Just as some people never learn a lesson from history, countries led by people like that easily fall into the trap of mediocrity. Take a country like Iran for example—here’s a country with unparalleled social, political and cultural history that could easily be a leader in the region, and a partner for progress with leading nations around the world. You may wear combat boots and carry a sword to do a revolution. However, once the revolution is over, you must pivot to the politics of governance, and for governance to succeed, efforts must be made to govern from the center. If after a revolution, the leader stays in revolution mode longer than necessary, momentum will be lost, and the gains of the center thinking will be lost for a long time especially as most regimes like that go into regime protection mode. Such it was with Chairman Mao Zedong in China. He stayed in the revolution zone until he died. That revolution mode cost 26 million Chinese lives during the cultural revolution. It took a Deng Xiao Ping to pivot China to some sort of middle which embraced capitalism to move China very quickly from a rural and sleepy superpower to world number two in a relatively short period of time.
Cuba also remained in the revolutionary mode. Just look at where Cuba is?
Recall what happened to Zimbabwe. Mugabe fired from both hips until his economy became comatose.
Compare that to Mandela. He immediately pivoted to the center upon winning power. Clearly, years of imprisonment, and mistreatment had not done any damage to his sense of history and intellect.
It therefore beats my mind why Iran wants to bring destruction upon its citizens. If they carry out their so-called threat of “teeth breaking vengeance,” one can only hope that it is very clear to them that Bibi will no longer be persuaded to temper a response. This time, he will go all out to deliver a mountain-penetrating response of earthquake proportions. Everything will become fair game, including the decapitation of the regime with plumes of smoke billowing from a ‘Gazarized’ Tehran. Bibi is not a normal human being. Iran should not bask in the mistake they have made. They must quit digging—not tomorrow, but now.
A color-blind Conservative Party.
First it was a young man of Indian heritage as Prime Minister. Now, we have Kemi Badenoch, a 44-year-old software engineer, lawyer and politician. She has been nominated to serve as leader of the Conservative Party, and she is making history as the first black woman of direct African heritage to hold such an exalted position. She will be piloting an opposition party through a period of resurgence of a revitalized Labor Party. Barring any major economic crisis, the Labour Party may be in power for another 10 years. Kemi will be needing a lot of staying power to keep her party united until such a time as the people become tired of a ‘non-performing’ Labour Party.
As we congratulate her on her elevation as leader of the Conservative Party, it is hoped that she will surround herself with really selfless, and smart people to navigate the years of waiting in the shadows. What makes her rise so significant is itself what made Great Britain to be great in the first place, which was their adventurism, from exploring to slavery to colonialism to the building of the Commonwealth where the only thing that was common was the continuous flow of wealth from the former colonies to Britain. In her acceptance speech, she said, inter alia—“It is time to tell the truth. It is a time for renewal. It is a time to admit that mistakes have been made.” By “mistakes”, is she alluding to slavery and colonialism? Is Britain ready for an apology and reparations?
That would be a good place to begin. Enough of platitudes and band aids. Will people of courage step forward please!
Harris or Trump?
In two days, America will be wrapping up the polls by 7pm everywhere across the continental United States. Before 3am that same night or by early morning, Wednesday, a pattern should start to emerge as to whom Americans want to pilot their country for the next four years. People are afraid in a way that they have never been historically because Donald Trump has told them exactly how he plans to take revenge. For him, this election is existential. He needs it like oxygen to remain a free man. On the one hand, many people who worked for him in the past who have since come out to oppose him are scared of what he might do to them. On the other hand, Europe is skeptical of another Trump presidency that seeks to threaten the mutual interests that have existed in 80 years. Issues like NATO, the IMF, or climate change agreements may also be at risk.
Strange matters arising in Nigeria.
Sometimes, one has to wonder how far the Nigerian Police, our beloved men and women in uniform, would go in doing their “job.”
Except of course if the video clip of children in detention that has been making the rounds is fake, it ought to be obvious enough to any trained officer that the people arrested for carrying Russian flags in the North during the hunger strikes are children. The way Nigeria goes, many of these children will never be missed in the first place because they are Almajiris of no fixed parentage or address. They will remain in prison for the next 5 years until they are old enough to be charged for armed robbery as replacements for real armed robbers who can pay to walk free. Northern Nigerian leaders I hope have now begun to see how their lack of interest in education has brought them so much joy, and peace with bandits, Boko Haram, kidnappers, etc.
Hail to the great North. A new bill for tax reform making the rounds may never see the light of day for many reasons, chiefly amongst which is that many Northern States contribute zero sums to the treasury. The question is: where do the drafters of the reforms want them to bring contributions from that will be matched by the Federal Government funding? Again, many of these States have chosen religion over simple economics, yet they want to share in VAT revenues that come from sinners. If these are some of the proposals in the tax reform bill, no one needs a soothsayer to tell them that the bill is DOA—dead on arrival. Unfortunately for everyone, for some reason of history and bogus census, the arid North has more population than the coastal South!
Edo State abuzz for inauguration.
It is amazing how much silence, and peace, and tranquility has suddenly enveloped Edo State since the elections were declared won and lost in September. It is hoped that many broken relationships would heal in time for the arrival of Christmas Jollof rice and chicken.
Activities have been lined up for the inauguration of the new Governor on November 12th. Someone was saying the other that no one appears to be enthusiastic to line up a goodbye party for the outgoing governor as was the case when Oshiomhole was leaving in 2016. It’s been clear to many people that the outgoing governor did not share money, and so, he may not be expecting anyone to throw him a party. What is not known at this time is what, if anything, EFCC knows. Edo is already known as the number one State for petition writing. The petition writers may be waiting for the morning of November 13th, to begin to unleash their venom. Whatever the case may be, it is hoped that the incoming governor will plan to build on the Digitization Revolution of the Civil Service that Obaseki has obviously executed. It is also hoped that the gains of EdoBEST will be sustained as well as improvements on the Internet cables that are being laid across the State. The new government must pivot on the Federal/State policy on roads, and come up with a body dedicated to fixing the first pothole that appears on any road anywhere in the State. We also hope that they will take advantage of the new Electricity Laws to build our own State Grid to give us 24-hour power. Will the governor arise in the image of the late great sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, to launch an agricultural revolution that is second to none in Nigeria? Only time will tell if he is coming to mark time or make history.
Is peace possible in the Middle East?
Any search for peace in the Middle East cannot possibly involve having Netanyahu around the peace table. The people of Israel should vote him out, and get themselves a leader who is ready to make the kind of sacrifice necessary for the emergence of a 2-State solution. Saudi Arabia may hold the key to peace in that region after all, but that is only if full-scale war does not break out between Israel and Iran before the Saudis get the chance to normalize relations with Israel on condition that a 2-State solution comes down the road.
The great deluge.
Spain is reeling. The heavens let out its fury of rainfall meant to be distributed across one whole year in a period of 8 hours. The devastation accompanying the deluge could not have been predictable. Cars are piled up in heaps just as everything in the pathway of the raging waters were leveled to the ground. The people are fortunate that they do not build their homes like the Americans do with all wood. Otherwise, the consequences would have been far worse. Over 200 fatalities have been confirmed. Gladly, the people of Spain are volunteering In thousands to help in the cleanup.
What is not clear to this writer is this: What is climate change? When there’s drought in a place, we blame it on climate change. When there’s too much rain in a place, we blame it on climate change. Somewhere in Japan, at Mount Fuji, they are supposed to have a snow-covered mountain already by this time of the year. The mountain is still bare. They also say it’s climate change. Can someone please explain exactly what climate change is? As things stand right now, when I’m in a group of educated and enlightened people, all I tend to do when the subject comes up is also to sound educated and enlightened.
*Ovienmhada, author, poet, playwright, & public affairs commentator, can be reached via [email protected].
