The memoir: There was a country

by: BOLADE OMONIJO and DADA ALADELOKUN

The persecution of the Igbo didn’t end with the Biafran conflict. Until the nation faces up to this, its mediocrity will continue
Almost 30 years before Rwanda, before Darfur, more than 2 million people-mothers, children, babies, civilians-lost their lives as a result of the blatantly callous and unnecessary policies enacted by the leaders of the federal government of Nigeria.
As a writer, I believe that it is fundamentally important, indeed essential to our humanity, to ask the hard questions, in order to better understand ourselves and our neighbours. Where there is justification for further investigation, justice should be served.
In the case of the Nigeria-Biafra war there is precious little relevant literature that helps answer these questions. Did the federal government of Nigeria engage in the genocide of its Igbo citizens who set up the Republic of Biafra in 1967 through punitive policies, the most notorious being starvation as a legitimate weapon of war? Is the information blockade around the war a case of calculated historical suppression? Why has the war not been discussed, or taught to the young, more than 40 years after its end? Are we perpetually doomed to repeat the errors of the past because we are too stubborn to learn from them?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines genocide as the deliberate and systematic extermination of an ethnic or national group … The UN general assembly defined it in 1946 as …a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups. Throughout the conflict the Biafrans consistently charged that the Nigerians had a design to exterminate the Igbo people from the face of the earth. This calculation, the Biafrans insisted, was predicated on a holy jihad proclaimed by mainly Islamic extremists in the Nigerian army and supported by the policies of economic blockade that prevented shipments of humanitarian aid, food and supplies to the needy in Biafra.
Supporters of the federal government position maintain that a war was being waged and the premise of all wars is for one side to emerge as the victor. Overly ambitious actors may have taken actions unbecoming of international conventions of human rights, but these things happen everywhere. This same group often cites findings, from organisations (sanctioned by the federal government) that sent observers during the crisis, that there was no clear intent on behalf of the Nigerian troops to wipe out the Igbo people … pointing out that over 30,000 Igbo still lived in Lagos, and half a million in the mid-west.But if the diabolical disregard for human life seen during the war was not due to the northern military elite’s jihadist or genocidal obsession, then why were there more small arms used on Biafran soil than during the entire second world war? Why were there 100,000 casualties on the much larger Nigerian side compared with more than 2 million “mainly children” Biafrans killed?
It is important to point out that most Nigerians were against the war and abhorred the senseless violence that ensued. The wartime cabinet of General Gowon, the military ruler, it should also be remembered, was full of intellectuals like Chief Obafemi Awolowo among others who came up with a boatload of infamous and regrettable policies. A statement credited to Awolowo and echoed by his cohorts is the most callous and unfortunate: all is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder.
It is my impression that Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself and for his Yoruba people. There is, on the surface at least, nothing wrong with those aspirations. However, Awolowo saw the dominant Igbo at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when the opportunity arose with the Nigeria-Biafra war, his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go to every length to achieve his dreams. In the Biafran case it meant hatching up a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations.
The federal government’s actions soon after the war could be seen not as conciliatory but as outright hostile. After the conflict ended, the same hardliners in the Nigerian government cast Igbo in the role of treasonable felons and wreckers of the nation and got the regime to adopt a banking policy that nullified any bank account operated during the war by the Biafrans. A flat sum of 20 Nigerian pounds was approved for each Igbo depositor, regardless of the amount of deposit. If there was ever a measure put in place to stunt, or even obliterate, the economy of a people, this was it.
After that outrageous charade, Nigeria ’s leaders sought to devastate the resilient and emerging eastern commercial sector even further by banning the import of secondhand clothing and stockfish, two trade items that they knew the burgeoning market towns of Onitsha , Aba and Nnewi needed to re-emerge. Their fear was that these communities, fully reconstituted, would then serve as the economic engines for the reconstruction of the entire Eastern Region.
There are many international observers who believe that Gowon’s actions after the war were magnanimous and laudable. There are tons of treatises that talk about how the Igbo were wonderfully integrated into Nigeria . Well, I have news for them: The Igbos were not and continue not to be reintegrated into Nigeria , one of the main reasons for the country’s continued backwardness.
Borrowing from the Marshall plan for Europe after the second world war, the federal government launched an elaborate scheme highlighted by three Rs “for reconstruction, rehabilitation, and reconciliation. The only difference is that, while the Americans actually carried out all three prongs of the strategy, Nigeria ’s federal government did not.
What has consistently escaped most Nigerians in this entire travesty is the fact that mediocrity destroys the very fabric of a country as surely as a war ushering in all sorts of banality, ineptitude, corruption and debauchery. Nations enshrine mediocrity as their modus operandi, and create the fertile ground for the rise of tyrants and other base elements of the society, by silently assenting to the dismantling of systems of excellence because they do not immediately benefit one specific ethnic, racial, political, or special-interest group. That, in my humble opinion, is precisely where Nigeria finds itself today.
The Nation

Achebe under fire over attack on Awo, Gowon

by: Bolade Omonijo

Literary giant Prof. Chinua Achebe has stirred the hornets’ nest, with his claim that war-time Head of State General Yakubu Gowon and the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo formulated policies that promoted genocide against the Igbo.
In his newly released civil war memoirs, There was a country, Achebe said: “Almost 30 years before Rwanda, before Darfur, more than 2 million people-mothers, children, babies, civilians-lost their lives as a result of the blatantly callous and unnecessary policies enacted by the leaders of the federal government of Nigeria.”
Quoting the Oxford Dictionary, the celebrated writer said genocide is “the deliberate and systematic extermination of an ethnic or national group …The UN General Assembly defined it in 1946 as …a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups.”
He said: “Throughout the conflict, the Biafrans consistently charged that the Nigerians had a design to exterminate the Igbo people from the face of the earth. This calculation, the Biafrans insisted, was predicated on a holy jihad proclaimed by mainly Islamic extremists in the Nigerian Army and supported by the policies of economic blockade that prevented shipments of humanitarian aid, food and supplies to the needy in Biafra .”
On Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was the Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council and Minister of Defence, Achebe said: “The wartime cabinet of General Gowon, the military ruler, it should also be remembered, was full of intellectuals, like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, among others, who came up with a boatload of infamous and regrettable policies. A statement credited to Awolowo and echoed by his cohorts is the most callous and unfortunate: all is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder’.
“It is my impression that Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself and for his Yoruba people. There is, on the surface at least, nothing wrong with those aspirations. However, Awolowo saw the dominant Igbo at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when the opportunity arose with the Nigeria-Biafra war, his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go to every length to achieve his dreams. In the Biafran case, it meant hatching up a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations.”
Achebe’s views provoked anger yesterday.
Reacting yesterday, Mr. Ayo Opadokun who was Assistant Director of Organisation of the late Chief Awolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and later Secretary of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), described the Achebe assertion as “typical”.
“It is a reharsh of the perverted intellectual laziness which he had exhibited in the past in matters related to Chief Obafemi Awolowo. When Achebe described Awo as a Yoruba irredentist, what he expected was that Awo should fold his arms to allow the Igbo race led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, to preside over the affairs of the Yoruba nation,” Opadokun said.
Opadokun pointed out that some of his colleagues who played prominent roles in liberating Nigeria from the clutches of military rule, such as Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (rtd), Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (rtd), Dr. Arthur Nwankwo, Alhaji Abulaziz Ude and others who he described as “men of honour and integrity”, are Igbo. But he found it difficult to believe that a scholar of Achebe’s stature could be so unforgiving.
He said, “Let our Igbo brothers be reminded that about three-quarters of their assets not in the eastern Region are in Lagos and we have been very liberal and accommodating. We have allowed them to live undisturbed.”
Senator Biyi Durojaiye shares Opadokun’s view. He said: “My view is that you don’t expect somebody on the receiving end of a war to say something pleasant about the winners.
“I don’t share Achebe’s view that Awolowo did all he did for personal political aggarandisement. It was all in the process of keeping Nigeria one. What he and General Gowon did was in the process of preserving the integrity of Nigeria .”
He urged the Igbo to be more charitable, seeing that both sides of the war are now benefiting from its outcome. He enjoined all to join hands in facing the challenges of the moment, insisting that the way to go is for all Nigerians to support a Sovereign National Conference and restructuring of the polity.
Mr. Jacob Omosanya who participated actively in Action Group politics as a member of the Action Group Youth Association AGYA), said Achebe and many of his kinsmen in public life are tribalistic and “that is what he has exhibited in this new book.”
“It is not new. He canvassed similar views in The trouble with Nigeria. Dr. Azikiwe and his people should be grateful to the Yoruba who have always been liberal. When Zik was on his way back home from the United States, he ran into trouble in the Gold Coast. It was a team of lawyers led by the late H. O. Davies that saved him. This is a fact of history that should not be lost on the Igbo.”
Mr. Omosanya said he had expected that people intellectuals such as Achebe, would be bridge builders and avoid inflaming passions.
The Nation

Achebe’s war memoir stirs controversy

by: BOLADE OMONIJO and DADA ALADELOKUN

HE is a professor of English, a writer of repute and runs regular commentary on socio-political development of the country. Twice, he has been nominated to receive national honours, and twice, he turned down the offer. His books have always generated furore. When he published A man of the people just before the military coup of January 1966, it received critical review by a section of the public.
His latest work, due to be released in Nigeria soon, is a chronicle of the activities of the civil war. The publishers, Penguins, described it thus: “Now, years, in the making, comes the towering reckoning with one of the modern Africa’s most fateful experience, both as he lived it and he has now come to understand it.
Like or dislike him, Achebe cannot be ignored Things Fall Apart, his first book, has been variously rated as one of the 50 most influential books. He has also been described as one of the most influential Africans in the 21st Century.
Achebe, who was cultural ambassador for Biafra during the war, displayed deep-seated dislike for the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his people, the Yoruba.
Dismissing the argument that the Federal Government, involved in a war, had to do what it did to facilitate its victory, the writer said: “Supporters of the Federal Government position maintain that a war was being waged and the premise of all wars is for one side to emerge as the victor. Overly ambitious actors may have taken actions unbecoming of international conventions of human rights, but these things happen everywhere. This same group often cites findings, from organisations (sanctioned by the Federal Government) that sent observers during the crisis, that there was no clear intent on behalf of the Nigerian troops to wipe out the Igbo people … pointing out that over 30,000 Igbo still lived in Lagos, and half a million in the Mid-West.”But if the diabolical disregard for human life seen during the war was not due to the Northern military elite’s jihadist or genocidal obsession, then why were there more small arms used on Biafran soil than during the entire second world war? Why were there 100,000 casualties on the much larger Nigerian side compared with more than two million ‘mainly children’ Biafrans killed?”
He maintained that the pre-and post-war policies of the government were calculated to wipe out Ndigbo, Achebe said the same policy has kept his people out of the mainstream of the political configuration of the country 42 years after the war. This did not take into consideration that an Igbo, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, was Vice-President in the Second Republic. When there was a consensus that power had to shift to the South in 1999, Ekwueme slugged it out with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for the ticket of the dominant political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). However, given the prevailing mood in the country, the Yoruba had to be compensated for the annulment of the presidential election of 1993 won by the late Chief Moshood Abiola. The sentiments swayed victory for Obasanjo at the Jos National Convention. While Obasanjo, a Yoruba, won, Ekwueme, an Igbo, had a good run and could not be said to have been disgraced. Since then, he has been handed crucial assignments by the party since he was the pioneer Chairman of the PDP’s Board of Trustees.
A political activist and convener of the Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (CODER), Mr. Ayo Opadokun, took umbrage at the position of Achebe in the new book. He said: “The new write-up is another rehash of the perverted intellectual laziness which he had exhibited in the past in matters relating to Awo when Achebe described Awo as a Yoruba irredentist. What he expected was that Awo should fold his arms to allow the Igbo race led by Zik to preside over the affairs of the Yoruba nation. The fact that the Yoruba people in their wisdom, having found out that the NCNC through Zik and Okpara had established a government of their choice and then wanted to follow up with the appropriation of the Yorubaland as their catchment area. It is a demonstration of the contempt of Achebe and his ilk for the Yoruba nation.
He said: “The story of the emergence of Nigeria as a country as christened by the concubine of Lugard can’t be written sensibly without admitting one or two areas of flaws where founding leaders were not disposed to making a nation out of Nigeria.
The NCNC led by Zik and his people, in a terrific conspicuous collaboration, after having put Awo in jail, forced the creation of Midwest and the NCNC refused to allow the creation of another in their region. Perhaps the West had the smallest landmass of the three regions.
“Secondly, in the run-up and activities towards Nigerian nationalism, it was clear that the East and West were in contest for socio-economic and political power. The fact is that with what the NCNC, driven by Igbo nationalism to which Achebe subscribes, the Yoruba nation was being derided by the likes of Achebe who wanted to forcefully appropriate Yoruba territory. And because the Yoruba nation led by Awo would not accept that, they became enemies.
The political problem with the Igbo
stemmed from the ban on import
of stockfish and second hand clothing after the war. He felt that it was fundamental error for a group of Nigerians to live on stockfish that lacks nutritional value and that it was degrading for Nigeria to be importing second-hand clothing. Being an economist, a honest and forthright Nigerian who would not mortgage his conscience to win votes, he had to carry that cross all his life. Even after his death, Prof Achebe has written a new book, repeating the gaffe. It is another demonstration of how far inveterate enemies can go.
“I cannot believe that a scholar of Achebe’s stature could be so unforgiving. Mathew 6: 14 and 15 enjoins every Christian to forgive fellow human beings.
“Some have been trying to build a bridge between Igbo and Yoruba. I remember my colleagues like Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (Retd), a former governor of Lagos and Imo; Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, a former Chief of General Staff who headed the Council for Understanding and Unity; Dr. Arthur Nwankwo; Alhaji Abdulaziz Ude and so many of them who are men of honour. Their efforts have not been devalued by the attitudes of people like Prof Achebe. Their efforts and ours led to the formation of CUU. It became so powerful that Dodan Barracks had to proscribe the organisation.
“Let our Igbo brothers be reminded that about three quarters of their assets not in the Eastern region are in Lagos. We have been very liberal and accommodating and have allowed them to live undisturbed. When there was civil war, it was only in Yoruba land that the estate of the Igbo was returned with the rent. Let no one think that the Yoruba were fools by being so accommodating.”
Chairman of the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), Wale Oshun wondered why some Igbo, especially Chinua Achebe “find it convenient to pick Awolowo as a scapegoat of all that happened to them during the war.”
He asked, “did awo start the war? He was just the Federal Commissioner for Finance with responsibility for coming up with appropriate fiscal and monetary policies. He was not at the battle field and could not therefore be fairly charged with genocide..”
The former Chief Whip of the House of Representatives also challenged anyone to come up with any publication where Awo said starvation should be regarded as a legitimate weapon of war. “Neither in any of the books written by him nor on him was any such thing said. It is the work of those who hated his guts. It is not factual. It must be remembered that even when he was not in the cabinet, he tried to prevent the war, but as soon as it broke out, it was between Nigeria and Biafra. He had to come up with policies that would end the war quickly. Those who are peddling this line have forgotten that Awo was in prison when the crisis started.”
Reacting to the suggestion that Awo was one of those who supplied the intellectual power that drove the policies that eventually and effectively ended the war, Oshun said, “if he was in Nigeria and Nigeria was fighting a war, was he supposed to supply intellectual power to Ojukwu? I regard it as a mere emotional statement.”
Oshun also found no merit in the contention that the late Leader of the Yoruba wanted power at all cost and saw the war as an opportunity to further that ambition.. He said: “If Awo wanted power, he would have stayed on in the cabinet after the war. But, rather, he left, saying it had become indefensible to be part of a military government in peace time. If he was scheming for power, he would have held on and used the same military to further his ambition. So, where is the evidence he did anything to project himself and the Yoruba?”
Awo’s official biographer, Prof Moses Makinde, who heads Awolowo Centre for Philosophy, Ideology and Good Governance, Osogbo, is the author of ‘Awo: The Last Conversation’. The other two are: ‘Awo as a Philosopher’ and ‘A Memoir of the Jewel’. He disagreed with Achebe, maintaining that the Ikenne-born statesman was a full-blooded nationalist.
His words: “I do not agree with Prof Achebe on the statement. It is not true that Awo’s civil war role smacked of even an iota of selfish political aggrandisement. I was his biographer and I can state authoritatively that, though he did not penetrate the North, he had a firm belief in the unity of Nigeria and that was why he wanted to govern the country as an indivisible entity. All the governors and other close associates of his would attest to the fact that he was a believer in the oneness of Nigeria which was why he wanted to govern the entire country for the overall benefit of her entire citizenry.
“He was a rare politician and a disciplinarian who believed in selfless service to his people in one whole entity called Nigeria. And that he always preached to all his lieutenants at any point in time. That, of course, accounts for why all his landmark achievements in the Western Region still speak for his patriotic and selfless inclination till today.”
The debate continues to rage. What is not in doubt is that the fight for a better Nigeria remains the preoccupation of true nationalists and patriots
The Nation

Oshiomhole Threatens To Jail Tax Defaulters In Edo

Edo Governor Adams Oshiomhole has warned that tax defaulters in the state risk prison sentences, saying government will no longer treat them with kid gloves.
Oshiomhole gave the warning in Benin on Thursday at the plenary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) held at the St. Mathews Anglican Cathedral.
He said that while the poor and low-income earners were willing to pay their taxes, those who could easily afford to pay preferred to flout the tax law.
``In Edo, we have tried to emphasise that we must reinvent the concept of tax. We must properly manage the taxpayers’ money.
``Today the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) is on strike over the issue of tax. The tax issue is a federal law not made by me.
``Those people who believe that because they are working in sensitive places is an excuse to evade tax need a rethink.
``If a sick person is brought to the hospital, the fact of his being sick does not preclude the person from paying for his treatment,’’ he said.
Oshiomhole noted that he had on some occasions paid the medical bills of indigent patients at the UBTH, who were treated but were not discharged because they were unable to settle their bills.
``If you can detain the poor on account of being unable to pay for his treatment, who are you not to pay tax?
``We have also at one point sealed the PHCN and PPMC offices for tax evasion.
If motor mechanic and Okoda rider pay their tax, then, there is no reason why a federal agency would think that because they come from Abuja, they would not pay their tax.
``It is very fashionable in Nigeria for people to spend N50 million on weddings, N100 million on birthdays and even much more to celebrate the dead.
``But for such persons, to pay even five per cent as tax, he is not ready to pay.
``In such a situation, it is better to send them to prison, just to remind them that the prison is not meant for only the poor. The prison is meant for those who break the law.’’
He expressed regrets that 52 years after independence the people were getting poorer and attributed this to the quality or absence of good governance.
According to him, the state must create good environment for the people to operate.  If the politicians try to divert attention, the church must stand on the side of truth.
``In Edo State, we have tried our best, first to regain our self-confidence that Edo State is viable, and we have made some modest efforts to halt the drift and restore hope.
``But what we have done is nothing compared to what we need to do to get to the level that we deserve.’’
Earlier, the Chairman of the state chapter of CAN, Rt. Rev. Peter Imasuen, said that 2012 plenary was tagged: ``Fostering Good Governance”.
``Good governance is all about accountability and transparency.  Despite increasing democracy and stability in sub-Saharan Africa, corruption and conflict remain serious barriers to ending extreme poverty,’’ he said.
Imaseun said that the nation’s multifarious woes were effects of bad governance over the years.
 Leadership

NEITI Backs Sanusi’s Claim against NNPC’s Production Figure

CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

By Chineme Okafor

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Thursday added to the growing voices of pessimism on the accuracy of Nigeria’s crude oil production figures which have been reported by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

NNPC captures Nigeria’s current crude oil production figure at 2.7 million barrels per day (mbpd), a slight increase from her hitherto 2.4mbpd production figure which the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has expressed some doubt about.

Sanusi, who appeared before the Joint Committee of the House on Finance and Legislative Budget and Research as well as Aids and Loans Wednesday to proffer insight on the proposals within the 2013-2015 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper stated his disbelief in NNPC’s crude oil production figure.

Questioning the credibility of NNPC’s crude oil production quotation, Sanusi said: “You are talking about oil price and production benchmarks, how do we even know the figures are correct? Does NNPC have a metering system? How do they know how much we produce?

In a reaction to Sanusi’s claims, the Director of Communications, NEITI, Orji Ogbonanya Orji, told THISDAY via a telephone interview that the views of Sanusi as regards current crude oil production and metering infrastructure in the Nigeria’s petroleum sector are consistent with the transparency agency’s findings in its audit of activities in the petroleum sector.

ThisDay

Nigeria's First Lady Still In German Hospital, Aides Told To Get Ready To Leave Soon

By SaharaReporters, New York

Contrary to reports that Nigeria's First Lady, Patience Jonathan, has been discharged from her hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany and checked into a hotel, SaharaReporters has learnt from medical sources in the city that she was there until at least 6p.m. local time.
We have also learnt that the presidency instructed the hospital to discharge her so that she can continue her treatment in Abuja.  Her aides, who are living in hotels in Wiesbaden, have been told to pack their bags in readiness to return to Abuja.
A reliable source told SaharaReporters that immense pressure has been piled on the hospital management to allow Mrs. Jonathan go back to Nigeria where she will continue her therapy, a measure that will forestall further embarrassment of her husband, President Goodluck Jonathan.
A local newspaper reported yesterday that Mrs. Jonathan had been discharged from the hospital and checked into a hotel, but a source told SaharaReporters today that the First Lady receives treatment in a room at the hospital with a five-star hotel room status.  Since she is a private suite reserved for queens and kings, the source said it was absurd to check her into a hotel room in preparation for departure.
A presidency source also confirmed Mr. Jonathan’s order that the First Lady be brought home, as a result of which she might be airlifted back Nigeria any moment from now.
Mrs. Jonathan's exact medical diagnosis remains shrouded in secrecy. Saharareporters has carefully followed her case since she was airlifted from Abuja to Germany one month ago when we were first told that she had suffered food poisoning.  Our investigations however revealed that she had first gone to Dubai to undergo a procedure which went awry, leaving her unable to speak for about one week after arriving Germany.
Upon returning to Nigeria, some sort of medical emergency then developed, and she was rushed in an air ambulance to Germany, where she underwent surgery to remove uterine fibroids. She had barely recovered sufficiently when her condition was reportedly exacerbated by Parkinson disease.
Yesterday, the Lagos-based PM News revealed that Mrs. Jonathan has uterine cancer. Through all this, the presidency has made no statements. 

ACN Leaders Sold Out Ribadu’s Presidential Ambition For N16bn — ACN Chieftain

MIDAT JOSEPH

The Kaduna State chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Barr Mohammed Musa Soba, has claimed that his party sold its Presidential Candidate in 2011, Mal. NuhuRibadu, to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for One hundred million dollars (N16 Billion).
The ACN chairman, in a statement, said he told his party leadership to stop being hypocritical and rather address the crisis within the party. 
He demanded for an explanation from the national leadership on why the Party sold out its presidential election to the PDP in the South-West in 2011.
He said, “A rogue leadership is one that collected one hundred million dollars (N16 Billion) from the PDP, delivered the south-west to the PDP in the 2011 presidential election and shamelessly turn round to accuse the PDP of corruption and stealing of public funds.”
According to him, ACN is a mere political party without Board of Trustees and visionary leaders and has always abused its own constitution and shamelessly label others as clueless and dictatorial.
Reacting to the recent media comments by the party’s national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on the Kaduna State ACN leadership crisis, the statement said the Kaduna State ACN under Barrister Soba would never succumb to the abuse of party constitution and reckless statements credited to Lai Mohammed who, of recent, has become a nuisance and an errand boy for political and emotional blackmail.
“We challenge Lai Mohammed and the national secretary of the party, Senator LawalShuaibu, to tell the whole world why state chapters like Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia, Cross Rivers, Bayelsa, AkwaIbom, Nassarawa, Plateau, Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Taraba and Kaduna states are all facing national leadership induced crises,” the statement said.
On the threats by some national officers of the ACN to drag the Kaduna State government and the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission (SIECOM) to court to stop the forthcoming local government election over the later’s recognition of Barr. Mohammed Musa Soba as the duly elected chairman of the party in the state, the statement said it was an empty threat and emotional blackmail by Lai Mohammed.
Leadership