by Bade Adebolu
Every day is important but there are days that stand out in our lives. For me, October 15 is one of them. I wish I could tell you the significance of this day in my life but that’s too confidential for this pages of this medium.
I pledged to write an article on this day among other things and three headlines got my attention: “Our president is a ‘bush man’ | 5 takeaways from the shameful battle between Buhari and his wife”published on Ynaija, “It’s Time To Restructure Nigeria” on Leadership and “Donald Trump ‘grabbed me and went for the lips’, says new accuser”, the Guardian [foreign].
Buhari and Aisha
President Buhari’s “perceived chauvinist blunder” is no longer news to anyone who has been following the headlines; in fact, it keeps trending. Our dear president during a press conference with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, openly reminded his wife and perhaps other women that their place is in the kitchen, the living room and “the other room”. One wonders what the president meant by “the other room”, but I’ll leave that to your imagination. Your guess is probably as good as mine.
My problem with this is why the president would publicly say that about his wife. Couldn’t he have gone mute? This has gone beyond politics. It is emotional.
While discussing this with a colleague, I said: “He can’t say this if he was the president of the US or contesting for the seat.” He would automatically go out of favour with that group of the economy. I guess Mr Trump can testify to this.
The Quack Economist
The piece on Leadership (see second paragraph) left me with mixed feelings. First I must commend the writer for his optimism for the country.
Asked if there is much worth celebrating at our dear country’s independence, here’s his reply: “It all depends how you look at celebration and on one’s concept of life. Some people celebrate being alive. Others can celebrate their material acquisitions. Yes we’re no way near the promise land. Mistakes have been made, huge mistakes of course. But, then, the fact that we’re still together as a nation, is something we should possibly say thank God we have seen 56 years of our nationhood…
“We as a people must learn from our mistakes because a man who has never made mistakes can never be a successful man.”
He further knocked the talk and idea of selling national assets. Great!
But Odilim goofed and strayed by delving in matters which he just has academic knowledge about. This makes me question the Leadership’s description of him as a renowned Developmental Economist and Political Analyst. Great Economist my foot! Odilim is nothing but a quack.
Odilim claimed that the recession started with the past administration and was covered up but any great economist should know that there’s absolutely no way to veil a recession.
A recession is well defined as two quarters of contraction on growth. The office of chief statistician gives the growth figures as does IMF and World Bank, African Development Bank and United Nations. None of these saw any contraction in the Nigerian economy in 2012. So Odilim is an absolute liar and a quack.
It’s the likes of Odilim who hamper Nigeria’s growth by misinforming Nigerians through mass media.
Beyond reading some of his articles in the past, I remember him appearing in the news for a case against Hon Jibrin and the House of Reps for failing to pay him N115 million “consulting fee” to draft 50 questions which they infamously asked the former Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to answer, and to react to her response.
More than anything else, this tells me that Odilim is not just a quack but a crook and opportunist, whose pen is for hire. How shamelessly greedy can one be to have gone to the media to fight over unpaid money? Definitely not patriotism. He’s more interested in his own pocket than the good of the country. No great economist would have done that.
The “Kissing” Candidate
I find the news on Donald Trump rather interesting. I wish I could say more, but by now, my pen needs some rest. Perhaps, I should have written this first but I have to end this to face other pressing matters.
Trump, “na you biko”. Let’s see how you come out of this one.
You can read the story here:
Bade Adebolu is an accountant based in Ado-Ekiti. He sends this piece via [email protected]
