How Boko Haram sneaked into Maiduguri

…Survivors recount horrifying tales
■ “We said our last prayers”

From TIMOTHY OLANREWAJU, Maiduguri
For two weeks, the rumor of possible attack by Boko Haram was rife in Maiduguri, Borno State capital and birthplace of the insurgent group. Many residents had forewarned that the insurgents were hitching to hit the city hard due to the uncommon and united way the people had curtailed  their  deviousness  since mid June when the youth volunteer group, Civilian JTF  berthed.
Then, a suspected Boko Haram informant on an alleged mission to spy on the metropolis was also caught by vigilant residents around the Monday Market/Bulabulin area. Residents claimed the suspect boarded a vehicle from Beneshiek, a community along Maiduguri-Kano highway that had also been visited with violence early September, to the state capital but his suspicious movement reportedly aroused the curiosity of people around the area including commercial drivers. He was subsequently apprehended and handed over to military personnel around the area after confessing his motives.
But while residents were still savoring the coolness of the harmattan season in their sleep in the wee hours of Monday morning, the insurgents sneaked into the state capital in Hilux vehicles which were mostly seized from security agencies, government officials and motorists. “They came with operational vehicles like Hilux, motorcycles and bicycles,” a security source told Sunday Sun, adding that the insurgents did not move in convoys unlike in their previous operations. “They divided themselves into groups so that nobody  suspected them and they came from the western axis of the city from the back of the airport which also borders the air force base,” the source explained. The premises of the Maiduguri airport bursts into a vast forest  leading into Mainok and Beneshiek bushes.
Some residents of Gomari and Bulumkutu, the sprawling communities opposite the air force base, claimed some of the insurgents had arrived the areas few days before the attack. “I believe some of the Boko Haram men were already within the vicinity few days before the attack because some of them moved from the Gomari and Bulumkutu end with motorcycles and bicycles to attack  military formations,” a resident who did not want his name in print said.
How the insurgents fired the first shots
Audu (other names withheld ) who resides few metres away from the air force base, at Gomari-Old Airport said the Boko Haram first assembled at a place near his house. “They were discussing first in Kanuri but unfortunately I didn’t hear what they were saying. The time was 1.30am. Few minutes later, they said their prayers and ended with fatiwa, shouting Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar. Initially, I thought some people in a nearby mosque were holding a vigil but when I started hearing movement of people, I knew there was a problem. Then, shooting started and continued for about 20 minutes. Somebody was shouting stop shooting, stop shooting in pidgin. I  thought the person was a soldier because he sounded like a commander in the military. He also gave some orders but was not clear to me. The shooting abated for about five minutes and I concluded they were military troops probably trying to scare some people but to my surprise, a loud explosion came and shooting resumed till dawn,” he disclosed. He said he knew hell was let loose as unfolding events including sporadic gun shots, explosions and arrival of a military fighter jet later indicated. “I didn’t even know what to do. He said he never believed he would live to tell the story adding  “My wife and four children joined me in my room, we later moved to the parlor and back to my room again when the shooting became fierce. We were confused and my children were crying but I told them to stop because they could attract attention of the insurgents. They were near our house no doubt, we could hear their voices and movements. They  prayed that God should save us and He did”. He also disclosed that he saw some of the insurgents walking into adjoining streets at the dawn of the day when the fighter jet had stopped assault on them, adding that those he saw were young men.
Reaction of security forces
Security sources said the attack was a surprise to military authorities in the state, adding that the army had recorded some successes in its assault on the insurgents until they struck on Monday. “At least, the army and the  Air Force had cleared the insurgents in some parts of Gwoza and Damboa, a week ago and operations were still going on their when the terrorists struck in Maiduguri on Monday. Nobody expected they could have the effrontery to enter the city but they did. It still beats the imagination of many of us,” a military officer hinted in a chat with our reporter. Also police sources said the insurgents may have been planning the attack for weeks, adding that the manner in which they executed the attacks confirmed this . “They came in some vehicles like army patrol vehicles with some painted in army colours. From reports, many of them wore army and air force uniforms. They divided themselves into groups with bombers and simultaneously hit the 333 Artillery and Air force. But what surprised me was the decoy they used in their operation. They mounted RPG and other sub-machine guns on a few Hilux vehicles, connected the triggers of these guns with generators kept inside the vehicles and the generators assisted them in powering the rod that persistently pulled the triggers to release bullets with nobody inside the vehicles. Unfortunately, they moved some meters away from these vehicles and also shooting again toward the Air Force side where counter-offensive was being launched by the army”, the police source disclosed. But as hours ticked away, the insurgents had already penetrated the 333 Artillery of the Nigerian Army and the Air Force base (79 Composite Group) along same highway, as they burnt almost all the buildings and facilities including five air craft within the premises of the two military formations.
Survivors recount ordeal
Survivors said they had a close shave with death. A septuagenarian woman, Madam Hannatu Musa recounted how her entire family gathered in their parlor and said their last prayers. “My husband is very old and couldn’t walk properly but when the shelling was becoming intense he managed to leave his apartment and came to my flat. He held my hand and embraced other relatives living with me. We started praying. We started hearing footsteps as if they surrounded our house. Baba said the end had come and that we should say our last prayers. I have never seen this kind of attack in my life. I have travelled to places with my husband as civil servant but I have never seen civilians carrying arms to fight soldiers the way they did  here on Monday. Could it be that there are saboteurs among the military men, she asked.
Also another resident of Gomari, Umara, a federal civil servant said he had given up when shooting persisted till day break. “I had given up the possibility of surviving the situation. I was the only one in my compound because I had moved my family to Kaduna. My neighbor also travelled to Bauchi for a wedding and he hasn’t returned on that Monday. When the shooting started, I  thought it would soon subside  but it persisted. I did a quick search of my life and my way with God and then told myself the end had come,” he stated. Residents of the neighboring 777 Housing Estate along same road said the hovering of the fighter jet and the over 30 minutes of cross-fire with the insurgents frightened them, adding that the roofs of their houses  shook persistently as the fighter jet deployed from Yola, Adawama State pursued the insurgents. There were several shells of bullets on the highway around the area on Monday afternoon.
Other casualties
Unconfirmed reports said some security personnel  died in the dawn attack. Residents also said some women of easy virtue who had passed the night at the 333 Artillery after their weekend’s usual outing at the mess were also caught in the violence. As at the time of  our  visit on Monday afternoon, some women who lost their relations were seen crying and being condoled by friends outside the barracks gates. A middle aged man and lorry driver opposite the Air Force base and his brother were among the victims. Family of the deceased told Gov Kashim Shettima during his visit on Monday that five insurgents had stormed the house and demanded  the key of a pick up van parked in the premises. Bags of beans which the driver had planned to take to the market hours later were loaded in the pick-up but his wife declined to surrender the key, a development which angered the insurgents as they shot him dead few minutes after killing his brother in a  medicine shop in front of the house. The corpses of the two brothers were being prepared for burial as at the time of  our  visit. Also a retired military officer  who recently moved into his house around Njimtilo was shot in the ensuing confusion after attempting to flee the area following heavy bombardment. “He felt he was not safe, that the insurgents could enter his house because many of them passed our area while they were fleeing at about 6.30am on Monday. So he was afraid and he fled the house, leaving his wife and children but he was killed in the process”, a neighbor of the deceased said. Hospital sources said more than 24 corpses were brought to the morgue even as officials declined to confirm this. Spokesman of the 7 Division, Col Muhammad Dole also declined to give casualty figures. “I cannot speak or give any details on the attack for now, because I am not authorized to do so,” he told journalists on Tuesday. The defense headquarters in a statement on Monday in Abuja had said 24 BokoHaram were killed but residents maintained the figure could be higher.
Unanswered questions
Residents said there are many unanswered questions for the military. Those who spoke to Sunday Sun asked whether the military was unaware of the plot to attack Maiduguri going by the rumour of impeding attacks by the insurgents. How did many of the insurgents disappear  from the city without a trace till now? What is the efficacy of the state of emergency in the state and neighboring Yobe where similar attack had been carried out last month? What’s the level of commitment of the nation’s security chiefs in  tackling the problem? What’s the role of intelligence gathering especially in  last Monday’s attack? How did the Boko Haram move into the city in vehicles, motorcycles and bicycles with arms without anybody knowing despite the presence of security troops around the metropolis? Was the military caught napping and are those in power profiting from the crisis?
“I think there is nothing wrong now if the Army Chief moves his office temporarily to Maiduguri to personally supervise the operations against Boko Haram so as to get this problem off our neck once and for all, because the insurgency is a setback to this nation, not only to Borno or the northeast. It is high time we tackled it headlong especially before the 2015 elections,” a university don said.

TheSun

Jonathan’s many wars

By Dapo Thomas

Fortune has played its part in the life of Goodluck Jonathan by investing him as the President of the most populous country in Africa. Overwhelmed by his dramatic emergence as one of the most powerful individuals in the world, Jonathan, a once-shoeless little boy from the village of Otuoke in Bayelsa State, is flummoxed by the enormous power at his disposal. Of all the reasonable and positive things one can do with power, Jonathan’s convenient choice was to wield power with benevolent violations, camouflaged despotism, hypocritical simplicity and stuck-up humility.
Jonathan’s lust and desperation for power, ossified by a siege mentality that is induced by background complex, is responsible for his unseemingly approach to political orthodoxies. The Jonathan Presidency is fast losing its moral direction because of its many contentious engagements with disparate entities of the polity.  The only one the Presidency is not fighting is itself.
With the audacious and brazen looting going on in Jonathan’s administration, why should the citizenry who are the victims of the misery created by the extraordinary corruption in government, not protest or be at war with Jonathan and his team? Sampler of corruption catechisms of the administration is reproduced for emotive reflections.
The House of Representatives is already probing the NNPC for improper remittances. For instance, it was alleged that the value for crude oil sales from January to August 2013 stood at $20.7bn but the NNPC only remitted $7billion to the federation account. Now, the Jonathan ‘rats’ had swallowed $13.9bn that could be utilized for the good of the people and the country. Don’t even bother to do the naira conversion, it could be outrageous.
Speaking at the 18th Nigerian Economic Summit last year December, the Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala disclosed that some oil marketers fraudulently collected N232b from the Federal Government as fuel subsidy. Since last year, there has been no single conviction. Those who paid fraudulently and those who collected fraudulently are walking freely around town mocking the rest of us for our unprofitable piety.
The Chairman, Nigeria Governors Forum, Rotimi Amaechi, threw another bombshell when he declared at the second annual retreat of the state chief executives that took place in Sokoto on November 16, this year that the EFCC should investigate how $5b got missing from the Excess Crude Account.  According to him, the ECA stood at $9 billion last January only to shrink to $4 billion by November 2013.
The Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah was accused of spending N255 million on just two cars. Her case has been moving from one panel to the other yet no action has been taken against her. She still goes to her office as if nothing had happened.
For the greater part of his administration’s tenure to date, Jonathan has been engaged in serious battle with the Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi. Though the President has not been involved in any direct physical confrontation with Amaechi, there is no doubt that he is doing so by proxy. The Inspector General of Police, the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, the State Commissioner of Police Mbu Joseph Mbu and the Minister of Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, who are the field soldiers in the Jonathan-Amaechi conflict, have been doing so at Jonathan’s behest.
Before Jonathan kicked out Timipre Sylva and invested Seriake Dickson as the governor of Bayelsa State, there was cordial relationship and peace in that part of the Niger Delta, and particularly between Bayelsa and Rivers State. But one morning, after Dickson “mounted the throne”, the people of Rivers State woke up to discover that Soku, a territory that belonged to the Kalabari Kingdom in Rivers State, had been ceded to Bayelsa by the National Boundary Commission.  Soku is the place where the Rivers people have some of their oil wells. By that cession, the oil wells of Rivers now belong to Bayelsa. When the Rivers people protested, the Federal government promised to look into it. The agreement was to keep the money accruing from the wells in an escrow account while waiting for the resolution of the territorial dispute. But astonishingly, the federal government, through some of its agencies, released Rivers State’s N17 billion in the escrow account to Bayelsa. State. Besides, for the month of October, 2013, Rivers State’s N19 billion monthly allocation from the Federation account was slashed by N5 billion. The President did all these and nobody is questioning him and challenging his arbitrariness.
Having tinkered with the harmony between the Bayelsa and Rivers people, the President took the war to his own party – PDP. Consequent upon the unacceptable actions and attitude of the Chairman of the Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, a faction tagged New Peoples Democratic Party, (nPDP) emerged within the party with the G7 boosting its membership. The faction, headed by Alhaji Kawu Baraje, comprised the governors of Rivers (Amaechi), Kwara (Abdulfatah Ahmed), Kano (Kwankwaso), Sokoto (Wamakko), Adamawa (Nyako),Niger (Aliyu) and Jigawa (Lamido).
Exhibiting its political immaturity and intolerance, the Jonathan administration’s immediate reaction was to  seal off the faction’s office, to issue demolition notices to the houses of its supporters, to revoke contracts already given to some of its members, to remove all the ministers loyal to members of the faction and to threaten the members of the faction with expulsion from the party. The President met with the G7 on two or three occasions but because there was no sincerity and commitment to the reconciliation, the meetings ended in stalemate until the faction and five of the G7 merged with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to strengthen the opposition against Jonathan’s administration.  Now to ASUU. University lecturers had been on strike since July 1, 2013. Series of meetings had been held and it looked as if the dispute was about to be resolved when the President met with ASUU national officers for almost 13 hours. But unexpectedly, ASUU came back with 3 conditions that the Federal Government must meet. Arrogantly, the government rejected the conditions and the Federal Government, through the Minister of Education Nyesom Wike, issued an ultimatum to all striking lecturers.  Amplifying Wike’s position, the President expressed his disappointment  and short of asking ASUU to prepare for war, vowed not to shift grounds except on the deadline which clashed with the burial ceremonies of Prof. Festus Iyayi of the University of Benin. Here again, the President fumbled. It is all about strategy, wisdom and approach.
Before ASUU, there was the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF). The governors’ forum was a platform for all the state governors to exchange ideas, discuss issues of mutual interest, relate together as one irrespective of party and political differences, strategize on how to approach the federal government on issues of common interest and explore the possibilities of socio-political interaction among themselves as different from integration. The President was not comfortable with Amaechi’s leadership of the NGF. Therefore, when their plan to remove Amaechi failed, Jonathan and Jang decided to paralyse the activities and operations of the NGF.
The state governors too have their own problems with the President. Their monthly revenue allocations are now regularly tampered with without explanations. Some of them lose as much as N3 billion, N4 billion, N5 billion every month and this has been affecting their capital projects and even their recurrent expenditure. Some of them cannot even meet their financial commitments to banks and contractors. Is it that the President does not understand the meaning of federalism or it is a ploy by him to force the governors to kowtow?
The Jonathan Presidency is encumbered by so many red herrings and fictional adversaries scripted by corridor parasites to exploit their principal’s obsession with maximum power. A government haunted by obstacle-siege is susceptible to political opportunism and manipulative tendencies. This is why Jonathan sees war where there is none. Every opposition is fantazied as a dangerous enemy that should be paralyzed and neutralized.
The understanding we have of leadership in Africa is purblind and shallow. Our leaders attach importance to how long they stay in office thinking that this is all that matters in history. Yet, we have seen leaders like Mahatma Ghandi, George Washington and Nelson Mandela whose sojourn in power was very short but have been treated well by history because of the quality leadership they exemplified. Some leaders never even had any encounter with political power yet they emerged favourites of history because of the ideas they propagated, the ideology they promoted and the principle they stood for. Martin Luther King (Jnr.) falls into this category. But people like Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, Idi Amin of Uganda and Muamar Ghadaffi of Libya, ruled for decades only for history to record them as symbols   of evil.  Of what value to Jonathan is long tenure in power that history will justly present as a template for reprobate governance?
The Jonathan Presidency is a precedent for all that is abominable in leadership.

TheSun

ASUU: This damage is much

EMMA  OKAH

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Nigeria, founded in 1978, took over from the defunct Nigerian Association of University Teachers, which was founded in 1965. Ordinarily, ASUU, with a background of a recurring history of militancy since its formation, would have been irrelevant in Nigeria today if successive governments at both the Federal and State levels did enough to promote, fund and sustain high quality tertiary education in Nigeria.
From inception, ASUU has been in one battle or the other, traversing various regimes, military and civilian, and culminating in the present one, which like a few others before it, has hit a dangerous mark.
In all these, whenever ASUU went on strike, the nation suffered loss. Parents and students were adversely affected and disorganized. For a growing nation like Nigeria to suffer an aggregate loss of over two and a half years to avoidable strikes that completely disrupted academic activities in our campuses since 1999 till date is scandalous. For the records, the following chronology of ASUU strikes in Nigeria is worrisome.  1999 – 5 months; 2001 – 3 months; 2002 – 2 weeks; 2003/2004 – 6 months; 2005 – 3 days; 2006 – 1 week; 2007 – 3 months; 2008 – 1 week; 2009 – 4 months; 2010 – 5 months and 1 week; 2011/2012 – 3 months; and 2013 – July 3, 2013 to ???.
The truth today is that a systematic debasement of tertiary education in Nigeria over the years has taken a great toll on the economy of the nation. There is a devastating erosion of confidence in the education system and all countries of the world know this.  It has affected the political and economic image of Nigeria in a very negative light and this sad situation cannot be allowed to stay any more.
It is difficult to exonerate the ASUU or the FGN and the States in this decay that has become part of Nigeria’s malaise. How has the ASUU and indeed university lecturers protected the integrity of education? This is a national embarrassment and shame. This is a national calamity and we must tell ourselves the only truth and save the school system from irrecoverable fall. Sentiments do not come in here. Politics or party interest should have no business here. Abusing the President or the Minister of Education or ASUU President doesn’t solve the problem. It is not about President Goodluck Jonathan or his Ministers and it is not about the ASUU President Dr. Nasir Fagge. I am concerned about the deep injury the Nigerian education system is suffering. It is truly deep.
We must begin to solve our critical national problems with one heart and purpose. We must draw a line when sectional interest or political sentiments come in. We cannot toy with the future of these children because they are the backbone of the future Nigeria. No military commander can go to war with limping soldiers and win major wars. So Nigerians together must see the fall of tertiary institutions in Nigeria as a collective concern and not a political tool or a matter for ego voyage. We must address the problems and honestly face the issues so that Nigerian universities can even begin to compete with other universities in Africa.
Nigeria is a rich nation and her assets in human capital top the list but what have we done with our strength? We are rapidly inflicting loses on the economy of the nation. Many Nigerian students litter foreign universities in search of uninterrupted quality education. While the students migrate to other countries in search of better education, some tentacles of the national economy also go with them. Foreign fees are paid in foreign currencies and the nation bleeds. Statistics in 2012 show that there were 71,000 Nigerian students studying in neighbouring Ghana spending close to N160 billion. This is in addition to an earlier report in 2010 that Nigeria supports the UK education sector to the tune of N246 billion.
The case of America and Canada is not different. For two academic sessions alone Nigerians spent a whooping N137 billion for tuition and living expenses in British and American universities. While state governments fall over one another to grab foreign university education openings in other countries including the eastern bloc to the detriment of the nation, official statistics show that the FGN spent N900 million to sponsor 150 students in 2011 alone. The story is the same in several other countries where Nigerians are migrating to seek better university education and despite the huge capital flight, schooling abroad has in addition, become a status symbol for many people.
Giving the belligerence of ASUU in the present face off, many would think that only the FG share the blame in failing standards over the years and even long before President Jonathan became a Deputy Governor in Bayelsa State. While Federal universities are the responsibilities of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the same cannot be said of state owned universities who have merely joined the current strike in solidarity. It is totally immoral in a federal system of government to have state universities shut down for months in sympathy with Federal universities and we join well meaning Nigerians to condemn this reckless loss inflicted on the nation by this practice.
Many blame successive governments for these recurring failures. However, the university community especially the lecturers who populate the ASUU and hold the academic key in the universities deserve some knocks. The falling standards in education cannot only be found in the failure of infrastructure alone. Some of the lecturers have become merchants, selling handouts and using that as a condition for examination favours. Sexual harassment has become the order of the day and many complaints against lecturers are poorly investigated or no action is taking at all because of victimization from other ASUU members. Can this happen in any part of the world without sanctions?
Besides that, some of the lecturers have become typical truants and barely have time to read, prepare and impact adequate knowledge on the helpless students and all these adversely affect standards beyond the current impasse. Examination malpractices in the ivory towers have assumed alarming dimension and this could not have been possible without the active connivance of some ASUU members. The cumulative effect of these anomalies goes to the root of the quality of education that our unemployable graduates receive in the hands of some ASUU members.
This is a serious problem in our education sector and unless all the stakeholders genuinely address it beyond political considerations and the present grandstanding of ASUU, foreign education will continue to suck Nigerians to fund their local university education. This is clearly a huge loss to our economy and a great damage to our psyche.

TheSun

Two hours with PRESIDENT JOYCE BANDA of Malawi

By Funke Egbemode

She doesn’t look as tough as nails but she is. In fact, she looks good, all supple and soft as the next African woman, with the right curve in the right place. Fair, clear skin that leaves you wondering about her age bracket but that she puts paid to when she introduced her three children, all very grown up. Asked how she would describe herself, she put it quite simply, smiling: I’m an African woman. That she is, in more ways than one. Just that she is not your everyday African woman. Her name is Joyce Banda, yes the same one, Dr Joyce Banda, President of the Republic of Malawi, the second of the only two female presidents we have in Africa.
Clad in red and black boubou with a shawl sitting pat on her right shoulder (back in Malawi, that shawl is called Joyce Banda) and one simple string of pearls around her neck, you could actually mistake her for the woman next door. Until you look closely at her eyes. Even when her smile brightens her face, the eyes remain determined, like they are a different entity. Her eyes definitely are a window to her soul. Deep in them are etched her journey to the State House of Malawi. And the road was rough, bumpy, complete with attempts on her life. But she stood her ground, eyes focussed on her goal.
She introduced her husband, Justice Richard Banda. ‘He has been Minister of Justice in Swaziland and Malawi but I can tell you being First Gentleman of Malawi is his favourite job.’ Her husband smiled, shook his head at the jab.
A few jokes more and she went straight to the point.
‘African women don’t cry unless they have been watching Oprah.’ That sent us all laughing. ‘We do not cry and we cannot start now. That was what I told my daughter when she started sniffing and dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief because we did not pay her school fees on time. She was schooling in America and in that university if you failed to pay your school fees when it was due, your name went up on the notice board for all to see. She couldn’t imagine that happening to her with a Foreign Minister mum and Chief Justice dad. I asked her if she had been watching Oprah because an African woman has to do so much she has no time to cry. The challenges of an African woman are right there on her doorsteps when she wakes up. She meets them there.
‘The African woman has to deal with effects of climate change, much as a lot of people think it is an urban topic. She wants her children to have quality education. She wants her family to have access to good health care. She has to farm and take care of everybody.’
True, she has no time to be a drama queen or feel sorry for herself because after all the tears, her challenges would still be sitting pretty on her doorstep. Madam President had to live with hers until, dry-eyed, she found a solution to it.
For two years as a minister, she was not invited to Cabinet meetings. As far as her boss and former President  Bingu wa Mutharika was concerned, Banda was in the dog house. She was in political Siberia, excommunicated in a government she was supposed to be part of.
‘I was ostracized for two years and not invited to Cabinet because I objected to the former President’s decision to promote his brother. My  official vehicles were withdrawn but I  stood my ground.’
She remembers the day after her official cars were withdrawn, with a grimace.
‘Of all the pains I have had to endure as a female politician, it is the newspaper cartoons that still get to me all the time. I have failed miserably to get used to it. My husband tells me all the time to see the humour in it but I can’t. The day after my official cars were ordered withdrawn, one of the newspapers had a cartoon with me in a push-bike with the ‘village rat’ asking the ‘town rat’ what I was doing in a push-bike and the town rat replied that the push-bike was my new official means of transport. I didn’t find it funny.’
Well, the system wasn’t done with her. Since Mrs Banda refused to read the handwriting on the wall even with two years in political dog house and a ‘push-bike’ official car, an attempt was made on her life. She neither cried nor quit. Finally, realizing that there was no killing this beetle, Joyce Banda was expelled from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). And unlike most female politicians in recent or ancient  African history, Banda formed a new party. No, she did not join the opposition or retire from politics. She simply dusted herself and formed the Peoples Party (PP). Then nature stepped in. Mr Mutharika died and in accordance with the laws of Malawi, Banda was sworn in as President of  Malawi.
She promptly rolled up her sleeves, determined to make a difference. First, she sold the Presidential jet, wowing everybody within and outside Malawi. That she followed with an uncommon fight against corruption.
In her words: ‘ I am determined to ensure that Malawi does not become another example of a failed democracy. A failed democracy is where political office holders get into office and forget the people. I am determined to wean Malawi from donor dependency. I devalued the Malawian currency by 49 per cent and I am running a government that is fighting corruption on all fronts because someone has to do it. I know when you fight corruption, it fights back but that is not reason enough to fold my arms and do nothing.’
And she certainly is doing something in spite of threat to life and limbs.
‘I gave the ministers four months to tighten Malawian finances. So far, we have arrested 68 persons. We have frozen 33 accounts and repossessed houses their owners couldn’t explain.’
After unleashing different strains of blackmail on Banda, the league of corrupt men started moving their loot. They moved their monies from the bank to the houses and when Banda started searching the houses, they moved their bags of loot to their offices and then to the trunks of their cars when the offices became too hot.
‘We simply followed the money. Now I hear they are burying their loot.’ She said with the smug smile of a General sure of victory. With less than six months to election, she is still fighting the monster knowing full well she runs a risk of not getting re-elected because of her anti-corruption battle.
Her final words tell you this is one woman not spun from the regular African political wool.
‘Some African leaders have told me I’m out of my mind but even if I do not get re-elected, Malawians now know that corruption can be fought and corrupt people can go to jail.’
That is all the reward she cares for.
President Joyce Banda was the keynote speaker at the 14th session of Emmanuel Onyechere Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe lecture series which took place last week in Lagos.

TheSun

PDP’s Tired Card: Overreaching the Courts

The PDP is on a collision course with the administration of justice, writes Chukwuma Ekomaru SAN

History will always repeat itself in a nation where the political class has a predilection for impunity, disrespect for court orders and the rule of Law.
Senator Ifeanyi Ararume wanted to be Governor of Imo State. As a civilised man he went to court and fought his case up to the Supreme Court of Nigeria. On April 5, 2007, the Supreme Court held that Senator Ararume is the authentic PDP Governorship candidate of Imo State and not Chief Charles Ugwu. How did PDP react to the Supreme Court decision in Ararume case?
On April 10, 2007 exactly five days after the Supreme Court decision, the National Working Committee of Peoples Democratic Party expelled Senator Ifeanyi Araraume from the party. On that same day, the National Executive Committee of PDP met and ratified the expulsion of Senator Ifeanyi Araraume.
On that same April 10, 2007 the then Head of State, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and the National Chairman of PDP Senator Ahmadu Ali boarded a helicopter landed at Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri, and in full capacity attendance of thousands of  PDP members announced that in obedience to Supreme Court decision they have withdrawn Engineer Charles Uwgu as PDP candidate and they have also expelled Senator Ifeanyi Araraume from the Peoples Democratic Party. In consequence they announced that PDP Imo State had no candidate  for the Governorship Election slated for April 14, 2007. The governorship election took place but Engr. Charles Ugwu’s picture appeared on the ballot paper. This could easily be explained as the ballot papers had been printed given that from April 10, 2007 to April 14, 2007 was only four days.
However, INEC had promised to bring ballot papers with only party symbols and no picture of party candidates. This was not to be on April 14, 2007 at the Imo State Governorship Election. The net result was that INEC cancelled the result of the Imo State Governorship Election held on April 14, 2007 and re-scheduled it for April 28, 2007. What happened on April 28, 2007 in Imo State is a matter for another discussion. However, what is clear is that the whole machinery of Federal Government, State Government, INEC was brought against Senator Ifeanyi Araraume. It is a big surprise that after everything, they placed Senator Ifeanyi Araraume second in the Governorship result declared.
In the indomitable Spirit of an enlightened man, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume went back to court to challenge his expulsion from the party on the grounds that he took the party to court. In a Writ of Summons filed on his behalf by C.U. Ekomaru  Esq. the reliefs sought in the Suit No. HME/26/2007. SENATOR IFEANYI ARARAUME  v PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY & 4 ORS, were as follows:
‘(a)    A declaration that the Plaintiff did not violate Article 21 1 (L) of the Constitution of the peoples Democratic Party 2001 (as amended) in that the Plaintiff did not institute a court action against the Peoples Democratic Party in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/9/2007 at the Federal High Court Abuja (any other Law suit whatsoever against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
(b) A declaration that in the said Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/9/2007 the Peoples Democratic Party and Engr. Charles Ugwu were joined by leave of Court upon an application made by Engr. Charles Ugwu and Independent National Electoral Commission respectively.
(c) A declaration that it is unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional to expel the Plaintiff from the Peoples Democratic Party without regard to the rules of natural justice as provided in Article 21.3, Article 21.5,   Article 21.6. Article 21.13. and 21.14 of the Constitution of Peoples Democratic Party 2001 (as  amended) and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.
(d) A declaration that the Plaintiff did not commit any of the offences listed in Article 21.1 of the Constitution of Peoples Democratic Party as to warrant the Plaintiffs expulsion from the party as provided under Article 21. 7(g) of the Constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party 2001 (as amended)
(e) An order of court nullifying the expulsion of the plaintiff from the Peoples Democratic Party in that the purported expulsion is unconstitutional, illegal and therefore null and void.
(f) An order of perpetual injunction restraining the Defendants, their agents servant and privies from implementing the illegal order of expulsion on the Plaintiff.’
At the conclusion of the case, Hon. Justice C.A. Ononeze-Madu (Mrs.) sitting at High Court of Imo State holden at Mbano on May 31, 2007 in a 26-page judgment nullified the expulsion of Senator Ifeanyi Araraume from PDP by declaring the action of the Peoples Democratic Party unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional.
On page 24 of the Judgment of Ononeze-Madu J. My Lord had this to say and I quote her-
“Upon these Supreme Court authorities cited, I hereby declare the decision of   Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) expelling the Plaintiff on 10th April, 2007 null and void.
The decision of the Supreme Court is binding on all persons and authorities within the Federal Republic of Nigeria and as a court of subordinate jurisdiction I am enjoined and duty bound to enforce that judgment to the letter. The decision to expel the Plaintiff by the Defendants at the time and the manner it was done, if allowed to stand, will erode public confidence in the Judiciary as the last hope of the common man. The said expulsion was only intended to ridicule the Apex Court and make its decision and orders unenforceable. In fact, Democracy cannot survive where the rule of law and the decision of court are violated. No individual or organization is above the law. The act of the 1st -3rd Defendants run contrary to the rules of natural justice. It also offends the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as Exhibit A. It is unconstitutional to condemn a man without being heard.
In line with these plethora of authorities, can the expulsion of the Plaintiff be allowed to stand? The answer is NO because the constitution of Nigeria is Supreme and any act or law which is inconsistent with provisions of the constitution is void.
Both the constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) 2001                       (as amended) and the 1999 constitution of Nigeria all forbid the act of the Defendants and therefore, I hold that the said expulsion is a nullity and is hereby set aside.
I hasten to add that the purported expulsion and the manner in which it was done is only intended to overreach the decision of the Apex Court i.e. The Supreme Court delivered on 5th April 2007. An organization which made provision for the rules of natural justice in its constitution as in the instant case should not be allowed to violate it or approbate and reprobate as to do so will bring anarchy in the cherished system.
Furthermore the defendants cannot be allowed to get from the back door what they did not get through the front door. The act of the defendants constitute an affront to the rule of law. Those who have the privilege of determining the fate of their fellow men should do so in accordance with the rule of law.
In the final analysis, it is my view and I hold very strongly that the action of the defendants runs contrary to the principles of our ground norm. I therefore hold that the Plaintiff has succeeded in proving his case against  the defendants and is entitled to judgment which I now proceed to grant. I hereby declare as follows:
1) That the plaintiff did not violate article 21.1 (L) of the Constitution if the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 2001 (as amended) in that the Plaintiff did not institute a Court action against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS /9/2007 at the Federal high Court Abuja or any other law suit whatsoever against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
2) The court further declares that in the said Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/9/2007 the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and engr. Charlse Ugwu were joined by leave of Court upon an application made by Engr. Charlse Ugwu and Independent National Electoral Commission, respectively.
3) It is the further declaration of this court that it is unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional to expel the Plaintiff from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) without regard to the rules of natural justice as provided in Article 21.3, 21.5, 21.6, 21.13 and 21.14  of the constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 2001 (as amended) and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.
4) The court further declare that the Plaintiff did not commit any of the offences listed in Article 21.1 of the Constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as to warrant the Plaintiff’s expulsion from the party as provided under Article 21.7 of the Constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 2001 (as amended).
5) The court orders that the expulsion of the Plaintiff from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is unconstitutional, illegal and therefore null and void.
6) It is the further order of this court that perpetual injunction is granted restraining the defendants, their agents servants and privies from implementing the illegal order of expulsion on the Plaintiff.’
In Governor Olagunsoye Oyinola’s case, the Court of Appeal has held that he is the duly elected National Secretary of  PDP. The civilised thing to do is for the PDP to appeal the judgment to the Supreme Court. Once the PDP lawyers file an appeal and ensure that the records of Appeal are entered into the Supreme Court, no further action will be taken on the matter at the Court of Appeal.
I do not know if PDP has taken the lawful steps to appeal but what is in the newspaper and on the news is that PDP has taken the unlawful step of suspending Oyinola from PDP. That action in my humble view was absolutely unnecessary. In Ararume’s case, Tobi JSC stated in open court that had Ararume’s lawyers brought a motion for the committal of the National Chairman of PDP, Senator Ahmadu Ali, the Supreme Court would have formally granted it.
In Oyinola’s case, the PDP is on a collision course with the administration of justice. There is no way Oyinola can be National Secretary if there is a pending appeal at the Supreme Court. The PDP ought to know that but in the impunity and lawlessness of politicians, the PDP chose to ride roughshod over the rule of law and did the unlawful by suspending Oyinola. It is this type of behavior that led to the Governorship of Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State. The Supreme Court decision in Amaechi’s case in 2007 was because of the impunity and impertinence in Ararume’s case by politicians. No one knows but the actions in Oyinlola’s case could have been avoided.
Chief Ekomaru SAN writes from Owerri

ThisDay

Winnie… the woman who stood out of Madiba’s women

Their relationship was a love story, which some believe was tragically tempered by politics. It was a love story almost like none other. A love tale classical in nature, yet down-to-heart. The late Nelson Mandela’s relationship with Winnie Madikizela was an affair of two larger-than-life protagonists.


Winnie endured a lot because she was his wife: the years of imprisonment, solitary confinement and house arrests. But no matter his loyalty to her, Winnie and his family always came second to his other great love: the ANC and by extension, the liberation struggle, a fact Winnie still sees as an act of betrayal.

Their love story gave room for love letters laced with poetry, music, imageries and drama. For the 27 years he spent in prison, Mandela wrote Winnie several letters from Robben Island.

In one of such letters written on April 15, 1976, Mandela said: “My dearest Winnie, Your beautiful photo still stands about two feet above my left shoulder as I write this note. I dust it carefully every morning, for to do so gives me the pleasant feeling that I’m caressing you as in the old days. I even touch your nose with mine to recapture the electric current that used to flush through my blood whenever I did so. Nolitha stands on the table directly opposite me. How can my spirits ever be down when I enjoy the fond attentions of such wonderful ladies?”

The one he wrote on October 26, 1976 was about Winnie’s detention. It drilled of sadness. In it, he said: “I am struggling to suppress my emotions as I write this letter. I have received only one letter since you were detained, that one dated August 22. I do not know anything about family affairs, such as payment of rent, telephone bills, care of children and their expenses, whether you will get a job when released. As long as I don’t hear from you, I will remain worried and dry like a desert.

“ I recall the Karoo I crossed on several occasions. I saw the desert again in Botswana on my way to and from Africa—endless pits of sand and not a drop of water. I have not had a letter from you. I feel dry like a desert.

“ Letters from you and the family are like the arrival of summer rains and spring that livens my life and make it enjoyable.

“ Whenever I write you, I feel that inside physical warmth, that makes me forget all my problems. I become full of love.”

Then on June 26, 1977, he wrote of their daughters, their unfulfilled dream of having a baby boy and all that. “We couldn’t fulfill our wishes, as we had planned, to have a baby boy. I had hoped to build you a refuge, no matter how small, so that we would have a place for rest and sustenance before the arrival of the sad, dry days. I fell down and couldn’t do these things. I am as one building castles in the air,” he said.

His letter of November 22, 1979 was poetic-prose at its best. It was about her visit five days earlier. He described what she looked like and how he “felt like singing, even if just to say Hallelujah!”

But, time and political tides blew their love away. And on April 13, 1992, at a press conference in Johannesburg, flanked by his two oldest friends and comrades, Walter and Oliver, the late Mandela announced his separation from Winnie. He said the situation had grown so difficult that he felt that it was in the best interests of all concerned – the ANC, the family, and Winnie – that they part. He said though he discussed the matter with the ANC, the separation itself was made for personal reasons.

The statement he read at the news conference reads:”The relationship between myself and my wife, Comrade Nomzamo Winnie Mandela, has become the subject of much media speculation. I am issuing this statement to clarify the position and in the hope that it will bring an end to further conjecture.

“Comrade Nomzamo and myself contracted our marriage at a critical time in the struggle for liberation in our country. Owing to the pressures of our shared commitment to the ANC and the struggle to end apartheid, we were unable to enjoy a normal family life. Despite these pressures our love for each other and our devotion to our marriage grew and intensified….

“During the two decades I spent on Robben Island she was an indispensable pillar of support and comfort to myself personally…. Comrade Nomzamo accepted the onerous burden of raising our children on her own … She endured the persecutions heaped upon her by the Government with exemplary fortitude and never wavered from her commitment to the freedom struggle. Her tenacity reinforced my personal respect, love and growing affection. It also attracted the admiration of the world at large. My love for her remains undiminished.

“However, in view of the tensions that have arisen owing to differences between ourselves on a number of issues in recent months, we have mutually agreed that a separation would be best for each of us. My action was not prompted by the current allegations being made against her in the media…. Comrade Nomzamo has and can continue to rely on my unstinting support during these trying moments in her life.

“I shall personally never regret the life Comrade Nomzamo and I tried to share together. Circumstances beyond our control however dictated it should be otherwise. I part from my wife with no recriminations. I embrace her with all the love and affection I have nursed for her inside and outside prison from the moment I first met her. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you will appreciate the pain I have gone through.

“Perhaps I was blinded to certain things because of the pain I felt for not being able to fulfill my role as a husband to my wife and a father to my children. But just as I am convinced that my wife’s life while I was in prison was more difficult than mine, my own return was also more difficult for her than it was for me. She married a man who soon left her; that man became a myth; and then that myth returned home and proved to be just a man after all.

“As I later said at my daughter Zindzi’s wedding, it seems to be the destiny of freedom fighters to have unstable personal lives. When your life is the struggle, as mine was, there is little room left for family. That has always been my greatest regret, and the most painful aspect of the choice I made.

“We watched our children growing without our guidance,’ I said at the wedding, ‘ and when we did come out (of prison), my children said, ‘We thought we had a father and one day he’d come back. But to our dismay, our father came back and he left us alone because he has now become the father of the nation.’” To be the father of a nation is a great honour, but to be the father of a family is a greater joy. But it was a joy I had far too little of.”

The separation of April 1992 became a divorce in March 1996, having spent only five of their 38 married years together. And Winnie became history in his life. Now, he is history to South Africa, which he loved more than his family, and the world, which appropriated him to the extent of setting out his birthday to honour his humanity. In November 2009, the United Nations General Assembly announced that his birthday, July 18, is to be known as “Mandela Day” to mark his contribution to world freedom.

Winnie, who felt betrayed by the Madiba, once said: “This name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family. You all must realise that Mandela was not the only man who suffered. There were many others, hundreds who languished in prison and died. Many unsung and unknown heroes of the struggle, and there were others in the leadership too, like poor Steve Biko, who died of the beatings, horribly all alone. Mandela did go to prison and he went in there as a burning young revolutionary. But look what came out.

“Mandela let us down. He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks. Economically, we are still on the outside. The economy is very much ‘white’. It has a few token blacks, but so many who gave their life in the struggle have died unrewarded.

“I cannot forgive him for going to receive the Nobel (Peace Prize in 1993) with his jailer (FW) de Klerk. Hand in hand they went. Do you think de Klerk released him from the goodness of his heart? He had to. The times dictated it, the world had changed, and our struggle was not a flash in the pan, it was bloody to say the least and we had given rivers of blood. I had kept it alive with every means at my disposal.

“Look at this Truth and Reconciliation charade. He should never have agreed to it. What good does the truth do? How does it help anyone to know where and how their loved ones were killed or buried? That Bishop Tutu who turned it all into a religious circus came here.

“He had the cheek to tell me to appear. I told him a few home truths. I told him that he and his other like-minded cretins were only sitting here because of our struggle and me. Because of the things I and people like me had done to get freedom.

“Look what they make him do. The great Mandela. He has no control or say any more. They put that huge statue of him right in the middle of the most affluent ‘white’ area of Johannesburg. Not here where we spilled our blood and where it all started. Mandela is now a corporate foundation. He is wheeled out globally to collect the money and he is content doing that. The ANC has effectively sidelined him but they keep him as a figurehead for the sake of appearance.”

NigerianEye

Olunloyo And The `Wild, Wild West’, By Fani-Kayode

In an interview with a newspaper on November 30, 2013, Dr. Omololu Olunloyo, a great nationalist, a two-time former Commisioner of Education of the old Western Region, a former Governor of Oyo State, one of our few remaining elderstatesman and a man that played a prominent role in the politics of both the First and Second republics, said the following: "Chief S.L. Akintola was the supreme leader.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo left (the Premiership of the Western Region) of his own volition without advice to contest the federal election. In the federal election he contested but he had no alliances. Stubborn, aggressive, very hardworking, visionary leader that Awolowo was, he never understood real politics at any time. In real politics you have to look at the figures, you have to have allies- there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies. You must have some allies.
Nigeria is too fragmented for you not to have allies. If you are counting in the presence of someone with nine fingers, you don't count in the person's presence and say 'so you have nine fingers'. We had a brilliant man called S.L. Akintola who understood real politics. Awolowo believed that book knowledge was so important but he (Akintola) knew better.
A situation arose- Awolowo wanted to ally with the East and Akintola wanted to align with the North. So there was a crisis". These are interesting historical perspectives and insights from a man that was appointed as a Commissioner (or Regional Minister) for a region that comprised of no less than what are seven states of the Federation today (Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun, Edo and Delta) at the tender age of 27. I am not sure that I entirely agree with Olunloyo's assertion that Awolowo did not appreciate the importance of building bridges with other ethnic groups and forming alliances given the fact that he and his Action Group did build bridges and form an alliance with the ethnic minorities of both the old Northern and Eastern regions and did in fact champion their cause and fight for their rights.
Yet that is neither here nor there. The important thing is that we are witnesses to an important contribution from a major player and participant to the debate about a period in our history that affected the fortunes of our country in a very real and profound manner. I say this because it could be argued that the bitter fight that took place between Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief S.L. Akintola and their respective supporters throughout the early '60s, the division within the Action Group and its eventual splitting into two separate and distinct parties, the ugly events in the South-west at the time and the unrestrained and brutal violence that was unleashed by both sides against one another led directly to the first coup d'etat of January 15, 1966.
This in turn led to the second coup d'etat of July 29, 1966, to the shocking pogroms and mass killings of the Igbo in the North and ultimately to the Nigerian civil war. It is therefore good news when those that participated at the highest level of governance at the time and that are living witnesses to those events, like Dr. Omololu Olunloyo, speak out and share their insights and wealth of knowledge with us. I sincerely hope that he will continue to do this and that other participants and witnesses from both sides of the political divide, like Chief Olaniyun Ajayi, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Richard Akinjide, Chief Ayo Fasoranti will also share their views and insights with us as well.
Agreement
When one considers and reflects on Olunloyo's words and the entire background of the Awolowo/Akintola feud ultimately one has to make a choice and come to a decision as to who was right and wrong and determine which side was really at fault. Yet many questions still need to be answered before one can take a legitimate and definitive position on this. For example as Mr. Adeniji Mudahir Akinniyi, a young and insightful commentator on facebook, asked '' What was the agreement between Akintola and Awolowo before Awolowo left for the Federal Government poll? Who was the traitor amongst the two? Who is the father of civilization in the South-west? Who is responsible for the socio-political and economic development of the old Western Region? I need answers to these questions before I post my final comment''.
For the answers to these questions one has to look at the history books even though, as Napoleon Bonaparte once said, ''history is more often than not written by the victor and not the vanquished''. Akinniyi has indeed asked the relevant questions. I know the answers to them but I will not share them here or anywhere else because I will not say or do anything that will resurrect the great division of the past. Suffice it to say that both Awolowo and Akintola were great Yoruba leaders and great men and they were both human beings and were therefore prone to making errors of judgement from time to time.
We the Yoruba owe EVERYTHING to them both and it is very unhelpful for our collective cause to attempt to demonise one and idolise the other. Neither of them was a demon or an angel- they both had their faults, strengths and weaknesses. Yet they were both great men. One of the things that fascinated me about Dr. Olunloyo's interview and which is historically factual, is what he said about Akintola entering into a political alliance with the North (which was known as the NNA) and Awolowo entering into a political alliance with the East (which was known as UPGA). This was the essential difference in strategy between the two and it represented their respective worldviews.
Akintola, who had deep suspicions for the Igbo, felt that the interests of the Yoruba were better protected and served by an alliance with the northern ruling class whilst Awolowo, who had equally deep suspicions for the northern ruling class and the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy, felt that the Yoruba interest was better served and protected by an alliance with the Igbo. The Western Region became the intellectual, spiritual and physical battle ground for the two opposing and conflicting strategies and world views and the rest is history.
My only mild criticism of both of these two great Yoruba leaders is that they and their respective supporters and followers in the old Western Region, including Dr. Omololu Olunloyo himself, did not sufficiently understand or appreciate the importance and benefits of building bridges between themselves and avoiding a major conflict. Instead of making peace, making the necessary concessions and attempting to foster unity in the collective interest of the Yoruba nation BOTH camps went for the jugular and an all out war ensued which did not end until May 1 1967 at the Yoruba "Leaders of Thought" meeting in Ibadan.
Even after that tensions and suspicion still existed between the two sides for many decades and, to a certain extent, still remain till today.
June 12
The annulment of Chief MKO Abiola's election of June 12, 1993 by the northern ruling class and ''their'' military dealt a death blow to the Akintola philosophy and strategy of a strong northern and western alliance. However that alliance and trust is being slowly and carefully rebuilt and resurrected today with the recent merger between the ACN, ANPP and CPC and the formation of the APC as a political party.
Whether anyone likes to admit it or not the APC essentially represents an alliance between the North, the South- west and the Mid-west. The annulment of Abiola's June 12 mandate was sad and unfortunate but it had one positive result- it brought the two sides in Yorubaland much closer together in a very meaningful way and from that point on till today they have operated more or less with one accord. This is so even though there is still an uneasy peace between the two camps and their descendants and even though from time to time flashpoints of disagreements are voiced out.
My view is that if we are really interested in fostering Yoruba unity and perhaps one day forging and establishing our own nation we must keep that peace at all costs and move forward as one. Yet given the disposition of Awolowo towards the Igbo as Mr. Jide Olajolu, another young facebook commentator, asked, ''is it not ironical that the average Easterner detests the same Awolowo and equates Yoruba nationalism with him?'' Jide is absolutely right.
The greatest irony of all is that, generally speaking, the Igbo detest Awolowo and have done everything that is physically possible to malign and discredit him since 1967. Yet this was the man whose party went into an alliance with them at the most critical point in our history (between 1964 and 1966) and who urged his faction of the Yoruba to work closely with them even though by that time he was in prison. That is what the UPGA alliance represented- an Igbo/Yoruba alliance which was pitted against the Hausa-Fulani North and Akintola's pro-northern faction in the West.
Awolowo suffered immensely in the hands of the North and the other group in the South-west because his party refused to compromise with them and because they took that position. Yet very few Igbo are prepared to admit this even when they know it to be true and most of them don't even know it because they were never taught it in their schools. The Igbo do not teach their children all these things and instead they tell them that Awolowo was the devil incarnate, a murderer of children, a genocidal maniac and an Igbo-hater who ended up committing suicide out of frustration. These of course were all lies and well orchestrated fabrications that were designed to rubbish the man's memory and legacy.
They demonised Chief Awolowo, their friend and political ally, and on the night of Jan 15 1966, during the course of the Ifeajuna-led Igbo coup, they murdered Chief S.L. Akintola and Sir Ahmadu Bello (the Premiers of the Western and Northern Regions respectively) who were both their political adversaries, who saw through them at an early stage and who had open contempt for them. Yet only the Igbo can explain why they hated and still hate Awolowo so much. I say this because he was their friend and ally when the crisis in the Western Region took place.
I guess that their hatred stems from the role that he and the Yoruba played during the civil war. Yet I believe that Col. Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the Igbo rebel leader, made the greatest mistake by attempting to secede at the time that he did (against Awolowo's advice and better judgement) and, worse still, he attacked the Western Region with his Biafran forces even when many of our people had sympathy for their cause and plight.
As a matter of fact the man that led the Biafran forces in the attack against the Midwest and the West was a gallant and courageous Yoruba officer by the name of Col. Victor Banjo who believed strongly in the Igbo cause and who (along with Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna, the leader and arrowhead of the Jan 15, 1966 coup) was later executed by Ojukwu.
Ojukwu betrayal
The truth is that it was Ojukwu that betrayed Awolowo and the Yoruba and not the other way around. I say this because they fired the first shot and tried to overwhelm, capture and enslave us by attacking our territory with their forces. They overwhelmed the people of the Niger Delta and the Midwest very easily but when they got to the gates of the Western Region at a place called Ore they were stopped in their tracks by the Yoruba forces and the famous 3rd Marine Commando which was 98 per cent Yoruba fighting force.
That is how they were prevented from entering Yoruba land and they were pushed back, inch by inch, from the Midwest and the Niger Delta area (by the same 3rd Marine Commando) back into the very heart of Igboland from whence they came until they were broken, defeated and forced to surrender. After being attacked the Yoruba had no choice but to fight back and we did so very successfully.
Chief Awolowo, General Benjamin Adekunle, General Olusegun Obasanjo, Brigadier Sotomi, Col. Alabi Isama, General Adeyinka Adebayo, General Olutoye, General Ogundipe, General Alani Akinrinade, General Ogunleye and a number of other key Yoruba officers and public servants played a key role in that war and that struggle to protect our people and our territory and I am very proud of their efforts. If not for them we would have been conquered and enslaved and we would all have been speaking Igbo as our first language by now.
Finally I believe that Akintola's position about the Igbo has been vindicated. Both he and Ahmadu Bello were right about them all along and Awolowo obviously did not fully understand them. Today, though he was once their best friend, they hate Awolowo with as much passion as they once hated Akintola and Ahmadu Bello.
'Achebe's racist categorisations'
Permit me to make reference to what the late Professor Chinua Achebe had to say about Awolowo and the Yoruba in his last, and most controversial book, entitled, ''There Was A Country''.
I will not repeat his words and racist categorisations here but I would urge all those that are interested in it and that can stomach it to go and read those words in the book. I believe that those words reflect the real thinking of most Igbo about the Yoruba even though they tend to make attempts to hide it until they are pushed to the wall and lose their cool. This is proved by the fact that, to date, not one single Igbo leader or commentator of note has condemned the book or disagreed with Achebe's comments and assessment. As a matter of fact rather than condemn it they have wholeheartedly endorsed and applauded it.
The real reasons for the deep hatred that most Igbo have for Awolowo, Akintola and the Yoruba generally can be found in that book. Sadly most of the Igbo youth since the end of the civil war were weaned on such fairytale of genocide and betrayal at the hands of and by the Yoruba. This explains the attitude of many of them and the tendency for them to view even the mildest form of criticism as evidence of ''Igbophobia'' and proof of a deep-seated hatred for the Igbo people. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. The Yoruba have always been very kind, very generous and very accommodating to the Igbo and history attests to this.
As a matter of fact, if the truth is to be told, the unbridled political ambition of the Igbo to dominate and control the whole country and their strong dislike for the Yoruba can be traced back to 1945 when key Igbo leaders like Charles Daddy Onyeama (who was a member of the Legislative Council at the time and who, many years later, went on to become one of the most revered and respected judges in the World Court at the Hague) made some openly racist, provocative and incendiary remarks about what he described as the ''inevitability'' of the Igbo to eventually ''dominate Nigeria''.
'God of the Igbo' Two years later, in 1947, this was followed by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe's famous speech about the ''god of the Igbo'' who he believed would eventually give them leadership over Nigeria and Africa. These were the deeply offensive sentiments of those that belonged to the Igbo State Union which was the umbrella organisation of all the Igbo at the time and which spoke for every single Igbo in the country. It was this rabid and violent expression of Igbo nationalism and intention to take control of the levers of power in our country at all costs, even at that early stage, that created all our problems in the south.
That is where and when tribalism started in the southern Nigeria and the truth is that the Igbo started it. It cost Azikiwe the Western Regional elections in 1951 after the founding of the Action Group that same year. If not for that we would have had an Igbo man as the first Premier of the Western Region in 1951 and Nigeria's history would have been very different. For more details on this permit me to refer readers to my essay entitled, ''The Bitter Truth About The Igbo'', which was widely published in various newspapers and which can be found in the essay column of my website- www.femifanikayode.org. Permit me to conclude this essay by making a final point. I believe that it is important for us to know our history and to have a clear understanding about what went on in our past.
This is the only way forward if we do not want to repeat the mistakes of that past. Whether we are pro-Akintola or pro-Awolowo does not really matter and whether we are from the North, South, East or West is neither here nor there. The most important thing is for us to be well acquainted with ALL the relevant facts of history after which we can then make an informed judgement about past events and past leaders. Contributions from informed and experienced leaders like Dr. Olunloyo are therefore most welcome even though some may not share all his views or his interpretation and understanding of past events.
My prayer for him and indeed for all those that served our country during that turbulent and troubled era that are still with us is that they continue to live long and prosper and that they continue to share their deep wisdom and vast reservoir of knowledge with us. Given the unfolding events in our country today, God knows that we need it now more than ever.

Naij.com