Mama Roz’s Chronicles: Kidnap, A Widow’s Tale

BY ROZ AMECHI

Emenike Ihekwaba. Image: Twitter

Kidnapping has become an all too familiar evil in our society today and was at some point a way of life in the Eastern part of Nigeria. Many victims made it home safely but sadly some didn’t. Chy’s story takes us through the tragic pain and trauma this experience causes to the family and friends of the victims.

Chy’s Story

When Chy and Emenike met in June 1987, it was love at first sight. In fact, he proposed to her on that first day and she, mesmerised with this tall, handsome and debonair fellow, quickly accepted. They got married a year later on the 29th of October 1988. Like most marriages, the early days were pure bliss but as the years passed, things began to go sour. Her husband kept late nights, drinking with his friends much to her annoyance and irritation. Chy responded by joining the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International (FGBMFI) who taught her how to pray for her husband and marriage. It worked. He gave his life to Christ and joined the FGBMFI rising swiftly to the position of Chapter President. Chy was ecstatic. Her marriage “became new” again, they spoke the same language and their children were happy. Their home had turned into an enviable Christian home and they prayed that they would eventually age and enjoy their grandchildren together. Unfortunately, that was not meant to be.

In the first week of August 2012, the couple sent their children on holiday to the US. Emenike, having risen to the position of Permanent Secretary of the Imo state government, had formed the habit of holidaying abroad with his wife and children. They visited the United Kingdom and the United States as frequently as they could. This year was no different and they had sent the children ahead with the plan that Emenike would join them two weeks later. A week to his travel date, his boss, the Deputy Governor of the state, asked him to postpone his trip as he wanted to travel and the two of them could not be out at the same time so he shifted his dates two more weeks ahead.

On Sunday 26th of August, they had been invited to two events. One was in Mbano for the thanksgiving service of a priest whose ordination they had been unable to attend and the second was a child dedication service in their home church, St Paul’s in Nkwerre. They decided to attend both. Leaving home at 8am, they attended the Mbano service and left at 12 noon for Nkwerre. As they usually did, they stopped briefly at Amaraku market to buy goat meat for Emenike’s favourite pepper soup.

Chy waited in the car whilst Emenike went into the market to buy the meat. It wasn’t long before he returned, with the meat seller who was carrying the meat, to the car. He opened the front door, put the meat in and then went to the back to open the door, when an SUV stopped dramatically in front of their car, blocking their exit route. It all happened so fast. Three hefty young lads in black wearing bullet proof vests with the words “Police” on the front, alighted from the car. Chy was puzzled. She could not imagine what they could have done wrong to justify this aggressive approach and she asked them “what did we do?’. No one answered her. One came towards her door whilst the other two went directly to her husband.

Emenike figured immediately that these were not real policemen and he shouted “Chy run!”. She didn’t need to hear anything else. As if transported by an unseen force, she ducked under the arm of the man by her door and started running. She hadn’t taken two steps before they started shooting. She thought they were shooting at her but she didn’t stop. She just kept running as her husband had told her to. Everyone in the market started running too. There were some women conducting their August meeting nearby, they ran too. It was complete pandemonium. As she ran, her headtie, outer wrapper, bag and slippers all fell but Chy kept running. She saw an open door and went inside. There were people there. She was trembling and her heart was pounding. She didn’t know where Emenike was and she was terrified. After about 15 minutes the shooting stopped and people went back outside again. She asked where the man she was with was, and they told her he had been taken in the boot of the robbers’ car. Hearing that, her heart sank, she fell to the ground and started weeping. Her nightmare had just begun.

A little boy came and gave her back her bag. She looked into their car. Her husband’s phones and wallet were still there. These were clearly not armed robbers so she wondered what their mission really was. Why did they come for Emenike? It also turned out that they didn’t actually shoot at anyone. They just shot at the tyres of all the cars on the street to make sure that no one came after them. A couple of real policemen appeared from nowhere and started interrogating her until one of the bystanders stopped them. “Can’t you see the state she is in? please leave her” he said. They let her go and she returned to Owerri without her husband.

Chy called her brother-in-law who was attending the event in Nkwerre. He went to the scene of the incident. The driver who had also run, had now reappeared and was taken to the police station but a call came from Government House asking the police to release him and the vehicle. So now, all they could do was sit and wait for the kidnappers to make contact. Chy went to the bank and withdrew all her savings. Then she called friends, relatives and colleagues asking them to donate what they could. She wanted to have enough money ready for the kidnappers. She was quite hopeful.

As she sat and waited, she remembered a similar experience she had with her eldest son four years before. It was in September 2009 and armed robbers had come to their house. They took her 14-year-old son and kept him in the bush for 8 days. During that time, she did not eat or sleep a wink. She just sat and prayed; but after they paid one million Naira, she got her son back. She was convinced that the same would happen with Emenike. They would ask for money; she would pay and then he would come home. She never expected things to turn out the way they did.

The kidnappers did not call till the fifth day and when they did, they asked for N50m. Negotiations started at that point. No one had that kind of money and even though he was a government official, the government offered no assistance. It took two weeks, back and forth, and then finally they were given 48 hours to produce N10m. Chy had managed to collect N6m so they had to find the balance. The kidnappers also wanted 3 bottles of Hennessey. They sent instructions about where the money should be dropped off. Chy stared at the GMG bag of money when they finally managed to collect it all. She had never seen so much cash in her life. N10m in cash! She hadn’t even seen N1m. They had strict instructions not to involve the police and they obeyed. The money was taken to them at the drop off spot. Two men on a motor bike appeared and collected the money and her brother-in-law was told to go to Obinze barracks to pick up her husband.

Finally, it was all over. Success at last. They all rejoiced when her brother-in-law called and said he had been given a location. They arranged a clinic for him to go for a check-up. Chy cooked his favourite fish pepper soup with agidi. He was to be picked at 12 noon so by that time, everything was ready and they waited.

At 6pm her brother-in law called to say that he was still waiting and Emenike had not come. Chy was crushed and confused. She couldn’t process that information. Looking back, she remembers that day as the worst day of her life. She had waited for her husband to return from the kidnapper’s den but he never did. Eventually they asked her brother-in-law to come home. It was really all over but it had ended so horribly. They all started wailing. This was not the end they had expected. This could not possibly be the end. But Emenike never came home and Chy never saw her beloved Emy again.

Years passed but her agony did not diminish. She kept wishing and longing to see Emenike; his smiling face and his comforting arms. Every day even now, she looks out for him thinking that by some miracle, he will walk through the door. If he had died, she would have buried him and moved on but this situation offers no closure. The pain, trauma and agony are unimaginable but she has learnt to live with them.

Chy did all she could. She wrote petitions to the First Lady, Dame Patience and her Senator, Chris Anyanwu who contacted the Commissioner of Police but nothing came of it. She paid for policemen to come to Imo state with trackers from Port Harcourt but the required government support was not forthcoming and eventually they left, taking with them all the hope she had.

She suffered from high blood pressure, low blood pressure and heart palpitations but her mother ever by her side, was her rock. She stood by her all those years. She made her strong and taught her how to carry on in spite of all the odds. She herself had also lost her husband when she was only 44 and had buried her son who was to become a reverend father but she overcame those challenges and now encouraged her daughter to do the same.

At the time of the incident none of Chy’s children had graduated but she had to counsel them and tell them they must succeed so that when their father comes home, he would be proud of them. After 7 years she was advised to perform a burial ceremony in his honour. She did that in 2020 and erected a tomb.

Her four children have all graduated now. Her two daughters are married and she has five grandchildren whom Emenike has never seen. Her mother passed away in September 2021 and has since been buried.

In 2014, Emenike turned 60 and was due for retirement. Chy was asked to apply for his benefits and she did, but nothing was paid. She is still pleading with the Imo state government to consider her case and pay the benefits to give her and her children some much needed respite. She is hoping that someone will read this and be moved to reach out to the Imo state government on her behalf.

Abaribe, Ekweremadu: A Tale Of Two Revisionists

Enyinnaya Abaribe and Ike Ekweremadu 

BY LEO SOBECHI

ABUJA (THE GUARDIAN) -- The Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe’s recent declaration of interest to contest the 2023 gubernatorial ticket of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has sparked off concerns and discussions about the anticipated intensity of divisions in Southeast, especially in the buildup to the 2023 general elections.

Although what Abaribe did could be described as a political ambush on the outgoing incumbent, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, it exposed how far crisis of electoral ambitions would shape the politics of Southeast, particularly regarding the governorship seats.

Abaribe is not alone in the quest to transit from the Legislature to the Executive. He has a fitting ally in the immediate past Deputy President of Senate, Dr. Ike Ekweremadu. Together they parade unparalleled records as the oldest occupants of their senatorial seat from the Southeast.

However, just as it is not possible to attribute a possible connivance or resolve to unsettle the home front, the fact that the immediate past Deputy President of Senate, Ekweremadu, is also oiling his political machinery to seek the governorship ticket of People Democratic Party (PDP), makes the development very intriguing.

Both ranking federal lawmakers have incumbent PDP leaders as their state governors. But, this is just about the least factor that raises the red flag to their gubernatorial aspiration.

Rich Contrasts

Although Abaribe was elected for a first term in April 2007 and sworn in on May 29, 2007, he earned repeat electoral victories in 2011, 2015 and 2019. Having therefore been a constant face in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly for close to 12 years, it is obvious that 2023 should be his final passing out.

On his part, Ekweremadu, who considers himself as the lucky star of Enugu State politics, started featuring in the Red Chamber from May 29, 2003. And going by the four years’ period of each term, by 2023 the Mpu, Aninri Local Government Area would have occupied the same seat for 16 years.

In his alma mater, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he read law, admission is only given to those who are 16 years of age in addition to possessing other academic criteria. That could explain why the former Deputy Senate President wants to graduate from the Senate to the Lion Building, the seat of Enugu State Government, as governor.

If Ekweremadu’s desire to transit from the Legislature to the Executive follows the natural argument that change is constant, Abaribe’s ambition to be governor seems to be on the retrogressive instead of the progressive path. At the start of the fourth republic, Senator Abaribe was elected alongside current Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu, for the governorship seat. But, two months to the end of the term, Abaribe jumped out of the boat in order to scuttle his captain’s attempt to drown him through impeachment.

The people of Abia State still recall the cat and mouse relationship between the deputy governor, Abaribe and Kalu, the governor. Sources disclosed that Abaribe survived countless impeachment plots, even as he was accused of being a dissembler and divisive character, which Kalu could not stomach.

However, unlike Abaribe, Ekweremadu was not a deputy governor, but enjoyed a cozy political closeness to former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani, who appointed him, first as Chief of Staff and later, Secretary to the Enugu State Government. Yet, like Abaribe, Ekweremadu was also accused of dissembling and overzealousness.

Before Governor Nnamani propped him up to represent Enugu West Senatorial District in the Senate, the former DSP was alleged to have moved some members of the Enugu State Executive Council to Calabar, where they were administered with fetish oath to support him for the governorship. Being a power player and political tactician, Governor Nnamani decided that “we have to send Ike to Abuja, he has to give us chance to finish what we are doing for Enugu people.” In a cabinet reshuffle that trailed the muse, commissioners and appointees loyal to Ekweremadu were tactfully dropped.

Again, just as Abaribe moved over to All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) to contest the 2003 governorship of Abia State, it was from the All Peoples Party (APP) that Governor Nnamani brought Ekweremadu to serve as his Chief of Staff.

The contrasts did not end there. Both Abaribe and Ekweremadu are known to have fought against the political interests of their former principals. Apart from contesting the governorship against Orji Uzor Kalu, who was seeking a second term in 2003, the Senate minority leader has continued on a parallel political path with the Senate Chief Whip.

For Ekweremadu, despite launching out political on the goodwill of Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, the former Deputy Senate President was said to have mobilized resources to stop Nnamani from accessing the Senate for a second term. As former political godsons, Ekweremadu and then incumbent Enugu State governor, Sullivan Chime, stonewalled the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2011, Dr. Nnamani founded the Peoples for Democratic Change (PDC) on which platform he contested the Enugu East Senatorial election.

Apparently, in attempt to retire their former principal to political oblivion, Governor Chime and Ekweremadu propped up the Deputy Leader of the House of Representatives, Gilbert Nnaji against Senator Nnamani. Riding on the combined forces of power of incumbency and federal might, Senator Nnamani was denied a second senate seat to represent Enugu East.

The same scenario was repeated in 2015, but the masses revolted and protests filled the length and breadth of the senatorial district, including parts of the state capital.

Pained by the cycle of political wickedness against their principal, incumbent Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi ensured not only the return of Dr. Nnamani to PDP, but also ensured that the mischiefs of 2011 and 2015 were redressed by support the return of the Ebeano political godfather to the Senate.

Watchers of Enugu State politics say Governor Ugwuanyi employed an uncanny political strategy to thwart Ekweremadu’s plans to use Senator Gil Nnaji to propel his governorship ambition. With Senator Nnamani back in the Senate, as well as his rock-solid grassroots support, it would be seen how any PDP governorship candidate can win without the support of Enugu East.

Across the entire length and breadth of Enugu State, former governor Nnamani retains popular acclaim in addition to his charismatic mass appeal. It is said that by bringing Senator Chimaroke to his corner, Governor Ugwuanyi, showed that he possesses the political ‘Urim and Thumin’ of Enugu State politics, especially with his ecumenism style of leadership.

It is doubtful of if Governor Okezie Ikpeazu would support Abaribe’s governorship, because as the outgoing governor, the incumbent should follow the tradition of propping up his preferred successor for the PDP ticket. Talks about Governor Ikpeazu’s possible switch over to All Progressives Congress (APC) have been making the rounds in Abia State, but the governor has literally sworn that there is and there would be nothing like defecting.

In the absence of overt support for his governorship ambition therefore, it is left to be seen how Abaribe intends to snatch the PDP ticket from the incumbent governor, particularly given that both hail from the same council area.

If Abaribe is to consider an alternative platform, his best option would be the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), because talk of APC would be akin to asking the Maduforo Ngwa to count the teeth of crocodile with his fingers.

For Ekweremadu, the first hurdle to cross is the zoning arrangement in Enugu State, which the masses seem to be religiously attached to in the interest of peace and social harmony. However, supporters of the former Deputy Senate President contend that at no time did any political party or stakeholders sit down to draw a charter for power distribution in the state.

Going by the rotation of the governorship slot, Enugu East Senatorial District is the next in line to throw up the next governor. But, citing former Governor Chime’s observations during an interaction with journalists in 2018, Ekweremadu and his supporters insist that there is nothing like zoning. Chime had noted that it was for fairness and need to reduce tension that he supported Enugu North Senatorial District to produce his successor and not based on any zoning plan.

The recent Anambra State governorship election, which former Central Bank governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo won, reinforced the zoning debate in Southeast. Soludo, who hails from Anambra South Senatorial zone defeated 17 other candidates drawn from the two Senatorial zones of Anambra Central and South.

While proponents of zoning thumb their chest that the outcome of the election was more of a triumph of zoning, others maintain that Anambra voters chose the best candidate, arguing that it is only in the absence of a qualitative candidate from a favoured zone could produce a different result.

Abaribe and Ekweremadu are entitled to their democratic right to stand for election, but whether that right vitiates voters’ right to adopt an unwritten convention would be seen at the end of the ballot on March 6, 2023.

Legislative Stature

BOTH Abaribe and Ekweremadu stand tall as giants of Nigeria Senate. While the representative of Abia South Senatorial District emerged as the voice and conscience of the Senate, especially in the Eighth and Ninth plenaries, Ekweremadu’s election by his colleagues on three consecutive occasions as Deputy President of Senate is not a mean record.

By the time the 2023 governorship poll holds in Abia State, Senator Enyinnaya Harcourt Abaribe would be 68 years. The man he wants to succeed is not up to 60. Perhaps, Abaribe wants voters to determine which is easier between state governors retiring to the Senate for legislation or old Senators ascending to the executive seat of a state governor.

For Ekweremadu, he would be seeking the governorship ticket at 60 in a state where nobody above 55 had ever held sway. Although age is a matter of the mind, but the two giants of Nigeria Senate would have a lot of explaining to do to youth of their constituency why they should continue to dominate the public space instead of grooming others.

Both men have done their best to ventilate the yearnings and aspirations of their constituents, particularly on the much talked about Igbo position in the Nigeria project. Abaribe earned his stripes and scars from voicing opposition to human right abuses of secessionist agitators, including the members of Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The Senate Minority Leader was arrested and detained in 2018 briefly by the Department of State Services (DSS) for being an IPOB sympathizer, especially given his role in signing the bail bond of the IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

On the score of relationship with the secessionists, Ekweremadu has both sweet and sore tales to tell. Although he was part of the high level stakeholders support for the release of the IPOB from detention in 2017, IPOB activists in Germany swooped on him during his visit to Nuremberg for the Annual Cultural Festival and Convention of Ndigbo in Germany.

About four young men among those who attacked Ekweremadu in Germany were later apprehended and charged for the assault. Unlike Abaribe, whose recourse to verbal darts against opposition, the former DSP is said to be adept at bipartisan collaboration in championing Igbo causes.

For instance, it was gathered that at the onset of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, Ekweremadu decided to run again for the post of Deputy President of Senate following the failure of Buhari to appoint either Dr. Ogbonnia Onu or Dr. Chris Ngige as the Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF).

Again, in 2019 Ekweremadu was said to have rebuffed overtures from the Governors’ Forum to allow Senator Ovie Augustine Omo-Agege to emerge his successor unopposed, especially given the withdrawal of Senator Francis Alimikhena. This time around, the former DSP resolved with his PDP colleagues that Omo-Agege must not be allowed to emerge unopposed after debasing the hallowed chamber in the Eighth Senate.

“It would have been sacrilegious to unanimously endorse the event of April 18, when armed hoodlums invaded the Senate to steal the menace, so it was not about winning or not winning for a fourth term as DSP,” a PDP source confided in The Guardian.

It was perhaps on account of his closeness to APC leaders that the impression stuck that the DSP was planning a move to the governing party for Enugu State governorship contest.

Despite their individual achievements in the Red Chamber, both Abaribe and Ekweremadu seem to be plotting their retirement from public office by swimming against the tide of public perception. Already, politicians across the political divides, especially with the main opposition PDP have begun to interrogate the fruitage of their long sojourn in the Senate for the people at the grassroots.

As the two Senators begin the journey towards liberalizing the politics of their respective states, it would be seen how far they can go to disrupt the lure of zoning and power of incumbency.

Sign Of Things To Come

PERHAPS what happened in Orba, Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State on Friday December 31, 2021serves as a foretaste of the public perception about their ambition to be governor against the run of rotation. Leaders of Orba community, who were acting on the understanding that Ekweremadu should not be offered any platform to market himself, reprimanded a member of the community, Mr. Charles Mbah, for using his birthday as a campaign ground for the former DSP.

It was gathered that after fracas broke out earlier in the year following a football march sponsored by the former DSP, stakeholders of Enugu North Senatorial District resolved that no individual or group should invite Ekweremadu for any public function before the governorship primaries of PDP.

The leaders maintain that since Governor Ugwuanyi is a product of zoning, nobody should be supported to rubbish the power sharing arrangement in the state. They also contended that as the incumbent, their brother, Ugwuanyi, should be supported to guide the state on the path of peace and brotherhood in selecting the next governor.

The reprimand of Charles Mbah could be a potent sign that the masses in Southeast are high on zoning. As men of means and men, how Abaribe and Ekweremadu survives the people’s power would determine the strength of their conviction, particularly given the yearning of Southeast to produce President Buhari’s successor.

Ikpeazu: ‘Bakin Zuwo’ Of The East

BY LEO SOBECHI

Okezie Ikpeazu image via The Guardian

UMUAHIA, ABIA (THE GUARDIAN)--Governor Victor Okezie Ikpeazu, has been trending on social media for some time now. The record shows that the governor, who until March 2014, was in charge of sanitation and urban planning in Abia, holds a doctorate in Biochemical Pharmacology from the University of Calabar.

But, before the doctorate, Ikpeazu graduated from the University of Maiduguri, where he studied Clinical Biochemistry in 1984. He was in love with Maiduguri because it was reported that he went back to the university for his Master of Science (M.Sc) degree in Biochemical Toxicology in 1990.

For the length of time he spent in Maiduguri, especially in his formative years, Ikpeazu qualifies to be called, Aboki na (my friend, in Hausa tongue), because apart from his days in UNICAL for his doctorate, and during his youth service programme at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), the North got the better of youth.

From the foregoing, it could be rightly said that the governor of Abia State is a learned man. He is not an itibolibo (numskull).

However, as he trended on various media platforms for the greater part of the last two months, the 57-year-old was made up as a reincarnation of a former Kano State governor, Aliyu Sabo Bakin Zuwo, who was born 30 years before Ikpeazu was born in 1964.

Although Zuwo’s roots could be traced to the Kanem Bornu Empire in the present day Borno State, he grew up in Kano. But, there is nothing to show that Ikpeazu’s similarity with Zuwo is based on the fact that both men have had much to do with Bornu State.

Those who knew Zuwo could attest to the fact that there is a slight facial resemblance between him and Ikpeazu. However, while Zuwo did not have any formal education until age 16 when he decided to help himself, Ikpeazu reached the apogee of academic work, having attained a doctorate.

Nonetheless, another striking resemblance between Zuwo and Ikpeazu is both men’s love for radio and television. It is on record that to defeat the charismatic Abubakar Rimi in the 1983 governorship election in Kano, Zuwo made effective use of the radio as a campaign tool.

On the part of Governor Ikpeazu, two spectacular video clips, which made the rounds as his name trended, were excerpts from his participation in two programmes on Channels Television.

One was when he featured on Seun Okinbaloye’s Politics Today, while the other was a Day Break interaction with Maupe Ogun-Yusuf.

In the conversation with Okinbaloye, when told that a lot of people have complained that his government has failed to deliver the goods in the last six years, especially in Aba, Governor Ikpeazu queried: “Who said Aba is not working? Today in Aba, you have Dominos, Chicken Republic, er er er Market Place (Supermarket). You have everything in Aba, you even have a cinema in Aba!”

Those who know Kano State from October 1, 1983, would remember how closely Ikpeazu sounded like the then Governor Zuwo, who listed Mirinda, Fanta and Coke as some of the mineral deposits in his state.

Maybe Ikpeazu is saving Abia State’s money in the Government House, just as Zuwo claimed when his administration was toppled by the military junta on December 31, 1983, when N3.4m was discovered in his lodge. That also came to mind when Ogun-Yusuf took Ikpeazu up on the issue of maternal care in Abia State.

Governor Ikpeazu stated, to the amusement of Nigerians, that his administration gives N500 to nursing mothers immediately after their safe delivery, in addition to backpacks, which contents he did not disclose.

Ever since his serial appearances on national television, most commentators have been wondering how Ikpeazu, with his doctorate degree, differs from Bakin Zuwo, who struggled in his adolescent years to acquire western education.

It should be noted that before his being drafted into politics by his benefactor, Chief Theodore. A. Orji, Ikpeazu lectured in some tertiary institutions. But, it is as if his stay in Maiduguri did not avail him the opportunity to know much about his state.

However, some Abia State indigenes insist that nobody should blame Ikpeazu, but the political circumstances that threw him up as an accidental leader. They alleged that the offices he has occupied in public service, that is, after leaving the classroom may have affected his comportment and governance style.

The Guardian learnt that Ikpeazu was local government chairman of Obingwa Local Council from 2007 through 2009, from where he went on to become General Manager, Abia State Passenger Integrated Manifest Scheme (ASPIMS) from 2010 to May 29, 2011.

Senator Orji perhaps knew that Ikpeazu would succeed him as governor upon the completion of his tenure. That perhaps explained why the former governor appointed Ikpeazu as Chairman, Governing Council of Abia State College of Health Technology. From there, he served as the first Deputy General Manager of the state Environmental Protection Agency, from May 5, 2013 to October 10, 2014.

While some supporters of Governor Ikpeazu still allege that former governor Orji and his allies do not allow Ikpeazu the freedom to exhibit his governance style, many worried indigenes of the state citizens insist that just as success does not demand an explanation, failure should not admit alibis.

Ikpeazu’s efforts at promoting made-in-Aba products helped him to win a second term in office, but Aba people, especially those from Oha Ngwa said they are troubled that their brother is yet to truly deliver the goods as governor.

Without talking about the backlog of pension and salary arrears, Ngwa people point to the governor’s failure to do the following roads in Aba as evidence of absentee leadership: Port Court Road, Obohia, Ohanku, Ngwa, Azikiwe, East By Ngwa and Faulks Roads.

As if the complaints of his people were not enough facts to contradict Ikpeazu’s offering on Channels Television, his former Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of the state, Ume Kalu (SAN) penned, what he titled, “State of Abia: Wake Up Call on Okezie Ikpeazu (Part 1).”

Part of the 13-page epistle read: “I have been under intense pressure to share my thoughts with you on the real and general public perception of the poor state of affairs in our state, and, possibly proffer solutions towards ameliorating the situation.

“I am aware that most of the sordid and unfavourable things trending in public discourse about our state do not get to your knowledge, as those whose duty it is to draw your attention to them will, for fear or inability to handle the backlash, keep that information away from you…

“Since I left office as Attorney – General of our state in May 2019, I have variously been confronted in both private and public, with the poor and pitiable state of affairs in our state. Attempts to put up some defence often fail as I come out of the exercise looking stupid due to want of justification for the parlous/pitiable state of affairs in our state.

“As one who had been in government before your emergence as Governor in May 2015, I can attest to the fact that you inherited a state that was in distress and dire need of emergency attention.

“Those who are objective and truthful know too well that you did not originate the prevalent rot, but accepted it gleefully, and, instead of halting the drift, you have sustained it. This in a nutshell is the true state of affairs in our state at the moment.

“The rain started to beat us torrentially somewhere within the eight (8) years of your immediate predecessor’s tenure. Each time I ponder over your reluctance and/or refusal to make the expected positive impact on the governance of our state.”

Apart from verbal reproofs, infrastructure developments in their two neighbouring states –Ebonyi and Rivers-continue to challenge Abians to ask, in the voice of Mr. Peter Obi: “Are we cursed or are we the cause?”

Governor Nyesom Wike, in what many considered as poetic irony, invited Ikpeazu to Port Harcourt to commission a portion of that strategic road that connects Rivers to Abia State.

Also, while explaining the cost of many flyover bridges he constructed in Ebonyi State, Governor Dave Umahi stated that it was fair enough to spend N1.2b on each compared to the humongous N4b that some states post as cost of never-ending projects of similar magnitude.

Legendary Igbo Ogene music exponent, the late Oliver De Coque, in one of his songs noted that it is that which a man desires that he asks God. So, for those who blame Ikpeazu for mentioning the siting of Domino Pizza and cinema as part of his government’s achievement, how would you know if those are his signature projects? After all, Abia State is God’s Own State, and everything is vanity upon vanity.

INTERVIEW: No President From North’ll Champion Restructuring — Chekwas Okorie

BY CHIOMA GABRIEL

VANGUARD INTERVIEW

Chekwas Okorie

Chief Chekwas Okorie, the founder of All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, and the United Progressive Party, UPP, is now a chieftain of the ruling All progressives Congress, APC.

In this interview, he speaks on why the Igbo are having issues with producing a Nigerian President. He also speaks on why it will be difficult for the ruling APC, and main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to project a president from the south, saying both parties will pick their candidates from the North.

The quest for the Presidency of Igbo extraction is attracting all manner of criticisms. Many perceive having a president of Igbo extraction as having Biafra. What is the problem with the Igbo?

We are our own problem to a very large extent because to run for the office of the president, you have to, first of all, make sure you have a candidate, and to have a candidate, that person must emerge through a political party. But the way Nigeria is structured it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for an Igbo man no matter how qualified he is to emerge as a candidate of the PDP or APC.

However, there are many factors that will help an Igbo to brighten his prospects of being the President of Nigeria. There are so many minorities, ethnic groups in Nigeria that feel the way Igbo people feel about alienation and lack of inclusion in governance. And when you have all of these groups come together in a political party for the purpose of electing a president, there are chances that such a person will win. In the 90s, Dr. Alex Ekwueme was edged out as the presidential candidate of the PDP at the Jos Convention, and this was a man that was promised by so many of the northern allies who were with him in NPN to pay back the loyalty he gave to President Shehu Shagari. He was promised that he would be compensated through their support.

Instead, they conspired and used their number and brought out General Olusegun Obasanjo, who was in prison, was not there at the formation of the party, and threw him up as the presidential candidate of PDP just to stop the Igbo man. Obasanjo was released from prison for the purpose of foisting him on the Nigerian people and the northerners severally boasted about how they determined who will become Nigerian president.

So, that was why I went out and led other people to form our own party and that was how APGA was born.

The first thing we did was to zone APGA’s ticket to the South-East and Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu emerged as its presidential candidate. Without APGA, there was no way Odumegwu-Ojukwu would have emerged as the presidential candidate of a party in his entire lifetime in Nigeria, if Dr. Ekwueme couldn’t be. That aroused tremendous trepidation among the ruling class who had this fear about the Igbo emerging.

The rigging of the 1999 election was so massive. It was premeditated because President Obasanjo told me after the election when we had a meeting at the Villa, he invited me specifically. They had the authentic result with them and they also knew what they did. Obasanjo said I committed a political sin in Nigeria by promoting Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who fought a civil war and wanted to break up the country. That was when I knew what transpired. In fact, he said the moment we brought out Odumegwu-Ojukwu as a candidate, our party APGA became a national security issue.

What happened to APGA was a matter of state policy and so, I became more conscious of the challenges of the Igbo man in Nigeria but I also know these are challenges that can be surmounted through proper political strategy.

After that rigging, the destabilization of the party was a matter of state policy. What happened in APGA was hatched in the Villa. That was why people would not know why a treasurer in a political party could be announced by the electoral commission as the chairman of the party without a convention. It has never happened anywhere in the world and may never happen again even in Nigeria.

In fact, they saw to it that this party did not see the light of the day. You can imagine, next year will be 20 years of APGA and it has never gone beyond Anambra State. So, the Igbo people generally got completely disillusioned and their morale failed generally. Many assumed that it is not necessary for the Igbo to come together and assert themselves politically because the votes will never count.

That was why since 2012, I began the agitation for electronic voting. I did a lot about it through the National Assembly and through a memorandum to the presidency but the PDP never cared and worked against it. It was when they became a victim of election manipulation that they began to champion the issue of electronic voting. You now begin to hear former President Jonathan on every occasion he spoke after he left office, saying that electronic voting was the answer to election manipulations in Nigeria.

So, here were are, getting again to where votes will begin to count in Nigeria and the main problem we have is being able to sensitize the Igbo man again to be prepared to participate. So, that’s why I said that the problem is entirely our own. Nobody placed the order for power. There are many ethnic groups in Nigeria because Nigeria is still based on ethnic nationalities. There is nothing like Nigeria is a country far more divided along religious lines. People of the same religion still display sentiments to their ethnic nationalities rather than their religion. That is their position.

We are marching again towards another election year. A non-Igbo would wonder what the Igbo want; whether it is Presidency, Biafra, or restructuring. Are the Igbo speaking from both sides of the mouth?

Any person advancing that logic is simply being mischievous. That person is being intelligent by half.

Boko Haram has been there for years, about 12 years before the emergence of President Buhari. Boko Haram even appointed him to be their negotiator. Not only that, their objective which has not changed is to Islamise Nigeria and set up what they called the Caliphate Republic. And they were able to occupy about 14 local government areas. They had their flags in those areas. Nigeria did not blackmail the North with that and Buhari still emerged as President.

Before Jonathan eventually came up, the Niger-Delta militants were at work. They were also talking about the Niger-Delta Republic and brought the economy of Nigeria to its knees. It was said that allowing the Niger-Delta to produce the President would douse tension and it did douse tension.

Before Obasanjo became President, NADECO and OPC were holding sway in the South-West because of the issue of M.K.O Abiola. The likes of General Alani Akinrinade had set up a shadow government in the Diaspora and OPC and others launched what they called Oodua Republic in Ibadan, complete with a flag and the Oodua national anthem. The Nigerian ruling class did not for the fear of possible Oodua Republic deny Obasanjo or the South-West Presidency of Nigeria. What happened instead was that the outgoing military compelled the political parties to get their Presidential candidates from the South-West. They went further to force Alliance for Democracy, AD, and All Peoples Party, APP, into an unholy alliance, unholy in the sense that APP had nine states and the AD had six states all in the South-West, and the military government compelled APP to accept its presidential candidate from the South-West and that was Chief Olu Falae.

It has never happened anywhere in the world that a junior partner in a political alliance will be the one to produce a presidential candidate in such an alliance. But it happened in Nigeria just to calm the Yoruba people down. This is part of our recent history and not our First Republic history.

And somebody is saying that some people are agitating and rightly so, that the Igbo people have been so marginalized and don’t feel they have a place in Nigeria anymore, why won’t Nigeria do for them what they did for others and prove to our younger ones that the Igbo are still part of this country? It’s just sheer blackmail and mischief to hold Biafra agitations against the Igbo wanting to be president. It has nothing to do with reality.

And talking about restructuring, everybody wants Nigeria restructured but producing a President from the South will facilitate that restructuring. Producing a president from the South after having one from the North for eight years is restructuring. The 2014 National Conference recommended restructuring. Buhari made it clear when he was sworn in that he would not touch the 2014 national conference recommendations. And if you watched Atiku Abubakar during his campaigns, he only talked about restructuring when he came to campaign in the South. Check the records. Each time he campaigned in the North, he never mentioned it. This means that to him, it is expedient to mention restructuring in the South, and perhaps he didn’t mean it. All these things were in our records.

So, anybody talking about restructuring and saying restructure first before talking about the presidency may not understand. To me, Presidency comes first before restructuring and it depends on where that Presidency comes from. No northern president will champion restructuring. You cannot engineer restructuring from outside the government. I was part of PRONACO that tried it and everybody agreed. Professor Wole Soyinka is still alive, but when it came to funding the project, we found it was impossible to do so except with state resources and facilitation. So, that one ended there.

Talking about Presidency, when you come to the South-West, Tinubu is formidable and you don’t get to hear about several others. However, in the South-East, there appears to be many interested candidates. Won’t this work against the South-East when it comes to projecting one candidate?

Well, bringing out one individual is not the best way to go about it. It doesn’t happen anywhere in the world except a president that wants to go for a second term and even that, the party will give him a chance of first refusal.

That is often seen in the presidential system like that of the United States. But other than that, when somebody is going for the very first time, aspirants emerge. It is only the party convention that throws up the candidate. So, in the case of the South-East, there’s nothing unusual that more people are indicating interest to contest the presidency. Before now, the impression was that no one in the South-East is showing interest in running for the presidency; but now that they are indicating interest, nobody should complain about too many of them coming to run. Eventually, it is the party that decides. But I want to say that neither Tinubu from the South-West nor any of these aspirants from the South-East will emerge as candidates of APC or PDP. It will never happen. There is nobody in PDP from the South-East who has the outreach and goodwill; and the capacity and qualification of Dr. Alex Ekweme. None of them and yet they treated him the way they did in Jos.

In the case of Tinubu, I don’t even know where his optimism is coming from because when you think of it, Nigeria cannot escape the sentiment of religion. How can a Muslim want to replace another Muslim? How can that fly? A party that throws up Tinubu has planned to fail right from the very beginning not because his name is Tinubu but because of the factors and circumstances around him. It also means that if he emerges, although he is a Muslim, he should know that Northern Muslims will not consider him a Muslim. If he emerges, he will have to take a Christian from the North who may not be able to garner the kind of votes that a Muslim candidate will make.

That is the practical thing playing out. Anybody can argue it but at the end of the day, we shall see. The PDP is going to pick its candidate from the North-East because they believe the North-West has had its full time and the North-East has not had an opportunity. And APC is not going to allow the northern political space to be occupied by the PDP. So, APC is also looking in the direction of the North-East. Already, PDP has gone to the North-Central to take a chairman. Watch that APC is also taking its chairman from the North-Central.

So, be rest assured that North-East presidential candidates of either Fulani or Kanuri in that area will fly the flags of these two parties. So, the recommendation I make to the Igbo, and that is without any anger as to the injustice done to me in the party I founded, but with every sense of patriotism is that the Igbo must come together, especially now that Professor Chukwuma Soludo is coming in as governor of Anambra State, and being a man who has tested his political trouble, a man who has been around from the time he served as CBN governor and having served in other capacities; he will be serious about the Igbo question. Now that he is coming in as governor, he should be passionate about developing APGA outside the South-East. He should see to it that APGA is relaunched and returned to its original vision. Once that is done, the political equation of Nigeria will change because APGA will be the only party that will throw up a Christian Presidential candidate that will have a national appeal. The 2023 election must be based on some balance that will throw the arrogant northern political class back to the drawing board.

I can also tell you that the Hausas are coalescing right now around the Peoples Redemption Party, PRP. They will soon emerge strong. They have just discovered that the late Aminu Kano is not just the leader of the Talakawas and street urchins but he was one person determined to assert the Hausa political identity in the North, instead of being subsumed under the Fulani hegemony. So now, they have realized what Aminu Kano was fighting for, that he was not the leader of the Talakawas or street urchins as branded by northern elites. The Hausa who are far more educated than other ethnic groups from that part now have come to that realization and you discovered that gradually, they are throwing up Professor Attahiru Jega as their arrowhead. When the time comes, don’t be surprised to see Prof Attahiru Jega as the flag-bearer of the PRP.

The late Balarabe Musa who won in old Kaduna which included Katsina was a Hausa man. In Kano, there was Abubakar Rimi, another Hausa man. So, there would be a realignment of political forces.

Indeed, 2023 will be an interesting year and that includes the introduction and deepening of electoral technology. You will see a strong force emerging among the Hausa and their friends. Then, if my recommendations are accepted, APGA will rebound and that’s the only platform that an Igbo man can fly.

If you notice, after Odumegwu-Ojukwu, no Igboman has been the candidate for APGA. After Ojukwu, those who hijacked APGA felt it was better for them to adopt Jonathan. So, they adopted Jonathan in 2011 and adopted Jonathan again in 2015, publicly.

And what happened in 2019? They went to Tiv and brought one General Gbor that we have never heard his name in politics. General Gbor was not a combatant soldier but a classroom teacher in the army.

After using him, he has gone back to where they brought him from but you can never see him anywhere around APGA. They have wrecked that party from its original vision but I know an opportunity is calling and the mood is right and Professor Soludo has a date with history.

So, you still expected APGA to be what it used to be when you founded it?

It will even be greater. There is this adage that the Igbo man doesn’t start running from the rain until he is fully drenched. Another truth is that the Igbo man has been drenched in his underwear. So, what we were preaching is that with proper sensitization, the Igbo will make a mark in 2023 if they go into a coalition with a stronger party. The Igbo people have done it before in the First and Second Republics and they were very relevant. If my advice is heeded to, APGA would rebound and go into an alliance for the Igbo to remain relevant in the scheme of things.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo should organize a political summit of the Igbo to work out how to push the people ahead in 2023.

It is not by begging. When I heard Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife being quoted to have said Igbo are willing to bow to get the Presidency, I was surprised. I was even expecting him to say he was misquoted. Igbo have what it takes to aggregate all the ethnic minorities across the country to form a formidable coalition. It is not about begging but about give and take. It is not the culture of the Igbo to beg.

INTERVIEW: Mbazuluike Amaechi Reveals Why Zik Couldn’t Be Nigeria’s Elected President

FROM CHIJIOKE AGWU

Mbazuluike Amaechi

 

ABAKALIKI, EBONYI STATE (SUN NEWS) Chief Mbazuluike Amaechi, an elder statesman and First Republic Minister of Aviation was in Abakaliki,Ebonyi State to see Governor David Umahi.

He spoke with journalists on his recent visit to President Muhammadu Buhari with some Igbo leaders, the militarization of Southeast and the quest for Nigeria president of Igbo extraction in 2023, among other issues. Excerpt:

You led some Igbo leaders to see President Buhari recently. Can you tell us some of the major reasons for the visit?

A few days ago, I led a small delegation of Igbo leaders to meet the President of Nigeria on the growing tempo of violence in Nigeria especially in the Southeast. The president was happy to receive our delegation, and our discussions were frank, sincere and all targeted at advancing peace and full reconciliation and we are expecting a positive result.

What is your mission in Ebonyi?

I have come to Ebonyi State to greet the governor who is the Chairman of the South East Governors Forum, and seek their support in our efforts to find peace. I am deeply worried and pained by the new spate of violence between some policemen and civilians who were said to have been killed and I am appealing to all who may be involved in these crimes to please seize violence and give peace a chance. Whether they are of IPOB or MASSOB or known or unknown gunmen or agents of any organ or personality should please stop it now. You can never achieve peace or reconciliation through violence. As the only surviving minister and member of the government of the First Republic I appeal to all to please respect my age and help me to make peace , before returning to my maker. I want to comment on the new spate of violence. I am trying to bring peace and freedom to Igbo land. You people are young elements , you don’t know what pleasant place our place was before, we grew up at a very difficult time , at a strange time where there is no food, no money , nothing and your money have no value again and everything has been destroyed and we are trying to bring back that peace. Today, in Igbo land, from Abakaliki to Enugu , I know it is used to be about 35 minutes drive , but now if you have no escort, it will take you about an hour or two because on the roads there are checkpoints upon checkpoints. In our own side, Anambra, Imo and Abia, you need to see what is happening there. People are travelling, they are made to come down, all passengers in a lorry or a bus, men, women, children. Women who are pregnant, women who carry children at their back, they are made to raise their hands above their head. This is not a free country. So, these are the things I want to stop. And I want to stop the killings, I have the capability of saying it, one of the discussions I had with the president last week, was the safety of Nnamdi Kanu detention and the whole situations and how it should be handled, how to reconcile the Igbo side of this country who were the leadership of the struggle for independence and creation of the country and to reconcile them with the rest of the country. We have been isolated since the war ended, we are not given responsible positions in the country, the economy has been destroyed, the only seaport at Port Harcourt is closed because it was close to the Igbo. Our traders order their goods and they arrive at Lagos and from Lagos , to Abakaliki or to Onitsha. The customs molest them on the road and take more of the profits they will make in the business . People are suffering now, you people are in hell now. In Ebonyi State, I don’t know why they had to allow the Nkalagu cement factory to die. Nkalagu cement is the only major industry in Ebonyi State so far. And it was the major thing that sustained us during our time and at that time , if you pay N200, at Nkalagu cement they will deliver to you one lorry load of cement, 200 bags of cement anywhere in the eastern part of Nigeria. Today, that place is closed, it must be re-opened . I have seen the wonderful thing that the governor is doing here, I have seen the development here, but the next phase will be to put an industry here .I am not dying tomorrow, I am 93 years old ,I will live and see this development and you people will live and see it and grow with it.

Giving how the country is going especially the treatment being meted to the Igbo,what message do you have for the Igbo youths?

Well, my message at the moment, particularly when the Igbo are at the receiving side , is for the Igbo to use that Igbo sense , silence is golden . You see there is one weakness Igbo people have, what you will do tomorrow; you say it today. I will do this tomorrow, if you do it tomorrow it is no longer news , if you don’t do it tomorrow the shame is yours . So the best thing is for them to use their sense. Let us work silently. God has given the Igbo land the blessings of men, women and children who are hardworking and self-reliant and education is very high in our place, so with proper management and discipline, with proper planning we will succeed. We will come back to the original position of the Igbo in Nigeria.

Some people are saying that you went to Abuja to discuss with the president on how to release Nnamdi Kanu , but failed to discuss the main issue of marginalization which is fueling the agitations of Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB?

People who are saying that are putting the cart before the horse before that should draw it. This marginalization issue has always been there and also being discussed. They cannot be solved in a violent way.It is when we have this young man out, then we will have dialogue. Dialogue is the only thing, meet people, solve their problems, give and take .That was how we applied it in our time.

Nigeria president of Igbo extraction has continued to elude the Southeast since the end of the civil war. 2023 is already by the corner. What is your thought on this and your advice to Igbo politicians?

First of all, let me take you back a little to history. Ndigbo lost a very bright chance of producing the president of Nigeria in 1979. Dr Azikiwe called me in April 1978 and told me as his field man in his time to go back to Nigeria and tell them that he wanted to come back to politics. I went to Lagos , I contacted Shehu Shagari and said I have come , how do we work together to get this one . So, Shagari summoned two other people from the North , Shettima Alimonguno and Sunday Awoniyi from Kwara State . Then I went with Azubuike Okafor and Dennis Osadebe . We were holding meetings in Lagos at the residence of Shehu Shagari and I was reporting to Zik until we eventually agreed on a platform called NPN, that Zik will be the presidential candidate and Shagari will be his running mate . So I came back and reported to Zik and Zik said it is good, you know it is the Emirs that determine, are you sure that this your agreement that the Emirs will not knock it off? So, I went back to Lagos and told Shagari this is the fear of the old man , then Shagari dismissed it and said he was in consultation with our Emirs . Then the following week, the Sultan of Sokoto sent the Emir of Zaria to Zik at Nsukka with four pieces of brooked and four pieces of round footstool they make in the North and to tell Zik that they the Emirs in the North are in support of what the politicians are planning. Zik said again ,but what about the soldiers , the soldiers might take up the government again if we win the election. And I said to him, Owelle if they kill you now , they didn’t kill you early. He said, get out this foolish boy, and we laughed, I went back to Lagos and told Shagari , this is what Zik is saying again about the Army. Shagari said haba, does that man really want to be president, why all these? Okay, I will get in touch with the Army, come back in the evening. We will have dinner in the evening. Then in the evening I went back to his house in Victoria Island in Lagos and there Danjuma came, Danjuma was the Chief of Army Staff then. So, the three of us had dinner and Shagari then told Danjuma this is the fear the old man is nursing about the election. Danjuma said no , no, no , but he is the real man we want. It is that kind of elder that we really want that will bind this country together. Alright I can’t go to Nsukka because if I go to Nsukka the press will catch me, go back and tell Zik that I am going to Calabar on Saturday to Army’s sports , I will make a speech at army’s sport at Calabar and in that speech I will send a message to him. So, on that day Danjuma went to Calabar and made the speech and said that he was reassuring the nation that the Army was ready to hander over finally to a civilian government and return to the barracks, but they must warn that the person that they will hand over to must be an elder that can unite the country, not to somebody that will come and cause problem again. He must be a father; a true father of the nation. Suddenly, Jim Nwobodo lost nomination with Onoh in the party and went back to the other party called NPP and went to Zik and asked Zik to dump whatever arrangement he was making and come to NPP, that NPP is our own party, Igbo party and we will put you in the government, and suddenly Zik changed his mind and he made announcement that a plan for his birthday in November 1978 at the Presidential hotel Enugu is cancelled and it was that day he was supposed to be presented to the nation. The motion was to be moved by Maitama Sule from Kano to be seconded by Tony Enahoro from the West and I will speak last from the East. He made a statement that he had cancelled his birthday party. I was shocked and I went back to him on the 17th of November and asked him what happened, he said Jim came to him and gave him reasons he should join them in NPP. And that he thinks it was better for him to belong to a party of his people. That he didn’t want to go to a party where Akinloye will be the national chairman and he also didn’t want to belong to the same party with Mbadiwe ,reminding me what Mbadiwe did to him. He gave all these flimsy excuses . In my book, I wrote the history of Nigeria, you will see it. I said Zik made Jim Nwobodo governor and unmade himself president, that was what happened. That party at Enugu that was aborted, Osadebe came and went to Zik’s house, they did not allow him to see Zik, they told him that Zik was sick , that night Osadebe was going back and he had an accident and got paralyzed till he died, Moji Lagbaje from Ibadan a close associate of Adelabu came for the party at Enugu, it was aborted , he went to Nsukka to see Zik and he was told that zik was not feeling well and he couldn’t see him. On his way back to Ore he had an accident and died with three leaders with him, four of them died in his car . That was how he lost the opportunity of becoming Nigeria president. So the party moved around and nominated Shehu Shagari. Then on the 13th of January 1978 at Kwara State hotel , I was there on a campaign tour, Shagari as the candidate already nominated was to choose and announce his running mate. So he called me in the hotel on the 13th of January with Akinloye the national chairman and told me that they have selected me to be his running mate and I said Shehu thank you very much, you know my association with you, I am a very sincere man , I can’t see myself running for a lower position when Zik is running against you. I can’t run an election to defeat Zik. See, Igbo people will not forgive me, my children will not be able to explain it and so I am not going to accept it. And so I nominated Alex Ekwueme to be the running mate. That was one opportunity we had. Then during the return to democracy in 1998, Ekwueme ran for president , the same Jim Nwobodo went to the North again and betrayed Ekwueme when they were in Jos convention when PDP were selecting their candidate. And that was how we lost again. Now as for next year I think the country, many horses that have grown in other parts of the country and they are people who are not happy to see the Igbo come back again. But they are people who are giving a rethink to what has been happening all these years and they will want in order to bind the country together to have a true Nigeria , a true federation where everybody will belong and they are prepared to cooperate with the Igbo. The trouble we have now is like I called a meeting in my house , a joint meeting of PDP and the APC, I told them look APC go to your party , work hard , nominate an igbo presidential candidate. PDP go to your party, work hard and make sure you nominate an Igbo presidential candidate, let them contest and whosoever wins is an Igbo man. But if any of the major parties nominate another person from another place, it will be a very big contest, and it will be very difficult for an Igbo man to win on the platform of any of the other small political parties. But the question is that I don’t think that the Igbo politicians are applying enough strategy. You see, to get such a position you have to plan and strategize ,you have to organize, you have to move , you have to mobilize and you don’t making noise. You do it quietly before people know what you are doing, like I said if you say what you want to do tomorrow so much today, if you do it tomorrow it is no longer a news. But if you fail to do it, then you will be termed a failure. So, the best thing is to come out with a surprise and that is the best strategy. I am still alive and I am prepared to help them to plan if anybody comes to me .

IGBO POLITICS: 2023: APGA Vows To Win More Guber, National Assembly Seats In Nigeria

BY CHIJINDU EMERUWA

ABUJA (DAILY POST) The National Chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), has boasted that it will win more gubernatorial and legislative seats in Nigeria come 2023 general election.

Ozonkpu Victor Ike Oye, said this in a statement forwarded to DAILY POST on Sunday, by the National Publicity Secretary of APGA, Barrister Tex Okechukwu, at the end of the enlarged meeting of the National Working Committee of the party held at its National Secretariat in Abuja.

The APGA National Chairman also reiterated that the party will spread more and even overtake other major political parties in Nigeria.

Oye said, “APGA is consistently rising, spreading all over the country as the most formidable political party giving its pacesetting antecedents in all democratic ramifications.

“Nigerian people have seen that APGA is transparent, diligent and determined to take the party to the next level, unlike other parties. They are indicating interest to join from all over the country and even from the diaspora.

“Even the defectors are full of regrets and are making frantic efforts to rescind and reverse their mischievous mistakes by decamping to APC”.

He further stated that APGA is the bride and pride of contemporary Nigeria politicians.

Oye said, “the usual sincerity and determination of all the stakeholders in the party, particularly in the immediate past election that produced Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo as governor and Dr. Ibezim as Deputy governor-elect of Anambra state respectively speaks volumes.

“Every astute politician in Nigeria particularly in the southeast has found APGA as the only political haven and are hurriedly taking advantage of that, by trying to join. Other political parties are overwhelmed with the irreversible political crisis”.

Continuing, the national Chairman further reiterated that Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State did excellently well and that Soludo will definitely do more and improve in the established legacies of Obiano’s administration in the state.

“Professor Charles Soludo stated categorically that he has contracted with Ndi ANAMBRA, and that he will bring his wealth of international and national experiences to bear in developing Anambra State, that he has resolved to make Anambra State a haven for investors and even for leisure seekers, he promised massive infrastructural development, security will be at its best, provision of jobs for the youths of Ndi Anambra, partnership with public and private sectors etc”, Oye said.

He, however, used the medium to commend the National Working Committee (NWC) and other party faithful for their unshakable and maximum cooperation since their inception more particularly during the trying times of the immediate past gubernatorial election.

According to the statement by the APGA spokesman, the National Secretary of the party, Dr. Labaran Maku, Deputy National Chairman Northern Nigeria, Adamu, the Deputy National Chairman southern zone, Chief Uchenna Okogbuo and all the national vice-chairmen and members of the APGA NWC were present during the enlarged meeting held in Abuja.

In another development, the Yobe State Executive Committee of the All Progressive Grand Alliance has honoured its national chairman, Ozonkpu Victor Oye for an excellent leadership award.

The State leadership of the party described him as a Colossus and a go-getter.

2023: Challenges Of The South East

BY SUNNY IKHIOYA

(VANGUARD) Every human being or society has the natural propensity to be wicked and violent, if the enablements for peace and stability are not in place, but is the recourse to violence the answer to these challenges? Will this be the answer to the much marginalised situation that the Igbos of the South east have faced since the end of the civil war in 1970?

When the Russian communist revolution took place in 1917, ending centuries of imperial rule and setting into motion political and social changes that led to the formation of the Soviet Union, the world took notice.

What Karl Marx, the philosopher predicted in 1848, had come to pass. His thesis was that capitalism would inevitably self-destruct, and would be replaced by socialism and ultimately communism.

According to Ernest W Adams, “Britain, like the United States, was never quite as oppressive towards its peasants and industrial working classes as some of the other nations of Europe were.

“It was bad, make no mistake, but it wasn’t anywhere near as bad to be a British peasant, as it was to be a Russian peasant under the czars. And, Britain made a number of important reforms that took the wind off the sails of the most extreme revolutionaries. The UK offered universal male suffrage in 1918, undoubtedly in part to recognise the sacrifices of so many men in the first world war, but, also in response to the Russian Revolution.”

In other words, in places where peasants were well treated, there was the least likelihood of a people’s revolution and vice-versa. When you look at the regions and countries with the highest rate of terrorism in the world today, they are places where the peasants, the ordinary folks have been left on their own; no food, no proper education and other basic needs.

They include Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, Palestine, Libya, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, northern Nigeria, among others. The common trend is of a people who have been abandoned by their governments and so, they fall easy prey to religion and ideological doctrines. They see themselves as those with nothing to lose.

In the French revolution, at least four of the top ten leaders (Jacques Pierre Briscot, Maximilien Robespierre, Louis Antoine and Georfes Danton), all were executed through the guillotine, the same instrument that they had used to eliminate so many of their rivals.

What does this tell us? We must learn from history and never allow past mistakes to be repeated. Happenings in the South east are not ideal for development and progress of the people in that section of the country.

The leadership in that region must put heads together and pull their people, from the trap that their youths are presently encircling them in. It is a no win situation for them, especially if people from other parts of the country are not keying into their methodology.

The whole world knows that by all standards of fairness, the Igbo of the South east deserves to be President of the country, come 2023, but how this will materialise depends on the Igbos. Every Igbo man is pan Nigerian, and has his kith and kin cut across the length and breadth of the country, which gives him a networking advantage.

They have the resources to make this happen but need to do this in humility and with respect for their fellow Nigerians. That hubris, that pride and arrogance must be subdued, that feeling of ‘I am the best,’ must be totally expunged from their mindset. The spirit of ‘I’, instead of the ‘we’ must be cleared, while the feeling of force over dialogue must also not come into play. That is why they must reexamine their strategies.

Politics is a game, if you do not play it right, you will continue to end up on the losing side. I am not a fan of Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, director of publicity and advocacy of the Northern Elders Forum, but I totally agree with him that bringing the presidency to the South will not be by force. If you are to go by force, it will no longer be a democracy. We must decide on what we wish to practice.

It is also noteworthy that, while the Igbos are flexing muscles, they have not really narrowed down on the list they want to pick their presidential candidate from. While they continue with their belligerence against themselves and the world, supporters of Bola Ahmed Tinubu are already doing underground work, lobbying and campaigning to make their candidate become the next president.

You do not sow yam and expect to reap corn, you must work hard, plan and adopt the right strategies. Identify the weak areas and collectively agree on what path to follow. As it is now, it will seem as if Igbo leaders are waiting to ride on the notoriety of IPOB, to become popular candidates.

The ones that have been bold enough to tell the truth are being hunted down and threatened, others are keeping quiet, including governors of the region. They are not able to come out with a working security outfit, like the South west have done. We must try to build a united country that is free from unnecessary ethnic and religious sentiments.

History has shown that the Azikiwe-Awolowo division/betrayal was inspired by the British. If you have listened to the testimony of Mr. Smith, a Briton who witnessed it all in Nigeria, Azikiwe was blackmailed by the British into that alliance with the Northern Peoples Congress, NPC, not withstanding the fact that Zik by nature was a pan Nigerian.

Ordinary folks have been made to fight this imaginary war over the years. The achilles heel of the Igbos is the tendency to assert their superiority through bullying in whatever form, the same way some of the Fulanis are doing now that they are in control of leadership of Nigeria. We must all remember the fact that, no empire lasts forever. No matter how good, everything is dependent on time, circumstances and chance.

This is the chance for the South east but will they take it? Some have said that, even if the presidency is zoned to the South east on a platter of gold, they will not be able to produce a candidate, because it will be impossible for them to agree on one among themselves.

The South had only come this far in the pursuit of the 2023 ticket, because of the strong leadership that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has provided for the southern governors forum. Even within this forum, you can see the South east governors dragging their feet. Let us see if they will prove us wrong.

Ikhioya wrote via www.southsouthecho.com

Nd'Igbo: 10 Years Without Ojukwu

BY MAGNUS EZE AND GEORGE ONYEJIUWA

Igbo hero, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, who led the people of defunct Eastern Region to a 30-month war between Biafra and Nigeria, died on November 26, 2011. In commemoration of his death, founder of the Movement for Actualization of the Sovereign State Biafra (MASSOB) and the Biafra Independent Movement (BIM), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, has consistently hosted the Ojukwu Day on November 26 at the Ojukwu Memorial Library built in honour of the Ezeigbo Gburugburu, in Owerri, Imo State capital.

The celebrations were usually marked with fanfare and have attracted the Igbo and other Nigerians from far and near. In the last decade since the Ojukwu Day began, several important personalities from across Nigeria had graced the event including the late founder of Odua People’s Congress (OPC), Dr Fredrick Fasheun; Major Al Mustapha, Chief Security Officer to the late Military Head of State General Sani Abacha and the 1996 Long Jump Olympic Gold medalist, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Chioma Ajunwa.
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The late Nri monarch, Onyesor Obidigwu; former Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide; Uche Okukwu; Niger Delta activist, Asari Dokubo; former Ohanaeze Ndigbo President General and Secretary General, Dr Dozie Ikedife and Col. Joe Achuzie (Rtd) respectively as well as politicians had also graced the memorial.

Ojukwu Day has become a veritable platform where issues militating against Ndigbo are discussed and solutions proffered. Chairman of this year’s event was no less a person than Afamefuna Ojukwu, son of Bianca, widow of the late Biafra leader. The younger Ojukwu who has become the youngest chairman of the event was fittingly ushered into the arena by the Ijele masquerade, the biggest masquerade in Igbo land.

Painfully, no South East state government has in the past 10 years identified with the Ojukwu Day, this was condemned by Afamefuna. He accused governors of the five South East states of abandoning his father in death. His mother, Bianca, had raised similar issue in the past. She alleged that Governor Chief Willie Obiano of Anmabra State has not given her husband the due recognition, but using his name during elections.

Afamefuna lamented governments of states, which his father fought to defend their people turned their backs on him after his burial. He praised Uwazuruike for keeping Ojukwu’s name alive at all cost and urged the Igbo to use the 10th anniversary of his exit to look back and look deep, while not forgetting the vision planted so long ago:

“Ten years ago, when my father, Ikemba, Eze Igbo Gburugburu left us, I was a child. Yet, I can never forget the outpouring of love that you, ummu nne m, showed him. In life and in death, you stood with him.

“Since that fateful day 10 years ago, Okenwa, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, who in his lifetime took the baton of fighting for our people, has also taken it upon himself to celebrate my father year after year. As he honoured the Ikemba in life, he has continued to honour him in death.

“In these almost 10 years, no state governor in the South East has done this incredible and noble task, despite the fact that Eze Igbo Gburugburu was our leader through a war to save us from the genocide that faced our people.

“Today, we live in a world where many prefer to forget the battles waged to bring us this far, the sacrifices of so many in this unrelenting quest to end our marginalisation and the continued fight for a just and equitable state that we can live in without oppression. Nobody without passion for his people and a spirit of sacrifice can lead us to the Promised Land, no matter how genuine their intentions may be.”

Deputy Governor of Anambra State, Dr Nkem Okeke, who was the special guest of honour, also commended Uwazuruike: “We are here today to honour the memory of a great man, a true son of Ndigbo. He was a brave man with integrity who loved his people and stood for truth all his life. I am here to show solidarity to his family and I will continue to stand by them.

“Ndigbo are great people and all we need is unity of purpose and with that we can achieve whatever we want. We must stand together and if we don’t do that, we will never achieve our desired position in Nigeria.”

The guest speaker, Prof Proteus Uzoma, presented a paper titled; “The Marginalization of Igbo Nation and the Call for Nigerian unity –The Way Forward.” He noted that the Igbo nation has continued to face enormous political and economic challenges since the instigated and imposed civil war by the General Yakubu Gowon-led Federal Military Government.

He asserted that Nigeria would only be considered normal in terms of where Ndigbo stood vis-a-vis the other ethnic nationalities politically and economically. The Professor of Philosophy noted: “The Igbo people in reality experienced an overwhelming level of disadvantages based on public policies that seemed crafted to undermine their ability to maximize political and economic potentials.

“The restructuring of Nigeria to create more states for the northern states to the detriment of the Southern Nigeria, especially, the South ast was not only an impediment politically; it impacts the economic potentials of the Igbo people negatively.

“Such policies as the failure to rehabilitate the Biafra land after the war, the 20 Pound flat refund to any Biafran who wished to convert the old currency, or deposits with bank prior to the war; the Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decree of 1972, also known as Indigenization Decree, federal character principle, manipulated population census, creation of states and local government areas in favour of the Northern Nigeria, deliberate underuse of seaports within the Igbo axis, lack of standard international airport and other exploitative actions speak volume.

“These formed many overt and indirect actions to diminish the ability of the Igbo people to compete on a level-playing ground with other major ethnic groups. This has given rise to the current agitation in the South East for equity, justice and fairness.”

He posited that the only remedy to the current agitation both in the South East/South West is restructuring of Nigeria into a true and real federal polity as well as conceding the presidential slot to the Igbo in 2023 for equity and justice:

“The crux of the matter lies in fact that the Nigerian Federal Government has too much powers, plays dominant roles and overbearing influences that have been grossly abused, thus leading to intensified calls for restructuring, coupled with suppressed frustrations and resentment during the military interregnum; resulting in inter-communal violence now threatening the peace and unity of Nigeria.

“Come 2023 and in accordance with the gentleman’s agreement among the Southern and Northern Nigeria in 1998, power must rotate to the Southern Nigeria, and since the South West and South-South have taken their own shots to the Presidency since 1999, ‘to-be-and-not-to-be’ is the question. Will a South-Easterner be the next President of Nigeria or not?”

Bianca in a vote of thanks lauded Uwazuruike for ensuring that the memory of her late husband was kept alive: “Some other person may have given up after two years. But this is the tenth year and I am grateful for what he has been doing including the Ikemba Ojukwu Library he built.”

She called on President Muhammadu Buhari to heed the appeal of eminent Igbo elders led by First Republic aviation minister, Chief Mbazuluike Amaechi, who recently paid him a visit to ask for the release of detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

The King Of The Jews

 

Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, wears a Jewish prayer shawl as he walks in his garden at his house in Umuahia, on May 26, 2017, before meeting veterans of the Biafran War. Image: Marco Longari via AFP

Biafran separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu has infused his movement with a Jewish sectarian identity in a country riven by tensions between Christians and Muslims. Is he putting Nigeria’s Igbo Jewish community at risk?

BY ADAM MAYER

TABLET MAGAZINE

In early July, three young Israeli filmmakers—Rudy Rochman, Andrew Noam Leibman, and Edouard David Benaym—traveled to Nigeria to film a documentary on Africa’s lesser known Jewish communities. They were arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria’s internal security organization, on informal charges of supporting Biafran independence, and were held in custody under reportedly terrible conditions for 20 days, along with an Igbo Jewish woman. For the duration of their arrest, the Israeli filmmakers were not informed about the charge or the expected length of their detention. Their capture seems to have been prompted by photos showing them presenting a Sefer Torah to a local shul, and a shiviti to a local Igbo royal, that were shared on Facebook by political supporters of Biafran independence.

Thus did the filmmakers learn about Nigeria’s Igbo problématique in the hardest possible way: Biafra, a southeastern territory that seceded from Nigeria between 1967 and 1970, is predominantly populated by the Igbos, 2 million of whom died of starvation during the Nigerian Civil War. Jeff L. Lieberman’s 2012 documentary, Re-Emerging: The Jews of Nigeria, had drawn attention to the fledgling community of Torah observant converts among the Igbo, who consider themselves “biological” Jews, but didn’t so much as mention the issue of Biafra secessionism or Igbo nationalism.

But when the face of the secessionist movement, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) founder Nnamdi Kanu, was arrested on June 27, 2021, his supporters abroad protested for his release by waving Israeli flags. In 2017, after a similar arrest and 19 months in custody, Kanu had declared himself a Jew and a “believer in Judaism” in front of the judge. In 2018, while on Israeli television, Kanu called on Israel to “come and defend Judaism all over the world.” In March of this year, his opponents within Nigeria’s Jewish community (including Chief Arthur-Regis Odidika, president of the Nigeria Jewish Community) publicly claimed that Kanu’s ethnic Igbo secessionist supporters are trying to take over the otherwise apolitical and peaceful Jewish communities in southeastern Nigeria, and accused him of un-Jewish “proselytizing” on Radio Biafra. As of this writing, Kanu remains in the custody of Nigeria’s DSS, and his trial, adjourned for the first time in late summer, was adjourned again after Oct. 21, when he pleaded not guilty to charges of “terrorism, treason, involvement with a banned separatist movement, inciting public violence through radio broadcasts, and defamation of Nigerian authorities through broadcasts.”

Kanu’s mix of Jewish identity, rock star political status, and advocacy for ethnic separatism is an unusual one. It is difficult to deny that he is advocating for an armed insurgency among Igbos, a “tribe” that numbers upward of 50 million people in a country with a total population of 206 million. Igbos have historically constituted a majority in southeastern Nigeria, have traditionally maintained “acephalous” political systems (i.e., lacking in leaders or hierarchies, instead depending on consensus among different age groups and secret societies), and have also upheld cultural traditions of matriarchy, as well as shared political power among both women and men. Today the Igbos are famous for their entrepreneurial spirit.

Beyond the well-known case of Ethiopia’s Jews, sizable Jewish communities have existed all over Africa. In Uganda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, genetic traces of Cohenic ancestry were recently discovered, and in the Sahel, the Jewish presence goes back millennia. But no DNA evidence has yet substantiated Igbo claims to Jewish ancestry, although the claim is at least as old as the late 18th century, when it was made by the Black British intellectual and abolitionist Olaudah Equiano. In Kanu’s idiosyncratic version of history, 50 million Igbos are in fact 50 million Jews, the vast majority of whom are Christian merely because they were misled by colonialist missionaries. Estimates put the mainstream Igbo Jewish population in Nigeria at only 12,000-15,000. But in Kanu’s telling, the Igbo Jews have no intention of remaining part of Nigeria or settling in Israel, but only of bringing about the independent State of Biafra.

Behind Kanu’s grand claim is, in fact, a core group of diehards. Kanu may be an eccentric who has himself photographed in tallit and a Fendi tracksuit at the Kotel or in the custody of security agents at undisclosed airports. But Nigeria’s very serious Igbo Jewish community is earnest in its beliefs. William F.S. Miles’ 2012 book, Jews of Nigeria: An Afro-Judaic Odyssey, provides a vivid account of the fervor with which mitzvot are performed by the Igbos, from bar mitzvah celebrations and davening, to concern for the timing of lighting Shabbos candles, mikvah rituals, putting on tefillin, and even women donning wigs. Some synagogues in Nigeria are eager for a more Orthodox relationship with Torah that reminds one of some Breslov communities, in which balei teshuvah (the newly religious) make up the majority. It is no coincidence, perhaps, that the Breslov Rabbi in Jerusalem Dror Moshe Cassouto considers the Igbo a lost tribe of Israel and shares sympathetic accounts of their plight on his Facebook page.

Others in Israel have shown less enthusiasm: In 1993, the Israeli Supreme Court declared that Igbos were not Jews, and David Sperling, professor emeritus of Bible at Hebrew Union College, has said that the notion of Igbos as a lost tribe is “mythical.” Miles, who does not deny that genetic claims are unsubstantiated, argues nevertheless that in the case of the Igbos, theology should trump DNA, given the seriousness of their practical commitments and observance.

According to Igbo lore, their common ancestor is Eri, the fifth son of Gad. Igbo customs that point to a possible Judaic connection have historically included circumcision on the eighth day of life (universal for Igbo males), niddah (physical separation of married women during menstrual cycles), ritual slaughter of animals, and new moon celebrations, to name a few. For practical purposes, however, any verifiable connection to modern Judaism is a contemporary phenomenon, stretching back no further than the late 1960s. The largest denominations of Igbos today are Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant (including Pentecostal and born-again) Christian. One of the more interesting questions is how a modern Jewish community of any size managed to emerge in a hotbed of fervent Christianity. Here it helps to employ a North American parallel.

Messianic Judaism, Jews for Jesus, and similar groups were originally founded with the aim of converting Jews to Christianity. Rabbis like Michael Skobac in Canada and Tovia Singer in Israel spent years trying to keep vulnerable Jews from falling prey to the theology and practices of Messianic Jewish groups, which they saw as engaged in clear subterfuge. But as they did so, they noticed a surprising phenomenon: The messianic groups were actually attracting small groups of Protestants (and other Christians), who then began to move closer to normative Judaism. Today, there is a small Noahide movement in the United States; Orthodox Judaism is the professed ideal of the community, in which most members are former Protestants.

In terms of the number of adherents, messianic groups in Nigeria far outweigh normative Jewish ones. But there has been an observable movement recently by some of the former in the direction of the latter. As a member of a Yahweh Yahshua Synagogue in the city of Umuahia and the scion of the local royal family, Nnamdi Kanu is as much a particularist religious preacher as a separatist political leader. His speeches are peppered with Hebrew names for God (his preference is "Elohim,” perhaps to signify the judgments his enemies should expect from the Heavenly Court), Shabbat, and Israel. He often talks of “this gospel of redemption,” by which he means Biafran armed struggle for independence. But he is often at pains to distance himself from the born-again movements prevalent in Nigeria. He warns against praying to Jesus, presenting him as merely a teacher, the way Unitarian Christians would. Adding to the complexity, he does not discuss the return of the Messiah, but does say things like, “In the year of the Most High Elohim, 2021.”

As an orator, Kanu rages angrily and emotionally as he attacks what he perceives as Fulani (Muslim) domination of Nigeria. He often conflates former generals, oil rig owners, political bosses, and nomadic herders all as the same Fulani. And he takes radical and progressive stances on sociopolitical issues like industrial policy and unemployment. All this appears to be at odds with the constituency of mostly peaceful and earnest Igbo Jews, who do not in any way seem to represent an ethnic secessionist vanguard, let alone a mass movement of 50 million people. According to Odidika, president of the Nigeria Jewish Community and Kanu’s opponent, what we are witnessing instead is an ethnic secessionist movement that is adopting a Jewish religious identity as a way of defining itself against the Messianic, Christian, and Muslim groups from which it seeks to declare independence.

This is, potentially, no small matter. In Nigeria, home to Boko Haram, religion is often a question of life and death, and many of the country’s political problems can take on a religious form. Kanu himself has made his Judaism an ideological weapon with which to fight Muslims (his preferred terminology for the Fulani is Janjaweed, the pro-government militant group of Darfur renown). He calls Nigeria “the zoo,” and his opponents “animals” and “midgets.” In contrast, according to the Igbo Jewish historian Remy Ilona, normative Igbo Jews do not by and large share Kanu’s hatred of Islam or Muslims.

That Kanu’s political program does have an audience likely has more to do with Nigeria’s problems writ large. Nigeria is a major oil producer, and after 2018 it became Africa’s largest economy. It is also a cultural powerhouse, whose high literature is celebrated abroad, whose music and Nollywood films have a global following, and whose vibrant press, civil society, and trade unions are the envy of West Africa. At the same time, a numerical majority of Nigerians live in absolute poverty, and enjoy only a few hours of “town electricity” on most days. Boko Haram and other extremist jihadi groups run rampant across the country, and the Nigerian Army is currently deployed (as opposed to being stationed) in 22 of the federation’s 36 states. Kidnapping, armed robbery, and government dysfunction and predation are features of everyday life. There is a lively scholarly debate about whether the country is currently a failed state, a failing state, or a “successful failed state.”

Kanu’s push for Biafran independence from the federal government thus strikes some people in southeastern Nigeria as far from insane, if not necessarily the best option. But if the Nigerian government commits the mistake of making the imprisoned Kanu into a martyr for the Igbo separatist cause, it may boost Igbo “political Judaism” in the process, perhaps similar to the way the dreaded Boko Haram rose to prominence after its founder allegedly met his death under opaque circumstances at the hands of the Nigerian police. The longer the federal government goes without addressing structural problems like endemic injustice and corruption, the exploitation of religious and ethnic differences by political opportunists will only proliferate. The majority of Igbo Jews may want to simply be left alone and out of this mess, but like other diaspora communities throughout history, they may find themselves instead at the center of a storm.