Scratching the surface of Salihu Moh. Lukman ‘s idea of “ Building Nigerian Democracy” - a good idea
cornelius...@gmail.com
The sine qua non : “Justice, justice shall you pursue” : Parashat Shoftim
If music be the food of love play on -
keep on fiddling while Rome burns -
just as Uncle Sam has been fiddling in the Middle East, got his fingers burned, literally
Barack Obama in his time decorating Itzhak Perlman with the Presidential Medal of Freedom
the saga continuing with Sleepy Joe Biden & his VP, and even whilst Gaza burns, in broad daylight China and Russia will have soon taken over all of Africa, most of the Caribbean, much of South America, China money working miracles with signs and wonders in Europe - Sweden’s SAAB has been Chinese for over ten years now and the same can be said about VOLVO since circa 2010.
Can’t imagine Salihu Moh. Lukman lecturing China about “democracy” or demo crazy , but that may be because China did not used to be a British, French, German, Italian, Portuguese or American colony.
This great emphasis on Democracy in Nigeria - Democracy for Nigeria , may be out of tune with seeking first “the kingdom of heaven” and in tune with Osageyfo Kwame Nkrumah’s main dictum, which was “Seek ye first the political kingdom.”
The political kingdom? The man of the moment is Ibrahim Traore
You may regard music as a metaphor, and they are playing on :
“Trumpets and violins I can hear in the distance
I think they're calling our names
Maybe now you can't hear them, but you will,
If you just take hold of my hand”
The greatest Fela Kuti is playing on
and whenever you want to
you can listen to him
hear what you want to hear
and confirm these two things :
especially in this era of war, fake news
and propaganda from every corner.
2. Especially for those of us - like Homer -
coming from ancestors from thousands of years ago, from the primitive ( pre-technological), illiterate, pre-literate, semi-literate illiterati to the literate, the intelligentsia, the very literate, post-literati, modernist, illuminati, Ojogbon’s post-modernist, funky, effulgent, oral tradition, the medium Is the music
As the two saints, the two St. Anthony's, Kwame Anthony Appiah and Chidi Anthony Opara can confirm , music comes from The Muses ( Chidi being only one of their many mouthpieces) and, most importantly, the Music is the Medium !
Hopefully, before The Qiyamah and the total liberation of Africa
from “tribalism”, disunity, gross greed and endemic corruption
the clutches of wanton imperialism and dependency
some unorthodox thesis will be published about this
One views the title of this message from its venerable messenger Salihu Moh. Lukman , a philosopher and postmodernist warner, in his case, unlike his role model Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) who regarded himself as only “ a warner” , he (Salihu Moh. Lukman ) is not known for bringing God - Allah - ”Jehovah” into the picture, and threatening the miscreants with damnation in the eternal hellfire / Jahannam - which in my opinion is a pity, because, without the spectre of the burning fire, the message is incomplete, and it is incomplete because, for some people, the prospect of crime without punishment is no deterrent whatsoever and the message from the most loving and merciful God is therefore of little effect; whether the miscreants are believers or not , incrementally, the constant and incessant reminder about Jahannam / hell as the ultimate destination for tyrants and other political miscreants, should have a cumulative effect on each and every guilty or not so guilty conscience….
Before reading past the headline, one intuits and anticipates the long, familiar litany of the major mishap, the minor mishap and the missteps here and there, throughout the federation, the sorry implications beneath the surface of the title “Building Nigerian Democracy” - no doubt , more than a Herculean task if the Nigerian Democracy system is to be overhauled, including the current Constitution, and the whole contraption is be built on strong foundations - from scratch , so that she does not come tumbling down or cracking up because of a magnitude 4.1 political earthquake or from the circumstances that produced the most recent video I have viewed about Nigeria : What killed Balewa ?
Sheer nostalgia breaks the dam of tears in one’s eyes as one recalls the first flowering of African Independence with Ghana as pioneer, and the lyrics of Lord Kitchener's Birth of Ghana , E T Mensah’s Ghana Freedom and for me sometimes like a river, the tears begin to flow along these and other lines of E. T. Mensah’s Ghana, Guinea, Mali and there you have it once again, the STRONG FOUNDATION that’s needed as if with those lyrics below were the voices( “mouthpieces”) of prophecy, not to be outlived by Shakespeare's fabled lines “Not marble, nor the gilded monuments, Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme” :
“Ghana-Guinea-Mali Union
Has laid down a strong foundation
For redemption of Africa
For which we′ve been strongly fighting”
Are called to join this great union”
I have since read through the whole of Salihu Moh. Lukman’s essay and my only comment is with regard to a spent and re-re-cycled force like Atiku Abubakar who will be older than Joe Biden by 2027 being included in the list of potential wannabe President of Nigeria , when there are younger kids on the block such as e.g. Peter Obi who he robbed of the PDP nomination the last time around ( although, BTW, come 2027, Obi’s goose is already cooked because of that unfortunate pitch he made to his “Daddy”, the eloquent Bishop David Oyedepo, telling Nigeria’s Number One Pentecostal Pastor that the election was akin to a “ religious war” supposedly between on the one hand Christianity ostensibly being represented by he the Christian Soldier known as the Rt. Hon. Peter Obi , and Islamic Fundamentalism / the forces of darkness etc being represented by the likes of Alhaji Atiku and Bola Ahmed Tinubu
So, the fissures/ fractures and fault lines along the Christian - Muslim divide have to be addressed in the name of UNITY - the strongest foundation of any democratic nation under One God - and we’ve also got to think about this when dreaming about a bi-national Israel-Palestine Nation…
Why did God create suffering ? ( Did He?)
cornelius...@gmail.com
SvD reports ( https://www.svd.se/a/dRvQEX/guldfeber-pa-landets-pantbanker) ( Please click on the link and get Google to translate - it should be worth it )
Business lifeGold fever prevails in the country's pawn shops
The gold glitters at the country's pawn shops. Archive image. Photo: Bertil Ericson / TT
The record high gold price is felt by the country's pawn shops. More and more people are coming in to leave gold jewellery, states Pantbanken Sweden.”
For months now we’ve been hearing that under Biden & Harris, living on credit, the Economy is wobbling, on the brink of breaking / so many trillions of dollars in debt as if the solution is to just go ahead and print some more paper money. You think about this when Kamala Harris goes around promising first time home/ house buyers among Black & Working Class families that they are all going to get $25.000 upfront and what she doesn't say is where the moneý is going to come from. If she was really serious and sincere and knew that no matter how much she spent, she was going to lose anyway then the smartest, kindest, most compassionate and considerate thing to do would be to distribute to the poor and the destitute, the widows’ mite and all of that $ 500 million plus that has been credited to her campaign war chest
The SvD report resulted in checking this out , as homework - to relieve oneself of the mighty stress just thinking what would happen if the few dollars a man has in the bank should be worth next to nothing should there be a global collapse of what's known as ” the economy.”For how many years haven’t we been hearing that the safest bet is to buy GOLD.!?
For instance, the very last time I was in Sierra Leone ( the last 10 days of April 1970 and then back to Accra, Ghana) it was 2 Leones to £1 Sterling.
Democracy in Sierra Leone, building strong democratic institutions in Sierra Leone will solve everything ? When?
Here’s a Sierra Leonean Fulani guy crying about the cost of living:
https://www.facebook.com/100082788251136/videos/521837863560101/?rdid=Fn4kVqP0CgVzymid
He adds.” “LE700,000 is about US$31.80. This excludes rice, firewood, or charcoal. What a country. Thanks.”
So I have checked this out :
2024 : Gold reserves by country
Re - “Can’t imagine Salihu Moh. Lukman lecturing China about “democracy” or demo crazy , but that may be because China did not used to be a British, French, German, Italian, Portuguese or American colony. “
I forgot to add the Belgian Impies, ( Impi - short for Imperialist and Imperialism ), in fact I always think about them (the Belgian Impies) every time Romelu Lukaku //Romelu Menama Lukaku Bolingoli scores a goal for Belgium, and just to remind those who are not Soukous fans, or don’t know Lingala, the word Bolingo means love…,and that’s what Soukous is mostly about : Love, and Sorrow -as illustrated by these two songs : L’eau bénite (Holy Water) and Dati Petrole .
At the same time it’s remarkable how much I want Bukayo Saka to score for Merry England.
Last night I noticed that Ireland also hand their Chiedozie Ogbene
When push comes to shove -and it’s only football yet the dedication is like Nathan Hale who famously said before being executed by the British because he was apprehended spying for the Americans during the war , “I only regret, that I have but one life to lose for my country”
A tour of the diamond sellers headquarters in Antwerp should get you thinking about the Congo once again; the last time I was in Antwerp , and that was before the Russian Mafia had taken over much of the trade which was formerly , mostly the domain of the Jewish diamond cutters - ( just like New York - and lots of Hasidim -more specifically the Hasidim in Antwerp scuttling back and forth - no time to waste with frivolities) I was thinking more of Lev Leviev and Rapaport Diamond Report than of the struggling masses in Kinshasa - like Kabir’s fish in the water complaining of thirst, Robert Zimmerman wailing ” I've made shoes for everyone, even you, while I still go barefoot” people of the diamond countries still wallowing in poverty, the ongoing carnage in Goma…
It was Chidi the Poet who also got me thinking about what was once the Belgian Congo
Igbo Bro
tell us say
Amnesty International write to him to salute him
with mighty congratulations for being such a good
example for everyone by him standing up tall, firm
and strong for human rights and freedom in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (King Leopold's former “garden”....