A couple of decades ago when the almighty West African Examinations Council was truly conducting its yearly tests foolproof, many of us in college had an uphill task passing. But tragically painful as it were, we drew consolation in the fact that we could resit the examination after each disastrous attempt. Each year, we would dust our books, ready for another titanic confrontation with the body. We had books to dust. In the Osun State of Aregbesola era, Opon Imo has replaced our old reliable books.

The privilege of having books to turn to after leaving school is precisely what critics of Opon Imo educational innovation in Osun State have against the project. Other short-comings, as enumerated by Ayo Aluko- Olokun in an article published in The PUNCH on Thursday, May 16, are challenges posed by epileptic power supply and inability of the scheme to accommodate printing of materials. While post-college referral is a challenge the scheme has to contend with at the moment (this is surely an area the Aregbesola administration would have to address urgently), the twin issue of printing of materials as well as electricity challenge are not much of a task.

Pupils need not print out any material from the devise because each school pupil owns one that can be assessed at any time desired.

A tablet in the scheme is an all-inclusive little technology containing all a pupil needs to navigate college academically. 750,000 units have already been distributed to all pupils in Senior Secondary School 1 to 3. Each of the units, in terms of configuration, is designed in a way that no pupil needs any text book except exercise books. Each unit has three components – eBook library, integrated test zone and virtual learning. The eBook library section contains 66 text books, 56 of which are subject based while the remaining ten are for other developmental engagements including entrepreneurial, leadership, civic education, health hints and guidance among others. The integrated test zone, on the other hand, boasts 10 years past questions and answers of Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, (SSCE), NECO, UTME and so on. In the virtual learning segment, users are treated to high powered electronic teaching and learning classroom experience with a teacher in charge.

The moment a pupil resumes in class at SSS1, he or she takes possession of one of the tablets and such would remain with the pupil until graduation from college three years after. Every pupil lives with the devise twenty four hours of the day. Any material required by pupils is therefore only a key-tab away. Why should anyone need a printer when a pupil would only lose possession of the devise on completion of studentship?

Along with the gadget, each pupil also takes possession of two charging devises-electricity and solar. Solar charging accessory, given to every school user, comes handy where electricity is not available. On full charge, an Opon Imo would run for five hours of intense usage.

Through the Opon Imo initiative, an unusual feature has been introduced into the Nigerian school system, throwing up an entirely e-Book community of students. More remarkable, it is edifying that the technology is being introduced to a very poor, largely rural human setting — a pointer to the fact of its adaptability anywhere and capability to help pupils leapfrog the challenges of poverty and illiteracy.

•Sola Lawal is Publicity Secretary, Action Congress of Nigeria, Ogun State

Source: The Punch

But those cheap shots are not what were unfortunate about the whole affair.

Let me state upfront that I had some measure of respect for Dokubo. My regard for him was planked on his immaculate honesty: He is one of the tribe of “activist” rabble-rousers who doesn’t hide that he is agitating for a meal. In Nigeria’s austere clime, it has become amoral to take up forms of gangsterism and make a lot of noise until your bread is buttered. (It only becomes immoral when you hide your beggarly lingo under the garb of activism and social crusade). In Dokubo’s case, he has turned into an election consultant who advocates President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election for all the wrong reasons.

Just last December, Dokubo was criticising Jonathan for squandering the goodwill invested in him by the citizens of Nigeria. In that newspaper report, he had harsh words for the President’s spokesman, Reuben Abati, too. In January, he granted an interview to National Mirror where he, specifically, admitted that his angst was because food had been taken from his mouth (his paraphrased words). Five short months later, he is vehemently supporting the President! It does not take many brain cells to conclude that the feeding bottle has been pushed into his mouth, again. He is now a nationalist of unquestionable zeal, barracking all opposition. We have seen his types before and, God knows, the uncouth manners can be exasperating.

Nowadays, when the likes of Dokubo, Annkio Briggs, Kingsley Kuku and other Niger Delta “activists” insist Aso Rock will not be vacant in 2015, they do not articulate beyond the maudlin fact that other presidents — from other regions of Nigeria — spent two terms and one of their “sons” must do same too. That is the sole lame leg on which their logic rests. The country must stand behind their tribal flag, swallow the bitter pills of ill-governance, poor vision and monumental corruption, simply because the country feeds off the Niger Delta oil. But come to think of it, considering the poverty rate and the poor economic situation, are Nigerians really benefitting from “our oil” to justify a second term for Jonathan? The endless rant about “our oil” quietly evades this question and instead yells that their “son” has to be good enough for Nigeria if “our oil” is good enough to sustain the economy. The rest of us, they insist, are parasites that contribute nothing to Nigeria except for our animal presence and the many problems of it.

The trio of the conquistadors and other ethnic jingoists are one of the reasons I get weary of our nation and even the African continent. In terms of technological output and scientific advancement, we are at the lowest rung of the ladder. Rather than invest in education and technology, we spend all our lives killing and maiming over natural resource. We cannot even advance the use of the resources beyond what the Oyinbo man told us.

With all the sense of propriety latent in their rhetoric of “our oil”, what did anyone’s ancestors do to deposit the oil in the ground? Until the Oyinbo man told us the oil had economic value, what did the black man know about it? And what have we done for ourselves with “our oil” other than the mindless corruption that has been ongoing for decades? Dokubo and co might have earned the right to call the rest of Nigeria “parasites” but if they reflected deeply, they would find that they freeload on nature’s goodwill as anyone else.

As things stand presently, we are thoroughly messed up as a people and sometimes it appears it is too late to lament our comprehensive emptiness. The very least we can do is to tell these 2015 consultants to cease fire, go back to the drawing board, re-strategise and fire some smart shots. They should tell a better tale other than insisting we live with whatever odium foisted on us because it came from the Niger Delta. For a start, can this trio bring out the 2011 campaign promises and check what has been achieved?

So far, Aso Rock has pretended it didn’t send these foot soldiers on any errand to us but we have lived long enough in Nigeria to know the voice of Jacob even when the hairy hand says Esau. There is nothing new happening here, they are merely deploying the same boring approach that was used by the late Gen Sani Abacha in the not too distant past. The new addition to the script is that while Dokubo tries to portray the Fulanis as enemies of Nigeria, he makes his candidate seem like one who needs somebody to take over his remote control.

And finally, the rant of the trio should teach the rest of Nigeria about our national and institutional shortsightedness. Dokubo and others are justified when they holler all day about “our oil” because, all said and done, the resource is on their land. Those of us whose ancestors did not settle on oil-rich land should start thinking of how to wean ourselves off the Niger Delta breast otherwise, we will forever be held to ransom. We will be harassed, blackmailed and morally harangued into accepting any defective product as long as it comes from the Niger Delta.

The likes of Prof. Ango Abdullahi who boast that Jonathan will not get a second term, that a northerner must occupy Aso Rock come 2015, should face up to the question of what percentage of resources their region contributes to Nigeria. (Seriously, what makes him so conceited?) They had better start looking ahead in case tomorrow comes, when there will be no more easy money to make Aso Rock so alluring.

Source: Punch

Even before getting the facts of the case and the breakdown of the 45-year sentence, many had condemned the Osogbo High Court judge, Justice Oyejide Falola, for passing such a harsh sentence on a mere phone thief. Did the judge pass such a heavy sentence on Ighodalo because he stole a governor’s phone? Would there be space in Nigerian prisons if every phone thief were sent to prison? Others had blamed Aregbesola for allowing his security to be so lax as to allow for the theft of his phone. What if the phone contained sensitive personal and state data? There were detractors who even thought it served him right. Some commentators saw a villain in the governor and a hero in the thief, whose action was erroneously blamed on poverty and unemployment.

Although many of these reactions turned out to be presumptuous and wide of the mark, they speak to certain features of the Nigerian society that should not be ignored. But before those features are discussed, let us get the facts straight about the stolen phone, which emerged days after the story broke. According to various sources, Ighodalo was a police officer, who was dismissed from service for various criminal offences. He had been in an out of prison for various crimes, including receiving stolen goods and murder charges.

He was actually an inmate in Kirikiri Maximum Prison on November 27, 2010, when Aregbesola’s phone was stolen. But he kept working with a syndicate from his prison room, consisting of himself, Ogunjobi Babatunde (a prison officer), Abdulgafar Yusuf (the prison officer’s brother) and foot soldiers, ranging from pickpockets to armed robbers.

According to the Osun State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adewale Afolabi, “Members of the syndicate, who are still under investigation, arranged the stealing of the mobile phone of Rauf Aregbesola and before the SIM card was blocked, the syndicate impersonated the owner. They defrauded many close associates of Aregbesola”. Mike Adeyinka highlighted the extent of the fraud: “At the last count, he had fraudulently collected more than N20m from different people” (The Guardian, May 9, 2013).

Ighodalo was eventually caught and slammed with six counts for using a stolen phone to commit multiple frauds and for the various frauds he committed. He was granted bail but re-arrested while attempting to defraud someone else with another stolen phone! He eventually got 10 years for each of three counts and five years for each of the remaining three, totalling 45 years. However, he would serve only 10 years in prison since the sentences would run concurrently.

Against the above background, it is fair to conclude that the headline “Man jailed 45 years for stealing Governor Aregbesola’s phone” was sensational. Although the headline is factually correct, it is misleading, not just because the convict would only serve 10 years in prison but also because the story is more complicated than a mere phone theft. At stake were Ighodalo’s key role in a syndicate of thieves and the offences he committed and attempted to commit with a stolen phone, including impersonation and collecting money under false pretences.

One thing this story did for many readers, especially before the details were filled in, was to provide an opportunity for them to vent their anger at a system considered to be corrupt, unjust, and unfair. Who would not be angry at the political class and their allies (godfathers, contractors, consultants, and so on), which cart away our petrodollars with impunity, while over 70 per cent of the population live in poverty and over 30 per cent are unemployed? Tell me, who can relax at a church, mosque, or party these days without wondering about a Boko Haram strike or the mischievous exploits of Area Boys? Who can drive on Nigerian roads and not fear for his life, because of bad roads and possible armed robbery or kidnapping? Who will not hiss at whoever when sudden power outage prevents the enjoyment of a live TV broadcast of a football match, especially when one’s adopted team is playing?

There is also ample evidence from the courts’ handling of electoral offences and corruption to make people uncomfortable with the distribution of justice in the country. That’s why many readers initially expressed outrage at Ighodalo’s long prison sentence. They could not square the perceived heavy punishment of a phone thief with the light or no punishment for looters of federal, state, and local government treasuries. “Why”, they ask, “would a phone thief have to spend so many years in prison when a former governor got a perpetual injunction against probing into his loot, even when it was clear that he had taken too much for the owners to see?” Since Aregbesola was viewed as part of the system, such a stiff sentence for his phone thief was viewed as double oppression. He should have intervened, some ignorantly suggested.

On the basis of available details about this case, it is now evident that the invectives directed at the governor and the judge were misguided. On the one hand, there is no evidence that the governor interfered with the justice system. Besides, he waited patiently for over two years to get justice for his stolen phone. On the other hand, the judge kept to the letter of the law, and he was lenient by not imposing the maximum penalty of 20 years for the more serious crimes. The fact that certain judges miscarried justice in some election and corruption cases does not mean that all judges would behave the same way.

There is, however, an important lesson on media management to be learnt from the case. Immediately after the judgment, the Attorney General of the Federation should have called a press conference involving the prosecutor, police investigators, and members of the press. Such a conference, watched on the CNN every now and then, would have afforded a golden opportunity to provide a brief overview of the case, to set the records straight about the sentence, and to allow for questions from members of the press. This would have prevented unnecessary damage control later.

There is a lesson, too, for online commentators. Headlines do not necessarily make the whole story. It is always more rewarding to read through a story, possibly from multiple sources, and wait for details to be filled in before rushing to the keyboard. No useful purpose is served by impulsive reactions.

Reporters also have a duty not to incite the people or aggravate their misgivings by inventing sensational headlines, without providing necessary clarifications in the body of their report. The struggle for a competitive edge in reporting a story should not overshadow the need for accuracy and fairness, even in headlines.

Source: The Punch

While Boko Haram Islamic militants killed 22 policemen in Bama, Borno State, on Monday, another group of religious militants Tuesday evening killed 23 policemen and operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) in an ambush near Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital. Nine others were reported critically injured when they were waylaid on by worshippers of a local deity called Ombatse.

The incident happened as a detachment of riot police and SSS men were on their way to the shrine of Ombatse, a deity of the Eggon people, at Alakyo, 10 kilometres from the Nasarawa State capital, according to the state Police Commissioner Abayomi Akeremale.

Akeremale told newsmen: “We decided at the state security council meeting, because of the frequent attacks on churches and mosques by this particular group, who are forcing people to swear an oath at the shrine, that we carry out an operation and arrest the perpetrators for prosecution lest it turns into a religious crisis. The people, some call them Ombatse, but they call themselves cultural people, ambushed our men and opened fire.”

The police commissioner disclosed that nine people were hospitalised with gunshot wounds, a number of officers still missing in the bush, while others earlier abducted were later released from the shrine.

Also speaking, the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Michael Ada, said: “The casualty we confirmed is 23. They killed and burned 23 policemen and SSS. They also burned eight patrol vehicles. But our rescue team is still in the bush, and has not returned to give update.”

This is not the first time Ombatse adherents would be attacking security agents. According to a report in the Abuja-based Daily Trust, “In an incident late last year at Nasarawa-Eggon, the group members shot and injured some soldiers and SSS personnel who stormed one of the shrines at Alogani Hills.

“Also last year, the Ombatse group attacked Agyaragu near Lafia, killing 10 people, soon after which Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura outlawed Ombatse.”

Ombatse is an Eggon word meaning “time has come.” The group was founded by six people, according to Eggon News, a local newspaper. It gave their names as Sgt. Alaku Ehe, Zabura Musa Akwanshiki, Shuaibu Alkali, Hasuna Musa Zico Kigbu, Iliyasu Hassan Gyabo and Abdullahi Usman. The paper said that Zico, a former Jerusalem pilgrim, is chairman while and Akwashiki is secretary.

Eggon News quoted Zico, who claimed that the group has over 50 branches scattered all over Nigeria particularly in Eggon land, as saying that Ombatse was born from a revelation through a dream where the ancestors directed the male natives to rise up and cleanse the land of societal ills including adultery fornication, drunkenness, theft, killing and others condemned by both the Bible and the Quran.

Thus Ombatse, thus a traditional religious group, in a way shares something with Boko Haram, whose aim is to purify the Nigerian society by Islamising the country. Whether Ombatse ends up making the North-Central ungovernable just as Boko Haram has done in the North-West and North-East remains to be seen.

Source: News Express

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (2nd right), his Ekiti, Edo, Ogun, Osun, Imo and Oyo States counterparts, Dr Kayode Fayemi (right), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole (3rd right), Senator Ibikunle Amosun (4th right), Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (3rd left), Owelle Rochas Okorocha (2nd left) and Senator Abiola Ajimobi (left) briefing the Press at the end of the meeting of the Progressive Governors (All Progressives Congress -APC) at the Government House, Owerri, Imo State, on Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Amaechi, the once powerful Chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum, has had his wings clipped lately but has been left without a defence by members of his own Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Reports have suggested that he may decamp to APC but he says he has no such plans.

As if to assure Amaechi of support if he decamps to their fold, APC governors who stormed Owerri to attend ceremonies marking Okorocha’s second anniversary as governor, berated President Jonathan over what they called the harassment and intimidation of Gov. Amaechi by the Presidency and agencies of the federal government.

In a communique read by Gov. Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State after a closed-door meeting at the Government House, the governors described the development in Rivers State as an assault on the constitution and sovereignty of the nation.

“We are concerned about the development in the polity of Rivers State. What is going on in the state in our own view is an assault on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We therefore condemn the open assault as the government being formed by the democratic system cannot be arbitrary harassed or intimidated out of office. We call on the president to stop the unwarranted harassment of the sovereignty of the nation,” the APC governors said.

They also reviewed the progress so far made on the conclusion of the merger and expressed satisfaction that APC will give Nigerians alternative government that would address the problems facing the Nigerian nation.

They governors however enjoined party members to remain resolute as the ruling PDP is still allegedly plotting to disrupt the merger by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and a faction of the All progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

On the solidarity to the their host, the APC governors declared: “We have noted the developmental strides going on in the state under the rescue mission of Gov. Owelle Rochas Okorocha for the past two years and expressed our solidarity to the people of Imo state on the second anniversary of the Imo Freedom Day.”

Source: News Express

I am amazed because the chief law officer of the federation should, ordinarily, not be involved in acts that are meant to muzzle fairness and transparency. When a citizen is aggrieved or has complaints against individuals or institutions, it is to the courts that he turns to. If the courts cannot guarantee fair hearing and justice to citizens, then we are all doomed. This is the scenario Adoke’s silence in the case involving Bafarawa paints.

To situate the issue properly, it is important that we understand what the conspiracy is all about. Alhaji Bafarawa who was the governor of Sokoto State between 1999 and 2007 is standing trial in a Sokoto State High Court over allegations of graft since 2008. The Governor while leaving office had invited the then Governor-elected, Aliyu Wamakko, for proper handover briefing. However, Wamakko declined the invitation. On the day he was taking over on May 29, 2007, Wamakko raised alarm that he met the state’s coffers in the red. His claim ran counter to the facts, which he was privy to before he took over. That fact was that Bafarawa left about N 11.8 billion in the state’s account while he was leaving office.

The matter was straightforward enough. An independent inquiry needed to be conducted to know between Bafarawa and Wamakko who was right or wrong. Consequently, Bafarawa petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), asking it to probe the allegation. Curiously, the EFCC did nothing. Then one year after, the commission invited Bafarawa over to its office, claiming that there was a petition against him. He was subsequently detained. No charges were slammed on him. His tormentors merely left him in solitary confinement.

Unable to reconcile his earlier petition with the action of the EFCC, Bafarawa went to court and eventually secured his release. The court ordered the EFCC to bring charges against Bafarawa. But the Commission could not do so until the Sokoto State Government fed it with some spurious charges. The commission could not carry out its own Investigation because the allegations against Bafarawa were hollow. Since then, the EFCC has remained timid in the Bafarawa case because it has no facts to rely on.

The concerned publics really pity EFCC in this matter. They know that the commission is only being used to achieve a nefarious objective. But this is most unfortunate because Nigerians had thought that the commission under Ibrahim Larmode would not allow itself to be manipulated as was the case in the past. Concerned Nigerians are still pitying the EFCC.

But they are even more scandalised that the Attorney-General of the Federation also decided to be entangled in the conspiracy web. How did Adoke come in? Having made up its mind that Bafarawa must be constantly harassed for political reasons, the Sokoto State Government employed the services of EFCC. The commission timidly acquiesced and played along. But the involvement of the Attorney-General became the last straw that was being used to break Bafarawa’s back. The plot was to ensure that Bafarawa is tried in a court where he will be prosecuted and jailed by the same person, in this case, his accuser. Consequently, they charged him to Sokoto State High Court instead of a Federal High Court.

Since then, Nigerians have been expressing worry at this development. They do not understand why Bafarawa is not being tried in a Federal High Court since the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the complainant in the case. Justice and fairness therefore demand that Bafarawa be tried in a federal court either in Sokoto State or the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.

At first, it was thought that it was an oversight on the part of the office of the Attorney-General. His attention was therefore drawn to the unpalatable situation. But as a believer in the rule of law, Bafarawa took it upon himself to ensure that the Attorney-General does not continue to act in Ignorance. He therefore approached his lawyers, who wrote Adoke on June 18, 2012, drawing his attention to the anomaly. The Attorney-General received Bafarawa’s letter on June 20, 2012 but has not, up till this day, deemed it necessary to respond to the issue raised by Bafarawa. This is not only contemptuous; it ridicules the exalted office of the Attorney-General.

It is contemptuous because good breeding and civilised conduct demand that Adoke addresses the concerns expressed by the petitioner, no matter how frivolous. A responsible public office holder does not ignore issues of state brought before him. If Bafarawa was wrong in asking that his case be transferred to a Federal High Court, he should be told so by the Attorney-General. If he was right, then his request should be granted without further delay. But there is no feedback of any sort from Adoke’s office. This conspiracy of silence throws him open to suspicion. By maintaining a studied silence, Adoke has given the impression that he is an accomplice in the grand conspiracy to deal with Bafarawa.

But this is wrong. The office of Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice is an exalted one. It is usually respected because the people expect that they can get redress from it when their rights are being trampled upon. If the same office becomes a haven for unholy acts, then everyone is in trouble. Rather than be Minister of Justice, Adoke appears to be presiding over injustice. Someone needs to call him to order.

While we can understand the timid attitude of the EFCC, we cannot rationalise that of the office of the Attorney-General. While Nigerians have, long before now, lost confidence in the EFCC, they cannot afford to give up on matters of justice and fair play. The Office of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice represents justice and fair play. That is the reason for its existence. If it fails to deliver on this mandate then we must all be living in a jungle. Someone should please prevail on Adoke to take us out of this jungle. Nigerians are civilised people. They want to move with the civilised world. They do not want to be dragged down by conspirators and anti-social elements.

As the Chief Law Officer of the Federation, the assumption is that Adoke is civilised. He must therefore not act in a way and manner that will give a lie to this assumption.

Beginning from now, we expect Adoke to do one thing. He should respond to Bafarawa’s petition on his unjust trial at Sokoto State High Court. We expect that the best response from him will be to ensure the transfer of the case to a Federal High Court in line with Bafarawa’s request.

But if for any reason Adoke feels that Bafarawa is wrong to have requested for the transfer of the case, we expect him to also let the people know this. Let us know why Bafarawa is wrong, if indeed, he is. Let us know why he is the only Ex-Governor that is being tried in a State High Court. If Adoke responds in whichever way, he would have saved himself and the office he occupies from allegations of complicity. But if he remains silent then he must be keeping a date with infamy.

Let us remind Adoke at this point that no condition is permanent. If he decides to play politics with the name and reputation of his fellow citizen, posterity will judge him harshly. This will make real sense to him when he is no longer occupying this same office. We advise him to be wise and act wisely too.

•Ibrahim writes from Lafia, Nasarawa State.

Source: News Express

Continue reading:
To further put the Igbos in bad light, you said “He (Achebe) claimed that they (the Igbos) were the dominant tribe, led the nation in virtually every sector – politics, education, commerce and the arts”. You agonizingly noted in your pathetic myopia “which included having two vice – chancellors in Yoruba land…”Your list is not exhaustive . At that time, Engr. Francis C.N.Agbasi was the first Nigerian Principal of Yaba College of Technology and Mr. Clement Odunukwe was the Senior Lecturer –in –charge (Principal) of Federal Emergency Science School, Onikan, Lagos. Also, Mr. F.C. Nwokedi, was the first Nigerian Federal Permanent Secretary to be appointed by the colonial masters. When Mr. P. G. Stallard was retiring, Mr. Nwokedi ought to have succeeded him as the first Nigerian Secretary to the Council of Ministers. But because he came from the ‘wrong’ tribe, he was skipped and Mr. S. O. Wey was given the post while Mr. Nwokedi became the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Modesty will not restrain me from expressing my joy, be it of local patriotism because, the last three gentlemen mentioned above, hailed from my home town, Nnewi, and Mr. Nwokedi was from my village, Edoji.
Since these institutions are in Yorubaland, you created the impression that the Yoruba benevolently allowed the Igbos to occupy those posts. You deliberately ignored the fact that they are Federal Government institutions and appointment into those positions followed very rigorous due process. I had described in a previous article how Professor Kenneth O. Dike was unanimously elected the Principal of the University College Ibadan, by the University College Council. It bears repeating for your benefit. The Chairman of the Council, Dr. Akanu Ibiam, went to London, and consulted Sir Charles Morris, Chairman of the Inter ‐ University College Council that found Principals and Vice Chancellors for colonial Universities. Sir. Morris said to Dr. Ibiam, ”Why do you come to us? You have your man there (Prof Kenneth Dike).You are lucky to have a ready – made man on the spot.”

In my second session as an undergraduate at Ibadan University in 1965/66, a Yoruba undergraduate wrote an article in which he said “If this university was situated east of the Niger, one would understand; but to hear people ‘keduing’ about all over the campus in a university founded in Yoruba land is unacceptable.” Kedu is the Igbo word for how do you do.

In that same year, some of us students were hanging around the Faculty of Science premises where Faculty Lecturers were reviewing the sessional results of students. We asked Dr. V.O. Olunloyo, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics who was the first lecturer to come out of the meeting, about the result of Mr ONWUCHEKWA, a final year Mathematics student. He said, second class upper.

We expressed our dismay, for we had expected Onwuchekwa to make a first class in the light of his brilliant records. Dr.Olunloyo remarked, “ You don’t expect Onwuchekwa to make a first class considering the high standard set by Kenku last year.” I am not aware that the record set by Prof Iya Abubakar in Mathematics has been equaled or broken ,yet Kenku made his first class without equaling Abubakar’s record. Instead of saying that Onwuchekwa did not meet the first class bar, he resorted to ethnic politics by comparing Onwuchekwa’s ( an Igbo) result with Kenku’s(a Yoruba) result .

In 1998, Emeritus Professor Chike Obi solved the over 300 years old Mathematics puzzle – FERMAT’S LAST THEOREM, established in 1637 by a French Lawyer/Mathematician, Pierre Fermat. Chike Obi’s paper was accepted for publication and appeared in the USA – based Journal of Algebras, Groups and Geometries, Vol. 15 pp 289 – 299 (1998). Despite the fact that Chike Obi’s paper was published by a renowned and distinguished American Journal, Dr. Olunloyo and one Ogunsola, an actuary, openly disputed without any basis, the validity of Chike Obi’s proof.

To add to these polemics by some Yorubas, Damola Awoyokun accused the Igbos of boastfulness and excessive exhibitionalism, of their strenuous achievements, when it is known that potentials, abilities, competences and the like, are either God – given or acquired. The Igbos have not been known to be boastful for such attributes coming their way.

Achebe simply traced the Igbos’ ‘LONG WALK’ to acquire them, which made Damola furiously uncomfortable.Your mindless determination to tarnish the image of the colossus, Achebe has failed. The following is the view of a Yoruba man, Duro Onabule, on Achebe. “Whatever the bad feelings of his critics, Achebe’s reputation, unlike his contemporaries, is that of a straightforward man. He has never been known to be cowardly, neither does he cringe before nor collaborate with local or international establishment. Achebe’s character is definite as he does not charade in the day only to be settled at night…….

Even if Awolowo was not in the position to effect his belief in starvation as a weapon of war, the fact remains that he (Awolowo) publicly took that position and was widely reported in the media in Nigeria and abroad….Is Chinua Achebe fair to Awolowo in his criticisms? The appropriate preceding question is: was Awolowo fair to himself when he publicly upheld starvation as a legitimate weapon of war, more so during a civil war in which the outside world was disgusted with television visuals of thousands of starving malnourished innocent children? Achebe’s critics on his latest book, especially Yoruba, should objectively read “AWO”, Obafemi Awolowo’s autobiography, in which throughout , there is not a single sentence complimentary to Nnamdi Azikiwe, portrayed as an ethnic jingoist….Yet, Awolowo’s criticism of Azikiwe were never mischievously interpreted as hatred for Igbos. Nobody of Achebe’s status and with terrible experiences of the civil war could be expected to write his recollections without justifiable criticism of starvation as a weapon throughout the war. His critics just have to be realistic rather than being emotional.”

Damola Awoyokun and Odia Ofeimun would want Achebe’s THERE WAS A COUNTRY: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF BIAFRA not only banned but all existing copies of the book burnt. Damola said ”Instead of writing the book as a writer who is Igbo, Achebe wrote the book as an Igbo writer ( I do not see any difference here except that an Igbo writer is one who writes in Igbo language.) …All the places that
should alarm the moral consciousness of any writer, Achebe is either indifferent or dismisses them outright because the victims are not his people. But in every encounter that shows the Igbo being killed or resented by Nigerians, or by the Yoruba in particular, Achebe intensifies the spotlight, deploying stratospheric rhetoric…Furthermore, not only does he take pride in ignoring the findings of common sense, he allocates primetime attention to fact – free rants just because they say his people are the most superior tribe in Nigeria. The book, to say the least, is a masterpiece of propaganda and sycophancy. It is not a writer’s business to be an accomplice to lies.”

Damola is guilty of the same charge for where Biafra or Igbos are the victims, he ignored it totally, as in this case where the American secret files say that “Mohammed the Second Division Commander was reported to have criticized Obasanjo thus: “We told you not to end the war the way you did so as to sort things out, you went on gaddamgaddam and finished it.” Damola ignored the fact that what Murtala Mohammed meant was that Obasanjo did not give him time to apply the FINAL SOLUTION TO THE IGBO PROBLEM! That is, to give him time to wipe out the Igbos from the surface of the earth. Next, I do not think that Damola Awoyokun has the competence, experience or stature to grade Achebe’s literary work.

Odia Ofeimun said” I believe he (Achebe)got it very wrong in that book and therefore, since I believe that we must allow generations coming after us to live by the spacious and opportunistic views that our fathers had, we must contest all the lies, we must ensure that their wrong views of the way the world works get corrected…… Achebe says that Igbo people are individualistic and that was what
helped them to acquire western education, catch up with the Yoruba and then took over all the jobs.

It is a very wrong description of what actually happened. What happened is that before independence, the NPC and the NCNC reached an agreement to run Nigeria together. Nnamdi Azikiwe refused to form a coalition with the AG because the Yoruba were educated and would be competing with the Igbo people for the jobs. Therefore they wanted a coalition.( with the NPC) Because that coalition was a very conservative one, they wanted to go with the Hausa-Fulani, who did not have enough people to take over the jobs that the Europeans were exiting from nor did they have any to deal with the new jobs that would be created by independence. So, the Yoruba leader was jailed and the Yoruba who could have looked for jobs were shunted aside. So, the NCNC, though they have a strong following in the Western Region, arranged for the jobs to be taken over by their primary constitutuencies. That was it.

The above statement constrains me to define a lie and an incorrect statement. One tells a lie when one knows the truth but proceeds deliberately to tell the opposite. An incorrect statement is one that is generally limited by inappropriate or incomplete knowledge. It is not a deliberate act. Ofeimun has deliberately told a bundle of lies. What Achebe said was “ The Igbo culture being receptive to change, individualistic and highly competitive, gave the Igbo man an unquestioned advantage over his compatriots in securing credentials for advancement in Nigerian colonial society. Unlike the Hausa/Fulani he was unhindered by a wary religion and unlike the Yoruba unhampered by traditional hierarchies. This kind of creature, fearing no God or man, was custom – made to grasp the opportunities; such as they were, of the white man’s dispensation. And the Igbo did so with both hands.

Although the Yoruba had a huge historical and geographical head-start, the Igbo wiped out their handicap in one fantastic burst of energy in the twenty years between 1930 and 1950…. The rise of the Igbo in Nigerian affairs was due to the self-confidence engendered by their open society and their belief that one man is as good as another, that no condition is permanent. It was not due, as non-Igbo
observers imagined, to tribal mutual aid societies. The “Town Union” phenomenon, which has often been written about, was in reality an extension of the Igbo individualistic ethic.” Achebe never said that” the Igbo took over all the jobs.”

Zik decided never to ally with Awolowo after the carpet-crossing incident of 1951 in the Western House of Assembly at Ibadan, which prevented the NCNC from forming the government in spite of the fact that the NCNC was declared the winner of that election or as Achebe would put it “Chief Awolowo ‘stole ‘ the Government from him (ZIK) in broad daylight.” Job opportunity or who would take over from the departing British was never part of the issue at all. During the colonial era and immediately after, the Igbo relied on merit and competence for advancement and securing appointments in the public service .

It is worth mentioning here again, that the first Nigerian to be appointed a Federal Permanent Secretary by the British was Mr. F.C. Nwokedi an Igboman! This achievement of Mr. Nwokedi had nothing to do with the NCNC – NPC COALITION. With such men as Chiefs T.O.S. Benson, Adeniran Ogunsanya, Kolawole Balogun, Adegoke Adelabu and many others of timbre and caliber it was impossible that “the Yoruba who could have looked for jobs were shunted aside.”, because their leader was jailed! By the way, it was a Yoruba judge, Justice Sowemimo who sent Awolowo to jail. It is very surprising that Ofeimun left the stark naked facts and decided to dish out outlandish fiction and lies to the public ;just to ridicule and defame Achebe.On the Twenty Pounds Policy, Damola, you deliberately avoided the main issue .We are saying that all the bank accounts opened in Nigeria by Igbos, but operated in Biafra, were reduced to TWENTY POUNDS no matter the size of the account! We are not complaining about the exchange value of the Biafran currency. As the victor, Nigeria was free to pay twenty pounds or nothing for the Biafran money in spite of the NO VICTOR NO VANQUISHED bogey. Your reference to Zik’s statements condemning Ojukwu, Igbos and Biafra is in bad taste and very poor logic. Zik, having abandoned Biafra and the Igbos in particular, in their darkest hour, had to make himself amenable for pardon by Nigeria! Therefore Zik’s statement on Biafra, were not objective, credible or valid because of the above handicap.

Since the anti-intellectual opium that has made most non-Igbo Nigerians to hold Igbos responsible for the first coup, is still prevalent, I need to bring in Ademoyega again where as part of the FIVE MAJORS’ prescriptions for clearing the Nigerian Augean stable, said, “Tax and trade laws would be such that it would be unnecessary for any individual to accumulate unspent money in local and foreign banks, while millions of Nigerians have little or nothing to survive on. It should be impracticable for a single man to spend two million naira to build himself a personal house, while a very large number of Nigerians in the same community dwell in hovels, and sleep in gutters and under bridges.

The Government would not cater for the interest of a few people, while denying the majority of Nigerians
their rights and privileges as happened with the Obasanjo Government. That Government helped a few Nigerians to make easy millions of naira through oil distributorship, while denying the majority of Nigerians their rights to obtain loans to buy motor cars, on the selfish declaration that “it is not the intention of Government that every Tom, Dick and Harry should own a car”. Such a comment constituted
a most diabolical comment on the good intentions of the January 15 revolutionaries, who removed the evil politicians with the purpose of instituting a corrective and revolutionary military era.

“Educationally, we had agreed that there was only one answer to the mass illiteracy that troubled Nigeria in 1965, namely, mass education – both formal and informal……..Moreover, the people, especially in the North, had been exploited for a long time and had become inured to suffering, blaming their man – inflicted wounds on the will of Allah, whereas Allah was totally opposed to such human wickedness…”

Ademoyega went on to say, “Today, if one were to ask “when did the preparation for the revolution really begin?” the most accurate answer would be, “from 1961”, because the three of us who formed the nucleus of the revolutionary group had met in that year. Although we had not there and then planned a revolution, we had seen eye to eye and we knew that we had a common cause. It was as if he seed was sown at that time and only needed time to germinate, grow and bear fruit” Damola, was it the Igbos that synthesized this climate of patriotic spontaneous disposition to rescue Nigeria from further decay? Ademoyega continued, “But these meetings were between Ifeajuna and me on the one hand and between Nzeogwu and me on the other….Moreover, active efforts were made to get in touch with more officers of the Army so as to ascertain their inclinations and loyalty. These contacts were made most quietly and surreptitiously. A coup d’etat is not a conventional operation of the Army. Preparations for it could not at any time be done in the open or in plain language. Therefore when we discussed with officers, unless an officer showed serious interest, we always sounded casual and the matter was always left unspecified and inconclusive.”

The other aspect of the coup which could not have been handled by Ndigbo is illustrated here by Ademoyega. “The Battle Group Course went on without a hitch in Abeokuta until the first week of December 1965. There were twenty student officers on the Course, all Captains. I indoctrinated and orientated them towards the revolutionary thought – concept. I also held personal interviews with all of them. I took the whole group on an official reconnaissance of all the strategic locations in Lagos and I taught them how important positions could be held or defended in time of war or other military actions.

This was acknowledged as a very successful exercise and student officers were particularly happy that they were being introduced to the practical aspect of their defensive duties. If the coup took place before the course ended, many of the officers would have carried out any duties allotted to them without looking back, and our Lagos operation would have been as successful as the Kaduna operation came to be.”Damola, perhaps, this military exercise was also sponsored by The Igbo State Union.

Before the coup, the whole country was in distress; but the West was the most distressed, with the widespread riot, killings and their leader, Awolowo, in prison. The West was therefore, the tribe in greatest need for a coup to change the Federal Government, and restore their liberty, not the Igbos.

It has become necessary to ask, why has the North always succeeded in first, allying with the East(Azikiwe) to deal with the West and finally with the West(Awolowo) to destroy the East (Igbos)? Zik returned from America with the noble ambition to found a ‘BIG’ One Nigeria, which was not a bad idea.

But the foundation for that size of Nigeria was lacking. The summary of the feasibility report on the One Nigeria Project said – NOT FEASIBLE, NOT VIABLE AND NOT PROFITABLE! Awolowo saw this and wisely decided to concentrate his efforts in working for the Yorubas .Similarly, Sardauna, in answer to a question by a journalist, said, “I am first and foremost a moslem, secondly a Northerner, I am yet to be a Nigerian!” Why Zik could not come to the same conclusion as Awolowo and Sardauna remains a puzzle. My great and near fanatical admiration for Awolowo has been based on this self evident fact that Awolowo served and sacrificed everything he had for his Yoruba people .The Igbos were not that lucky with Zik.

After the Awolowo constitutionally insinuated carpet crossing of 1951 in the Western House of Assembly, at Ibadan, ZIK decided not to ever have anything to do with Awolowo in politics, which was a most imprudent decision. For it is said that in politics, there is no permanent enemy, only permanent interests! Also, Chairman Mao Tse Tung said “There is a time to ally with the enemy, but more
important is to know when to break with the enemy! It is true that the Federal Government of NPC and Zik’s NCNC sent Awolowo to jail, for which he was entitled to be bitter, it is also equally true that the Igbo led NCNC under Dr. M.I. Okpara formed the United Progressive Grand Alliance UPGA, with the Adegbenro led Action Group and other progressives, to oppose the Nigerian National Alliance NNA.

Arising from this alliance , Dr M.I. Okpara(M.I. POWER) informed Akintola that he would be visiting Ibadan. Akintola told him not to come, that he would not be in . Okpara said he would at least sign the Visitors Book in his absence. Okpara visited Ibadan as a show of solidarity to Adegbenro and the Yorubas. Okpara and his team were treated to a very rousing and enthusiastic reception by the students of Ibadan University, which was chaired by Prof. Hezekiah Oluwasanmi. I was an undergraduate at Ibadan University then. During the last election to the Western House of Assembly before the coup, Okpara on behalf of the Igbos, sent Mazi Ukonu of Eastern Nigerian Broadcasting Service to Ibadan, as a continued show of solidarity with the Yorubas, where he stayed at Awolowo’s house at Oke Ado to announce the correct version of the election results. All these should not have been lost on Awolowo when he decided to support Gowon to crush the Igbos during the war, more especially with his inhuman strategy of ‘STARVATION IS A LEGITIMATE WEAPON OF WAR!’

As regards the fate of the soldiers and politicians arrested in Lagos, the failure of the coup there, threw the revolutionaries into a quandary. Probably, in the ensuing confusion and tension, the arrested politicians and soldiers became a heavy load and were unfortunately shot.

Your recourse to 21,000 pages of American secret files was most unnecessary when you could have benefitted immensely from Major Adewale Ademoyega’s 194 pages book, WHY WE STRUCK .

While you relied entirely on the American secret files which are not only a reported speech, but one doctored to suit some entrenched partisan interest, my own account is based solely on what came out of the horse’s mouth.

Damola, I had expected the same logic and reasoning you displayed in your masterpiece of an article –
EINSTEIN AND THE EXPRESSWAY CHURCHES to be once more evident.

By confronting Emeritus Professor Chinua Achebe, Ndigbo and Biafra the way you did , you failed to meet the mark of adequate intellectual depth and strength and exposed your smallness in grappling with such a LABOUR OF HERCULES.

Concluded.

Read part 1 of this article: Igbo Coup, Biafra: Damola Awoyokun, Too Small To Be A Hercules

MAZI CHIKE CHIDOLUE , was former Officer, 12 Commando Brigade Biafra Army.

Source: Vanguard

I do not intend to take you up on the possibility of such a task. You sought to create the impression that since your source is American Secret Files, all you said is unquestionable truth. The USA being the world capital of present day CAPITALISM, every political opinion emanating from there is ideologically suspect by people of different political orientation. Reason being partly because of what John Buchan said in his novel – THE THIRTY NINE STEPS, ‐“ Capitalism has no conscience no fatherland!”, and partly because the USA is the sponsor of a very deadly type of international terrorism detailed by John Perkins in his book – CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN in which he said “Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who can cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections,payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. …..I should know; I was an EHM……Jaime Roldos, president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos, president of Panama both had just died in fiery crashes. Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they opposed that fraternity of corporate, government,and banking heads whose goal is global empire. We EHMS failed to bring Roldos and Torrijos around,and the other type of hit men, the CIA – sanctioned jackals who were always right behind us, stepped in.

“……Because of my fellow EHMs and me, Ecuador is in far worse shape today than she was before we introduced her to the miracles of modern economics, banking, and engineering. Since 1970, during this period known euphemistically as the Oil Boom, the official poverty level grew from 50 to 70 percent, under – or unemployment increased from 15 to 70 percent, and public debt increased from $240 million to $16 billion. …….Third World debt has grown to more than $2.5 trillion, and the cost of servicing it – over $375 billion per year as of 2004 – is more than all Third World spending on health and education, and twenty times what developing countries receive annually in foreign aid….” With this background of American insatiable quest for global economic domination established by an American, who was an insider, the credibility of your source of information on Biafra, is blowing in the wind, coupled with the
fact that you are apparently the Obasanjo type who swallows everything from the white man; as illustrated in his hiring of Baroness Lynda Chalker as his omnibus guide, counselor and supervisor.

21 million pages from American secret files cannot match the account of MAJOR ADEWALE ADEMOYEGA who was not only an ear and eye witness, but also, participated throughout in the planning and execution of the January 15, 1966 coup, from Genesis to Revelation so to speak. He was one of the SEVEN MAJORS who held the one and only formal meeting of the coup, one of the FIVE MAJORS that planned and executed the coup and also one of the THREE MAJORS that formed the inner core! Odia Ofeimun’s regrets and lamentations that the FORGOTTEN DOCUMENTS OF THE WAR including Major Ifeajuna’s account of the coup did not see the light of day is unhelpful. Ifeajuna and Nzeogwu being Igbos, their account, will not be accepted by most non – Igbo Nigerians because of the igbophobia that has poisoned their reasoning.

The unfriendly and destructive outburst from a section of the Yoruba nation against Achebe’s new book on Biafra, confirms that Ademoyega’s book on the coup ‐ WHY WE STRUCK, received scant or no attention from the Nigerian reading public. This has remained so even though it is known that ADEWALE ADEMOYEGA is non–Igbo, but a FULL AND RED BLOODED YORUBA IN NAME AND BEING! His ‘offence’ is that because of Nigeria’s victory over Biafra, in that war, facilitated by the strange and most unusual collaboration and collusion of COMMUNISM AND CAPITALISM, to suffocate a people struggling for survival, the first of its kind in world history and made possible by the intellectual domination of Ojukwu by Britain our former colonial master, he did not join the band wagon of anti – Igbo feeling to hold the Igbos as the sponsors of THE GLORIOUS JANUARY REVOLUTION. I will quote Ademoyega’s book copiously and extensively in an effort to bring out the true picture of that event even before an unwilling audience. .

History is also taken to mean his story. Emeritus Professor Chinua Achebe has written his “THERE WAS A COUNTRY ‐ A PERSONAL HISTORY OF BIAFRA”, laying emphasis where he chose. Damola, you can write your own history of Biafra or Nigeria and lay emphasis as you like. Nobody has the right to task anybody on where emphasis is laid. It is most improper if not immodest of you to assault Achebe on this score.

On the January 15, 1966 revolution, it is now known, settled and agreed that the FIVE MAJORS who planned and executed it, had as the final part of the operation, to free Awolowo from Calabar prison and make him their leader. With this in view, why do you persist in calling it an Igbo coup? The best interests of Ndigbo will not and cannot be served by Awolowo, as the new leader of the revolution, were
the coup to have succeeded in Lagos. If it were an Igbo coup, the arrangement would have been that power would be ultimately handed over to an Igbo man not to AWOLOWO. Because of your uncritical obsession that it was an Igbo coup, which did not have the welfare of Awolowo at heart, you said “ In reality, there was no army unit heading to Calabar to spring Awolowo from prison.”

Major Adewale Ademoyega counters your stand thus “……Yet there was one arrangement we had left till the date was fixed. It was the arrangement for the release of political prisoners, particularly Chief Awolowo. Now that our own date had been tentatively fixed for mid ‐ January, it became necessary to gear up that arrangement. At the end of the first week in January, Major Anuforo and I arranged to meet Captain Udeaja……….Having briefed Udeaja generally and got his consent, we gave him his task. He was to fly in a special plane provided for the purpose to Calabar on the morning of the D – Day , to effect the release of Chief Awolowo and bring him to Lagos on the plane…”. Damola, you seriously need to note the above point even if it goes against the grain.Yet, if all the FIVE MAJORS were Igbos, their intention was national.

Entre Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu in ‐ 13 YEARS OF MILITARY RULE by James O. Ojiako, a Daily Times Publication. “We seized power to stamp out tribalism, nepotism and regionalism .There were five of us in the inner circle and we planned the details. On Saturday morning, the officers and men thought they were going out only on a night exercise.

It was not until they were out in the bush that they were told the full details of the plan. They had bullets, they had been issued with their weapons but I was unarmed. If they disagreed, they could have shot me.

It was truly a Nigerian gathering and only in the army do you get true Nigerianism…….They did it for the good of their country……” Where did Ndigbo come into this business in the light of Nzeogwu’s statement? Tell me Engr. Damola Awoyokun, the all knowing authority on the January coup and the Nigeria – Biafra war.

You said” Ojukwu”, said Stephan, (the West African correspondent of Bavarian Broadcasting, Munich) “was a supporter of the coup, the first in the country’s history. He sympathized with the January 1966 plot makers, but was careful enough to avoid any overplayed attachment to them. Ojukwu told me later that it had been him who had requested General (Aguiyi) Ironsi to crush the coup…” How amazing?Ojukwu an Igbo man, advising Ironsi another Igbo man, to crush an Igbo coup! The two parts of this sentence are mutually exclusive. Though your belief in an Igbo coup is very strong, you went on probably subconsciously to quote your American Secret files where they said, ‘According to Lieutenant Colonel Abba Kyari, military governor of North Central State, “there is no question that Major Nzeogwu, Ibo leader of 1966 coup in Kaduna, had been a nationalist, not a tribalist, who was acting for the good of all Nigeria.” Damola, Nzeogwu was acting for the good of all Nigeria not for the good of the IGBOS, SO SAID A NORTHERN MILITARY GOVERNOR! When Nigeria engages in dastardly behavior it does not attract your attention as in this case where your American files continued to quote Abba Kyari“….explaining that Nzeogwu having been falsely informed that Nsukka was in Biafran hands, boldly entred Ubolo Eke, near Nsukka at night and was killed. Nzeogwu’s corpse was transferred to the North and given full military burial, but not before northern soldiers had plucked out his eyes so that he would never see the North again.” What an effort, a dead man being prevented from seeing again!

With this type of treatment given to the corpse of a dead man, only God knows what they did to Colonel Tim Onwuatuegwu who was captured alive! They may still be killing Onwuatuegwu up to this day! Your American files said again, ”At the Kano airport, soldiers seized an Igbo stewardess from a plane on which she flew in from London. She was never heard of again.Chinua Achebe had extensively discussed the prevalent national resentment of the Igbos by other Nigerian ethnic groups. Ndigbo cannot help this unjustified, diabolical, conspiratorial, animosity against them by volunteering their extinction from the planet earth. Almighty God placed Ndigbo in this part of the globe, and they will not betray the responsibility of preserving their specie. You concocted all types of fables to portray the IGBOS as being unsympathetic on the size of the northern casualties during the first coup.

Ademoyega speaks again “….It would be recalled that by late 1965 the efforts of the Balewa Government to Northernise the top echelon of the army was already bearing fruit. Some Northerners were already holding most of the strategic positions in the Army. Those positions could easily be used to thwart our attempt to change the Government. Sheer caution dictated that we would be sure to neutralize those officers so that our revolution would have a chance of taking off and succeeding. Later events did fully justify our apprehension, since it was the escape of only one of those marked down for arrest that brought us intense hardship and finally compromised our success.

There was no plan to arrest or kill all the officers above the rank of Major as was later claimed by extreme Northern propagandists. Even among those earmarked for arrest, only four were Northerners, two were Westerners and two were Easterners. But the North had always had more than 50% of the intake of officers into the Army since 1961, and more than 70 % of the intake of the other ranks. Therefore if casualties were to happen, it was more likely to be in that proportion than anything else.

The wicked propaganda that followed the coup was only made possible by the weakness and non – revolutionary principles of the Ironsi regime, which bore no semblance to the well ordered and well controlled government that was envisaged and could have been run by us if our plans were fully executed…”

In your prejudiced mind, you trivialized the critical and crucial safety valve that ABURI ACCORD provided by saying “All his (Ojukwu’s) performances in Ghana that culminated in the Aburi Accord of January 1967, or discussion with the Awolowo led National Conciliation Committee five months later, turned out to be ruse. ” You overlooked the very important fact that at Aburi, an agreement was reached, signed and sealed by Ojukwu and Gowon. When they returned to their countries, instead of implementing the accord as signed, Gowon allowed his ‘super’ permanent secretaries, to interpret that document which was not written in Greek or Latin language, but in plain simple English language, and ended up, refusing to implement it and therefore PRECIPITATED THE WAR. If Gowon had implemented the ABURI ACCORD as signed in Ghana, on January 5, 1967, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO WAR. I should have closed my case here in ABURI, but could not resist the urge to respond to some of your other foibles.

Nigerian commentators on the civil war always fight shy of the ABURI ACCORD and its tremendous and strategic importance, because by so doing, IGBOS are set up for the kill on the guillotine of ethnic cleansing. Every unbiased umpire will agree that THE CIVIL WAR WAS CAUSED BY GOWON BECAUSE HE REFUSED TO IMPLEMENT THE ABURI ACCORD! Any objective and sincere inquirer on the cause of the war, should go no further than the ABURI ACCORD! In Biafra, we had as our mantra, ON ABURI WE STAND, while Gowon, instead of standing on ABURI with Biafra, torpedoed and demolished the good work done at Aburi.

Even though the credibility of your American Secret Files is hanging in the balance, I am curious to note what they said here. “The secret US document called Njoku the best Enugu has (and one of the very best Nigeria has produced).The UK defence advisor who had known Madiebo as subordinate officer First Recce Squadron for several years, said he is “perfectly charming socially, but quite worthless
professionally. He is weak, ineffective commander and consistently had worst recce squadron.” To affirm what he was saying, he showed the US defence attaché, Madiebo’s file at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. Madiebo’s records were abysmal…..”

The coup was purely a Nigerian enterprise by patriotic citizens. Ndigbo or The Igbo State Union as at the time had no hand in the coup, as confirmed by Ademoyega when he said “It was in mid – November 1965 that we held the one and only formal meeting that preceded the coup .The meeting was held in Lagos, in the military quarters of Major Ifeajuna……The meeting was very short. There was a consensus
that something had to be done quickly to save Nigeria from anarchy and disintegration and to restore peace and unity to the nation. It was agreed that only the use of force could bring immediate end to the violence being perpetrated in many parts of the country. It was, however, agreed that the use of force should be minimal. Political leaders and their collaborators were to be arrested, but wherever an arrest was resisted, it was to be met with force. Otherwise, no one was to be killed. Only the heads of government, that is, the Prime Minister, the four regional premiers and their right – hand men, were considered most essential to arrest throughout the country. And among their military collaborators, only the top echelon and those holding strategic positions were named for arrest. These included the GOC of the Nigerian Army, General Ironsi, the commanders of the two brigades, Brigadiers Ademulegun and Maimalari, the Chief of Staff Army HQ, Colonel Kur Mohammed, and the Adjutant General of the Army, Lieutenant – Colonel Pam. Others were the Deputy Commander of the NDA, Colonel Shodeinde, the Quartermaster – General of the Army, Lieutenant – Colonel Unegbe and the Commander of the 4th Battalion which was based in Ibadan and was the most politicised unit of the Army, Lieutenant-Colonel Largema.

Contrary to the load of wicked propaganda that has since been heaped on us, there was no decision in our meeting to single out any particular ethnic group for elimination or destruction Our intentions were honourable , our views were national and our goals were idealistic. We intended that the coup should be national in execution so that it would receive national acclamation. We planned that the use of force should be minimal so that our methods could at once be seen as superior to those of the politicians, who simply went on killing the very people they were called upon to govern. The need to bring more of the middle level officers (Majors and Lieutenant – Colonels) was discussed. But the few names that could be mentioned had to be dropped because their interpersonal connections would compromise the security of the planning. After ninety minutes of discussion, the meeting was over. We dispersed as if from a prayer meeting since it was a Sunday and the Lord was in our midst……..“

NNA Plan to Wallop the West

“It was at this time that I met Chief H. O. Davies for the first time. He was a famous politician who had been in the nationalist struggle since 1941. He was a Federal Minister under the Balewa Government….I soon got into deep conversation with him on the political situation in the country, I was particularly interested to know what the Federal Government’s view was, apart from Balewa’s public statements.

Chief H. O. Davies made it clear that the Federal Government had no, solution to the political crisis” (Damola are you hearing this? Since the Federal Government had no solution to the crisis the January boys not the IGBOS had to step in.)” He said that everybody was just waiting to see what would happen next and that nobody knew exactly what that would be; but surely something was bound to happen. I
left Chief Davis feeling that the Balewa Government had something up its sleeve .Otherwise, the minister would not be so emphatic that something was bound to happen…“ .

On January 3, 1966, I went to work with Ifeajuna. After extensive prodding, we discovered that the Balewa Government had a terrible plan to bring the Army fully to operate in the West for the purpose of eliminating the elites of that region, especially the intellectuals who were believed to be behind the intransigence of the people against the Akintola Government. It was for this reason that the government
had attacked the intellectuals of the Region, especially those at Ife, intimidating and victimizing them for their refusal to support it. People like Solarin of May Flower School, Ikenne, were among those marked down. It was also intended that if the plan succeeded in the West, the next target would be the East. The Federal Government was to use loyal troops for this purpose and the 4th Battalion at Ibadan
commanded by Lieutenant – Colonel Largema and the 2nd Battalion temporarily commanded by Major Igboba, but soon to be taken over by Lieutenant ‐Colonel Gowon, were designated for this assignment.”

If the January boys had not intervened, Sardauna and the Balewa Federal Government would have recolonised and severely subjugated Southern Nigeria and placed it in a condition far worse than Southern Sudan experienced before her independence. Damola, I hope you can now see that the January coup was very divinely timely. Ademoyega continued ” The operation was fixed for the third week of January 1966, when the Sardauna would have returned from his pilgrimage, and Lieutenant – Colonel Gowon would have completed his takeover of the Ikeja Battalion. In preparation of this horrible move by the Federal Government, the high echelons of the Army and the Police were being reshuffled.

Major – General Ironsi was ordered to proceed on leave from mid – January. He was to be relieved by Brigadier Maimalari, over the head of Brigadier Ademulegun…..In the Police, Inspector – General Edet was sent on leave from December 20,1965.The officer closest to him was retired and the the third officer, Alhaji Kam Salem was brought in as the new Inspector – General. The stage was thus set for the proper walloping of the West…….

“Late on the 14th, news reached us that the Sardauna had been having a meeting in Kaduna on that day with Chief Akintola of the West, and that both Brigadier Ademulegun and Lieutenant Colonel Largema were in attendance. It was obvious to us that they were putting finishing touches to their planned “walloping of the West”. But we felt confident that we were one step ahead.”

After the revenge coup, neither the triumphant NORTH nor you Damola, expressed sympathy to Igbos because of the over 200 Igbo casualties compared to the about 26 casualties of the first coup by your account from the American secret files! .” You went on to say” that the Igbos in the North were widely taunting their hosts on the loss of their leaders. Celestine Ukwu,a popular Igbo musician, released songs titled Ewu Ne Ba Akwa (Goats Are Crying) and others celebrating “Igbo power….”. I do not intend to comment on your assertion that Igbos in the North celebrated the death of northern leaders because it is neither here nor there. But the record song you referred to, was a high life number released by Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson a Kalabari, long before the first coup. You had to foist authorship of that highlife record, on Igbos to further criminalise and calumnise them. At that time, once a highlife record was released, whether by Bobby Benson, E.C.Arinze, Stephen Amechi. Victor Olaiya, Eddy Okonta, Chief Bill Friday, Roy Chicago, Victor Uwaifo, Agu Norris, Baby Face Paul, Ambrose Campbell and His West African Rhythm Brothers, Stephen Osadebe or any others, those of us in the know, would immediately and correctly name the author. May be, you were not in circulation then.

To be continued.

MAZI CHIKE CHIDOLUE , was former Officer, 12 Commando Brigade, Biafra Army.

Source: Vanguard

Open Memo to Nigerian Opposition Politicians – 2

Party politics in Nigeria is for all comers where identity and values mean nothing. Members don’t need to have any special attribute. As a result, for instance, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is for everybody including the corrupt, ex-convicts, questionable Nigerians, etc. just as it also has a good mix of some of the good and positive citizens.

The party doesn’t have to respect its members and make itself available to the Nigerian people. Democratic values mean nothing to the party. Elections hardly take place and when they do, the results can be vetoed by party leaders. It has gradually emerged as a party without democrats and permanently antagonistic to Nigerian people. At the same time, it proudly bears the name Peoples Democratic Party.

The fact of PDP’s control of the Federal Government and most state governments, which conferred on it the commanding control of the resources of the country since 1999 mean liberalised access by corrupt Nigerians and geometric rise of the problem of mismanagement, looting and theft of public resources. The outcome is that virtually every PDP functionary at party or governmental levels is contaminated with varying degree of the public treasury loot allergy.

The absence of democracy and being antagonistic to Nigerian public has also resulted in very high membership turnover. The consequence is that the Nigerian political landscape at all level is littered with ex-PDP. Sadly, Nigerian politics is yet to acquire any capacity for healing or quarantining ex-PDP members, especially those that have proven cases of public loot allergy or public evidence of authoritarian amity.

Largely on account of combinations of lack of internal party democracy, high membership turnover and absence of values in our polity, almost all our parties have been infected with the public loot allergy in varying degrees. As a result of which both in terms of the different parties and the government they produce, poor services and contempt by officials to public outcry for good governance is a recurring characteristic.

This is the progressive lethargy that today represents a major source of public frustration, cynicism and democratic inertia. It has in significant ways reduced democratic governance in Nigeria to a state of joke and clamour for national development to rhetoric. Nigeria is therefore a country without national development targets, a country where public officials govern with impunity, where citizens’ lives are at best statistical expressions, where the rise of anarchy and relapse to Hobbesian state of nature is the commandment.

Is this our national destiny? Is there any way to remedying this ugly situation? Do Nigerians have any hope that anything positively different can come out of any of today’s initiative? In terms of politics, is there a way to introduce some values and character to any of our parties? Can the effort towards introducing values and character also take on board the need to cure the public treasury loot allergy?

Almost every Nigerian is asking these questions with special interest mostly based on the hope that Nigerian politics can be refined such that public frustration, cynicism, democratic inertia, absence of national development, culture of impunity, loss of lives and property, anarchy and relapse to Hobbesian state will no longer be our defining feature.

In response therefore our Nigerian opposition politicians have taken up the challenge and since January this year (2013) commenced national negotiations to merge our opposition parties, notably ACN, ANPP, CPC and Okorocha-led APGA and have since February 6 announced agreement to form All Progressives Congress (APC). While for many Nigerians this is a welcome development, it is also being received with doubt given that many leaders of these parties involved in the merger negotiations are to some extent ex-PDP with varying levels of contamination and public treasury loot allergy.

This may only serve to reinforce public frustration, cynicism and democratic inertia. It demand for a conscious response from the merging parties, at least to stimulate public confidence that the new party, APC, will be founded with the capacity to, at the minimum, to provide healing for public treasury loot allergy and/or authoritarian amity.

Somehow, perhaps on account of over confidence arising from the perceived high public support for the merger, our opposition leaders have almost ignored this expectation completely. Issues of leadership selection process for the merger, at best, insult public sensibility given the decision to vest the leadership of the merger negotiation in the hands of Chief Tom Ikimi.

Not even the choice of the name, All Progressives Congress (APC) and the fact that by any parameter, Chief Ikimi will never qualify as progressive moderated our opposition leaders. If anything, he is a conservative through and through who never hid his preference for private accumulation, private enterprise, capitalism, etc.

Although, it can be argued that given the state of things in Nigeria, private accumulation, private enterprise and capitalism if founded based on application of rules, liberalised environment and equal access could represent progress. However given the antecedent of Chief Tom Ikimi, it is doubtful if his choice of private accumulation, private enterprise, capitalism, etc. is located in application of rules, liberalised environment and equal access.

Besides, his democratic credentials as the foreign Minister of Gen. Sani Abacha’s administration and his role in the international defense of the criminal state murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1996 were certainly a huge mark that meant anything but progressive. Perhaps his role as PDP returning officer in the sham contest between Chief Obasanjo and Chief Alex Ekweme in 2003 is progressive credentials.

Nigerians have lived with this ‘progressive’ assault for about four months. Some commentaries, critiques and public opinions have drawn attention to this. In virtually all cases, the response is some subtle rationalisation, stubborn silence and meek arrogance. This could be a way of highlighting the prerogatives of our political leaders to take all decisions without worrying about public expectations including wrong choices of party leaders.

This can only further fuel public frustration, cynicism and democratic inertia and consequently make APC to emerge only as a vehicle to entrench our progressive lethargy. With this kind of disposition, conservatives with strong authoritarian streak such as Chief Ikimi or any other person can emerge as leaders of APC.

Therefore, instead of emerging as a progressive party, one founded based on a commitment to social welfare services especially education and health, like the case of ‘people’ and ‘democratic’ in the name of PDP, ‘progressive’ identity will just be another taxonomy meaning virtually nothing to APC.

With the presence of many ex-PDP, some with advanced signs of the public treasury loot allergy, problems of national development targets, impunity, anarchy and relapse to Hobbesian state of nature will remain our national commandment.

Our leaders in the Nigerian opposition parties negotiating the APC merger need to take urgent steps to redirect affairs so that APC truly emerge as a progressive party. Progressive loosely defined based on a strategy to develop APC as a party that can guarantee steady incremental positive changes in our political life.

These incremental changes should take their bearing from good demonstration of commitment to develop a party that can regulate the conduct of every member. The starting point may have to proceed with strong commitment to guarantee fairness within the party. Progress in this respect will assume a reverse order and the calamity facing the nation will continue.

What should our opposition leadership do in order to guarantee fairness? There are three principles that can be recommended to guide APC negotiations especially the process of leadership formation. The first should be the need to address problem associated with combination of treasury loot allergy and authoritarian amity.

The second will be the need to ensure fair representation of the parties in the merger process. And the third is the need to come with strong commitment to ensure equal representation of all parts of the country and interests in the leadership of the party.

It is important that the party begin to use the issue of principles as a guide moving forward given that by May 11, once ANPP and CPC successful hold their merger conventions, the next stage will be that of leadership formation. Given the reality of Nigerian politics largely being driven by personal aspirations, the democratic and progressive outlook of APC risked being sacrificed. This underlines the need to urgently appeal to our opposition political leaders so that they don’t recklessly squander the huge democratic opportunity the APC merger process present.

With respect to the principles highlighted above therefore, the first task before our opposition leaders is to take all the necessary steps to ensure that as much as possible all those holding principal position in the party can be adjudged to have tolerable levels of ex-PDP symptom, public treasury loot allergy or authoritarian amity. Principal Officers in this case should include National Chairman, National Secretary, National Treasurer and Chairman BOT.

The process of leadership formation must factor a strategy for comprehensive due diligence, including public scrutiny. A situation where the approach is blind to ex-PDP symptom, public treasury loot allergy and authoritarian amity, can only result in creating a shadow PDP in APC.

The second issue is that once the principal offices are agreed, fairness requires that these offices are equitably shared among the merging parties. The factor that should determine equity must take into account the need for every party and all members to make sacrifice for the good of the country and enhance the electoral prospect of APC. To that extent therefore it may require the need to have an attitude of let go just so that unity is achieved.

The third bordering on the need to come with strong commitment to ensure equal representation of all parts of the country and interests in the leadership of the party demand that all parts of the country are reflected in the leadership. Given current perception whereby ACN is perceived as a South West party and CPC as a Northern party, and against the background of cynicism that the merger is mainly between the North and South West and ANPP is being relegated to a junior status in the merger, there will be the need to take conscious measures to factor a strong presence of all parties and all parts of the country among the principal officers of APC.

All things considered, it will appear that options before our oppositions politicians are limited. Unless our APC want to opt for a complete gamble with untested individuals for the positions of National Chairman, National Secretary and Chairman BOT, it will appear that based on current leaders of the parties, the best choices that would meet all the three conditions are Gen. Buhari, Asiwaju Tinubu and Chief Ogbonnaya Onu. All the three can be adjudged not to have ex-PDP symptom, no proven case of public treasury loot allergy and in many respect tolerable levels of authoritarian amity. Controversial as the assessment of these leaders would appear to be, it represented about the best in relations to other possible candidates within the merging parties.

Weighed against the advantage that with these three personalities – Gen. Buhari, Asiwaju Tinubu and Chief Onu – in the leadership of APC, three critical parts of the country are already reflected. The challenge then will be to proceed to recruit good leaders with, at the minimum, tolerable levels of ex-PDP symptoms, low cases of public treasury loot allergy and authoritarian amity from other parts of the country and interests.

Some of the areas that attention must be paid in constituting the leadership of the party include the issue of recruiting youths and women leaders. The way things are, if care is not taken, leadership negotiations leading to the emergence of APC leaders may reflect dominantly older people and mostly men.

Since it is only logical that the leadership of APC will be constituted from among current leaders of the merging parties, APC risk coming up with a leadership whose youngest will be in his/her 50s. And since no age limit has been placed so far in the harmonised APC constitution for the APC Youth Leader and Deputy Youth Leader, people in their 60s or 70s may emerge as Youth Leader and Deputy.

There is therefore the urgent need for our opposition leaders to consciously take steps to ensure the representation of youths (those under 35 years) and women in the leadership of APC.

Once APC is able to handle the task of leadership formation based on respect for principles; public frustration, cynicism and democratic inertia will begin to give way to confidence, support and participation in party activities.

This is the only guarantee for electoral success in 2015. This demand that, first thing first, the process of APC leadership formation must get certain things right. It is must not be driven by purely personal aspirations of individuals, pure exercise of leadership prerogative, blind recognition for our diversities both with respect to identity and interests, etc.

Our Nigerian opposition leaders must act based on principles as the qualifying credential for being a party of progressives!

smlukman@gmail.com

Read more: http://www.chidoonumah.com/2013/05/progressive-lethargy-apc-and-task-of.html#ixzz2SIHuBgZr
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I know that telephone handsets are being stolen everyday in Nigeria these days. Anyone who forgets his phone in a public place for a few minutes, including in mosques and churches, will have it spirited away by a modern-day Good Samaritan who must “liberate it from redundancy,” as university students used to say in the olden days. There are a lot of clever young men these days who wake up in the morning and head to any crowded place they can find, be it a market, a mosque, a church or the venue of a seminar in order to liberate other people’s telephones from redundancy. Therefore, anybody who goes to such places must have both hands in his pockets to closely guard his phones.

Which brings me to the case of Governor Rauf Aregbesola. The theft was said to have occurred at the Osun State Technical College Sports Ground in Osogbo on November 24, 2010, the day Aregbesola was sworn in as governor after the Court of Appeal took the juicy seat away from PDP’s Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and awarded it to him. Aregbesola knew that thousands of people will be there at the Sports Ground to watch the historic ceremony. He knew that, yet he went there with his pockets wide open? He was probably wearing a traditional Yoruba sokoto with its wide side pockets, completely unguarded, as if he was going to a sedate meeting of community elders. So it was easy for Igbodalo to dip his hands into Aregbesola’s pocket and retrieve a Sony Erickson handset. Whose fault was that? Who told Aregbesola to leave his pockets wide open because he was jubilant and carried away by his court victory [aided by Salami, according to PDP partisans].

Even the people that convict Igbodalo was said to have duped using the stolen phone, what was his fault there? The prosecutors said that he used the stolen phone to dupe the Owa-Obokun of Ijeshaland, His Royal Majesty Oba Gabriel Adekunle Aromolaran of N500,000 which “he obtained under false pretence.” Which false pretence? Are you saying His Majesty hurriedly parted with half a million because he received a text message emanating from the new governor’s phone number? Did His Majesty stop to ask himself why a man who just inherited a rich state treasury complete with a fat security vote will ask a mere traditional ruler to give him money, a mere half a million naira?

In any case, why didn’t this judge take his cue from his colleague Justice Talba of the Federal High Court Abuja who fined pension thief John Yakubu Yusuf a paltry N750,000 for stealing billions of naira? He jailed Kelvin 45 years for stealing a telephone, for that matter from a man who was too excited to close his pockets. Something does not add up here.

Source: Allafrica