The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Ijaw chief does not know what he does not know

    “No psychologist should pretend to understand what he does not understand… Only fools and charlatans know everything yet understand nothing.” – Anton Chekhov

    One of the most profound observations now becoming a cliché is: “you don’t know what you don’t know”.  How true this is of Chief Edwin Kiagboro Clark’s recent observation and conclusion that the Yoruba nation does not have leaders?  Obviously, the Ijaw chief has a limited worldview of leadership and, having searched through that limited and flawed prism, failed to find among the Yorubas a persona or personae fitting his own concept of leadership.

    But, alas, he does know what he does not know.

    The Yoruba concept of leadership is clearly alien to the Ijaw chief’s worldview. He started out as a headmaster and has gotten used to being the man in authority who lords it over all others, commanding obeisance and dictating what should be and what should not be.  Advancing early in life after opportunities to occupy prime government offices, he is held in awe by his people and, being the loquacious and vociferous type, his people have donated to him their collective voice to agitate and advocate for the perpetuation of their kinsman’s hold on power.

    That is the type of leader the Ijaw chief was looking for among the Yorubas. But, he does not know what he does not know:  the Yorubas are not so!

    First, the Yorubas, being politically, culturally and educationally sophisticated do not need to have one seemingly ‘all-knowing’, ‘all-wise’ headmaster as leader.  It is only those who are pupils, who are not disciplined, who are at the rudimentary stages of cultural and political development who require such leaders.  Historically among the Yorubas, the acknowledged and acclaimed political leader is merely a primus inter pares.  If the Ijaw chief would so re-condition his concept of leadership (admittedly, a no mean task given his advanced years), he would surely and clearly identify the present leaders in the fold of the Yorubas.  But if he continues to search for the equivalent of his headmaster-style leadership among the Yorubas, he will not find it.  And, God forbid that the Yorubas regress to that level of de-sophistication where they would need a headmaster to lead them.

    Second, the Yorubas have always been led more by ideas and principles than by men such that anyone who courageously, prominently and steadfastly advocates for commonly held and cherished principles and ideas is acknowledged as aleader among them.  Given the Ijaw chief’s background, this may be difficult for him to comprehend since there is no equivalent of philosophy from where he stands.  We know he is the appointed ruler of his people, but we also know that dead silence will meet any question seeking to know the philosophy driving his leadership.  Beyond the fight to keep the spoils of office for his kinsman and his people, what is his leadership about?

    On the other hand, the people that the Yorubas have acknowledged as leaders have been men who espoused and made great sacrifices for lofty ideas, ideals and values that are way bigger than them and their people.  That is why Israel Oludotun Ransome Kuti did not need to be selected or elected as the leader of an elders’ forum to be recognized and acknowledged as a leader among the Yorubas; his devotion to the cause of the education of his people earned him that.

    That is why Olayinka Herbert Samuel Macaulay did not need to have a kinsman installed or preserved as President to find his voice as the leader and advocate for the ordinary peoples of the colonies.

    That is why social change advocates like Dr. Akinola Maja did not need any ethnic or parochial motivations to lead the crusade for social rights and emancipation. That is why people like the late Chief FRA Williams became acknowledged as leaders among the Yorubas, not for their lordship over the people, but for the distinction they achieved in their professional pursuit and the application of those distinctions in the service of their people.

    Were he a Yoruba man, the Ijaw chief would have no prominent place in leading the Yoruba people even if he had more wealth and had occupied higher offices that he has.  This is because the Yoruba people would not tolerate an opportunist and a hypocrite.  He is a leader to the Yoruba people who would fight the cause of the oppressed whose election was annulled even if the cheated candidate was not one of his own political leaning.  He is not a leader to the Yoruba people who would nurse an unconstitutional third term in office.  However, when that same man finds his voice in condemning an incompetent, corrupt and self-serving government, he becomes the darling of the principle-cherishing people of the Yoruba race.  The Ijaw chief should be reminded that the leaders of the Yorubas are those who led their people to fight the cause of a certain Vice President from another tribe when the powers that be attempted to deny him his constitutional right to ascend the Presidency.

    Given the above attempt to describe the concept of leadership among the Yorubas, the Ijaw chief should now understand why Chief Obafemi Awolowo is eternally regarded as a leader among the Yorubas, nay, among the entire people of Nigeria.  It was not because he rose to high offices.  It was for his courage in fighting for high and lofty ideas at the expense of his freedom, health and reputation.  His sacrifice for the educational advancement of his people and for good governance earned him an enviable place in history.

    The Ijaw Chief may now understand why the late Chief MKO Abiola, after years of being in the minority section of the political class among the Yorubas became a leadership symbol when he displayed the courage expected of Yoruba leaders to fight for democracy and the rule of law.

    The Ijaw chief may now understand that it was not only their advancement in age that earned the likes of Chief Adekunle Ajasin and Chief Abraham Adesanya their leadership epaulets; it was their readiness to sacrifice for their people, to be the courageous voice during a brutal military dictatorship, to identify the right and support it and to spot the wrong and condemn it.

    The Ijaw chief may also now understand why Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is now a hero to his people.  For, in spite of political differences, he has displayed the character and courage expected of leaders in condemning a federal administration being run in such a clueless and corrupt manner to the detriment of the people.

    Does the Ijaw chief think that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s claim to leadership is simply that he was once elected to the Senate of the Federal Republic or that he performed as one of the most conscientious governors of Lagos State in recent years?  No!  It is because of his profile in courage! It is because of his sacrifice for the greater good in good times and bad times.  Who was in the forefront of the global assault on the regime of General Sanni Abacha?  Who was the rallying point and strategic voice for all the opposition figures in the dark days following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential elections?  Who was the governor that redefined governance after years of mismanagement by the military? Who was the governor with the courage and vision to fight all the way to the Supreme Court to establish the fiscal rights of states in the federation?  Who is the politician with acumen and endurance to organize the political opposition that a democracy surely needs to survive? If the Ijaw chief would answer these questions truthfully, he will find the leaders of the Yoruba people.

    Indeed, Chief Edwin Kiagboro Clark’s role in recent affairs can only be honestly described as the antics of an otherwise intelligent and respectable elder blindsided by bigotry and ethnic loyalties.  Chief Clark and his other mischief makers belong to that class of men who, in honour of present favours, mischievously distorts history, maligns otherwise honourable men, saying “…with our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?”

    To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg address, the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what we do.  Aside the ignominious desperate struggle to maintain the hold of his kinsman on power in the face of glaring incompetence, what is this Ijaw chief doing today worthy of historical remembrance?

    • Omolewa writes from Benin, Edo State

  • Dear President Jonathan, Corruption is bane of Nigeria

    Dear President Jonathan, Corruption is bane of Nigeria

    “Corruption is not the cause of all the problems confronting Africa. In terms of security, Boko Haram is the biggest challenge we (Nigeria) have at the moment.” – President Goodluck Jonathan
    “For Mr. President to have said that corruption is not our number one problem that must be the misstatement of the century.” – Itse Sagay (SAN)

    The first quote was the remark of President Goodluck Jonathan at the just concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, while making his contribution to a televised debate titled, “Africa’s Next Billion.”
    The president has completely erased any iota of doubt that he has a thorough grasp of critical issues like the prevalent endemic corruption now crippling governance that demands his urgent attention as president of Nigeria and frontline leader on the continent.

    One would expect that thorough research should be done by his fawning aides before he speaks at such a forum. A statement like that is the least expected from the president of one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

    President Jonathan would have been dead right if he had said every problem confronting Nigeria and indeed Africa is the result of corruption. Any argument in the contrary is like saying there are evils not traceable to the devil. Mr. President has displayed too much incompetence in handling corruption in Nigeria and several of his other responsibilities as president and remarks like the one in Davos, buttresses this point.

    It is most unfortunate that our president has a kindergarten understanding of graft and its concomitant effects.He seizes every speaking opportunity to make excuses why he cannot fight corruption. Such prevarication will not help the anti-graft war, they only serve the purpose of encouraging more corruption.

    His comments are coming at a time that allegations of corruption against officials of his administration are mounting. The Stella Oduah BMW scandal is still fresh in our memory. With his latest misstatement making national headlines, he reminds us of the fifth presidential media chat of September 29, 2013, were he said that Nigeria’s corruption was merely a perception which is grossly exaggerated.
    As a member of the intellectual community, he ought to know better and not mistake effects for causes. Corruption diverts capital from legitimate purposes to making wrong-headed policy decisions which deprives the country of a pool of finances.
    He has developed a penchant for singing a different tune from realities on ground, same way he has insisted that electricity has improved in spite of citizen reports to the contrary.Deflecting international attention from sleaze is the least expected at a time the country needed a consistent and dogged fight against this monster. The level of corruption in the country demands serious political will to combat, not occasional rhetorical statements like the promise to fight the scourge in his New Year message.
    The present administration has embarrassingly failed to realise that the root cause of the present wave of terrorism ravaging the north east is the result of decades of corruption and impunity of perpetrators coupled with the failure of successive government to provide quality, affordable education to Nigerian children.
    Graft goes beyond misappropriation of public funds. How Boko Haram insurgency that affects a few local governments can be rated above a hydra-headed monster that has eaten deep into the entire Nigerian fabric cutting across all sectors of the economy and all levels of government, stifling development, can only be understood by the president.
    The Islamic insurgency that the president cited as a major challenge to his government has its foundation in corruption. Government of isolation or exclusion which breeds injustice and disaffection is corruption. The country might be having a tough time combating the insurgency of Boko Haram, it does not in any way imply insecurity has overtaken graft. Government malfeasance is the result of dilapidated infrastructure such as roads, health care, collapsed educational system and poor electricity.
    Worse still, the failure of our security operatives to effectively deal with the Boko Haram insurgency is also attributable to graft. Billions are voted every year for purchase of combat weapons, training and re-training of security personnel but they somehow end up in private pockets. For example, a former Inspector General of Police is still standing trial for diverting police funds.
    Whenever the president makes such statements, it shows he is disconnected from the over one hundred million Nigerians who live in abject poverty, same class of people he belonged before he veered into politics. He lives in self-denial of the realities on ground. Terrorism is no doubt a major problem, even globally, but fighting the root causes and other issues that promote the culture of violence requires a holistic approach.
    Some of the probes that shows an evident lack of political will to decisively deal with the menace of corruption include: The KPMG report that indicted the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for corrupt practices; The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) audit report exposing 10 years of corruption in the upstream and downstream sectors of the oil and gas industry; the probe of the Pension Fund Management by the Senate Joint Committee on Public Service and Establishment, State and Local Government Administration; the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe that exposed alarming revelations of corruption in the capital market; the probe of the oil subsidy regime by the Ad hoc-committee of the House of Reps; the non-prosecution of those indicted in the Halliburton LNG bribery scandal, the recent Stella Oduah BMW scandal and the unsatisfactory explanation the NNPC has given for the $10.8billion of crude oil earning the Cental Bank of Nigeria (CBN) declared missing. The list is almost in exhaustive.
    It is safe to say every problem we have in Nigeria today has its roots in corruption. We would be living in a fool’s paradise if we expected a president that has been encouraging official corruption to see anything bad in it much less a problem for Nigeria. This will amount to shooting himself in the foot.
    Rather than roll up his sleeves and concentrate on fixing Nigeria by fighting corruption frontally, he has instead, resorted to wishing the problem away by selling a warped ideology and diverting attention to insecurity. If this is the thinking of the presidency, and the line of reasoning that this administration wants to toe, then am sorry, we are doomed! I wish them Good luck.
    Jonathan should as a matter of urgency, combat the prevalent endemic corruption now crippling governance (at all levels) and stunting the economy of the country.
    Judicial officers blame the absurd rulings on corruption cases on the outdated provisions of our antediluvian law – like plea bargains, which allow wealthy Nigerians to get laughable sentences for gargantuan corruption – needs amendment; else criminality and corruption will continue to flourish. It is why corruption has become a raging monster in this administration. Regrettably, there are no serious efforts to review these laws. Justice delayed is another variant of graft. Add that to looting, political desperation, nepotism, impunity, electoral fraud, perjury and you get a snippet of what corruption is.
    There is no better time to step up the fight and stem the tide of sleaze than now. Year 2014, to Nigerians, is not just another year, but the end of a century of national existence and the beginning of another. When the centenary celebration proper begins, it should be time for sober reflection on how far we have come. One of the numerous national questions that will continue to reverberate in our minds will be: how did we find ourselves in this abyss of monumental corruption?

    Theophilus is a public affairs commentator. Engage him on twitter, @tilevbare. He blogs at http://ilevbare.com

  • Re: Kwankwaso, the North and President Jonathan

    A rough observation of the current political developments in Nigeria shows a country gripped by a vicious, ruthless and violently repressive form of totalitarian kleptocracy, where the interests of the common man are being trampled upon with chronic impunity.

    It’s mainly for this reason why any right thinking Nigerian, not only a northerner would dismiss all attempts by desperate opportunist sycophants to burnish the current system which has already become so blemished by the poisonous elements of official malfeasance, gateless corruption and legendary incompetence.

    As Nigerians become more sickened by the rapid deterioration of democracy and the entrenchment of dictatorship, symbolized by politics of witch-hunt, intimidation, harassment and muzzling of democratic opponents who are determined to prevent the country from plunging into abyss, President Jonathan’s apologists have unleashed a legion of hungry spin doctors to distort facts in order to deceive ordinary people.

    I read with much disappointment an advertorial by one Gidado Ibrahim, bearing the same title as this write-up in The Nation of Tuesday, January 14, seeking to denigrate Kano State governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso for voicing his frustration over the abject failure of President Jonathan to the address the predicaments of Northern Nigeria.

    The writer who claims to represent one phantom ‘Coalition of Civil Society and Non-Governmental Organizations’, attempted desperately but unsuccessfully to exonerate Jonathan from his obvious failure to look into the sufferings of the teeming northern population with a view to improve their quality of lives.

    As Ibrahim laboriously tried to present grotesquely false claims about Jonathan’s ‘achievements’ in northern Nigeria, facts on the ground reveal that the writer was only doing a hatchet job to appease his sponsors in return for some filthy lucre.

    While I find it quite insignificant to join issues with the writer, it is very important nonetheless to refute the glaring falsehood peddled by the writer on the following:

    • The Police Academy in Wudil local government of Kano state, which the writer referred to as ‘Police University’ was not set up by Jonathan but by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The writer had used the term ‘university’ to deceptively give an impression that Jonathan built a new police institution.

    • The Kano-Zaria-Abuja expressway and others across the north were actually rehabilitated by late President Umaru Yar’adua under whom Jonathan served as deputy. Remember, the Abuja Lokoja Road claimed more than 120 lives in 2013 alone! And still claiming more

    • Malam Aminu Kano International Airport is said to be remodeled, but the federal government, despite claiming to spend billions of naira on the project could not equip its terminal with most basic facilities. It was Governor Kwankwaso who made the international terminal of the airport functional by donating most of the facilities including security and luggage scanners. This is aside from the plot by the Minister of Aviation Stella Oduah to divert to Enugu, most of the foreign airlines, including Turkish, Etihad, Ethiopian and Emirate airlines that indicated interest to be plying the Kano route.

    • The ‘Almajiri schools’ purportedly set up by the federal government are empty projects that are yet to demonstrate any usefulness. But Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s down-to-earth policy on education has boosted children’s enrolment rate by millions because he provides each child with free sets of uniform and free meals apart from instructional materials and conducive learning and teaching environment.

    • Jonathan’s contributions in the agricultural development of Northern Nigeria only exist in Ibrahim’s imagination not on our vast and fertile agricultural lands. It is the same with our dams.

    • The five-month old strike by university lecturers across the country has belied any claims by the Jonathan administration, of its commitment to education. Educational development is determined by quality and not just quantity of the institutions set up by government.  • Also, contrary to claims that the Jonathan administration has completed the dredging of River Niger, the President had since 2010 stopped the project and diverted the N19 billion meant for the project to his native Niger Delta for ‘shoreline protection and land reclamation’. The dredging project was initiated by late President Umaru Yar’adua.

    • The Zungeru Power project is a rip-off because though it has a capacity to generate only 700 megawatts, the project is expected to gulp about $1.3 billion dollars or N212 billion, making it more expensive than the world’s biggest hydro-power station – The Three Gorges Dam in China which generates 22,550 megawatts. Even at that, no meaningful steps have been taken to continue the project.

    Considering the foregoing, President Jonathan has undoubtedly failed the North just as Governor Kwankwaso asserts and true patriotic democrats like him have more than a moral obligation to take all necessary steps within the ambits of law to embark on the crusade to reclaim the country from his asphyxiating leadership, which is only interested in protecting parochial, self-seeking, self-serving and dangerously nepotistic interests.

    The only reason the agents of the federal government are determined to crush the timely crusade of patriotic Nigerians like Kwanwakso is to allow President Jonathan to foist himself in 2015, on a country that has become so sick and disgruntled with his failed style of leadership.

    Therefore all right-thinking Nigerians should join visionary leaders such as Kwankwaso to dismantle this fortress of corruption and incompetence that could derail Nigeria’s democratic development and take the country to medieval-era penury and suffering that we would forever live to regret.

     

    • Danladi wrote from Kakuri, Kaduna State.

  • The nonsense at UNN

    Every well meaning citizen must be flabbergasted at the determination of some shadowy forces to turn the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, (UNN) into a rustic village primary school, a far cry from the lofty vision of the founding fathers to make it an exemplary higher institution on behalf of the Blackman everywhere in the world. The battle cry in some quarters now is that an indigene of the Nsukka senatorial zone must be the vice chancellor of this institution, Nigeria’s first full-fledged indigenous university created in 1960, the year of independence. This battle cry was first heard three years ago when the race was on for the post of vice chancellor. Someone from outside the Nsukka zone was eventually appointed based on merit, provoking the shadowy forces to swear  to make the place ungovernable for him. These parochial forces could not be consoled by the fact that Professor Bato Okolo is from Enugu State, the host state of the university.

    Therefore, it could not have come as a surprise to perceptive observers that things became difficult for the vice chancellor the moment Enejere was appointed pro chancellor. Okolo, a former professor at Obafemi Awolowo University, could not understand why this foremost federal institution should be turned into an exclusive preserve of people from just one senatorial zone in the country. He could not understand why staff appointments should be indefensibly lopsided or how a university which is perennially cash strapped could provide amenities like electricity free to communities around it at a time of astronomically increasing electricity bills. Which public university has done so? Meanwhile, the vice chancellor has been facing one probe or another on the prompting of the pro chancellor.

    To save the university from further self-inflicted misery, the Federal Government decided to separate Enejere from the UNN. Hell has consequently been let loose. Every person of Nsukka extraction holding any significant position, whether in the non academic staff union or the Ohaneze youth wing, has been told to see the the action as genocide against the people of this senatorial district. The propaganda is akin to the type we saw in Biafra, marked by xenophobia, paranoia and an outright rejection of the notion of peaceful co-existence. In a well-circulated written statement in the media which should never have been associated with someone who has ever seen the four walls of a university, one Nwodo, said to be the Ohaneze youth leader,  says “the UNN is Dr Enejere and Dr Enejere the UNN”. The statement is reminiscent of the infamous declaration of King Louis X1 who said: “I am France, and after me comes a deluge!” This hubristic statement was one of the  immediate critical factors which led to the famous 1789 French Revolution in which the bourgeois got guillotined. Still, in Nigeria of the 21st Century a so-called academic would get his minions to declare that he is, indeed, the University of Nigeria and the UNN him. Have our values and sense of proportion collapsed so calamitously that there is now no difference between an academic, on the one hand, and an uneducated village politician cum rabble rouser, on the other?

    The Igboland must be in a profound social crisis. Can you imagine a group of scholars in, say, the Akoka community, shouting from the rooftops that they will make the University of Lagos ungovernable unless the vice chancellor is from their senatorial zone? Can such a thing happen  at the University of Ibadan or Obafemi Awolowo University at Ife or at Ahmadu Bello University at Zaria? The answer is hell no! The supreme irony is that while some elements of Nsukka extraction want to create the impression that they are discriminated against by not having one of their number as the UNN vice chancellor, they have carefully turned a blind eye to the fact that an Nsukka person, Professor Hilary Edoga, is the vice chancellor of Michael Okpara University at Umudike, Abia State, and that another one, Professor Cyprian Onyeji,  is the vice chancellor at the Enugu State University. How would  latter-day Nsukka ultra nationalists feel if people from the senatorial zones where these universities are sited should rise up in arms against the smooth administration of the institutions because these vice chancellors are non-indigenes?

    The UNN must be saved from backward-looking elements. Who would have imagined that the UNN Law Faulty, which once paraded such great minds as Professors Ben Nwabueze, Edwin Nwogwugwu, Cyprian Okonkwo, etc, could ever fail to meet the National University Commission’s accreditation test? The immediate past UNN vice chancellor, Professor Chinedu Nebo, the current Minister of Power, used to bemoan the fact that its medical school was publishing the least number of academic articles among first generation universities when he assumed office. And yet this is the university which up to 2001 was rated by the NUC to have the most rigorous academic programmes in Nigeria.

    As the ongoing simulated crisis at the University of Nigeria indicates, if there is any group of people marginalizing the Igbo, it must be a handful of our own folk who are parochial, backward, opportunistic and greedy. The Great Zik of Africa who established the UNN as a first class liberal university “to restore the dignity of man” must be turning in his grave in utter disappointment at the attitude and antics of some of its stakeholders.

    Enough of all this nonsense.

     

    • Ubadike is an engineering consultant in Abuja.

  • Badeh’s war cry

    Badeh’s war cry

    New Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Alexander Badeh, must be a man with a magic wand. Bursting with excitement last week, he served notice to the Islamist Boko Haram sect that their days were numbered. He specifically pronounced April the month when the curtains would be drawn on the insurgent saga in the North East.

    Ordinarily, such a positive declaration should elicit three hearty cheers. At the same time I am discomfited by this business of deadlines – especially when it has to do with a group that has defied all obituary notices over the years.

    When the air campaign at the start of the current emergency was launched we were assured it was only a matter of time. But like an irritant cockroach the sect just refuses to go away.

    In fact, the last time President Jonathan suggested whilst on an overseas trip that the group would be crushed within three months, its leader Abubakar Shekau replied with counter threats that were soon followed by a period of unprecedented bloodletting.

    Rather than setting unrealistic deadlines and targets against a foe we are yet to fully understand, it would pay the new security leadership better investigate why the might of the Nigerian armed forces has not been able to quell the insurgency. When we have the right answers, peace will descend on region – and Badeh would not need a press conference to announce it.

  • Clark speaks for heaven

    Clark speaks for heaven

    The occasion was this year’s Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration held at the National Christian Centre, Abuja. It was another opportunity for President Goodluck Jonathan to work out his boiling rage at elders behaving badly.

    Once he had the microphone in his grasp, the President said: “Sometimes I get worried when I listen to provocative statements that come from very senior citizens. People that ordinarily you perceive are very senior citizens. People who are probably 70 or 80 years who have seen it all and who ordinarily should know the unity of this country is more important than the interest of any individual.

    “Sometimes they preach hate and even encourage young people to carry arms and kill themselves.”

    Narrow that down to one elderly letter-writer who maintains a residence on one of Abeokuta’s many hilltops. I was certain there was no other sinner in this category.

    But this last week I suddenly remembered the presidential rebuke after reading the latest incendiary intervention in our national discourse by his political godfather and former Federal Commissioner for Information, Chief Edwin Clark.

    Among other things he declared that after late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Yorubas had no leader and the likes of former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu were wasting their time thinking they could play the part.

    He then rounded on all those criticising Jonathan’s second term bid. They were, he declared with celestial certainty, fighting God! Clark is at liberty to speak for the Ijaws and PDP on this matter, but he’ll be presuming too much by appointing himself heaven’s spokesperson.

    Accusing the president’s critics of being against God is not only cheap religious blackmail, it just betrays ignorance. Truly, God can allow situations and circumstances to cause the most unlikely persons to occupy the thrones of nations, but the Scriptures are also replete with cases of people whom God enthroned but later toppled after they departed from His ways.

    God enthroned Saul, Solomon and Nebuchadnezzer to name just a few. When they went bad the Almighty kicked them out. There would have been an abundance of critics of these deviant rulers in their final days. Rather than their voices being repulsive to their Maker, He most certainly responded to their cries for deliverance.

  • Who wants Borno destroyed?

    At the beginning, we all thought it was one of those bad dreams that would soon blow over. It, however, didn’t take long for us to be proved wrong, as the climate of fear resurrected once more, taking us back to the ugly days when we had to sleep with our eyes wide open. No thanks to the ugly events of that fateful Monday, the harrowing experience and the trauma are back.

    After months of respite from the intimidation and onslaught of Boko Haram sect, the inhabitants of Maiduguri woke up on Monday, December 2, 2013, to find themselves at the mercy of the insurgents, rubbishing the long-held belief that the state capital is safe.

    But just as the residents of the once-peaceful state were beginning to recover from the shock of the attack, news filtered in of another audacious attack carried out by the insurgents on the 202 Tank Battalion in Bama town about 50 kilometers from Maiduguri.

    Fifteen soldiers were allegedly killed in the Bama attack, while the Boko Haram lost 50 of its member to the firepower of the military. There were also said to be civilian casualties.

    According to reports by the Borno Radio Television (BRTV), the insurgents who carried out the Monday attack came in large numbers and left through the same route after wreaking havoc on the people.

    According to sources, the insurgents came in vehicles and on camels with sophisticated weapons, including anti-aircraft guns. They were said to have first attacked the 33 Artillery Regiment along Maiduguri-Damaturu road, later moved to the 79 Composite Group of the Nigerian Air Force, a short distance away.

    The level of destruction at the Air Force base was alarming.

    They allegedly destroyed five helicopters, mechanical workshop, vehicles and residential quarters. They also set on fire some buildings in the Artillery Barrack. Reports had it that it took the intervention of a fighter jet from Yola to avert what seemed an eventual dooms day for the people of Maiduguri.

    Even while the people were yet to recover from the pains of the wounds inflicted by the December attack, Boko Haram carried out another major attack on Maiduguri on Tuesday, January 14, 2014.

    Described as one of the deadliest attacks in recent times, the bomb explosion at the post office area, along Shehu Laminu Way, the commercial nerve centre of Maiduguri, claimed about 30 lives, and left several others injured. The attacks marked the return of Maiduguri to the ‘night of long knives’.

    It is shocking that in less than two months, Boko Haram carried out two major audacious attacks in Maiduguri and its environ, killing several hundreds and maiming even more in its trailing of destruction.

    To say that the audacity and mode of the recent attacks is worrisome is begging the question. The question on the lips of the residents now is, if military barracks where people seek refuge in the past is no longer safe from attacks, where would the defenseless people run to the next time Boko Haram comes calling?

    Borno State has never had it this bad. The last five years have been traumatic and frightening for the people of the once peaceful state.

    In its editorial on the Maiduguri airport attack, the Daily Trust wrote: “That Maiduguri, a city under curfew for several months completely surrounded by various formations of the military, military police and civil people, a city in virtual lockdown, could come under such sustained attack over several hours, calls to question the integrity of the military leadership and the intelligence services around them.

    “According to reports, security sources stated that ‘the insurgents had a field day throughout the time they operated, between 3.30am and 8 o’clock in the morning’, a period of almost five hours, and that a security official was reported to have said that it was only after the arrival of a military fighter jet from Yola, Adamawa State (half an hour away), that the insurgents retreated. The big question here is, retreated to where?

    “In fact, the question to precede this should be, how did the insurgents reach Maiduguri, and then the Air Force Base, in the first place, when the military had been telling the public that Boko Haram had been contained in a ‘little corner’ around Sambisa Forest and the mountains around Gwoza far to the South of Borno State? The reality is that such statements have exposed the military to ridicule because they grossly underestimate the capacity of the enemy they face.

    “Borno State is one of the largest in the country by landmass, and the only way the insurgents could have launched such a daring attack from their ‘little corner’ would have been to drop in from the air, which was not the case. In a state full blanketed in the cordon of emergency rule, how could the insurgents move from one place to another with such ease, when all other citizens cannot?

    “What mode of transportation did the insurgents use to

    avoid the inevitable indications of vehicular movement? What footpaths and cattle tracks did they use that were not known by the security forces? The most ironic of the reports say the insurgents ‘caught the military napping.’ One would have thought that, in an emergency such as the North East is under; no one would be napping, let alone sleeping, to be caught in such a grievous condition.”

    It is, however, particularly shocking that since the disbandment of the Joint Task force in Borno State and the takeover of its functions by the newly-established 7th Division of theState by the insurgents or whoever has been responsible the attacks have become more deadly and ferocious, with deadly attacks carried out in Benisheikh, Mainok, Maiduguri, Sabon Gari, Damboa and Bama.

    The meteoric rise in the number of attacks has now raised a lot of questions, just as it is thought-provoking. The questions on the lips of the people are: ‘Who wants Borno destroyed?’, ‘Why the ceaseless and unprovoked attacks on Borno?’ and ‘Who wants to make Borno a theatre of war, a habitat of orphans, widows, people with severed limb and, in Shakespeare’s words, the ‘architecture of ruins?’

    Other questions agitating the minds of the residents include:

    ‘How come the insurgents seem to be having the upper hand in spite of the assurances from the authorities that things are under control?’, ‘Could there by fifth columnists within the military, making it very easy for the enemies to carry out attacks?’, ‘Though there are patriotic men in the rank and file of the military who want the insurgency to come to an end, how far is the allegation that there are some members of the military who would not want the debacle to end so long as they are benefiting monetarily or otherwise?’, ‘Why is Borno State singled out by the insurgents for more heat?’ and ‘Have the insurgents infiltrated the military, making the battle against the insurgency more complex and difficult?’

    However, this is not surprising, bearing in mind that President Goodluck Jonathan had pointed out before now that the Boko Haram sect had infiltrated his administration, the judiciary, legislature and the nation’s security agencies.

    Similarly, while receiving members of the Turaki-led Committee on Boko Haram Amnesty/Reconciliation in audience at the Government House, Maiduguri, Governor Kashim Shettima also pointed out that there are various brands of Boko Haram. According to Kashim, there is the religious Boko Haram; you also have the political Boko Haram and criminal Boko Haram, among others.

    It may not be out of place to say that all the groups or categories of the Boko Haram sect have at one point or the other operated and are still operating in Borno State. The question arising from this is, who wants Borno destroyed or in perpetual bondage?

    It is instructive to also note that about a month back, the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, who is also the Supervising Minister of Defence Ministry, pointed out in a Radio Nigeria phone-in-programme that the inherited security challenges in the North East was the result of local politics.

    For example, some groups in Borno have for some time now been calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to stop former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff from coming to Maiduguri. The allegation is that his departure, after visiting the state, was always followed by an attack on Maiduguri or elsewhere in the state.

    But the pro-Sheriff group had consistently denied this allegation, describing it as the handiwork of Sheriff’s enemies. They in turn accused Sheriff’s opponents of being the masterminds of the attacks, aimed at creating a sense of insecurity in the state. Without doubt, there is more to the accusation and counter-accusation between these two groups than meets the ordinary eyes.

    It will be recalled that the Boko Haram sect leadership had distanced itself from some attacks, especially in Borno. So, who are the people behind these ceaseless attacks on Maiduguri?

    Who are the politicians toying with the destiny of Borno and who are the people frustrating the efforts of the federal and Borno State governments to end the carnage?

    But one thing is sure in all of this: Those who have murdered sleep in Borno on the altar of politics, ambition or for any other unjustifiable reason, have murdered their own sleep and will

    themselves sleep no more.

    Before the fateful day, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff had arrived Borno via Gombe airport. There were allegations that Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who is said to be nursing senatorial ambition in 2015, had wanted to visit Borno for some time now, but was prevented from doing so because of the security implications of such visit.

    However, following the death of Alhaji Mohammed

    Malafiya, the Emir of Shani, Senator Ali came to Borno to condole with the people of Shani on the death of their Emir. And on arrival at the Gombe airport, he drove straight to Shani through Biu.

    Report had it that the presence of Senator Ali Modu in Borno State generated tension and anxiety in the light of the alleged security implications of such visit. However, trouble started to manifest when on the same day, Governor Kashim Shettima was on a visit to Maiduguri Airport to inspect some equipment sent from Lagos by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) to the station which had been temporarily closed down following the attack on the Airforce base.

    According to a report, about the same time the governor was on his way to the airport, a presidential aircraft conveying Alhaji Mohammed Imam landed at the Maiduguri airport. He was said to have arrived to prepare the ground for Sheriff’s arrival.

    On their way to the airport, some thugs who were allegedly waiting for Mohammed Imam sighted the governor’s convoy and started hurling stones and sachets of water at the governor’s entourage and making provocative statements. At this point, the military and police operatives dispersed the thugs with tear gas, while the governor calmed down members of his entourage.

    In what looked like a retaliatory measure, thugs and youths, believed to have sympathy for Governor Kashim, two days after the airport episode broke into the convoy of Senator Ali Sheriff after his visit to the Shehu of Borno palace. Report has it that the attackers were chanting “Wanyana, Wanyana”, meaning “we don’t want you” and “Kilado”, interpreted as “enemy”.

    The worst came after the bomb blast when all hell was let loose. There was confusion and pandemonium as the people ran for their lives.

    Youths in their hundreds ran amock, targeting the Campaign Headquarters of Senator Ali Modu in the state capital and his house in the Government Reservation Area (GRA).

    No doubt, President Jonathan was right when he explained that the insurgents have gravitated from locals to international in arms or weaponry, as they assault their targets with sophisticated modern warfare arsenals.

    The president equally stated that efforts were on to locate the sources of their weapons and their sponsors. Without sentiments, one must commend the Federal Government for its efforts, both local and international, aimed at halting the insurgency.

    However, it is indeed sad that up till now, neither the foreign or local sponsors of this group or groups has been identified.

    But it is baffling that despite the amount of money spent on the nation’s intelligence agencies, not a single local sponsor of this heinous crime has been identified, at least not to the knowledge of the public.

    The effrontery with which the insurgents inflict devastating pains, especially on military locations, no doubt is indicative of local sponsors, local collaborators and local informants. No foreign businessman or entrepreneur will take his goods to where there is no market. This mean that the foreign arms dealers have the local arms buyers within and around us. They must be identified if this orgy of destruction must be stopped.

    Besides, our security agencies must be proactive; they must work a step ahead of the insurgents in whatever colouration.

    Most of the time, our security agencies are on the defence, leading to the need to device new strategies in the light of the sophistication of our ever-increasing opponents.

    It will be a tragedy and a dent on the nation if for any reason a rag-tag group or any outfit in uniform for whatsoever reason is allowed to rubbish the reputation of the world acclaimed Nigerian Army.

    Borno State, with the largest land mass in the country, shares borders with the republics of Chad, Niger and Cameroun and the security implications of such location is obvious. It is, therefore imperative that special attention be given to the state. A stitch in time saves nine.

  • Fears beyond 2015

    Everyone knows that 2015 is heating up 2014. In fact, the temperatures started rising much earlier.

    For much of last year, Rivers State boiled. From the local council to the legislature to the executive arm, there was enough bad blood to compete with the state’s vast crude oil deposits. Meetings were broken up by the police, with teargas playing a major role.

    Later, honourable lawmakers would go after one another and shed blood right in their hallowed chambers.

    It has been said that it was not so much about the minority trying to unseat the majority in the House as about the vested interests of powers and principalities

    far beyond the state, as 2015 drew nearer. That is the state where Governor Chibuike Amaechi has since fallen out with President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife Patience, who hails from the state. That is also the state

    where the governor has long parted ways with Mr Nyesom Wike, interim education minister, the apple of the Jonathans’ eye. Wike, by the way, has not hidden his plan to make life as uncomfortable as possible for Amaechi who led other governors out of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into the waiting arms of the chiefs of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    That hurt the PDP whose national leader, Dr Jonathan, is widely believed to be interested in a second term.

    That was last year. In 2014, explosive devices have gone off in Rivers State. A pro-Amaechi rally was broken up by the police who managed to leave Senator Magnus Abe wounded by a rubber bullet. While the police have the discretion to disperse a procession deemed inimical to public peace, it remains unclear what danger, or how much of it, the rally posed to the public before the police moved in.

    At the highest level of PDP leadership, 2015 has changed a lot of things. The defection of half a dozen PDP governors was partly blamed on the party’s immediate past chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

    Some said he preferred to brawl rather than talk or inspire those he led, including the governors. That was probably why his successor, Alhaji Adamu Muazu’s first words as party chair were “Return, defected governors, return!” The party needs them for the elections as much as it needs Muazu himself.

    Otherwise, why would the president choose a man who is on the investigative list of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)? It is troubling that nothing else matters outside the 2015 elections.

    Mu’Azu, a two-term governor of Bauchi State, is in the books of the anti-crime agency over a sum said to be nearly N20b. He has not been charged to court, which is also part of the puzzle.

    The violence on the road to 2015 is saddening but doubly so is the fact that little or no effort is being made to address the profound challenges facing the country and its people. All that makes sense now is clinching power, not what to do with it. Every national leader, upon inauguration, faces the challenge of addressing the nation’s real problems as opposed to the cosmetic ones. Leaders are supposed to face the cancers plaguing their people, and not preoccupy themselves with the rashes on their skin. Building a few roads, sinking some boreholes or refurbishing some dilapidated primary schools are good but they essentially remain secondary needs. We need leaders who will ask why, in the first place, the people lived so long without good roads, without clean water and without schools worth the name. Good leaders will not stop at asking such questions; they will also get the answers, and you can bet that corruption will be at the root of the answer. Then, they will fight it convincingly by punishing the corrupt. This country needs a president who will convincingly confront corruption, which lies at the root of its troubles. Unchecked sleaze leaves public officers room to steal. But it is worse when institutions established to check such practices are hamstrung by the very government that set them up. On

    the Mua’Azu issue, an official of the EFCC was quoted in the press as saying it is futile to probe the president’s appointee.

    It is confounding that the President Jonathan is now said to have dismissed the notion that corruption is Africa’s biggest problem and even more confusing that he did not say what the continent’s worst problem is.

    Corruption is the reason there is no stable power supply.

    It is also the reason our roads are not paved, not because there is no money. It is the reason expenditure figures at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) are not adding up. Folks are reaping where they did not sow and nobody is making them face the music. A nation sitting on deep wells of crude does not refine its oil. Nor does it determine the strength of its economy. These are issues leaders resolve, else they administer a country without foundations or a future. Decades ago, Nigerians migrated freely and settled in other parts of the country, built their homes and raised families there. In the North, for example, such freedom began to cool even before Boko Haram. The bad blood between indigenous people and settlers was not there in the beginning. Why? Are Nigerians really united as we mark the nation’s centenary and amalgamation?

    Who will be president in 2015 is unclear but it is beyond doubt that deeper challenges face Nigerians than pre-election skirmishes.

  • Amosun, the moderniser at 56

    Amosun, the moderniser at 56

    How fortuitous was the decision to go for a bank draft. I had not used the monetary instrument in over two decades as far as I could recall. Then we literally went with our mats to Sabo, Yaba branch of the First Bank. Obtaining a bank draft was a whole day affair, in the era of tallies. The harrowing experience was exacerbated by the sheer volume of the patrons of the bank.

    So I was not prepared for any time-wasting this time. My plan was to apply for the draft and come back another day to pick it. But the bank official mumbled some words. “Did you say I should wait?” I asked. “Yes, you just need to wait for a few minutes!” Pleasant surprise! In less than 10 minutes or so, I was already descending the stairs of the Abeokuta branch of the First Bank, transported with joy!

    My mind raced immediately to our urban renewal efforts in every part of the state, especially Abeokuta vis-a-vis the earlier criticisms of the opposition. But these people said Amosun should have repaired and maintained the existing ‘face me I face you’ roads instead of constructing modern highways! Just like expecting the First Bank to continue the use of tallies or provide comfortable seats for customers in order to cushion the trauma of having to spend the whole day to obtain a bank draft!

    I must confess that I was jolted to the marrow when, upon the inauguration of the current government, I had the first-hand experience of criss-crossing Abeokuta. Why should a state capital look so ancient? The roads were so narrow that they could hardly accommodate pedestrians let alone automobiles, and the houses built so close to the roads such that a man in his bedroom could actually exchange handshake with passengers on these prized opposition motorways!

    Let me say in passing that the state capital is usually the first point of contact for investors and those who transact business with government. The impression they gain matters a lot. Show me your state capital and I will tell you the kind of people you are. I am not an indigene of Abeokuta but people should not play politics with development. At any rate, the ongoing massive construction in other cities of the state has shut the mouths of critics.

    The gods are not asleep after all. Last December, I saw some of these detractors cruising along the international standard highways in Abeokuta, such as the Ibara-Totoro road, Onikolobo-Omida motorway, Abiola Way, etc. I saw them also on the first overhead bridge. I had thought they would avoid the use of the modern infrastructure in protest and instead pass through their famous ‘face me I face you’ roads that were yet to receive the bulldozers. So the saying is true: Everybody likes good things!

    Some of their supporters threw night parties close to the illumination provided by the lights on Amosun roads. Yes, it is good to enjoy night life; the siege is over; the climate of fear has been removed. We all know what Ogun was before May 29, 2011.

    I do not know when last you saw any of the model schools being constructed across the state. These are 21st Century structures that are reshaping the landscape of Ogun.

    If Ogun State were a commodity quoted on the Nigeria Stock Exchange, its share price would have grown geometrically from early 2012 when Amosun succeeded in fighting insecurity, which had made the state a no-go-area for investment, to a standstill.

    The number of industries springing up in the state in the last two years is phenomenal.

    The Business Day award to Ogun as Nigeria’s fastest-growing economy is a testament to the position of the gateway state and the value of its stock in the Nigeria Stock Exchange under the leadership of Senator Ibikunle Amosun.

    It’s not been a rosy story all along. No one would have anticipated that the practice of our so-called federalism would degenerate to the point that the Federal Government alone would corner such a gargantuan amount from the Federation Account while the pittance being shared by the 36 states would not be guaranteed.

    But for the financial re-engineering of the Amosun government, which is to ensure that the state depends less and less on the Federation Account, one would have imagined the crisis that would have resulted from the drastic fall in the monthly federal allocation.

    The monumental debt inherited by the administration has also continued to exact its toll on the purse of the state. Imagine what a huge difference the billions of naira spent so far to offset inherited debts or the humongous sum expended on the very latest technology of Armoured Personnel Carriers, security vans, gadgets and personnel to contain the insecurity foisted on an otherwise peaceful state would have made in the implementation of our limited free health policy!

    Although the extremely poor women, under the Gbomoro initiative, get more than the free ante-natal care initially promised (in addition, they receive free transport money and free ‘mama kits’), it is the wish of the governor that the scheme progresses faster and covers more areas and others entitled to free health.

    Whereas no government in the world (developed or developing) ever fulfils all its promises or achieves all its intentions 100 per cent – however well-meaning – Amosun continues to strive to ensure that all his programmes are substantially accomplished. Wherever possible, he can surpass expectations such as he has done in security architecture of the state; free education, which has led to remarkable increase in enrolment figures (he only promised Affordable and Qualitative Education); road infrastructure, which beats the imagination of all and financial sanitation, which has raised the IGR from N700 million inherited to a record four billion at some point without putting additional yoke on the people but just essentially blocking the drains in the old system and encouraging people to pay their tax in accordance with the extant law – this has inevitably led to regular payment of salaries in spite of the fall in the constitutionally-guaranteed income from the Federation Account and fulfilling our obligations to contractors and banks without any default or piling up debts for future generations as the won’t of some leaders.

    How can one forget the unprecedented investment in land-clearing equipment by this government in preparation for mechanised agriculture, the first of such quantum purchase since the creation of Ogun in 1976? Space will fail me to talk about the model Farm Settlement Scheme that will soon be launched. graduates of agriculture, according to the Commissioner for Agriculture, Mrs Ronke Sokefun, have been admitted for the pilot scheme. These are budding entrepreneurs that will add to the over 45,000 direct and indirect jobs generated by the Amosun administration…

    SIA couldn’t have made any major promise on power considering the stranglehold of the Federal Government on the sector, backed somehow by the constitution. But realising the hopeless situation of small-scale businesses across the state, he purchased and distributed 500 transformers in one iconic gesture. I’m yet to hear of such quantum of supply by any government in Nigeria in one fell swoop.

    All these account for the popularity of Amosun in every nook and cranny of the state. Politics is already in the air. It’s so easy to forget that these ground-breaking achievements have been recorded in less than three years out of a mandate of four

    Millions of cheers to The Modernizer, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, as he attains the age of 56 today.

     

    •Soyombo writes from Abeokuta (densityshow@yahoo.com)

  • Anchors for new Igbo leadership

    Leadership is the most sublime of all arts, said an ancient thinker and one dares add that there are no foolproof formulae or methods. Leadership is leadership only when it has fermented or yielded results – desirable results of course. While we daily discuss and dissect this eternal concept, the people of the world continue bear the brunt of poor leadership in all spheres of life without let.

    But leadership like gift comes in different packages, shades and even character. It some times manifests in the unlikeliest of places and circumstances, which is why one proposes here that the disquieting leadership vacuum in Igboland today may fine manure in the persons of the current governor of Abia State, Chief Theodore Orji and the out-going governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi. While the twain could prove to be the key to Igbo ‘renaissance’, so much will depend on their individual and concerted efforts; their will to pick up the gauntlet, their desire to stand in the gap for their people and most important, their sense of history and legacy.

    There is no doubt that Ndigbo today, more than ever before, are in dire need of men of wisdom and stature who would stand as rallying points for the now stranded people of the South-east of Nigeria. The demise of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu and the aging of the likes of Dr. Alex Ekwueme and Professor Ben Nwabueze have left Igboland barren and starkly bereft of ndi- ndu. And if the point must be made, Ndigbo cannot afford to be headless and rudderless in today’s Nigeria that totters precariously threatening to snap and disintegrate along ethnic fault lines. This is a time that calls for quality ethnic champions; it is also an epoch that breeds leaders.

    We think therefore, that these two Igbo leaders are today, in pole positions to step up as the next generation of Igbo to serve as anchor for that great land and her people in these times. One shortlists T.A Orji here because in spite of an orchestrated barrage of smear campaign against him, his administration and his work in Abia by people who believe they own the state and would not brook any ‘interloper’, TA as he is called by all, has proven his mettle both as a wily politician, administrator and leader.

    As governor of Abia in the last six years or so, again ignoring the antics of deprived ‘owners’ and ‘godfathers’, he has been able to reclaim an entity which was worsted by locusts and termites between 1999 and 2007. By 2007, Abia was like a wasteland where a deadly hurricane had traversed. Abia was devastated physically, psychologically and spiritually. That condition explained the horrific state of insecurity and a suffusion of criminality in a place with the slogan: ‘God’s Own State’. By 2007, it was apparent that God had left Abia in anger.

    As for his performance in office since he took over in 2007, his travails in the hands of his rapacious godfathers during most of his first term of course arrested the growth and development objectives of the new administration. Clear-headed analysts of the Abia conundrum would admit that since 1999, it is the TA administration that has brought order, sanity and articulated development to Abia State. It is no secret that the previous administration only bequeathed the people debts and chaos after eight years. But TA has calmly picked the pieces, and is rebuilding from the ruins and rubbles of that era.

    Leadership is not however judged by the ability to deliver bricks and mortar alone. TA’s forte, which is why one thinks he would emerge as one of the apex Igbo leaders is his reasonableness, people skill, his amiable nature and his elastic capacity for reconciliation and mediation. When he was vilified for an obviously misguided policy which sought to indigenise the state’s civil service, he back-tracked at the earliest opportunity when the state’s finances improved. He promptly offered the victims of the policy the opportunity to return to their jobs.

    In a field of up-coming Igbo leaders, TA possesses the right educational and intellectual pedigree, professional/service records and the authenticity of the Igbo. As he ends his tenure, how he plays his end game and the trajectory he constructs going forward would be vital in fitting into what may be a natural position of Igbo leadership. As others before him did, it may be tempting to try to seek solace and relevance in the secure bowels of the Senate but that move never worked for anyone. That road has long proven to be a fatalistic cul-de-sac through which many have simply lapsed into irrelevance.

    This brings us to the other candidate, Governor Obi who has about finished his term in Anambra State. He has vowed never to seek any elective or appointive position after governing a state for eight years. Nobility is made of this and Obi may have instantly earned himself statesmanship should he abide by his word.

    Like TA, Obi will be remembered for helping to stabilize his fractious and dishevelled state; bringing order and sanity to the anchor state of the southeast. Obi’s especial ability to carry through two terms in office with a minority party and the grit with which he was able to win with his successor in the last election is also a testimony to his capacity to provide holistic leadership for his people. Lastly, apart from boasting of a worthy work and service pedigree, Obi, like TA, is a true nwafor Igbo who truly understands the special needs and aspirations of Ndigbo in today’s Nigeria. It is therefore imperative for Obi and TA to pull together regardless of party affiliations, form partnership; forge alliances and build platforms for the resurgence of Ndigbo. Mark you we do not seek a leader as a shepherd to a herd of cattle, but we merely ask for a strong, true voice for Ndigbo.

    Will these two great Igbo sons stand to be counted?

     

    • Nchekeocha writes from Okigwe, Imo State