On Jammeh: Africa missed a chance to set Dictators straight

[AFP] Jammeh waving to supporters as he leaves for the beaches of Equatorial Guinea, obviously in high spirits

I was thinking about the situation with Jammeh in the Gambia, and while I am happy that the situation was resolved without military action and any loss of life, I don’t like how it ended.

Jammeh reportedly secured immunity for himself and members of his cabinet, left the country with at least 13 vehicles, and seems set up for this life and the next going by some accounts of the money he has ‘stolen’...

I am experimenting with writing on Medium, so I apologize but you have to go here to read the concluding part of the post. Please be a good sport - click through!

Cheers.

On Governor Ajimobi, Respect, and funding Public Education in Nigeria

You may have seen the video of Governor Ajimobi of Oyo State addressing protesting students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH). I watched it twice, and I think what follows is a good summary of what the governor displayed and said:

1. He displayed no sense of responsibility to address the underlying issues that have kept LAUTECH closed for the past eight months.  While he later said Oyo and Osun State would chip in N250million each towards reopening the school, this does not solve the underlying problems.
2. He DEMANDED respect based on his office and (implied) age, to the point where he told the students they should have addressed him as “Oga… Governor…”.
3. He dared the students to be violent and threatened them with violence in return. He cowed them into submission by asking the Police to apprehend one of them, then called the Police off after a few moments.
4. He believed he was doing the protesting students a favor by exiting his Exco meeting to attend to them.

“This is the constituted authority for Oyo State. Even if I don’t pay salary, and I don’t pay this… The fact is that I am the constituted authority; it does not remove that authority.”