Category: Opinion

Those that call me a tribalist are simply misguided. Perhaps they do not know the meaning of the word or its true import. Those that know me well can confirm the fact that I am not a tribalist, a racist or a bigot and that I consider such sentiments as being unworthy of a man of class, good breeding and culture. I abhor hate and violence and I would be the last to incite others to hate their fellow Nigerians. I am however a firm believer in the propagation of truth and I appreciate the value and importance of history. Sadly many of our Igbo compatriots do not believe in that. For them history consists of only one thing- how other Nigerians have always marginalised them and treated them badly.

If only they knew their own history, where they are coming from, what they used to be, where they were 100 years ago and what their forefathers did to the rest of Nigeria over the last 80 years they would know why they have always had such a hard time in this country. Sadly because they don’t know any of these things they cannot learn from them. And if they cannot learn from them they will continue to make the same mistakes. That is why they can come to another man’s land and territory and call it their own and when we say ”no” they tell us to shut up, call us tribalists and ask for our arrest.

I was not a tribalist when I wrote a tribute to Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu after he died or when I condemned the ’60’s pogroms that took place in the north in which their people were slaughtered. I was not a tribalist when I wrote against my good friend Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima and child marriage in the north. I was not a tribalist when I wrote essays defending the rights of the Igbo and every other Nigerian nationality to exercise their right of self-determination and leave Nigeria if that is what they wanted to do. I was not a tribalist when I consistently wrote that Nigeria must have a Sovereign National Conference where the rights and obligations of all its various nationalities would be clearly defined and agreed upon. I was not a tribalist when I fought and spoke up for the establishment of true federalism in Nigeria. I was not a tribalist when I employed more Igbo people as a Presidential spokesman and a Minister of the Federal Republic than even my own Yoruba. I was not a tribalist when I wrote an essay extolling the virtues of Igbo women and telling the world about their sudden and meteoric rise and how far they had gone in the power circles of this country in the last 10 years. I was not a tribalist when I condemned the bombing of predominantly Igbo and catholic churches and the killing of the Igbo and others by Boko Haram in the north over the last three years.

I was not a tribalist when I risked my life by consistently writing against Boko Haram and urging our President to do a better job at protecting the lives of all Nigerians even though I live in the north. I was not a tribalist when I wrote against political Sharia in 2001 and I participated in protracted and sometimes acrimonious debates with Islamic fundamentalists and Islamists. I was not a tribalist when I was in NADECO and when we fought against military rule in Nigeria. I was not a tribalist when I fought for a President from the south-south or the south-east. I was not a tribalist when I wrote in defence of the Igbo when it came to the abandoned property issue. I was not a tribalist when I wrote about the excesses of the Federal troops during the civil war. I was not a tribalist when I commended Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe and the virtues of the NCNC in Nigerian history. I was not a tribalist when I wrote that it was unfair and wrong for the Federal Government of Nigeria to leave the Igbo with only 20 pounds each after the civil war. I was not a tribalist when many years ago I attended and gave my life to Christ in a church called TREM which was established by a great Nigerian of Igbo extraction by the name of Bishop Mike Okonkwo. I could go on and on. Yet now I am a tribalist because I spoke the truth about our history and who the Yoruba are.

These people have very short memories and anyone that does not agree with them all the time or that says one word against them at any point in time is labelled a tribalist for life. They called Chief Obafemi Awolowo a tribalist, an Igbo-hater, a genocide maniac and a child-killer simply because the man refused to join sides with them in the civil war yet they forgot that on one of the occasions that Awolowo ran for the Presidency his running mate was from the east and not from the north. They called Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, Chief S.L Akintola and Sir Ahmadu Bello Igbo-haters and tribalists simply because they saw through the Igbo agenda at a very early stage in our history and sadly they marked and killed them all for it. They called General Yakubu Gowon a genocidal maniac, a child-killer, an Igbo-hater and a tribalist simply because he opposed Biafra, stood up to Ojukwu and insisted on keeping Nigeria together and even though he declared that there was ”no victor and no vanquished” at the end of the war.

They accused President Olusegun Obasanjo of being a tribalist and an Igbo-hater even though he appointed an Igbo man as the first GOC in the Nigerian Army since 1966 and even though he appointed more Igbo into key positions in his government than any other President before him. They accused President Shehu Shagari of being a tribalist and an Igbo-hater even though he pardoned Ojukwu and allowed him to return back home after a long period in exile. They accused the Nigerian people of being tribalists and Igbo-haters simply because we have not had an Igbo President since 1966 forgetting that Nigeria was magnanimous in victory and that she not only gladly welcomed them back into the fold after the civil war but that she also gave them the Vice Presidency of the country only ten years later. They have labelled the northerners as tribalists and Igbo-haters simply because the north has refused to tolerate their excesses and accept their complicated ways. They have labelled the Niger Deltans as tribalists and Igbo-haters simply due to the ”abandoned property issue” and because historically many of them have always resisted the idea of Igbo domination.

They have labelled the Yoruba as tribalists and Igbo-haters simply because we have refused to accept their claims to our land and territory and even though we were more charitable, hospitable, accommodating and generous to them than any other nationality in Nigeria after the civil war. The Yoruba particularly have been very kind and gentle with them. That is the problem. They see our liberal and accommodating nature as stupidity and weakness. That is why they always call the Yoruba cowards forgetting that the history of the Yoruba proves otherwise. It is now time to tell the truth. If speaking these bitter home truths and yearning and fighting for a better Nigeria where life would be better for all makes me a tribalist then it is a toga that I would be happy to wear. I will not sit by quietly and allow my people, the Yoruba people of south western Nigeria, to be rubbished, insulted and cheated by anyone no matter how aggressive and given to extremities that anyone may be. I make and offer no apology for any of my views. My numerous assertions stand and they will stand till the end of time.

Meanwhile, I have read all sorts of strange submissions in various newspapers and blogs that have held themselves out as rejoinders to my two articles titled “Lagos, The Igbo and the Servants Of Truth” and “The Bitter Truth About The Igbo”. Since this debate began two weeks ago my staff have read no less than eleven formal responses which have come in the form of essays. Sadly other than the usual abuse and unedifying clap-trap not one of them has been able to address any of the issues that I raised in either of the two articles, answer any of the questions that I posed in them or successfully challenge my presentation of historical facts. How I wish the masters like Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, Adebayo Williams, the late Megaforce, Chinweizu and Sad Sam could give them a few lessons in being refined and polite yet clinical and devastating in their approach. If they had one of those great writers in their corner I would have offered my surrender long ago. Yet sadly they don’t.

The bellicose nature and sheer crassness of these so-called rejoinders goes to prove two things. Firstly that those that I have described as being collectively unrestrained and crude in all their ways really are all those things and a lot more and secondly that they cannot put up any reasonable or serious argument to discredit or refute the message so instead they are attempting to destroy the messenger.

Unfortunately for them, the message is clear and it is already out there. It cannot be called back in. The horse has bolted from the stable and the falcon has left the nest. No matter how hard those that are attempting to intimidate us into silence may try it will not work and we will not be cowed. The genie has already slipped out of the bottle. The child has already been born. Those that seek to continue to denigrate and belittle the Yoruba and lay claim to what is rightfully theirs should desist from doing so. They should grant us our peace and give us our due respect and they will get the same in return. If they do not do so those things surely will elude them.

Meanwhile, when anyone reads a rejoinder that addresses the issues that I raised in either of my two essays and that has some level of scholarship and intellectual content they should please let me know and I may well dignify it with a response. The shameless and emotional thrash and disjointed verbiage that have been published and described as rejoinders so far are just not up to scratch. They are bereft of any logic, reason or rhyme. They also invoke pity in me for the individuals that wrote them and those that they claim to be representing. When my adversaries find a real champion that can cross swords with me and give me a good run for my money either in a literary debate or a verbal one someone should please let me know. And I am not referring to any of those excitable individuals whose emotions have beclouded their thinking and who have called me a ”scallywag” and all manner of other interesting and unsavoury names and who have said that I ought to be in jail or in a drug rehabilitation centre. Please don’t tell me that those are your champions. I am itching for a real debate with a worthy adversary on this issue.

Like the great Achilles I feel that I have no match. Are there no Hector’s out there? Sadly it appears that my accusers and haters cannot find one. All they have is their hate, their ignorance, their insults and their inbred crudity and vulgarity.

By August 27, Abia State will be 22 years old having been created out of the old Imo State by the Ibrahim Babangida administration. Scientifically, the age of maturity for human being is 12 years, but at 22, Abia State is still crawling. Successive governments in the state, especially during the military era, ran its affairs with impunity and recklessness. But they did not do it without the collaboration of civilians from the state who often served as fronts for the military to loot the state. Under the guise of businessmen and government contractors, they registered phoney companies and government contracts were awarded to them and funds released to them. At the end, no contract would be executed and nobody would ask for the refund of the public fund already paid to them.

That was the kind of leadership provided for the state for more than a decade. The hope and expectation of the people for a change in the status quo with the inception of democracy in the country in 1999 was never to be a dream come true. This was because the same characters that connived with the military leaders to impoverish and under-develop the state for almost a decade ploughed the looted funds into the politics of the state and hijacked the political leadership.

 So nothing changed in terms of leadership style, aside of change from military rule to civilian democracy. Desperate to recoup after years of military rule, some politicians served as conduit pipe to siphon state resources and to suppress the people. Between 1999 and 2007, there was no sign of governance in the state, especially in the area of infrastructural development. But government in the state ranked top in the promoting unnecessary political controversies to attract undue attention from the public and in the area of media propaganda.

Decayed infrastructures begging for government attention were abandoned, while officials built their business empires and those of their family members, converting government assets into family assets at will. The state-owned newspaper was destroyed and its printing press used to establish an anti-government private-owned newspaper in Lagos. Voodoo politics was also introduced in the state and an intriguing matriarchy took charge of government decisions, while the son became the ceremonial leader of the state. A suburb in Bende council area of the state became a Mecca of sorts for politicians seeking appointment into the government. Nobody dared ask question or criticise government policies or actions, which were in most cases anti-people.

 By the time the second term of the government expired in 2007, the state was left worse than it was met in 1999 in terms of decayed infrastructure, absence of access roads, a health sector in shambles as residents sought medical care in neighbouring states. The state of education was pathetic and the rate of examination malpractices was at the peak as special centres which encouraged examination malpractices became dominant in the state. The state debt profile was as high as N29.9 billion. No foundation was laid for the incoming government to take off. The civil service meant to drive government’s policies was bogged by petty and clannish politics, encouraged by the government. The state capital Umuahia remained the same glorified village it was upon its creation in 1991.

Coming into the office as governor in 2007, Chief Theodore Orji, a seasoned public servant came with a vision and blueprint on how to transform the state. But his predecessor on whose party’s platform Orji was elected had a different agenda which was the maintaining of the status quo in the state. Stifled and hounded on many fronts, Orji was just a figurehead and the system at the national level encouraged the situation at that point. Having seen it all in government as Chief of Staff for eight years, Governor Orji tarried for the best time to strike and liberate the state from the menace of godfatherism, a feat he achieved before the 2011 general elections, after due consultations with the people on what they wanted. Thereafter, the state breathed air of freedom. And since then, Orji’s government has been in hurry to cover lost ground. It is no doubt a daunting task, but the government has remained resolute.

Today in the state, there is no incessant political crisis especially in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Brothers do sit down now and discuss the way forward for the state. A new Government House befitting of a state capital of 22 years old is under construction. So also is an ultra-modern International Conference Centre, a new Workers Secretariat, and so many other giant developmental strides in different sectors of the state including the civil service that has been reformed and repositioned for effective performance. The kidnapping menace that nearly crippled activities in the state is now a thing of the past. That is why the state has remained the most peaceful state in the country today and has become a haven for prospective investors. There is also steady power supply in the capital and its environs courtesy of the power evacuation from Ohiya power station by the state government in partnership with the Federal Government.

 It is obvious that the present government that is laying solid foundation for the development of the state. And in the face of this obvious fact, some misinformed and hired arm-chair critics who were part and parcel of the poor leadership that bedevilled the state for more than a decade plus are now expecting the present government to use resources and funds realised in the past six years to tackle accumulated decayed infrastructure of more than a decade. This is without raising eyebrow or asking questions on what happened to the funds that accrued to the state since its creation that were obviously mismanaged by successive governments before now.

 The Abia liberation paved way for the solid foundation laid by the present government and what is paramount is sustaining the situation and improving on it to ensure that the dark years of political godfatherism and looting will not find its way back to the government of the state. So ahead of 2015 general elections, all hands must be on deck to ensure that people of questionable characters will not find their way into the Abia Government House. They are already jostling for the seat, but when the time comes, the people will make their choice. They are wiser now, and the present government has set a pace that the incoming government must follow to make great impact.

• Elder Ugbuaja, wrote from Arochukwu, Abia State.

The statement issued by Reuben Abati the official spokesperson for the presidency on August 11, criticizing the interim chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande for describing the Jonathan government as a “kindergarten presidency”, is paltry, whining and falls in the category of world class political tantrums. In a most predictable fashion, the rabid nature of the reaction confirms the truth that Nigeria is being run by little minds and irritants. This kind of rascally mindset displayed by the minders of the Presidency continues to contribute greatly to the unravelling of a government spinning out of control.

Those of us opportune to have read the statement from the presidency now realize the office of the spokesman has shifted from being the mouthpiece of serious governance to that of the National Cry-baby. Their statutory task, that of serious governance, they did not address at all. They insist on telling us what they should tell themselves.

Thus, their eagerness to assume the role of the country’s top complainant is predictable. Instead of trying to minimize opposition criticism by providing the nation with decent governance, their strategy is to complain that the opposition complains too much. The performance of government, upon which the great fate of the nation hangs, is immaterial to them. In fact, the nation and its multitudes be damned as far as they are concerned. After all, the same President on live television told Nigerians he does not give a damn about some of the things that affects them.

They claim that Chief Akande disrespected the office of the presidency with his remarks. In truth, Akande was merely exercising his democratic rights to speak about the dire state of this government. Not only was he exercising his democratic rights, he had a moral duty to criticize this government for it is government in ruins, a stumbling, bumbling mash of self-seekers, opportunists and the myopic. What Akande said of them was mild compared to what the average person says of this government on a daily basis. If the office of the presidency is to respond to every harsh criticism levied at it, that office shall be a busy one. It will have to issue 150 million press statements aimed at almost every Nigerian, including half the members of the very inner circle of this very government. Nigerians are now used to the countless insulting press statements and reactions from the duo of Abati and Okupe.

They reacted so vehemently to the Akande statement for two reasons.  First, the truth hurts. Second, they are afraid of the APC and seek to intimidate it. However, they might as well stop on the second point.  With the fate of the nation at stake, the incompetent will not be able to intimidate into silence the committed.

Let us add two other important points. If they want people to honour the office of the presidency, they should practice what they preach. The people who most dishonour that office are those who currently occupy it. The way this entire government goes about its job embarrasses and burdens the nation. There is nothing important that they do right and nothing they somehow accidentally get right that is important. They are the party and government of partying and flashy public events. When it comes to policies for the people they grow tired and disappear from view.

Thus, why must the people, who are the bosses in a democracy, respect the elected public servant when it is clear that the person they elected does not respect them? Wisdom says that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. In this instance, what the presidency feels is fair treatment of the public, the public has every right say it is also fair treatment for the presidency. Let the hired criers cry on. The average people are in their humble homes crying. Those who cause their suffering might as well join in. When the government starts implementing people oriented policies and tackle the problems that confront us as a nation, then we will rejoice and the criticism will cease.

Also, they need to understand the function of government.  Those now in charge of running government don’t even understand their role and proper limits. They should return to school. The response to the Akande statement should not have come from the presidency.  Akande is the leader of an opposition party, a partisan political figure. If they saw fit to reply, the response should have come from the PDP’s over-exercised mouth.

Those who run the highest office of our national government do seem like children who dropped and broke a glass then simply cry when someone points out what they have done. Instead of crying, they should clean the mess they made. Until Reuben and the Presidency he fanatically seeks to defend accept they owe Nigerians plenty of performance and explanation, they will continue to languish in immaturity, self-delusion and hence rightly called a kindergarten government. The same right my brother Reuben Abati exercised in telling Akande off is what Akande also exercised in telling the President some bitter truth.

Akande has spoken for millions of Nigerians and it is well within his right.

I always knew trouble was brewing. From August 2 when the media published Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi’s letter to President Goodluck Jonathan threatening “reciprocity or reprisal” ostensibly against south-westerners in Anambra because Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola “deported and dumped” 72 street beggars in the state.

Lagos Government had claimed they were only 14 Lagos-based Anambra indigenes at Iweka Bridge, Onitsha “in the thick of the night,” it was stark clear the stage had been set for a trifling inter-ethnic media war.

Ever since, arguments for and against the propriety of the action of both governors have been flying all about in the media. Ah, Nigerians can so write — and talk! First, I have to shun the temptation to sink my journalistic teeth into the meat of this rumpus from the middle. This is how it began.

In April, the Lagos State Government retrieved and rehabilitated 14 street idlers who identified themselves as citizens of Anambra. After exchanging communication with the Anambra Liaison Office, it decided (in July) to “integrate” the 14 into their original state of origin. I like to assume, on behalf of Governor Obi, that the liaison office failed in its duties to notify him. And pronto, Obi penned a letter to Jonathan, inflated the figure of returned citizens from 14 to 72, changed the official designation (as used by both Lagos State and Anambra Liaison office) from “integration” to “deportation” and fed his bellicosely worded letter to the media. I have mulled over Obi’s actions and they are nothing to be proud of — for two reasons.

I was in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State sometime last year at a time the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) was in town on an official engagement. Although prominent figures in rival political parties, host governor, Godswill Akpabio and Fashola (both lawyers) bantered on a number of matters, including those relating to other governors. At the inspection of one of Akpabio’s infrastructural projects, I was close enough to grip snippets of their conversation. And I left with one impression: notwithstanding the quarrelsome ACN-PDP media relationship, governors from both parties (and others) are a clique of friends who genuinely maintain a healthy level of personal friendship. Now, on Obi’s ‘deportation’ grouse, I am wondering how the media — rather than Fashola — suddenly became the friend he turned to. As Fashola himself confirmed, Obi had called him on phone to discuss less important matters — in the past.

Two, Obi — governor of one of the south-eastern states that comprised the short-lived Republic of Biafra — is one of the last public office holders who should be doing anything close to stoking the embers of inter-ethnic hostilities. Anyone who has read any of the many accounts of the Nigerian Civil War understands that the war did not begin on 30th May 1976 when the Military Governor of the old Eastern Nigeria, the late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, proclaimed the region a sovereign state by the name, The Republic of Biafra, neither did it start on 6th July 1967, when the Federal Government launched a forceful effort to reclaim the secessionist state. The dawn of the Civil War actually predates even the country’s 1960 Independence to the 50s when seething tribal tension and inter-ethnic suspicions and agitations had reached unmanageable levels.

Evidently, there were too many Peter Obis in that era. And I really do think that if we had nine more Peter Obis in the country today, the streets of Lagos will, by now, be brimming with blood. I am saddened by Obi’s pattern of reasoning in his case against Lagos. But I am even sadder that he has an unlikely and unfortunate ethnic-chauvinist ally in Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode — unlikely, I say, for another two reasons.

Until six years ago, Fani-Kayode was enjoying a lengthy political career stretching back to two decades. From his days at the Nigerian National Congress (NNC) in the late 80s to his appointment in 1990 as Chief Press Secretary to the first National Chairman of the National Republican Convention (NRC), Chief Tom Ikimi, Fani-Kayode has played a frontline role in either the government or politics of literally every administration in the last 20 years.

In 1991, he was Special Assistant to Head of the Nigerian Security Organisation (NSO), Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi. Five years later, he joined the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) abroad. He joined President Olusegun Obasanjo’s campaign team in 2003, and was subsequently appointed as maiden Special Assistant on Public Affairs to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Between 2006 and 2007, he was ‘honourable minister’ in two separate capacities.

That Fani-Kayode has seen it all is the first reason I find his writings — ramblings, someone said — on the Anambra saga simply disappointing. No one needs to remind Fani-Kayode of the fragility of the country’s democracy and its nationhood. That is why I find the second (particularly) of his two opinions on the matter, titled The Bitter Truth about the Igbos, an immeasurable disservice to the very nation he will claim to have “served” over the decades.

In that piece, he responds (chiefly) to erstwhile Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu’s declaration that “Lagos is no man’s land” and then pontificates about how Yorubas own Lagos and built it. Ultimately — by my interpretation — he tells us that Yorubas are better than Igbos! Pity.

Fani-Kayode is no doubt a man of history. Full marks to him. But it is tragic that his knowledge of history fails him with a thud on previous ethnicity-oriented sufferings of the country. It doesn’t remind him that in the early 1950s when Nigeria’s century-long crave for independence began gathering steel, each region — Northern, Eastern, and Western (as the country had been divided to by the Richards Constitution of 1946) championed its own agenda. To every region, there was a political party to advance self-serving needs: the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) for the Northern Region, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) for the Eastern Region, and Action Group for the Western Region. How could his vast knowledge of history not have reminded him that these ethnic divisions were the very foundations of the capitulations that crystallised into the Civil War? That is one.

In his The Bitter Truth About The Igbos, Fani-Kayode writes: “Lagos and the south west [sic] are the land and the patrimony of the Yoruba [sic] and we will not allow anyone, no matter how fond of them we may be, to take it away from us or share it with us in the name of ‘being nice,’ ‘patriotism,’ ‘one Nigeria’ or anything else.” To Kalu’s no-man’s-land stance, he retorts: “We cannot be expected to tolerate or accept that sort of irreverant [sic] and unintelligent rubbish simply because we still happen to believe in ‘one Nigeria’ and we will not sacrifice our rights or prostitute our principles on the alter [sic] of that ‘one Nigeria.’”

Clearly, such caustic words in response to kalu’s (inaccurate, I have to admit) mere statement are uncharitable and unbefitting of a two-portfolio former Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That is two. If anyone asked me, I’d say there are only fewer tragedies than an ex-minister’s willingness to sacrifice Nigeria’s oneness for proof of ownership of Lagos. Plus, if he were half as loyal to the Yoruba cause as he attempted to portray in his treatises, I wonder why he didn’t turn down those lucrative federal appointments to remain a commissioner in Lagos or elsewhere in the Southwest. Fani-Kayode wants to prove Lagos is Yoruba land. And so what? Exactly what next after that? We drive the Igbos away?

Nigeria is far from the country of my dreams but I am happily first a Nigerian, before a Yoruba. Thankfully, for every Fani-Kayode, there is a Femi Okunnu, whose sense of nationalism I will readily recommend to any prospective public office holder. “Where are you from?” the octogenarian asked on our meeting.

“Ogun,” I replied. And he cut in.

“No. You are Nigerian, and from a place, a location in the country. You young people must begin to de-emphasise your states or regions of origin.”

Now, some agenda setting. Fani-Kayode devoted 5,425 words over two pieces to reminding Igbos that they are guests in Lagos. Bravo! Meanwhile, the aviation ministry he administered between 2006 and 2007 is as horrible as ever, splotched by life-threatening corruption and airline capriciousness. It was under his watch as Minister of Aviation that the N19.5bn Aviation Intervention fund was mismanaged. And the blithe disregard for customers in aviation is such that Nigerian airlines — led by Arik, the culprit-in-chief — daily delay flights by hours without any form of passenger compensation. I should think such matters should worry a former Minister of Aviation.

Fani-Kayode was a notable cabinet member of an administration that claimed to have invested billions of dollars in power projects but current electricity supply still yoyos terribly the way it did 10 years ago. Next time he has a “bitter truth” to tell, I hope he does on the true reasons why the monies have not translated to improved supply. If Fani-Kayode would continue ignoring the altruistic issues requiring his response as “a servant of truth,” in another 20 years, I wonder what role he would have played in Nigeria’s unity — or disunity. In his closet, I hope he has the candour to ask himself this question.

Lagos-based journalist, ‘Fisayo, available on Twitter (@fisayosoyombo) sent this piece via fisayo.soyombo@flairng.com