I PROMISE YOU

I am not too sure how often I tell you this and even how truthful I am when I get to say it; but today, I mean every single letter of every word plus all the possible meanings you get out of it. I promise you!

You have brought so much with you into my life and I really feel the best of it comes with the humility and your ability to weather the storm with me; that is indeed all I can ask for in a woman I call my wife. Thank you.

It is not your birthday nor is it our anniversary but I have come to realise that the best words and assurances shouldn't wait; these thoughts and words must be shared as soon as they are felt. They are about the most responsible way to pay back a rare display of companionship.

Times like this offer me the opportunity not only to say thank you but to be truthful. Have I been the best of husband? No, I haven’t. The good thing about this truth is that I know it and I am working hard to be better than you think I am.

The turbulence that has rocked our humble start tells a better tale of how consistent you have been and why you deserve a better deal; I haven’t seen and may never see an end to this except for the ultimate, death. Whenever it comes and whoever goes first; if feelings are carried over, I would always be grateful I have you. Once again, thank you.

I pick inspirations from quite a number of things but I have quickly come to realise how close I come to tears and inspiration when you talk to me and share our dreams together. I have always wanted to be a superb husband and a great father; this you have helped me start by seeing a reason why I should be what I actually set out to be. You made these attributes a goal worth pursuing and I am set.

My life has been rocked by some kind of challenges and I have fallen into temptations here and there but none of it has come without personal regrets and quest for self redemption. Some you reacted to and some, you let go. In all of these, I want you to know I have never taken your position in my life for granted and that which I have never contemplated is to let you go. For all my mistakes, I say, sorry. You have my love at all time and that would always be.

In all of these, my dear, I can only promise to justify your investments in our union. Your goals, the ones you have lived through and the ones you look to achieve, the drive to make our home the most pleasant destination and a place to always want to be, your pains in bringing our lovely children into this world, your doggedness in pursuing with me some of my dreams that may seem unrealistic, your trust in my ability to make the best out of nothing, your believe in my obviously limited ability; all of these would not be for nothing; I promise.

You can’t forget in a rush the days we passed together without money to spend and very little to eat. The days we had to whisper into the ears of our little boy why things had to be so hard on him even when we both knew he couldn't understand us and I also would never forget the nights you have to stay awake to keep the little man sleeping, the days spent to see our girl grow into a good woman and even the days I get so so lazy to get up and give you a hand. Let the truth be told; most of these times, I am eaten up by my guilt and weep over them in my quiet times; what a wife I have, what a man I have not been to match the energy and zeal.
All of these times are precious and are kept very close to my heart. I surely would grow into a better man and I hope one day, you would write in return for me some lines like I have done today.

This may be shared all around the world; this may be read by millions of eyes, all of these at any rate are for you and purely informed by how much you mean to me.

The best I can do is promise and pray for all of the divine guidance I can get.

Olaoluwa, I promise you!

In pursuit of constructive opposition

I am compelled to return to my blog after so long for reasons owing to my very erratic schedules in recent time. Taking advantage of some free time while here in the United States, it is indeed a good time to write about issues very dear to my heart especially considering my political inclination.

The first rule around here is absolute loyalty to your party and its leadership; this loyalty has nothing to do with the correctness of policies and/or ideologies, no! it is just about being loyal. This also does not presuppose that the ideologies are outrightly outrageous but for a system like ours that has consistently suffered doses of bad leadership; there has to be a crystal clear opposition strategy in place to give hope that better days truly are ahead.

My frequent twitter and facebook visits have opened my eyes to the emergence of a new brand of activist; I mean the e-activist!

The brand of activism is such that from the comfort of your hand-held smart devices, one can easily analyse issues and make submissions without hassles; this plus the fact that we currently have a leadership system where almost anything negative said about it may end up correct makes it such a very convenient approach to opposing government. I have nothing absolutely against the wave of e-activists as I equally qualify to be one and also that it rightly would be one of the needed avenues we would rely on if mass participation is anything to go by. It is equally important to note that not all e-activists go unpunished especially those whose activities take a physical dimension.

My wish is to see opposition parties especially that which I belong to outgrow its current approach to dealing with the activities of the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan led administration. It some sort appears to be automatic that a reasonable number of Nigerians already know what is wrong with the utterances and actions of our president just about as it happens; a situation that practically reduces my party to a mere projector of known facts as it were. This in my opinion isn't the right approach to opposition except that we wish to add to our very long list of names, the 'doomsday gospeller'.

What would really portray the party in the right light is taking a more constructive approach in dealing with policies of the government. We can’t afford to busy ourselves with what is already in the public domain while shying away from articulating proactive ways forward.

That the PDP led government is bad is as common as saying it’s raining, what is missing is that we have not successfully as a party proven to the people that we are a better option as most arguments presented in recent times only end up telling what is wrong with PDP and not what should have been done or what we intend to do!

This trend seem to be scoring the emerging party to the negative region as the whole alliance seem to have further galvanized the same old approach of condemning without proffering solutions.

Another interesting fact is that the ease of condemning the wrongs of the current administration which without apologies, I strongly agree must be properly situated seem to outweigh giving kudos for the few right judgments of Mr. President. While it is natural to want to argue against praising an opposition, it all boils down to the fact that we should owe to our country a sense of loyalty more that we can ever pledge to whatever political organisation we belong to.

In recent times, a number of issues have pitched our party against overwhelming public opinion on very crucial security matters; a fact that underscores the popularity of our said promises to outdo the current administration.

My point therefore is to get our acts right, busy ourselves with designing pragmatic ideologies, raise a soldier of young think-tanks to critically analyse happenings and come up with critiques and ways forward. This is in my opinion, about the only way we can end up representing a viable replacement for this current crop of confused individuals managing the affairs of our dear country.

At the end of the day, what is important to an average Nigerian is that daily life is improved upon and the pride of being a Nigerian is revived as against the current exchange of hot words that end up not solving any problem but compounding the existing ones.

God Bless Nigeria…

Presidential pardon: what is wrong with it?

I have exercised a bit of restraint talking about the presidential pardon granted some interesting individuals by Mr. President.

The whole idea of state pardon didn't start with Mr. President and so should not be seen as his invention; so many other instances of state pardon have been granted across the globe and quite a number of them came with cries and woes.

Mr. President has therefore not done anything strange to the history of mankind in practical sense but his action has successfully written for him yet another history.

For all we care, state pardon isn't meant for people who have not committed offences against the law as it were; it is actually meant for people who have been found wanting and/or pronounced guilty by a competent court of law. So again, if Mr. President in his wisdom has decided to grant criminals state pardon; I can’t agree any less that is still within the purpose of its initial design.

The pronouncement of Mr. President like I have observed since it was made had been welcomed by a number of reaction. Very few of these reactions that appear to be in support of his action are those from his paid aides, party chieftains of PDP or old legal giants who seem to be battling the old age syndrome; the rest which clearly represents the true feelings of the people condemns in strong term the action and this is equally my standpoint.

I have not arrived at this conclusion mainly because quite a number of people share this bias, No!

From whichever angle we choose to see this, whether from the legal or moral point of view, very many arguments would emanate and it may not be totally correct for anyone to lay claim to his point view as what is generally acceptable. For those who have raised the legal correctness of this pronouncement, what I have read in majority is that the President has a right to grant pardon to people but that his choice of Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha and Bulama amounts to gross abuse of such powers; this is a question of opinion.

I am not a lawyer and as such would not want to bother debating the constitutional rights of Mr. president as far as this pardon is concerned; what is important to me is the import of this pronouncement, its implication on the psyche of an average Nigerian, the promotion of class argument and above all, its placement within the confines of common sense.

Of all of these arguments, that which is widely debatable is the moral implication of the pronouncement.

In the spirit of forgiveness, I would have agreed with Mr. Doyin Okupe that given the purported contributions of Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha after serving his terms to the Niger delta and Nigeria as a whole; there is no harm in forgiving Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha.

However, I have also come to understand that forgiveness doesn’t come as a dash. I can’t remember if at any point, Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha had apologized to the people of Bayelsa state or to Nigerians as a whole; this atleast would have created a basis for even discussing whether or not he should be granted any form of pardon. The crimes of Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha transcend robbing the people of their collective heritage; his actions and inactions must also have led to deaths of some others indirectly.  Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha is equally a fugitive as I write.

What then is wrong with the idea of state pardon in my personal opinion? The main problem I have with this is Mr. President himself. He, being my reason, I sadly can’t see anything right in his pronouncement.

What is equally wrong about the pardon is the fact that Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha is for some reasons placed side by side the likes of Oladipupo Diya, Late. General Shehu Musa Yar’adua, and late General Abdulkareem Adisa; where is the correlation?

Mr. President, over a long period of time had earned for himself the status of a man whose actions and utterances are always at loggerheads just as he has successfully assumed the status of a man that should never be trusted.

For a man who has several misquoted Transparency International, who has continuously over rated his fight against corruption, who has misrepresented facts about the power sector on CNN, one would have expected that he thinks deeply about the move before the disgraceful pronouncement. Thankfully, the United State of America didn’t mince words in stating categorically her standpoint on the pardon granted.

It is worth a mention that Mr. DSP is a criminal of international dimension. His crimes didn’t only deprive the people of state whose heritage he kept in trust, he equally brought shame to the country especially considering the miraculous way through which he left the borders of the United Kingdom. This then calls to question Mr. President’s appreciation of bilateral relationships with countries especially in the areas of promoting democratic norms, good governance and economic development.

With this pronouncement, for a fact, Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha now has a right to contest any election in the country; watch out for some serious politicking in Bayelsa state.

For those who have raised the issue of timing, my response is simple. This pronouncement would never have been good at any time except NEVER! The truth would not assume the state of falsehood in a hundred year period vice versa; so whether Mr. President had done this now or towards the end of his regime, it would have made no difference except for political calculations and this also would have been useful to the extent that people who actually voted Mr. Goodluck at the last election would ever overcome their ‘goodluck’ fever.

I see Mr. President in is usual character coming up with a defense, that also would only further strengthen the fact that we have a man who is lost in his own web of confusion!

I would rather expect him to rescind the decision, have Mr. Dipriye Alameiyeisegha extradited to the United Kingdom and have him answer fully for his crimes. Anything short of this would have successfully assured people in government to go ahead with the looting with the hope that as long as a friend is at the helms of affairs, the can get away with anything.

 Nigerians are watching; God bless Nigeria