John McCain Shows Some of His Real Self

When corporate interests were on the line, it seems, the senator hung up on that right to privacy.*

Dear friends,

Imagine that John McCain had been given the nod to be president, instead of Barack Obama. The article on the link below, written by the very progressive and insightful journalist Stephanie Kraft of western Massachuset's The Valley Advocate, reveals the true direction that McCain has taken.

G. Djata Bumpus

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=129975A1A8D2F550&p_docnum=1&s_dlid=DL0109073117511825732&s_ecproduct=SUB-FREE&s_ecprodtype=INSTANT&s_trackval=&s_siteloc=&s_referrer=&s_subterm=Subscription%20until%3A%2012%2F14%2F2015%2011%3A59%20PM&s_subexpires=12%2F14%2F2015%2011%3A59%20PM&s_username=freeuser&s_accountid=AC0107071613144804057&s_upgradeable=no
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Gates' Arrest is Good for Obama PR

“This whole affair has given Barack Obama a chance to make a little public relations move after he has recently been criticized for a number of actions that were “anti-Black”, like going along with the US boycott of the International Conference on Racism that was held this past April (2009) in South Africa…”

Dear friends,

The current furor over Henry Gates being arrested is humorous to me. After all, the story is not even newsworthy, in my opinion.

What is more laughable is: For many years, long before this incident occurred, a number of my friends who are longtime progressive African American scholars/educators have considered Henry Louis Gates to be the antithesis of the “angry Black man” that the news media is revealing. In fact, the aforementioned African American professors have, as I mentioned above, for years, attached the same type of pejorative monikers to Henry, as they have/do to Clarence Thomas.

My own personal experience with Henry is old – i.e., not recent. Almost forty years ago, as a young Black Panther from the Boston, Mass. chapter who, along with a dozen or so fellow Panthers from all over the country, was temporarily stationed in the New Haven, CT chapter for about a year (1970-71), in order to rebuild the aforementioned chapter after the F.B.I. had concocted a murder case against our comrades there, including our national chairman and co-founder Bobby Seale, and had them all jailed. Henry was an undergrad at Yale then. As I mentioned in a piece last year about occasionally running into then future President George “Dubya” Bush (who had already graduated), Henry was an unassuming brother who was around Yale campus, during the same period. As best I can remember, he was always with a buddy (I cannot recall the other cat’s name). I do remember Henry being a good brother, nonetheless. But having to take on adult responsibilities can really change some people.

In any case, the point that, at least to me, so many people are missing is: This whole affair has given Barack Obama a chance to make a little public relations move after he has recently been criticized for a number of actions that were “anti-Black”, like going along with the US boycott of the International Conference on Racism that was held this past April (2009) in South Africa. In other words, Obama’s well-calculated remark about the “stupid” actions of police, for example, has certainly won him brownie points with many African Americans.

Meanwhile, genuine dialogue about racism is swept under the rug, as usual, because racism in the context that is being presented by Obama and the government- and corporate-controlled mass communications media is defined as either a “disease” or some kind of xenophobia, as opposed to being what it really is: a system of oppression and exploitation that is instituted by citizens who disregard their true ancestral pasts and make the mean-spirited claim of being “white”, in order to form an artificial “majority” group and maintain White Supremacy. Dig? Peace.

G. Djata Bumpus
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Five Questions for President Obama

In spite of the welcome nomination of Ms. Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, what "change" has occured as promised to the historically exploitative machine of big banks and multinational businesses that enjoy the protection of "our" government, Mr. Obama?


Five Questions for President Obama

1) If there are only a finite number of citizens and, therefore, consumers in America, will there come a time when some American companies will reach their “saturation points” as it is called in “Economics”; that is, will they be unable to do business here?

2) Should the government “bailout” such companies, including banks, when they reach their aforementioned “saturation points”, since their profits will decline?

3) Do companies have a responsibility to produce results in order to keep themselves in business?

4) Does it seem reasonable for UAW members to take over the Big Three, since they are already building and distributing the cars, while being supported by government funds as opposed to helping the incompetent managers that caused the failure from the outset?

5) Is the claim of "whiteness" that so divides America's body politic based upon biology or convenience for some citizens to means-spiritedly pit thenmselves against others and form an artificial "majority" group, regardless of either the length of history of these aforementioned people in this country or even their skin color?
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Is Hartford, CT becoming North America's new "Jazz" capital?

Saturday 5 September, 8pm The Many Colors of a Woman, Inc. Celebrates Women in Jazz @ The Many Colors of a W*O*M*A*N XXVI FREE Jazz Festival
Headlining: Nicki Mathis’Afrikan Amerikan Jazz New Millennium All Stars: Ricky Alfonso, Joe Fonda, Arti Dixson, Pat Harleston, Rozanne Levine, Dotti Anita Taylor, Deborah Weisz, Mark Whitecage; Special Guest Saskia Laroo Featuring Carla Dean, Dawn Dumas, & MORE TBA Hartford, CT.
CoSponsored by MCW, Inc., OPUS, Inc., SAND, Inc. Funded in part by The Evelyn W. Preston Memorial Fund, Bank of America Trustee; GHAC, MCW, Inc. Supported by Smith Whiley & Company, Cull Books, Jim Fentress. Open to the Public. Sponsors Invited. 860.231-0663, 860.429.6859

Monday 14 September 7P w/International Women In Jazz Choir, St Peter's Church, Lexington @ 54 St NYC 718.468-7376

Saturday 26 September, 8pm
The Many Colors of a W*O*M*A*N XXVII FREE Jazz Festival
Saint Joseph College, The Carol Autorino Center for Arts and
Humanities, Wheelchair Accessible
1678 Asylum Avenue, West Hartford CT, CT. 06117-2791
Map/directions: http://www.sjc.edu/content.cfm/pageid/264

Headlining: Nicki Mathis’ Afrikan Amerikan Jazz
Ricky Alfonso, Phil Bowler; Pat Harleston, Dotti Anita Taylor; Featuring: Carla Dean, Dawn Dumas, Latanya Ferrell; Amina Star & Rodney Decarlos Edwards’ string duo.
CoSponsored by MCW, Inc. Saint Joseph College, The Carol Autorino Center for Arts and Humanities, OPUS, Inc., SAND, Inc. Funded by MCW, Inc. Supported by Smith Whiley & Company, Cull Books. Open to the Public. Sponsors Invited. 860.231-0663, 860.231-5529, 860.429.6859 Dean photos

Thursday 12 November 5:30P An Evening with Gloria Reuben 3d annual WE CAN (Women End the Course of AIDS Now) event, The Pond House, Elizabeth Park, West Hartford hosted by CARC, featuring Nicki Mathis’ Afrikan Amerikan Jazz; 860.761-6699

As a New England States Touring (NEST) Roster artist, presenters applying to hire Nick Mathis may be eligible to receive grant funding that can cover up to 50% of artist fee. http://matchbook.org/ArtistProfile1.aspx?ProfileIdt1 BOOKING Information 860.231-0663 websites:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/nickmathis http://www.myspace.com/nickimathis

Producer, The Many Colors of a W*O*M*A*N Jazz Festival
http://themanycolorsofawomanincorporated.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid589469

New Boston Fund 2008 Individual Artist Fellowship/Greater Hartford Arts
Council Award Recipient.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/musicwoman/2008/08/27/Creative-Vocalists-Nicki-Mathis-and-Renee-Fiallos
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/musicwoman/2008/10/01/Metaphysics-of-Music
google Nicki Mathis Jazz

...If the looking glass were asked, Mirror, mirror on the wall who was the coolest of them all? The answer would be Nicki Mathis... Ken Flynn, El Paso Herald Post

Sing Everyday Eric Dolphy

A silver timbered Texan. Owen Mc Nally, Courant Music critic, Hartford, CT

…I just learned that you will be playing at the upcoming WE CAN event for the CARC! I am thrilled to have you be part of this wonderful program. Thank you so much for signing on....You made our PCSW gala last November a huge success and I'm bragging about you to anyone who will listen. Thanks! ... Teresa C. Younger Executive Director Permanent
Commission on the Status of Women

Lots of things contribute to the makings of a great female jazz singer, beside just a great singing voice: a stylishly graceful wardrobe, a laid back (but spunky) demeanor, and a connection with the audience. Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Nina Simone, Dinah Washington and Nancy Wilson all had (have)(sic) it and so, too, does Hartford's own Nicki Mathis. Robert Cooper, The Hartford Advocate

Dear Nikki, you are a Star of Bright Dimension Citizen Carrie S. Perry (Mayor) Hartford
CT
...and another new singer- and what a GEM! she counted off such a fast swing- I said to myself HUH? and she meant it! you knew where you wanted it Ms. Nick Mathis! Taught me somethin! Wow! your amazing! they LOVED you! I cant wait to hear more! Thank you for sharing that with us! ... LaRe, Jazz Fever Jam, Sugar Bar NYC

Thank you for performing at the Festival's Lunch and Evening Concert Series. We appreciated having Nicki Mathis' Afrikan Amerikan Jazz on our stage to engage and entertain audiences in downtown New Haven. We are glad to know that such diverse programming is possible in our region. Thank you again, Melissa Huber, Program Manager, 12th Annual International Arts & Ideas Festival

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Ojo Maduekwe meets Barack Obama‏

"If Maduekwe were schooled in the basics of diplomacy, he would have known that state visits were not negotiated at chance meetings in hotel hallways..."

Ojo Maduekwe meets Barack Obama

By Okey Ndibe

Ojo Maduekwe’s recent account of a supposed encounter with President Barack Obama pointed up the profound confusion of Nigeria’s misruling elite.

Maduekwe, who’s Umaru Yar’Adua’s foreign minister, described meeting Obama in Italy during the recent G-8 summit. According to him, “President Barack Obama told me that he will be visiting Nigeria very soon.”

In what was a textbook case of diplomatic gaffe, Maduekwe claimed that he “walked up to Obama and said, Mr. President, nice to meet you. I'm the Foreign Affairs Minister of Nigeria. President Obama was warm when I introduced myself. He held me by the shoulder and said to me ‘well, Mr. Minister, I will be visiting your country very soon.’ The second time he told me that ‘Mr. Minister, wherever goes Nigeria, goes Africa.’”

Forget that US embassy officials in Abuja have told Nigerian reporters that they were not aware of any plans by the American president to visit Nigeria. Such blunt repudiation is embarrassing enough. But it’s even sadder that Maduekwe should make a statement, in public, that is so jejune as to guarantee him – and the regime he serves – instant ridicule from Washington and within Nigeria.

Poor Ojo Maduekwe! Like many in Yar’Adua’s circle, he’s infected with what one may categorize as Ghana envy. Yes, Obama visited Ghana two weeks ago and spoke charmingly about Nkrumah’s renascent nation. Not only did the American leader laud Nigeria’s much smaller neighbor, he also spoke in barely veiled accents about Nigeria’s deepening pathologies. Nigeria, once self-proclaimed giant of Africa, has cast itself in the tragic position of now looking up to Ghana. Even if Nigeria were to get a thinking, visionary leadership, not the comatose usurpers now in place, it may well take a decade or more to attain Ghana’s level of infrastructural development and civic order.

But the usurpers sulk and chafe when a man like Obama, a figure whose emergence as US president is suffused with historical symbolism, snubs them. Obama is no fool. He knows that, to be seen consorting with the vote thieves in Abuja, is the quickest way to deplete his moral capital and political assets. So he went to Ghana, a country governed with a measure of vision by decent men and women.

Aware of his boss’s pain at being ostracized by America, Maduekwe bravely decided to save the day. Seizing his moment in Italy, he boldly walked up to Obama and (no doubt, self-importantly) introduced himself. He reported that Obama was “warm.” What a merciful thing that Maduekwe is a poor mind reader. How he would have frozen and recoiled in fright to discern the pity and contempt with which Obama regards his ilk – the pompous derelicts who frolic while their nation withers.

Isn’t it something that Nigeria is now reduced to fantasizing about an Obama visit? Isn’t it sad that Maduekwe, much older than Obama, should salivate at the idea that Obama “held me by the shoulder” – much like a primary school pupil getting giddy on account of the principal’s endearing attention and touch?

If Maduekwe were schooled in the basics of diplomacy, he would have known that state visits were not negotiated at chance meetings in hotel hallways. Even if Obama broached a visit, a minister of foreign affairs should have known better than to go to a public forum and blab about it.

But Maduekwe, like the regime he serves, is a desperate man. The likes of Maduekwe have put Nigeria in the position of a sophomoric nation, desperate to prove that what Ghana can do, Nigeria too can do.

What if Obama said, as Maduekwe claimed, that Africa’s fortunes are tied to developments in Nigeria? Did Maduekwe have to hear it from Obama to believe it? Had he not heard Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and hundreds of other patriots enunciate that point before?

Desperate to snatch cheer out of a charred narrative, Maduekwe failed to recognize in Obama’s (ostensible) words a rebuke about Nigeria’s addiction to failure, its miscarriage of promise, and its habituation to mediocrity. Think of the kind of hope Ghana has given to many West Africans by getting the basic things – credible elections and infrastructures – right. Imagine, then, the kind of powerful, positive jolt Nigeria would have offered to the rest of Africa if, somehow, the worst among us did not always conspire to hijack the nation, and to reduce it to their banal level.

Obama accorded Ghana the respect its leaders and people have worked hard to deserve. Maduekwe sneaked up on Obama in Italy and, in the fashion of those who abort Nigeria’s highest aspirations, attempted to rig respectability for the Yar’Adua regime. It backfired!
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Obama challenges NAACP, but not himself

"We have had an issue with him for refusing to send a delegation to the world conference on racism in South Africa,"

Dear friends,

Recently, President Barack Obama addressed the NAACP’s 100th anniversary convention. He spoke of his “standing on the shoulders of giants”, To be sure, we have heard this from him before, However, ay least to me, it is a disingenuous claim on his part, especially since, as the piece on the link below reveals, Mr. Obama spent so much time talking about African Americans taking “responsibility” as opposed to expecting help from the government, when he, apparently, has no plans himself to take responsibility by allowing other younger African Americans as well as those who have yet to come, to stand on “his shoulders”. In other words, he. in effect, is telling African Americans that, while he stood on the shoulders of giants, he prefers not to reciprocate. He more or less is saying: Sorry Black folks, I’ve reached the pinnacle. Now, you’re on you own.

Wow! Is this the man who African Americans thought would be our newest Jesus? After all, it seems that we are always looking for a Jesus, instead of using our own “divine” inner and outer powers and imitating the path of the historical Jesus, so that we can make our own way.

Finally, President Obama never even hinted about our need to build our communities. Instead, he totally placed the “responsibility” on parents to guide their children to be educated. Yet, what kind of education does he mean? After all, lawyers in America go to jail everyday, for a variety of crimes. Also, Obama called racism “discrimination”. Interesting. Nevertheless, on the link below, a “giant” himself. Philadelphia Daily News columnist Elmer Smith talks about Mr. Obama’s recent speech to the NAACP

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/51004352.html
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Obama goes to Ghana

Obama goes to Ghana

By Okey Ndibe

President Barack Hussein Obama, a man who embodies hope and a can-do spirit, went to Accra, Ghana last week to deliver a clear message: Africa’s future lies in African hands.

It was Obama’s sermon from Mount Accra. As speeches go, this one had two parts to it. Obama used part of his speech to deliver a rousing, and well-earned, praise of Ghanaians – a people who have beaten a path out of forlorn despair into hope, an energetic present and a promising future. He professed pride that “this is my first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as President of the United States.” And then, in a line that must have made every Ghanaian heart swell with pride, he added: “I have come here, to Ghana, for a simple reason: the 21st century will be shaped by what happens not just in Rome or Moscow or Washington, but by what happens in Accra as well.”

Obama’s speech was also a thinly veiled rebuke to those African countries that still murk around, fiddling away opportunities to achieve their promise. Among those countries, Kenya (Obama’s patrimonial homeland) and Nigeria (home to the vast majority of the world’s Black people) stand out.

In 1998, novelist Chinua Achebe gave a lecture at the World Bank and gave his audience the simple, but not always understood, message that “Africa is people.” In Accra, Obama echoed that sentiment when he asserted: “the boundaries between people are overwhelmed by our connections…I see Africa as a fundamental part of our interconnected world – as partners with America on behalf of the future that we want for all our children.”

Obama’s speech was part rallying cry, part deep cry from the heart of one who confessed, “I have the blood of Africa within me,” testifying that “my family's own story encompasses both the tragedies and triumphs of the larger African story.”

Today, Ghana represents the renascent spirit of Africa’s triumphs as surely as Nigeria emblematizes the continent’s abiding tragedies. And Obama’s sermon was attentive to the contrasting narratives of success and failure, hope and grimness, Ghana (as well as Botswana, South Africa, Senegal, Namibia etc) and Nigeria (as well as Kenya, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Niger, Somalia etc).

With his host country in mind, the American president credited “considerable progress in parts of Africa” but also noted, with Kenya and, likely, Nigeria in mind, that much of the continent’s promise “has yet to be fulfilled.”

Obama’s speech was not always historically honest. He seemed in a haste to play down the West’s culpability for Africa’s travails, in the past as now. He acknowledged that the cavalier colonial map “made little sense” and “bred conflict,” and also that “the West has often approached Africa as a patron, rather than a partner.” Yet, instead of recognizing that those foreign interventions and meddlesomeness incubated much of Africa’s malaise, he sought to exonerate the West for “the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants.”

A more nuanced posture would admit that the West, in failing to follow through on its pledge to help Zimbabwe redress decades of racial inequity in land ownership, helped foster violence and precipitate an economic free-fall in that country. Besides, the West’s inordinate appetite for diamonds and gold has fueled many of the calamitous wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Congo in which children have become villains and victims.

Despite this historical short circuit, Obama’s message was on target. The European and North American media are often fixated on the image of Africa as a dysfunctional, misaligned location. In Ghana, Obama detected something different, “a face of Africa that is too often overlooked by a world that sees only tragedy or the need for charity.” He pointed to Ghanaians’ effort to “put democracy on a firmer footing”. He lauded them for nurturing “improved governance and an emerging civil society” that have, in turn, produced “impressive rates of [economic] growth.”

Obama could have been looking Nigerian leaders in the face when he uttered the “fundamental truth” that “development depends upon good governance.” He might as well be chiding the “stake holder thieftains” in Abuja who stake out their country’s resources when he described good governance as “the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long.” When he declared, “governments that respect the will of their own people are more prosperous, more stable and more successful than governments that do not,” he doubtless wanted Nigerians to take note.

Obama made a wise choice not to grace a disappointing Nigeria with his presence. But he also made sure that his message, taken from Accra, resonated with Nigerians. In condemning repression and the plague of man-made problems “that condemn…people to poverty”; in warning that “No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers,” in portraying a state where “the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the port authority is corrupt,” Obama wanted his voice to resound in Nigeria.
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Murder of Black "gay" activist is receiving no attention

"...with all of the father/uncle-daughter/niece incest and prostitution that has and continues to plague Black and all other cultural/social groups of women in America, why are African Americans so uptight about people who call themselves “gay”? "

Dear friends,

An African American man named August Provost was murdered while on guard duty at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California. He was an openly active fighter for gay rights. Was he killed because he was an African American only? Was he killed for being a “gay” activist? Or was he killed for being both? Provost, 29, of Houston, was shot, multiple times, to death at the Navy's landing-craft compound adjacent to Interstate 5. His body was found about 3 a.m. June 30.

Thus far, only the “gay” community is protesting this horrible act. This all happened only five days after Michael Jackson died not far away in Los Angeles. It’s interesting that so many opportunistic “Black” leaders who are still trying to cash in on Jackson’s passing have not uttered a word about an event that presumably Michael Jackson himself would have, at least, denounced.

And where are the headlines? There has not been a lot of coverage on this around the nation. Why is that?

By the way, regarding gay rights, Barack Obama promised that he would get rid of the “Don’t ask-Don’t tell” policy of the two previous administrations during his campaign, but did just the opposite once he was in office. Additionally, Obama’s administration, just as his immediate predecessor did, intended to get rid of the nationwide “Free Breakfast Program” for some 120, 000 schoolchildren just last month (June), before being convinced to keep the program. Of course, it was the Black Panther Party that originally started providing the “Free Breakfast Program” for children nationwide twenty years ago. The US government later made that program part of the overall educational budget.

Still, we have a 29 years-old African American Seaman of the US Navy dead. While it was the overwhelming support of African Americans that killed the right for gay people to be married in California on the same as Obama’s election victory, at what point do Black folks decide that all members of the African American experience should be supported on the basis of their being individuals who lead a wholesome life.

For example, Al Sharpton continues to receive media coverage and support from Black folks, even though back in the Eighties, while he was Reverend Al Sharpton he was arrested by FBI agents during a drug sting where he had promised an undercover agent that he would supply the latter with a large amount of cocaine for $100, 000. What preacher do you know who can provide yopu with a quantity of drugs like that? Additionally, where did he expect those drugs to be sold? Who would be the addicts? White folks? Nevertheless, in a deal to stay out of prison, he then wore “wires” for the FBI, supposedly to help them catch other drug dealers.

The New York Post originally ran the story about Sharpton’s drug-dealing escapades, then just stopped it abruptly. Why were they not so politically correct when they ran the cartoon about Barack Obama being murdered, earlier this year?

Also, why have Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan continued to stand with and identify with Sharpton? Does the FBI have something on Jackson and Farrakhan? It makes me wonder.

Moreover, with all of the father/uncle-daughter/niece incest and prostitution that has and continues to plague Black and all other cultural/social groups of women in America, why are African Americans so uptight about people who call themselves “gay”? Besides, who knows what anyone has been doing sexually that is considered “deviant” with others or about what sexual act(s) anyone has fantasized? It is all a sham!

Michael Jackson’s sexually dysfunctional family, of which Michael too was a part, are now parading around with tear-stained faces, while the father, Joe Jackson, is bragging about his new record company, and Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson following the Jacksons around.

Meanwhile, a fine young man who, in the spirit of so many Black activists before him, has been murdered and the three people who have been “endorsed” by the racist US government- and corporate-controlled mass communications media as America’s “Black leaders” are silent, while Obama is throwing baseballs at the All-Star game. Wow! We sure are progressing.

Please peruse the link below.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/New-Questions-Raised-in-Pendleton-Murder-.html
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Black and Latino kids Unwelcome in certain Philly Swimming Pool

"As far as I know, all we recommended was to change the time that [the campers] came, from the afternoons to a nonpeak time. We never recommended to disinvite them." - Huh?

Dear friends,

Has Obama's election to the Presidency of the United States really been delivered a mortal wound to White Supremacy?

On the link below, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Annette John-Hall makes one wonder. And where is the "Black" mayor of Philadelphia in all of this mess?

G. Djata Bumpus

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20090710_Annette_John-Hall_Ugliness_in_the_water_at_Valley_Club.html
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Palin Quits?

Dear friends,

Imagine if John McCain had won the recent election, then died before finishing his term. On the link below, 2009 Philadelphia Print Journalist of the Year, the ever informing and inspiring Jenice Armstrong has her own special take on this issue. Please check it out!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/jenice_armstrong/20090707_Jenice_Armstrong__Pit_bull_Palin_becomes__quit_bull___and_sets_back_the_image_of_working_women.html
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Dr. Barbara Teer's Legacy Continues

Watch out "Hurricane Season" is coming soon - July 10‏

Dear friends,

Please click on the link below for news about an exciting event that is about to occur.

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nationalblacktheatre.org/


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Elmer Smith On Bernie Madoff's Recent Sentencing

"Additionally, perhaps, part of Madoff’s plea bargain was for the government to leave his wife and kids alone, if they did not want to hear him start singing like a grease monkey in a shower stall."

Dear friends,

If Bernie Madoff conspired with others, in order to pull off a 60 billion dollars Ponzi scheme, then it would seem reasonable, at least to me, that along the way he encountered - if not colluded with - people who were/are either directly linked to our federal government or, at least, in some way connected to it. Would he then also know about other happenings involving the US government’s shady dealings and contractors, for instance? Maybe the powers-that-be just want him to shut up. Additionally, perhaps, part of Madoff’s plea bargain was for the government to leave his wife and kids alone, if they did not want to hear him start singing like a grease monkey in a shower stall.

Nevertheless, as far as I am concerned, the inevitable trillion dollars-plus “Bailout” for big banks and companies makes Madoff’s “take” of 60 billion dollars look like chump change, especially since our government has both the right and threat capacity (police and military) to legitimize printing up as much money as they see fit, at any time. Dig?

In any case, on the link below, you will find an inquiring piece from my very dear friend Elmer Smith who is both a columnist and member of the editorial board of the Philadelphia Daily News. Here, Elm questions Bernie Madoff’s recent sentencing. Check it out!

G. Djata Bumpus


G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/elmer_smith/49489737.html
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The scandal called “security vote”

"Nigerian officials have a penchant for taking an otherwise good concept and bastardizing it."
The scandal called “security vote”

By Okey Ndibe

The far from resolved drama of the N250 million cash which police officers reportedly discovered in a convoy of cars belonging to Anambra State points to a peculiarly Nigerian scandal.

The scandal’s name is “security vote.”

Nigerian officials have a penchant for taking an otherwise good concept and bastardizing it.

Take the idea of executive immunity. In the U.S., a serving president or governor is shielded from litigation in his or her personal capacity for all acts and decisions that fall within the legitimate purview of his or her office. Mark that officials are protected from prosecution for acts that are, as a rule, both legitimate in character and consistent with the job specification.

Corrupt enrichment is neither legitimate nor part of the tasks that voters hire a governor or president to discharge. A U.S. governor who dips his or her hands in the public treasury is apt to invite the ire of taxpayers and a visit from agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Last December, FBI agents stormed the residence of then Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. A handsome, dashing man who briefly dabbled in boxing, Blagojevich was apparently something of a rogue politician. His troubles began after Barack Obama was elected president. It fell to Blagojevich to choose a replacement for the Senate seat the then president-elect had to relinquish.

For the governor, Obama’s seat was a bait to be used in a scheme to rake in cash. According to the FBI, Blagojevich decided to auction the seat to the highest bidder. In numerous taped telephone conversations, he told aides and relatives about his plan to cash in.

Not so fast, said law enforcement agents, who arrested and shackled the governor. They then announced a wide-ranging indictment on federal corruption charges, including solicitation of bribery. On January 29, 2009 the Illinois State Senate voted 59-0 to impeach Blagojevich.

Were Blagojevich a governor in Nigeria, he would still be at his desk today, gloating as if nothing was amiss. The reason is that Nigerian “rulers” enshrined a perverted version of immunity in their constitution. The Nigerian brand of immunity protects a gove rnor even when he betrays his oath of office by committing a crime. Indeed, especially then.

If the Nigerian doctrine of immunity is weird and counterproductive, the idea of security vote is plain wacky – nothing short of a crime in itself.

Each month, Nigerian taxpayers hand billions of naira to the president and state governors in the name of security vote. Each governor receives a few hundred million naira in this slush fund said to be for security purposes.

Bizarre as this “vote” is, what’s even more unbelievable is that each governor is given the absolute prerogative to dispose of the funds as he deems fit, with no oversight whatever.

That kind of license is a recipe for scandal, fraud and abuse. It’s common knowledge that many governors, in the past and now, simply pocket the money. If you dare to ask where the money went, you become – yes – a security threat.

It’s been suggested that the N250 million being ferreted away by Governor Peter Obi’s aides was the monthly security vote. Obi has yet to offer a convincing rebuttal to allegations that, each month, he freighted the security cash to Lagos and “voted” it into his personal account.

To leave so much cash in one man’s unsupervised hands is to encourage unconscionable diversion of public funds in a country where the basic facilities that create a habitable space are lacking. Access to such easy cash explains the desperation and violence with which Nigerian politicians seek political offices.

Who exactly came up with this deranged notion of security vote? The inventor of this scam deserves Nigerians’ collective scorn.

For running the world’s most powerful country, President Obama earns a little more than $400,000. The man doesn’t have one cent of public funds he can spend without answering to the Congress. Why then do Nigerians permit their governors – most of them inept at their job – to cart away the equivalent of $2 million per month, no questions asked?

In America, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has a budget to enable it to carry out its intelligence operations. Owing to the covert nature of its work, the agency does not give a public accounting of how it spends its money. Even so, the agency has accountability obligations, including classified briefings to a select committee of Congress. & nbsp;

Nigerian politicians took from the CIA the idea of concealing how security votes are spent. But they forgot that, in the U.S. and elsewhere, the security funds are handled by agencies with highly trained professionals, not handed out as largesse to politicians seized more by greed than vision.

Nigerians should insist that security vote be expunged – voted out – from their political playbook.
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What is all of the fuss about the recent Iranian presidential election?

"...Iran is a developing “super-power”, with nuclear energy ambitions that include a space program."

Dear friends,

Just this morning, I was listening to the radio program of a good friend of mine at weibfm.com (smooth jazz), as he mentioned, during a news break, what he and some others in the mass communications media are currently calling the “Iranian Revolution” due to the protestations of young people there who are demanding that their government be more fair about the election process, as well as having a more inclusive public leadership and authority, especially for women. Are any of the young people just mentioned calling for the US government and other Western countries to cease their decades-long economic embargo against the Iranian people? After all, who does the boycott hurt the most – i.e., the privileged bodies (both ecclesiastic and political) or the common folks?

To be sure, if the Western powers mentioned above call off their economic boycott of Iran will that not send a positive message to the people of Iran that the US and others are not trying to meddle in their business, but only mean to provide positive and strong support to the people of Iran? Besides, the history of our own government is covered with blood, especially when talking about African Americans and others fighting for equal rights. As well, in spite of the proclamations of having a “Black” president, African Americans are faring no better, as a whole, than we were prior to President Obama’s election into office.

Moreover, at least to me, the real paradox lies with the fact that African Americans will now be even less likely to protest against governmental injustice, because of the illusion that somehow we have gained power through the election of Barack Obama. Yet, if one thinks about it, while for the past forty years Black mayors have spread across America, all the way from Philly to Alaska, little has changed for most African Americans – or many others peoples, including European Americans (so-called “whites”). How will Barack Obama change that grim reality? More often than not, unfortunately, history has taught us that those who fight against the privileged, once in power, have their own newly-acquired privileges to defend. Dig?

Additionally, as they seem to be having with the elections in Iran, why have neither Western governments nor their media outlets shown any concern with the fairly recent election results in Palestine/Israel that excluded the native people from being part of the electorate and promises to further colonize said Palestinian people (if that is possible) with increased Jewish settlements?

Does all of this media frenzy by the US government- and corporate-controlled media reveal any similarities between Iranians and Americans and how we both conform to whatever our government and the cultural institutions that it endorses - like certain media, churches and schools – as they remind us how to behave/respond to a variety of issues and events? Or do many Americans feel that they have minds of their own, in spite of the ideas that are superimposed upon those minds beginning at a very early age?

Finally, Iran is a developing “super-power”, with nuclear energy ambitions that include a space program. These folks are not “desert jockeys” as racist Western media groups often try to portray the people of Iran and her neighbors. About that, how do the earlier-mentioned young people feel? Worse yet, the more that the US and other Western nations hold on to their nuclear weapons to enhance their “threat” capabilities or muscle, as it were, the more other nations feel that they must both develop and maintain nuclear weapons for their own security and ability to threaten. The end result, at least to me, will be suicidal for all humanity, if we continue to resist genuinely democratic principles and do not stop grandstanding with illusions about “freedom, justice, and equality”. For, ultimately, the quintessence of “democracy” is non-violent conflict resolution. Therefore, the claim of introducing it (said democracy) to Iranians, Iraqis, Palestinians, or anyone else, by violently invading their lands, is a pure lie. Period!

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus

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Has Peter Obi Let Nigerians Down?

"Many of us applauded the tenacity with which the man mounted a legal effort to retrieve the mandate the voters of Anambra gave him in 2003, but which was hijacked by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Chris Ngige, a medical doctor. As an unwavering believer in the principle of credible elections, I took pride in Obi’s decision not to abandon pursuit of an office he’d won."

Is Peter Obi a hypocrite?

by Okey Ndibe

Governor Peter Obi of Anambra is in serious danger of becoming a tragic political figure. According to widely circulated reports, police officers two weeks ago caught men close to the governor with a large cache of cash. As I write, there’s some uncertainty about the sum, but most accounts say N250 million.

Apparently, the cash couriers were stopped as they drove to Obi’s business headquarters in Apapa. Since then, Obi’s office has tried to explain away the scandal. The governor’s aides have, to put it bluntly, done a poor job of it.

They suggested that the cash belonged to a contractor who’s done business with the state government. They have also contended that the cash was far less than newspapers reported. Then, in a needless and unconvincing attempt to muster moral bravado, Obi telegraphed a public letter to the Inspector General of Police demanding a thorough investigation.

Even at the most charitable, one must state that Obi’s explanations, so far, about the source, ownership and purpose of the cash have been nothing short of inconsistent and unimpressive. If anything, the tenor of the Government House’s statements suggests the scrambling incoherence of a man caught doing something indefensible.

In the ten years since Nigeria embarked on this strange phase many pundits call “nascent democracy,” no politician has garnered as much goodwill as Mr. Obi.

Many of us applauded the tenacity with which the man mounted a legal effort to retrieve the mandate the voters of Anambra gave him in 2003, but which was hijacked by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Chris Ngige, a medical doctor. As an unwavering believer in the principle of credible elections, I took pride in Obi’s decision not to abandon pursuit of an office he’d won.

Once he claimed the office, Obi faced twin nemeses: a state legislature dominated by PDP members, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a man whose middle name should be mischief. The former president made no secret of his desire to hand the governorship of Anambra to his ward, Emmanuel Nnamdi (Andy) Uba. Encouraged by Aso Rock, the state legislators impeached Obi in a process that was transparently fraudulent. Again, many Nigerians rooted for him and celebrated when the judiciary restored him to office.

Obi’s come-back achieved dramatic culmination when he persuaded the Supreme Court to find that he had yet to serve out his four-year term as governor, and to oust the impostor, Mr. Uba. His victory triggered a paroxysm of jubilation not only in Anambra but also throughout Nigeria and abroad.

In fact, Obi’s triumph came to symbolize a promising dawn for the judiciary as well as the potential for democratic flowering in a country that continually hovers on the edge of despair.

A man with Obi’s political biography should have governed with a sense of history. He might have surrounded himself with the best talent in every area to enable him to succeed.

Instead, Obi appeared to have misread his political fortune as evidence of his genius. By many accounts, he became impervious to advice, however sound. He began to relish the company of court jesters who fed his ego. He began to court a man with the unsavory antecedents of Chuma Nzeribe, a member of the House of Representatives who’s hardly associated with admirable causes. Instead of delegating duties, he began to function as if he and he alone enjoyed a monopoly of wisdom in the state.

Even before this cash scandal, Obi had disappointed many who expected him to help transform his political party into an institution possessed of gravitas, instead of the ragtag it’s become. Under his watch, doctors went on strike for several months because the governor waved them off instead of engaging them in respectful negotiation. His verbal run-ins with his deputy, Mrs. Virgy Etiaba, as well as Ngige left the impression of a man whose personal limitations have confounded his public office.

It’d be hard to forgive Obi if it turns out that he’s been fiddling with public funds. Anambra needs all the money it can get for the great challenge of development. Awka, the state capital, is in a shameful state, an eyesore. The state’s infrastructure is dismal and requires a lot of cash to fix.

Obi liked to say he was a man of means long before he sought the office of governor. I heard him tell a gathering that if he stole one kobo of Anambra funds, he’d invite God to unleash wrath on him as well as his children.

I hope – for the sake of the long-suffering people of Anambra – that it was not a hypocrite who uttered that sentiment.
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Smith on the progress of the "Stimulus" Package

"...the only "stimulus" that has been mentioned by the government seems to be about big banks and companies getting billions of dollars of "bailout" money. What is going on?"

Dear friends,

Throughout the recent presidential campaign and all the way up to the inauguration we heard about part of the new administration's "Stimulus Package". Supposedly, it would involve a massive employment projecct for "infrastructural improvement" like repairing roads and fixing old bridges.

Yet, the only "stimulus" that has been mentioned by the government seems to be about big banks and companies getting billions of dollars of "bailout" money. What is going on?

Fortunately, on the link below, the incomparable Elmer Smith of the Philadelphia Daily News provides us with some clarity.

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20090609_Elmer_Smith__To_see_stimulus_at_work__follow_the_______if_you_can.html
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Why we need Single-Payer Health Care

"While President Obama and others say that making our current health system a "single-payer" one would "disrupt" the current process..."

Dear friends,

While President Obama and others say that making our current health system a "single-payer" one would "disrupt" the current process, there is no doubt that single-payer health insurance (which is used by most advanced nations) would be a far better choice than the one that we currently have. Besides, while he has been using that excuse of not wanting to "disrupt" lately, perhaps, our president should consider the fact that the same type of people who protest single-payer health insurance as a disruption, probably thought that having a "Black" president would be one too. Eh?

Nevertheless, on the link below, you will find resources for more information about this crucial issue.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.ask.com/bar?q=What+is+single-payer+health+insurance%3F&page=1&qsrc=0&ab=2&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pnhp.org%2Ffacts%2Fsingle_payer_resources.php
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Taking a measure of Nigeria in London

"Headlined by Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the event was organized by the Nigerian Liberty Forum. The NLF, whose public face is Kayode Ogundamisi, exemplifies what can be achieved when committed, mostly young, citizens come together to exclaim no to the diabolical bunch who’re mortgaging their country’s interests."

Taking a measure of Nigeria in London

By Okey Ndibe

Anybody who wished to gauge what Nigerians think about their country’s bizarre brand of “democracy” should have been in London on May 29.

I was there as one of the speakers in a symposium tagged “The State of the Nigerian Nation.” It was clear to me that Nigerians had exhausted their patience with the coterie of criminals who have hijacked their nation, and that something is about to give.

Headlined by Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the event was organized by the Nigerian Liberty Forum. The NLF, whose public face is Kayode Ogundamisi, exemplifies what can be achieved when committed, mostly young, citizens come together to exclaim no to the diabolical bunch who’re mortgaging their country’s interests.

Given many Nigerians’ tendency to quickly discount the perfidious acts of their so-called leaders, it’s comforting to behold a group that’s sworn not to forget. Instead, the NLF maintains a formidable sense of the multiple ways in which Nigeria has been betrayed. The group’s goals include advocacy of “good governance, accountability and the enthronement of democracy” and the organization of “peaceful public protests against corrupt Nigerian practices.”

It has recorded some remarkable feats. When Umaru Yar’Adua visited the United Kingdom, the NLF mobilized Nigerians to come out and remind the man’s British hosts about his tainted mandate.

More recently, the group pulled off a successful rally that sent former President Olusegun Obasanjo cowering for cover. Obasanjo had been invited by the London School of Economics to talk about his role as a United Nations’ peace envoy to the Congo. The NLF felt that, given Obasanjo’s record as president, his name and peace should never be mentioned in the same breath.

True, the NLF fell short of persuading LSE to withdraw its invitation. Even so, its members ensured that Obasanjo’s inflated and delusional credential as a peacemaker was eloquently called into question.

In a sense, the symposium was proof that the NLF is far from just reactive. Its lineup of speakers was morally august. There was the former Chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Nuhu Ribadu. Soft-spoken in voice and wiry in appearance, Ribadu’s message resonated deeply with the audience. In what amounted to a cry from the heart, he implored Nigerians, one, to reject the false creeds those in power employ to divide and conquer and, two, to reclaim their country from the hands of its despoilers.

There was Femi Falana, one of Nigeria’s most intrepid lawyers, whose insider account of the recent electoral shame in Ekiti reminded the audience about the depth of the ruling party’s determination to emasculate the Nigerian electorate.

The unprepossessing Sowore Omoyele, publisher of saharareporters.com, proved a crowd favorite. Omoyele’s website, which combines hard-edged investigative reports with an iconoclastic style, has endeared him to many Nigerians who relish the way he exposes the cupid underbelly of the ruling class. He challenged Nigeria’s traditional media to awaken to the need to identify with the cause of the masses or risk losing relevance.

Josephine Amuwo, who helps run a highly successful London-based agency that offers training and a variety of other services to women, gave a short but spirited testimony about her passion for Nigeria and her belief in its capacity to rise from the morass and achieve its promise. Affiong L. Affiong, a former student activist, spoke movingly about the role of women in the struggle to liberate Nigeria.

The ever-ebullient Kennedy Emetulu and the energetic Professor Sola Adeyeye gave rousing performances as moderators of the morning and afternoon sessions respectively.

So much was at stake at the London symposium. That it was held on May 29, a day Obasanjo presumptuously declared “Democracy Day,” was at once fortuitous and added to the dramatic temperature.

Soyinka’s speech skewered the notion that May 29, rather than June 12 (when Nigerians held what’s acknowledged as the finest election in their country’s history), merits designation as the day democratic aspirations are to be celebrated.

There was, besides, a running subplot to the symposium that lent it some air of drama. Prior to my arrival in London, I’d received feelers that the Yar’Adua regime was hostile to this gathering of Nigerians to take stock. In London, I was shocked to discover how chagrined Abuja was at the prospect of this meeting. Under pressure from the Nigerian High Commission in London, the London Metropolitan University pulled out as co-sponsors of the event.

When Sowore, Ogundamisi and I sat down in the studios of BEN TV to do a live interview on the conference, the audio became unaccountably mute. I later learned that the High Commission had registered its displeasure with the Nigerian owner of the studio for letting subversive elements appear on his TV. At the symposium, a man told me that the commission had signaled that any Nigerian groups that attended the event courted sharp censure.

Despite these shameful efforts, the hall was packed from morning till the event’s conclusion. Still, the government’s attempt to undermine the symposium struck me as powerful proof that our democracy is yet deformed.
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Jen Armstrong named Print Journalist of the Year, in Philly

Dear friends,

Like so many others, I was quite excited the other day to see the
announcement in a Philly paper that read: Daily News columnist Jenice Armstrong, a pop culture critic who pokes holes in - and fun at - national, local and celebrity news, was named Print Journalist of the Year in Philadelphia. Armstrong, who also writes a blog, Hey Jen, will be honored by the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists at the 4th Annual Awards Banquet and Ceremony on June 13, at CBS 3 Studios on Hamilton Street near 15th."

I have been honored to share her work on this blog a number of times. I know many journalists around the world, both male and female. Many have received the highest of recognition, awards-wise. Some may have not received awards that they deserve. Nevertheless, Jen Armstrong stands with the best of them. Moreover, I believe that we have yet to see her full potential (which is a scary thought, in a good way).

Cheers!!! - to Jen and her family

G. Djata Bumpus
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Jen Armstrong on Queen Michelle (originally posted 4/11/09)

"even with her queen-touching and bicep-baring self, is more popular than her husband, according to the latest Gallup Poll..."





Dear friends,

I know that there are those who complain about the idea that Michelle Obama's fashion flavor obscures the plethora of relevant social issues that deserve more attention. However, on the link below, the person who is, at least to me, America's foremost features columnist, Jenice Armstrong of the Philadelphia Daily News goes a lot deeper into First Lady Michelle Obama's role as an African American woman who both stands for and represents a great deal more than tasteful outfits and social etiquette. Enjoy!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/jenice_armstrong/20090407_Jenice_Armstrong__Michelle_the_conqueror.html

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A Nigerian Rawlings to the rescue?‏

"Many Nigerians believe that, unless a man with Rawlings’ stomach for dealing ruthlessly with the enemies of progress comes to the rescue, Nigeria is bound to stay its dismal course..."

A Nigerian Rawlings to the rescue?

by Okey Ndibe

Nigerians have a Jerry Rawlings fantasy. By the day, a growing number of them suggest that the answer to their country’s malaise is to have a homegrown Rawlings emerge.

Many Nigerians believe that, unless a man with Rawlings’ stomach for dealing ruthlessly with the enemies of progress comes to the rescue, Nigeria is bound to stay its dismal course.

For Ghanaians, Rawlings is a contentious, even divisive, figure. In my conversations with numerous Ghanaian acquaintances, I take away the impression that as many of them despise the man as admire him.

There’s hardly any such ambivalence among Nigerians. For us, Rawlings has heroic allure. Many Nigerians contend that it’d take somebody of Rawlings’ willingness to shoot a few bad men for Nigerian knaves masquerading as leaders to sit up.

I’m not altogether persuaded that a Rawlings-like bloodbath is the elixir Nigeria needs. There can be no shortcuts to the ingrained pathology of Nigeria, a country that, in the sage words of Chinua Achebe, always invents a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Even so, I don’t blame those who wish – indeed, pray – for a Rawlings to descend in our midst and hold our traitorous men and women to account.

I believe part of the reason corruption thrives in Nigeria on a grave scale is that no Nigerian of political consequence has ever been made to pay for betraying the public trust.

Impoverished Nigerians desperate for the next meal get lynched everyday for picking somebody’s pocket. I’m certain that Nigerian jails teem with prisoners who have languished for years simply for stealing a goat, a tuber of yam, or a bale of textile. Many wretched Nigerians are locked up daily merely because they happened to be in the wrong place when corrupt police officers chose to make their sweeps.

By contrast, what’s the harshest sanction ever meted out to any governor or head of state for stealing millions of dollars from the treasury? How many judges have paid a stiff price for selling judgment to the highest bidder? Has any lawmaker been sentenced for pocketing constituency allowances?

At the end of 1983, Muhammadu Buhari led a coup d’etat that swept a class of corrupt politicians from power. Many of the rusticated politicians were locked up for months and stripped of their ill-gotten assets. That was until General Ibrahim Babangida showed up and displaced Buhari. One of Babangida’s first orders of business was to quickly release the detained politicians. Each freed detainee was “ordered” to refund some sum of money. Several years later, a confidante of a released former governor told me that the ex-detainee never paid a kobo in restitution. The refund orders, he said, were meant simply to lull the public into a false sense that those who fleeced the public coffers had been divested of their loot.

Far from paying, many of the deposed politicians were soon awarded cabinet posts as well as board appointments by the selfsame Babangida. Their stealing orgy continued – with hardly any interruption.

The late General Sani Abacha borrowed from Babangida’s script. He surrounded himself with some of the most unconscionable robbers of the public till. Inspired and motivated by Abacha’s own depraved expertise in thievery, these men and women pocketed their nation’s resources with impunity.

Check the records and these looters and embezzlers, who should be incarcerated for life, dominate the rolls of national honor laureates.

All too rarely, an isolated good man or woman breaches the barricades and ascends public office in Nigeria. But, as a general principle, criminals run the Nigerian public space. And these criminals go to any length to protect their “right” to continue the privatization of public funds.

Olusegun Obasanjo ruled Nigeria as if it were his private fiefdom. For much of his watch, Nigerians got little or no accountability about the management of their oil sector. He permitted his aides to stash away cash in presidential jets during overseas visits. Tafa Balogun, the man Obasanjo handpicked as Inspector General of Police, spent less than six months in jail for stealing a whooping N17 billion. Other presidential chums did not as much as get a slap on the wrist for their grubbing activities.

Now, Nigeria is in the unsteady hands of Mr. Umaru Yar’Adua. Yar’Adua’s specialty is to use committees to postpone, if not shirk, the task of tackling corruption. He is a man in whom Nigeria’s league of former and incumbent corrupt officials are extremely well pleased. His talk-tough, do-nothing style has become manure for those in the business of pocketing public funds.

Those who feed fat on Nigeria’s crude are applauding the military bombardment of the Niger Delta in the name of combating militants. Yet, it’s their gluttony that produced the militancy in the first place. Are they capable of checking their greed, or would it take a Rawlings to strike fear in these vampires?
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More scamming and stealing by the Nigerian government and their "friends"

"Asked to appear and tell his side of the sordid affair, Obasanjo quibbled about the lowly station of the man who signed his letter of invitation. He then told the committee he was too “indisposed” to appear in person. Instead, he sent a long epistle filled with rambling lectures on etiquette and obfuscations where clear answers were needed about the huge payments he authorized for questionable or non-existent work."

<Hunting the hunter

By Okey Ndibe

Nigerians ought to pay attention to two recent, and clearly linked, events. The two events illustrate how the cabal that runs – which is to say, ruins – Nigeria goes about protecting its own and preserving its right to eat Nigerians for lunch.

First, there’s the EFCC’s arrest and arraignment of Ndudi Elumelu, chair of the House of Representatives committee on power. Mr. Elumelu is accused of participating in a N5.2 billion rural electrification scam. The second is the effort to discredit the work of Elumelu’s probe panel.
Elumelu’s trial is a politically significant development. Last year, his committee had probed Nigeria’s multi-billion dollar investment in power projects that seem to have disappeared, puff, into air.

Umaru Musa Yar’Adua first alerted Nigerians to the scandal. He said his predecessor had spent $10 billion on power with nothing to show for it. Shortly after, Speaker Dimeji Bankole asserted that as much as $16 billion may have been wasted in the name of power projects.

Elumelu and his committee got cracking. Revelation after astounding revelation emerged at their televised hearings. In case after case, witnesses testified that contractors who had not as much as scratched a grain of sand had walked away with as much as 80 percent of contract sums. In most, if not all, cases, the government had violated its own due process rules.

What emerged from the hearings was an unseemly picture of political office holders betraying the public trust. Judging by the hearings, the committee’s report was expected to make explosive findings. It did, indicting both former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his clique of cabinet operatives, including Liyel Imoke (now a governor) and Olusegun Agagu (a rusticated governor).

Asked to appear and tell his side of the sordid affair, Obasanjo quibbled about the lowly station of the man who signed his letter of invitation. He then told the committee he was too “indisposed” to appear in person. Instead, he sent a long epistle filled with rambling lectures on etiquette and obfuscations where clear answers were needed about the huge payments he authorized for questionable or non-existent work.

Imoke appeared before the committee, but his performance was no better than his former boss’s. He arrived with a cheerleading squad in tow. Then he basically told the committee that Nigerians had no right to expect improved power supply before they have pumped cash on the scale of South Africa’s investment in the power sector. Agagu? Well, he could hardly remember a thing he did as power minister.

You’d think that the Elumelu report would inform Nigerians about the way their scarce resources were squandered. From the outset, it was clear that powerful interests were out to torpedo the report. The speaker, once an enthusiast, threw so many roadblocks in the way of the report that it took months before the committee had an opportunity to tell Nigerians what they’d found. Some murmured that the committee had pocketed a huge bribe. An exasperated Elumelu abandoned parliamentary reserve to warn Nigerians that those who misappropriated funds were out to fudge up the picture.

When it came time to present his report, the occasion turned into farce. Numerous members of the committee disowned the report, accused Elumelu of running a witch-hunt, and even sang the praises of the men who’d signed off billions of dollars of public funds to contractors who did next to nothing.

In the end, the House asked another committee, headed by deputy whip Aminu Tambuwal, to take a look at Elumelu’s work.

Last week, Tambuwal’s committee dismissed Elumelu’s report. In a verdict inflected with the misruling cabal’s ability to lie with a straight face, the ad-hoc committee claimed that Nigeria “did not lose any money in the award of power projects executed by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007.”

With Obasanjo, Imoke and Agagu thus canonized, Nigerians ought to wonder whether Elumelu’s trial is a case of teaching a whistle blower a lesson.

If Elumelu played hanky panky with funds meant for rural electrification, by all means nail him. But the leadership of the House must think Nigerians brain dead if they expect us to swallow the concoction that Obasanjo’s power projects were beyond reproach.

The test of the truth lies in Nigerian light switches. If the $10 billion (or $13 billion or $16 billion) Obasanjo threw into power projects were well invested, then Nigerians would find a commensurate measure of improvement in their power supply. Alas, that’s not the case.

The Coalition Against Corrupt leaders (CACOL) is right to question how Tambuwal’s “subterranean committee” could “discredit the report of a probe procedure that the same House carried out in the full glare of the whole world through live transmission on global television channels.”
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Some of Nigeria's children are involved in a holocaust (originally posted 11/21/08)

Ndibe reveals a horrifying predicament that has a certain body of Nigerian chldren caught up in a maelstrom...

Because of last night's airing (May 22, 2009) on ABC's Nightly News and Nightline programs regarding this issue, I have decided tp repost this story.

G, Djata Bumpus


****************************************
Dear friends,

Unfortunately, the illusions that far too many humans embrace have caused more suffering than any illness or disease has.

On the link below is a report from noted Nigerian author, educator, and scholar Okey Ndibe, regarding the horrific acts by certain adults, including parents, against children in parts of Nigeria have created a genuine holocaust among the latter.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/okey-ndibe/nigeria-s-savaged-children-2.html
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HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY!!! to Stephen Manuel Bumpus

From the entire family. Read full post

Smith on Convenience and Rights

"Until we can contribute as much to their campaigns as the NRA does, a lot of these lawmakers will be more beholden to the gun lobby than to us. *


My old and dear friend Elmer Smith of the Philadelphia Daily News, in his usual biting but humorous analysis, reminds us of how significant our votes are. Keep the faith! - but carry...

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20090515_Elmer_Smith__Pack_a_rod_in_Independence_Hall__Your_senators_and_the_NRA_get_the_credit.html
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27 betrayed Nigerian soldiers

"Nigerian soldiers, like most of the country’s workforce, are poorly paid. In contrast, many military officers earn handsome packages..."

27 betrayed soldiers

By Okey Ndibe

On April 27, the Nigerian state committed a grievous act of betrayal of 27 brave soldiers who simply stood up to demand their right.

That day, a military tribunal condemned the soldiers – among them, three women – to spend the rest of their lives in jail. It is nothing short of a scandalous miscarriage of justice that the court found the soldiers guilty of mutiny.

The scandal lies in the details of the case. The soldiers’ so-called crime was to protest the non-payment of allowances that accrued to them from their participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations in Liberia. Each of the protesting soldiers had earned as much as $25,000. Yet, long after the UN had remitted the funds, some corrupt military officers sat on the funds.

After months of seeking payment, the exasperated soldiers staged a mild protest in Akure, Ondo State. No doubt, they sought to draw attention to their plight – and to shame the military authorities into releasing their overdue entitlements.

Instead of doing the right thing by these long-suffering soldiers, the military brass ordered their arrest and prosecution. Their lawyer, Femi Falana, has said that they were detained for several months under abominable conditions. And then the tribunal compounded this bizarre injustice by herding these innocents off to life imprisonment.

This is one more instance – and a particularly unforgivable one – of a highly criminalized state presuming to be the custodian of law and order.

Let’s be clear: mutiny is a grave matter, with a potential for undermining the security of a state. But the convicted soldiers, properly understood, are not mutineers so much as they are victims of a state that rewards real criminals.

Nobody has denied that some corrupt officers illicitly withheld the soldiers’ stipends. In fact, in January the same tribunal had convicted five officers of stealing $68,000 belonging to the hapless soldiers. And what kind of punishment did the quick-fingered officers receive? Mere demotion. Not one of them lost his job. Not one was slammed with a life sentence.

Yet, the twenty-seven soldiers they disinherited and drove to the edge of desperation are found fit to languish in jail unto death. Falana has described the life sentences as “a charade that cannot stand.” Charade is too mild a word.

Nigerian students, labor groups, academics and other professional organizations ought to rise and protest the cruelty to these poor soldiers who’ve been betrayed by their officers, and are in danger of being made living corpses for asking to be paid what they had more than earned.

Nigerian soldiers, like most of the country’s workforce, are poorly paid. In contrast, many military officers earn handsome packages. Besides, many officers enjoy one form or other of patronage from politicians. There’s neither rhyme nor reason, then, for an officer to steal a soldier’s allowance.

Yet, for years Nigerian soldiers drafted to peacekeeping tasks whispered woeful stories of officers who took huge slices of their payments, or even engaged in wholesale embezzlement.

Despite the appellation of “peacekeeping,” it’s no secret that these operations are highly hazardous. Soldiers whose job is to keep the peace are often shot at. Sometimes, they are sitting ducks, targeted by the armed groups they try to keep from armed engagement. Many Nigerian soldiers have lost their lives in such peacekeeping assignments as Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Congo. Many more have been maimed, condemned to carry for life scars that are grotesque reminders of the sacrifices they made to hold hell at bay for besieged civilian populations in such addresses as Bosnia, Rwanda and Liberia.

The least a nation owes these men and women who risk life and limbs is to ensure that they are paid their due at the completion of their assignments. In the lawless space that’s Nigeria, where greed is boundless, this simple expectation is often too much to ask.

What are soldiers to do when a few of their rogue officers decide to pocket their peacekeeping allowances? Crawl into their barrack cocoons and become mute victims? Fall to their knees, raise hands to heaven, and leave the case in God’s hands? Should they pen petitions to politicians in Abuja who all too often are too busy chasing after lucre to pause and listen to anybody’s entreaties?

This is a portrait of the predicament these soldiers had to deal with. They were aware of past instances when grubby officers made away with soldiers’ peacekeeping allowances. They knew that Nigeria is a space where crime pays, provided the criminal has the preferment of rank or access to the powers-that-be.

They made a decision – absolutely sensible in the circumstances – to dramatize their woes. They deserve apologies from the officers who stole from them. Should these men and women be made to spend even a day in jail, the Nigerian state would have made another investment in its demise.
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Proclamations of Electoral Reform in Nigeria

"A president worthy of the name would have recognized the grave danger of Bankole’s perverse speech. He would have immediately stepped forward, asked for the microphone, and publicly rebuked the speaker for telling the world that the PDP’s idea of an election was to stage a coup d’etat against the wishes of the electorate..."

Ekiti and rumors of electoral reform

by Okey Ndibe


A few weeks ago – April 10, to be exact – I wrote on this page that the then forthcoming electoral debacle in Ekiti State foretold the sham that will take the place of the general elections of 2011. In the opening paragraph of a column titled “Ekiti as a preview of 2011,” I warned: “Those who persist in seeing Umaru Musa Yar'Adua as a democrat at heart had better pay attention to the macabre show the man took to Ekiti State.” Yar’Adua, I continued, “comes across as a man who wants power at all cost and for its own sake.”

I wrote those words in the context of Yar’Adua’s bizarre campaign stump in the hotly contested state. First, the resident of Aso Rock manufactured alleged achievements for Mr. Segun Oni, the party’s governorship candidate and impostor who was justly removed by an appellate court. Then he stood by, a confounded and tragic figure, as Speaker Dimeji Bankole tried to galvanize a smattering of party faithful with a fully treasonous campaign speech.

Dimeji told his audience that the PDP had pocketed Ekiti in the elections of April 2007 with the use of police power. A speaker who habitually misspeaks, Bankole then reminded his listeners that their (ruling) party boasts the “commander-in-chief” of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Not one to settle for a coded message, Bankole was not shy to spell out what he meant. This time around, he assured, the party would deploy the intimidating force of the military to capture Ekiti.

A president worthy of the name would have recognized the grave danger of Bankole’s perverse speech. He would have immediately stepped forward, asked for the microphone, and publicly rebuked the speaker for telling the world that the PDP’s idea of an election was to stage a coup d’etat against the wishes of the electorate. Yar’Adua glumly listened to statements that amounted to a threat to subvert democratic ideals.

If Bankole’s martial rhetoric was disturbing, things got even more ludicrous before the April 25 date of the rerun polls. Next and a few Nigerian websites posted the taped voice of Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun State doing his treasonous best to rally PDP partisans. Oyinlola, a former military officer, is heard rehearsing an armed strategy to intimidate and suppress opposition sympathizers. He pledges to equip PDP operatives with military uniforms and weapons to enable them to “capture” Ekiti.

In a country where the rule of law is more than a cynical fad, Oyinlola’s taped plan to sabotage democracy would have elicited universal condemnation. The man would have been flushed out of his gubernatorial seat and led away in handcuffs, a disgraced figure.

Not in Yar’Adua’s Nigeria. Oyinlola remains in the office he has tainted by his odoriferous speech, among other unbecoming acts.

It’s painful to gloat that one’s dire prediction about Ekiti and 2011 is being vindicated. Yet, when a character like former President Olusegun Obasanjo takes to mocking the man he imposed as Nigeria’s sleeper-in-chief, Nigerians had better take notice. It’s a sign that things are truly bleak.

Reporters recently asked Obasanjo to weigh in on Umaru Yar’Adua’s avowed reform of Nigeria’s electoral laws. The former president blithely retorted that he wasn’t aware that any polling reforms were in the offing.

In its terseness and wicked indirection, the response was typical Obasanjo. Of course, the former president is smarting from a sharp decline in his fortunes within the ruling party. At a recent gathering in Abuja that it styled a convention, the ruling party pretty much whittled down Obasanjo’s powers.

It was only three years ago that the PDP tagged Obasanjo “father of modern Nigeria.” The same party seems on a mission to deflate the expired emperor’s ego. Its convention stripped Obasanjo of his dream to hold a monopoly on the chairmanship of the party’s board of trustees unto death.

Increasingly vilified, even ostracized, by many of the men and women he smuggled into power at various levels, Obasanjo’s legendary vindictiveness appears aroused. His revenge? To tell the truth – at least on occasion – about the bunch he hoisted into illegitimate power.

Some tell the truth as a way to set themselves, and others, free. Not Obasanjo. For him, it seems, the motivation for speaking truth is merely to get even. However untoward his motivation, what matters is that we now have Obasanjo’s confession that Yar’Adua’s vaunted electoral reform is a yarn, another jiggery pokery.

Nobody who’s watched the sordid events in Ekiti can retain confidence in Yar’Adua, the PDP or the national electoral commission to husband democratic ideals. Even as the drama in Ekiti fostered fears of a military putsch, the PDP hunkered down, determined to snatch the state by unfair and foul means. Maurice Iwu, a man with neither an ounce of integrity nor sense of shame, worked feverishly behind the scenes to gratify the ruling party’s plot. What was this “independent electoral umpire” doing at a meeting that featured such PDP stalwarts as Yar’Adua, Bankole Dimeji and David Mark, but with not a single participant from the opposing AC?

Ekiti was Yar’Adua’s opportunity to silence skeptics by demonstrating his seriousness about ethical and electoral reforms. Alas, the man (and his party as well as INEC) chose to reveal the fake product they’ve been marketing as electoral reforms.
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Defying Justice in Nigeria

"Many Nigerians already suspect that their judiciary teems with too many men and women with a profound deficit of shame and integrity..."

Andy Uba and an indulgent Supreme Court

by Okey Ndibe

Hand it to Andy Uba, a domestic aide to former President Olusegun Obasanjo: the man has a certain viral persistence, a refusal to take no for an answer.

On June 14, 2007, the Supreme Court removed Uba from his ill-gotten perch as governor of Anambra. In a ruling that drew nation-wide cheer, the court roundly rebuked the electoral commission for conducting gubernatorial elections in Anambra when the tenure of incumbent Governor Peter Obi had not ended.

Allergic to being told no, Uba hired a new set of lawyers and approached the same court. He asked a seven-member panel of the nation’s high court to recant its earlier judgment and return him as governor in Awka. In another unanimous verdict, the justices told him, hell no.

Emerging from the court, Uba’s lawyers vowed that the last had not been heard. They soon made good on this improbable boast by asking a court of appeal to find that Uba’s so-called mandate was secured in a legitimate election. In one of the bizarre twists in the country’s recent judicial history, the appellate justices gave a muddled judgment that Uba’s camp then held aloft as proof that their man was “a governor-in-waiting.” In the face of fierce legal criticism, the panel that allegedly gave that verdict beat an untidy retreat.

Even so, Uba was far from done. Late last year, he set out on another adventure to the Supreme Court. His singular wish list is for a court that twice turned him back to contrive some legal contortions to impose him as governor of Anambra.

In entertaining this case at all, the Supreme Court is in danger of leaving its reputation in tatters. Mr. Uba seems to have served notice that he plans to harangue the court until he gets an indulgent panel willing to do his bidding.

Many Nigerians already suspect that their judiciary teems with too many men and women with a profound deficit of shame and integrity. The nation’s highest court cannot afford to leave the impression that its hallowed chambers are permanently open to the fancies of any client with a huge treasury of inexplicable wealth.

It’s doubtful that Mr. Uba’s persistent wheedling has anything to do with respect for the rule of law. He comes across, instead, as a cynical man determined to make relays to the high court until he’s handed a panel of sympathetic justices. It’s an ill-disguised belief in the rule of money.

Mr. Uba’s judicial round-tripping should trouble any Nigerian who wishes to see the enthronement of a fiercely independent judiciary, at once incorruptible and committed to the highest ideals of judicial ethics.

Of course, whenever justice is transparently miscarried, it’s the duty of a court to redress it. But in the case of Uba, it is hard to picture how he’s been ill served by the apex court. Uba’s latest judicial adventure has everything to do with political calculations. One of the closest confidantes of Obasanjo, Uba was eased into place as the PDP’s governorship candidate. He was subsequently declared “winner” of a gubernatorial contest that Human Rights Watch categorized as illustrative of electoral fraud. Here’s how ludicrous Uba’s so-called election was: the electoral commission initially awarded him more votes than there were registered voters in the state.

When the Supreme Court removed Uba on June 14, 2007 – a mere two weeks after he usurped office – their decision elicited widespread celebration. A man rang me from Kaduna to say that it was not just a victory for the people of Anambra but a triumph for all Nigerians.

There was good reason for the celebratory air. Uba epitomizes the worst tendencies in many Nigerians who occupy elective or appointive office. A man who has not been able to authenticate that he earned a first academic degree, Uba’s campaign website misled people with the information that he holds a PhD. When The News, a Nigerian weekly magazine, published a cover on his academic fraud, virtually the publication’s entire print mysteriously disappeared.

Prior to joining Obasanjo’s administration, Uba ran a middling “healthcare” services operation in California. Yet, in 2004 U.S. officials seized cash of $170,000 that Uba had taken into New York City. The cash, concealed from U.S. authorities, was then handed over to a Loretta Mabinton. She used most of it to buy a Mercedes Benz car for Uba, and $45,000 to buy equipment for Obasanjo’s farm in Otta.

Confronted on the smuggled funds, Obasanjo blithely stated that Uba was a wealthy man prior to working for the presidency. It was – let’s be blunt – a blatant lie.

There’s little question that Uba is in possession of a stupendous amount of cash, the source of it a question that Nigerians must raise. It’s a mark of the monumental dysfunction that’s Nigeria that this man is in court asking to be crowned governor rather than in the dock explaining how he accumulated all that wealth.

Uba’s imposition on Anambra would amount to a war on the people’s will – to say nothing of the taint on the name of justice.
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