The Yar'Adua website - not impressed

The invitation

My write-up about Yar'Adua's illness, rumoured death and celebrated resurrection has caught the notice of the seemingly forward-looking and emancipated webmasters of the Yar'Adua/Goodluck "Talk to Us" website; I got an invitation to interact with the gentlemen as a comment in my blog.

I wasted no time in signing-up to the forum and going through the site only to find that the only issue up for discussion was that about a Power Outages and Fuel Scarcity, and I am supposed to be impressed?

In fact, I feel like a happy dog that has just been commanded to fetch a bone - Woof! Yap! Yap! - Bunkum!

Cut the crap

Let us remove the iron curtain of the encumbrance of patriarchy, which some people might call "respect" and that of unnecessary incipient sycophancy and get down to the basics, these men have a job to do and they would be well paid for it, we have expectations and they like interviewees for a job should show why they are the best candidates for the job at hand.

So, I made my contribution to the matter of power generation, liberally using a good few of the ideas that Chippla discussed with me a few weeks ago, gas-fired power stations in the Delta areas, wind farms in Northern Nigeria amongst other things.

Maigadi sanu (Gateman Hello - Hausa)

I had my questions and thought the forum allowed you to post questions directly, no, there is a gatekeeper mechanism in place, I have to email question@yaraduagoodluck.info where it probably would be filtered to present suitable questions for public discussion and difficult questions get the Pending Basket treatment - that is usually under the table and gets cleared out by cleaners at dusk.

This might explain why questions about health trips abroad and healthcare in Nigeria are not available for discussion; the educational system; difficult infrastructure issues like transportation, aviation and communication, the abuse of constitutional and due process might just get short shrift.

My Question

You and your opponent recently enjoyed at great cost (transportation, bills, ridiculing of Nigeria) the services of European health facilities to deal with benign medical conditions; have you considered that after 8 years of PDP, not being able to avail yourselves of this kind of service in Nigeria is a dereliction of political service if not criminal?

What are you going to do to ensure that moneybags - I mean, people of privilege like yourself can get these treatments in Nigeria and then develop the healthcare delivery infrastructure to an accessible, affordable, effective and efficient service available to every Nigerian citizen worthy of the status of Nigeria primarily and then in Africa, since you are making comparisons with democracies in Africa?

Old-Style current style

Maybe, I am just being cynical, but I do hate being patronised, as I read in the comments posted, "The ideas behind this site are probably a first for an African democracy. And it represents a departure from old-style Nigerian politics. By telling your readers about our web site you will be contributing to the development of democracy in Nigeria."

Now, I am just as irate as a bull snorting out red jets of smoke, we have not even had access to the site three days and they are already praising the uniqueness of the venture in Africa.

I am not interested in some African version of democracy, I just want the simple access to the people who want my vote without inducement or coercion, the ability to address them freely without hindrance and the opportunity to hear about the real solutions they have to implement having properly listened to and understood what I have to say.

Who cares if it is the first or the last idea? This is simply commonsense democracy and the sooner it is ingrained in the minds of those seeking political office anywhere in the world, the better for all concerned.

Do not piss me off

Yes, I am telling my readers about this site, but No, I do not think I have seen how this contributes to the development of democracy in Nigeria, in fact, I think old-style Nigeria politics still prevails - mass cacophonous rallies, vacuous promises, inane policies and now to crown the depressing event that insipid telephone conference that took place from the campaign grounds between the President and Yar'Adua as he recovered from breathlessness in Germany.

These people are clueless about what Nigeria really needs, the Latest News portion of the site does not cover bread-and-butter issues, rather it is about visiting a church and curbing corruption, then Obasanjo's legacy, which with time, if these guys deign to perform might just read as the abject failure that it is.

As I spit out the bone and go play with a ball amongst strangers that know what a dog needs, a mere website does not a decent campaign strategy make. One is just not impressed at all.