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News : Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari

There are storm clouds gathering in the horizon and hovering over Nigeria.

“You can avoid evil, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding evil.”

Nigeria: This grim  picture cannot be said to be only telling lies

It’s almost a deja vu but we have not been there before – this is something new – yes there was Biafra and the pogroms in the North that preceded and provoked the daring secessionist Biafra experiment and this was one of its many stories circulating in Sweden, that a very private Swedish individual Count Von Rosen was busy, flying for Biafra.

In any future battles the side that occupies the higher moral ground will win more sympathy and as things are at the moment Northern Nigeria ( no matter the causes and the circumstances) is being painted into a corner as being violent.

Northern Nigeria must be aware of this and do something about it. The violence in and of itself is not a solution; it can only exacerbate the problem

Today, the talk about a possible break-up is different and the area that could seek a divorce from the North could be even more extensive than that South-Eastern enclave which still hosts most of the oil which the whole of Nigeria depends on for the survival of its 150 million people.

About that oil,

we must also understand that because of the uncertainties about long-lasting peace and stability in the Middle East, Nigeria which supplies 10% of the oil that the US imports is therefore of inestimable importance, should sparks begin to fly as they surely will in the not too distant Middle-East future. Even now as we read about  the end of the peace process on the one hand and about  the Palestinians launching Their Revolution , with Iran, Syria and Hezbollah in the picture, on the other hand , these uncertainties increase. By the time of the outbreak of any war which might endanger the steady flow of oil from the region known as Saudi Arabia and environs,  hopefully, the sources of Libyan oil should have been secured ( that’s prudence)  and the direction of its  flow should be fully under control. The rule is don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched; prevention is better than cure – emergency rations may not last that long and so emergency plans must be fashioned in advance, for a rainy day or for a long rainy season which could otherwise turn out to be the Dhimmi Wild West’s long winter of discontent with no oil to warm the hearth or light up the Christmas tree, just when my friend is intent on hanging up all his degrees on the aforementioned Christmas tree, for everyone to see how generous Father Christmas has been to him

As the game progressed, according to former U.S. ambassador David Lyon, it became clear that the government of Nigeria was a large part of the problem. …

No one knows with any certainty what’s going to happen next in Nigeria, now that the political chasm that once existed between the Muslim North and the so called Christian South has widened and North-South relations have deteriorated rapidly and  to a point that is almost beyond repair, in the aftermath of the presidential elections. The Presidential election itself was not marred by any violence, but the absence of violence does not mean that the election was not rigged – no matter what the few election observers scattered around the country want to tell us. That’s the truth of the matter and there is no other truth.

The situation is fluid and getting more volatile by the minute and this is the sort of news that you don’t want to hear coming from THE NIGER DELTA

There’s an honest Nigerian, a man of conscience if ever there was one, by the name of Okey Ndibe who has paid some dues for just being honest and exercising his democratic right to freedom of speech when taking an honest man’s look at what he sees, reflecting on it and reporting back to us and that’s all that he does, so that we may consider what he says, with an open mind. A mind not bent out of shape by vile party propaganda that wants us to believe that wanton sinners have been divinely anointed to continue with the plunder and the looting of the country.

Not too long ago Okey Ndibe was arrested and detained by the same allegedly not so corrupt Nigeria authorities now sitting IN POWER, when he travelled from the United States back home to Nigeria. But for the hue and cry of Diaspora Nigerians in particular and some international Human Rights organisations, although there is no precedence for this sort of thing in Nigeria, it’s still not too far-fetched to say that he could have conceivably wound up sharing the same kind of fate as Dawit Isaak. Ndibe has since thanked all those Nigerians and other sympathizers the world over who expressed so much concern, agitated/and worked actively to secure his release.

As we know, even rogue regimes are anxious to preserve some veneer of saintly innocence with which to impress and deceive the international community, especially just before an election for which they are planning and which they intend to win by hook or by crook ( sometimes by both hook and crook) because that’s how they are.

Okey Ndibe’s well conceived article Nigeria: the burden of a lie should restore sight to the blind – but we must exempt my man Muhammadu Buhari who cannot be said to belong to the criminal clique of that category of leaders that Okey Ndibe has described as a criminal clique, “a small group of criminal elements who pose as leaders.” ……

( to be continued)

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Holier than thou,

Compared to What?

So, I asked ASK,  Is homosexuality better?

Just over a week ago, I did promise a personal response to an item that appeared in the 16^th April print edition of Dagens Nyheter, written by Erik Helmerson and entitled “Är homofobi bättre ?” (“Is homosexuality better ?” ) …about Bilal Philips who has just been expelled from Germany and who allegedly advocates the death penalty for homosexuals, being invited by Tuff to a conference on Islamophobia, in Sweden.

At the time, I thought that what I was going to say would be controversial, because I had just on that very day ( April 16^th) – the Sabbath Hagadol ( The Great Sabbath – the Sabbath before the Pesach / Passover) I had just for the nth time read and studied the Torah portion Parshat Acharei in which occurs Vayikra/Leviticus 18:22-23 in which it is written:

22: ” You shall not lie with a man as one lies with a woman , it is an abomination.”

23.”Do not lie with any animal to be contaminated with it ; a woman shall not stand before an animal for mating, it is a perversion”

The Chumash notes (Stone Edition) for Leviticus 22-23 reads: “22-23. Sodomy and bestiality. The chapter of immorality ends with two forms of sexual perversion : homosexuality and bestiality. The harshness with which the Torah describes them testifies to the repugnance in which God holds those who engage in such unnatural practices.

1. An abomination. None of the relationships given above is described with this term of disgust, because they involver normal activity, though with prohibited mates.. Homosexuality , however, is unnatural and therefore abominable.”

Without any beating about the bush this is the day and age of freedom of speech and so let’s hear the Bible speak.

Here’s the Bible on homosexuality …. and having gone through all that we are still in Bible territory, and our cultural scribes insist that we ( Sweden/ Europe/ the West ) are standing on the holy ground of Judeo-Christian foundations.

Here’s the Bible : punishment for homosexuality

Live and let live is my philosophy.

There was a time here in Sweden, it was such a long time ago that I can’t quite remember when it happened ; it could have been in the 70s of the last century, or even in the 80s or 90s – that after Försäkringskassan (State Health Insurance) or some bigwig in some government department or other had classified homosexuality as “a disease” or illness, a whole lotta people called in to report themselves ill and unable to report to work early the following morning.

Times change. Times have changed. And then they saw the light – those who had talked about illness and disease. Some say that it was all seen anew, in twentieth century and twenty-first century light. There are others who even go further than that : That Sweden and indeed the world is not a Judeo-Christian theocracy – and in my opinion, in such a world Bilal Philips and his views on homosexuality also has its own place and in so far as he does not descend into hate speech,  in my view,   he should neither be banned nor should he be  dis-invited – if anything his views call for a discussion even with revolutionary, heretic or reform-oriented impulses –  and the solution does not lie in excommunication – and if it is excommunication, then on whose legal authority is such an edict issued : “This is the Republic of Sodom and Gomorrah .Thou shalt not come here to express contrary views about homosexuality”

Indeed, in my own experience and in my version of “The Curragh of Kildare” it’s a love no mortal man can cure (not even John, Jesus’ beloved disciple…..

Here in what is generally reputed to be sexually liberated Sweden, the Ecce Homo exhibition may have been a turning point in the general public’s consciousness about instinctual and spiritual love between man and man as one of the many possible varieties – and verities of human love and sexual relations.

The Ecce Homo exhibition could not have taken place in Mecca or Medina or in the Vatican or Canterbury or even in holy Athens…..nor would (astagfirullah) the likes of Bilal Phillips have graced such an occasion here in Stockholm except as part of a protest delegation and to preach the veracities of compassionate post-modernist Islamic morality.

It is not only in Sweden that sexual minorities face persecution from both extreme love church and some al-wadud from the mosque; we’ve been hearing about outrages in Senegal and in Uganda where homosexuals face extreme persecution and a new act of parliament was passed recently, criminalizing homosexuality most severely and now this is the latest ray of hope from another missionary outpost, Nigeria where the contending religions of Christianity and Islam along with some of the traditional mores out-law homosexuality and have many homosexuals ostracised and many other on the run.

Leaves you wondering what are the United Nations and Human Rights Organisations doing about protecting the lives and lifestyles of those who practice other normal forms of non-violent and peaceful human behaviour? Will it one day get to the point of NATO establishing no-fly zones over special enclaves, over for instance the most fabled Lesbian City in Sweden – and more importantly, in the spirit of Truth and Justice, will some of the unfaithful not merit such a place in a more long lasting future existence, sometime after the trials and tribulations to which all must submit, at death?

It’s the sort of existential question on which much sleep should not be lost.

( to be continued)

Ask the rabbis?

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First of all this is a warning that ought to be taken seriously : ACN warns PDP

I should now like to take up a few matters arising from Obi Nwakanma’s article “Post-election violence in Nigeria.”

What is most surprising is that in his article “Post-election violence in Nigeria” Obi Nwakanma the poet (“a massive orgy of violence “, “the local authorities must act with firmness now to arrest this blaze of anger”) and with all his poetic imagination so manifestly at play ( but not running riot) he  talks about sordid reality, perhaps because it is so sordid and even as an accusation it’s there, like no smoke without fire – and unfortunately, it is one of the causes of “the blaze of anger” – and yet – he does not breathe a word about that bad word that is fouling up the air, the word that is corrupting the air: RIGGING!. He has preferred to call it by its more formal , official Nigerian bureaucratic nomenclature:”ballot manipulation both by electronic and manual methods,” which we ordinary non-poetic mortals call by its less scientific proper name: RIGGING !

Surprise, surprise, but the surprise even if brushed aside or hidden under the carpet by a poet refusing to smell the allegations or because words alone cannot do justice to it, it will surely not go away or just remain a bad word which we must ignore, or shut our eyes and nostrils to, because it is so disgusting to even think of it or be forced to smell it.

Obi acknowledges that judging from the results of the just concluded presidential elections, one arrives at the tentative conclusion that in consonance with political reality that may after all be only temporary, a new line of demarcation has been carved between North and South ( in this instance, the rest of Nigeria.) in the new political map of the Federation which we find HERE.

The only surprise is that he opines that “this electoral map is neither strange nor unexpected. It remains the accurate reflection of Nigeria’s true political demography.” However, he too will agree that prior to this latest election, this has not always been the true map – and the evidence of the former divide has been the realistic basis of many a prognosis of election outcomes since Nigeria’s independence and even before that. Therefore, the North-South divide of earlier years cannot be said to have been “the great fiction of Nigerian politics.”

”The flood plains of the Benue might account for the early diffusion of the groups that came to make up the major ethnicities of what we now know as Nigeria.” Sure. What is not clear here is whether by “major” he means the majority of the some 250 ethnicities – and if this is accurate , since we are dealing with a region that is being characterised ( second to Lagos) as an ethnic melting pot or a region of multiple ethnicities, it should be interesting to know the numerical strength of this region of “the major ethnicities” as reflected in the voters’ register.

Given the dramatic change in Nigeria’s demographic reality, the following observations can be said to be true:

1. That the North remains the True North.

2. The South has now eaten up much of what was once known as the Middle Belt and Obi defines this “ buffer” zone as  “the quintessential character of multi-ethnic Nigeria, being diverse, both ethnically and religiously, and having affiliations to the north and south of that divide” and further qualifies it as “the hybrid and diverse north”

If these characterizations are accurate then wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect that it would be a fifty-fifty split of the votes between Buhari and Jonathan – or has the Middle then become part of Down South? The True South – or even the South East? ( The latter was a rhetorical question.)

3. That Tony Momoh got it wrong that, “in the South-East ( they) were reporting “low voter- turn-out.” – fact of the matter is – at least I suspect this to be true, that the Igbos came out en masse, to vote against Mr. Buhari. How else do we account for Anambra state polling 99.25 % and Enugu State polling 99.30% in favour of Goodluck Jonathan? Earlier on the Anambra Assembly had promised another aspirant to the PDP presidential crown that they would deliver Anambra in toto into his ( Atiku’s) hands – with one proviso: that next time round it would be an Igbo man as flag bearer (or something like that.) In which case, understandably it was merely a formality transferring that allegiance to Goodluck Jonathan the eventual  PDP flag bearer and  as things are now, it’s a  Goodluck Jonathan who must also be grateful to and to some extent therefore be expected to succumb to the influence of that area of his popularity, since  the Oga  knows that one good turn deserves another.

4. Given that more than 30% of the Yoruba people are Muslim  ( please correct me if I’m wrong)  – and admittedly, there are several other factors at play here, it would seem to me that my man Muhammadu Buhari’s Muslim identity has not been a major magnet for attracting the Yoruba Muslim vote and so I come to the conclusion , that massive rigging aside, this time of the year , this year , it would appear that “Southerness “ as political identity has transcended religious ”loyalty” to Muhammadu Buhari – and I mention this since the media has been emphasising religion as a factor – where in addition to Muhammadu Buhari being a highly evolved moral being in my eyes, and like everybody else I also see his many sterling and statesmanlike qualities and his personal integrity. Unlike many other politicians in the federation, past and present, he does not need any poetic license to say openly and without contradiction in everyday reality : “I have never stolen public funds”

5. To some extent we are in essential agreement about some aspects of  the North -South dichotomy, just as  I have myself previously put it thus  on – 20th April :

that the news report referred to “describes the city of Kano as a kind of religious  Berlin Wall/ buffer zone:  “this dusty city separating Nigeria’s Muslim north and Christian south “ This leaves us wondering about the Middle Belt, which is surely a point of gradual transition  between the extreme North and the extreme South, since it’s that suitable admixture of Muslims and Christians, giving balance and some equilibrium to the  simmering national stew…..

It’s been variously said that Goodluck Jonathan has emerged as the winner as a candidate of consensus and unity – as the most pan- Nigerian candidate to emerge thus far. I beg to differ from this popular/ populist perception – which that BBC political map also denies…..

Once upon a time in Nigerian history,  Chief Moshood Abiola was certainly the man who won handsomely in both the North and South, in what was a most free and fair election, one devoid of the usual intimidations, religious acrimony and sectarian tension we now see, with its epi-centre spreading from  Kano the fabled ancient city of Nigeria. Fortunately my man Muhammad Buhari for love of Nigeria is trying to quell the spread of the wildfire…and hopefully, in time the nation will be healed …”

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The days ahead will be critical.

Having been routed in Misrata, instead of withdrawing his forces to go to the defence of his Tripoli command centre/ headquarters/residence, Gaddafi is threatening to deploy the local tribesmen to go in and show no mercy to the opposition in Misrata. He is fooling no one. Perhaps the local tribesmen will tell him to go in himself ( and to take all the oil money with him)

The many faceted opposition to Gaddafi includes Muhammad al-Senussi the crown prince of Libya and this is what he had to say two days ago, talking to Sir David Frost about Libya’s future.

What is common to them all is Love for the people of Libya.

“There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’ “

Indeed, the battle is still raging….

“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,

Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!

Kamal is out with twenty men to raise the Border side,
And he has lifted the Colonel’s mare that is the Colonel’s pride.
He has lifted her out of the stable-door between the dawn and day
And turned the calkins upon her feet, and ridden her far away.

Then up and spoke the Colonel’s son that led a troop of the Guides
Is there never a man of all my men can say where Kamal hides? ”
Then up and spoke Mohammed Khan, the son of the Ressaldar:
“If ye know the track of the morning-mist, ye know where his pickets are.”

East is now meeting West in Libya…..

Verily, things are hotting up, it seems that inevitable change is coming to everybody in the region – everybody but Gaddafi who probably thinks that he is destined to be the sole exception to the laws of change and that “to the last drop of blood”, he will be the last man standing. The truth is, Change has come and is still coming in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemeni leader agrees to step down and then there’s Assad’s Syria and even more bad news coming from Damascus

“OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,

Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat ”

On the one hand Good Friday was Day 1 of US Predator drones kicking ass in Libya

On the other hand even at the given price, things are getting too much for Gaddaf and he is on the retreat , although he’s trying to deny this with some camouflage techniques, probably being learned from his faithful allies, China, Russia Belarus,.Ukraine, Serbia who are keeping the Old Man stocked with military hardware & more combat personnel from Eastern Europe & the former Yugoslavia Hopefully he’s paying in advance, because when the deal goes down he will be going down or be surely gone out of town…..

If all of the above is all too depressing and you’re thinking

“Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball; ” ,

here’s a reminder of  what a woman can do with just one  ball

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RE this opinion that surfaced on the NYT: Nigeria: fair vote, Fragile Future

My partial response to the above, will get back to comment on the part that I take a distance to

“ Mr. Jonathan’s  immediate task, with behind-the-scenes help from Washington and London, is to find a way to keep Mr. Buhari in his tent. “

Is the  author of the opinion in some way conflating the identity of my man Muhammadu Buhari with that of Muammaer Gaddafi – and his tent?

Otherwise, it’s a balanced and forward-looking opinion. Dele Olojede has lifted the veil to dissipate the myth that the riots in Northern Nigeria depict angry machete-wielding Muslim Jihadists hell bent on slaughtering as many children of Christ as possible on Good Friday. On the contrary :

“But the current fury in Nigeria’s north is

different and alarming: the population, long
ruled by a conservative religious and political
elite, has for the first time turned on its most
revered institutions, burning the palaces of
emirs and the homes of religious leaders seen as
“collaborators” with the corrupt political
establishment in Abuja, the capital.
Even the Sultan of Sokoto, the most powerful and
respected Muslim religious figure in Nigeria, was
pelted with satchels of water in the street – a
hitherto unthinkable act of public humiliation.
Powerful Muslim businessmen, suspected of bribing
voters and attempting to rig elections in Mr.
Jonathan’s favor, also had their homes set ablaze.
Over the past few days we have seen the old order
go up in the smoke rising over emirs’ palaces. “

Is there any justification for describing Muhammadu Buhari as “a taciturn and somewhat ascetic leader “ – with just that much of a hint, suggesting perhaps something more sinister and in keeping with the image of that especially austere, fundamental Muslim type of being?

Mahatma Gandhi was ascetic in a very Hindu kind of way, but Buhari?

Mahatma Gandhi practised Mouna ( Hindu vows of silence) – whole days of silence, but that would not justify his being described as “ taciturn” either – or, that like Buhari, he did not have powers of self-expression when he had occasions to speak and make himself heard.

Just because Muhammadu Buhari does not go shooting his mouth all over the place like some political chatterboxes does not justify him being described as “taciturn” – and he cannot be respectfully described as “voluble” either – like some of the political loudspeakers and rooftop amplifiers, always blaring their message at the highest volume, trying to communicate with the whole street, as if we’ve all suddenly gone deaf.

“The very future of the country, whether it

remains unified or the cleavage demonstrated in
voting patterns becomes concrete, depends on the
leadership skills displayed by Mr. Jonathan and
Mr. Buhari over the coming days and weeks.” ( Dele Olojede)

We all love Nigeria. For the love of Nigeria, for the love of peace and quiet the demands are high to quell the spirit of anti-corruption and the revulsion with which it views vote-rigging on the one hand and the hunger for power which promotes the vote rigging and boasts of democracy at the same time. In my view the love for Nigeria and for peace and quiet should be predicated on fair play and Justice. So before strewing any ridiculous demands along the path of Mr. Buhari we had better address the issues raised in a spirit of fair play and Justice: look into the allegations. Then the spontaneous outbreak of anger which is not orchestrated by Mr. Buhari (and I’m feeling it here in Stockholm) – that anger could subside.

What has puzzled me most is that , as we know, Buhari’s second in command at that critical juncture in Nigeria’s political history, was Tunde Idiagbon -a Yoruba man – and yet Buhari did not win any of the predominantly Yoruba states and in fact accuses “Lagos State Governor Bolaji Ahmed Tinubu of trading off the South West region to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in the last Saturday’s Presidential election in a secret deal struck shortly before the poll.”

When a man described as “a taciturn and somewhat ascetic leader “ makes such an accusation , it should be taken seriously by the bodies that are legally equipped to investigate and of course to provide the material evidence to support these charges and to deal justice.

How many ways to skin a cat? The accusations are about “very sophisticated rigging strategies”

On the whole the media is agog with reports that the election was reasonably free and fair and some go as far as saying that the elections were the freest and most fairest in Nigeria’s history.

What can be asserted without contradiction is that it has been the most peaceful presidential election so far and not marred by violence. But the absence of violence and strife, electricity blackouts and the disappearance of ballot boxes in counting houses or the disappearance or the change of hands of ballot boxes in transit to counting centres – from lawful hands to more dubious hands – and many other such anomalies that characterized the last election when Goodluck Jonathan was running mate to Umaru Yar’adua – the absence of all that melodrama does not mean that Mr. So-and-So can place his hand on the Bible and solemnly swear that there was no rigging whatsoever this time round.

Previously, I asked by what miracle could Goodluck Jonathan harvest over a million votes in Kaduna? Check the population of Kaduna. Check the number of people registered to vote in Kaduna. Add up the number of votes cast and there you have a problem…..not an answer.

If we are really interested in Justice and in the free and fair then these are serious allegations, and here Muhammadu Buhari alleges that there was rigging from the air!

He has also made these other very serious allegations.

Before all of the above, of some interest : The Nigerian Presidential Debate. (Goodluck Jonathan doesn’t show up)

That’s why Nigeria is Nigeria. But the debate goes ahead anyway, without Goodluck…..

The Nigerian presidential elections

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Not exactly  a time for delusion or disillusion

“Disillusioned words like bullets bark

As human gods aim for their mark
Make everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It’s easy to see without looking too far
That not much is really sacred “

We all remember no nonsense strongman Senator John McCain’s memorable song :Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran !

No nonsense strongman McCain is now busy, is physically in Benghazi giving the thumbs up, sending a strong signal to the not so strong man in Tripoli by giving much needed succour and moral support to Gaddafi’s opposition in Benghazi

Another Republican strongman John Bolton ( I Like him) is waiting quietly in the wings..

Worried, I too get to thinking of John Bolton and strong men like him, when I read this :

America’s Failure to Knock Out Gaddafi Emboldens Iran –

In any case, the armed drones are on their way and will be in action today, this Friday…..

Because of the at-times Swedish policy of low-profile behind-the-scenes-diplomacy and the sometimes cautious avvaktande wait-and-see attitude, it does not seem likely that our own karl (Carl Bildt on TV here) will be boarding one of our Jas Super Planes to fly over to Misrata or Benghazi in order to give succour to the opposition’s ground forces there.

They say that pigs don’t fly, but it’s never too late to try. It’s in the realm of human probability that hockey mom Sarah Palin the ambitious super wench of the new Boston Tea Party would also like to grab some shares in public attention by flying over to Benghazi in a crash helmet and full battle attire to talk to the tea party opposition people over there.

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We Sweden usually starts with this appropriate update – to see where we stand on the Libya latest

To take the temperature of America, let’s see what Gaddafi’s best buddy over there, is saying about “the situation”. The difference between Gaddafi’s best buddy in America and all the Libyan diplomats who have defected from/deserted Gaddafi, is that Gaddafi’ best buddy may be African (according to him) but he isn’t Libyan.

So what ’s best buddy saying? Has he been issuing more prophetic warnings, more “thou shalt nots” and “at your own peril”, to Brother Obama? Or has he been saying “nuttin”? Better than Rev. Jesse Jackson getting so emotional that he said he wanted to cut off someone’s “nuts” ( not Gaddafi’s)

Brother to brother.

Next thing you know Jesse’s struck with wonder and cryin’.

Farra has not been saying much of late, apart from giving his Brother Gaddafi some space in an exclusive interview from way back November 1999 , which you may read here – so that Gaddaf doesn’t complain and accuse us of not having given him a fair hearing…..

On the Day of Judgement when Gaddafi stands accused by Iblis, the director-general of public prosecutions, Gaddaf will probably be less defiant and be pleading for mercy.

When asked “ What have you done to your people?” – he will probably try to evade the question and start talking about what he has done for his people and and the great sums of the Libyan people’s oil revenues that he has dished out liberally as Sadaqah, first and foremost, primarily to himself, and also here and there, buying influence across planet Africa….

Iblis will then press charges about Lockerbie and request him to call his witnesses then if he is truthful…..

Presently, he is denying this charge: Gaddafi has been dropping cluster bombs on his people, all of whom he says love him: “All my beeple love me, they love me all” crows the colonel – although it’s obvious that he loves himself , but does not love all of his bepple.

So how can all of his people love him when he’s been busy killing so many of them?

Is cluster-bombing them one of his many ways of expressing love for his bepple?

There are reports that he is now terrorising another minority in Libya, the Berber people of Nafusa, terrorising them with artillery, poisoning their water sources, his soldiers threatening to mass rape their women. Over 10, 000 of them have taken refuge in neighbouring Tunisia..

This too is unbelievable: that although UN Security Council Resolution 1973 empowers NATO to use all possible means to protect the lives of civilians, NATO is now saying that it can’t help keep Gaddafi’s forces from slaughtering civilians in Libya’s third-largest city, Misurata !

Give the devil his due…at least give him a fair chance, so here is Moussa Ibrahim Herr.Gaddafi’s spokesman, a more reasonable fellow and a marked improvement on Saif al-Islam who usually thinks that he is qualified to talk to only idiots from the West which taught him much of what he knows:

From Tuesday 19th April 2011

Hardtalk with Moussa Ibrahim – Gaddafi’s spokesman – part 1

Hardtalk with Moussa Ibrahim – part 2

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2000 Blacks – that’s Brother Chuck Anthony there on guitar….

The struggle in Nigeria continues. In the Northern city of Kano more reports are streaming in about people ( it doesn’t say exactly who) being butchered by other humans wielding machetes and more reports of charred, unburied corpses and burnt down motorcars littering the streets ….sad, very sad….

Nigerian newspapers

Nigeria is a very important country in Africa – Nigeria has an embassy here in Sweden and Sweden has an embassy in Nigeria. Relations between the two countries Sweden-Nigeria relations - especially business relations have been good even during the most trying of times and I’m sure that Sweden will always support Nigerian Democracy.

There has been all that trouble in Jos about which we all have our opinions.

I had lunch with Musa Mamman the Station Master of Freedom Radio in Kano, Gunilla Carlsson’s special invitee to the European Development Days Conference in Stockholm in October 2009 and got a special insight into the problems with the Boko Haram and Kano in general. Mallam Aminu Kano is also one of my Nigerian heroes

Here is my reaction to the state of affairs presently obtaining in Kano

It’s possible that one of the reasons why Fela did not survive long and passed away young was because of this his song Shuffering and Shmiling

Muhammadu Buhari has roundly condemned the post-election violence…. it’s worse  than rigging

Goodluck Jonathan has also appealed for calm – and we can be sure that he will not be showing his face in Kano very soon or without being escorted by some heavy heavy security for some time to come.

Brother Goodluck Jonathan has been declared the winner. It’s not that electoral fraud has not been anticipated.  These honourable men have still not listened to any of the complaints and some of The People are angry and are challenging the credibility of the Nigerian Election results because they have reason to believe – among other things – that there is no smoke without fire, that the leopard does not change stripes overnight nor does the thieving monkey have a sudden change of heart or change his black hand just like that and (I never tell you finish) and that there was massive rigging in order to avoid a second round to the Nigerian presidential elections – and that this second round would/should have taken place if Goodluck Jonathan had got less than 25 % of the votes in at least two-thirds/ 24 of Nigeria’s 36 States.

And so they nipped it in the bud, so to speak, before it got too far.

That’s what some of the angry people are saying….

About  condemning post- election violence , in my view, given that God-given Human Life is sacred in all religions, this reverence for life and for the lives of Nigerian national whether they are Believers or non-believers has to be shown.

The prayer leaders and other religious leaders in Kano have to exhort their followers to show restraint. I hope that the church & pentecostal pastors & preachers will also show restraint and not take to condemning Islam as the cause of violent political behaviour, as this could only help to further exacerbate religious differences.

But where are the security forces, who are paid good salaries to maintain law and order and whose duty it is to protect the lives and property of all Nigerians and foreign guests in Nigeria?

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“There is no doubt about the fact that this election was rigged. Inflated results especially in the SS, SE and some SW show it clearly. Everybody knows that this isn’t it. I’m only sorry for the country and most people who think this is the way the election should be conducted. I can only welcome Nigeria to another long years of endless looting, uncontrolled parade of godfatherism, brutality, criminality and battered image internationally. This isn’t about CPC or north candidacy, it’s all about competent hands steering the affair of our dear nation. If all we’ve got is GEJ, then we are simply joking.Whatever may be the case, the election is a free for cash as far as PDP is concerned, certainly not fair an inch.“ (O.O, a Nigerian observer )

A question that could be flickering across your mind is : Is it possible to pre-plan and massively rig an election across the federation, right under the noses of 40 or so international observers? The answer to that too  is, yes, it’s possible. On a grand scale, especially when there is the unfounded fear of Islam in the background of what’s known as international politics, of the so called “international community”….

Another take : The Nigerian way of dying ……………………………………………………

The ideological stances about Libya are now hardening and will continue to do so the longer the now protracted conflict between the pro-democracy forces allied to NATO and one of Africa’s last surviving strongmen, Colonel Gaddafi lasts.

Before turning my attention to the results of Nigeria’s presidential election these are the last series of words that crossed my mind:

A moving personal insight about Gaddafi

A brave new voice: The Gambia’s President Jammeh’s position about the Ivory Coast

Another interesting dimension to Ivory Coast politics and about the Ivory Coast’s Quattara, which may not be of any significance but was forcefully brought to my attention as being significant ( Senghor was also married to a white woman; so was Sir Milton Margai):

“Quattara married his wife, Dominique Nouvian Folloroux, who is French Jewish, in a 1991 wedding ceremony held in the town hall of the prestigious 16th arrondissement.[citation needed] Although there have been claims that the marriage ceremony was presided over by French President Nicolas Sarkozy when he was mayor of Neuilly, this was not actually the case.[7] “

Now, most importantly, back to Nigeria and the Nigerian Elections , and this is the song :

Gotta serve somebody

– an easy sell where missionaries come and go as they please; but I can assure you that Bob will have a hard time selling this kind of song about not serving any other Super deity or power, or about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or about  Peter, Paul & Mary to the Confucian Chinese …

In many parts of post-colonial Africa, it’s the same question and the same answer.

Question: You want democracy?

Answer: We will arrange an election

and Voilà – there you have it: democratically elected winners ( by hook or by crook) will form the government and losers by even five percent , lose all ( all power) and are shut out. Winner takes all. There you have it – divide and rule, majorities and minorities – a nation made up of 250 nations, always in conflict in their divided and disunited country, the North, South, East, West segments dis-united but still welded together within their common national colonial borders which are not of their choice or of their making.

When it comes to Nigeria, you had better ask Lord Lugard about what has sometimes been described as a Lugardist experiment which gave birth to a nation called Nigeria  as recently as  1926 . Nigeria became independent on 1st October 1960…..

Needless to say, Nigeria, like Robinson Crusoe’s Man Friday, remains within the English Language sphere of influence , whether he be a Soyinka or an Achebe , a Ken Saro-Wira or a Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a chief Goodluck Jonathan or my man, my good man, MUHAMMADU BUHARI – a really impressive man. And that’s me: I’m not easily impressed, especially not by mediocrity.

For a better understanding of the complexity called Nigeria, we in Sweden should just try to imagine choosing a president – fielding our best sample, our own Freddy – Fredrik Reinfeldt as the American style presidential candidate for President of Europe as a country – ONE COUNTRY – (The United States of Europe) with the Danes to the South, our Scandinavian brothers the Norwegians once a part of us, now to our West, the Germans (and Austrians) over there, amalgamating their interests and teaming up with the Slavs and Russians; there’s the Poles, the I-talians, La France, the Spaniards, the Portuguese, NATO, and in the English-speaking zone quietly re-forming their coalition of interests the Great Brits in their British Isles and Northern Ireland and all that was once part of the Great Empire, where they still have a lot of influence and commercial ties….

Born to win, born to lose. And let me hasten to add that I’m not not trying to speak in the voice of unrestrained objectivity or of prophecy , since I have not attained to that state; I have my own biases, my own understanding and of course, just like you, I’m far from being omniscient.

The exercise that has just been completed in Nigeria, sticks you in the eyes and quite literally, it’s time for the post-mortems.

As I’ve said before, incumbency goes a long way, particularly in an African presidential election.

Voters often say that they really have no choice other than the choice of choosing between the lesser of two evils.

The saying is “Better the devil that you know than the devil that you don’t know” – or is it better to vote for the devil that you don’t know than to vote for the devil you know? My man Buhari was such a long time ago and the political landscape has changed a lot in the intervening years – furthermore, we should not forget that the majority of voters were born after the legendary Buhari years. In either case (devil you know versus the devil & the devilry that you don’t know – or even the unknown, the unknowable devil ) it would still be difficult for some people, even sooth-sayers, to make up their minds. Only time will tell, if we are living in heaven or we’re living in hell

Approximately, only an alleged 36 million out of the 70 million people who were registered to vote have voted. So, what happened to the high turnout that the media was constantly crowing about? The hype about a high turnout usually presages massive rigging/ election fraud which can run into the tens of millions of “ballots cast” in the country, a country that is so unfortunately infamous for the 419 letters….. a country in which Mallam Nuhu Ribadu the anti-corruption crusader that Wole Soyinka was exonerating just the other day, apparently only managed to garner two million votes to back the morality and civil courage of his anti-corruption crusade

What we have seen is extraordinary and can only be interpreted to mean that Nigeria is now more polarized than ever before. How else to interpret the fact that Jonathan won 90- 99.% of the votes in the following 10 Southern States:see Nigeria’s presidential election results update from Nigerian World

Needless to say, the figures are inflated….

Let me now make clear what I should have made clear from the very outset, that had I been entitled to vote in the Nigerian presidential elections, all things considered, I would have voted for a man of sterling quality MUHAMMADU BUHARI and without hesitation both in this presidential election and in the last one (in 2007 ) in which Muhammadu Buhari was  again badly cheated  by the same crooks  – not that I am from the North of Nigeria or a Muslim. I am not from Northern Nigeria nor am I a Muslim. I have nothing against people from Northern Nigeria or against al-Islam or Muslims ( I visited my friend Mustapha Touray  and other friends in the Mosque just before he said his Asr prayers  this last Friday)  – in fact during my sojourn in Nigeria, 1981-1984, I have found Northern Nigerians of Hausa and Fulani stock to be among the nicest and most dignified people that I have encountered in Nigeria or elsewhere – as nice as the Kalabari people who I know best – and I know all parts of what was once called Rivers State , Goodluck Jonathan’s home state, the uplands from Ahoada to Omoku and the Riverine area from Bonny to Okrika, through Yenagoa to Brass. I witnessed the 1983 presidential elections in Nigeria ( massive rigging) and was surprised to read the Dagens Nyheter headlines about that election: “Triumph for Democracy!” Sometimes these reporters and observers who admittedly can’t be everywhere at the same time, simply don’t know what time it is…..

You may be wondering, what does my man Muhammadu Buhari have going for him?

He has honesty, humility,  INTEGRITY, principles, love for Nigeria – he campaigned on a platform that wants Accountability….. and no one can produce any evidence that Muhammadu Buhari ever stole any money…..

Other interviews with Muhammadu Buhari

I was not in Nigeria when a little later, elements belonging to the lootocracy which he had overthrown without bloodshed, wanted to take their revenge on Muhammadu Buhari, first of all by spreading all kinds of nefarious rumours about him, in the so called free press – and because he took the necessary stern measures to put a stop to this,some people who should know better, accused him of dictatorhship even in those extenuating circumstances in which a desperate situation calls for an appropriate remedy – you just can’t in the name of a free press start churning out masses of articles falsely accusing the head of state of corruption, or having looted xx billion amounts of dollars, when such publications are manifestly false and were only aimed at  destabilising the state and at demonizing a good man (Buhari) who along with Tunde Idiagbon, cleared up much of the garbage not only at Mile One Market in Port Harcourt, but also among the hierarchy in the corrupt oligarchy/ plutocracy that was Nigeria – and Muhammadu Buhari was on the good road of completing the job of clearing the garbage that was holding Nigeria up ,when while  still in Mecca , he was deposed by a military coup. His only mistake was that before setting off on the pilgrimage to Mecca, his departing words were that he was now gong to Mecca and that when he returned he would finish the purification that he had started. Of course the corrupt elements within the plutocracy got together and fixed a coup d’etat, so that they could continue to plunder the country’s resources, with impunity.

Today I lit my candles at 19.50  …

Today, 18th Day of Nisan 5771 – the First Day of Pesach 2011 and the Exodus of the nation of Israel from  slavery in Egypt…

( to be continued)

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Re- “What is this “We Sweden”? Just a vehicle for someone who has nothing better to do in life but to enforce their views on people that are not interested.

It is losers like you that make this world a worse place. Try and get out and sample some life and stop being obsessed with your own turgid opinions.”

Before I embark on what ’s going to appear next on my blog, namely, comments on 1. The Nigerian Presidential Elections, 2, On Gaddafi accused of dropping cluster bombs on his own bepple , and 3,  A personal response to this item that appeared in the print edition of today’s DN, written by Erik Helmerson and entitled “Är homofobi bättre ?” (“Is homosexuality better ?” ) …about Bilal Philips who allegedly advocates the death penalty for homosexuals, being invited by Tuff to a conference on Islamophobia, in Sweden.

Before I embark on this – and on item 3, I promise to be quite controversial,

I’d like to say to Miss Jane, that this is my blog and that what you will find here are some of my thoughts and opinions.  I’m not forcing you to be on this page.  If you want to meet your own thoughts and opinions in a blog, my advice to you is to start your own blog and you can call it what you want. You can even call it “Our universe” if you like…

Perhaps you like this bit of wit from Stephen Crane:

“ A Man said to the universe:

“Sir, I exist!”

“However,” replied the universe,

“The fact has not created in me

A sense of obligation.”

This sort of THING would be difficult to find in our Sweden. It does not smell of “free and fair” and can lead to Big Palaver….in preparation for which these honourable men have already taken an oath

There’s also this sort ( of the ruling party)

N. B Miss Felicity: In my little sphere of the universe, this is:

The Most reliable source of BREAKING NEWS!

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