2011, NOW THAT IWU IS GONE

Iwu is gone as desired by the people. It is nice that Dr Jonathan listened to the voice of the people. However, Iwu was just a piece in a corrupt system used to the fullest by PDP. The next step will be to strategically restructure and re-orientate INEC, with a credible Nigerian that is acceptable to all political parties at the helm of affairs in the organisation that has lost its reputation and score almost zero in people's confidence sample.

Our's is a peculiar setting and as such we need to adopt peculiar approach in order to make progress and beat the retrogressives hands down. 2011 is just around the corner and there is no time to be wasted. The 2011 elections should include a pre-election vote for all military personnel in their barracks 2 weeks before the general elections.

The election day should be a public holiday with restricted movement of vehicles except for those involved in essential services. This will prevent multiple voting and various forms of antics by the evil ones. The military personnel who had already done their voting should be drafted to man all polling stations around the nation with special id's already designed for them before this time.

All registered eligible voters should go to their respective polling stations for accreditation as from 8 am when the stations are fully open. Accreditation should be closed at 1 PM. Voting will then begin at 2 PM with all voters lining up behind symbols of their desired candidates. The voters are counted immediately and the votes tallied with all party representatives present and the results declared immediately. This will save us a lot of money on paper for voters cards as it was in the botched option A4. There will be no one stuffing boxes or stealing boxes as there will be none.

This way all attempts to rig will be checkmated and the right candidates will emerge without any litigations which will result in a waste of our judicial resources.

SANI YERIMA AND THE 13-YEAR OLD "BRIDE"

I was completely left speechless reading from the dailies how the "Godfather" of sharia in Nigeria, the man who has been a source of mayhem for those who opposed his questionable move for systematic "sharianisation" of Nigeria, took a 13-year old Egyptian girl to be his "4th" wife. He sent one of his former four wives parking so as to avoid having an excess as permitted by his religion. Sani Yerima and the so called girl's parents' move is not only pathetic but simply in-human.

In a civilised society, Sani Yerima, the man who has enacted and enforced the sharia law to stone, cane, cut the limbs of petty thieves and others contravening the "law", while he himself today is yet to account for millions during his tenure as the governor of Zamfara state. The religious zealot like the Pharisees of Jesus' days, have sought to operate on another level different from that which he sought applied to the people.

Sani, paid 100, 000 US Dollars as bride price for the 13-year old child. The marriage which could not be conducted in Egypt was done in the central mosque in Abuja. Where in the world does anyone pay that much for a bride price? Is it that he bought the child from the parents? It is sad to note that while the Nigerian lawmakers talk about child rights, there has been no official condemnation of Yerima's action. The life of this child is completely compromised and so is that of the previous wife who was dumped to accommodate his evil quest. The possibility of VVF is no doubt high when minors are made to have sex, impregnated and undergo labour and child birth. The stress of labour and delivery have resulted in many cases of females with VVF in the north of Nigeria. These victims, ironically have become outcasts in a society that has failed to pay attention to the inhuman practice of allowing marriages involving minors.

Will Sani Yerima allow his 13-year old daughter to get married at an age where she is just supposed to be beginning secondary school? How will he feel sleeping with a 13-year old child? Does sharia which he has taunted the people with allow such a practice? In a more organised society he would have been charged as a paedophile, yet he identifies himself as a Senator. He like many others are simply a disgrace and do not in anyway deserve to have such a title in a sane dispensation. Unfortunately, ours is far from sane. The government should not fold its hands and allow this sort of rubbish to continue otherwise it will be setting the stage for more evil things to follow.

I feel quite sad for the child involved. A victim in the hands of a "privildeged predator". If the Egyptian laws did not permit marrying a minor, I wonder why this was allowed in our own setting. Sad...sad...and very sad indeed