Big fear in Enugu over Governor Chime’s health

Fear now greets the Enugu State Government House over the health of the state Governor, Sullivan Chime.
It would be recalled that the governor’s public appearance could be dated back to September 9 during the meeting of South-East Governors Forum on September and since then, he was yet to be seen by journalists in the Government House and public gatherings.
Chime’s deputy, Mr. Sunday Onyebuchi, has been playing the governor’s role but it was learnt that the governor gave a standing order that Onyebuchi should not approve more than N500,000 for any project, no matter the circumstance.
Close insiders disclosed that the Governor jetted out of the shores of the country about two weeks before the October 1 Independence anniversary.
The source said: “He was not in a very good condition before he left the country for London. We noticed it. Although they didn’t want to make it open, maybe because of journalists.”
Speaking further, the insider who pleaded anonymity hinted thus: “For some time now, we noticed that the governor has not been his usual bubbling self. You may not easily know this because he carries himself well and hardly talks, but some of us knew that the man was down.
“From what we heard, he is no longer in London; he was flown to India last week because his health condition wasn’t getting better. As I speak to you right now, he is in a hospital in India.”
All efforts by flood victims at Udi Local Government Area, Chime’s country home were futile as they were told that he wasn’t too strong to do so.
A visibly angry Udi indigene, Mr. Victor Ike, said it’s so unfortunate for the governor to abandoned his community which is being ravaged by floods.
He said: “Heavy rains destroyed our houses and livestock worth millions of naira at Umuifi village in Obioma, Udi Local Government Area, yet the governor could not visit us, obviously due to his health,” Ike stated.
“Our people in government told us that on the day he was supposed to make it, he relapsed and the trip was cancelled.”
Speaker of the Enugu House of Assembly, Mr. Eugene Odo when contacted if the governor dropped any official letter on his whereabouts and condition, refused to comment on the matter.
The Public Relations Officer in the Enugu State House of Assembly, Mr. Jonah Ugwuanyi, said, “It is not compulsory that the Speaker must read the letter to the entire House. He could decide to read it out during the plenary or executive session.”
“The governor wrote me and said he was going on leave and that the deputy governor would act until he returns,” he added.
DailyPost

How Tinubu became the kingpin of Yoruba politics, By Odumakin

A frontline pro-democracy activist and spokesperson of Save Nigeria Group (SNG), Yinka Odumakin, speaks with DAPO FALADE on issues affecting the development of the South-West, among other issues. Excerpts:

Yinka Odumakin

Given your association with the progressive camp, many people were surprised by your recent declaration of support for the Labour Party governorship candidate in the forthcoming election in Ondo State. What informed your decision?
Well, nothing has changed. I have remained consistent on the progressive side. It may just be that your definition of progressivism may not be totally in sync with what progressivism is. A lot of people called progressives have been going through all kinds of transformation.
First of all, I think there are three key issues involved in the election coming up in Ondo State. I don’t think it is just about electing a governor who will rule the state for the next four years. The election is going to settle many issues in Yoruba politics and Nigeria generally.
The first issue is that the time has come for the Yoruba nation to make a choice on what makes you a progressive: is it performance, label or party card that you carry?
The Yoruba nation also has to decide whether we want to operate on the template Chief Obafemi Awolowo gave to us – where governance is about the people taking decisions and leaders stepping forward to lead them in the desired direction – or a caliphate politics, where the Caliph sits down and appoints ajeles all over the place who are only answerable to him.
The last issue about this election, and which concerns Governor Olusegun Mimiko, is that I have gone round the state and seen what the man has done in the last three and a half years. I believe that if somebody has done those kinds of things and put himself forward for re-election and he is not re-elected, then there is no incentive for anybody to go to public office and perform again. Everybody can then say, ‘let me just go there and steal’ and when they steal enough, they can throw enough money at the people and the people would follow them.
Why are you so passionate about the issues you raised?
These are the cardinal issues that are involved in the Ondo governorship election. And I am passionate about the caliphate politics which Yoruba people must stop in its track. I am passionate about returning the Yoruba nation to the path of development, which is what Mimiko is doing in Ondo State. Look at the Abiye concept which, today, has become a benchmark for WHO (World Health Organisation). Not only that; UCH (University College Hospital), which was established several years back, now understudies what goes on in Abiye.
I have known Mimiko since 1999 when he represented Ondo State in the Afenifere political committee and I recalled that in 2003, when he said he wanted to be governor on the ticket of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), he gave me a pamphlet on the night of his fund-raising in Lagos.
In that document, he said that his paradigm of governance is not top-bottom, but bottom-up. Three and a half years in the saddle, he has proved that he is a governor who works for the people. The Ondo people follow him because he has worked for them. This shows that people appreciate those who work for them.
The governor of Lagos State between 1979 and 1983, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, touched the lives of the people the way no other government ever did. The effect is still felt even 29 years after he left office.  He did not name anything after himself, but there is no community in Lagos today where you would not feel his touch. That shows that people appreciate those who work for them, the way they appreciate Awolowo, who transformed Yoruba nation into a pacesetter for the whole of Africa.
After Oduduwa, the most venerated individual in Yorubaland today is Awolowo. Oduduwa is the founder of the Yoruba, but Awolowo is the progenitor of modern Yoruba nation. That is what Lagos people are doing to Jakande, 29 years after he left power and that is what Ondo people are doing to Mimiko.
And that is why today, in spite of all odds, I am sticking out my neck for Mimiko.
But you were part of the system that produced the so-called caliph in the build-up to the 1999 elections. At what point did you part ways?
I know that in 1999, when my political leaders and I decided to move beyond advocacy to engaging in governance and politics, we declared for AD at Oworonsoki. There, we were received by Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the late Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu and many leaders of Afenifere and AD. When the issue of who would be governor of Lagos State came up, I supported Senator Bola Tinubu without having met him then. The closest I knew him was in 1992 through a colleague of mine in the Daily Times who handled his media campaign when he wanted to run for the Senate.
But when he came back from exile, those of us who played prominent roles in democracy movement in the country at that time were told stories of Tinubu’s involvement in NADECO abroad and we felt that a man who stood up in such a time when most of our colleagues and leaders were running to the late General Sani Abacha should vie for public office. I can recall that the first television commercial that announced his governorship ambition was my concept.
When the governorship primaries were to be held, Afenifere had committees in each of the six South-West states to decide who was to be governor. I was part of the committee that went to Ondo. We were the ones that held the primaries that produced the late Chief Adebayo Adefarati as AD governorship candidate in the state. By the time we came back to Lagos, all that happened had happened. As we were coming back from Ondo, we felt that we should go to the house of our chairman in Lagos then, Alhaji Dawodu, as we bought some fruits for him as it was during the Ramadan period.
By the time we got to his house, we didn’t meet him. Then we decided to go to Ore Close where they normally held caucus meeting. On our way, we saw him in traffic at Masha area with his friend, the late Mr Ferera. We flashed and ran after him to give him the report from Ondo. But I noticed that Alhaji Dawodu was agitated. He just told us to move on. It was when we got to Ore Close that we learnt that there was a problem in Lagos; that Alhaji Dawodu had forwarded the name of the late Engineer Funso Williams to INEC and the leaders were waiting for him to reverse that decision, but he had made himself unavailable. It was then the leaders said that Chief Ayo Adebanjo should write to INEC to remove the name of Williams and replace it with that of Bola Tinubu.
What happened in Lagos; the guideline that was given to us said that anywhere there is fracas, the electoral panel reserves the right not to accept the result from such area. Now, there were crises in some local government areas where Funso Williams was the strongest and based on that, the electoral panel that came from Oyo State said that it was going to cancel the result of those areas. If we had accepted the result, the late Williams won the Lagos primaries; but if you cancel them, Bola Tinubu won.
That was why the leaders said, ‘well, we are the ones that gave the guideline, if the people we appointed said they have rejected these local government areas, we are upholding their verdict’ and this made Tinubu the winner. It was years after that it was suggested that some people were fast enough to create those crises in Funso Williams’ strongholds to fulfill that guideline which was a technical thing, but I think the leaders acted in good faith in accordance with the guideline and the decision of the panel.
Again, in 2003, when we were meeting in Ijebu-Igbo over the 60:40 thing; that the Tinubu group should take 60 and Dawodu group should take 40 and that was not going to work. Alhaji Dawodu indicated his intention to form another party and I remember Alhaji Lam Adesina said that it was unfortunate that we have found ourselves in a situation where a Ganiyu Dawodu who had won elections for us in the past is now somebody that is looking for a party to run for an election. What I am saying in essence is that if Dawodu had insisted that he wanted to contest governorship election, nothing would have stopped him.
So, when Tinubu became the governor of Lagos State because of his participation in the struggle, it was a natural thing to continue to support him. But within a year, by 2000, when the AD was split in two and he was on Chief Bola Ige’s side and we had only Adefarati and Chief Segun Osoba on the side of Papa Senator Abraham Adesanya. For some of us, in spite of our closeness to Tinubu, we supported the leaders and we were trying to promote efforts to ensure that the house of Afenifere was not divided. We used our friendship with some members of the Tinubu group to continue to try to build bridges.
In the course of time, we got to know that the Tinubu agenda was personal. The first thing I noticed was that, around 2005/06 when Yoruba were asked to leave Warri and I made a statement on behalf of Afenifere that no force on earth can displace the Itsekiri from their homeland, the following day, Tinubu came out to dismiss Afenifere, using some words to the effect that we are scaremongers. Then, I had to come out to say that Afenifere was disappointed in him to have made such a comment when it was in the open that our people have been given seven days to leave their homeland.
My second worry was when former President Olusegun Obasanjo set up the Confab in 2005 and I was part of the committee to declare the Yoruba agenda. We drafted an agenda which was a constellation of all the positions that Yoruba people have, built up since 1994- parliamentary system of government, fiscal federalism, regionalism etc- and we had thought that the only progressive governor that we have who can champion that agenda was Tinubu. But all of a sudden, he turned against the Yoruba agenda and not only that, he went to prepare what he called Lagos agenda and his points men started saying that Lagos is not part of Yorubaland; that it signed a different treaty with the colonialists. It was said that some of them were from the Tapa region. It was shocking and we made all kinds of entreaties but our own man rejected our agenda. Where we said we want parliamentary system, he said he wanted presidential; everything Yoruba agreed on, the Tinubu agenda rejected.
It came to a point where Gbenga Daniel (former governor of Ogun State), whom we had already casted away that he had joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was now the one that was carrying the Yoruba agenda on his head. That was when we realised that there was a gap.
On the issue of third term agenda, all kinds of things happened, which I will not talk about now, but which also showed that there was a gap between what he told the public and what he planned to do.
The final straw, for me, was in December 2006. I was part of the Action Congress (AC) when it started; I went round the South-West to mobilise for the party and based on that, I also participated in its national summit. Chief Bisi Akande, Honourable Wale Osun and I drafted most of what became the constitution, the guideline for elections, how the delegates and candidates would emerge and the rest. Then, it was time for primaries within the AD and Governor Tinubu from Lagos shredded everything we had done and imposed his own. It was at that point that I said ‘it is enough.’
So, you are now saying that there is nothing democratic in the structure and operations of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) led by Senator Tinubu…
The party, today, is one of the undemocratic parties in the country, as far as its leadership is concerned. I don’t have any problem with members of the party, but the leadership is corrosive to our politics. Don’t forget, the leadership came to Yorubaland under the PRIMROSE Group under the leadership of the late General Shehu Yar’Adua in 1992 in the Social Democratic Party (SDP). They were the ones that came and introduced money politics to Lagos where they ensured that Jakande was defeated in Lagos by Yar’Adua with illicit money. That was when politics was destroyed in Yorubaland; before then what we had was politics of service, development and ideas; members would go to meetings to contribute to building the party and the party was run democratically.
Money was introduced by the PRIMROSE Group which metamorphosed into the Dapo Sarumi Group and came back in 1999 to enter Afenifere and then took over the platform, sidelining the patriarchs of the movement. It now started to wear the Afenifere agbada, whereas underneath is the PDP or the conservative politics it represents.
Today, there is a lot of deception going on in the South-West. The people identified that party and its leadership as progressives, but they are not. They pretend to be Awoists, but they are not. Until the leadership of that party is checkmated, there cannot be true politics of service and development in Yorubaland. It is politics of pockets and nepotism. Go to the National Assembly and the state Houses of Assembly and you will see the kind of characters that are there.
Liberty Report

Nigerian rapper, MI Abaga saves accident victims

During the early hours of Saturday, October 13, 2012, Chocolate City rapper, M.I came across a gruesome accident along Ikorodu road, Lagos, involving four people, and called for help via social media.
The rapper tweeted, ‘I’m presently at the scene of a serious accident…We have been here for almost an hour.. And no rescue service!!! Any one that can help. Opposite Obanikoro estate on Ikorodu road. One passenger looks like they are still alive and can make it.. But we need towing trucks and jaws of life to save him… Pls help. At least 3 girls dead, the driver still alive’.
The rapper, who was still there when the emergency services arrived, saw them pull out one of the passengers “One girl has been removed from the car and is dead… Pretty young girl.. My God…”
When NET got to the site of the incident, the rapper and his team had left, and the victims had been taken away but a few people were gathered near the scene, watching officials of the Lagos State Transport Monitoring Agency (LASTMA) clear the debris and tow the damaged car, a white Toyota Camry with plate number, TF787KJA, away from the road.
Although no one could say for sure what the cause of the accident of the accident was, a few of the onlookers who spoke to us on the grounds of anonymity, assumed it was a case of either over speeding, drink-driving or both, as they suspect the victims could have been coming from a club.
One onlooker, a man in his late forties said ‘I’m sad and speechless, look at the damage. The way these youths ride cars these days, one just has to be prayerful. They speed so much…I pity these ones o, it’s such a loss’. As the conversations and speculation continued on the sidelines, the LASTMA officials busied themselves with removing the street light which fell on the car and hindered the flow of traffic.
Meanwhile, one of the officials confirmed to us that the accident was indeed ghastly, with only two survivors out of the four passengers. He added that they were all taken to the Lagos State Accident and Emergency Centre. A doctor in the hospital, speaking anonymously, claimed that only one victim was admitted and has been responding to treatment.
M.I and his team were returning from Club Octopus, the venue of the Hennessy Artistry event, where he performed alongside Naeto C.
Reports from his team reveal that although the artiste found the sight shocking, he is presently at home, and in good condition.
However, he had a few words for drivers, which he shared on twitter: ‘Pls, people drive safely home, buckle up for safety and do not drink and drive. Also don’t let your drunk friends drive.’
 DailyPost

Jonathan, Sambo, Anyim to spend N1.59bn on feeding in 2013

The offices of President, Goodluck Jonathan, the Vice-President Namadi Sambo and that of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim will spend N1.59bn on vague times they tagged as welfare packages in 2013.

While Anyim’s office shares N1.07bn; the President and the vice president are expected to spend N355.9m and N160.83m respectively. The 2013 budget as presented by Jonathan last Wednesday shows that Nigeria will spend slightly less than N1bn (precisely N990.24m) in
feeding Jonathan and Sambo next year.

The estimate  shows that His Excellency will spend not less than N406, 738,969 on foodstuffs and catering materials in the year 2013.

The gas for cooking the President’s food will cost N13, 420,750, while refreshment and meals in the State House will cost the nation N327,
154,931.

Also, foodstuffs and catering materials for the Vice President, Namadi Sambo is expected to cost the oil-rich Nigeria N112, 500,000 in 2013,

while the gas for cooking the food will cost N7, 020,750. Refreshment and meals will cost N123, 402,499 for the VP’s office in 2013.

These total expenses bring the total cost of feeding the Presidential Villa to N990.24m for the 2013 fiscal year.
Jonathan while presenting the 2013 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly said the Federal Government would try to save cost as a result of deteriorating resources.
He said, “The uncertainty surrounding the global economy, which could have adverse effects on commodity prices, highlights the downside risks for our economy. The oil market is well known for its volatility. We recall the 2008 experience at the height of the global economic downturn when oil prices fell almost overnight from $147 per barrel to $38 per barrel.
“This threat of oil price volatility remains constant and underscores the need to rely on a robust and prudent methodology to estimate the benchmark price. The global economic slowdown can also have far-reaching implications for the demand for our export commodities, given that the Euro zone and the United States of America account for over 50 per cent of the nation’s crude oil exports.
“These global developments are also being transmitted to our economy through a dampening effect on foreign capital inflows and remittances by Diaspora Nigerians. These are uncertain times in the world economy, and my administration is continuing to take necessary steps to mitigate possible adverse effects of the global economic slowdown on Nigeria.
“In spite of these, our economy has done relatively well. Over the past nine months, through a number of initiatives, we have created new jobs directly and supported many young entrepreneurs running SMEs to create jobs.”
DailyPost

Court approves MCSN N5.2bn lawsuit against Multichoice

John Ugbe (Multichoice)

A Lagos State Federal High Court has dismissed the preliminary objection filed by media Company Multichoice Nigeria Limited against a N5.2bn counter-claim brought against it by the Musical Copyright Society Nigeria (MCSN) for the alleged illegal use of its works from 2006 till date.
It all started in 2011 when Multichoice earlier filed a writ of summons in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1091/11 against MCSN, praying the court to grant a perpetual injunction stopping MCSN from asking or demanding from Multichoice to obtain copyright licence for the broadcast and communication to the public of musical works on the radio and television channels operated and distributed by the media company within Nigeria ‘because MCSN was not licensed or approved by the Nigerian Copyright Commission as a collecting society’.
MCSN then filed a counterclaim of N5.2 billion for the infringement of its copyright by Multichoice Nigeria from 2006 till date. The copyright society argues that Section 52 and Section 3 of the Fifth Schedule of the Copyright Act 2004 duly recognizes and save the rights of MCSN which it has acquired under several contracts.
The stage is thus set for trial on November 1, 2012.
MultiChoice is a South African company which operates the DStv Satellite Television service, the main satellite TV service in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is owned by the Naspers media conglomerate.
 BusinessNews

Aluu Killings: Community denies involvement in death, demand release of monarch

Seven days after four students of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) were killed by an irate mob in Aluu in Ikwere local government area of Rivers State, the community yesterday broke its silence on the matter.
The community denied that its members were involved in the incident and demanded the immediate release of its detained traditional ruler, Alhaji Hassan Welewa.
The people warned that they would not fold their hands against any further destruction of their community and the infliction of pains on them.They urged security agencies to take note of plans to attack Aluu community by some ethnic groups whose sons were victims of the mob action.
Spokesman of Aluu Garshon Benson, who disclosed this during a media briefing attended by the chairman, Aluu Council of Chiefs, Richard Kalu, called for the release of the detained traditional ruler.
Benson also called on security agencies to stop the harassment and arrests of innocent Aluu natives and urged the outfits to carry out a thorough investigation of the gruesome murder of the students and bring the culprits to book.
He said: “It has come to our notice that some ethnic groups in the state whose sons were among those murdered on our soil are threatening to attack Aluu. We really sympathise with them for the loss of their children and reiterate that no Aluu man has a hand in their death.
“We implore them to allow security agencies to fish out the actual killers of their sons, but also warn strongly that we will no longer fold our arms and watch further destruction of our communities and the infliction of pains and injuries on the good and law-abiding people of Aluu clan.”
 DailyPost

Why Igbo ought to be president in 2015 (1)

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It is strange and unthinkable that despite the enormous contributions of Igbo to the economic, political and social development of Nigeria, they have never produced the executive president of Nigeria. Some persons have even, at several times, referred to Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s tenure as President in the First Republic as executive.
Nevertheless, those familiar with the political history of Nigeria know that Dr. Azikiwe’s presidency was ceremonial; that is without executive powers. In fact, in the power configuration at that time, executive powers resided with the Prime Minister – a position held by Alhaji Tafawa Balewa from Bauchi. I must state without hesitation that power sharing among the regions that made up Nigeria at the time was equitably done. In fact, Igbo held strategic positions and virtually controlled the reins of power. They were everywhere – Police, Army, Navy, Air Force.
Interestingly, they showed competence in every assignment they were given. The period leading to the first democratic election in Nigeria saw a crystallisation of forces from the three major regions of Nigeria for the control of political power. This culminated in the emergence of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, as the first President and Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, as the Prime Minister. Between the two, political powers resided with Balewa as the Prime Minister. The role of Dr. Azikiwe in the government was ceremonial and aimed at stabilising the reins of power under Nigerians. Do not forget that the country was just smarting from the long control of power by the colonialists who were determined to put their stooges in control of key political offices. Some had argued that Dr. Azikiwe as the first indigenous governor-general had taken the share of Igbo in the power equation at that time. But from the power structure designed by the British colonial masters, it was clear that they wanted somebody with elitist and western orientation to hold that office.
And Azikiwe suited that purpose since he trained and worked abroad before returning to Nigeria to join the independence struggle. I have had the privilege of visiting the famous Pennsylvania University, Philadelphia. It is there that the great works of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe are deeply appreciated. It is also there that the Great Zik made his name in academics. Again, Azikiwe (fondly called Zik) was roundly detribalised and this made it easier for the colonialists to cede power to Nigerians without losing their overbearing influence at the same time. Ordinarily, it would have been very easy for Zik to scheme and clinch the coveted position of Prime Minister if he had shown the simplest interest. But he never did; rather he agreed that Balewa should take the office, for peace to reign and for democratic rule to take root.
Before I proceed with tracing the history of power control by the various ethnic groups, it is important to observe that it has never been in question that Nigeria has three major tribes, comprising Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, and that each of them had ruled Nigeria for over eight years, except Igbo. Around these tribes are other multi-cultural, dialectical ethnic groupings that make up the corporate entity called Nigeria. From available records, there are over 350 of them. With time, the number will increase, as new dialects are discovered.
However, there seems to be undisputable squabbles among them for control and recognition. The ethnocentric differences among these various groupings spring from their age-long desire to assert themselves more autonomously. In fact, the struggle for autonomy has spanned the entire gamut of our socio-political set-up, throwing up all kinds of insurgencies and insurrections that have even seen brothers pitted against brothers.
Even those tribes that lack the capacity to stand alone in the struggle are also striving for recognition. It was the same agitation that led to the South-South producing its first democratically elected President for Nigeria. Nevertheless, some pundits and political commentators had thought that Igbo should have produced the President before the South-South, since the South-South is deemed to be one of the minority ethnic groupings in the country. But some visible factors accounted for the swift ascendancy to power by the South-South geopolitical zone. The first and most critical factor was the coordinated agitation they championed that saw the establishment of the Niger Delta Ministry by the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua.
Again, the argument that the South-South had been raped and pillaged despite the fact that 70 per cent of the nation’s oil resources come from the zone became handy. It helped to disarm those that had any contrary views about it. Indeed, from the body language of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, it was clear that he had made up his mind to compensate the South-South Zone. Probably, he settled for this option to spite some persons and tribes that had opposed his tenure elongation agenda. By nominating the then Governor Goodluck Jonathan (now President) as deputy to sick Umar Yar’Adua, it was glaring that he had something up his sleeves.
That thing came to the fore with the death of President Musa Yar’Adua. Now back to the era before the first military coup in Nigeria. By 1966, the ominous signs were everywhere – an indication that the relative peace being enjoyed by the country was about to snap. The Chukwuma Nzeogwu coup of 1966 and the counter coup of the same year were the last straw that broke the camel’s back. The first coup threw up a renowned Igbo son, General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi as Head of State. He ruled for only six months and was brutally murdered in a counter coup masterminded by young northern military officers.
The latest coup saw the emergence of Yakubu Gowon as Head of State. Gowon held the reins of power throughout the period of the civil war, up till the time he was overthrown by another northern officer – General Murtala Mohammed – who was assassinated in 1975. Naturally, the power baton fell on a Yoruba army officer, Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo was the Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters and the No. 2 man at the time.
It was Obasanjo that handed over to Shehu Shagari (from Sokoto) as civilian president. Shagari chose Dr. Alex Ekwueme from the then old Anambra State as his deputy. They were in office till December 31, 1983 when they were overthrown by the Major General Muhammadu Buhari/Tunde Idiagbon junta. They stayed in office until August 27, 1985 when Major General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida from Minna (North Central) led a coup that toppled them.
Babangida was in power from 1985 to 1993 when he stepped aside to give way to an Interim Government led by a corporate executive, Chief Ernest Shonekan. The interim government arrangement did not last, as it was booted out by Major General Sani Abacha in a bloodless coup on November 18, 1993. It is important to point out at this point that there was a failed attempt by a group of some northern young military officers to topple Babangida on April 22, 1990. The coup failed because the coup plotters, led by one Colonel Okar, were too ambitious when they called for the excision of some parts of the country from the rest of Nigeria.
It was a risk too heavy to take. They took and paid dearly for it. Had the coup succeeded, nobody could have hazarded a guess as to what would have happened to the country called Nigeria. The coup failed and Nigeria has continued to exist. After the death of Abacha on June 8, 1998, power vacuum existed that saw to the emergence of Major General Abdulsalami Abubakar as Head of State. True to his pledge to hand over power after a very short tenure, he exited from office on May 29, 1999. Before then, he had conducted a fairly generally acceptable election from which Olusegun Obasanjo emerged a second time as Head of State. It is vital to observe that it was easy for Obasanjo (representing the South West Yoruba) to emerge as President.
His presidency was substantially facilitated by the reasoning at that time to compensate the Yoruba for the death of Chief M.K.O Abiola – acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election. Obasanjo was in power for eight uninterrupted years with Abubakar Atiku (from Adamawa – North East) as deputy. At the expiration of his tenure, he handed over to former Governor of Katsina State, Umar Musa Yar’Adua, with Goodluck Jonathan as his deputy in 2007. Evoking the Doctrine of Necessity, the National Assembly voted for Goodluck Jonathan to act as President pending when Yar’Adua would be fit to return.
Unfortunately, Yar’Adua died in office as the mantle fell on his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan. Jonathan contested for President on his own recognition in 2011 and won. Though there was indignation among PDP members that the party’s zoning formula was jettisoned. What then will happen in 2015? Equity simply demands that since Igbo are yet to produce Nigeria’s executive president as other tribes had done, they should be allowed to do so in 2015. Some analysts argued that the presidency is not given to anybody, rather you fight for it.
But let me ask: did the South-South really fight for it before they got it? If it is a thing you get by fighting, Igbo would have got it long ago, having fought a bloody civil war for 30 months. That the South-South got it this time was a combination of factors – some of which I had already stated in the foregoing part of this piece. Nevertheless, it is significant to state here that there was no way Jonathan would have won the Presidency in 2011 without the support of Igbo.
Igbo, as a nation, threw their support solidly behind him. Ohanaeze Ndigbo, South East Governors’ Forum and numerous other socio-political groups supported the Jonathan/Sambo ticket agenda. In any case, followers of Nigeria’s development will attest, if they want to be honest, that no other tribal group had contributed to the development of Nigeria as much as Igbo. Applying every index of measurement, I wish to state categorically and without any fear of contradiction, that Igbo are overqualified to lead this country.
Igbo is the only tribe whose people live in every part of the globe. There is no place in the entire world you would not find Igbo, except there is no life in such a place. In business, education, politics, and the like, Igbo have played pivotal role. Nigeria is where it is today, developmentally, because Igbo have used their ingenuity and dexterity to reengineer it and reposition it. I had already mentioned the invaluable contributions of the Great Zik of Africa to the struggle for independence.
What of the other notable Igbo patriots, such as Akanu Ibiam, Michael Okpara, Eni Njoku, Sam Ikoku, Ojike Mbonu, K.O. Mbadiwe, Dennis Osadebey, Jaja Nwachukwu, Aja Nwachukwu, that worked with Zik to liberate Nigeria from the shackles of colonialism. The history of Nigeria cannot be complete without their names. There were other latter-day Igbo who played a significant role in the development of Nigeria. Under this category were great men, such as Chief Ukpabi Asika (former Administrator of East Central State), Chief Sam Mbakwe (former governor of old Imo State), Chief R.B.K. Okafor (of the Nigeria Peoples’ Party fame), Dr. Pius Okigbo (the renowned economist), Christopher Okigbo, Prof. Kenneth Dike (former President of Anambra State University of Science and Technology, Enugu), Professor Gordian Ezekwe (a former Director of PRODA, Enugu, and Minister of Science and Technology), Engineer Roy Umenyi (former governor of Old Anambra State).
There are others who fall into this category, but are still alive. They include Chief Mbazulike Amaechi (Transport Minister in the First Republic), Chief Philip Asiodu, Cyprian Amadi (the passionate writer), Flora Nwakpa (the tireless and elegant female writer). There are the younger generation of Igbo, who deserve some recognition. They include Chief Arthur Mbanefo (one-time Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations), Chief Prof. Chinua Achebe (the literary icon and author of the famous Things Fall Apart), Prof. Chike Obi (the indefatigable and cerebral mathematician), Philip Emeagwali (the computer whiz kid who amazed the world with his intellectuality and innovativeness), etc. The list is endless.
The Sun