The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Anti- gay law, U.S. and the end of man

    The threat from the United States of America (USA) was troublingly apocalyptic. It sets one wondering if there was not more to this gay matter than Uncle Sam wants us to believe. Since President Goodluck Jonathan accented to the law against homosexuality last year, the US and most of the Western world have been crying foul, insisting on its repeal. But last week, the US government took the ‘war’ one step further when it threatened not to give up until the anti-gay law is repealed.

    In a web chat with African journalists, the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas Greenfield, was emphatic and unequivocal; she was quoted to have said: “US is opposed to the legislation targeted against the gay people and will continue to press forward to see that it is changed so that those group of people will have freedom to exercise their rights.”

    The question now is, what would the Nigerian government and people do to convince the US and her fellow gay champions that culturally and traditionally, homosexuality is a taboo in Nigeria and most of Africa? What language do we have to deploy to convince the US that same-sex cohabitation is abhorred by all the dominant religions here? How can we get the Western world to assimilate the fact that man sleeping with man or woman fondling with another is not considered an ‘orientation’ but a malady, an abomination that even animals are not allowed to engage in?

    The US and her ilk will have to see the issue from the point of view of the majority of the populace who are opposed to it not because they hate their very few gay brothers and sisters but because the perverse behavior and orientation is anathema, abhorrent to the majority and out right nihilistic to the human race. What the US must do, since she has chosen to cry more than the bereaved, is to support different therapies and‘re-orientation’ programmes for the ‘afflicted’. Again, since the act of homosexuality in Africa still instinctively elicits antagonism and even mob violence against gay people, the US may support media campaigns that would crave love and understanding for same-sex people. Instead of seeking a repeal of the law, the US may canvass for a milder penalty as the legislation has the reverse salutary effect of protecting gays from mob lynching. Easier still, the US could grant our few gay brothers and sisters citizenship so they can all migrate to America and live there happily ever after.

    Otherwise, it smacks of insulting bigotry for the US to insist that her view on this matter is the only right and correct view. We agree that human right for one and all is just and equitable but when human right in America is a taboo in Africa, there is need to seek the middle ground. Besides, why has the US closed her eyes to the proliferation of small arms and ammunition in Africa which are currently deployed in wreaking mayhem in many countries of the continent? Most of these weapons are manufactured in America and Europe. Why has the US been less concerned about the ruinous effect of official corruption in Africa? Billions of dollars in stolen funds are hidden in American and European banks. Corruption has more hideous effect on human rights and dignity of the African than any anti-gay law.

    Finally, America is clearly a society in decline having reached its tipping point; where would the West be in 100 years’ time as more men go to bed with men and women monkey around with themselves? Or is America intent on taking the entire humanity down with her?

  • Of mis-interpretations and mischief-making

    During the colonial period, the white overloads held certain wrong notions and assumptions about the African continent. Assumptions that had no proof for its basis. For instance, it was the whiteman’s general assumption  the native people of Africa had no history. This they arrived at because they did not find any written documentations on the lives and activities of the people. However, theYoruba people, for example, excelled in the oral documentation of the people’s history cum social and cultural heritage and passed these down from generation to generation.

    Thus, from this basis of wrong assumption flowed other historical gaffe of the colonial masters. This was how the colonialist wrote our history for us in the early period of our life. Even after the exit of the colonial masters, this bias record of history still continue. The media has not helped matters in this regard because of its faus pax or social blunder in relation to reportage over the re-classification of schools in the State of Osun.

    Since this issue came to the public domain, the seeming apparent lack of total understanding of the issues involved by the public is apparent. Many were hypocritical in their criticism, leaving the substances of their argument – that is if there is even any substance in what the say – and resulted to ad hominem (attacking personality) in philosophical critical thinking and reasoning. Some arguments of columnists including Bisi Lawrence, Bishop Mike Bamidele and Bola Bolawole smacked of hypocrisy and manifest hollowness. Their unfortunate critique signposted a people somehow confused ab initio. Hence their lack of understanding of issues they write about.

    Mr. Lawrence, writing in the Vanguard of Saturday, February 15 on page 14, reproved Governor Rauf Aregbesola for “his (Aregbesola) fervour for the promotion of his religious preferences as a devoted Muslim.” He also said the governor has inclination towards favouring his religion openly. Bishop Mike Bamidele has a different grouse against the governor- And that is regarding the purported recognition accorded traditional religion by Aregbesola in the state. He said: “Aregbesola should tread softly on religious issues in the state and should be cautioned against promoting traditional religion above other religions in the state.” According to the bishop, the introduction of traditional religion is ‘Biblically evil’.

    For Bola Bolawole, the issue of ijab came up because some Muslims wanted to profit from the fact that a Muslim is now the governor. He wrote in his piece in Sunday Tribune of February 16, thus “My suspicion is that it is the recognition by some Muslims of their political ascendancy in the south-west and their resolve to take advantage of it.”

    Taken one by one, Does Bisi Lawrence want the governor to hide his religion because he is a governor?  Does being a governor condemn one to practise his religion in secret corners of his office or home? Is Mr Lawrence saying that the deputy Governor, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori, a firebrand Christian (of Mountain of Fire Ministry hue) should stop parading herself in the public as a Christian?

    And by extension, is he suggesting that over two-third members of Osun state executive members stop answering to being Christians in the public? I do not think so. Even Section 38(1)of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria expressly provided an individual’s freedom to practice his religion in public. The subsection states: “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.’’

    Public or private underlined by this writer as enshrined in the constitution. Thus, Mr Lawrence has no argument other than the fact that he just raised a pure resentment as everyone is free to manifest his religion in public. Coming to Bishop Bamidele’s grouse, one does not know how to respond because of the slipshod manner he presented his case. He started by accusing the governor of recognising traditional religion which he described as evil. Mid way he veered off, accusing the governor of promoting traditional religion over and above other religions. Where do we place his argument: against the traditional religion or Aregbesola, who he alleged of promoting the traditional religion over other religions? We have had this repeated for the umpteenth time.

    It all started with the erroneous news that Aregbesola wanted to Islamise the state. Now the allegation has changed. Going by his argument, people like Bishop Bamidele are saying that Aregbesola, a Muslim, is now attempting to convert people of the state into traditional religion worshippers instead of Islamising it. How absurd this sounds! Bolawole’s own line of argument is the most outlandish, absurd and laughable of them all for it carries no seed of truth within it however small. A habitual fault-finder anyway, Bolawole simply whipped up sentiments and predicted chaos if nothing is quickly done to arrest a burning situation. What better role could he play than a doomsday prophet!

    The critical question begging for an answer is: How and in what manner does the governor dabble into or promote a (not necessarily his own alone now) religion over another? Is it in spoken words, deeds or policies? Indeed, by extension, Aregbesola’s appearance, he portrays a conscious Muslim. Particularly by his beard. Does this pose any threat to anyone? Or has he invited others or sought to convert others by wearing his beard? One, the conflict over the use of Ijab in schools in the state predates the present government. Two, the matter started in 2004 during the tenure of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Three, why there was no noise between the two principal religions over the ijab was because the matter was dragged to court. Up till now, the matter is before the court and yet to be decided. Three, since he came to power in 2010, Aregbesola has not made a single policy statement on the use or non-use of ijab. The reason is not far fetched. The governor recognises the fact that the matter is before a court of competent jurisdiction and could not be commented upon by anybody. Making statement on matter before the honourable court amounts to subjudice.

    What transpired in Baptist Boys high School Iwo is purely the handiwork of some disgruntled politicians who are hell bent on creating crisis so as to pave way for a state of emergency to be declared in the state before election. The crisis is all about August 6, 2014 election in the state. Pure and simple. It suffices therefore to say that those cry over school re-classification are doing so because of the success of the reform and one which has negative impact on their political ambitions.

    One will apparently stand logic on its head to judge a policy as failure if one out of over 1, 900 schools in the state ostensibly chose to be erring. Besides, of over 2, 800 students in Baptist High School, Iwo, not more than 250 out of over 1, 700 Muslim girls wear ijab. Those stoking the ember of anarchy have their own ulterior motives. Having tried and failed to gain foothold in the political space of Osun, they resorted to playing religious card so as to divide the united people of the state.

     

    • Owolabi wrote from Osogbo, Osun state.

     

  • Gay marriages: Won’t they leave Africa alone?

    The wave of condemnations, veiled insults and intimidating projections coming from the United States of America and her European allies concerning Africa’s position on homosexuality and same sex unions is one thorny issue that should be settled at an international jaw-jaw. Each nation could pass laws that uphold their respective positions but any law that makes a demand for men to carry pregnancies for an equal number of months with women would be a trespass.

    It was our communal harmony and family ties that helped us to survive the brutal effects of the trans-Saharan slave era when the Arabs came calling and it was the same resource that helped to repair the devastating after-effects of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The export of 20 million slaves aged between 14 and 45 in that era was a deadly blow to our family structure and communal harmony in West Africa and the ripple effects of the loss is incalculable. Slave trade eventually gave way to Apartheid and colonialism that were perfumed forms of the same evils in disguise. These re-branded forms of cruelty simply resumed the corrosion of Africa’s family and community assets in the attempt to destroy the man of colour.

    Africa need not be diplomatic to remind the United States of America that she played prominent roles in most of these events and the records still show that USA was present at the Berlin Conference in 1884 flanked by 13 European nations at the table of wickedness where Africa was carved up into digestible colonial portions. Not one single African was present when families, communities and tribal nations were shredded into unstable territories. That table of injustice manufactured unstable, mongrel African nations that could produce nothing else but colonial service. It would not take a genius to see that the consistent thread that runs through the history of Africa’s relationship with the western world has been a one-sided string of exploitation, condescension and abusive denigration.

    The studied concern of the United States for the global propagation of gay marriages could be processed as a well-thought-out policy to further its age-old agenda in the continent of Africa and the nation of Nigeria in particular. Africa is still smarting from so called reports that HIV started from African jungles where men supposedly mated with apes when we all know that the true origin of the incurable HIV disease is obvious. In the absence of basic medical healthcare, the HIV scourge is decimating African nations while American and European communities are managing to contain the spread with superior scientific prowess and administration. Anyone can do the math! If it were indeed true that Africa was the home of the HIV virus our oral history records would have been full of massive death reports across our communities yet the patterns we have seen since the HIV virus was injected into Africa are unprecedented.

    We truly need an old-fashioned palaver to let the United States and their Europeans collaborators know that we are not ignorant of the disdain with which we are regarded. Africa has hoped in vain that days when we were hounded, sold and dehumanized were over. It’s obvious that the impressions formed in the days when we were caged in zoological exhibitions alongside monkeys and orangutans to provide entertainment for the white world have never gone away. Why on earth would anyone attempt to chastise Africa for protecting the core of its existence? Why would we throw away the ancient definition of family that worked for us even before we ever set eyes on the first European? No sensible (African) farmer would ever pen male goats in isolation of the females in the pursuit of pleasure. Homosexuality and same sex unions are an aberration that our cultural filters never accepted in ancient times because of the evil it portrayed to our values. The African farmer that gave up his all to recover his young son in the film “Blood Diamonds” is a good demonstration of how attached we are to the safety of children. When stripped of all its drapery, the United States campaign for homosexual and same sex marriages is nothing but the promotion of pleasure seekers above human responsibility. We stand to be corrected but the major difference between the proposed unions and established gender based fraternities is primarily the denial of permission for the male penis to be inserted into another males’ rectum or anus! Africa wants to know why the so-called love between same sex partners has to stray into aberrant expressions. We do not have to graduate as medical doctors to observe that the human body was not designed to function that way.

    The USA may have discovered ways to reconstruct the anal passage after brutalization but Africa cannot afford such violations. Africa cannot afford to put pleasure above communal responsibility and the initiation of gullible children into counter-productive aberrations is not something our continent can survive. We have not seen ample proof that homosexuality is a norm it seems to be more of a product of spiritual engineering and emotional indoctrination. At the jaw-jaw, we could work out a solution where those who vote for this new dream should be given the opportunity to aggregate in the USA and Europe till they form a majority! Time would do the rest.

    Africa too has a few things it can teach the rest of the world. Is it possible that the West spends millions of dollars searching for extra terrestrial life forms not observing that there are invisible life forms around us here in the Earth? Some of the things that Africa observes in the western world are consistent with the activities of demonic beings!

    No matter how efficient science has been it has not even scratched the surface in answering the basic questions of life and death! Perhaps the USA is unaware that homosexual acts made their advent in Africa as part of demonic rituals. Africa has learnt her lessons and nothing will ever take us back into human sacrifices, cannibalism or any form of devil worship disguised as pleasure. The only world power that lasted as long as 3,000 years was housed in Africa and we will tell you that its greatest secret was the copious human blood shed that was offered to malevolent deities in exchange for power. Satanic rituals usually demand acts that demean the human form and assault our dignity. We really need this palaver to find out whether America has found a way to impregnate men so that we can relax our vigilance. Who knows what might come next? Perhaps men should be given permission to marry donkeys? It is part of a money-making ritual in Africa! One thing is however certain – Africa will not stand by and surrender to the destruction of her children.

     

    • Pastor Ladi Peter Thompson,

    Conflict Resolution Consultant

  • Cartoon

    Cartoon

  • Afe Babalola: An icon with magnetic clout

    SIR: All Aare Afe Babalola – a quintessential legal practitioner and exemplary philanthropist of no mean order – ever wanted to be is the best! Loathe him, but you certainly can’t but admire his style. At the convocation of the first set of graduates of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who was personally present at the occasion spoke glowingly of the icon of law practice and first-class educationist whose institution is racing to compete with ivy-league institutions. At the commissioning, Jonathan said Afe’s feat was “notably one of the most outstanding individual contributions towards government educational project”. The visit by President Jonathan to the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), sometime ago, was just to keep a tradition that his predecessors had, for years, kept inviolate – honouring a man who has been touching lives in awe-inspiring ways.

    Though the Presidency may not have had a chummy relationship with the elder statesman over his past comments about certain policies of his administration, but the president nonetheless still hold him in high esteem. The Engineering Complex of the university was named after the current President and: Isn’t it a little curious that the man was the first to criticize Jonathan when he unsuccessfully changed the name of the University of Lagos to Moshood Abiola University?  Isn’t it also ironic that he has spoken against several policies of the current president?  Even before Jonathan spoke national conference that is generating ripples across the land, Afe had said it and the President counted on some of his views.

    He is known to be firm and transparently honest with his clients and associates.  His natural ability to handle people is so inspiring that even when he disagrees with them at meetings, he would disarm them with grace and wit.  That is the reason he has had the rare privilege of hobnobbing with all the Presidents that have been ruling the country.  They associate with him; they curry his favour because they know he has the Midas touch.  The late President Shehu Shagari asked him, after he won a celebrated case for the federal government, what he wanted in lieu of his legal fees.  Shagari had marveled at ‘how a man could turn down a whopping five million pounds in exchange for a university for his people in Ekiti.’

    Afe told Shagari that he would forgo his fees of five million pounds if he (Shagari) could fulfil his heart desire of having a university in Ekiti, then a part of the old Ondo State.  That was the first time Afe Babalola caught national attention.  From that point, successive Presidents had begged him to be part of their governments.  When they could not convince him to join the train, they appealed to him to recommend people of his choice to fill plum positions in government.  Even the late fiery General Sani Abacha was said to have sent emissaries to appeal to the legal giant to be the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice.  That stemmed from the respect he earned himself with his views.  Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, as Nigeria’s President, also engaged him to gain political and legal mileage for his administration.

    Perhaps nothing established the fact that Afe has won a place in the history of the nation’s giant-hood through educational advancement than the spectacle tagged the maiden convocation of ABUAD last year. What a celebration of a true patriot who came to make an indelible mark in his time!

    • Kolawole Igandan is a media consultant and PR executive based in Lagos.

  • Nigerian leaders must change their ways

    SIR: the ongoing face-off between the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, over the budget and the state of the economy, is another repulsive scenario. The Committee had asked the Minister to furnish it with answers to a set of fifty questions which the minister obliged it (the committee). At the weekend, however, the Committee, through its Chairman, Honourable Abdulmumini Jibrin, rejected the minister’s response, insisting that “some questions were either not answered, partially answered, ignored or completely misunderstood”. Consequent upon this, the minister has been sent another set of fifty questions and mandated to appear before the committee for further questioning.

    This latest drama of the absurd is the ongoing fiasco involving the All Progressives Congress and the Federal Government in which the former justifiably directed its members in the National Assembly to filibuster on debate regarding the 2014 Appropriation Bill. These two scenarios are intimately related – half-truth is being presented to the public as the truth. Anyone who is familiar with the way members of the National Assembly, especially those of the lower house, have been conducting their affairs – particularly in regard to issues of finance – cannot fail to note that the ostensible purpose of the so-called fifty questions is for Nigeria to have a more robust economy but the real goal, one can make bold to say, is self-service. In a House where some of the members have, at various times in the past, been incriminated of ignoble financial crimes (remember Faruk Lawal?) and certificate forgery (remember Salisu Buhari?), and where there has never been probity and accountability in financial matters, what else does one expect but the present scenarios.

    There is something not quite right in the present face-off. In one’s considered opinion, rather than the honourable minister, it is actually members of the House of Representative Committee on Finance that have questions to answer. If these so-called Honourable men are people with their honours intact indeed, they need to demonstrate to Nigerians first why they have to be taken seriously, and this has to start with them telling us what they wish to achieve with these fifty questions. Yes, they have stated the purpose of these questions, but we know too that these questions raise issues that they themselves are also implicated in. He who comes to justice must come with clean hands, and he who leaves in glass house should throw no stones.

    While it is true that the minister is the coordinator of the economy, it is also true that she is not alone in ensuring that the economy does not go to the dogs. The House of Representatives, through its Committee on Finance, ought to realize that Nigerians are not fools and cannot be hoodwinked into shifting blames for the parlous state of the economy to the Finance Minister alone.

    How accountable are these men? How have they been expending the monies allocated to them for constituency projects and oversight functions? What can they say about the humongous amount being paid out to them every month in salaries and other emoluments, the bulk of which forms part of our recurrent expenditure? Can these men, in all honesty, wash themselves clean of the hushed allegation making the round that they routinely collect bribe in order to approve ministry budgets and other spending?

    More crucial than the above is the question of morality. Here is an assembly with a shameful record of infamy. We cannot forget too soon the case of Honourable Farouk Lawan. We cannot forget too soon that this is a House where members have been routinely implicated in sundry cases of bribery leading to aborted investigation into corruption charges. How, pray, can this House consider itself morally upright enough to ask the minister the so-called fifty questions. It is all too glaring that these so-called fifty questions and other matters arising therein are related to the current impasse in the House over the Appropriation Bill, and this is rather unfortunate considering the self-serving overtone of the whole affair.

    No nation can expect to be great if the leaders will always think that they can always pull the wool over the eyes of the citizenry. For sooner than later, it would be revealed that no matter for how long falsehood may have been travelling, it will take only a moment for the truth to catch up with it. A note of warning: Nigerians are watching. We are gearing up for a purge, and anyone caught in the vortex of our collective action will have only himself or herself to blame!

     

    • Issachar Odion, a Post-graduate student lives in Abuja.

  • Golden girls at war?

    Golden girls at war?

    Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, PhD and Oby Ezekwesili, PhD, were the golden girls of Olusegun Obasanjo’s transparent presidency. If you have read Nasir El-Rufai’s Accidental Public Servant, you would have met the pair, among the other transparency holiest of holies, in their true habitat.

    There she was, Okonjo-Iweala: dollarised Finance minister, who never shared her glory with anyone; and who Rufai, in his book, insisted wanted total control of her Finance and economic domain (later proved by her Jonathan era epaulette of “Coordinating minister for the economy).

    There was Ezekwesili herself, the inimitable “Madam Due Process”.

    There was also the theorise-or-be-damned Chukwuma Soludo, later CBN governor. In early days, however, Soludo stormed out of Okonjo-Iweala’s “cabinet”, because she would not share her glory and Soludo was staging his own grandstand for presidential attention.

    Of course, there was the “muse” himself, El-Rufai: clean, antiseptic, uncompromising — like some good machine with human life!

    But how times have changed. Soludo has moved on to be replaced by an equally voluble Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Goodluck Jonathan has become president. El-Rufai has moved into the opposition. Ezekwesili, it appears, is non-committal, except to public accounts transparency. Okonjo-Iweala has achieved her dreams — empress of the economy; but under an especially clueless president.

    And that is the cause of the “war” between the hitherto chummy golden girls. In the scandal of the “missing” $20 billion NNPC public money that won’t go away, Okonjo-Iweala and Ezekwesili have gone different paths.

    Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is dreaming forensic auditing, to clear the air once and for all, since NNPC has submitted some documents to explain — or explain away, as quite a number prefer — how the money was purportedly spent.

    But Dr. Ezekwesili is screaming putative cover-up without quite saying anything. To her, forensic audit is easily compromise-able. NNPC is flush with petro-dollars to resist compromising any firm — any firm at all — if it really has anything to hide. She would rather keep Diezani Alison- Madueke, Petroleum minister, out of the probe loop too.

    Hear Madam Due Process thunder: “The minister of Petroleum Resources is the chairman of NNPC Board. Her argument in overseeing a mere corporation, usurp the power of appropriation is awful.”

    And her vicious raking of Okonjo-Iweala: “Sadly, the minister of Finance stated that her ministry does not have the expertise to verify the impunity-induced expenditures by NNPC.”

    No smoking guns yet, of course; and the fiery Madam Due Process is pronouncing no one guilty. But she smells, it appears, putative cover-up, and is furious enough at the tragi-comedy, in an otherwise serious public finance scandal. “How awful,” she thundered, “to see some reduce serious conversation on missing US $20 billion to what the Yoruba call ‘Awada Kerikeri’ [serious comedy]. No, this is not comedy.” Gbam! It is not.

    So, she suggests an international probe panel, like one Paul Volcker headed, in war-time Iraq, to get to the root of the matter. Why not?

    So, what can set hitherto golden girls of governmental rectitude and public accounting transparency on such a take-no-prisoner war?

    It’s the clueless Jonathan Presidency, stupid.

     

  • As Igbo become a minority in Nigeria

    SIR: The Igbo today are groping in a labyrinth of confusion; a labyrinth that they have knitted together out of humongous morsels of selfishness, avarice and ignorance. And as they waltz in the ball of anodyne confusion their status or place in the Nigerian entity magnanimously tapers off.

    It is indubitable to aver that the place of the Igbo in Nigeria is the abominable and thrashed quarters of irrelevance. The Igbo take the wizened, bottom space after the Hausa, Yoruba and Ijaw. In fact, other peoples that are considered ethnic minorities in Nigeria may go up the political ladder before the Igbo as it is today. To say the least, the Igbo have become side-kicks to dominant Hausa-Yoruba-Ijaw power heroes in the Marvel comic of Nigeria.

    As always, the unthinking Igbo horde will allude the present condition of the Igbo to the Biafra-Nigeria civil war. And for this horde there is no way out of the asphyxiating cul-de-sac because the war has already done irredeemable damage. Playing the victim has become the lazy default configuration of some Igbo.

    Is the war the reason greedy Igbo leaders in a perfidious clique known as Ohanaeze barter the political future of the Igbo for billions of naira which they swallow, and defecate pennies for their coterie of unthinking followers? Is the war the reason states in the South-east are sprawling igloos in spite of all the huge monetary allocations to the various South-east governments? Is the war the reason the Igbo lack direction, and orphaned of an agenda? Is war the cause of the gully erosion gormandizing parts of Anambra State with belligerence? Is the war the reason the Igbo are ball boys at the Maracana of Nigerian politics? Is the war the reason for the ossified, steal-abroad-and-take-chieftaincy-title -at-home culture in Igboland? Is the war the reason for the baby factories mushrooming in Igboland? Is the war the reason for preponderance of Igbo criminal regiments at home and abroad? There are many more imposing posers, but these are for cerebral crunching.

    Perhaps, the war is the reason why “Kpomo” is more expensive in Anambra than in Kano.

    For the thinking Igbo, it is wholesomely clear that the trash position of the Igbo in Nigeria today is as a result of a concatenation of ill-forces mustered by the Igbo themselves. The vilest ill force militating against Igbo ascendancy to affluence, influence and power is Igbo penny leaders. The fact is a scrum of Igbo penny leaders feed fat on the emaciated condition of the Igbo in Nigeria. They claim to represent the Igbo, but what they do is to gulp down mouth watering sums of valuable paper in exchange for Igbo’s rights farting stained coins of greed. The alleged handout of 1.2 billion given to Ohanaeze by President Goodluck Jonathan is a knocking affirmation of this point. Even if Ohanaeze disputes the allegation, the truth remains it cannot be tooting Jonathan’s horns and running his errands for free. Ohanaeze, we all know is not for charity. So it must have been duly raking in “solid quid” into its bloating coffers from its consort with the President.

    The vacuity of Igbo leadership heralds itself as the national conference dawns. The Igbo seem to be the obfuscated people without an agenda. The Yoruba agenda is regional autonomy. The Hausa-Fulani agenda according to Arewa Consultative Forum is unitary Nigeria (even though they are euphemistic about it), but the Igbo sadly, tout conflicting ideological noises as agenda. At best, what the Igbo do is to sandwich themselves between Ijaw agenda of resource control and self-determination. One Igbo leader from the North Pole cries, “self-determination” another one from the South Pole screams “con-federalism”. Disjointed schema! Playing the “fourth fiddle” has become the genius of the Igbo.

     

    • Fredrick Nwabufo,

    Abuja.

     

  • Save BCC Lions Football Club of Gboko

    SIR: before its declined fortunes, BCC Lions Football Club of Gboko was once a leading and formidable club ruling the Nigerian football landscape, especially towards the end of 80s and early 90s. Historically, BCC Lions FC, formerly owned by Benue Cement Company Plc, Gboko, which is also known as Lions of Gboko, commands huge followership and supporters across the country, most especially in the northern Nigeria.

    To the Tiv people of Benue State, BCC Lions FC represents what Enyimba is to the Igbos, Kano Pillars to the Hausas and Shooting Stars to the Yorubas. As a giant among the Nigerian club side, BCC Lions FC was the first

    club in the northern part of the country that won the Challenge Cup in 1989 by beating Iwanyanwu Nationale 1-0 in the final at Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium, Bauchi. The club also won the cup on three different occasions – 1993,1994 and 1997. In 1994, BCC Lions also won the Nigerian premier league title and the African Cup Winner’s Cup in 1990. There is no doubt that the club of Gboko has produced great players who have really done the club, state and the nation proud in their chosen career. Players such as Dominic Iorfa, Sam Adingi, Moses Kpakor, Felix Pilakyaa, Bolaji Douglas, Aham Nwanko, Imadu Dooyum, Sam-Pam Jr.,Wilfred Agbonavbare as well as Lemi Yisa, John Zaki, Amir Angwe and Terfa Kpako.

    In terms of administration, the club also produced the legendary and efficient manager in the person of Dominic Iorfa who passionately managed Lobi Stars FC, Makurdi for many years and was instrumental to

    the success of the club both within Nigeria and Africa. However, the future of the club had continued to evaporate since the Gboko base team lost to Shooting Stars FC of Ibadan at the Amateur league in 1998. Since then, the club was unable to regain its lost glory, unlike other big clubs in Nigeria that had gone on relegation for a number of times and barely managed to bounce back to the premier league. An attempt to resurrect the club in 2002 by the administration of Dr. George Akume and Guilder Brewing Plc has totally failed. In 2007 the board chairman of Benue Cement Company Plc, Alhaji Aliko Dangote approved N110 million for the club to participate in the 2008/2009 season which ended a disaster – finishing 13th on the table.

    I am, therefore, making a compassionate plea to the government of Hon. Gabriel Torwua Suswam and the good people of Benue State, Tiv sons and daughters and the management of Benue Cement Company Plc, Gboko to, as a matter of urgency, wake up the sleeping giant for it to return to it glorious days.

     

    • John Akevi

    Bauchi.

     

  • Ipaja public library needs attention

    Ipaja public library needs attention

    SIR: I wish to call the attention of the concerned authorities to the condition of the Ipaja Public Library- a branch of Lagos State Library board located at B24 Pako Bus Stop Abesan Estate Ipaja, Lagos.

    Though the library was built in a noise-free area and it is well ventilated, flood is trying to scare away the users and also try to destroy the library building.

    The flood which is usually caused by the poor drainage system in the street where the library is located used to lock both library users and the staff inside anytime it rains.

    The first time the rain met me in the library was on Thursday, October 10 2013. By the time the rain stopped and I came out to leave, I met a ‘pool of river’ in the front of the library (which is about 30-40 feet to the main road). I asked the security man how people pass in that kind of situation and he told me that I have to roll up my trousers and remove my shoe and enter the ‘river’. Apart from the germs and rubbles in that flood, I was afraid there might be dangerous creatures in that flood, but since there was no other escape route, I didn’t have option than to do as the security man advised.

    I hereby call on the authorities at the Lagos State Library Board, Ikeja to come to the aid of the library before this year rainy season sets in to prevent floods from destroying the entire library building.

    For the records, the library was built by Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development as a Family Support Programme (FSP) under the military government of Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa and it was commissioned on May 19, 1999 by the then First Lady, Munira Marwa. Since the library was commissioned, I don’t think there has been any major renovation to maintain or upgrade the level of the library and its facilities.

    I plead with Governor of Raji Fashola and the chairman of Alimosho Local Government to renovate and upgrade the facilities at the library. Also, the drainage system in the street where the library is located should be reconstructed and raised to prevent the overflow of erosion that used to cause flood inside the library.

    As regard the library, the shelves are few and the few books there are outdated. New books should be purchased to encourage the students and other library users to patronize it.

    • John Tosin Ajiboye,

    Lagos.