Nigerians Honour Raila Odinga & Chinua Achebe

PIC: Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga (left) and the Publisher of The Guardian, Dr. Alex Ibru, during Odinga's arrival at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria

Prime Minister Raila Odinga and legendary Nigerian author Professor Chinua Achebe are today scheduled deliver lectures to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Nigeria's Guardian Newspaper Limited, publishers of the leading Guardian titles.

In the front page report on the lectures, the Guardian paper ran lengthy biographies on panafricanist, democrat and freedom fighter Odinga and, teacher, critic, poet and essayist Achebe, describing them as 'Africa's illustrious sons'.

The lectures will be held at the think-tank Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in the economic capital city of Lagos. Raila Odinga is to deliver a lecture entitled "Democracy and the challenge of good government in Africa".

Speaking to a battery of journalists who thronged the presidential wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos on Wednesday shortly after his arrival from representing Kenya at the 1st World Policy Congress in Evian – France, Raila said; "I want to basically thank my host for inviting me to Nigeria. I am very happy to be in Nigeria today. I have come with a team of fellow Kenyans. I like the spirit of Nigerians. You asked me about the electoral fraud. Electoral fraud can only be dealt with by reforms, through instituting total reforms of having independent electoral body to preside over elections. We have leaders of yesterday who are resisting change. They do not want to accept the will of the people through democratic process and those new ones who are coming in and are basically democrats like to play by the rule. This is a transition period from the time multi-partism came into Africa that is from the early 1990s up till now. ”

According to a press statement issued by Guardian Newspapers, Professor Chinua Achebe, best known for his evergreen classic, Things Fall Apart, will deliver a keynote speech at the event. Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’adua will be the Special Guest of Honour while Nigeria’s former military head of state, Yakubu Gowon would serve as the Chairman of the Ceremony.

This blogger will monitor events in Lagos and update the post at an opportune time.

Zombies: Living and Leading in Denial

Inverted priority comes in all shades and shapes. Kenya’s present leadership has perfected the art of minimalism at the wider peril of the whole nation. Here we are in the eye of a global storm with evidence pointing to Kenya’s integral involvement in gun running on behalf of Sudan and what do we do? Mutua and Wetangula have the ready script coloured in denial and with straight faces they shamelessly treat the whole world to the local folly which they serve Kenyans on daily basis.

Meanwhile Kibaki is busy mouthing directives for the same fraud-laden military to embrace technology. Speak of and imbecile immune to any sense of honesty. Sourcing the same technology is guaranteed to be another avenue to milk Kenyans dry. And that is Kenya’s brand of entrepreneurship at its best. Trust Kibaki’s apologists to shamelessly manufacture justification in defending the indefensible. Well, you cannot fault faithful disciples who readily point fingers while sheepishly defending the king of IMPUNITY who is truly leading by example and from the front.

You see Karume is no fool. The octogenarian may be out of parliament but he is smart enough to rope in willing Somalis if only to secure his share of the deal he painstakingly crafted but the present power brokers are naively scheming to disinherit him of. With the $8 million ransom agreed (from your taxes) Njenga is safe and sound. To his advantage, the industrious Karume knows the exact geography of Kibaki’s soft under belly like no other politician, alive or dead.

It wasn’t me
While creative bloggers cobble theories to baptize a zombie with waters of nostalgia, the eating chiefs are busy expanding the web as they auction every piece of Kenya. Who said you cannot scheme and profit over corpses? Somali has proved a haven of arms business as proved during the post-election violence. Only fools negotiate peace deals and leave empty handed. Definitely not Kenyans.

Kenyans are collectively suffering from the curse of tokenism and lowering the bar of expectation. Kibaki may have been everything good and progressive in his hey days but whitewashing grandiose failure with tales of economics learnt and taught in the first half of last decade is akin to dancing yourself lame to a stuck record. Its generosity notwithstanding, nature rarely rewards mediocrity. We are stuck with the skunk and its awful odour.

Trust is like virginity and betraying it is to rape yourself of any moral authority to justify acute cronyism that is definitely hurtling Kenya to the dogs. At the risk of inviting predictable barbs, I must point out that death is very unfair to people like Kamangu while conveniently avoiding bloody red scams bestriding our political shores.