Wednesday, 27 July 2016

Edo Guber Watch: Refund billions of Naira Jonathan, Igbinedion gave you, Ize-Iyamu tells Oshiomhole

From Tony Osauzo
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has asked Governor Adams Oshiomhole to refund the billions of naira he collected from former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Governor Lucky Igbinedion.
In a statement by his media unit, Pastor Ize-Iyamu said he should do that immediately since he is now talking about refunding the N700 million Jonathan gave to Edo PDP during the 2015 presidential election.
He stated this during the presentation of a book entitled, “Breach Of Trust: An eyewitness account of political events in Edo State before and under Adams Oshiomhole’s watch, ’’ written by Oshiomhole’s former Commissioner for Oil and Gas, Mr. Orobosa Omo-Ojo.
While defending the money Edo State PDP received from former President Jonathan — during the 2015 election, Ize-Iyamu said he had explained to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that he never benefited from the N700 million given to the state chapter of the party, saying the record of how the fund was disbursed is already with the EFCC.
He described Oshiomhole’s action as hypocritical, adding that he was also a beneficiary of such fund in the past.
According to the PDP governorship candidate, “Now that Oshiomhole is talking about refunding the money former President Goodluck Jonathan gave to Edo State PDP — during the presidential election, he should also refund the billions of naira he collected from Jonathan in 2012 during the presidential election. Oshiomhole collected the money from Jonathan and worked against his then party, Action Congress of Nigeria in that election. He betrayed his party.
“He should also refund over a billion naira the former governor of Edo State, Chief Lucky Igbinedion gave to him during the 2007 governorship election in Edo State. It a well-known fact that it was Chief Igbinedion who brought him into ACN and gave him money he used for the election.’’
Ize-Iyamu added that Oshiomhole and his ‘puppet governorship candidate’ in the September 10 election, Godwin Obasekei, could no longer be trusted by Edo people again because they had betrayed everybody who helped them into offices in the past.
“Look around Oshiomhole, everybody who worked for him in the past has deserted him, because he betrayed them. He has betrayed teachers, judiciary workers, Okada riders, market women, political associates and Edo people in general. He can never be trusted again’’, he added.
On his part, the author of the book, Mr. Orobosa Omo-Ojo, while welcoming invited guests to the presentation of the book, which took place at the University of Benin, Edo State, said, damaging relationship is a little price to pay when Oshiomhole is faced with a life-and-death political threat.
The immediate past commissioner of Transport in Edo added, ‘’Sun Tzu’s approach to warfare, where deception is vital, plays a significant role in Oshiomhole’s administration — to him all is fair and as a result, Dennis Osadebey Avenue has become a killing field for truth and a breeding ground for deception.’’

Obaseki’s victory shall be overwhelming —Okonoboh, Edo Speaker
By Ojieva Ehiosun
As the battle for the governorship seat gathers momentum, Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Dr. Justin Okonoboh, has said that the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Mr. Godwin Obaseki over his PDP opponent will be overwhelming.
He stated this while addressing a team of party supporters in his constituency, saying that the victory will not only retire some political heavy weights of the opposition, but will send the entire party to extinction.
According to him: “With the successful reconciliation of all the purported aggrieved members of the party after the primaries, the opposition party is in for a big trouble We are currently working day and night to ensure that we have resounding victory over the PDP at the September election.”
“From the massive support we are getting from Edo people, I’m very convinced that Godwin Obaseki will have an easy ride over Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the PDP.
“For Godwin Obaseki, I believe in him, I know he has the required qualities needed to govern this state. He is a man that will do things consciously that would better the lot of the majority”.

…Family disowns him, urges support for Godwin
Meanwhile, the Obaseki family of Benin Kingdom, headed by the retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Otutu Obaseki, yesterday distanced itself from the activities of Pedro Obaseki, and pit its tent with the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Godwin Obaseki, who the family resolved to back.
In a statement signed by Mr William Obaseki, the family described the action of Pedro as embarrassing, adding that the family will soon meet to decide their next line of action.
Apparently miffed by Pedro Obaseki’s defection to the PDP and his declaration of support for the governorship candidate of the PDP, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the family said: “we wish to inform the general public that the family dis-associate themselves from the mischievous actions of Pedro Obaseki.
“We hereby reaffirm Godwin Enogheghase Obaseki as the only recognized candidate who has the blessings of the head of Obaseki Ogbeideoyoo family, Chief Justice Andrew Otutu Obaseki, Justice of the Supreme Court (rtd) and the Obaseki of Benin Kingdom for the September 10, 2016 governorship election.
“And we urged all Edo sons and daughters to support him so that he can take Edo State to the next level. Nobody should be distracted with the activities of Pedro, our blessings remain with Godwin and God willing he will win”, the statement said.

Ize-Iyamu receives Pedro Obaseki to PDP
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has commended a former All Progressives Congress((APC) gubernatorial aspirant, Dr. Don Pedro Obaseki, for joining forces with him to wrest power from his former party. In a statement by the Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu Campaign Organisation yesterday, the PDP candidate made the remark while formally receiving Pedro Obaseki into the party.
The former gubernatorial aspirant who is a relative of the APC gubernatorial candidate, Mr Godwin Obaseki had joined the PDP last week.
According to the statement, Pedro Obaseki who joined the PDP alongside his supporters said he endorsed Ize-Iyamu because he realised that the PDP governorship candidate is the ‘best candidate’ for the election. He noted that his programmes for Edo State tallied with that of Ize-Iyamu.
“I will rather support my brother, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu than go with Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s puppet candidate who is still going about with pampers. “I will rather support Pastor Ize-Iyamu who represents the collective aspiration of Edo People than support Godwin Obaseki who is being promoted by external political and economic investors,” Pedro Obaseki was quoted to have said.

Edo market women endorse Obaseki
The governorship aspiration of Mr. Godwin Obaseki of the All Progressives Congress (APC) got a boost yesterday, as market women across the three senatorial districts of Edo State, endorsed him for the September 10 election.
They said they were convinced that he will continue the developmental strides of Governor Adams Oshiomhole.
Responding to the endorsement which took place at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin, Obaseki, who was filled with joy, assured women in the state to expect economic and human transformation in one year of his administration.
He promised to empower and create more industries where the women will serve as major marketers of their products, just as he also promised to provide soft loans for market women across the state to enhance their businesses and improve their standard of living.
The APC governorship hopeful thanked the women for making Oshiomhole a life member of their association, assuring them of his plan to reconstruct markets with health centres across the state.
The President General of the Market women, Mrs Blacky Omoregie had earlier urged Mr Obaseki to continue with the developmental projects of governor Oshiomhole, saying that the reconstruction of markets across the state would ensure the growth of businesses.
In his speech, Governor Oshiomhole thanked the women for the support given him so far, saying that “Obaseki will not disappoint you because he knows the problems of our state. We cannot go back to Egypt, PDP has no future for the youths and the women. You gave them opportunity for ten years but rather than creating wealth, they pocketed our money for their families”.
SUN

Why Kebbi denies Dangote land –Bagudu

Adeniyi Olugbemi, Sokoto

Business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote’s plan to establish a sugar plantation and a factory in Kebbi State may have hit the rock, as indigenous land owners, who are mostly farmers, have refused to release their farm land.

Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu said this at an interactive session with intellectuals of Kebbi State origin working at Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. The session was held at the university’s auditorium. Also in attendance were members of the Kebbi State Students’ Union, UDUS chapter.

Governor Bagudu said that even at the offer of compensation, the farmers tenaciously held on to their land, saying that Dangote’s investment will not serve their interest.

He said, “Dangote Industries’ application for 54,000 hectares of land to establish a sugar factory pre-dated my administration, but they could only identify about 24,000 hectares suitable for sugar cane cultivation.

“When we came on board, there was pressure on us because all of those 24,000 hectares belong to farmers. And the proposal we met on ground was that those farmers would be paid compensation of about a hundred thousand naira per hectare.”

He said further, “As a government, the whole cabinet looked at the proposal. Our concern is, you are going to pay a farmer hectare of land where he produces his crops. You will be making an income of 700,000 a year where he has been making 100,000 and make him a labourer forever. How as a social policy can you justify this opportunity cost?

“What is the net contribution in output that this investment is going to bring, for instance, if you are replacing your current production of rice by the production of sugar cane?

“Let there be no mistakes about it, we welcome investors and we thank Dangote Industries for identifying Kebbi as one of those states he wants to invest in. But above all, the most important thing is the need to ensure that investments serve and benefit our people.

“We hope to convince Dangote that there are other ways this can be done to have better security for his investment, like agreeing that our farmers become his out-growers and he buys from them for production in his factory.”

On adding value to rice and wheat production, which the state is noted for, Governor Bagudu explained that his administration built two models whereby a farmer, given sufficient inputs without subsidy, would inevitably achieve better outcome than a farmer receiving subsidy but insufficient inputs.

“When we tested this by interacting with farmers, we were surprised by their acceptance of adequate inputs without subsidy versus subsidy without adequate inputs,” he said.

He identified lack of human resources, inadequate infrastructure and apathy to developmental values on the part of youths as problems of education in the state.

Bagudu also used the occasion to outline remarkable achievements his administration had recorded since assumption of office.

The event with over 40 Kebbi State indigenously ranked professors and others in attendance was chaired by Prof. Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, Vice-Chancellor, Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, also an indigene of Kebbi State.

Copyright PUNCH.

Tuesday, 26 July 2016

AGF to reopen Ibori, 30 ex-govs’ corruption cases

Abubakar-Malami — Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami

Ade Adesomoju, Abuja

Fresh troubles may be ahead of some former governors as the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abukakar Malami, is set to reopen corruption cases for which they were earlier investigated by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission.

Sources in the ICPC confirmed to The PUNCH on Monday that the commission had, last week, received a letter from the office of the AGF, giving the anti-graft agency a directive to that effect.

Some of the ex-governors, according to one of the sources, include some, who had been convicted for charges preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Others are currently undergoing trial on charges initiated against them by the EFCC at either the various divisions of the Federal High Court or the High Courts of their home states.

There are about five of the former governors, who are now serving senators.

Some of them had served as senators after completing two terms as governors.

The sources did not disclose the names of those on the list so as not to bungle further investigations where necessary.

The affected personalities, it was learnt, served as governors for either one or two terms between 1999 and 2015, and are from all the six geopolitical zones in the country.

It was also confirmed that majority of those on the list belonged to the two dominant political parties, the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.

Another source, however, confirmed that a former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, who was convicted in the United Kingdom for fraud-related charges and still serving his prison terms, was on the list.

Apart from Ibori, two former governors from the South-South, are said to be on the list.

Five of the former governors are from the South-East, and three from the South-West.

The PUNCH was informed that the ex-governors, whose cases would be reopened, included six from the North-West; six from the North-East, and eight from the North-Central.

Part of the AGF’s letter, sighted by our correspondent on Monday, indicated that the cases against some of the former governors had been investigated some years ago but charges were never filed against them.

The letter partly read, “It is clear that some of these governors and other politically-exposed persons have not been charged to court despite the fact that the ICPC has concluded their investigations concerning allegations levelled against them for one reason or the other.

“It is the position of the present administration that all ex-governors that the ICPC had long concluded investigations into the various allegations levelled against them should be immediately prosecuted.”

The letter also gave the Chairman of the ICPC a 14-day ultimatum to “remit the duplicate case files concerning the politically-exposed persons investigated by the ICPC over the years” to the office of the AGF.

The letter indicated that this was in the exercise of the powers vested in the AGF by Section 174(1) of the Constitution as well as sections 105 (3) and 106 (a) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.

The AGF’s letter also requested files of other high-profile cases involving politically-exposed persons.

The AGF letter defines high-profile cases as cases “involving alleged misconduct amounting to economic sabotage; involving complex financial transactions or property movement; involving any of the suspects, who is a politician, a public officer or judicial officer; and where the subject matter involves government or corruption of its official or involves the abuse of office.”

Such judiciary officers, it was learnt, would include judges allegedly involved in economic sabotage, including financial transactions.

It could not be confirmed on Monday whether the AGF’s office had received any response from the ICPC regarding the request.

The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the AGF, Mr. Salihu Isah, could not be reached on Monday as his telephone line indicated that it was switched off.

Copyright PUNCH.

Police probe Jibrin’s allegations against Dogara, others

Adelani Adepegba, Abuja

There are indications that the police have begun probing the allegations of budget padding levelled against the Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and other principal officers by a former House Committee Chairman on Appropriation, Adbdulmumin Jibrin.

It was learnt on Monday that the police leadership had directed detectives to probe the allegations by Jibrin that the Speaker colluded with his deputy, Yusuf Lasun, the Chief Whip, Alhassan Doguwa, and the Minority Whip, Leo Ogor, to earmark N40bn to themselves in the 2016 National Assembly budget.

Jibrin, an All Progressives Congress lawmaker from Kano State, who was sacked by the House leadership last week, claimed that he was being victimised by the Speaker because he objected to a request from Dogara that he (Jibrin) should allocate projects worth N40bn to him in the 2016 budget.

Findings indicated on Monday that Jibrin might be summoned before the end of the week to provide evidence on the allegations in his petition to investigators, who it was learnt, would also invite all the people mentioned by the petitioner.

A source said, “The allegations made by the former House committee chairman on appropriations are weighty and cannot be ignored or swept under the carpet because it borders on corruption and an attempt to defraud the nation.

“So, the police have set in motion machinery to investigate the allegations, ascertain the veracity of the allegations, and get to the bottom of the corruption as stated by the petitioner.”

But the Force Public Relations Officer, Donald Awunah, said he had not been briefed about the investigation into the petition.

“I am not aware of the petition or the investigation into it and I have not been briefed about it either. The fact is that when someone writes a petition, it goes to the Force Criminal Investigation Department where it would be investigated, but I have not been briefed about it, but I will find out and let you know,” he said.

Copyright PUNCH.

Police probe Jibrin’s allegations against Dogara, others

Adelani Adepegba, Abuja

“So, the police have set in motion machinery to investigate the allegations, ascertain the veracity of the allegations, and get to the bottom of the corruption as stated by the petitioner.”

But the Force Public Relations Officer, Donald Awunah, said he had not been briefed about the investigation into the petition.

Copyright PUNCH.

‘Biafra should be allowed to rest-in-peace’

By: Paul Ukpabio

Momah

General Sam Momah, former Adjutant-General of the Nigeria Army; pioneer Director of the National War College and former Minister of Science and Technology in this interview with Paul Ukpabio spoke on calls for separation and the sounds of war in the country. Excerpts

The APC is a year in office; can you assess the party’s performance?

We should recollect that the plan of the APC was to hit the ground running, but this couldn’t happen because of the legislative coup of 9th June 2015. That coup didn’t enable laws that ought to have been made to fast track dividends of democracy to come on board. Like you know, the Senate President is on trial and that has slowed down a lot of issues which is very unfortunate. But I believe that the APC government is still trying to put itself together. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. And therefore they are still making sure that the dividends of democracy get to the masses. As you know, the TSA account is a major breakthrough and has blocked loopholes for corruption. That’s a major masterstroke by the APC government. There is also a reasonable looted amount of money that has been recovered. I am advising that it should be used to build estates in all the state capitals of the federation and Abuja and called Recovered Stolen Money (RSM), Estates so that Nigerians would always remember the funds were not only recovered but were put to good use. Also, it will discourage looting of treasury in future.

What is your take on pro-Biafra protests?

I feel sorry, sad and disappointed with them. Honestly, its a misnomer. These are young men and women probably not born before the civil war and hence don’t know what going to war means. It is unfortunate that instead of finding ways to better their lives they are idling away talking about Biafra. As you know, Biafra, from analysis of events, is dead and buried. Two main events concretised it. First, we should remember that Biafra died when Zik crossed over from Biafra via Britain to Nigeria. It was the masterstroke that ended the civil war. Secondly, Biafra got buried when the erstwhile leader of Biafra accepted the pardon of our revered President Shehu Shagari. Not only that, when Ojukwu came back, he contested for the presidency of our beloved country Nigeria. He didn’t win and in the following dispensation, he contested for a seat at the Senate but lost. By so doing, Ojukwu confirmed that Biafra is dead and buried. Definitely, what Nnamdi Kanu and his misguided followers are doing makes no sense. It is downright embarrassing. They claim to be peaceful but mean while they talk of the Restoration of Sovereign State of Biafra, which is at variance to Nigerian’s Constitution which again is worsened with inciting broadcasts abusing and insulting our national leaders and other tribes in unprintable tirades. That’s against Igbo culture. The world is now a global village in which you give and take. Indeed, it is now necessary for Ohanaeze to take control and thus join other socio-cultural groups Afenifere, Arewa etc, in ensuring that real peace prevails to enable development take root in Nigeria. The appellation, “Biafra” should be allowed to Rest-In-Peace otherwise the ghost of Biafra will continue to hunt us with the painful reminder of three million souls that perished, 2.5m orphans, 1.5m widows and then of course, the heart-ache of “abandoned” property in Port-Harcourt. These are ugly reminders of Biafra that shouldn’t be re-opened in order to enable Ohanaeze and South-East leaders concentrate in pressing home issues such as improved federal presence in the South-East, amelioration of abandoned property to ensure it is never repeated anywhere in Nigeria again, restoration of merit to enable the nation move forward, completion of Zik Mausoleum, construction of Niger Bridge, development of the coal mine and oil field in the South-East, etc.

There is so much to gain by being together than in splitting because once you start splitting, there will be no end to it until it blows down to your village. This is so because of the multifarious tribes in Nigeria. Nigeria may be down today, but she is destined to be a world power tomorrow. The potentials are there; the underlying problems are intricate but with internationally acclaimed honest leader like PMB, he is our only hope for now to lay a strong foundation for Nigeria’s greatness. The parents of those pro-Biafran youths should call them to order. They are disgracing a lot of us from the South-East. Biafra is not what we should glorify in. Biafra is the past and Nigeria is the future.

The issue of Fulani herdsmen has become a nightmare; Prof Wole Soyinka said Buhari is acting late, what is your take?

 I think this issue has been on since Independence, but it is being highlighted now. The good thing is that the President has reacted positively and instructed that the herdsmen be brought to order. That instruction must be strictly carried out. There should be no more killings. Nigeria is tired of bloodbath. Those who commit atrocities such as murder must be brought to book by hanging, and not by granting them amnesty. If that is done, murderers will stop. The problem with Nigeria is that people commit offence as grievous as murder and they get away with it. And that’s why incessant killings have continued. There is also the need to go to the root cause of the problem.

The Biafran ghost

By: Sam Omatseye

•President Buhari

Like Banquo’s ghost, the past haunts us today, again. Forty nine years after the civil war, we are still fighting the war. Some think the war is over. They are wrong. The war is with us because we are a nation of self-deceit. We lie to and at ourselves. We say peace whereas tribulation lurks and detonates everywhere.
That is why Boko Haram harangues us in the North. It explains the resurgence of the IPOB and MASSOB and the rumblings of the Niger Delta Avengers and the barbarous entitlement of herdsmen. Even before the past few years, when bombs were literally quiet, tongues exploded between tribes. Rhetoric rattled rhetoric. Tribes and tongues differed by saying tribes and tongues differed. The June 12 excitement was a rebirth of the divisions of the 1960’s.
We did not solve the problem when it confronted us. When Gowon exploited his name as an acronym of unity, GO ON WITH ONE NIGERIA turned out to be an empty epithet, a feel-good delusion from a victor. Nothing concrete was resolved other than fell the enemy in battle.
Did we resolve the issue of abandoned properties? Leading up to the war, pogrom lit up the North in incandescent murders. Not only Igbo were killed as many tendentious literature say. Even Adichie’s Half Of The Yellow Sun, for all its strengths, portrayed the single story that the author has campaigned against. The slaughter up North targeted anyone who was not Yoruba, and that included the sweep of minorities in the today’s Niger Delta. Urhobo, Itsekiri, Edo, Efik, Ogoni, etc were mincemeat in the cauldron of death.
Now, did we have any enquiries into that sanguinary chapter? The northern elite, including political, feudal and military leaders, reportedly encouraged the barbarities. Has anyone been punished or even been officially reprimanded? We have not even officially investigated. We know too that Nzeogwu’s coup was seen as tendentious, and it inspired some Igbo to provoke northerners with their proprietary swagger, boasting that they had taken over the country. Have we looked at that, too? If the swagger was bad, the killings were never justified. But even at that, have we addressed them as a people? Ironsi enacted Decree 34, and some analysts said it was naïve because he did not intend to introduce a unitary system to impose Igbo hegemony. If that act was naïve, what of the second act? He did not want to try the coup plotters. That, according to critics, gave him away as an Igbo jingoist.

Have we revisited the Aburi meeting, and its aftermath, and how that confab either ossified or laid bare the fissures of our inter-ethnic relations? Were there blames? Where there acts of overreach on both sides? Was the war avoidable? Did the pogrom make war inevitable? How come a region that knew it was tactically and materially inferior to its opponent take the plunge into war?
So, we also had the war atrocities. We saw what Ojukwu’s army did in the Midwest when Biafra invaded, and the resentment overshadows conversation up till today. We know of the killings of the Igbo in Asaba and how Murtala’s Second Division teased out trusting locals to welcome them and killed them like animals. Gowon, who could not rein in his generals, only had an apology over 40 years after. The apology, however heartfelt, never brought closure.
So, when hostilities ended, Gowon declared that there was no victor and no vanquished. We know that was as vacuous as GOWON. We just wanted to move on, like a child who walks into a party from a bathroom without cleaning up. The smell and mess linger.
The ghost has followed us ever since. In education, over whether we should have catchment areas or not. In the Orkar coup. In Saro Wiwa’s murder. In the Matatsine imbroglio. In the meltdown of Fulani and indigenes relations in the plateau. In the June 12 logjam. In the choice of Jonathan as president. In the choice of Buhari as counter president. The list is endless.
So, when many, including the self-serving Atiku, called for restructuring, it was because the civil war and ghosts of the many dead are still with us, walking the Nigeria earth, apologies to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Developed nations understand the merits of closure. Last week, Britain unveiled the Chilcot report and picked to pieces all the facts of that ignoble chapter of the Iraq War. Tony Blair was exposed, as well as some of the intelligence community and the parliament. The nation looked itself in the mirror, and mea culpa replaced a sense of righteousness.
On the Iraq war, the New York Times issued a lengthy apology for allowing the emotion of the day sway its professional duties. Next time, both England and United States will think deeper before throwing innocents at the teeth of battle. The crisis of the Balkans is still lapping up its culprits today. Enquiries have dredged up the bad guys and they are subjected to the rule of law. The Hutus and Tutsis have also had theirs and those who inflamed the land to butchery have been exposed and punished. Apartheid in South Africa had its Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The Second World War could not be concluded without a clear resolution through the Nuremberg trials. The First World War was concluded without such an enquiry. The victors simply punished Germany and isolated it. The result: a resurgent Germany with the Hitler of hate.
A people must always learn not to take its injustice for granted. During the Peloponnesian War, Athens fell because it merely slaughtered its best generals who did not pick up its dead at sea as was the custom. The parliament did not reason. The absence of its best brood of soldiers allowed Sparta to crush it.
So, when Buhari stands accused as nepotist and regionalist in his appointments, it is because he has not transcended the hubris of the civil war. He invokes GOWON but he denies it when his pen signs an appointment. When does a chief of staff to a president become a board member of Nigeria’s choicest corporation? How do we call a truce with the Avengers when the NNPC board is lopsided and has only one name from the oil producing areas?
The civil war haunts because the hostilities have never really ended. Unnerved on his throne, Macbeth could not exorcise Banquo’s ghost. He said, “Avaunt and quit my sight. Let the earth hide thee, thy bone is marrowless and thy blood is cold.”
The Biafran ghost still spills cold blood. We may deny it and say our nation is not negotiable, but the past keeps growling and badgering. The more we claim we are together, the more apart we get.

Re: The Biafran Ghost

By: Victor H. Ikikhueme

SIR: As I read last week’s article with the above title by Sam Omatseye, my heart bled and my thoughts ran rings of frustration. The write-up was a grand and veritable riposte to a betrayed, raped and vilified country I call my own. Like a novel I read years ago by Dorren Wayne with the apt title “Love Is A Well-raped Word”, Nigeria has been serially abused, tormented and brutalized since Independence by its elite – political, economic and military – sans boundaries. Meaning that when it comes to exploiting and despoiling Nigeria, our elite have no qualms about religion or ethnic configuration; they gang up in unified subversion of our common good. I submit that the average Nigerian had no problems with his Nupe, Urhobo, Fulani or Yoruba compatriots until the politicians (Khaki or Agbada) came along with their incendiary and combustible rhetoric of religion and ethnic jingoisms.
From the first military coup till date, our various rulers (no leaders, please) have perpetually played the ostrich game without shame or remorse. As he pointed out in that article, we, as a people have imbibed a culture of lying through our problems while refusing to confront the usual demons that come with pragmatic nation-building. Beginning with the botched Nzeogwu coup to Aguiyi-Ironsi’s naïve alchemy in political engineering, culminating in his blunt refusal to try the January 1966 coup plotters, the beneficiaries of his policies saw nothing wrong with his agenda as it affected the sensibilities of other Nigerians.
This, however, does not justify the horrendous massacre of southerners in their hundreds in the northern part of the country, majority of who were Igbo between May and September 1966. In a cynical play of role reversal, the “Swagger of the Igbo” in early 1966 gave way to the “Triumphalism of the North” later that same year. The elites on both sides winked and connived at these despicable acts that were to be the harbinger to the civil war from 1967 – 1970.
As a young man growing up in the then Eastern Region, I was a witness to the bloody orgy of mindless massacre and dehumanization of the Igbo. However, whether secession from Nigeria was the final solution remains debatable.
Unfortunately, the aftermath of the post-civil war was not effectively handled as Nigeria suffered a deficit of quality leadership in the ruling military and its subservient and colluding civilian wing. I suspect that till today we are still caught up in an infernal contradiction between the “Igbo Swagger” and the “Northern Triumphalism”. Throw in the mix a burgeoning restive Niger Delta with their avowed Sense of Entitlement, and you have Shakespeare’s Macbeth’s “Cauldron of the Witches”. And as Omatseye pointed out, we are still to live down the “Biafran Ghost”.

There is no doubt that a society, or nation makes no significant progress in the face of grave centripetal tendencies such as we have in ourpolity, no matter how well-meaning the intentions of its leadership. The time to sit back, reflect and chart a new course for our beloved nation is NOW.
For a start, we, leaders and followers, must hearken to the rebuke of former U.S. President Bill Clinton to immediately begin the process of building strong institutions and jettison the jaded and anachronistic culture of entrenching the “African Big Man”. Nations are founded on institutions and not primordial values of religion, ethnicism and cronyism.

Victor H. Ikikhueme,

idiakevictor@yahoo.com