Donald Rumsfeld, The USA's Secretary of Defence, resigned today.

Why? The Republican Party of which he is a member, lost the mid-term polls elections to the Democrats. The Democrats swept the lower House (The House of Representatives) and need just one more seat (There's only the state of Virginia left) to have the majority in the Senate as well.

What do the elections have to do with a 'ministerial' post as the position of Rumsfeld would be known here? Easy. Rumsfeld is the face of the war in Iraq, a war which succeeded in ousting Sadam Hussein as dictator and killing both his sons but which also threw the land into something akin to a civil war. Unfortunately for the USA, the Iraqi insurgents are not only killing each other but also soldiers of the American Army and its allies. Needless to say, it is a war which has become highly unpopular in the USA itself and the rest of the world. Rumsfeld's policies had been publicly criticised by serving Army Officers as well as by many others.

Even the dramatic announcement of the death sentence for Sadam just two days to the elections for congress, for 'crimes against humanity', wasn't enough to stave off the punitive voting of American voters against George W. Bush's policies.

So, in a bid to damage-control, Rumsfeld was made the scapegoat by the government, an acknowledgement that the war in Iraq might not be as popular as 'Dubya' would like to paint it.

For me, it is worthy of note that a strong ally of the US president was used as a sacrifice to stem the tide of resentment against the government's war in Iraq. It could never happen in Nigeria. Men responsible for problems in the country are shifted from one position to the other rather than made to pay for their inadequacies. See the case of Aborishade, in whose tenure as Minister of Aviation, planes from two different airliners crashed at separate times. Rather than remove him, he was posted to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. An indication that in Nigeria, many people are not placed in positions of authority on account of their merits.

The Republican party in America understood that it might have lost the Swing Vote and the Independent Vote, crucial to all elections, and the party sought to stem the wound.

We should pause and reflect on our government's insensitivity to the wishes of its people. If those who siezed power (we didn't vote for them) were sensitive to the people, governors would not be fighting for their lives now in our banana republic. Ladoja of Oyo State seeking to enforce a court order that reinstated him as governor and which order the Attorney General of the Federation for some unfathomable reason, says can't be enforced yet. Or Peter Obi of Anambra who was made Governor only in March after being rigged out of what was rightfully his by Chris Mba and his lackey, the ex governor Chris Ngige. Obi has now been removed by deranged men posing as legislators in Anambra. If you ask these 'law-makers' for their names, they will tell you 'Honourable'. Or Fayose, Governor of Ekiti State who is on the run after a Kangaroo impeachment and too many examples too numerous to follow.

It seems there is a massive conspiracy in the country Nigeria, a plan to ensure that everything burns, as already the fires have started, people killing themselves in Oyo as well as in Anambra.
Would this be so as to ensure a state of emergency over the entire country which would effectively curtail a transition?

This land eats its people. Let us pray.