Opinion: Barack Obama's hollow Africa summit

Obama's US-Africa summit was indeed a head-scratcher

By Adekeye Adebajo

Barack Hussein Obama, a Kenyan-American and the first "black" president of the United States (U.S.), hosted 45 African leaders in Washington D.C. last week in the first ever U.S.-Africa summit.

This empty summit embarrassingly exposed the widespread myth across Africa that Obama's 2008 election would help transform Africa's political and economic fortunes. 

Amidst cheap flattery about "Rising Africa" and empty slogans about "good governance", this summit was effectively a talking shop unlikely to produce concrete results.

By hosting this summit, the U.S. is merely catching up with China, Japan, France, and the European Union (EU) which have all hosted periodic meetings with African leaders. There is a sense that Washington is particularly concerned about Beijing's growing presence on the continent, which has made it Africa's largest bilateral trading partner at over $200 billion. 

The U.S.-Africa summit focused on investment; peace and regional stability; and governance. A U.S.-Africa Business Forum was also convened. Other sideline events included fora with youth, faith-based groups, and civil society; and sessions on trade, women, health, food security, and wild-life trafficking.

As the presidential motorcades swept down Pennsylvania Avenue and Africa's flamboyant "First Ladies" paraded their haute couture, this summit was dogged by controversy. There were damaging allegations of Obama treating African leaders like supplicant "tribal chiefs" being summoned to Washington to pay obeisance to America's "Commander-in-Chief."

Unlike other African summits with Japan and China, Obama refused to have any bilateral meetings with the 45 African leaders. Following much criticism, his Vice-President, Joe Biden, met with the leaders of South Africa and Nigeria.

In a further breach of protocol, American cabinet ministers were asked to host African leaders to private dinners without Obama's presence. Leaders from Zimbabwe, Sudan, Eritrea, Central African Republic (CAR), and Guinea-Bissau were excluded from the summit for not being in "good standing" with Washington, even as autocrats from Gambia, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Congo-Brazzaville, and Chad made the guest list. The presidents of Liberia and Sierra Leone cancelled the trip to deal with the Ebola crisis.

There were other discordant notes that put Obama's diplomatic orchestra out of tune. 

Senegal's Mackie Sall and Tanzania's Jakaya Kikwete criticised the American media for continuing to stereotype Africa; Sudanese billionaire, Mo Ibrahim, berated U.S. companies for dodging taxes in their African operations; while hundreds of demonstrators protested against the leaders of Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). 

The dinner that Obama hosted for his African guests was not at the level of an official state dinner. The presidents were served grilled beef with coconut milk and cappuccino fudge cake with vanilla-scented papaya which must have left many of them feeling home sick!

One cannot assess this summit without providing the broader context of Obama's African policy over the last six years. The president has continued several of the truculent George W. Bush's most egregious policies. About 1,500 American soldiers remain in Djibouti to track terrorists. 

U.S. drones continue to be used in Somalia and Mali. Despite the killing of about 1,000 Muslim Brotherhood protesters, and the organizing of sham presidential elections by the Pharaonic military strongman, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Washington has continued to supply arms to the regime and condoned its human rights abuses.

Rather than challenging French neo-colonial interventionist policies in Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, and the Central African Republic, Obama has instead legitimized the continuing treatment of parts of Africa as a Gallic "sphere of influence." In the critical area of health, Washington drastically cut AIDS funding to Africa by $200 million in 2012. About 75 per cent of American imports from Africa still consist of oil.

Part of the problem of past African summits with external powers like China is that the continent's leaders have often failed to define their own interests clearly, and have consequently had plans which lack "ownership" foisted on them by external powers. 

This Washington summit followed a similar ignominious pattern. This gathering saw pledges of $14 billion from America's private sector. Obama's "Power Africa" also unconvincingly promised to provide electricity to 20 million Africans two years after he has left office. The proof of such promises is, however, in their delivery. 

As with any such bazaars, Africans should sensibly adopt the mantra "Buyer beware!" as much of these investments are unlikely to materialize. They should instead insist on the American saying: "Show me the money!"

As Obama leaves the White House in two years, his foreign policy towards his ancestral homeland has mirrored the tradition of "malign neglect" of the continent of his presidential predecessors. 

The fact that no substantive final document was produced from this Washington summit is the clearest sign, if any were needed, that this "photo-op" gathering represented a triumph of symbolism over substance.

Did Michael Brown attempt to 'bum rush' officer Wilson?

AG Eric Holder has been dispatched to Ferguson

CC Insight

While the usual suspects such as Al Sharpton have rushed to the scene in Ferguson, MO and wholly immersed themselves in the dirty politics of the 'race industry' (one that has made Sharpton quite wealthy and more of a national figure), it would seem that the facts of this case may indeed shock many who have already jumped to the obvious conclusion.

A Michael Brown shooting crime scene video going viral on YouTube may lend credence to the “bum rush” theory an alleged friend of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson has voiced. 

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the Ferguson riots and looting initially prompted Governor Jay Nixon to call in the Missouri State Highway Patrol to attempt to restore calm to the city. Over the weekend the Ferguson protests once again prompted criminal activity and the National Guard has now been called into enhance security patrols in the St. Louis suburb. Captain Ron Johnson remains on the scene urging residents to protest peacefully and legally. 

The second wave of rioting began in the late evening hours on Friday after Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson released a media packet containing images of a man identified as Michael Brown, robbing a local convenience store. Brown and a pal who spoke on camera to the media after the shooting, allegedly participated in a strong arm robbery – garnering about $50 worth of Swisher Sweets cigarillos.

Michael Brown shooting witnesses have uttered conflicting stories of how the shooting of the unarmed black man by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson unfolded. Some witnesses claimed the teenager was running away from Wilson, others told police and reporters that that Brown was facing the Ferguson police officer with his hands in the air surrendering. Leaked details of the Michael Brown autopsy indicate the young man was shot six times, all from the front, and not from point blank range.

The viral video of the Michael Brown shooting captured background conversations which may support the bum rush claims by a Ferguson police officer. At about the 6:30 mark in the Brown shooting video, residents gathered around police tape staring at the body on the street, indicate that the teenager may have rushed Darren Wilson.

Transcript from the Brown shooting video as published by multiple media outlets:

• #1 How’d he get from there to there?

• #2 Because he ran, the police was still in the truck – cause he was like over the truck

{crosstalk}

• #2 But him and the police was both in the truck, then he ran – the police got out and ran after him

{crosstalk}

• #2 Then the next thing I know he doubled back toward him cus – the police had his gun drawn already on him –

• #1. Oh, the police got his gun

• #2 The police kept dumpin’ on him, and I’m thinking the police kept missing – he like – be like – but he kept coming toward him

{crosstalk}

• #2 Police fired shots – the next thing I know – the police was missing

• #1 The Police?

• #2 The Police shot him

• #1 Police?

• #2 The next thing I know … I’m thinking … the dude started running … (garbled something about “he took it from him”)

An individual claiming to be a friend of Darren Wilson called into Dana Loesch’s radio show program on Friday and said that the Ferguson police officer has been attacked multiple times by Michael Brown before the shooting. “Brown just started bum rushing Wilson. He just started coming at him full speed. And, so Wilson just started shooting,” the supposed Wilson friend said.

Video discussing allegations that Michael Brown charged the police with excerpts of the audio from the removed YouTube Video:

Nigeria’s renewal: Delivering inclusive growth

Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

McKinsey Global Institute

As global investors and business leaders look to Africa as the next region of transformative economic growth, they are paying increasing attention to Nigeria. With about 170 million inhabitants, the country has long been the most populous in Africa, but it is only now being recognized as the continent’s largest economy. 

In April 2014, the government began to release “rebased” data that showed a gross domestic product of $510 billion in 2013, compared with $354 billion for South Africa. The rebased data also revealed an economy that was far more diverse than previously understood and that, with the right reforms and investments, could become one of the world’s leading economies by 2030. 

A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), Nigeria’s renewal: Delivering inclusive growth in Africa’s largest economy, examines how the country can live up to its economic potential while making growth more inclusive, thus bringing more Nigerians out of poverty.

Progress and productivity

Nigeria’s troubled history and its ongoing struggles with terrorism and poverty are well known. Yet the country has made solid economic progress since 2000, averaging annual GDP growth of 8.6 percent under civilian rule from 1999 to 2010, according to pre-rebased data, compared with just 1.5 percent a year under military rule (1983–99). And the new data show Nigeria is no longer just a petro-economy. While oil and gas remain critical sources of government income and of exports, the country’s entire resource sector today accounts for just 14 percent of GDP. Agriculture and trade are larger and faster growing. In addition, it is not generally recognized that Nigeria’s productivity, albeit low, has been growing recently and now contributes more to GDP growth than the country’s expanding population.

Yet the results of Nigeria’s economic progress have not been spread evenly. More than 40 percent of Nigerians live below the official poverty line. Seventy-four percent (around 130 million people) live below the MGI Empowerment Line,¹ a level of consumption that constitutes a decent, “economically empowered” standard of living, which we calculate for Nigeria as $1,016 per person a year in cities and $758 in rural areas. The primary reasons for this persistent poverty include low farm productivity and an urbanization process that has largely failed to raise incomes and living standards.

While crop yields have improved in recent years, they remain far below those of peer nations, as Nigerian farmers have limited access to productivity-improving inputs, such as fertilizer and mechanized tools. In addition, between high postharvest losses and an inefficient market system, farmers receive a small share of the value their work creates. Urban poverty is driven by poor employment options and low productivity: in Nigeria, workers in urban-oriented industries such as manufacturing actually have lower productivity than farm workers. This is the opposite of what normally happens as economies develop and urbanize—productivity and incomes are supposed to rise in tandem as people move off the farm and take up work in the city.

Opportunities for growth

We believe that Nigeria can build on the momentum of the past decade and, if all goes well, achieve 7.1 percent annual GDP growth through 2030 (exhibit). The country is well positioned to benefit from trends such as rising demand from emerging economies, growing global demand for resources, and the spread of the digital economy. Nigeria also has a young and rapidly growing population and an advantageous geographic location in West Africa, which enables trade within the continent, as well as with Europe and North and South America.

Exhibit

Should Nigeria reach its full potential, annual GDP could exceed $1.6 trillion in 2030 and the country could be a top-20 economy.

Our forecast is based on a bottom-up analysis of the potential for five major sectors of Nigeria’s economy:

• Trade. Given the expansion of the consumer class, we project that consumption could more than triple, rising to almost $1.4 trillion a year in 2030, an annual increase of about 8 percent. This would make trade the largest sector of the economy and provide a particularly good opportunity for makers of packaged foods and fast-moving consumer items such as paper goods, categories that could grow by more than 10 percent a year.
• Agriculture. Improvements on several fronts could help raise both the volume and the value of Nigeria’s agricultural production in the next 15 years. The economic value of agriculture, already the largest sector of the economy, at 22 percent of GDP, could more than double, from $112 billion a year in 2013 to $263 billion by 2030.
• Infrastructure. On average, the value of a nation’s core infrastructure—roads, railways, ports, airports, and the electrical system—represents about 68 percent of GDP, but in Nigeria it is only about 39 percent. Between core infrastructure and real estate, total infrastructure investments in Nigeria could reach $1.5 trillion from 2014 to 2030. This would make building infrastructure not only a major contributor to GDP but also an enabler of growth across the economy.
• Manufacturing. Though growing rapidly, manufacturing in Nigeria contributed just $35 billion to the economy in 2013, or about 7 percent of GDP. If Nigeria could match the performance of nations such as Malaysia and Thailand when their manufacturing sectors were expanding rapidly, output could reach $144 billion a year in 2030.
• Oil and gas. While the oil-and-gas sector is expected to grow by 2.3 percent a year at best, its success is still vital to Nigeria’s economy. With the right reforms, we estimate that liquids production could increase from an estimated 2.35 million barrels a day, on average, in 2013 to a new high of 3.13 million by 2030. Oil and gas would then contribute $108 billion annually to the economy, compared with $73 billion in 2013. However, this estimate of potential output assumes renewed investment to reverse the production declines of recent years.

If Nigeria can achieve the upside economic-growth scenario, it could lift 70 million people out of poverty and bring as many as 120 million above the MGI Empowerment Line. To tie growth to rising living standards across the economy, the country will have to raise farm incomes and create more formal urban jobs. 

Meanwhile, the government will have to take such steps as reconsidering tariffs that raise the cost of imported food and the spending needed to reach economic empowerment. The most important step that government can take, in our analysis, is to improve its delivery of programs and services. A critical initiative for Nigeria, then, will be to adopt the best practices that have been well established around the world for doing just that.

About the authors

Acha Leke is a director in McKinsey’s Johannesburg office; Reinaldo Fiorini is a director in the Lagos office; Richard Dobbs is a director of the McKinsey Global Institute, where Fraser Thompson is a senior fellow; Aliyu Suleiman is an associate principal in the London office; and David Wright is a consultant in the New York office.

About McKinsey Global Institute

The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the business and economics research arm of McKinsey, was established in 1990 to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving global economy. Our goal is to provide leaders in the commercial, public, and social sectors with the facts and insights on which to base management and policy decisions.

Disturbing video of Boko Haram fighters severing the head of Nigerian Air-force Officer

CC Video Evidence

While the liberal propaganda of Amnesty International continues to portray the Nigerian Armed Forces as willful violators of international law in their battle against the insurgency of Boko Haram, this video (below) is shows that the theater of battle in Northern Nigeria is not one for the faint-hearted.

In the video, several members of the murderous Boko Haram Islamic sect are seeing praising the name of Allah, while the head of a captured member of the Nigerian Air-force is being severed from his body (after they had interrogated him).

You would obviously never see this from Amnesty International and their political lackeys, but we present to you evidence that more than shows that the Nigerian Armed Forces are justified, in using any means necessary to deal with the savage insurgency of the murderous Islamic sect.

Warning: This video contains a very graphic image that most people may find disturbing.

Nigerian soldiers in hasty retreat from Boko Haram fighters

Jonathan in pensive mood

CC Global News

Some units of the Nigerian Army 213 battalion, Operation Task Force Mike and 234 battalion, which attempted to retake Gwoza Township from Islamist militant Boko Haram, beat a hasty retreat on Thursday night as the militants showed superior firepower to the Nigerian forces.

The soldiers were reported to have been led into the battle by Lieutenant BMG Martins and Lt. Colonel Agu of the 234 Battalion, formerly Special Operations Battalion (SOB), but they were given the surprise of their lives when they ran into stiff resistance from the militants as they advanced on Gwoza from the Madagali axis.

The soldiers retreated but the militants set off in hot pursuit, chased them and snatched one of their tanks as well as the driver of the tank.  They then called the soldier’s wife and informed her that her husband was in captivity.

Col. Agu has reportedly gone AWOL and has not been seen since. 

The defeat of Nigerian soldiers in Gwoza puts the strategic town firmly in the hands of Boko Haram militants three days after they first invaded the town, killing over 100 civilians and several soldiers.

It is the second time in 24 hours that Nigerians soldiers were defeated by Boko Haram in an attempt to retake Gwoza.  The army had recently retaken Damoboa, over two weeks after Boko Haram overran the town and planted its flag.

Nigerian army sources in Abuja said that following the attack, they have yet to find Lt. Col Agu.  They further confirmed that about three military alpha jets have been deployed to the area to assist in the rescue of soldiers who might be trapped in mountains surrounding Gwoza.

Military sources blame the Brigade commander for asking the contingent to withdraw from Gwoza after they made contact with the terrorists, adding that the hasty retreat emboldened Boko Haram militants to chase and kill the soldiers during the unusual retreat.

This event marks another black eye for a once-proud army that has recently been underfunded and misused (for political gain) by the corrupt and tyrannical leadership of Goodluck Jonathan.

That thousands of troops are sent to intimidate, harass and bully political opponents, while mere hundreds are deployed on a mission such as this, is befuddling and shows gross incompetence and dereliction of duty on the part of President Jonathan and his security chiefs.

Obama says U.S. to invest $33 billion in Africa

CC Breaking News

The United States is to commit $33 billion in investing and related financing to Africa as a fall-out from the on-going summit with leaders from the vast continent.

The devil is obviously in the details, including whatever "strings" may be attached to the proposed long-term investment.

US President Barack Obama expects this "to support development across Africa and jobs in the United States."

More to follow.

US/Africa Summit: Two African leaders stay away while Nigeria's delegation supposedly tested on arrival for Ebola?

US and African leaders to meet in Washington

By Olalekan Adetayo

The Presidency on Sunday said no member of President Goodluck Jonathan's delegation to the United States for the US/American Leaders Summit was screened for exposure to the dreaded Ebola virus on arrival at Washington DC.

Jonathan and some top government officials arrived the US on Sunday for the summit billed for Monday (today).

Some members of the President's advanced team had arrived the US on Friday and Saturday.

President Barack Obama was quoted on Friday as saying that some African participants attending the summit would be screened for exposure to the dreaded virus which is currently ravaging some West African countries.

Obama explained that the action would be taken to protect the US from the outbreak of the disease.

He said, "Folks who are from these countries that have even a marginal risk, or an infinitesimal risk of having been exposed in some fashion, we're making sure we're doing screening."

A Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, had died in a Lagos hospital of the dreaded virus.

All those who had contacts with the deceased whose remains had since been cremated were being observed by the Federal Government.

Although no other case of the virus has so far been established in Nigeria, Obama's statement fueled speculations that Jonathan and members of his entourage might be subjected to screening before they could be allowed into the country.

But shortly after arriving the US, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, disclosed on his Twitter handle that no member of the President's entourage was screened.

"Nobody took any Ebola test, please," the presidential spokesman wrote in a response to a question raised by one Okunola Bukky.

Abati had earlier twitted some of the photographs of the President taken on his arrival at the airport while being received by top US and Nigerian government officials.

Based on the photographs, Bukky asked Abati, "please, confirm to us if the entourage took Ebola test…"

Independent investigation conducted by our correspondent also showed that none of the members of the President's advance team who arrived in the US on Friday and Saturday was screened of the virus.

"Why will we be screened? How? By who? There is nothing like that. At least, nobody screened me," a member of the President's advance team who arrived in the US on Saturday told our correspondent on Sunday.

Two African leaders had already said that they would not attend the meeting because of the outbreak of the Ebola disease in their countries.

The leaders are the presidents of Liberia and Sierra Leone, Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Ernest BaiKoroma, respectively.

An incompetent Aso Rock bereft of vision and the moral compass to take Nigeria forward

Babs Ajayi

The culture and values subscribed to by Goodluck Jonathan has brought nothing but setback, poverty, distractions and diversions from real issues and objectives, and sustained an attitude that most Nigerians would love to see eliminated from the scheme of things in the nation. 

The head is so rotten and we all know that when the head of a fish is rotten the whole body is threatened and doomed. Goodluck Jonathan is doomed and the nation with him, if he is not quickly rid of control and thrown out. Nearly 300 girls have been missing for more than three months; government has no clue about the whereabouts of the girls and cannot bring them home. 

The same government has not even taken the step of reaching out and visiting the families of the girls, but when some of the parents succeeded in finding their way to Abuja to meet with Malala Yousafzai who visited from the UK over the matter, the government took advantage to lure them into Aso Rock and quickly induced them and corrupted them with cash. 

It was a con game, a carrot laden with warms; these agonizing parents were offered cash and their rank and file thrown into a battle about how to share Jonathan's Greek gift. It is wrong, very wrong and criminal for Jonathan and his men inside Aso Rock to lure these parents with cash and to induce them. 

It is very, very unacceptable to offer bribe to mothers and fathers who have been going through tough and difficult times, a hardship that Jonathan ought to have been able to resolve a long time ago. 

I still wonder why the likes of Goodluck Jonathan believe that this life is all about money and that people are hopeless without cash. No amount of money is enough to remold or replace any of the girls. 

We now know why looting and corruption is so rife in the nation because most of these people believe that money solves it all and money can do it all. 

Money failed Umaru Yar'Ardua when he died as a sitting president. Money failed Ibrahim Babangida and that is why Mariam Babangida is no longer with us today. Money failed Augustus Aikhomu and Mike Akhigbe, both dead despite huge bank accounts of stolen money. 

Money just recently failed Umaru Dikko and Rilwan Lukman. It is just a matter of time and money will fail Goodluck Jonathan as well. It is not a curse - just plain truth of life, so why elevate money to the level of a god in your life? Why steal and loot so much that there is little left to reach the people or develop the nation? 

The level of corruption in Nigeria is so monumental that even those who are looting are deluded. They are now telling you and me that looting and stealing government funds is not corruption! They have now come up with their own self-serving definition of corruption!

Hallelujah! Everybody say amen inside the Aso Rock Chapel, our God is not a poor God! 

These simple, hardworking, rural people who never sought the spotlight are thrown into it by terrible circumstances and nightmare no parent ever wished for have now been corrupted by Jonathan and his men. He met them just one time and he robbed the conning oil on them, anointed them with the spirit of greed and seduced them with filthy lucre. This is the only way known to Jonathan and the only language he understands.

Do not be surprised that Aso Rock and its media mongers will be shocked that some of us are making so much of a 'mere gift' of some millions of naira to some parents; that we are making so much 'noise' about it and making an issue of it at all. They will wonder what the heck is some millions of naira that we are 'making so much noise' about it, but we want things to be done right and the nation's resources used appropriately and fully accounted for. 

Most of our people are tired of a nation that cannot fend for its people, not because the nation does not have money but because the money is often stolen and looted. Writing about the plight of the Chibok girls in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper recently, the columnist Mohammed Adam said the following: "But concerned and dismayed as people around the world are, we all can't just march into the Nigerian rain-forest and snatch the girls back. 

That is the responsibility of the government, and the failure rests entirely with what passes for government in Nigeria. And this failure raises the fundamental issue of what use government really is, in many parts of Africa. 

Dictators, politicians win elections, rig them or seize power all in the name of the people, but once in, look out for only themselves. Some of them plunder the kitty, leaving the vast majority of people impoverished…it is inconceivable that a child would go missing in Canada or say Germany, and the government machinery would not go into overdrive to find this one human being." 

You can read the whole article at http://ottawacitizen.com/news/world/the-world-has-forgotten-the-nigerian-girls#. 

I believe Mr. Adam spoke directly to Mr. Goodluck Jonathan in that article. Jonathan, Mark, Okonjo-Iweala, and Moro should read it. Mr. Adam also spoke directly to the media mongers working for and with Jonathan to rewrite and pervert the truth. Essentially, it is clear that most of the people in Aso Rock and in this government have no conscience. 

They have sold their conscience for cash and for positions they never thought they could hold in their wildest dream. They have also sold everything including their integrity, positive previous contributions to society. They have sold their peace of mind and their soul as well.

These people are finished despite the huge cash they have been able to stack up and the new houses they have been able to grab.

I was encouraged to write this piece by many in Nigeria who have been sending the news item relating to Jonathan's cash gift to the parents of the Chibok girls to one another and to their groups of friends online and expressing shock and anger at the action of Jonathan. 

Here are some of their comments: "The leadership of our nation is sick," "Really shameful. Why the need for money," and "This is very, very shameful." The good thing about the concerns and comments is that they come from Nigerians of all religious beliefs, ethnic nationalities, businesses and professions. They are united around one thing: the need to rid the nation of a corrupt leadership. 

The head is rotten and decaying and we can no longer stand by and watch criminals run the nation to the ground. It is a shameless and corrupt thing to do - to give cash in envelopes to some of the parents of the Chibok girls, who are still missing. Aso Rock must have a huge vault to be able to give out alarming and unaccounted-for sums of cash. 

What was the money for? Why must Aso Rock give out money in cash to people? That is just how bad and corrupt things are right inside Aso Rock. Whatever happened to trust funds for education? How about rural development, infrastructures and social amenities? I guess those are not needed and are not good enough; cash is the way and the only way thieves prefer. 

Just buy the people with cash and the problems will go away? Welcome to Aso Rock where thieves run the affairs of Nigeria.

For the record, Cameroonian soldiers rescued the wife of the Vice Prime Minister, Amadou Ali who was abducted three days earlier. What the morons in Nigeria Army uniform cannot do in more than 3 months was accomplished in 3 days to liberate a single person from the clutches of Boko Haram. That tells you that the Nigerian Armed Forces is a fraud, a sham and a bunch of citizens' intimidators and harassers. 

The only people they are capable of waging war against are our citizens and unarmed, helpless civilians. Cameroon even sacked two senior army officers, Col. Youssa Gedeon and Lt-Col. Justin Ngonga just one day after the abduction of Mrs. Ali to send a clear message to its armed forces that the security and safety of the nation and its citizens is a top priority of the government. 

We must acknowledged that the lady that was rescued belonged in the top political hierarchy in Cameroon but her rescue within days attests to the worthiness of Cameroon's Armed Forces unlike the do-no-good, fat-bellied, pepper soup eating, unruly and undisciplined, bus-burning, riot-ragging, poorly trained and terribly managed Nigerian Armed Forces. The Nigerian Armed Forces needs a major strategic overhaul and total retraining.

The Nigerian Armed Forces have been an army of occupation for 30 or more years and they have always perceived their job description to be largely the invasion of the homes of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and other critics of the Armed Forces, as well as human rights campaigners such as Gani Fawehinmi, Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti and Femi Falana. 

The other task they do very well is to go on rampage at bus stops, burn down buses, beat up drivers and conductors who will not allow them to ride for free, horse-whip drivers who will not carry their vehicles on their heads to allow an officer to drive by in a heavy traffic. These are the 'duties' the men and women of the Nigerian Armed Forces have performed with distinction in over 30 years.

Men of the Nigeria Army in particular have excelled in this work as they demonstrated (demonstration of craze, as Fela Kuti put it! Na craze man be that o! Na animal be that!) a few weeks ago when they went on rampage, destroying lives and property in Lagos State.

You have to give it to them. That is what they know and can do very well. They have been fighting the Nigerian taxpayer and citizens for over 30 years and they are not equipped to fight the nation's enemies, defend its sovereignty or checkmate insurgency; that is not Nigerian Armed Forces!

Clearly, we can see that the Armed Forces need to be retrained and retooled, be taken through values and culture coaching, and be made to know that the civilian - any civilian for that matter - men, women, young and old, boys or girls are their masters, their bosses.

I have never seen a soldier who did not pay to enter a bus in North America and yet these officers will always give up their seats to civilians whenever the bus is full. "Would you like a seat, Mam?" and the officer will get up and offer his seat. "Come and sit here, sir," and the officer will bow and smile and move over to offer his seat to a citizen. 

We do not have gentlemen and women in our Armed Forces. Our own soldiers, naval and air force men are essentially "professional" thugs, hoodlums, irritants, touts and criminals in uniform. 

I know I speak for the Nigerian people on this matter.

Iconic NFL reporter Pam Oliver on her career and how she has managed to last this long in the business

CC Videorama

Fox recently announced that Pam Oliver would be demoted and that Erin Andrews would be replacing her on the sidelines of Fox's NFL broadcasts.

That Pam Oliver has managed to last this long (19 years) in the business is indeed an accomplishment by itself and speaks to her professionalism and unrivaled commitment to her craft.

In this video (below) she speaks with Lee Hawkins of the Wall Street Journal about her career and how she managed to stay at the top for as long as she has.

Trouble in paradise: Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen's marriage in trouble?

Larry Brown Sports

Is the marriage between Tom Brady and wife Gisele Bundchen in trouble? 

That’s what one tabloid would like to have you believe.

In a story published Monday called “Gisele & Tom: A House Divided!”, Star alleges that Gisele is controlling of Tom’s home life and that he is getting fed up.

Quoting from the article:

According to insiders, Gisele, 34, is supercontrolling with Tom and has final say on everything from how their home is decorated to exactly how and where their children, Benjamin, 4, and Vivian, 19 months, are raised.

The story alleges that despite having tons of housekeepers, Gisele has a list of chores for her husband to complete such as waking up early to clean floors and toilets. They say Tom is getting sick of doing things Gisele’s way.

In the past, Tom, 36, went along with Gisele’s demands in order to keep the peace, but pals insist he’s finally starting to stand his ground. “She throws an insane tantrum when things don’t go her way,” says the source.

“One time, Tom didn’t do one of the chores on his list, and she berated him — even telling him that he’s a terrible role model for their children. But instead of doing what she wanted, he just took the kids and left the house. Gisele was shocked.”

The story also says that a “final straw” was Gisele deciding she didn’t want to live in the LA mansion they built, and instead preferred a quieter environment. You may recall that the couple began construction on the Brentwood mansion back in 2010 after purchasing the plot of land for over $11 million. The entire construction cost was estimated to be around $20 million and the project supposedly took about four years to complete. It’s unclear whether the family ever lived in the mansion, but they listed it this year and sold it to Dr. Dre. They’re now building a huge complex in Brookline, Mass. instead.

And how’s this for a kicker? Star concluded its story with a quote from a friend who says they wouldn’t be surprised if Tom decided he could no longer take the married life.

“She rules Tom’s life,” continues the friend. “Nobody would be surprised if he threw in the towel soon.”

Eh, I think everyone on the outside world would be surprised if that happened. But if they are having problems, nobody should be surprised. First off, all marriages have their problems. Secondly, few things are as perfect as they seem on the outside.

While I can picture Gisele as a controlling type, I just can’t imagine Tom scrubbing toilets around his house. No way that’s possible, right?