartial and unsentimental analysis of the election,"
{snip}
"By the ruling of the Court of Appeal in the Presidential Election Petitions, more so the unanimous verdict of the eminent judges, INEC has been vindicated in the outcome of the 2007 presidential election."

http://allafrica.com/stories/200802280006.html

Excuse me while I go outside and throw up (I'm bullshit intolerant)

but i digress
I found it extremely difficult to support the tribunal's verdict because of its implications, in order to keep the peace, we've all acquiesced to an illegal act, the same thing will probably happen in 2011 and beyond.
There's a funny igbo proverb i heard recently which translates as; "since the hunters have learnt to shoot without missing, the birds have learnt to fly without perching."
We were lucky this time because the main combatants are from the same part of the country. The next time this sort of thing happens, the aggrieved party may choose to by pass the courts and settle the matter Kenya style.

Meanwhile
Some have suggested that this victory will be the much needed tonic Yardy needs to become 'Super' Yardy as opposed to 'Alhaji Go Slow', 'Yawn'Adua', Learner Driver, Yar 'Asleep etc
Somehow i doubt it...

Pyrrhic Victory

Yardy "wins"
A Nigerian tribunal has dismissed both opposition petitions asking that President Umaru Yar'Adua's election last year be annulled.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7263534.stm

No suprises there, the result was as expected.
I guess it's the lesser of two evils, annulling the presidential election will have taken us into uncharted territory, and we all know "uncharted territory" in Africa is an extremely dangerous place.

And another one down, Another one bites the dust
David Mark, President of the senate, and Abia state governor, Theodore Orji have had their elections annulled by the election tribunals.
Unless the appeal court reverses the verdicts it's 'Asta la vista' to the £6 million man (Mark) and Orji, the Lord of the rings oops sorry shrine.

And in the Bizarre world of African politics:
Odinga In Nigeria, Meets Obasanjo (for what????)
Kenyan opposition leader, Raila Odinga arrived in Nigeria yesterday (friday) on a mission to find a lasting solution to the lingering political crisis in his country.

Odinga who arrived at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos at about 10.55am in a chartered Cessna jet, rode in a convoy to Ota, Ogun State to see former President Olusegun Obasanjo, whom he described as a personal friend.
http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/

Whats that popular saying? show me your friend....

Battling blogger's block

We all get it from time to time, fellow bloggers will know what i'm talking about, the dreaded 'blogger's block'. I have had it for the past few weeks. There's just been so much happening offline, meaning i'm spending less time online.

Reversal of a reversal
I wanted to blog about the 'reversal' of the Nitel sale but then i reversed my decision to blog about it when the whole thing was reversed again.
Is anyone sensing a pattern to the way this government works - go slow, reverse, forward then reverse again. It's official, Yardy IS a learner driver.
Still
Not much has been happening in Naija lately, as in stuff that gets my blood boiling or the positive stuff that gets you thinking about the future, a future where our kids grow up in the land of their ancestors as opposed to the land of their oppressors.

But i digress
Next tuesday Yardy will find out if he will remain in Aso rock. Now, unless you're Buhari or his other deluded partner - Atiku, Its clearly a no-brainer, Yardy (or Yawn'Adua as i like to call him) will still be in Aso rock next week.
Mr "Due process" has been learning a few tricks from his master, Obj (Anyone remember that nice move from Obj, when he suddenly declared a public holiday to delay the Supreme Court ruling on whether Atiku could take part the elections).
Yardy's move has been far more subtle.
Anyway, far from me to cast aspersions on the "integrity" of our President, but i did find it strange that the Chairman of the Presidential Elections Tribunals, Justice James Ogebe was nominated as a Supreme Court judge a few days ago.
Really makes you wonder if the rumours of bribery attempts are true.

100 Worst Nigerians
There is a thread running on NVS where contributors are asked to nominate the worst Nigerians, so far it seems Obj, Abacha and IBB are running neck in neck for the top spot.
May the worst man win.

Just in,
Man found guilty of model's death
A man has been found guilty of murdering teenage model Sally Anne Bowman outside her home. The 18-year-old's body was found next to a skip in Croydon, south London, in September 2005.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7254628.stm

There are times i wish the UK government will bring back the death penalty, this case has gripped the local press (and recently the National press) in my neck of the woods.
It seems the jury did not buy his defence of not knowing his victim was dead until after he stopped having sex with her corpse.

Holiday blues

We returned from the Canaries last week and i'm so not happy to be back. The press is full of all sorts of doom and gloom stories; global recession, credit crunch, house price crash blah blah blah
right now i wish i was back in Lanzarote sipping sangria, without a care in the world..

it's only a game...
Shame in defeat for Nigeria

I know i'm not a football fan so i can't possibly understand the pain of Naija losing to Ghana (as i've been told by fans of the round thing kicked around by 22 'overpaid' adults) but i do understand one thing, just like any other thing in life, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.
So lets be happy for Ghana, hopefully some other team will beat them at the finals...

--------
Sacre Bleu

Kenya: Country Learnt Vote Rigging From Nigeria - Human Rights Watch

Washington's failure to condemn the rigging of Nigeria's election a year ago left the impression in Nairobi that vote fraud would be tolerated, a leading human rights group charged on Friday.
"Nigeria's leader came to power in a violent and fraudulent vote, yet he's been accepted on the international stage," Kenneth Roth, director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "It's no wonder Kenya's president felt able to rig his re-election."

Na wah o, it's bad enough that our dear ex president - Obj (''father'' of modern Nigeria and much more - which may or may not include his own "grand children" lol) was not invited to pray and talk some sense to Kibaki and Odinga.
If Kibaki had sought advise from Obj prior to the election, Obj would have given him a few pointers on how to rig the election and avoid the current wahala.

methinks the Kenyan Army too needs a lesson from Naija on what to do when politicians throw their toys out of the pram.