Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Supervising Minister of Defence speaks eloquently, with overwhelming confidence and not the cautious optimism of a diplomat.
Labaran, Ina Nijeria? Lafia kalun. To madenla. Allah kawo Alheri! Allah biabukata! Allah kawo kudi! Allah bamusaha! Amin.
Of past Nigerian Ministers of Information, I remember E.K Clark, Walter Ofonagoro, Jerry Gana and now Labaran Maku.
They ebulliently informed Nigerians about the activities of the various regimes they served.
Some of us are yet to recover from the abominable indigestion caused by their misinformation.
It is difficult to inform objectively in a state of mortal confusion, when politicians are engaged in a macabre dance, with bells on.
In the “Chartreuse of Parma”, written by Stendhal, the Bishop of Argen, Bandello, insisted that in telling a story, he would go the whole length to tell it as it happened, not as it should have happened.
After listening to Labran Maku last December,, I came out to inspect whether what he told us and what really is tie together.
I am still researching. When the South Sudanese Information Minister, painted a rosy picture of peace and tranquility in his country, last August, I had my reservations.
The chicken has come home to roost!
One of the many anecdotes during Hitler’s governance of Germany had it that the Fuehrer went to watch a movie.
During the Tageshau, Goebbels eloquently told the German people how successful the war was being prosecuted. Hitler murmured loudly that military failures should also have been reported.
A professor, who sat behind Hitler said, “The bagger (Hitler) will destroy Germany”.
When the lights came on later, the professor saw that the man was Hitler himself. Adolf shook the professor’s hand, said nothing and left.
Nigerians have been taught that a decade after Jerry Gana, we have found a successor.
Labaran is in-charge of both defence information and ordinary information. This double barrel capacity is awesome.
If one had told the Nigerian press and Labaran that the President had engaged in randy diplomatic travels in 2013,, with little diplomatic relevance, they would have vehemently disagreed.
Happily, the man himself has promised to cut down on his overseas travels.
The prodigies of genius and daring, we have witnessed from the political opposition in the last few months, demand eternal vigilance.
In this era of crafty, political partisanship that we regard as jest or caricature, sinister manipulations are in top gear.
Political rivalry has thrown our nation into a state of mortal confusion.
The rascals are not only becoming more recalcitrant but are now throwing anarchy into the bargain.
This was what happened in South Sudan, where both “leaders’ “, ineptness and ignorance about state –craft, have manifested inexorably. Both were chewing the cud of scorn that has resulted in social dislocation for which the two Juba idiots should be sent to the International Criminal Court.
To ask for negotiations is to miss the point and condone their inefficiencies, ineptness, and criminal neglect of their duties as leaders.
They have engineered the destruction of their country and people.
The United Nations should review its domestic jurisdiction clause and intervene early to stop the carnage we see in the South Sudan and not wait for the crisis to implode before romantic calls on the combatants to lay down their smoking guns and get to the conference table, with blood in their hands.
I am with a touch of scorn, when I listen to eulogies about performances not recorded and failed governance that is papered over by lily-livered commentators.
Distinctions generally granted to the reigning lover do evaporate, when the tide turns.
Those, who applaud the day of the roses and the “ideals of nationhood”, which remain ill-defined, can only harangue the simple-minded and trusting.
The spokesmen from feudal castles, compound statecraft by interfering in state matters beyond their comprehension and competence.
Why promise to intervene in normal political discourse that has opened up serious national issues that have exploded?
Information, misinformation and disinformation must be well understood, so that the people will not be preached to, and then get them to take their predicament lightly.
2014 is the year of suspended animation. It is the defining pregnancy moment, when we have to push harder.
We shall ask our women for advice.
It has been defining moments for three generals, Musharaf, Sharon and ….
Sharon reminds us about the ingenuity of Israeli medicine, the other two remind us of the disastrous consequences of self-overestimation and self-elevation.
Musharaf foolishly walked with his eyes open into the lion’s den. The other general stirred up the honest’s nest.
Talking about generals, when I got to the frontier of thinking about the matter, I realized that when soldiers are bivouacking in the open air, they like to recognize the approaching officer, which will dictate how to react by fervent salute.
I think that a retired but not tired military officer could hold out at the defence headquarters, not Labaran,
whose hands are full already.
Greenhorns in matters concerning military intelligence, defence intelligence and special and general intelligence will find the enterprise too cumbersome. So help him God!
I posit that my observation is not utterly unfounded. So help me God.
A new political formation has been introduced to Nigerians. The AZATA/NEPU Party of Nigeria, during its New Year meeting, the Board of Trustees of the party considered Al Mustafa, our own Mandela, to be its flagbearer in the quest
for a New Nigeria.
Nigerians in the Diaspora have reacted enthusiastically to this new political party. Please call 07036660639. Recruitment into the party executive is ongoing. The party is unencumbered by the past and its members are enlightened Nigerians. So help us God.
There is sense in holding up the mirror, so that Government officials will see themselves and reflect. To worship man-made gods in power sooner than later, leads to regrets.
Remember Rwanda, Iraq, Syria,Biafra, Libya, and South Sudan. Kampuchea, Biafra etc etc.The leaders were too sure that it would not happen, but it did.
Nigeria’s Goebbels: Is he over-optimistic?
