The Nation Newspaper

Category: Steve Osuji

  • Jonathan smiles as Nigeria dies: 5 points to ponder

    Jonathan smiles as Nigeria dies: 5 points to ponder

    What do we have to do to catch the attention of President Goodluck Jonathan? How can we convey to him that the situation in Nigeria today is the worst since after the civil war? How can we convince him and his minders that Nigeria is on the tenterhooks; that we are today, loitering around the precipice, taking casual peeks into the abyss of our doom. And in all of this, our dear president sits pretty, cool, seemingly oblivious of our clear and present danger. Here are some points Mr. President might want to address his mind quickly if he is to pull the chestnut out of the fire:

    The worst country on earth Have you noticed that our dear country, the giant of Africa now ranks at the bottom of every global human development index? The 2013 Economist Intelligent Unit (EIU) Where-To-Be-Born Index ranks Nigeria 80th out of 80 countries measured. Ask the average Nigerian on the street and 9 out of 10 will probably tell you that he wished he were not born here. Nigeria is also the haven for kidnap-for-ransom accounting for the highest percentage of body jacking in the entire world. We are the most dangerous country in Africa as well as the most fraudulent. We who are living it everyday can confirm that these assessments are not far from our reality. And we ask, how did our dear motherland come to be more Hobbesian, more arid than strife-stricken places like Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq? Shouldn’t these kinds of report wipe the smiles off the face of our president?

    Corruption unlimited It has gone on record that this administration has earned the title of the most corrupt so far but more worrisome is that it has become apparent that President Jonathan has neither the will nor moral strength to fight the scourge. Now we can only pray that this monster does not consume us all sooner than later. A national newspaper has been able to work out about N5 trillion as the sum lost to graft since Jonathan climbed the helm of government. KPMG, the worldwide accounting firm has reported that in the first half of this year alone, fraudulent activities have cost Nigeria about $1.5 billion. But that must be an understatement. Scratch just any organ of the polity and what gushes out is not blood but fraud. It is as if there is a secret pact to loot the country to death and the president seems to have been duly informed. It is not possible to keep track any more. But worse, no big thief is being prosecuted not to mention being put behind bars.

    Even the president has made sure that Nigerians never got to know what he is up to as far as his personal stack is concerned. He does not give a damn what we think about his hiding his assets; about his transparency status and about the glorious strength of presidential personal example. He does not give a damn about providing us with the much-needed moral leadership. Corruption has become unmanageable under Jonathan because we cannot vouch that our leaders are clean. In fact most of us suspect that most people in the villa are utterly corrupt which may explain why our president is so supine before the monster.

    The worst security apparatus in the world Now do not seek to find which global agency has made this declaration; it is Expresso that has declared that Nigeria must have the worst of security agencies to be found anywhere in the world. The Boko Haram menace has been on since 2009 and kidnapping has been with us for nearly 15 years yet we have not been able to device any strategy to contain these vices. To think that the immediate past chief of defence staff could be suspected of finagling with crucial defence equipment procurement contracts. It did not matter to him that explosives were going off everywhere targeting officers and men under him. Do you wonder why the ill-trained, petit terrorists would bomb our police headquarters, bomb our anti-robbery office and garner the derring-do to hit our major military cantonment, the very seat of our ant-terrorism initiatives? If we gained nothing else from our current adversity, it must be the elevation of our military, security and intelligence agencies to rank among the best in the world. But professionalism and serious duty have gone with the wind from this clime long ago. We are an anything goes country; an ad-hoc nation where absolutely nothing seems important to us. Yet Jonathan keeps smiling.

    Cash export Have you noticed the recent mad rush to ship dollars out of the country? Hardly any day passes without Nigerians being caught with large volume of foreign currencies outbound. The other day, $7 million dollars was found on a 24 year old fellow who claimed he was helping a big man ship it out. The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi told us recently that so far in 2012, $11 billion in cash had been taken abroad through our airports. Who owned the $7 million cash? One thought the president would have taken umbrage, dug to the root of that cash and used the owner as example. No table-banging action from our president. The president keeps smiling.

    Subsidy fiasco and the oil industry The uncanny tale of our oil industry and the so-called subsidy story has already become a landmark ‘achievement’ of the Jonathan administration. Our oil sector is the most corrupt and the most inefficient sector today and there doesn’t seem to be anything going on than looting and more and more stories of it. The most important thing which is to build refineries and free the country from fraudulent importation of petroleum products is never addressed. Nigeria is the only oil producing nation that exports crude and import refined products. While wretched, landlocked, desert country, Niger Republic, has just built a refinery, from which Nigeria wants to import cheap kerosene, the president has given us a 10-year target to end products importation! Yes, all of 10 years!

    Other troublous signs Why is the federal budget being so badly bungled? Why are members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) embroiled in turf fights? Why is there no bright spot anywhere; anything at all emanating from the federal government to cheer the populace? Never before had our budget been so very badly put together; while the current budget is caught up in the usual inertia and non-implementation, the 2013 budget which is in the making is riddled with loopholes and wasteful propositions. Our budget now seems like a garbage bin in which all sorts of rubbish (expenditure) are thrown in. Is there nobody or team who goes through the document rigorously (with a knife if need be) to take out the fats and the wastes? It is amazing that too much junk is being presented to us a budget under the watch of our dear Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Where do we turn to?

    What to do Nigeria dies right before the eye of President Jonathan; the situation calls for drastic action. As has been said on this space several times, Jonathan must resolve forthwith to fight corruption. He has no choice than to declare his asset publicly as the very first intent of seriousness. He must make every top government official to do same. He must move quickly to fire some of his appointees – those that have proven to be incompetent and quick-fingered. He knows them. Then we need to see him at work as he tackles some priority programmes like power, key roads and refineries. He should do less of the ceremonies; in fact he should delegate them. He only has himself to beat so he must re-invent himself.

  • IFEANYI UBAH: three brief points to ponder

    Igbo quagmire in the 2015 miasma: Everything will get mired and there will not be anything sacred that will be left standing on the road to 2015. This sounds like a divine injunction but it is only a note of caution for Ndigbo must because 2015 could be their second Biafra if not worse especially in terms of its looming economic and psychological toll on the people. Unfortunately, Ndigbo is right in the eye of the 2015 storm and worse, she is currently a headless body; a miserable pun in a chess game that would make or mar Nigeria. It is a war that Ndigbo is already stringed up for decimation because she has no strategy, no candidate and no concert of voices. Ndigbo have only few very big men who are sadly, imbued with very small minds and who are quick to sell the rest of us for the pot of porridge. Ndigbo of old talk about the crooked firewood that is apt to unsettle the fire. Igbo is easily unsettled by a jingling of a few coins. Is any Igbo listed on the recently released Forbes Rich List; can any Igbo rich man lace the sandals of Aliko? Yet they are quick to be rallied for subterfuge missions against one another. The Ifeanyi Ubah, Cosmas Maduka public brawl is a foretaste of what to come.

    The politics of business, the business of politics: Big business is no different from high stake politics. While in politics, you always watch your back for the opposition, in business, you always watch out for competition. Opposition wants your seat badly and competition wants your market. It is double jeopardy when a man mixes politics and business. Now such a man has opposition and competition massed up against him. Very few men come out of this milieu still standing. The irrepressible MKO Abiola is a Nigerian classic in this regard. Is Ubah being cut to size for his 2015 dalliances?

    Curiouser still: Having warned that Ndigbo will be the villainous subclass playing all the subplots in the emerging 2015wood (as in Nollywood) the Ubah versus Maduka tango gets curiouser and curiouser. Here are a few posers: how come Mr. Aig Imoukhuede, group managing director of Access Bank was drafted to by the Federal Government to head the all important oil subsidy panel when his bank is deeply embroiled in the subsidy racket? He was judge and jury in his cause hm?

    Which law permits Maduka unlimited access in Access Bank cash beyond all known obligor limits; without any security? How could Ubah, a mendicant as Maduka wants the world to believe, have built such capacity that could handle such volume of business? How come Maduka, a shrewd businessman exposed himself to the tune of hundreds of billions of naira to someone he had been warned was not creditworthy? Why the relentless harassment and invasion of his business premises? How much does Ubah owe compared to other debtors. If there is no witch-hunt and politics to all this, let AMCON publish the original list of all debtors on its book against their assets for the world to see. Simple solution, isn’t it? Not really, because there is more to all this than meets the ordinary eye. Ponder on it.

    Re: Jump, Diezani Jump (readers’ reaction)

    Thank you for your essay on Ribadu’s Report. Diezani should be left alone to continue her good work in the oil and gas sector. The call by some Nigerians for her to be removed is misplaced. Nobody has said explicitly what her offences are. Oil subsidy should be removed completely, that is the only way fuel supply can be guaranteed. Capt. AI Olisadebe, (rtd), 08033119751

    Jump, Diezani jump! Thank you for reminding us what kind of evil is seated at the petroleum ministry. Never shy away from writing the truth. JBA, 08037032765

    Steve, your objective and sincere advice to Diezani is most timely and brotherly. Maybe because he is married to your brother-in-law. Ayo (Oritsejafor) is a disgrace to Christendom. Has he seen or heard about a Catholic or Anglican bishop owning a private jet despite the large followership? He has joined the league of commercial preachers who should be banned from assuming the position of CAN president in future. 08035482602

    Jump, Diezani jump! Powerful article, bold and insightful! Well-written brother, you are a literary prophet! 08033572801

    Please I want you to hit the nail on the head with respect to what is happening in the petroleum industry in connection with Mrs. Diezani. 08037114167

    Those with your type of brain are only fit to sell stock fish in Ariaria market. Dieziani was a director at Shell prior to her appointment. She was not a jobber like you. No wonder you can only work for a Yoruba-centric organization like The Nation. Amadi, PH. 08033217685

    Mr. Osuji, I have just read your column (The Nation Nov. 16, 2012), it is more than wonderful. At a time that sycophancy and praise singing have taken over most of our media houses, it is gratifying that we still have forthright journalists like you. You have restored my faith that there is yet hope for a better Nigeria. Please keep it up and God bless you. U. M. Aboki, Chief Imam, Ughelli Central Mosque, Ughelli, Delta State. 08024448026

    RE: Ayo Oritsejafor: my PJ is

    bigger than yours

    I do not know whether Ayo Oritsejafor belongs to the class of men with incurable monomania for opulence. But I do know that those who commercialize the gospel in the name of ‘my God is not a poor God’ certainly belong to the class of men doomed to waste away in HELL. I owe God the duty to condemn the spiritual zombification of my fellow men in the name of Pentecostalism. These men who call themselves men of God tell their followers to pray for security while they move about with police escort. They tell us to give to God but what we give end up in their bank accounts. Why will they not buy jets? Ehi, 08076823815

    ‘Banksters ‘! That’s a new one. Now none is left that gives hope, they’ve all left this sunless hell – how lucky they all are! Thought you would tell about how Oritsejafor started his ministry (remember the Warri 6, Idahosa, etc) and how come Mrs. Idahosa was not among his well-wishers? To tell the truth, methinks Nigeria is in the biggest of troubles, far more than anybody can ever imagine. 08034476916

    Your piece on Pastor Ayo refers: the sordid role of a hunter’s dog made him forget Matthew18: 15 – 20. Quite unfortunate for a professed Christian! 08059214357

    Something to cheer in Nigeria?

    Dear EXPRESSO, your request for a Nigerian who gladdens our heart in this season of anomie is very apt. the man who does his job efficiently and unobtrusively is the IGP, Mohammed Abubakar. He is the winner of the pack. He is an example of how public officials should perform their assigned duties. Ezekiel Olojoba, Sapele, 08052213888

    Dear Steve, let me first congratulate you for your boldness and incisiveness. I would like to commend our men and women in uniform. They include the police, army, navy, airforce, civil defence, etc. without them one can imagine what the country would have been like. Yes there are bad eggs among them but the good ones are more. Let us treat them with respect, look into their welfare and support them. They are trying their best in the face of daunting odds. Austin Onuoha, Warri, 08094779331.

  • RIBADU REPORT: Jump, Diezani jump

    Our dainty dame of the Petroleum Ministry, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, sure knows how to heap it on us. She takes the coal in furious shovelfuls, red-hot, crackling and throws it at us in a devil- may- care manner. Her latest assault is that anti-reform forces are behind the call for her sack? She insisted that those who want her fired are enemies of President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda especially as it concerns the oil sector which she supervises. Hear her:

    “Those fighting the government in the media are doing so because we have been able to frustrate their efforts in strangulating the economy through their devilish black market and questionable profiteering at the expense of the Nigerian people.

    “I would not want to join issues with those criticizing me because they are crying foul that through us, Mr. President has broken the old order where things were done without coordination.

    “What is hurting them is that we have put policies in place where they can no longer cheat the government and cause untold hardship to millions of Nigerians.”

    Diezani’s woofing is particularly galling coming on the tail of the sordid presidential soap opera re-enacted during the submission of the Ribadu Committee report. Recall that Diezani had set up a series of committees in the wake of a national protest that greeted the yanking off of the so-called petrol subsidy last January. One of such panels was the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force (PRSTF) headed by Malam Nuhu Ribadu. But not even a thousand committees can cover up for Dieziani’s inadequacies since she was appointed to the federal cabinet about five years ago. Her incompetence has become more glaring since she was put in charge of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. That heart beat of the country has never been in a worse mess since the creation of Nigeria.

    Indeed, were she not a minister of the Federal Republic, one would have accused her of either being rude to the extreme or harboring mischief of the most devious kind. Perhaps she is gangrened by a combination of the two conditions because that is the only circumstance under which she would dare to heap so much insult on the festering injury she has inflicted on the people of Nigeria in the last few years.

    How dare Diezani talk to us about reform in the midst of a debilitating fuel scarcity and surreptitious price hike? What reform in an industry with anaconda-sized corruption? Only last August, The Economist described Nigeria as the world capital of oil theft with about $7 billion lost annually. This crime has grown exponential in her time and she obviously has no clue as to how to solve the problem. Dieziani is the supervisor –in –chief of a corruption crippled industry that cannot adequately refine petroleum products, cannot import, cannot store, cannot distribute. What is the nature of this so-called reform for a minister who does not know the quantity of crude oil we export nor does she have statistics of the quantity of petroleum products we import? Where does the so-called reform start and end for a maladroit minister who cannot explain to Nigerians how trillions of naira of the so-called subsidy fund was signed away to a confederate of rogues who claim to be oil importers?

    Why are our pipelines being shut down under her watch? Why are major oil firms like Shell and Total suddenly selling off their assets and migrating? Why is the nation bugged down by perennial scarcity of petroleum products yet we reform? Somebody sure needs reformation if in all this we accuse ‘anti-reform forces’.

    We insist that Diezani has clearly become an albatross around the neck of the president, the presidency and the nation. We advise she takes a dive. The most honorable thing left for her now is to jump. She must jump while she can; she must jump while there is still some dignity left. She must jump before she is pushed.

    AYO ORITSEJAFOR: My PJ is bigger than yours

    “Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!” Ezekiel Ch. 13vs.3 (KJV)

    So this is what it’s all about; all the shadow-boxing and hullaballoo is all in aid of acquiring a private jet (PJ) just like all the other ‘big boy’ preachers and ‘men of God’. The news last weekend from Warri that flamboyant Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had acquired a PJ did not surprise many watchers of Nigeria’s Christendom. What may have baffled many was the slant that the nearly $5 million (about N750m) bird was a gift from his church, Word of Life Bible Church. It was meant to be reward for 40 years of toil in God’s vineyard.

    But Nigerians ask: how could the church write such a fat cheque to the Founder, Visioner, General Overseer and Papa of the church? Can the tail wag the dog? Why would our dear man of God show such inefficiency in managing the truth of his new luxury toy?

    Could it be that Papa is ashamed of his monstrous new-found wealth? He need not be. Have we not been taught that their god is not a poor god and that poverty is for ‘true’ Christians? He has company; he is now among the super-rich, jet-set ‘ men of God’. Some of them even have more jets than some one-jet, Nigerian commercial airlines. In a time of unspeakable rot in the polity and extreme privation and impoverishment of the people, our ‘men of God’ have got themselves into a race for acquiring billion naira private jets. They are in the race with corrupt politicians, oil thieves and ‘banksters’. They are in competition to show opulence, to exhibit their material worth.

    Why would a true preacher of the Word be in such a hurry as to need a PJ? Some heads of state do not own PJs. I am not aware that the British Prime Minister owns one. Where on earth would a true preacher want to fly to in such private- jet hurry? Even Christ could not get to Lazarus in time enough yet he got the job done when he eventually got there. When did this spiritual labor become a race to conquer space and time? Expresso thinks something does not add up in this new wave of mind-numbing flamboyance. Which god is this we are talking about that allows our vanity to grow expensive wings? Can anyone see Mammon peeking from somewhere?

    LAST MUG: Your turn: anything to smile about? Is Expresso an incurable pessimist or is our country truly a mirthless, cheerless entity that only makes us sad? This is the question for you to answer dear readers as this space is hereby thrown open to next week Friday November 23, 2012. Please text information about any person or thing in Nigeria that gives you hope, cheers you up, inspires you or makes you proud and happy to be a Nigerian. Ensure that your contributions are short, simple and verifiable; including your name and location.

    Warning: another sad piece awaits you if we don’t have adequate responses to fill this space by Wednesday. Have a great weekend.

  • Queen’s College admission: Letter of apology to my daughter

    “ — no one can even live in Samaria without being a liar, thief and bandit.” Hosea 7v1 (TLB)  

    My dear 10-year- old daughter, you may be wondering why I have taken our private matter to the pages of a national newspaper when we had discussed the matter at home ad nauseam and you have had to join your siblings in a private school in the neighbourhood? Well the answer is that, yes we have borne our pain and frustration with equanimity but the matter transcends us; it is deeper and of more import than you can understand now. More important, hundreds of other ten-year-old boys and girls like you may have suffered the same inequity and injustice which they have borne quietly as if these were our national ethos. Another reason daddy is speaking up in this manner is that it has gone on for too long that we not only glory in our iniquitous ways, we now make huge capital of it.

    When you sat for the National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) early this year, you were quite optimistic that you would do well having studied very hard. You wanted so much to attend Queen’s College (QC) having heard so much about it and cherishing the idea of living in the boarding house. When the result was released and you scored 147 out of a possible 200 marks, it was not an excellent result but good enough, especially when we learnt that the cut off mark for your state, Imo, is 135.

    We were quite elated that you stood a good chance until we got to QC in Yaba, Lagos only to find out that the entire admission process is a well choreographed national racket. First shocker was the cut-off point per state pasted on the notice board (see table). I remember how your joy evaporated when you learnt that you did not stand any chance at all because you came from Imo State. At the vice principal’s office, an official addressed us with a hint of rebuff and mockery seeming to wonder why we were bothering them having scored such a (low) mark and coming from Imo. We were treated as if you failed the exam when you actually scored approximately 74%.

    You were crestfallen; your little mind must have gone into a weird jiu-jitsu, especially upon noticing that your fellow candidates from Yobe State who could have scored zero; yes absolute, stark naked zero could have a chance over you in Queens College, Lagos. Had you come from any state in the North of Nigeria, you would have been top of the class, a champion as the highest cut-off mark from there is 120 points (Kwara). The alien logic of a student with zero score getting admitted into any school and another with a very good grade getting shunted must have stunted your growth for days. You had many questions some of them swimming in your now welled-up eyes. Some of your questions almost made dad cry too because I could not answer them with much conviction.

    “Is it because we are Igbo that is why QC did not take me even though I passed?”

    “ Well, sort of my dear. More people from Anambra, Imo and Enugu States scored high marks so you needed to score a minimum of about 80% to have stood a chance.”

    “So why don’t they build more schools like QC so that they can admit all the pupils who passed?”

    To this question, I really did not have any coherent answer knowing that some of the so-called Unity schools where built by the British colonial government and knowing that no new secondary school has been built by the federal government in the last 20 years or more even as Nigeria’s population grew exponentially. What this has exposed is that government is winking in the dark as regard education, the single most important index of development. What this plainly shows is that government does not have the vital statistics concerning education; concerning school intakes of yesterday, today or tomorrow.

    And what mad scramble we have in the few ‘good’ schools available. “Daddy, is it true that you were asked to pay money for them to admit me in QC?” (she must have overheard her mother and I discussing this. One of those forlorn trips to QC, someone who claimed to be a teacher noticing my helplessness, had furnished me a phone number to call for help. When I had called days later, I was told that for a fee of N250,000.00 I could ‘buy’ a teacher’s admission quota.)

    I was to learn that apart from the quota system and federal character method of allocating the admissions, anyone who was desperate enough and had enough cash got his ward into any of the ‘Unity Schools’ especially after all the top notch government officials must have had their fill of the sordid porridge.

    My dear daughter, even I did not know that we had reached this low, this nadir where we keep chickens and pigeons in the same coop. I learnt that there are a minimum of 70 students per class in QC; one ‘united’ Nigerian classroom of the good, the bad and the very ugly yoked into one: a perfect picture of a crumbling collage of the Nigerian state writ large in Queen’s College classrooms. A soulless confederacy not spared even at infancy, of the extremely dull, the super bright, the graft-assisted and all, meshed with legitimized impunity in a salubrious girls’ college. What recipe for failure for a doggoned country?

    My dear little girl, this is where our country Nigeria is today. This is probably where we were over 50 years ago. It reminds me of what my respected senior colleague Malam Mohammed Haruna wrote in his column on the back page of this paper (24/10/2012). Responding to a point Chinua Achebe raised in his book, There was a Country, Haruna said, “… what Sardauna objected to was the timing (of Nigeria’s Independence) for the simple and understandable reason that for historical reasons the South had a huge head-start over his region in producing the skills required for running the government, and he needed time to do something about the gap.”

    After 52 years, nothing seems to have been done about the ‘gap’. It has indeed remained more gaping today. Why would the gap close if the North has been enjoying what I call a delirious advantage over other parts of the country in the distribution of our commonwealth? As a State governor, I would loathe, in fact I would be utterly insulted should my State be allotted zero or a derogatory cut-off point in any national exam. Where is the challenge to compete or the will to excel if I can make do with zero score? Mediocrity will only breed mediocrity.

    This is our story my dear daughter; a country where an Haruna who scored zero per cent would get admission, federal jobs and all the other privileges and an Osuji who scored 74 per cent is denied and shooed away. Take heart my daughter but take note: don’t stop talking about it, don’t stop contesting it, don’t stop protesting it and indeed, fight over it if you must. Accept my apology for I failed you, but the ball is now in your court.

  • South-south in government, North in power, yet…

    Arising from last Sunday’s suicide bombing of St. Rita’s Catholic Church, Kaduna, the seeming Christians bating and unmitigated bloodletting in the North of Nigeria, many readers of this column urged that the piece below, first published last week, be re-run. Some readers also express shock that some highly placed leaders of the North are even suspected of masterminding and funding this incremental destruction of Nigeria. Below is the article of last week:

    If anyone needed evidence that President Goodluck Jonathan panders unduly to the North, the recent sale of the Nigeria’s power plants is sufficient proof. While one may not begrudge them their ‘good fortune’, what galls most other Nigerians is that some of the people from the North would still not be appeased. If bombs are not going off, uniformed security personnel and innocent people are being gunned down at will, for no just cause. If it is not senators of the Federal Republic being accused of aiding and abetting this senseless carnage, it is former governors or other members of the privileged elite. Perhaps the only condition for peace is for the rest of us to scurry across the border into the hills of the Cameroons, and the hinterlands of Benin and Togo? Almost everything we have in Nigeria has been conceded to the North yet it won’t be appeased.

    First, the recent sale of Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) shorn of the technical details and the little devils inherent in them, one must say that the broad ground norms required for fair and equitable bidding process are flawed. If we are privatizing, let it be truly private and competent companies (not transferring from federal to state governments); no private company should get more than one facility (they should build more in the future if they are so capable); no former head of state should be allowed to buy utilities they were instrumental to their failure.

    But what did BPE do? It allowed state governments to throw in all sorts of bids by proxy; thus while some states won, some did not win. That is bound to breed rancor. Second, it allowed a company chaired by former Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar (rtd) to bid. Now Abubakar’s firm, Integrated Distribution Marketing a Company (IDMC) did not only bid, it got the three biggest facilities in the North, East and West. This is utterly unacceptable. The North will never accept this inequitable arrangement. Even the gentleman governor of Anambra State well known for pandering to the dictates of the Presidency raised his voice saying the action was ‘shocking’. Says Obi: “It was more shocking because Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Bayelsa succeeded, but the South-Eastern states totally lost out.”

    Yes, the South-East seems to always lose out in everything especially in this dispensation. South-East has the worst power facilities in the land. What about road network, federal presence, not to mention the vexatious state and local government allotment deliberately skewed to eternally hurt the South-East. But we digress.

    What the BPE led by Mr. Atedo Peterside has done in doling out all the key power distribution companies to Gen. Abubakar, we dare say, is an extension of the appeasement of the North which has gone on so rather nauseatingly under the Jonathan Presidency. The result is that while Jonathan is in government, the power and influence in all arms of government are firmly secured in the North. The South-East and the West are the sorry losers.

    Let us take a quick roll call: barring the president himself, the next five positions down the pecking order of protocol in our federation today is held by the North viz; vice president, senate president, speaker of the House of Representatives, chief justice of the federation and attorney-general of the federation. It must be put on record that this is unprecedented in the history of Nigeria. Thus apart from having a leg in the Presidency, they control the National Assembly and the judiciary effectively. It is particularly overwhelming in the judiciary as the North also heads the Court of Appeal, the High Court and indeed all other positions down the judiciary chain.

    The North also dominates most of the strategic positions in the land. In defence, it holds the defence minister’s slot, the Chief of Defence Staff, the National Security Adviser and the inspector-General of Police; three most important position in the security and defence of any nation. These are complemented with headship of the Customs, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Other key positions held by our brothers from the North include governor of the Central bank of Nigeria,(CBN), headship of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), and chairmanship of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS), Petroleum Trust Development Fund, (PTDF), Nigerian Ports Authority, (NPA) and the Pensions Commission, (PENCOM). There are so many other no less important positions like headship of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Education Trust Fund (ETF), the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), among others.

    We must state it clearly that there is no prejudice whatsoever towards the various gentlemen and ladies occupying these important positions; most of them are well qualified for the positions they occupy and most important, some of the positions are elective and hierarchical. As has been noted earlier, there is no grudge towards the North over what can be considered their good fortune; what we say is that they must appreciate that they have the upper hand in the polity today, they must do a lot more to contain the raging violence in their part of the country. They must also remember that when their fortunes change tomorrow and the pendulum swings to other parts of the country, they should show equal magnanimity and the desired equanimity. They must remember that equity and justice are the bases of peace in any society.

    LAST MUG(S): why is NASS hounding Oteh? The story of the delectable Ms Arunma Oteh, the director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is well known to enlightened Nigerians. After exposing the corruption of members of the Committee of the House of Representatives who deigned to be probing her activities at SEC, the members of the National Assembly would not give her a breathing space. The fact that the lawmakers probing her office compromised themselves, they have lost the moral ground to insist that she must be dismissed. Sounds like sour grapes. The fact that they could not establish any solid case of corruption against her and the fact that the Presidency which appointed her still finds her worthy of that seat, the wise thing for our law makers to do is to back off for the moment. Well, they are allowed to have their searchlight quietly trained on her if they insist on their vendetta by all means. They should look for something better to do and allow the executive do its job.

    Gov. Fashola’s mishandling of the Okada riders: does the Lagos State Government know the number of commercial motorcycle riders in Lagos state? Is there any unit or department of government managing this huge block of an economic unit? Did anyone do a thorough analysis of the cost of taking this group off the Lagos roads? Apart from the huge opportunity to be tapped from this horde of hapless city transporters if we looked carefully, it is disheartening that the LASG is growing into the habit of throwing ill-digested laws at the people; laws seemingly motivated by anger and intent to punish are often flawed laws. Laws should not destabilize, frustrate and damage people, it should on the other hand, support the populace, cooperate with them and enrich their lives. What callousness informed the crushing of the property, the basic livelihood of the lowliest class? What manner of law permits us to confiscate and crush other people’s property? We must rethink such a law. LASG must show more rigour and humanness in managing a social ferment manifesting as okada.

  • Southsouth in government, North in power, yet…

    If anyone needed evidence that President Goodluck Jonathan panders unduly to the North, the recent sale of the Nigeria’s power plants is sufficient proof. While one may not begrudge them their ‘good fortune’, what galls most other Nigerians is that some of the people from the North would still not be appeased. If bombs are not going off, uniformed security personnel and innocent people are being gunned down at will, for no just cause. If it is not senators of the Federal Republic being accused of aiding and abetting this senseless carnage, it is former governors or other members of the privileged elite. Perhaps the only condition for peace is for the rest of us to scurry across the border into the hills of the Cameroons, and the hinterlands of Benin and Togo? Almost everything we have in Nigeria has been conceded to the North yet it won’t be appeased.

    First, the recent sale of Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) shorn of the technical details and the little devils inherent in them, one must say that the broad ground norms required for fair and equitable bidding process are flawed. If we are privatizing, let it be truly private and competent companies (not transferring from federal to state governments); no private company should get more than one facility(they should build more in the future if they are so capable); no former head of state should be allowed to buy utilities they were instrumental to their failure.

    But what did BPE do? It allowed state governments to throw in all sorts of bids by proxy; thus while some states won, some did not win. That is bound to breed rancor. Second, it allowed a company chaired by former Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar (rtd) to bid. Now Abubakar’s firm, Integrated Distribution Marketing a Company (IDMC) did not only bid, it got the three biggest facilities in the North, East and West. This is utterly unacceptable. The North will never accept this inequitable arrangement. Even the gentleman governor of Anambra State well known for pandering to the dictates of the Presidency raised his voice saying the action was ‘shocking’. Says Obi: “It was more shocking because Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Bayelsa succeeded, but the South-Eastern states totally lost out.”

    Yes, the South-East seems to always lose out in everything especially in this dispensation. South-East has the worst power facilities in the land. What about road network, federal presence, not to mention the vexatious state and local government allotment deliberately skewed to eternally hurt the South-East. But we digress.

    What the BPE led by Mr. Atedo Peterside has done in doling out all the key power distribution companies to Gen. Abubakar, we dare say, is an extension of the appeasement of the North which has gone on so rather nauseatingly under the Jonathan Presidency. The result is that while Jonathan is in government, the power and influence in all arms of government are firmly secured in the North. The South-East and the West are the sorry losers.

    Let us take a quick roll call: barring the president himself, the next five positions down the pecking order of protocol in our federation today is held by the North viz; vice president, senate president, speaker of the House of Representatives, chief justice of the federation, attorney-general of the federation. It must be put on record that this is unprecedented in the history of Nigeria. Thus apart from having a leg in the Presidency, they control the National Assembly and the judiciary effectively. It is particularly overwhelming in judiciary as the North also heads the Court of Appeal, the High Court and indeed all other positions down the judiciary chain.

    The North also dominates most of the strategic positions in the land. In defence, it holds the defence minister’s slot, the Chief of Defence Staff, the National Security Adviser and the inspector-General of Police; three most important position in the security and defence of any nation. These are complemented with headship of the Customs, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Other key positions held by our brothers from the North include governor of the Central bank of Nigeria,(CBN), headship of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), and chairmanship of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS), Petroleum Trust Development Fund, (PTDF), Nigerian Ports Authority, (NPA) and the Pensions Commission, (PENCOM). There are so many other no less important positions like headship of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Education Trust Fund (ETF), the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), among others.

    We must state it clearly that there is no prejudice whatsoever towards the various gentlemen and ladies occupying these important positions; most of them are well qualified for the positions they occupy and most important, some of the positions are elective and hierarchical. In fact there is no grudge towards the North over what can be considered their good fortune; what we say is that they must appreciate that they have the upper hand in the polity today, they must do a lot more to contain the raging violence in their part of the country. They must also remember that when the fortunes change tomorrow and the pendulum swings to other parts of the country, they should show equal magnanimity and the desired equanimity. They must remember that equity and justice are the bases of peace in any society.

    LAST MUG(S): why is NASS hounding Oteh? The story of the delectable Ms Arunma Oteh, the director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is well known to enlightened Nigerians. After exposing the corruption of members of the Committee of the House of Representatives who deigned to be probing her activities at SEC, the members of the National Assembly would not give her a breathing space. The fact that the lawmakers probing her office compromised themselves, insisting that she must be dismissed sounds like sour grapes. The fact that they could not establish any solid case of corruption against her and the fact that the Presidency which appointed her still finds her worthy of that seat, the wise thing for our law makers to do is to back off for the moment. Well, they are allowed to have their searchlight quietly trained on her if they insist on their vendetta by all means. They should look for something better to do and allow the executive do its job.

    Gov. Fashola’s mishandling of the Okada riders: does the Lagos State Government know the number of commercial motorcycle riders in Lagos state? Is there any unit or department of government managing this huge block of an economic unit? Did anyone do a thorough analysis of the cost of taking this group off the Lagos roads? Apart from the huge opportunity to be tapped from this horde of hapless city transporters if we looked carefully, it is disheartening that the LASG is growing into the habit of throwing ill-digested laws at the people; laws motivated by anger and intent to punish punishment are often flawed laws. Laws should not distabilise, frustrate and damage people, it should on the other hand, support the populace, cooperate with them and enrich their lives. What callousness informed the crushing of the property, the basic livelihood of the lowliest class? What manner of law permits us to confiscate and crush other people’s property? We must rethink such a law. LASG must show more rigour and humanness in managing a social ferment manifesting as okada.

  • There was a country: Blockade, starvation and a requiem for Biafra

    There was a country: Blockade, starvation and a requiem for Biafra

    “ Until now efforts to relieve the Biafran have been thwarted by  the desire of the central government of Nigeria to pursue total and unconditional victory and by fear of the Ibo people that surrender means wholesale atrocities and genocide. But genocide is what is taking place right now – and starvation is the grim reaper. This is not the time to stand on ceremony, or go through channels, or to observe the diplomatic niceties. The destruction of an entire people is an immoral objective even in the most moral of wars. It can never be justified; it can never be condoned.” U.S. President Richard Nixon’s campaign speech on September 10, 1968

    The Nigeria-Biafra war which was (under) estimated by Gowon and his top officers to last not more than three months, had lasted more than two years by July 1969. By an inexplicably suicidal instinct, Biafra had held on to the frustration of the Nigerian side. All the brutalities of an overwhelming force and the air bombardments overtly aided by British fire power had still not totally subdued the ‘rebels’. The economic blockade of the ‘rebels’ was thus reinforced and the noose tightened. All the seaports to Biafra had been closed at the beginning of hostilities with the creation of Mid-West, Rivers and South Eastern states which isolated the Biafra state of East Central State. Biafra had also been isolated from the major oil wells by this singular action.

    Further economic and food blockades had been devised as state policy and were being strictly implemented. No agreement could be reached between the two warring parties as to the modus of shipping essential supplies to the ‘rebel’ enclave. Ojukwu insisted on air routes, fearing food poisoning if supplies come through Nigeria moderated channels but the Nigerian government would not hear of it, worried that arms may be smuggled in via that method. In his writing for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ series, New Issues, Professor Nathaniel H Goetz of Pepperdine University thus captures the complexity of the standoff: “Politically, the possibility of a land corridor seemed impossible. One of the many disagreements between the warring parties was simple, yet it illustrates both the mistrust and complexity of what was occurring: Ojukwu forbade the necessary food to reach the country through the neutral corridor for fear Nigerian troops would poison it… on June 5 (1968), an ICRC DC-7 aircraft was shot down by the Federal air force over Biafra, killing the three aid workers on board. Because of this incident, serious disputes over the conduct of relief operations arose and the airlift was again suspended.”

    While the diplomatic face-off went on, the scourges of hunger, diseases and deaths raged on in war-ravaged Biafra eliciting uproar across the world. Dan Jacobs, author of the book, “The Brutality of Nations” wrote about the lamentations of Pope Paul VI over this situation: “The war seems to be reaching its conclusion, with the terror of possible reprisals and massacre against defenseless people worn out by deprivations, by hunger and by the loss of all they possess… there are those who actually fear a kind of genocide.”

    Jacobs also quoted the editorial of the Washington Post of July 2, 1969: “One word now describes the policy of the Nigerian military government towards secessionist Biafra: genocide. It is ugly and extreme but it is the only word which fits Nigeria’s decision to stop the International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC), and other relief agencies from flying food to Biafra.”

    The International Committee in the Investigation of Crimes of Genocide led by a Ghanaian, Dr. Mensah after its investigation of the conflict, reported thus: “I am of the opinion that in many of the cases cited to me, hatred of the Biafrans (mainly Igbos) and a wish to exterminate them was a foremost motivational factor.”

    Let us take a final quote on the international outcry against the Federal Government’s handling of Biafra from no less a personage than Arthur Schlesinger, American historian and scholar of note: “The terrible tragedy of the people of Biafra has now assumed catastrophic dimensions. Starvation is daily claiming the lives of estimated 6,000 Igbo tribesmen, most of them children. If adequate food is not delivered to the people in the immediate future, hundreds of thousands of human beings will die of hunger.”

    It is from the foregoing, from the gloomy umbra of this genocidal turn of events that Achebe concludes that the highly respected Yoruba leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo could not be watching this gory Biafran drama happen, not to talk of being part of it and worse, being the master mind. “All is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder.” This is the alleged refrain from Chief Awolowo and reechoed by people like Chief Allison Ayida, says Achebe. This pogrom by hunger was steadfastly reinforced with such grim policies as state creation, secret currency change, the 20 pounds punishment, the ban on importation of certain commodities and the Indigenisation Act. All this orchestrated war of attrition to what end than to asphyxiate Ndigbo?

    How, when and why did Igbo brothers and sisters suddenly become mortal ‘enemies’ to be strafed, starved to death and exterminated so that the rest of Nigeria would have peace? Why was the reprisal coup not stopped at killing Aguiyi-Ironsi and Igbo officers; why did over 30,000 defenceless civilians have to be slaughtered with no questions asked? What manner of leader would fold his hands and watch while his people are killed like rats in a senseless pogrom without putting up a fight no matter how feeble?

    Achebe is saying that Chief Awolowo providing the intellectual prowess behind these sinister policies means that we still did not know at which point the rain started to beat us. He is saying that Igbo is not the problem of Nigeria. Achebe is asking: who jailed Awolowo on trumped up charges; who killed Adekunle Fajuyi, then governor of Western Region in cold blood, for no reason; who chased away the most senior military officer (Brigadier Ogundipe) and installed a stooge as head of state; who made sure Awo never became president of Nigeria; who killed Ken Saro-Wiwa, who made sure M.K.O. Abiola never became president and eventually killed him, his wife and damaged his businesses; who jailed Obasanjo; who always insists that he always must rule or determine who rules?

    Achebe expected Chief Awolowo, as the Yoruba leader of that era, who had just been freed from an unjust imprisonment to stand up against the injustice of the pogrom against Igbo in the north; he expected him to speak up against the raging genocide unleashed on Ndigbo the way others like Wole Soyinka, Victor Banjo and a few other Yoruba spoke against it, instead of aiding and abetting it.

    EPILOGUE: REQUIEM FOR BIAFRA; QUO VADIS NIGERIA? On January 15, 1970, the Biafran delegation, which was led by Major-General Philip Effiong and included Sir Louis Mbanefo, M.T. Mbu, Col. David Ogunewe and other Biafran military officers, formally surrendered at Dodan Barracks to the troops of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    Forty-two years ago, the rest of Nigeria teamed up seeking to exterminate the Igbo race in Nigeria, putting down more than two million and leaving the rest deprived, wretched and psychologically traumatised for no just cause. Forty two years after, all the rehabilitation and reconstruction promised was never to be. A trip through Igbo land today is enough proof of an ongoing ‘war’ by other means. Today, Igbo that was a pillar of the land, one of the majority tribes has been deliberately reduced to sub- minority. The people now are the least in population! It has the least number of states, local government areas and consequently, the least share of the federal revenue allocation. All these wars of attrition notwithstanding, the current attitude is: we dare you to talk about it. But Achebe insists: “My aim is not to provide all the answers but to raise questions, and perhaps to cause a few headaches in the process.”

    Sadly, Igbo land, the wretched remains of Biafra still bears the ugly marks of that near-annihilation, both physically and in the mind. For over four decades, Igbo still cannot dare to produce the President of Nigeria. For forty years, it remains tattered, disheveled and unkempt like an old hag. And because we have backed up the wrong tree, Nigeria generally has not fared much better either. The contorted creature sits pitiably today at a precipice staring down her deep, dark doom. Quo Vadis Nigeria?

  • ‘There was a country’: Ogbunigwe, Abagana ambush; Achebe, Okigbo and Ifeajuna

    THE OGBUNIGWE BOMB: commonly known as Ogbunigwe during the Biafran war, its fame and mystique traveled wide on both sides of the divide. Considered a technological breakthrough of Igbos during the war, the bomb, which may well be a higher version of today’s I.E.Ds (improved explosive device) was deployed to great effect by the Biafran army.

    With the economic blockade of Biafra having a telling effect, the people turned inwards, devising survival strategies and apparatuses. Apart from extracting and refining their own petrol; they also had improvised armoured tanks and piloted their planes. The renowned Professor Godian Ezekwe led a team of scientists in what was known as the Biafran Research and Production Unit, RAP. This think-tank group is said to have developed rockets, bombs and telecommunications gadgets.

    According to Achebe, quoting another great author, Professor Chukwuemeka Ike, the ogbunigwe was put to so much devastating effect against the federal troops that the fear of the explosive was the beginning of wisdom for them; to the extent that the Biafrans succeeded more with it than any imported weapons. Ike in his book, Sunset at Dawn: A Novel about Biafra, captures it thus: “You must have heard that the Nigerians are now so mortally afraid of Ogbunigwe that each advancing battalion is now preceded by a herd of cattle.”

    Boasting about this feat in what is regarded his last official wartime speech, Ojukwu said: “ in three years of war, necessity gave birth to invention… we built bombs, rockets, and we designed and built our own refinery, and our own delivery systems and guided them far. For three years, blockaded without hope of import, we maintained all our vehicles.

    “The state extracted and refined petrol, individuals refined petrol in their back gardens. We built and maintained our airports, we maintained them under heavy bombardment… we spoke to the world through a telecommunications system engineered by local ingenuity.

    “In three years, we had broken the technological barrier, became the most advanced black people on earth.”

    THE ABAGANA AMBUSH: March 25, 1968 probably remains one of the most memorable days in the Nigeria –Biafra war. It was the day the Nigerian side suffered the heaviest single loss in the war. Known as the Abagana Ambush, the Second Division of the Nigerian Army led by Col. Murtala Muhammed had finally crossed the Niger Bridge after failing in the first attempt (having been repelled by the Col. Joe Achuzia’s guerrilla army and suffering heavy casualties). Having crossed into Biafra, the plan was to link up with the First Division led by Col. Shuwa penetrating the Igbo heartland through the north from Nsukka. As Achebe notes: “The amalgamation of these two forces, the Nigerian Army hoped, would then serve as a formidable force that would ‘smash the Biafrans’”. Col. Muhammed was said to have assembled and deployed, a convoy of 96 vehicles and four armoured cars to facilitate this plan on March 31, 1968.

    However, Biafran intelligence was said to have got wind of the move and a Major Jonathan Uchendu was charged with working out a counter-attack strategy. With a 700-man team, a counter- attack plan was hatched that essentially sealed up the Abagana Road while the troops lie in ambush in a nearby bush waiting patiently for the advancing Nigerians and their reinforcements.

    Achebe writes that “Major Uchendu’s strategy proved to be highly successful. His troops destroyed Muhammed’s entire convoy within one and half hours. All told, the Nigerians suffered about 500 casualties. There was minimal loss on the Biafran side.” It was probably the most resounding battle ever won by the Biafrans in the entire war.

    ACHEBE, OKIGBO AND MAJOR IFEAJUNA: Christopher Okigbo, the cerebral poet and Achebe had known from their Government College, Umuahia days. Though Okigbo was two years junior to Achebe in class, they struck up friendship very quickly and maintained the closeness till Okigbo’s tragic end in the war front. After Umuahia, they were to meet again at the University College, Ibadan, and while Achebe was in the Nigerian Broadcasting Service in Ikoyi , Lagos, Okigbo was West Africa manager for Cambridge University Press. Their friendship was such that Okigbo was godfather to one of Achebe’s sons and on many occasions during the ensuing tumult in Igboland, Okigbo played ‘father ‘ role to the Achebe house- hold.

    When the war was in full force and all the Igbo personalities had returned, Enugu was the natural settlement for most of the elite returnees in the early days before the ancient town was bombed into submission by the federal forces. It was in Enugu; precisely on Michael Okpara Avenue, that Achebe and Okigbo set up their publishing outfit called Citadel Press. It was indeed the idea of Okigbo who thought out and even worked out the whole project before getting Achebe to come on board. The crux of it all was to publish educational materials, including children’s books and books that would capture the ongoing crisis.

    The first book Citadel Press worked on was, “How the Dog Became a Domesticated Animal,” by John Iroaganachi. Achebe and Okigbo chose to rework the folktale and turn it around to become, “How the Leopard got its Claws.” This book never got to see the light of the day before the shelling of Enugu became unbearable and most people had to scamper and relocate further into the hinterland.

    While Citadel still functioned, Okigbo had brought a manuscript from Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna, one of the five majors who plotted the January 1966 coup. The twain were thoroughly disappointed with Ifeajuna’s account of that critical event of Nigeria’s life. Hear Achebe: “I read the treatise through quickly and became more and more disappointed as I went along. Ifeajuna’s account showcased a writer trying to pass himself off as something that he wasn’t. For one, the manuscript claimed that the entire coup d’etat was his show, that he was the chief strategist, complete master mind, and executer, not just one of several. He recognized the presence of his coconspirators but did not elevate their involvement to any level of importance.”

    Chukwuma Nzeogwu, one of the chief protagonists of the January 1966 coup called the manuscript a lie while Achebe and Okigbo thought it too irresponsible to deserve publication. The manuscript was later to vanish to the regret of Achebe who thought it could have been preserved at least as a version of what transpired on that fateful January of 1966. Christopher Okigbo who had become a Major in the Biafran army was to be felled in the war front in August 1967, in Ekwegbe, close to Nsukka.

    Achebe who had fled from Enugu under the hale of shelling returned to Citadel Press after the war to find the small building reduced to ruble. It was instructive that a number of buildings in the vicinity had been unscathed by the conflict, but this one was pummeled to the ground. It was the work of someone or some people with an ax to grind, he thinks. TOMORROW: THE ECONOMIC BLOCKADE AND STARVATION; EPILOGUE

  • There was a country: Biafra was ego fight between Ojukwu and Gowon

    There was a country: Biafra was ego fight between Ojukwu and Gowon

    As leadership failed Nigeria at the most critical time, just before Biafra was declared, Chinua Achebe suggests that the gruesome conflict would have been avoided, were it not for the seeming clash of egos between the two protagonists – Colonels Emeka Ojukwu and Yakubu Gowon. The one was 33-years old while the other was 32. While Ojukwu rose from an aristocratic background, attended the best schools in Nigeria and the United Kingdom (University of Oxford) before enlisting in the Nigerian Army at the officer cadre, Gowon’s trajectory was almost the reverse, though he also trained at the best British military schools.

    From this background, there was, therefore, a suspicion that an unspoken rivalry brewed between the twain, which came to the fore when they gained commanding positions and faced each other down across opposing divides.

    After General Aguiyi-Ironsi was killed in the reprisal coup of July 1966, Col. Gowon emerged as Head of State. He was, of course, a favourite of the British colonial establishment which still had strong influence in Nigeria’s politics. And being a northern Christian, he was the perfect gambit of the Hausa–Fulani oligarchy, which used him to assuage the fears of the other tribes already grumbling about domination.

    Ojukwu rejected Gowon’s ascendancy on the grounds that he was not the most senior in the Nigeria Army’s hierarchy to lead the country. He said he would not subordinate himself to Gowon. This was one of the points of disagreement at the summit in Aburi, Ghana.

    On the part of the new Head of State, his headship was not negotiable; not with Ojukwu, for that matter. At the least opportunity they both had, they took hard stands, writes Achebe. It is instructive that Ojukwu and Gowon only met once (at Aburi) from the time Gowon became head of state till the end of the war. Achebe captures their rivalry thus: “There are a number who believe that neither Gowon nor Ojukwu was the right leader for that desperate time, because they were blinded by ego, hindered by a lack of administrative experience, and obsessed with interpersonal competitions and petty rivalries. As a consequence, according to this school of thought, these two men failed to make appropriate and wise decisions throughout the conflict and missed several opportunities when compromise could have saved the day.”

    Achebe says there was an obsessive tendency by both belligerents – Gowon and Ojukwu – to seek positions of strength and avoid looking weak throughout the conflict.

    Ojukwu’s Mid-West misadventure and folly

    To correct what has remained a contentious record, the Nigerian side, according to Achebe, fired the first shot in the war when Gowon decided to use the federal Army’s First Command in what he termed “police action,” in an attempt to “restore Federal Government authority in Lagos and the breakaway Eastern Region.” That move to capture the Biafran border towns of Ogoja and Nsukka proved to be a declaration of war, says Achebe. Thereafter, in July 1967, Nigerian troops attempted to cross the Niger Bridge into Biafra. According to Madiebo’s account, quoted by Achebe, the Biafran army was able to halt this advance and disperse the federal troops.

    Now that minor Biafran victory became “an advance, leading to the taking of a large swath of the Mid-Western Region in a surprise manoeuver that the Nigerian federal troops had not anticipated.” Of course, Ojukwu got euphoric by this small victory and was quoted in a speech at the time as saying: “Our motive was not territorial ambition or the desire of conquest. We went into the Midwest (later declared the Republic of Benin) purely in an effort to seize the serpent by the head; every other activity in that Republic was subordinated to that single aim. We were going to Lagos to seize the villain Gowon, and we took necessary military precaution.” Those who accuse Ojukwu and the Igbo leaders of not applying wisdom in proclaiming a Republic of Biafra may well base their arguments on this singular Ojukwu misadventure and folly in the Midwest.

    As it turned out, Ojukwu’s incursion into the Midwest territory, en route Lagos and delegating the then ‘fugitive’ South westerner, Col. Victor Banjo, was not only an exercise in extreme youthful exuberance, it also turned out a costly, if not mortal error. Here was a leader who had neither army nor ammunition; not even a war strategy. The Observer reporter, John de St. Jorre captured Ojukwu’s folly thus: “The Biafrans ‘stormed’ through the Mid-West, not in the usual massive impedimenta of modern warfare but in bizarre collection of private cars, “mammy” wagons, cattle and vegetable trucks. The command vehicle was a Peugeot 404 estate car. The whole operation was not carried out by an “army” or even a “brigade”… but by at most 1,000 men, the majority poorly trained and armed, and many wearing civilian clothes because they had not been issued with uniforms.”

    Of course, this rag-tag “army” got nowhere near Lagos. In fact, it turned out a suicide, mission having pricked the ire of the federal side by their action, pushing them to unleash what may be described as blind horror on Biafra subsequently.

    The four murderous generals

    Following from what was considered the Mid-West humiliation, Gowon regrouped his troops and they plotted a three-pronged onslaught that was meant to “crush the Biafrans” in a few weeks. Mohammed Shuwa who was in charge of the First Division of the federal army was to advance against Biafra from the north to take the Biafran towns of Nsukka and Ogoja. Col. Murtala Muhammed who was in charge of Division Two was charged with retaking Benin and other parts of the Mid-West occupied by the Biafran army, as well as storm Onitsha crossing the Niger Bridge. Lastly, Benjamin Adekunle, known as the ‘black scorpion’, leading Division Three of the Nigeria Army, led the southern offensive.

    In just three months, the federal troops, armed to the teeth now with British weapons, had staged a successful counter-offensive and the Biafran troops were in full flight. Since resistance by the Biafran soldiers was almost non-existent on all fronts, it would have been enough for the federal troops to have captured the entire Biafra with minimum casualties on all sides. But that was not to be. Most of the federal officers were unrestrained and unprofessional; they were blood-thirsty and murderous in their operation.

    Thus in Asaba, Onitsha, Nsukka, Enugu, Owerri, Aba and Calabar, they killed Igbo civilians in cold blood, according to Achebe. The example of the Asaba massacre will suffice: Murtala Muhammed and his lieutenants, including Col. IBM Haruna, apparently smarting from Biafra’s Mid-West humiliation, had rounded up no fewer than 500 Igbo men of Mid-West stock, young and old, and executed them summarily in cold blood. This particular atrocity which attracted worldwide attention, prompting Pope Paul VI to send an emissary has remained unaddressed and unquestioned till today.

    It was 35 years later, in 2002 precisely during the Oputa Panel (the ill-fated Truth and Reconciliation Commission) that the matter came up again. While Gowon claimed ignorance of the massacre and apologised profusely, here is the response of IBM Haruna, then retired as a Major-General: “As the commanding officer and leader of the troops that massacred 500 men in Asaba, I have no apology for those massacred in Asaba, Owerri, Ameke-Item. I acted as a soldier maintaining the peace and unity of Nigeria… If Yakubu Gowon apologized, he did it in his own capacity. As for me, I have no apology.”

    Tuesday: Ogbunigwe, Abagana Ambush; Achebe, Okigbo and Ifeajuna

  • What Ondo people must do tomorrow

    What Ondo people must do tomorrow

    Tomorrow is Ondo’s day of destiny. The great people of Ondo in Southwest Nigeria must seize the day tomorrow and engrave it into the history books of great elections. Tomorrow is Ondo’s day of reckoning, a day they owe a duty to themselves and indeed the rest of us Nigerians to make us proud at the poll. Every voter-card carrying Ondo man must have made up his mind how to vote tomorrow therefore no preachment or suggestive promptings might change anything or sway the voter. But one thing he must not fail to do is to allow democracy to reign supreme. He must not only vote he must guard his vote.

    How I envy the Ondo voter. Isn’t he spoilt for choice? Three great candidates to choose from (no offence intended to about a dozen others but honestly one cannot remember their names): the incumbent governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, (Labour Party); Rotimi Akeredolu, (Action Congress of Nigeria); and Olusola Oke (Peoples Democratic Party). Three great men in every respect who have so much in common: they were all born in the mid-50s, they all attended the great University of Ife before it became OAU, they are all professionals with quality educational pedigree and have worked to the pinnacle of their callings. While Mimiko is a medical doctor, the twain of Akeredolu and Oke are lawyers of high standing. Akeredolu is indeed a Senior Advocate of Nigeria of about 15 years standing.

    I see a final two horse race by my own simple calculation. Without taking anything from Chief Olusola Oke, a man who practically hefted himself up by the boot straps and right up to great heights in legal practice, public service and administration, the odds seem stacked against him. A great analytical mind and a tenacious personality, Oke is sadly, encumbered by his party, PDP which has lost grounds and even face in the Southwest. In another season, on the platform of another party, Oke would be hard to beat by any but PDP has had its day in the Southwest and unfortunately, it made a meal of it much like it has been doing at the centre since 1999.

    Now Akeredolu versus Mimiko will prove to be one block-buster of an electoral battle. Mimiko, fondly called Iroko, is the incumbent and in battles like this, especially in places like ours, the man on the seat has all the advantage tilted to his favour at an angle of over 50 degrees. He has at his disposal, the State’s treasury, the machinery and all the power and glory of an imperious executive office. But as recently as last year, we have seen incumbents defeated ingloriously. Mimiko has more than incumbency going for him; he is a wily politician and a grassroots trooper. He is doughty, fearless and understands the dynamics of power; its uses and abuses in an impoverished enclave like Nigeria. This medical doctor-turn politician has all these and more going for him at tomorrow’s grand slam.

    Ondo is however, at the peculiar turning-point of its history. In ordinary times, Mimiko and his people would be doing victory party now. But it is a different ball game now and this is the fight of his life – the be all and end all fight for Mimiko. If he wins, he wins his place for good in the pantheon of Yoruba history and if he loses, he loses into oblivion. This is why it is a fight to finish; a deathly fight.

    Akeredolu, called Aketi by supporters, on his part, can rightly be described as a neophyte in the dark jungle of Nigeria’s politics. Surely his students union and Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) politics cannot compare to this epic battle he is locked in now. There is a lot going for Akeredolu though. There is the ACN machinery and war chest available to him. He also rides on the crest of the Southwest groundswell – the inexorable integration of Nigeria’s West undergirded by a rich political, intellectual and economic template. It is the new dawn, the new direction not only for the Yoruba but for every nationality under a nebulous country called Nigeria. If the song today is to return to the regions, then the Yoruba (of ACN) are a mile ahead of the pack and Ondo and her people had better join the train. It is in the long-term strategic interest of Ondo people to bond with their kin now.

    However, Akeredolu’s greatest strength, in my estimation, is his person, his carriage, his gravitas. He is the kind of person you would proudly show off as your governor. His visage adorned by a rich landscape of graceful gray hair cast the picture of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. He also made a damn good president of the NBA, bringing so much integrity and quality activism to bear on the most enlightened and most influential interest group in Nigeria. Akeredolu must have been so good a president that Nigerian lawyers named their new national secretariat after him. He initiated the complex and set it on motion after many hits and misses. He does not look like the run-of-the mill Nigerian politician; he seems sturdy both in physique and character.

    On the other hand, Mimiko from my observation has proven to be your average Nigerian politician. In the first place, if he had put up an extraordinary performance in the last three years, he would never struggle in campaign now. He had four years and State resources; his work ought to speak most eloquently for him now. It took the class of Lateef Jakande, Sam Mbakwe, Abubakar Rimi and Jim Nwobodo just four years to turn their huge states around those days. Obviously, Mimiko like the average state governor of today does not think out of the (federal allocation) box. I am of the opinion that what a governor cannot do in four years, he may not do in 40 years.

    Finally what particularly troubles people about Mimiko is the dagger in that smile of his if one looked closely enough. If the ACN had backed him body and soul in his 20-month legal battle to reclaim his stolen mandate, this is surely not the best coin to pay back with. Could he not have made all the changes he desired from within? Don’t eat a man’s meal if you didn’t like his face and for sure, it is obscene, if not ungodly to go to a man’s dinner table with a dagger hidden in your pocket. That is detestable.

    All said, Ondo people already have more than enough guide on which way to vote tomorrow. I wish them goodluck.

    LAST MUG: Oyo Gov’s curious showcase: one struggles hard to understand the point of Oyo State Government advert headlined “Oyo State of ‘Firsts’”. The gov’s photo is superimposed on the imposing photos of the Cocoa House, WNBS-WNTV House and the Liberty Stadium. All of these are great edifices of a great era long gone. We think Gov. Ajimobi should show us the foundation he is laying to surpass these landmarks. Some of them must have been built in four years. For instance he can revive the cocoa industry by facilitating the building of the largest processing factory in Africa. Is it unthinkable that Oyo could become one of the largest cocoa exporters in Africa over the next 8 years? That is legacy waiting to be built.