The attack on former President Olusegun Obasanjo

The attack on former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, remains a topical issue. This incident which occurred at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, on Monday 08, November 2010 was shocking in many respects.

It is alleged by some news reports that the attacker, whose identity was not immediately known, had earlier before Obasanjo’s arrival, attempted to enter the presidential wing of the airport, but was turned back by Air Force personnel as he could not explain his mission at the wing. Some news reports described the middle-aged man, who pounced on the former President inside his car, as mad.

It is alleged that the former President’s chartered jet touched down a few minutes after 9:00am and as the convoy of three vehicles tried to negotiate its way towards the local wing of the airport, the man emerged from nowhere. He ran towards the Jeep in the middle of the convoy, opened the door and started kicking and raining blows on the former President.

The opening of the car door drew the attention of both the Air Force personnel and Mobile Policemen, and they quickly dragged the man out of the car and gave him the beating of his life. The attacker was also alleged to have screamed persistently amidst beatings, “America is watching …America is watching.” He was described as well fed and dressed up.

His reactions, the description of his person and his utterances suggest some level of sanity.

After listening to the views of several Nigerians, it appears that there are two schools of thought regarding this incident.

The first group of Nigerians posits that the attacker is a member of the growing legion of disgruntled, frustrated and angry Nigerians ready to dispense jungle justice, at the drop of a hat, on those they perceive to have contributed to their penury and suffering.

They allege that while the leaders feed fat on the spoils of office, Nigerians, as a people, are at war with hunger, poverty, diseases and destitution. It is their stand therefore, that all is fair in love and war - people in love and soldiers in wartime are not bound by the rules of fair play. The most pressing primordial need is that of survival and this man may have reached his wits end in the survival game.

But was this attack deserved by former President Olusegun Obasanjo? There are choruses of answers from both groups. Some say yes, he was a past leader of the country with several tenures and had a hand in the drift of the country to the present state of near coma.

But the other group anchors their objections to this attack on a number of grounds. Some members of this group argue passionately that the former president is the next best thing that has happened to the country since the discovery of oil in commercial quantity at Olobiri by Shell sometime in 1957. They list his litany of contributions to nation building, including fighting and bringing an end to the Nigerian civil war, introduction to the country of Global system for mobile communication (GSM) and securing debt pardons from the Paris and London club amounting to some $18 billion and paying another $18 Billion for the country to be debt free. It is also argued that as an elder statesman and a septuagenarian, he didn’t deserve that kind of attack, considering our culture and respect for the elderly.

They also argue, and I buy into this argument, that nothing civilized was achieved by this violent attack. We’re not animals living in the jungle. If everyone took laws into their hands, anarchy will reign supreme and chaos will be let loose upon the land. Civility and being law abiding are virtues expected of all citizens, we’ll otherwise be drifting to the state of nature as described by Thomas Hobbes. Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher born prematurely in Wiltshire, England on 5 April, 1588. He gave a famous quotation describing life in the state of nature as war of every man against every man, “the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”

This attack at the international airport which ought to be one of the most secured, strategic places in the country, and on a former president, also calls to question the competence of our national security apparatus. We have had several recent instances of security lapses.

The Boko Harem sect, despite their timely warning, ahead of the Bauchi State jail break, set the prison ablaze, leading to the escape of 157 members of the sect awaiting trial.  The twin bomb blasts at the Independence Day anniversary event in the nation’s capital, Abuja, also exposed the soft underbelly of our porous security machinery. The unending kidnappings and armed robberies in the eastern part of the country also point to the fact that we need to overhaul our national security to meet the challenges of the present day.

Our national security agencies, in terms of training and equipment, appear to be using flint for striking fire in an era where the criminals are using cutting-edge lighters to ignite their unwholesome and consuming fire.

ENDANGERED VIRTUES

I was at an event over the weekend and observed with dismay how even the most minimal success goes to the head.

A popular figure in the local literary scene pranced in about two hours late for the event that was already in full swing.

He trotted in, neighing like a horse, and baring his teeth in jollity. He came with a "handbag" in tow. Rather than walk in quietly, they distracted everyone with their grand and eloquent entrance.

 

I had little respect for this person before this event but even that little was washed away after his bizarre behaviour on this occasion.

 

As he walked in, he began shouting, shaking hands and exchanging banters all around. I couldn't follow what the guest speaker was saying anymore.

Not done, he refused to sit quietly but strutted around the hall in comical strides, grinning foolishly. Then he began taking pictures, almost planting the camera in the face of the guest speaker and turning himself into the centre of attraction and attention.

 

That done, he walked with arrogant strides out of the venue leaving his “handbag” behind. About thirty minutes later, her phone started ringing. This disrupted proceedings as we were distracted by the loud ring tone. Apparently our "star" on his way remembered he had come with her. She leapt unapologetically to her feet and cat walked out of the hall.

I wasn’t amused.

Just like the Siberian Tiger – an endangered specie, humility and respect for others are obviously endangered virtues.

'PENIS-BURNING WIFE'

Everyone needs a strategy that protects and promotes their best interests and then hope for some divine favour. We secure what belongs to us, especially valuables, in different ways.

Some do so by insuring their lives and properties. Others engage in daily and vigorous prayers and supplication to the heavenly hosts to protect them and their family. Some even engage the services of bodyguards, guard dogs, vigilante services and all forms of household security devices.

A jealous wife in South Australia has however upped the ante.   What better way to secure what belongs to you than to burn it? Just think about it for a minute. No other person can then get access to it!

It is so brilliant and simple that as with all brilliant ideas, it just hadn’t occurred to anyone else! I feel like slapping myself that such pearl of wisdom had not crossed my radical mind.

The jealous wife, Rajini Narayan, 44 – and a beautiful woman from her photograph – set her husband’s treasured penis on fire so it belongs to her and no one else! Ingenious thinking!

But the law is an ass as they say, and poor Rajini has been charged to a magistrate court.

The mother of three who set fire to the genitals of her husband, Satish Narayan, in December 2008 appeared in court in October to answer a murder charge in an Adelaide Magistrate Court.

Mr. Narayan unfortunately suffered major burns in the blaze and died several weeks after the fire which also gutted the family’s suburban Unley home leaving extensive damage of about $1 million.

In a previous court hearing in January, she had explained her actions: "I'm a jealous wife, his penis should belong to me, I just wanted to burn his penis so it belongs to me and no one else ... I didn't mean this to happen. My husband loves another woman, he hugs her," she allegedly said.

The case was originally adjourned until October 30, when she was to answer charges of murder, arson and endangering life. Endangering life my foot! She was only protecting her interest!

Unfortunately the plan went awry. All she probably wanted to do was burn some of the lecherous pubic hairs of her lecherous husband as a warning not to hug other women.

Rajini Narayan dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief and choked back tears during a brief appearance in the Adelaide Magistrates Court at the resumed hearing.

She pleaded not guilty to murdering her husband, Satish, by fatally setting him alight in their home.

She also denied endangering the lives of the couple's three children - who were in the home at the time - and pleaded not guilty to one count of arson.

Last year, the court heard allegations that Narayan had confessed to the attack.
"It's just his penis I wanted to burn, I didn't mean this to happen."

The case's progression to the Supreme Court has been delayed by adjournment several times.
In January, prosecutors said talks with defence counsel "may form the basis of a guilty plea."

The magistrate remanded Narayan on continuing bail to face the Supreme Court next month.

The Baddest Man on the Planet

Michael Gerard Tyson, nicknamed Iron Mike, The Baddest Man on the Planet, Kid Dynamite and The Baby Bull holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles. He won the WBC title when he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old.


Born in Brooklyn, New York, he honed his instinctive survival skills as a wild kid running the streets. Throughout his childhood, Tyson lived in and around high-crime neighborhoods. By the age of 13, he had been arrested 38 times. Tyson's emerging boxing ability was discovered by Bobby Stewart, a juvenile detention center counselor and former boxer. Understandably, Tyson became a boxer.


He often knocked down his opponents before the spectators were fully seated at the boxing arena. He had 15 bouts in his first year as a professional and won 26 of his first 28 fights by KO/TKO - 16 in the first round. The first few seconds of the first round was often sufficient to seal his wins with amazing speed and accuracy - a flurry of perfectly timed knockout punches that were sometimes too quick for even the audience to follow.


But The Baddest Man on the Planet bit more than he could chew in his fight against Evander Holyfield. Billed spectacularly as the Holyfield-Tyson II fight, The Sound and The Fury, the professional boxing match took place on 28 June 1997. The fight would eventually end in one of the most controversial endings ever in sports history - also known as The Bite Fight.


Holyfield dominated Tyson and won the first and second rounds. In round two, Holyfield came forward with his head; their heads clashed opening a large cut over Tyson's right eye. Tyson had repeatedly complained about head-butting in the first bout between the two. This set off a chain reaction as Tyson developed what appeared to be a cannibalistic interest in Holyfield's ears.


He bit a one-inch piece of cartilage from the top of Holyfield's right ear during the third round of their fight. He however spat out the piece of ear on the ring floor as it didn't taste quite right. And when the right ear doesn't taste right you naturally go for the left.


Holyfield, clutching his bleeding ear, complained that he had been bitten to the match referee, Mills Lane but Tyson insisted that the injury to Holyfield's ear was the result of a punch.
It was determined by the ringside doctor that Holyfield even without his ear could continue the match and all he needed for a professional boxing fight were his gloved fists and mouthpiece. Ears are not really an important or deciding factor in boxing.


Buoyed by this declaration and during a clinch, Tyson took a more determined and ferocious bite of Holyfield's left ear. This tasted slightly better than the right ear.


It was salty from the dripping blood but that was how Tyson liked his meat - salty and crunchy. He gave it a good chewing. While Tyson masticated on the piece of cartilage, the match continued uninterrupted as the ring doctor had determined that chewed ears were part of the work hazards in the life of any professional boxer. All a boxer needs are gloved fists and mouthpiece.

The match was however stopped at the end of this round as both Holyfield's ears were well-bitten and Tyson was now beginning to stare at the referee's ears with speculative interest.

Tyson's boxing license was revoked for this biting episode and possibly for his seeming interest in the ears of the officiating referee.

It was not however the first time that Tyson had reached for a human body part. He had reached out a hand for Sandra Miller's breast in 1988.

Tyson was alleged to have grabbed Miller's breasts and buttocks after she refused his advances at Bentley's Disco on Dec. 10, 1988. He was probably considering if it was worth a bite or not. A jury decided that the former heavyweight champion fondled the woman at a Manhattan dance club in 1988 and awarded her $100 in compensatory damages.

In 1997, a group of well wishers gathered at Mike Tyson's birthday party hoping to grab a bite and a drink. They waited until 3 a.m. the following day but the celebrant never showed up. It wasn't clear if he was out hunting for ear cartilages - the jury is still out on that.