By Dele Sobowale

"Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are
nothing but shadows of words when a man is starving.” O. Henry,
1862-1910, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, P 233.
Nigeria is descending to a new low in barbarism, which if left unchecked
will define the new era of politics. Parents, presumed to be sane, but
obviously callous and distressed, now sell their kids to procure food for the
rest of the family. Whether the evil is perpetrated with a heavy heart is
difficult to say until we conduct a study into the motivations of the few
known examples to date. And, the sooner the better, because this trend
might gain momentum and become irreversible for a long time to come.
It is difficult to imagine how parents would determine which of their kids to
be sold. That they don’t particularly care what fate befalls that child is
obvious. That they don’t consider that the sale of one child for a pittance
will not solve their problems permanently is also clear. They certainly
don’t ask themselves what will happen when the food purchased with their
own kids’ blood money is exhausted. Will they sell another one? Just as
obvious to anybody who can think deeply is the fact that those who can
willingly sell their own kids would think nothing about trading other
people’s children for cash. Perhaps some are already into that business.
We will never know until somebody conducts a study to find out if cases
of missing children had risen in the communities where parents have been
caught selling their own.
However, before proceeding with this column, a diversion is necessary.
Mr Femi Adesina, Presidential Adviser for Media, was once reported to
have stated that he does not believe that Nigerians are suffering now. I
sincerely hope he was misquoted. But, in the event he was not, that
statement will go down in my own memory as one of the most callous and
insensitive ever by an official of the Federal Government. It would also
have gone a long way to prove my pet theory that there is a medical and
mental phenomenon called ASO ROCK DISEASE. This is defined as an
affliction experienced by some individuals who are appointed to great
office in Aso Rock and who shortly after reaching there start to make
pronouncements that are totally out of character with what they once
pretended was their belief. Late Professor Herbert Marcuse, in 1967, in
Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, had delivered a lecture in which he
declared that “Existence determines consciousness; where you stand
determines what you see”. People entering the world of power at Abuja
from relative powerlessness can be forgiven if they suddenly talk and
behave as part of the power elite. Late Chief Bola Ige became Minister
under Obasanjo and quickly declared that there was no need for a
Sovereign National Conference – something he had championed all his
life. That led to a two-part column from me titled ET TU CHIEF IGE. I
asked Uncle Ige if he had not contracted the Aso Rock disease. I certainly
hope that Adesina had not contracted that disease which had consumed
the reputations of ALL the journalists and columnists who served
Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan before him. None returned from Abuja
with their reputations intact – although financially wealthy. Invariably,
they have forgotten that “The true measure of your wealth is how much
you will be worth when you have lost all your money”. Who now listens to
Femi’s last three predecessors in the Rock? They have become the living-
dead.
It is a fact that it is almost impossible for someone who eats “free lunch”,
at the Aso Rock cafeteria, to understand the problems of millions of his
fellow Nigerians who have to pay for their own lunch and increasingly
cannot find it. Tucked in the comfort Nigerian money can buy, it requires a
lot of insight and deep wisdom to sympathise and empathise with those
who are not sure of any meal for weeks to come.
Empathy is here defined as “standing in somebody else’s shoes”; feeling
the pinches. In fact, if Adesina wants to know if Nigerians are suffering, he
should ask his former colleagues in the print media who have not received
salaries for over four months. They will be the first to ask him to go and
wash his mouth with soap. Enough said for now on that.
Those not privileged to eat free food at the Rock know that these are the
toughest times millions have known in a long, long, long, time.
Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come. If people are now selling kids, will
they start eating them when things get worse as they will inevitably do in
2016 and 2017? Yet, the signs of imminent famine and mass starvation
are there for all to see. Two inescapable factors will serve to illustrate the
point – imported and manufactured food items on the one hand and
locally produced food items on the other.
Floating exchange rate which had effectively devalued the naira had
correspondingly set in motion a series of escalating price increases on
imported food items and manufactured food items which rely on imports of
raw materials. Price of bread will certainly soon go up and one hopes that
somebody inside the Rock will not announce “Let them eat cake”, Queen
Maries-Antoinette, 1755-1793). That stupid joke by an insensitive woman
precipitated a revolution.
Even local food production had been devastated by drought. We are in
July and the rainfall this year had been the least in over fifty years. Crops
are failing everywhere. New yam, which serve as proxy for harvest in
general, is not yet out and a quick visit to some farms indicate that a
disaster is underway with respect to yam harvest. Only the rich and
wealthy will escape the consequences of poor harvests.
The most urgent question now confronting us is: what will happen to the
kids as the calamity unfolds? Will they be served for lunch? Buhari has a
whale of a problem on his hands – even if he doesn’t know it yet.
ADVICE TO BUHARI ON SARAKI AND OTHERS
“There are some individuals who are better kept on the inside pissing out,
than on the outside pissing in.” Sam Rayburn, 1882-1961.
Sam Rayburn was probably the most powerful Speaker of the US House of
Representatives. He was also regarded as a mentor to Lyndon Johnson,
1908-1973, who was Senator, Vice President and President of America.
The story had been told about when Rayburn faced with some rebels in
the House within his own political party and someone asked him why he
did not use his enormous power to deal with them. Wise Sam made the
statement above which has relevance for Nigerian politics today. As
everybody knows now, there is a total breakdown in relationships between
President Buhari and the Senate President. The heads of the Executive
and legislative branches are literally at war. On both sides, the
combatants are in the trenches; political, as well as real, lives are at stake.
On paper the balance of power is with the executive branch; but it might
turn out to be a costly blunder for anybody to assume that it is
overwhelming.
Unfolding events out of Buhari’s control are already reducing the power
gap. The cases started including the forgery case will certainly not be
concluded soon. They will wind their way to the Supreme Court after
several trips to the Courts of Appeal and Buhari’s term might be over
before we have heard the last words on these. Meanwhile, there are three
more budgets to be presented to the Senate, appointments to be
approved, ambassadors to interrogate, inevitable economic recession to
address – all of which need Senate support. To make matters worse the
Minister of Justice who approved the prosecution of Saraki and
Ekweremandu is already involved in conflict of interest controversy. Saraki
on the outside is dangerous….

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/07/parents-start-eating-kids/

Zombies keep avoiding the thread

Is typical of zombies to eat their young ones because their senses have been fried and serve to them as first meal to anomalies.

dimieprincess:
Zombies keep avoiding the thread

You gat no chill for Zombies.......

Just in case

Lalasticlala........this is worth FP.

There is a medical and mental phenomenon called ASO ROCK DISEASE. This is defined as an affliction experienced by some individuals who are appointed to great office in Aso Rock and who shortly after reaching there start to make pronouncements that are totally out of character with what they once pretended was their belief