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Resilience [Forging Ahead] Part III – By Bashorun J.K. Randle

Published

4 years ago

Jul 10, 2020.

It is simply amazing how the list of those who are keen to appear on Resilience TV has gown longer and longer despite the channel’s declared policy of no mention of the Corona Virus [Covid-19] pandemic.

Admiral Mike Mullen virtually gate crashed to confirm that:

“Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen told Americans on Tuesday the country was at an “inflection point” with recent events making it “impossible to remain silent.”

His words, shared in an op-ed in The Atlantic, were striking — not just because of Mullen’s strong condemnation of the president’s leadership in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death — but because the retired four-star Navy admiral has, like many former military leaders, tried to remain apolitical.

In a conversation with ABC News’ Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz on Thursday, Mullen, who served at the chairman from 2007 to 2011, said it was racial injustice that propelled him to speak up, as well as fears that President Donald Trump was politicizing the U.S. military.

He told Raddatz that he was horrified seeing the video of George Floyd being killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020.

“While no one should ever condone the violence, vandalism, and looting that has exploded across our city streets, neither should anyone lose sight of the larger and deeper concerns about institutional racism that have ignited this rage,” Mullen wrote in his op-ed. “As a white man, I cannot claim perfect understanding of the fear and anger that African Americans feel today. But as someone who has been around for a while, I know enough—and I’ve seen enough—to understand that those feelings are real and that they are all too painfully founded.”

He called the images of law enforcement, backed by the National Guard, clearing peaceful protesters out of Lafayette Square with smoke canisters and pepper balls so the president could pose for a photo outside St. John’s Church “sickening.”

“Whatever Trump’s goal in conducting his visit, he laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country, gave succour to the leaders of other countries who take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further politicizing the men and women of our armed forces,” he wrote.

Mullen told Raddatz that these recent events have reminded him of the unrest that swept the country in 1968, when he was at the U.S. Naval Academy. The U.S. military worked for decades to recover its reputation after the Vietnam War, he said, and now he fears the president will again tarnish the trust citizens put in the institution.

“We have a chance that we will lose the American people if we let the military become politicized,” Mullen told ABC News.

In his op-ed, Mullen wrote that tackling police brutality and “sustained injustices against the African American community,” as well as defending First Amendment rights, are “not mutually exclusive pursuits” and neither “will be made easier or safer by an overly aggressive use of our military, active duty, or National Guard.”

“The United States has a long and, to be fair, sometimes troubled history of using the armed forces to enforce domestic laws,” Mullen said, adding that while he has confidence in the military to obey lawful orders, he is “less confident in the soundness of the orders they will be given by this commander- in-chief.”

Mullen is part of a growing chorus of former senior military officers — who have also worked to remain apolitical — criticizing the administration’s response to Floyd’s death and the subsequent nationwide protests against systemic racial inequality. He previously worked as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George W. Bush and Barack Obama.”

He was followed by Kyle Chandler who crisply declared:

“Opportunity does not knock. It presents itself when you beat the door.”

Then came a passionate appeal from the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres requesting the Channel to carry its report which was captioned:

“WHY GOVERNMENTS MAY LOSE COVID-19 BATTLE”

“The fight against the COVID-19 pandemic may be jeopardised unless governments retain the trust and participation of citizens throughout. Videos of COVID-19 patients in Nigeria partying in isolation wards have gone viral.”

Resilience TV turned him down flatly. Instead, the channel reluctantly agreed to carry the front page report of “The Guardian” newspaper of May 21, 2020.

Headline: “BUHARI, APC UNDER FIRE OVER N48 BILLION MINISTRY SCAM”

“The allegation of over N48 billion fraud in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has exposed “monstrous corruption in the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration,” the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) declared yesterday.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the opposition party said “the confession by the queried former permanent secretary of the ministry, Dr. Umar Bello, that the duplicitous purchase of an ordinary carcass building for a humongous cost of N7.044 billion passed through the Federal Executive Council (FEC) further exposed the rot that has permeated the Buhari administration.”

The PDP stated that such a revelation had again shown “how the corrupt cabal in the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have been pillaging our national treasury and fleecing our nation of billions of naira through fraudulent transactions in various ministries, departments and agencies, while parading before Nigerians as saints.

Nigerians were shocked by reports of how funds meant to service the food security system in our country are being plundered by those in power, resulting in the crippling of our agricultural sector thereby creating attendant hunger and starvation in our land,” PDP further claimed.

The party said it was shameful that the FEC, on President Buhari’s watch, was being fingered in financial manipulations and procurement sleazes in the Agriculture Ministry, including the alleged disappearance of N48 billion contractors’ fund, over N7billion duplicated payments, diversion of N9.1billion worth of drilling rigs to unnamed private individuals, purchase of carcass building for N7.044 billion, in addition to misapplication of billions of naira meant for strategic grains, rural grazing area settlement funds and other food production intervention schemes.

“The fraud in the Ministry of Agriculture has further exposed how officials of the Buhari administration and corrupt APC leaders have turned government ministries and agencies into their Automated Teller Machine (ATM) just as the case of exposed looting of billions of naira in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) among others,” PDP insisted.

According to the party, “It is even more distressing that the corrupt cabal continues to enjoy official cover while, in some cases, allowed to sacrifice their fronts to conceal their tracks.”

The opposition PDP said it had rejected “this attempt at cheap scapegoatism and demands that the Buhari Presidency should immediately speak out and conduct an open investigation that will expose all those involved in this huge scam in the Ministry of Agriculture as well as recover the stolen funds”.

Moreover, the PDP called on the National Assembly as well as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediately “commence an investigation into the behemoth of fraud in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.”

Also, a group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) accused President Buhari of treating corruption cases involving some favoured Muslim and non-Muslim northerners with kid gloves when similar cases involving mostly Christians and southerners were handled decisively by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

HURIWA made the comment in its reaction to the reported case of Umar Bello who was accused of large scale misapplication of over N10 billion whilst he served as accounting officer of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and for allegedly accumulating over N48 billion contractual obligations.

The human rights group said it was “immoral and illegal that rather than ask the EFCC to investigate, arrest and prosecute him for the alleged mismanagement of these humongous sums of public fund, Buhari rather chose the carrots- and- stick or rather outright administrative soft-landing procedure of issuing him query.”

HURIWA lamented that several such high-profile allegations of misuse of public funds, including the financial scandal allegedly linked to the erstwhile Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), have been swept under the carpet only because the accused public officials were linked to the corridors of power.”

“The Punch” newspaper of May 21, 2020 made it with its front page headlines:

(i) “OGUN STATE HUMAN PARTS DEALERS BEAT BUYERS OVER N1 MILLION FEE.”

“Suspected ritualists who deal in human parts in Ogun State, got enraged and beat up some of their customers for failing to pay the agreed sum of

N1 million for a human hand that was supplied to them.”

(ii) “GROUPS SEEK PSYCHIATRIC TEST FOR LADY WHO DROWNED DAUGHTER”

“The Prisoners’ Rights Advocacy Initiation has called for the psychiatric evaluation and treatment of a 22-year-old mother, Oluwafunmilola Adisa, who drowned her daughter in a bucket of water at their residence (Plot 221 Gowon Estate) in the Ipaja area of Lagos.

Also, the President, Nigerian Association of Psychiatrists, Taiwo Sheik recommended that she should be sent to a psychiatric Hospital so that her mental state could be evaluated.”

(iii) “EDO MAN ARRESTED FOR KILLING COUSIN OVER N2 MILLION.” “The police in Auchi, Edo State, on Tuesday, arrested a 30-year-old man, Endurance Eshegbai, popularly called Koma, for the murder of his cousin, Usman AbdulLateef, over the sale of a parcel of land for N2m.

AbdulLateef, a native of Akpekpe, was declared missing last Wednesday after he left home with Eshegbai to an Automated Teller Machine point for a transaction, but never returned.

His body was later found buried in a bush along the Auchi-Igarra Road. Eshegbai had earlier been invited by the police, being the last person the deceased interacted with on the day he went missing, but he was released after questioning.

It was gathered that the Azomode Age Grade members were also involved in the search for AbdulLateef.

While investigation by the police at the Auchi Divisional Headquarters was ongoing, the family of the deceased was said to have contacted the Auchi branch of the GTBank and notified his account manager about the development and this led to the bank flagging his account.

However, Eshegbai ran out of luck while attempting to make withdrawals from the deceased’s account on Tuesday as the bank immediately called the police and the family, and in the process, Eshegbai was arrested and he allegedly confessed to have killed his cousin over a N2m land deal.

AbduLateef’s corpse was recovered by the police and members of the Auchi Vigilante Squad and buried on Tuesday according to Islamic rites.”

(iv) “TWO KILLED AS RIVAL CULTS CLASH IN KWARA”

Two members of rival cults lost their lives in clashes at the Okelele area of Ilorin, Kwara State, between Sunday and Tuesday.

As a result of the clashes, fear has gripped the residents of Okelele and the adjoining communities following reprisals launched by the groups.

Our correspondent gathered that members of one of the groups had on Sunday killed a middle-aged man from the other group on the premises of the Okelele Junior Secondary School, Ilorin.

On Tuesday, residents claimed that there were similar attacks in the Kankatu and Isale-Odo areas of the Okelele community, which resulted in the death of another victim.

Residents believed that Tuesday’s attack was a reprisal for the death of the man, who was killed during Sunday’s clash.

It was gathered that members of the group that struck on Sunday broke an earlier agreement between the two sides that they should cease hostilities during the Ramadan.

A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told our correspondent that it was the breaking of the agreement by one of the groups that resulted in the atrocities committed by the second group on Tuesday.

The resident stated that members of the two warring cults were tricycle operators.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Ajayi Okasanmi, confirmed the Sunday incident, but said that he was not aware of any reprisal.

He stated, “The police gathered through intelligence report that a man was killed during a cult clash on Sunday and was buried without anyone reporting the incident. The police have taken action to investigate the matter and in the course of investigation, we learnt that there would be reprisals and we have taken action to prevent such.

To the best of my knowledge, there has not been any reprisal and it has not happened.”

Okasanmi added that the police had commenced investigation into the incident.”

(v) “GUNMEN ABDUCT NAVAL OFFICER IN ONDO.

A naval officer, whose identity has yet to be ascertained, has reportedly been kidnapped by gunmen in the Oba Akoko area of the Owo-Ikare Expressway in the Akoko South East Local Government Area of Ondo State.

This came barely a week after an officer of the Nigerian Army, Captain, D. Gana, was abducted on the Auga-Kabba Expressway while travelling from Abuja.

Gana was, however, rescued by a joint team of security men The latest victim was said to be a senior naval officer.

A police source told PUNCH Metro that the naval officer was abducted on his way to Abuja, but it had not been ascertained the number of other persons kidnapped with him.

It was learnt that the kidnappers had contacted the family of the naval officer and demanded the sum of N50m as ransom before he would be set free.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr Tee-Leo Ikoro, confirmed the incident, adding that various tactical squads had been deployed in the area to search for and rescue the victim.

“The command has sought the support of the communities around the area to join hands with the team in searching for the victim,” he stated. The PPRO advised travellers to be security conscious while in transit, stressing that the job of effective crime prevention, detection and control was for everyone and not for the police alone.

The TV channel stuck to its guns and bluntly refused to grant audience to the President of the World Bank, David Malpass who was eager to deliver a dire warning:

“COVID-19: 60 MILLION FACE EXTREME POVERTY”

“The pandemic and shutdown of advanced economies could push as many as sixty million people into extreme poverty – thereby erasing much of the recent progress made in poverty alleviation.

The World Bank would not relent. It kept pleading to be heard.

“The World Bank Group has moved quickly and decisively to establish emergency response operations in 100 countries, with mechanisms that allow other donors to rapidly expand the programmes,” he said.

“To return to growth, our goal must be rapid, flexible responses to tackle the health emergency, provide cash and other expandable support to protect the poor, maintain the private sector, and strengthen economic resilience and recovery,”

The World Bank stated further that it had since March “rapidly delivered record levels of support in order to help countries protect the poor and vulnerable, reinforce health systems, maintain the private sector, and bolster economic recovery.

This assistance, the largest and fastest crisis response in the Bank Group’s history, marks a milestone in implementing the Bank Group’s pledge to make available $160 billion in grants and financial support over a 15-month period to help developing countries respond to the health, social and economic impacts of COVID-19 and the economic shutdown in advanced countries.”

The bank added that it would support the beneficiary countries with grants, loans and equity investments which would be supplemented by the suspension of bilateral debt service, as endorsed by its governors.

According to Malpass, “The bilateral debt-service suspension being offered will free up crucial resources for IDA countries to fund emergency responses to COVID-19. Nations should move quickly to substantially increase the transparency of all their governments’ financial commitments. This will increase the confidence in the investment climate and encourage more beneficial debt and investment in the future.”

The World Bank said its intervention would strengthen health systems, support the poorest households, and create supportive conditions to maintain livelihoods and jobs for those hit hardest.

The Brethren Woods institution said its country operations would deliver help to the poorest families through cash transfers and job support; maintain food security, nutrition and continuity of essential services such as clean water and education; target the most vulnerable groups, including women and forcibly displaced communities, who are most likely to be hit hard; and engage communities to support vulnerable households and foster social cohesion.

“The scale and speed of the Bank Group’s response is critical in helping countries mitigate the adverse impacts of this crisis and prioritise the human capital investments that can accelerate recovery,” the statement said, adding that “Establishing and supporting efforts in fragile and conflict – affected situations is a priority, given the rapidly growing number of cases in some of these countries.

To demonstrate its determination to ensure speedy recovery for the countries, the bank said “Disbursement is already underway of $20 million to Senegal and $35 million to Ghana, which includes funding to strengthen disease surveillance systems, public health laboratories, and epidemiological capacity for early detection.

A $20 million IDA grant was approved for Haiti that aims to enhance testing, minimize spread through contact tracing of confirmed cases, and provide laboratory and protective equipment for health care staff.”

On its support for businesses, World Bank said.

“The International Finance Corporation (IFC) continues to implement its $8 billion fast-track financing facility, which aims to keep companies in business and preserve jobs. Close to 300 clients have requested support, and the facility may be oversubscribed.

“Building on this effort and market demand, IFC aims to provide $47 billion in financing to developing countries over 15 months. Cumulative COVID-19 related commitments under IFC’s Global Trade Finance Program, which supports small and medium sized enterprises involved in global supply chains, have totalled 1,200 transactions across 33 countries for $14 billion, with 51 per cent of this volume in low-income and fragile countries.”

Professor Richard Joseph, Director of The Programme on African Studies at Northwestern University, Department of Political Science was given the VIP treatment on account of his seminal work: “DEMOCRACY AND PREBENDAL POLITICS IN NIGERIA: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SECOND REPUBLIC”

On its support for businesses, World Bank said.

“Fifty years ago, on April 4, 1968, a bullet robbed us of one of the great human-rights leaders of the 20th century. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, accelerated the racist backlash of the late 1960s. Along with the murder of Robert F. Kennedy two months later, this tragic trajectory led to the election of Richard M. Nixon, who escalated the Vietnam War and unleashed police and FBI forces against movements for change.

However, the bonds of memory cannot be so easily dissolved. Ending poverty and fighting for union rights are back on the economic-justice agenda today. Fifty years after King, Memphis remains an appropriate launch pad for these campaigns. “Fight for $15” organizers met there, picketing McDonald’s and marching on the anniversary of the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which will be meeting in Memphis on the 50th anniversary of King’s death, launched its “I Am 2018” campaign to fight for racial and economic justice and combat so-called right-to-work laws. The Rev. William Barber, the Rev. Liz Theoharis, and others also met in Memphis to begin their new Poor People’s Campaign to end poverty, which is modeled on King’s original crusade.

Yet even as Memphis’s now-multiracial political leadership celebrates the accomplishments of the civil-rights movement in the city, the challenges remain daunting. A majority-black city of more than 600,000 people, Memphis has among the highest rates of poverty and infant mortality of any US city its size. Although higher wages for working-class people would clearly benefit both a consumer-based economy and the city’s tax base, the traditional low-wage, anti-union business model is back in style in Republican-run Tennessee. Nationally, private-sector unions—which now represent less than 10 percent of the American workforce—are under attack, as are their public-sector counterparts.

In our own time of escalating crisis, why return to the story of Memphis and Martin Luther King? Activists and historians tell us why: Understanding the critical year of 1968 and King’s agenda for social change can help us clarify the organizing imperatives of today. In Memphis and elsewhere, the bonds of memory 50 years since King are helping people to remember, and to fight.

When King came to Memphis on March 18, 1968, as part of his Poor People’s Campaign, it appeared that the economic-justice movement he’d struggled to build was firmly on track. Some 1,300 black workers in the AFSCME Local 1733 had gone on strike on February 12, after enduring years of abuse and the needless deaths of two members, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, due to faulty equipment on February 1. Police attacks on workers and their allies during a march on February 23 had angered the black community and brought together the working poor, church leaders, unions, students, and teachers. King was ready for this fight: He had long worked with the left-leaning side of organized labor to build a labor/civil-rights alliance.

In Memphis, King called for a second phase of the freedom movement that would go beyond its first phase—the struggle for civil and voting rights—and begin a fight for “economic equality.” Phase two would demand that the nation shift its priorities away from war and military spending and toward housing, health care, education, decent unionized jobs, economic opportunity, and a sustainable income for all. He also proposed a new tactic: During his riveting speech, King called for a “general work stoppage in the city of Memphis.”

Memphis provided an alliance of the middle class and the working poor that could stop the city’s anti-union campaign and help fuel King’s national movement to end poverty. It brought together direct action in the streets and in the workplace in order to create a new and powerful direction for the movements of the 1960s: a general strike for freedom and economic justice.

On March 19, King left Memphis for the Mississippi Delta. Here, he confronted the desperate poverty of the unemployed poor. During a visit to Marks, Mississippi, a town of less than 2,500, King told an interviewer, “I found myself weeping before I knew it. I met boys and girls by the hundreds who didn’t have any shoes to wear, who didn’t have any food to eat in terms of three square meals a day, and I met their parents, many of whom don’t even have jobs.” In Marks, he found poor people cast off from the cotton economy by the mechanization of cultivation and harvesting. They lived in shacks without plumbing, lighting, or ventilation through extreme heat and humidity, many subsisting on foraged berries, fish, and wild rabbits. Yet King also found here a core of poor people who would go to DC to energize his campaign and later help to elect scores of black leaders in the Delta.”

Another contender is Socrates (Athens 470 bce – Greece 399 bce).

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

He is followed by Aristotle (Greece 344 to 322 BC) and his advocacy of eudaimonia:

“You can only achieve a truly happy and meaningful life if you forsake instant gratification in favour of the careful cultivation of virtues.”

What has won Resilience TV massive number of new viewers is the vigour with which it has been airing the views of prominent Americans on the fate of George Floyd.

“The Minneapolis ex-policeman accused of killing unarmed black man George Floyd has made his first court appearance, where his bail was set at $1.25m (£1m).

Prosecutors cited the “severity of the charges” and public outrage as the reason for upping his bail from $1m.

Derek Chauvin faces charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter. Three other arresting officers are charged with aiding and abetting murder.

Mr Floyd’s death in May led to global protests and calls for police reform.

Mr Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes while he was being arrested in Minneapolis on 25 May.

He and the three other police officers have since been fired.

Meanwhile, mourners in Houston, Texas, where Mr Floyd lived before moving to Minneapolis, have been viewing his body, publicly on display for six hours at The Fountain of Praise church.

On Tuesday, a private funeral service will be held in Houston. Memorial services have already been held in Minneapolis and North Carolina, where Mr Floyd was born.

It is believed a family member escorted Mr Floyd’s body on a flight to Texas late on Saturday.

Democratic US presidential candidate Joe Biden met privately with Mr Floyd’s relatives in Houston to offer his sympathies on Monday.

“He listened, heard their pain, and shared in their woe,” said Floyd family spokesman Benjamin Crump, who tweeted a photo of the meeting. “That compassion meant the world to this grieving family.”

Aides to the former vice-president said he would also record a video message for Tuesday’s service.

George Floyd, whose death sparked worldwide protests, will be laid to rest on Tuesday, next to his mother Larcenia Floyd.
Bail has been set at $1.25m for the former Minneapolis police officer who pinned George Floyd to the ground with his knee for nearly nine minutes as the unarmed Black man pleaded for air.
US congressional Democrats unveiled a sweeping package of legislation to combat police violence and racial injustice after two weeks of protests across the nation sparked by Floyd’s death.”

This is what former President Barrack Obama said (according to Resilience TV):

“Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday personally thanked protesters in the streets across the nation following the death of George Floyd, and urged young African Americans to “feel hopeful even as you may feel angry” because he feels change is coming.

In a hopeful speech, Obama said that the significant events over the last months, including the protests over the killing of Floyd and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, represent “the kinds of epic changes … in our country that are as profound as anything I have seen in my lifetime.”

Obama cheered the protesters throughout the online event and urged them to keep going.

“I know enough about that history to say: There is something different here,” Obama said, referring to the protests of the 1960s. “You look at those protests, and that was a far more representative cross-section of America out on the streets, peacefully protesting, who felt moved to do something because of the injustices that they have seen. That didn’t exist back in the 1960s, that kind of broad coalition.”

Obama’s remarks Wednesday were not the first time he has spoken on Floyd’s death and the ongoing protests — he has used his multiple social media platforms to comment — but they do represent the first time the nation’s first black president has addressed Floyd’s death on camera, and they provide an additional influential voice encouraging the protests.

But Obama also urged protesters to know that hitting the streets is not enough and urged them to also show up to vote in November.

“I’ve been hearing a little bit of chatter … voting vs. protest. Politics and participation versus civil disobedience and direct action,” Obama said. “This is not an either or. This is a both and. To bring about real change, we both have to highlight a problem and make people in power uncomfortable, but we also have to translate that into practical solutions and laws that can be implemented.”

Obama did not mention President Donald Trump in his remarks, but his message marked a stark contrast with Trump’s focus on cracking down on the protests and message of “law and order.”

Obama didn’t directly criticize anyone during the event, but he closed with a veiled message to those Americans who have criticized or are worried about the protests.

“And for those who have been talking about protests, just remember, this country was founded on protest. It is called the American Revolution,” he said. “And every step of progress in this country, every expansion of freedom, every expression of our deepest ideals, has been won through efforts that made the status quo uncomfortable. And we should all be thankful for folks who are willing in a peaceful, disciplined way to be out there making a difference.”

The most personal portion of Obama’s comments came when he invoked his own family during a message the former president said was meant specifically for young black men and women.

“Now I want to speak directly to the young men and women of color in this country who … have witnessed too much violence and too much death, and too often some of that violence has come from folks who were supposed to be serving and protecting you,” Obama said. “I want you to know that you matter. I want you to know that your lives matter, that your dreams matter.”

Then Obama pivoted to his family, saying that when he goes home and looks “at the faces of my daughters, Sasha and Malia, and I look at my nephews and nieces, I see limitless potential that deserves to flourish and thrive … without having to worry about what is going to happen when you walk to the store or go for a jog or are driving down the street or are looking at some birds in a park.”

He said young people have “the power to make things better” and “have helped to make the entire country feel as if this is something that has got to change.”

“I hope that you also feel hopeful even as you may feel angry,” he said. “You have communicated a sense of urgency that is as powerful and transformative as anything I have seen in recent years.”

Obama’s comments came during a virtual town hall Wednesday evening hosted by My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a program of the Obama Foundation.

An Obama aide had said the former president planned to address Floyd’s death during the event, wanting to stress the importance of “ensuring that this moment becomes one for real change” and that the protests around the country lead to new policies.

Throughout the event Obama linked the current protests with the 400 years of discrimination black Americans have faced.

“In a lot of ways, what has happened over the last several weeks is challenges and structural problems here in the United States have been thrown into high relief,” he said. “They are the outcomes not just of the immediate moments in time, but they are the result of a long history of slavery and Jim Crow and redlining and institutionalized racism that too often have been the plague, the original sin, of our society.”

And he closed the speech with a direct call to the mostly young people who have recently taken to the streets: “Keep working. And stay hopeful.”

“This is a moment, and we have had moments like this before where people are paying attention. And that doesn’t mean that everything will get solved, so don’t get disheartened, because this is a marathon, not a sprint. But the fact that people are paying attention provides an opportunity to educate, activate, mobilize and act,” Obama said. “And I hope we are able to seize this moment.”

Former President George Bush scolded President Donald Trump by declaring:

Senator Mitt Romney said:

“President Trump has shown he doesn’t have the qualities necessary to be a good commander in chief.”

Former President George W. Bush and Senator Mitt Romney won’t support Mr. Trump’s re-election. Colin Powell will vote for Joe Biden, and other G.O.P. officials may do the same.

“WASHINGTON — It was one thing in 2016 for top Republicans to take a stand against Donald J. Trump for president: He wasn’t likely to win anyway, the thinking went, and there was no ongoing conservative governing agenda that would be endangered.

The 2020 campaign is different: Opposing the sitting president of your own party means putting policy priorities at risk, in this case appointing conservative judges, sustaining business-friendly regulations and cutting taxes — as well as incurring the volcanic wrath of Mr. Trump.

But, far sooner than they expected, growing numbers of prominent Republicans are debating how far to go in revealing that they won’t back his re-election — or might even vote for Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee. They’re feeling a fresh urgency because of Mr. Trump’s incendiary response to the protests of police brutality, atop his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private discussions.

Former President George W. Bush won’t support the re-election of Mr. Trump, and Jeb Bush isn’t sure how he’ll vote, say people familiar with their thinking. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah won’t back Mr. Trump and is deliberating whether to again write in his wife, Ann, or cast another ballot this November. Cindy McCain, the widow of Senator John McCain, is almost certain to support Mr. Biden but is unsure how public to be about it because one of her sons is eying a run for office.

And former Secretary of State Colin Powell announced on Sunday that he will vote for Mr. Biden, telling CNN that Mr. Trump “lies about things” and Republicans in Congress won’t hold him accountable. Mr. Powell, who voted for former President Barack Obama as well as Hillary Clinton, said he was close to Mr. Biden politically and socially and had worked with him for more than 35 years. “I’ll be voting for him,” he said.

None of these Republicans voted for Mr. Trump in 2016, but the reproach of big Republican names carries a different weight when an incumbent president and his shared agenda with Senate leaders are on the line.

Former Republican leaders like the former Speakers Paul D. Ryan and John A. Boehner won’t say how they will vote, and some Republicans who are already disinclined to support Mr. Trump are weighing whether to go beyond backing a third-party contender to openly endorse Mr. Biden. Retired military leaders, who have guarded their private political views, are increasingly voicing their unease about the president’s leadership but are unsure whether to embrace his opponent.

Mr. Biden himself, while eager to win support across party lines, intends to roll out his “Republicans for Biden” coalition later in the campaign, after fully consolidating his own party, according to Democrats familiar with the campaign’s planning.”

Added to this was the stringent voice of General James Mathis (who resigned as Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defence):

“Ex-US Defence Secretary James Mattis has denounced President Donald Trump, saying he deliberately stokes division.

“He said he was “angry and appalled” by Mr Trump’s handling of ongoing protests over the death of African American George Floyd at the hands of police.

Mr Mattis berated Mr Trump’s “abuse of authority” – and backed protesters seeking to uphold American values, as did ex-President Barack Obama.

Mr Trump has described Mr Mattis repeatedly as an “overrated general”.

Mr Mattis quit in 2018 after Mr Trump decided to pull US troops out of Syria.

He has remained mostly silent since then, until his rebuke of the Trump administration was published in The Atlantic magazine on Wednesday.”

Even more scathing was General John Kelly (former Chief of Staff to President Donald Trump).

Former White House chief of staff John Kelly said Friday he agrees with former Secretary of Defense Gen. Jim Mattis’ stark warning this week that President Donald Trump is “the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people” as nationwide protests have intensified over the death of George Floyd.

“I agree with him,” Kelly told Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director, during a live-streamed interview.

“There is a concern, I think an awful big concern, that the partisanship has gotten out of hand, the tribal thing has gotten out of hand,” Kelly said. “He’s quite a man, Jim Mattis, and for him to do that tells you where he is relative to the concern he has for our country.”

Kelly’s comments come after Mattis, who has widespread support among Senate Republicans for his long military service to the country, contended this week that Trump “does not even pretend to try” to unite the country and is instead engaged in a “deliberate effort” to divide the country, while lacking “mature leadership.”

The pointed remarks from two of Trump’s former top officials follow more than a week of nationwide protests across the country calling for justice for Floyd, a black man who was killed last week by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

Earlier this week, Mattis excoriated Trump’s decision to hold a photo-op Monday at a church near the White House, saying troops were ordered to “violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens” who were protesting but were cleared out by police with force to make way for the President’s visit.

On Friday, Kelly said he would have cautioned Trump against the idea of using law enforcement to clear Lafayette Square ahead of the photo-op. “I would’ve argued against it, recommended against it,” Kelly said. “I would argue that the end result of that was predictable.”

Kelly, who has in the past voiced criticisms of the Trump administration since leaving his post, told Scaramucci that it is important to focus on the character of officials when the public makes the decision on who to elect. “I think we need to look harder at who we elect,” Kelly said on Friday. “I think we should look at people that are running for office and put them through the filter: What is their character like? What are their ethics?”

Book extracts are obviously popular on Resilience TV. Hadley Chase has become a millionaire many times over from sales of his book:

“The Paw In The Bottle” According to the review by Festus Adedayo:

“It is the story of Julie, a young girl working in a West End café (in London), home to the underworld and where thieves, pickpockets, and all sorts converge. Julie is introduced to a robbery and asked to play the role of a maid in a wealthy household, tasked with finding the safe. Describing how hunters catch monkeys in Brazil, Julie is asked:

“Have you ever heard how they catch monkeys in Brazil, Julie?………… Let me tell you. They put a nut in a bottle, and tie the bottle to a tree. The monkey grasps the nut, but the neck of the bottle is too narrow for the monkey to withdraw its paw and the nut.”

Professor Adebayo Williams put in a dazzling performance when he chose Toussaint – Louverture as his reference point.

“François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture was born on 20^th May 1743, a Haitian general and best-known leader of the Haitian Revolution. He first fought for the Spanish against the French; then for France against Spain and Great Britain; and finally, he fought on behalf of Saint-Domingue in the era of Napoleonic France.”

“Interdicted, humiliated and summarily dismissed as a serving general of the French Army, Toussant cried out: “Without a doubt, I owe this treatment to my colour. But my colour, my colour, has it ever prevented me from serving my country with diligence and devotion?”

His pleas fell on deaf ears. Disgraced, separated from his family and his proud tunic of a serving French Army general yanked off and replaced with prison uniform, Toussaint succumbed to a cruel and horrific death in a lonely cell in Fort de joux on the morning of 7 April 1803. His repeated complaints of cold and insanitary conditions were dismissed as

the mischievous mumbling of an old Negro. The certifying medical officer, in a Kafkaesque turn of phrase, noted that he was “truly dead”.

Almost as an afterthought, he added:

“But as the crowds massing in American main cities attest to, even incremental, conservative reforms can evaporate and disappear in a stalled momentum leading to anarchy and chaos. This is the perilous conjuncture America has arrived at. It is not due to the absence of visionary men and women but the presence of an over-powering structure wedded to a vision of the past.”

No nation can continue to be wedded to a vision of the past without the present imploding. America needs to be prised apart from some inglorious and unedifying aspects of its past. The surging crowds will help in creating the right atmosphere and enabling environment. But the change will not come from the street.”

From the front page of “The Nation” newspaper of June 7, 2020, we have the following headline: “CORRUPTION ALLEGATION: OBASA, DEPUTY SPEAKER, CLERK APPEAR BEFORE PANEL.” “Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa at the weekend told the panel of enquiry raised by the Assembly to probe allegations of financial misconduct against him by Sahara Reporters that it was the handiwork of his enemies.

Speaker Obasa appeared before the 9-man fact finding panel of the House headed by Hon. Victor Akande (Ojo Constituency 1).

Responding to questions from members of the Committee, Obasa stated that all the allegations made by SaharaReporters in its reports were unfounded.

He stressed that the vehicles bought for the members of the House and other expenses made by the House were done with the approval of the House and that of the Fund Management Committee (FMU) of the House headed by him.

We bought Land Cruisers for Principal Officers of the House. The cars we buy for Principal Officers are always higher (sic) than those of other members and we followed the due process in the purchase.

We went through the Public Procurement Agency (PPA) and others and the vehicles were distributed appropriately.

It was agreed at the parliamentary meetings on about four occasions and the Clerk of the House is the Secretary.

Also, it is not true that my wife collects N10 Million monthly from the House. Anyone who says she does should come with proofs and evidences.

My approval limit as the Speaker of the House is N100 million. Anything above that would have to be approved by the Fund Management Committee. On Prado Jeep that we bought for the members, we followed the due process like we did in that of the Principal Officers,” he said.

Obasa also debunked an allegation that N258 million was spent for the printing of invitation cards for the inauguration of the 9th Assembly.

He stressed that the whole event cost N61 Million and that N1.1 Million was spent to print the invitation cards.

On the expenditure of N80 Million as estacode for the training of women in Dubai, the Speaker said that wives of 20 lawmakers attended the event and that he was there to declare the event open.

“The House of Assembly is above common standard of excellence and we have to train people, and this comes with a cost. Learning is not cheap and I have never collected N80 Million for estacode at a go before,” he said.

Defending the purchase of eight Hiace buses for works committee in the Assembly, Obasa said that it was discovered that the House was spending a lot of money to repair vehicles, which he said was why the House decided to buy the buses and that the buses were there for everybody to see with documents to defend the purchases.

The Speaker also denied the allegation that he spent N53 Million for a trip to the United States of America with his mistress.”

Bashorun J.K. Randle is a former

President of the Institute of the Chartered Accountants of Nigeria

(ICAN)

and former Chairman of KPMG Nigeria and Africa Region.

He is currently the Chairman, JK Randle Professional Services

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Resilience [Forging Ahead] Part III – By Bashorun J.K. Randle

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