Leadership, opportunities and performance

 Leadership, opportunities and performance

The killing of two Catholic  priests  by their abductors after  the payment of the demanded ransom is a highly  provocative  issue for all Nigerians especially Christians .The  coincidence  of that with the announcement of the Vice President candidate of the ruling APC  on a Muslim Muslim ticket  for the 2023 presidential  elections is food for thought  today  ,   no matter how  unpalatable the sad news is .  We  take this along with the defeat of the British Nigerian Kemi  Badenoch in the race  to choose a successor to British PM Boris Johnson ,  a disgraced politician who  was nevertheless given a standing ovation by his party on his last day in parliament . We   look  at   the  implication of that for the last  two  candidates expected to succeed Johnson as  Tory leader and the UK next PM . We  examine an obvious piece  of absurdity inherent in the official visit  of the US president to the Middle East to solicit for oil  supplies increase from Saudi Arabia  and the oil cartel OPEC . However ,   the US is the largest  supplier of oil in the world but because of Climate Change the incumbent Biden Administration has decided  deliberately  to  kill  its domestic oil  industry because of a campaign  pledge and the unbelievable  revelation by the aging US president   recently   that people  of his age who grew up in Delaware  his home state  have  cancer  later in life   because  of the fumes  of fossil  fuel  .

I  suspect  sabotage  against  the Muslim Muslim  ticket by the  abductors and killers of the Catholic  priests given its timing but  that will  not work  because as I wrote  last  week , the ticket is  a  pair  of tested capable hands that has experience in such  matters and will nip the insecurity problem  in the bud and not resort to the usual  handwringing and pathetic  admonitions of the present administration which  has been  done as usual .  Just  as the nation is turning red with  the  blood of innocent Nigerians as if our great   nation is a sprawling  endless  killing field .

It  is  important to  note  that after receiving the VP candidate and listening to his  beautiful  speech in Abuja   the president noted  wryly  that  he would reply to that speech after the victory  of the Muslim Muslim ticket  at the polls . We  share his confidence and cannot  wait for that to happen so that we have fresh  capable  hands to get us out of our  present    incessant  bloody  insecurity conundrums . Which   really   is a   potent  threat   to    the   expected  smooth   political    transition   and change  of  hands  in 2023 . That  goal  should  not be made ‘ a bridge  too far’ because of mindless insecurity murder and mayhem .

On  the failure of Kemi Badenoch  to reach the last  two  to contest for  the premiership  of Britain  let me first  clearly  doff  my hat  to a woman of substance and a brave,  genuine leader . That  she could  go that far is  a tribute  to her background as IT professional  and a lawyer . I  later read that she was considered a rightist  radical and   I  admire  her guts in telling people that there is no institutional  racism in Britain and gave herself as an example of someone who got  to contest to be a PM  in  the short  time she has spent on the political stage .She  went on to say that there  are problems of racial discrimination but the good example like hers should  be part of the narrative and not the bad ones which  she  accused the liberals  of exaggerating . She is definitely  anti  woke and believes that human beings are male and female . On  that score her African values are obvious  and tally with the goals  of this column at the inception of the Biden Administration in the US which  put  LGBTQ   and same sex marriage  as  the core of human rights  to be exported all  over the world .   This   column   is against   that   in all  ramifications .Kemi  reportedly  stopped the use of gender free toilets at  her campaign  and labeled them  male and female to the horror of the gender free advocates . On that score alone she is a  good daughter of her father and I wish  her better luck  next time in her political ambition  Like Jesse Jackson famously said when he lost  the US   presidential  campaign  nomination for the Democratic Party – ‘ God is not finished with me yet’ . Certainly  , Kemi  Badenoch  can beat  her chest and say that boldly   and   proudly  because  age and time are still on her side .

Given  the standing ovation to  Boris Johnson  by his  party  on his departure  from parliament,  and his mischievous  declaration in a foreign language  that he will  be back , I want  to hazard  a guess  on the prospects  of  his two possible  successors Rishi Sunak  and  Liz  Truss . Even  though Boris  Johnson  had    said   earlier   that he would  not back any of the Tory  candidates , I think  in way it is payback  time for Johnson ,   for  those   who jettisoned him and resigned enmasse  from his cabinet . Sunak  , a former Chancellor  was one of them . Liz Truss  never resigned and that could earn her Boris’  support which is crucial and important in the Tory   leadership  succession battle . Again  ,  Sunak is of migrant  descent and will  be first of his kind if he wins . But  the UK  is not Ireland where a  gay PM of migrant origin was elected   recently .In  addition Truss is a well  known Foreign Minister  for Britain and is a very forceful  personality . She has said emphatically that she is capable and can  take tough  decisions and she sounds  believable . I do  not think Sunak  can take her on in a debate . Any way the die is cast and Boris Johnson , even though he has been  silenced for now ,   maybe  about to have his way on  the   choice   of  his successor . Now  we go to Joe Biden’s   dubious  oil trip to Saudi Arabia  in  the pursuit of Climate Change and the collapse of the American oil industry  . Biden  should borrow a leaf  from the German U turn on climate change  and the resuscitation of the  German coal  industry in the face of Russian cut off of oil  supplies to the EU  and Germany which  does not trust Russia   anymore and has not only revived alternate non green sources of energy domestically,  but is doing so with the support of the Green Party  which  is part of the ruling coalition in Germany  for now . That  to me is clear  headed political  thinking and pragmatism .

Unlike the politically debilitating     oil   hussling of the  American  president  to Saudi  Arabia to increase global  oil supplies to relieve spiraling   domestic oil  and gas  prices in the US reeling from avoidable high  inflation  and   which  under Biden has decided to forego fossil  fuel which  it can use to bring down inflation and high  prices but which  the Biden administration has refused  to do because of   a stubborn     or should I   say  senile   approach   to  climate   change . It is a policy of economic suicide and the US  does  not deserve its present leadership in this unfortunate scenario. Then  the issue  of cancer for those living in Delaware and of Biden’s age showed that the climate change excuse to kill fossil  fuel is fake news and the reason goes deeper than that . It is a   childhood fantasy  and hatred  now being  executed  in old age and with immense political  power  . Such  an excuse  can only  be tolerated on the ground of senility and there is no doubt that that  is the lot of the US president  today . I can  only say –long live the USA .