The_King'sQueen:
Very very unpatriotic and biased. Pointing out problems but proposing no solutions. How many Americans or Europeans have come to Nigeria to tell you what is going wrong in their country. You went to Britain to sell your country for just an English buffet.

post.email:


British and Americans are the cause of your problem? You didn't read the part -18,000 bureaucrats feeding fat on 1.12 Trillion Naira

bubadaniel13: Shame on General Buhari,i don't see a british or American citizen saying a bad thing about his/her country abroad,General Buhari keeps proving to us that he is not a good leader...

vicope:
Is that what your daddy told you? Coz its obvious you weren't born then......if that's what your daddy told you, then your daddy must be a dullard or a liar! No offence intended.

bakila:
How many check points and potholes are on the way to their capital cities? How many times have people in thier asokoro nay nyanya said up nepa last. How many times are there allegations of extra judicial murders of the nature of that in amansea? How many times have digs, aigs or comm of police have been murdered in cold blood in thier countries. How many election petition were filed to election result in that country rendering election petition a silent industry.

His speech should assist engender discussion on how to curb the menance of corruption and abuse of power.

drexx: How can I blame you when it is obvious that dumbness and mental numbness was the dominant trait in the sperm your dad poured inside your ho mum for your formation. I can see that you are a product of Allen Avenue Brothel. but you can hide your inherent hare brained character sometimes. No matter how bad they would talk of Ibb, people would always remember 3rd mainland bridge. When you mention Buhari, the first thing and perhaps the only thing that comes to mind is war against undiscipline. Can you point anything that Buhari is known for. Go and vote for Buhari. Johnathan is really trying for you guyds jor

drexx: How can I blame you when it is obvious that dumbness and mental numbness was the dominant trait in the sperm your dad poured inside your ho mum for your formation. I can see that you are a product of Allen Avenue Brothel. but you can hide your inherent hare brained character sometimes. No matter how bad they would talk of Ibb, people would always remember 3rd mainland bridge. When you mention Buhari, the first thing and perhaps the only thing that comes to mind is war against undiscipline. Can you point anything that Buhari is known for. Go and vote for Buhari. Johnathan is really trying for you guyds jor

Murphy T: ALL FOR POLITICAL GAINS...IF BUHARI DNT HAVE ANY BETTER THING TO SAY, HE SHOULD JUST KEEP SHUT, AFTERALL HE IS PART OF THE LEADERSHIP THAT HAS KEPT NIGERIA WHERE WE ARE, WHAT NIGERIA NEEDS NOW IS SOLUTION TO OUR CURRENT SITUATION NOT JUST POLITICAL CAMPAIGN AND BLAME GAME...THIS GUYS (FOREIGNERS) WILL NEVER AND CAN NEVER GO TO ANY COUNTRY AND SAY BAD ABOUT THIER COUNTRY, I CAN IMAGINE HOW THOSE PALIAMENTARIANS WOULD BE LOOKING AT BUHARI, THEY WILL JUST KNOW THIS MAN CAN GO TO ANY EXTENT TO GET WHAT HE WANTS, SO HE CAN BE USED..HIGH LEVEL OF SELFISHNESS...HOW CAN CAN HE SAY THAT THE CONDITION IN NIG IS SO BAD, YET HE CAN TAKE A FLIGHT TO LONDON WITHOUT ANY HITCHES, YET NIG IS THE NEXT INVESTORS DESTINATION, YET THE 43RD RICHEST MAN IS A NIGERIAN, YET WE ARE STILL FEEDING @LEAST TWICE A DAY, HABA BUHARI, WE DON'T WANT YOU TO RULE AGAIN, YOUR TIME HAS PAST, EVEN ELRUFAI SAID IT, JUST GO AND REST IN YOUR VILLAGE.

thelastPope:

All you can do is insult people on threads. Why did Buhari not change the poverty, unemployment and ulliteracy level of the north in his five year rule as chairmen of PTF with over 200 billion that he spent between 1993 and 1998? At least let us leave the south out of it because we know he never regarded the south as anything. Why is it now we are building Almajiri schools? Oh, I forgot. He couldn't help them because, like most northern leaders who ran the country aground, he needs them as illiterates so he can manipulate and use them for selfish goals!

Euroclydon: And you call yourself patriotic Buhari?? I doubt... U are just a bootlicker,with all due respect. I don't expect you to go and paint non existent conditions but haba...NAIJA na our own o! We know the state of our linens,they know the state of our linens...so what is ur mission Buhari by this your speech?

The_King'sQueen:
Very very unpatriotic and biased. Pointing out problems but proposing no solutions. How many Americans or Europeans have come to Nigeria to tell you what is going wrong in their country. You went to Britain to sell your country for just an English buffet.

PointB: I can't believe Buhari went all the way to UK just to whine. He didn't even breath a single word about Boko Haram, let alone condemn their activities or proffer solutions. No single idea how to improve the ecomony or the polity. And this is the man some clowns are touting as messiah. What a shame.

Time for this buhari clown to disappear to his village. He has completely lost it.

thelastPope:

A sour and serial looser and cowardly coup plotter who hid behind his deputy for 20 months and got kicked out as soon as his deputy left for pilgrimage. He was an illiterate and a coward who had no respect for democracy and democratic tenets. Now he wants to talk about democracy? There is nothing we won't see in Naija!

bubadaniel13: Shame on General Buhari,i don't see a british or American citizen saying a bad thing about his/her country abroad,General Buhari keeps proving to us that he is not a good leader...

pulel: What Buhari has said is no different from what we all have been talking about here in NL.

People, dont forget that NL is an online platform, so anyone can access our conversations. If u guys believe buhari has said too much about this country in front of a UK audience, how about what we have been discussing here?? Are they not bordering on the same things the man highlited? C'mon pple. U guys never fail to suprise me.

If Buhari is not a patriotic nigerian, then all of us here are also not patriotics. What stop the same forum Buhari addressed from googling Naija problems and be directed to Nl and read to their heart contents?

sammyudoh: SPEECH BY GENERAL MUHAMMADU BUHARI, GCFR AT THE AFRICA DIASPORA CONFERENCE, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

Protocols
1. May I thank the organizers for inviting me and my associates to this conference which, if I may say so, is growing in influence by the day. The presence of many Nigerians and distinguished Britons on these historic premises testifies to the importance and to the high expectations of this occasion. At the end of today’s proceedings many of us hope to have a better understanding of our problems and perhaps identify more effective solutions to those problems.

2. My contribution today is based on reflection and practical observation rather than on studious research or scholarly presentation. It is a soldier’s and politician’s broad observations on democracy and economic development in my country, Nigeria.

By convention one usually would like to talk about his country outside its shores in glowing terms extolling its virtues and defending its values and interests. But the situation in our country is so bad and no one knows this better than the international community, that it would be futile to take this line today.

Furthermore, it would be counter-productive to efforts we are all making to understand and accept our shortcomings with a view to taking steps towards a general improvement. If you continue to be in denial, as Nigeria’s government and its apologists are wont to do, you will lose all credibility.

DEMOCRACY
3. There is no point in rehearsing all the text-book theories of democracy to this august gathering. But in practical terms there are, I think, certain conditions without which true democracy cannot survive. These conditions include, but are not limited to, the level of literacy; level of economic attainment; reasonable homogeneity; rights of free speech and free association; a level playing field; free and fair elections; adherence to the rule of law and an impartial judiciary. But these imperatives are not applicable to all countries and all climes. India for example, suffers from great poverty and diversity but its efforts at running a democracy are exemplary.4. Democracy can best flourish when a certain level of educational attainment or literacy exists in the society. The vast majority of the voters must be in a position to read and write and consequently distinguish which is which on the voters card to make their choices truly theirs. In recent elections in Nigeria, many voters had to be guided – like blind men and women – as to which name and logo represent their preferred choices or candidates to vote for. When one does not know what the thing is all about, it is difficult to arrive at a free choice. It will be even more difficult to hold elected office holders to account and throw them out for non-performance at the next election. Under these circumstances, democracy has a long way to go. Our collective expectations on a democratic system of government in less advanced countries must, therefore, be tempered by these realities.

5. Nor must we discount the role of economic development on the democratic process. An even more compelling determinant to human behavior than education is, I think, economic condition. I will return to this topic when discussing elections, but suffice to remark here that if, for example, on election day, a voter wakes up with nothing to eat for himself and his family and representatives of a candidate offer him, say N500 (£2) he faces a hard choice: whether to starve for the day or abandon his right to vote freely. As the celebrated American economist, late Professor J.K. Galbraith said: “Nothing circumscribes freedom more completely than total absence of money”.

6. For democracy to function perfectly, a reasonable level of ethnic, linguistic or cultural homogeneity must exist in a country and this applies to all countries whether more developed or less developed. In the US, which like Nigeria is a federation, Hawaii and Alaska send two senators each to Washington as do California and New York. In our own country, Bayelsa with a population of less than two million elects three senators to the National Assembly in Abuja equal to Lagos State with a population of over ten million. Nassarawa State with about two million people and Kano State with over five times the population also send 3 senators each to Abuja. Such dilution clearly negates the intent and spirit of democracy.

7. Central and critical to democracy is adherence to the rule of law. That is to say, no individual, institution, not even government itself can act outside the confines of law without facing sanctions. Executive arbitrariness can only be checked where there is respect for the law. Other desirable conditions of democracy such as freedom of speech and association can only flourish in an atmosphere where the law is supreme. Law does not guarantee but allows a level playing field. In the absence of the rule of law, free and fair elections and an independent judiciary cannot exist.

8. As a result of the virtual absence of the rule of law, elections in Nigeria since 2003 have not been free and fair. As a participant, I can relate to this audience my experiences during the 2003, 2007 and 2011 Presidential elections. Hundreds of candidates have similar experiences in State, Federal legislature and Gubernatorial elections. Under Nigerian law, these elections are governed by the 1999 constitution, the Electoral Law and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) acts of 2002, 2006 and 2010. Ordinarily, an election is an occasion when contestants will join the electorate in celebration of freedom, because the will of the majority has prevailed. Winners and losers alike come together to work in the interest of their country. But this happens only if the elections were deemed free and fair. In 2003, INEC, the body charged with the conduct of elections in our country tabled results in court which were plainly dishonest. We challenged them to produce evidence for the figures. They refused. The judges supported them by saying, in effect, failure to produce the result does not negate the elections! In a show of unprecedented dishonesty and unprofessionalism, the President of the Court of Appeal read out INEC’s figures (which they refused to come to court to prove or defend) as the result accepted by the Court. The Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, said this was okay.

9. In 2007, the violations of electoral rules were so numerous that most lawyers connected with the case firmly believed that the elections would be nullified. I will refer to just two such violations. The Electoral Act of 2006 stipulated that ballot papers SHALL be serially numbered and voters result sheets must also be tallied on serially numbered papers. INEC produced ballot papers with NO serial numbers and also used blank sheets thereby making it well nigh impossible to have an audit trail. At all events, at the final collation centre the chief electoral officer, after 11 (eleven) states (out of 36) were tallied excused himself from the room – apparently on a toilet break – and announced the “final results” to waiting journalists. He had the “results” in his pocket. At the time, several states had not completed transmission of their tallies. As in 2003 the courts rubber-stamped this gross transgression of the rules. Some election returns confirmed by INEC stamps included, 28th April, two (2) days before the election, 29th April, a day before the election and astonishingly, 31st April a date which does not exist on the calendar, illustrating the farcical nature of the election. The Supreme Court split 4-3 in favour of the Government.

10. In 2011 all pretences at legality and propriety were cast aside. In the South-South and South-Eastern States, turn-out of voters was recorded by INEC at between 85% – 95% even though in the morning of the election the media reported sparse attendance at polling booths. The rest of the country where opposition parties were able to guard and monitor the conduct of the Presidential election turn-out averaged about 46%. In many constituencies in the South-South and South-East, votes cast far exceeded registered figures.

11. Which brings us to the need for an impartial Judiciary in a democratic setting. The judicial arm of the government, properly speaking, should be the interpreter and arbiter of executive and legislative actions but the Nigerian government since 1999 has successfully emasculated the judiciary and turned it into a yes-man. An independent and impartial judiciary would have overturned all the Presidential elections since 2003. In addition, hundreds of cases of judicial misconduct have marred elections to Local Government, State and Federal Legislatures. The Judiciary has run its reputation down completely since 2003.

12. Here, I would like to say a few words about the international observers. In 1999 the greatly revered former US President, Jimmy Carter walked off in a huff at the conduct of that year’s Presidential election. But compared to what took place afterwards, the 1999 election was a model of propriety. I am sure many Nigerians like me feel gratitude to the international community, notably the Catholic Secretariat who deployed over 1,000 observers in 2003 and the National Democratic Institute in Washington for their work in Nigeria. In 2003 and 2007, all the international observer teams, along with domestic observers concluded that those two elections fell far short of acceptable standards. The Nigerian government, along with the international community ignored those critical reports. Some members of this audience may recall the trenchant criticisms by the UK and US governments on the Zimbabwean elections held about the same time as Nigeria’s. Now the Zimbabwean elections were very much better conducted than the Nigerian elections as the opposition party in Zimbabwe actually was declared to have won the parliamentary elections.

13. Yet Western Governments turned a blind eye to Nigerian elections and an eagle eye on Zimbabwe’s and its supposed shortcomings. No better illustration of double-standards can be cited. Accordingly, in 2011, the international observers, having seen their painstaking work in earlier years completely ignored, took the line of least resistance and concluded after cursory examinations that the elections were okay.

14. So it is quite clear from these brief recollections that many preliminary elements of a democratic set-up are missing in Nigeria namely: level of educational development, level of economic development, homogeneity, level playing field, rule of law, impartial judiciary and free and fair elections.

15. As observed earlier, democracy cannot function optimally without a certain level of economic attainment.

16. Economically, Nigeria is a potential powerhouse, a large population, 167 million by the last official estimate, arable land, more than 300, 000 square kilometers, 13,000 square kilometers of fresh water. In addition, the country has gas, oil, solid minerals, forests, fisheries, wind power and potentials for tourism and hosting of international sporting events. It is a miracle waiting to happen. The lack of leadership and policy continuity has resulted in great under-achievement.

17. Many Nigerians in the audience today will relate to the situation of our countrymen and women. More than 100 million of our people live below $2 a day according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics and many internationally recognized estimates. We lack security, are short of food, water, live in poor shelters with hardly any medicare to speak of. Small scale farmers, foresters, micro businesses such as market women, washermen, vulcanizers, tailors, street corner shop-keepers and the like lack both power and meaningful access to small scale credit to ply their trade and prosper.

No wonder, the publication, “The African Economic Outlook 2012” under the auspices of the United Nations lamented that poverty and underdevelopment were on the increase. In fact, GDP figures in the raw or in outline tell little about the spread of wealth, employment levels, infrastructural development and the effect of socio-economic programmes such as schooling, health care, and security on the generality of the population. You may sell a lot of oil in an era of high oil prices and boost your GDP and boast about it. But there is nothing to boast about when 100 million of your people are in poverty and misery. Life is a daily hassle; a daily challenge. It is under these circumstances that many a voter is tempted to sell off his voting card for a pittance on Election Day.

CONCLUSION
18. We now come to crux of the matter by attempting some answers to the very pertinent questions which the organizers of this conference put to me. How stable is Nigeria’s economy? The short answer is that it very much depends on the international oil market. The failure over the years to diversify and strengthen the economy or to invest in the global economy has left Nigeria perilously at the mercy of global oil prices. Instead of using the so-called excess crude account which in other countries goes by the name of Sovereign Wealth Fund to develop major domestic infrastructure such as Power, Railways, Road development, the account has been frittered down and applied to current consumption. There is no magic, no short-cut to economic development. We must start from first principles – by developing agriculture and industries. Sixty years ago, we exported considerable quantities of cocoa, cotton, groundnuts, rubber and palm kernels. There were sizeable incomes to the farmers. Indeed in two years, if I recall correctly, 1951 and 1953, Nigeria produced a million tons of groundnuts. Today, other than a few thousand tons of cocoa, hardly any cotton, rubber or palm products are exported.

Continue here: http://stephendieseruvwe./2013/03/06/speech-by-general-muhammadu-buhari-gcfr-at-the-africa-diaspora-conference-london-united-kingdom/

King Solomon I:

We dont hate the truth....we know the truth....what's the way forward?

GenBuhari: 3rd main bridge was built by Shagari in 1980 .
IBB finished off a small incomplete annex to it

M-16:
1983 BUHARI ILLEGALLY BY ARM OVER THROW A DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRESIDENT SHAGARI ,WHY ? BECAUSE ALEX EKWUEME WAS THE VICE PRESIDENT [IGBO MAN] WHOM HAUSA'S LOVE TO HATE ,BUHARI AND HIS HAUSA/FULANI GANGSTER KNEW WHAT THEY'RE DOING .WALLAHI ,BUHARI/HAUSA/FULANIS HAS SECRET OTHER TRIBE IN NIGERIA DON'T HAVE . THEY HAVE CONTROL TRILLIONS OF STOLEN DOLLARS SINCE WHEN I WAS BORN TILL TODAY THERE IS NO CHANGE IN NIGERIA . I WISH NIGERIA AND BUHARI BORN IN HELL FIRE FOR DESTROYING MY LIFE. BUHARI AND HIS FAMILY HAS BEEN SLEEPING ON BED MADE WITH GOLD AND THEY HAVE BILLIONS OF OUR OIL MONEY FLOWING IN THEIR ILLEGAL FOREIGN ACCOUNT FROM SAUDI ARABIA TO UNITED ARAB EMIRATE .SAY YOU DON'T KNOW .BUT YOU HATE THE TRUTH ,YOU LOVE BUHARI BECAUSE HE IS YOUR TRIBES MAN .BUT NIGERIANS FIRST BEFORE BUHARI AND HIS HAUSA/FULANI FANS .I'M A NIGERIAN BUT I HATE NIGERIA ,I WISH 12 MILES SIZE OF ASTEROID HIT NIGERIA AND DELETE NIGERIA FROM EXISTENCE .
BUHARI ,SARDUANA ,UTHMAN DAN FODIO ,SHEKAU ,ATIKU,BABANGIDA,SOKOTO CALIPHATE ,NOTHERN ISLAMIC CRUSADERS. APES

M-16:

Go hang your self if that is how you feel Bleep you too ,your family are already dead ,look at a walking dead tripping ,what did you have to offer nothing ? blind dunce ,look at you sand bag ,look at inferior brain ,African brain really punk stooges ,mock of the whole human race , dumb's as far as you are gullible you are born to be gullible there is no limit to it . this uniform tribal maggot have peddle Nigeria into mocking country ,savages sympathizing with their tribes man .
Buhari led a millitary coup that toppled a democratic elected administration ,and you are supporting him ,show me what change ? an evil man complaining because he did not assumed a highest position in Nigeria but he conspired with his gang and stole billions of dollars .
as for asteroid thing you can never stop it ,there is billions of asteroid out there waiting to decimate you and your tribe ,just watch and read the news a bit ,there is an asteroid a close fly by just three days ago ,you are going to be really scare you evil man keep yelling the name of Jesus won't stop asteroid from hitting your village .

M-16:


YOU NORTHERNERS WANT TO DRAG EVERY BODY OFF THE CLIFF ,PLEASE GO SELL THAT BUHARI NEWS TO YOUR MONKEY BALD BRAIN NORTHERN KIDS LET HALF APES HALF PIGS FELL OFF . FOR ME I WANNA BE ON MARS IN 2017.
LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE AND OTHER REGION ALONE ,WHY DON'T BUHARI BE PRESIDENT OF NORTHERNERS IF YOU SO MUCH LIKE HIM .

Ade-murph:

I DOFF MY CAP FOR YOU, FOR YOUR STATEMENT