Boy genius: Meet the autistic 14-year-old with an IQ higher than Einstein’s

As a child, doctors told Jacob Barnett’s parents that their autistic son would probably never know how to tie his shoes.

But experts say the 14-year-old Indiana prodigy has an IQ higher than Einstein’s and is on the road to winning a Nobel Prize. He’s given TedX talks and is working toward a master’s degree in quantum physics.

The key, according to mom Kristine Barnett, was letting Jacob be himself — by helping him study the world with wide-eyed wonder instead of focusing on a list of things he couldn’t do.

Diagnosed with moderate to severe autism at the age of 2, Jacob spent years in the clutches of a special education system that didn’t understand what he needed. His teachers at school would try to dissuade Kristine from hoping to teach Jacob any more than the most basic skills.

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

Kristine Barnett, author of “The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing Genius,” said that she initially found it hard to get Jacob the right education.

Jacob was struggling with that sort of instruction — withdrawing deeper into himself and refusing to speak with anyone.

But Kristine noticed that when he was not in therapy, Jacob was doing “spectacular things” on his own.

“He would create maps all over our floor using Q-tips. They would be maps of places we’ve visited and he would memorize every street,” Kristine told the BBC.

One day, his mom took him stargazing. A few months later, they visited a planetarium where a professor was giving a lecture. Whenever the teacher asked questions, Jacob’s little hand shot up and he began to answer questions — easily understanding complicated theories about physics and the movement of planets.

COURTESY OF RANDOM HOUSE

Jacob was silent for much of his childhood. But when he started to speak, he was able to communicate in four different languages.

Jacob was just 3-1/2 years old.

His mom realized that Jacob might need something that the standard special education curriculum just wasn’t giving him.

So Kristine decided to take on the job herself.

“For a parent, it’s terrifying to fly against the advice of the professionals,” Kristine writes in her memoir, “The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing Genius.” “But I knew in my heart that if Jake stayed in special ed, he would slip away.”

COURTESY OF RANDOM HOUSE

Jacob Barnett with his mother. Developmental specialists told Kristine that her child would never learn to read or tie his shoes.

The Hamilton County mom, a nursery school teacher, decided to take Jacob out of school and prepare him for mainstream kindergarten herself.

Jacob thrived under his mom’s personal attention. She let him explore the things he wanted to explore. He studied patterns and shadows and stars. At the same time, she made sure that he and enjoy “normal” childhood pleasures — softball, picnics — along with other kids his age.

“I operate under a concept called ‘muchness,’” Kristine said. “Which is surrounding children with the things they love — be it music, or art, whatever they’re drawn to and love.”

By the time he was 11 years old, Jacob was ready for college. He’s now studying condensed matter physics at the Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis.

COURTESY OF RANDOM HOUSE

Jacob (far left, bottom) with his family.

His IQ rounds out to 170 — higher than that of Albert Einstein. He’s been working on his own theory of relativity. Professors at Princeton’s Institute for Advance Study were impressed.

“The theory that he’s working on involves several of the toughest problems in astrophysics and theoretical physics,” astrophysics Professor Scott Tremaine wrote to the family in an email.

“Anyone who solves these will be in line for a Nobel Prize.”

Warner Bros. has snatched up movie rights to Jacob’s story. Kristine and her son have embarked on a European book tour, but hope to have some time to rest by July.

“My goal for the summer is just to give him a few weeks off,” Kristine told the Indianapolis Monthly. “The last time he had that was when he came up with the alternative theory to the Big Bang. So who knows what he’ll create?”

Naija.com

What I Know About Motherhood Now That My Child Has Died

Being the mom to a child who died means that Mother's Day is never, ever the same. The cloying commercials encouraging manicures, jewelry, brunch, bouquets, and all things pastel are like sucker punches that start in April and don't stop until the day itself is over. I breathe a long sigh of relief the Monday morning after Mother's Day.

That said, even though my first born child (and my own Mom) died of cancer at a young age, that sad horror continues to shape my parenting in some unexpectedly positive ways. Cancer is a perspective changer. If you can get past the oppressive nature of the grief and make room for it in your day to day life, then you can get to a place where you start to see not just the bad, but the total experience of what living through that trauma does to you, the wisdom it provides.
And, yes, that is some hard earned wisdom. Here is some of mine:

Motherhood is an endurance event.
The day-to-day aspects of mothering can be brutal. There are diapers and sticky fingers and "Whys?" and misplaced shoes and shrieks and spilled milk and poor report cards and endless other opportunities for failure and disappointment and inconvenience. It is so very easy to get stuck in the muck of mothering. It is tough freaking stuff. I work hard to not get caught up in the minutia anymore. It just doesn't matter. This is not a sprint, this is a marathon. If we get tripped up over the little stuff, we will not be prepped for the entirely of the event. If you have a bad day, go to bed knowing that you can make tomorrow better. Even if you can't change the muck in your life, at least you can change how you deal with the muck.

It is important to enjoy the moments.
I used to work in a retirement community. During my first pregnancy I got lots and lots and lots of unsolicited advice from very well meaning older ladies who often told me the same thing, "Enjoy it -- it passes so quickly." Those words used to annoy me no end. But you know what? It's true. Those gals knew what they were talking about. Our children's childhoods do pass quickly. Enjoy it. Work hard to find the beauty in each stage of your child's life. When you are washing the jam off your face, know that someday you will pine for that unsolicited kiss of a child. When you are cleaning the crumbs from the car seat, know that one day they will be driving away from you. When you are in the midst of whatever battle royale you find yourself in, know that every moment is a gift, even the sucky ones.

Life is full of wonder.
I will always and forever, for as long as I live, be the mother of a 4-year-old. A beautiful, clever, smart, and creative 4-year-old. Four-year-olds know a lot of things that we manage to forget as we grow into adulthood. They see and appreciate the wonder of the world around them. Dandelions are not a nuisance; they are a sweet smelling flower worthy of a vase on the kitchen counter. A rainy day is not something to be avoided, but an opportunity to stomp in puddles. Public transportation is not the awful thing that happens to you when your car breaks down, but an adventure. See the wonder, appreciate the wonder, don't lose the wonder. Find it every day.

Eat dessert.
When our oldest turned one I made carrot cake as I didn't want to serve her chocolate at such a young age. HA! I laugh at that now. While our friends might raise their eyebrows, we serve our son dessert every night. Now mind you, it's not a heaping plate of chocolate cake, but there is not a single thing wrong with a few bites of sweet at the end of the day. It won't rot his teeth, it won't make him obese, it won't spoil him. A little something sweet every day is not a bad thing.

Learn from your children.
There is so much wisdom I have gained from my daughter who died. Every day I try and remember what she taught me. Harder is thinking about what our healthy 4-year-old is teaching us. What lessons can we learn from him? Each kid is unique and has something to offer. Look for the lessons and opportunities to learn. They are there, but we don't always notice them.

The hardest thing I have ever done is over.
It's true. I honestly believe that the hardest thing I will ever do in my life is say goodbye to my child, knowing that her last breath was near. Will anything ever match the feeling in my palm of the course rope that lowered my girl's body into the ground? I don't think so. Everything else related to my mothering is a privilege. Everything. I try and remember that every day.

Choose hope.
I believe that hope is a conscious choice that we make. When things are rough it is easy to jump to the worst case scenario. It is harder to believe that things could improve, to hope that life can be better, to imagine a life where even if you don't have what you want, you can live with that. All things are possible with hope. I am using this last nugget of wisdom quite a bit these days as we wait to adopt. When prospect after prospect falls through, I work to feel that either our baby is out there and will find us, or we don't have a baby out there and the life we have right now is pretty damn good. Hope is what makes that possible.

Credit: Amy Goray Photography

HuffingtonPost

Disability Rights: Cornish Councillor Colin Brewer Compares Disabled Children To Deformed Lambs

Colin Brewer, councillor for Wadebridge East, said he is not the "ogre" he has been made out to be

The Cornish councillor who was re-elected despite saying that disabled children "should be put down because they cost too much money" has again insisted that there may be a case for killing some disabled children with high support needs.

Speaking to Disability News Service, Colin Brewer said he was not the "ogre" he had been made out to be, adding that constituents in his rural ward had shaken his hand and congratulated him, despite his controversial comments.

Looking for analogies to support his view, Brewer compared disabled children to farmers' treatment of animals, telling the agency: “If they have a misshapen lamb, they get rid of it. They get rid of it. Bang!”

He continued: "We are just animals. He [the farmer] obviously has got a point… You can’t have lambs running around with five legs and two heads.”

Brewer said: “It [the lamb] would be put down, smashed against the wall and be dealt with.”

He said the financial "burden" of the disabled wasn't just his own personal concern”, adding: “If you are talking about giving services to the community or services to the individual, the balance has got to be struck.”

Brewer said: “I keep as far away from health in the council as I can.”

However he sought to justify his original comments by saying that that had suffered a series of strokes before the incident, which might explain why he “flared up”. "People have said I have changed since those strokes,” he added.

Independent councillor Brewer made the comments to Theresa Court, who works for Disability Cornwall, while she was manning a stall at the County Hall in Truro in October 2011.

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Despite facing calls to resign, he remained defiant over his right to remain in his councillor role and gained 335 votes in the last election, beating the Lib Dem candidate by two votes.

He wrote a letter of apology to Theresa Court and said at the time: "I have no intention of resigning. I don't think I have done anything wrong. I have apologised."

Theresa Court told the Huffington Post UK earlier this year it was "quite frankly an insult that he had to be told to apologise after a year and a half."

She said the manner in which the letter arrived was like he was making a stand, with "a second class stamp and folded into no less than eight pieces."

Disability Cornwall said after hearing the latest comments that they were "a sad indictment of our so-called ‘civilised’ society that disabled children are increasingly discussed within a context of affordability, as if they were goods on a shelf that can be picked up and discarded at will, dependent upon what’s in the public purse."

They added in a statement: “Colin Brewer and others, it would appear, believe a disabled child has the same value as a deformed lamb and should be dealt with in the same way.”

Mr Brewer has not responded to a HuffPost UK request for comment.

HuffingtonPost

Jonathan’s policies are driven by sentiments – El-Rufai

 BY LEKE BAIYEWU 

El-Rufai

Weeks after his controversial book, The Accidental Public Servant, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory under President Olusegun Obasanjo-led administration, Mr. Nasir El-Rufai, in this online interview, tells LEKE BAIYEWU the roles he played while in office and his disposition to Umaru Yar’ Adua and Goodluck Jonathan-led administrations

As regards the solution to Boko Haram insurgency, you once said the Federal Government knew what to do and should do it. Does it mean the government is not getting it right by proposing an amnesty for members of the sect?

I have always insisted that the Federal Government knows what to do about the nation’s insecurity and should just do it. It is the principal duty of the government to ensure peace and security of the people. It is a responsibility that cannot be outsourced. The state has certain prerogatives to enable it to discharge this function, including enormous intelligence assets, the law and a constitutional monopoly of the means of coercion. Preserving order, ensuring peace and promoting harmony are among the highest objectives of statecraft, and they are too serious to be left to the caprice of politics or the destructive allure of ethnic and religious divisions.

Many of the policies of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration are driven by these unhelpful attitudes and sentiments, including the so-called amnesty programmes. As far back as June 2011, the Jonathan administration knew what it needed to do from the Galtimari Committee report and the resultant White Paper to nip the Boko Haram insurgency in the bud. What did he do? He puts the report, recommendations and White Paper in the drawer and watched, while some 4,000 Nigerians were killed by Boko Haram and the military. Why is it so hard to implement the recommendations of all the committees set up by the government on the insurgency?

How would you describe that rate of corruption in the National Assembly? You once accused two senators of demanding bribes from you to ease your ministerial appointment confirmation?

Corruption is a national challenge, and the country has to summon the will to combat it in all sectors. It is not only in the National Assembly but everywhere within other arms and tiers of government. We simply must elect people of integrity that can begin to attack this national scourge from the top down.

As the Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises and the Secretary of the National Council of Privatisation from November 1999 to July 2003, how would you describe the perceived failure in the sale of public corporations?

Perception can sometimes be miles apart from reality. The BPE under my leadership successfully privatised many companies through transparent and open bids. For example, Unipetrol is now Oando; National Oil is now Conoil; and both companies are thriving. Where we were obstructed by personal and political interests from concluding their privatisation, the companies concerned were either eventually liquidated – like Nigeria Airways – or have lost value and market share to nimbler competitors – like NITEL.

There were no irregularities in privatisation under my watch. And the Senate committee that conducted investigations into privatisation found nothing. The findings also showed that more than 80 per cent of privatised companies were either doing very well or not worse off than being under the control of the government. There is nowhere in the world where an 80 per cent success rate equals failure.

How much have the recommendations by the Presidential Committee on Power Supply Improvement been implemented and do you think the cabal in the sector will ever allow stable power supply?

The Presidential Committee on Power Supply was set up by President Obasanjo, not ‘formed’ by me. It operated for some three months only and succeeded in raising our generation capacity from 1,500 to 3,200 megawatts. We made far reaching recommendations to accelerate the completion of the National Independent Power Project, but the (Umaru) Yar’adua-Jonathan administrations did not focus on implementing them. The Economic Team in the Obasanjo years based a lot of the reform ideas on applying market forces within a well-structured and properly regulated system. Every government policy has potential winners and losers, and the interests that may be affected could deploy resources to entrench their advantage. It is the duty of government to develop and implement policy within this minefield.

Power supply is an area that will continue to require substantial investments, close monitoring and effective regulation. That is where attention should be focussed, not on celebrating minuscule additions to the paltry total generation capacity of 3,200MW the Obasanjo administration left behind in April 2007.

The National Identity Card Project, which you spearheaded, has been widely criticised as been a drain pipe and not meeting the expectation of the people. What was the challenge with the project?

After the fiasco of the SAGEM identity card project and the scandal associated with it, the Obasanjo government decided on a new approach. What we suggested was a new identification system that was sufficiently rigorous and technologically advanced to be integrated across all the government agencies that collected personal information. And that could be accessed by banks and other companies to verify identity. Each enrolled citizen was to be given a smartcard, which could also be a payment card.

We designed a private sector-led project for the new identity scheme and we selected the team to deliver the project, led by the current Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission shortly before we left office.

 It is disappointing that the team has not delivered the project as envisaged and that the NIMC leadership has made it a project depending on the government treasury, rather than the initial vision of a private sector led investment.

In the course enforcing the master plan of the Federal Capital Territory, many structures, including a house belonging to the then Peoples Democratic Party chairman, were demolished. You’ve said you have no regrets but your critics maintain that the exercise was to witch-hunt some people.

I did my duty in Abuja without fear or favour and President Obasanjo gave me the support I needed to do the job. Which of the demolitions has been reversed? Tell me if you know of any house that was removed that should not have been.

Is it true that you once considered succeeding former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo but that some powerful forces in the PDP botched your ambition?

If you have read my book, ‘The Accidental Public Servant,’ you will see that my prominence in the Obasanjo government was because of the many assignments I was asked to handle, rather than any ambition. I have never had any ambition for any public office.

It was widely believed that you went on self-exile at the end of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration because you stepped on toes while in office. Whose toes did you step on and have you been forgiven?

The Obasanjo government ended in May 2007 and I remained in Nigeria until June 2008, when I went abroad for further studies. Subsequent events compelled me to remain outside my country, upon completion of my studies. Umaru Yar’Adua was after me and I took prudent measures against presidential mischief. As for stepping on toes, I know I did my job to the best of my ability and ensured that people did not violate rules the way they were accustomed to.

You were appointed member of the National Energy Council in September 2007 by the late Yar’Adua’s administration but you resigned your appointment in June 2008. What caused this?

 I attended only one meeting of the Energy Council – that was the inaugural meeting in September 2007. By June 2008, there was no illusion that I would attend another one. I resigned membership of the council and left Nigeria in June 2008 to be a Mason Fellow at Harvard University. There was no point being member of a moribund council that, in any case, I would have no time for.

Under same administration, you, along with Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Alhaji Lawal Batagarawa, Mrs. Nenadi Usman, and Chief Andy Uba were reportedly accused of committing treason by encouraging military insurrection. Why would you have done that?

I am hearing this for the first time and I am sure some of the people you named will also be similarly surprised at your revelation. It is unfortunate that President Umaru Yar’Adua collected around himself some of the most insecure people around. Like the many featherweights that have blighted Africa, Yar’adua and his gang tried to criminalise all opposition, to conflate dissent and treason always. Elected to lead democratic systems, they approached the job with the mind-sets of absolute rulers. They never learn the lessons of history.

Does it mean your book, “Umaru Yar’Adua – Great Expectations, Disappointing Outcomes,” was a fight back against supporters of the Yar’Adua administration?

I did not write a book with that title. What you cite as a book is actually an essay I wrote as a student at Harvard. It is a narrative of the person, politics and performance of Yar’Adua from my vantage position of knowing Yar’Adua since 1972.

Many believe you’re being too critical of President Jonathan’s administration. Would you admit that there are problems with Obasanjo’s economic policies, making the current administration to modify or scrap some of them?

 As a citizen of this country, I reserve the right to exercise my freedom of speech as I deem fit. Have you seen or read any coherent rebuttal of my articles on the public policy, spending priorities and poor management of national resources by this government? If such critical comments help the government to deliver better outcomes, would it not be to the benefit of the country, and will they not get the credit? No public policy is so perfect that it cannot be improved upon, but doing nothing is not an option when we have six million babies being born every year to think about.

In your book, The Accidental Public Servant, you said former President Olusegun Obasanjo went on his knees to seek his vice, Atiku Abubakar’s cooperation with his second term bid? Atiku had said it was only him and Obasanjo that were in the room. How did you know about it?

Are you an eyewitness to everything you report as a journalist? If only two of them were in the room and everyone in government circles then heard the story, who do you think related the story? Has anyone denied that it happened?

Punch

Criminal Edo Lawmaker jailed over robbery allegation

Members of the Edo State House of Assembly experienced serious embarrassment on Tuesday when one of their colleagues, Rasaq Momoh was ordered by a Magistrate Court to be remanded in prison until 3rd June 2013 when his case would be heard.
The Magistrate Court sitting in Auchi, Etsako West Local Government Area of the state had ordered the prison remandment of the lawmaker, who represents Etsako West Constituency 1 over allegation of illegal possession of a gun during the recently held Local Government election held in the state.

Momoh was arrested in the Agbede area of the State, after an earlier arraignment on 2nd May before presiding judge, Caroline Nwoha.

The lawmaker was remanded in Police custody after the last hearing, despite his argument and plea that he had health issues. The court had fixed Tuesday for judgement in the case.

When the case came up on Tuesday, Edo State Commissioner of Police, Daniel Mato, who is the prosecutor in the case amendment of the initial charge to armed robbery urged the court to transfer the case to the State High Court since it was no longer an electoral offence.

He said the lawmaker actually engaged in armed robbery but that it was only unfortunate that he was arrested the same day of the election.

Before adjourning the case to 3rd June, the magistrate confirmed that the court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain the matter, and asked that the case file be duplicated and sent to Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for proper advice.

Courtesy Huhuonline

Reshma Begum, Rescued Bangladesh Factory Worker, Reunites With Family

By Serajul Quadir and Matthew Green

DHAKA, May 11 (Reuters) - As hope faded of finding any more survivors of Bangladesh's factory collapse, Reshma Begum's family cherished one modest prayer: that hers would be the next body to be excavated from the rubble so they could at least give her a decent burial.

Instead, Begum, 19, was brought back from the dead and hoisted on to a stretcher on Friday after rescuers saw her waving an aluminum curtain rail from a gap in the ruins where she had spent 17 days trapped in a lightless, tomb-like chamber.

When her brother, Zahidul Islam, 33, was led into the military hospital where his sister lay prone, but strong enough to mutter a few words, he was overwhelmed by tears.

"'Brother don't weep,' Reshma told me," Islam said in a telephone interview with Reuters.

As army doctors and officers looked on, Islam threw aside his inhibitions, stepped forward and hugged his younger sibling.

"Straight away I fainted, then I was taken away by the army personnel," Islam added. "The same thing happened to my mother when she learned that Reshma was still alive."

Major Moazzem Hossain, who was involved in the rescue, said Begum had managed to say a few more words on Saturday about her ordeal.

"At some point I fell asleep but suddenly I woke up and it was difficult to know whether it was day or night," Hossain quoted Begum as saying.

Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Morshed, a military physician, said that Begum was recovering well. "Her kidneys and other essential organs are working normally though she is suffering from acute dehydration," Morshed told Reuters.

Live televised scenes of Begum's salvation transfixed Bangladesh, where waves of grief have rolled from the disaster site to engulf far-flung villages where many of the young women and men who staffed the sewing lines were born.

In common with other relatives of the missing, Begum's family had travelled from their village to gather at a schoolground near the ruined factory in Savar, a gritty industrial suburb outside the capital Dhaka, where families kept a sombre vigil for their missing loved ones.

Hours before Begum was found, emergency crews had pulled the 1,000th corpse from the heap of rubble, twisted metal and machinery. The army said the death toll from the April 24 collapse, the world's worst industrial disaster since Bhopal in India in 1984, had reached 1,089 by Saturday.

When word spread that a woman, identified by Bangladeshi media at first only as "Reshma", had been found - trapped but alive - her relatives began to believe the unimaginable.


SEEKING HER FORTUNE

Begum's journey to the factory floor was typical of a generation of young Bangladeshi women who have sought to escape lives of rural drudgery by winning jobs in a burgeoning garment industry, tempted by by the prospect of regular wages even if safety standards are sometimes lax.

Islam, 33, said their family lived in a village called Koshi Gari, 414 km (259 miles) north of Dhaka. He had found a niche selling sweet fried cakes to local children, but Begum dreamed of a new life in the big city.

Three years ago, Begum moved to Dhaka, Islam said, joining several million women working in factories that supply retailers including Walmart Stores Inc, Tesco Plc and H&M .

After finding her first job she married, Islam said, but her husband began to pilfer her earnings and she soon left him.

"He beat her brutally, which forced her to divorce him," Islam said.

On April 2 this year, Begum found a job at New Wave Bottoms, a garment maker on the second floor of Rana Plaza, the doomed building, which imploded a day after its owner assured nervous workers it would stand "for a century".

Hossain, the army officer, said Begum had not packed the home-made lunch that garment workers customarily prepare. She had, however, been carrying four small packets of biscuits and a bottle of water - provisions that would save her life.

Islam said the family had given up hope Begum would be found alive, and had only cherished the wish that they would finally be reunited with her remains.

"For the last 17 days, we have been waiting to get her body to take home and to bury at our family graveyard," Islam said. "This is unbelievable. It means that anything can happen." (Reporting By Serajul Quadir; Writing by Matthew Green; Editing by Nick Macfie)

HuffingtonPost

PDP governors bought guns for thugs —Atiku

 BY GODWIN ISENYO 

Former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar on Saturday said he cautioned some Peoples Democratic Party governors against arming the youth for the purpose of winning elections.

Atiku while speaking in an interview on the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation monitored in Kaduna on Saturday said his advice was not heeded.

He also said he would not leave the ruling PDP despite the unfair treatment meted to him.

Atiku said he would rather remain in the party and fight the injustice being perpetrated by the leadership of the party.

He said the series of restrictions imposed on him by the party was because the party chieftains were afraid of him and his opposition to illegalities in the party.

When asked whether he would contest for the presidency in 2015, Atiku replied that 2015 was too far for him to decide.

Speaking on how he cautioned some state governors against buying arms and ammunition for the youth, Atiku said, “During our time when there was such crisis in Yobe, you saw how we tackled it. First of all, we sent undercover agents who mixed up with the insurgents and understood their modus operandi. When the report was brought to us, we then sent security agents who rounded up the enclave, arrested some of them and killed those that had to be killed.

“When we formed the PDP and candidates emerged, the governors  earmarked huge amounts of money to buy arms for youth groups so as to use them in winning thte election.

“I met and told them that if they used them and after winning the election, they fail to provide them with jobs, they will rise against the people in their states. These are the youths who later turned into the Niger Delta militants you’ve been hearing about. Also, a similar thing happened in the North, I met a governor and told him that these youths you assembled and called ECOMOG will become dangerous later and that was what eventually happened. I spoke to all these governors, I alerted all of them.”

He, added that the proposed amnesty for Boko Haram was a good initiative, adding that, “Ours is just to advise the government. But there is no advice that the elders have not given the government. Look at the Lemu Committee report, the government did nothing about it.”

On why the PDP could not resolve the disagreements between him and the chairman of the party, Atiku said, “We are all working together now, it is only the governor (Murtala Nyako) that we are not working with. He feels because he is in power, he can do whatever he likes. But when you are in power and you decide not to be just, you will definitely see what you don’t like.”

Atiku said it was unfortunate that the ruling party was enmeshed in crisis, adding that, “This crisis is certainly not good and it will be nice to sit down and resolve it. Such misunderstanding shouldn’t have come about at all.

“Both sides are to be blamed. The governors have separated themselves and maintain that it is only what they want that they will do in their states, the President is saying it is not so. The way out is to come back, sit down and resolve the issues.”

Speaking on a paper he delivered in Geneva, the former vice-president noted that there was no difference between democracy in Nigeria and military rule.

He said, “After the military handed over power, the majority of those that took over power from them were ex-military men. When they took over, instead of running affairs as in a democracy, they resorted to running affairs as if it were in a military regime.  Whoever did not like what they wanted was blacklisted. That is not right.

“So, that was the shape Nigerian democracy took afterward. Sadly, the politicians who are not ex-military inherited that attitude. They thought such attitude would benefit them and continued with it. Unless we desist from that kind of attitude, do away with dishonesty and injustice in the party and in government, progress will elude us.”

Punch