INTERVIEW: ‘The Igbo Apprenticeship Scheme Could Be Repositioned To Help Nigeria’

BY CHIJIOKE J. IREMEKA

Uche Nworah

Chief Uche Nworah, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS), Awka, Anambra State, is the convener, National Summit on Igbo Apprenticeship. In this interview with CHIJIOKE IREMEKA, he speaks on the Igbo apprenticeship scheme and how the scheme could be repositioned to help Nigeria as it battles various issues, including unemployment, banditry, and ethnic agitations among others.

Pondering on the Igbo apprenticeship, what is this scheme all about? Where and how did this culture come about?

The Igbo apprenticeship scheme is an entrepreneurial model where an entrepreneur takes an apprentice and teaches him or her the rudiments of a particular trade for an agreed period. On completion, the entrepreneur gives the apprentice seed capital to set up his own business.

Having said that, there is no recorded history of how long Ndigbo have been practicing the apprenticeship scheme. What is obvious is that it is majorly indigenous to Ndigbo and over time, has become part of their culture and tradition. It falls within the ‘self-help’ ideology, the ‘in-group’ philosophy, which found wider acceptance amongst Ndigbo after the Nigeria/Biafra civil war when Ndigbo were stripped of their savings and money in Nigerian banks and given only 20 pounds in exchange for whatever amount they may have in the bank, pre-civil war.

As the Igbo proverb goes, ‘Onye ajulu adiro aju onwe ya’ (if people reject and deny you, you should not deny and reject yourself) Ndigbo then set about rebuilding their businesses and communities, carrying friends, relatives and associates along. Individuals, age grade system, town unions, Iyom, Nze na Ozo and other traditional Igbo societies rallied round in this regard.

This determination to succeed with others also finds expression in the Igbo mantra of ‘Egbe bere ugo bere’- Live and let live, ‘Onye aghana nwanne ya’- leave no one behind along the journey of economic success or along the journey of life.

This meant that people that could already stand on their feet business-wise after the war had to recruit apprentices to serve them or to work with them in their businesses and trades, after which the apprentices (boi-bois) are settled (Idu uno) by their masters to start their own businesses. That way, the wheel of economic progress and development continued to grind in the South East and in other places where Ndigbo sojourn.

You recently conceived the National Summit on Igbo Apprenticeship under the theme: Repositioning The Igbo Apprenticeship Scheme for sustainable Economic Development. What does the event intend to achieve?

The objective of the organisers (Anambra Broadcasting Service in partnership with Awka Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture) is to bring to the fore at this time, the Igbo apprenticeship scheme. We believe that it could be repositioned to help Nigeria as it battles various issues including unemployment, banditry, and ethnic agitations among others.

There is a saying that the idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Adopting the Igbo apprenticeship scheme by both the federal, states and local councils will help provide economic opportunities for our young men and women.

We are also hoping to see how perhaps, as part of the repositioning of the scheme, the apprentices could get local higher institutions to validate their apprenticeship as is done in some parts of Europe. The apprentices could be awarded credit hours in areas like Marketing, Business Management, Customer Service, Leadership, Accounting etc for trade apprentices, or similar credit hours for those learning a skill such as mechanical, technical or other skills.

This is because on a daily basis in their masters’ shop, they are learning the practical aspects of these disciplines. We envisage a situation where perhaps, by the time they complete their apprenticeship; the apprentices will receive some certification, a diploma or so. This will greatly improve their self-esteem and encourage them further along their entrepreneurial journey, as against the situation where many of them go through life with the toga of being an illiterate. This is despite the life and practical lessons they have learnt as apprentices for several years.

We are imagining a situation where for example, there could be a national agency regulating such apprenticeship schemes. The agency will be responsible for a national database, and an apprenticeship exchange where aspiring ‘boi-bois’ will register their interest, and prospective ‘Ogas’ will register their willingness to absorb them. This will help in standardising the scheme. There will be guarantors etc.

An insurance scheme for ‘boi-bois’ could be introduced to enable them access start-up grants should their ‘Ogas’ fail to settle them when they complete their apprenticeship. The ‘Ogas’ will contribute towards such an insurance scheme and receive refund of the premium they have contributed if they fulfill the terms of the apprenticeship.

We have over time also noticed abuses in the Igbo apprenticeship scheme. There have been reported cases of apprentices overstaying the agreed period, or the ‘Oga’ refusing to settle the ‘boi-boi’ as agreed. These acts give the Igbo apprenticeship scheme a bad name. We are hoping that these and other associated issues will be discussed at the summit and solutions proffered.

What will be the focus of this event? Does it have to do with manpower development or wealth creation?

Both the keynote speaker, High Chief (Dr.) Obiora Okonkwo, Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, and the high powered panel of discussants will X-ray the Igbo apprenticeship scheme, bring out the positives while also recommending areas that should be improved upon for the scheme to continue to be relevant in the 21st century.

We will also hear from successful individuals that have passed through the scheme and listen to their experiences etc. A more successful model of Igbo apprenticeship scheme will lead to human capital development and guarantee wealth creation.

 
Could you speak on the impact of the scheme on the young Anambrarian vis-a-vis the manpower development and wealth creation the system has attained over the years?

We may be having the summit in Anambra, but we are not only targeting Anambra youths. Our targets are the millions of Nigerian youths all over the country. The event will be streamed live and will also be uploaded on social media platforms for wider access and participation.

We hope to be able to encourage our youths to re-think and adopt this Igbo model of apprenticeship, learn a skill or trade under someone’s tutelage for an agreed period, and qualify to be given seed capital by the ‘Oga’ on completion. This is surely a better model than the present trend of our youths getting involved in all kinds of ‘get rich quick’ schemes to get rich.

Recently, ESUT Business School, Enugu, indicated interest to research on the Igbo apprenticeship scheme. What has necessitated discussions on this scheme in the recent times?

It’s not only ESUT Business School, some other business schools in the world, including Harvard, have also in the past done one study or the other on Igbo apprenticeship. People are coming to the realisation that the time has come for us to look inwards and re-discover economic and entrepreneurship promotion models such as the Igbo apprenticeship scheme that have continued to make the Igbo economy strong, and Igbo people stronger with little or no government support.

It is a fascinating model of enterprise development where an entrepreneur agrees to take under his or her tutelage potential competitors. He or she at the end of the apprenticeship also goes ahead to fund the start-up who almost immediately begins to compete with him or her within the same jurisdiction of business.

Such healthy competition should be studied and promoted. We want to re-start a national debate and discussions around it with a view to repositioning the scheme and making it better and stronger.

How has the Igbo apprenticeship system helped in the development of South East?

The scheme has not only helped in improving the economic fortunes of Anambra state, but those of several other states and countries where Ndigbo sojourn. Take Lagos State for example, if you go to Idumota, ASPANDA, Ladipo, Trade Fair, Orile and such other large markets, you will see Ndigbo working hard in their various shops; you will also see the ‘Ogas’ and their ‘Boi-Bois’- apprentices.

Those ‘boi-bois’ today are the ‘Ogas’ of tomorrow. By the time they complete their apprenticeship, they will be ‘settled’ by their ‘Ogas’ to start their own businesses. The cycle continues because when they start their own business, they will in-turn take under their wings another set of ‘boi-bois.’

They will build factories, rent or buy lands and properties, invest in the towns and states where they trade, and also at home as Ndigbo believe in the ‘Aku luo uno’ philosophy – taking part of their wealth home. That’s how Ndigbo collectively contribute to the socio-economic development or industrialisation of the towns, states and countries where they reside.

We are a sojourning race. Unlike what some people say, to create hatred against Ndigbo, we bring economic and other values wherever we go.

How would this scheme leapfrog the economy of South East to attract development in the region?

The Igbo apprenticeship scheme has helped in reducing unemployment in the region as it informally provides employment to thousands of youth in the region.

We believe that if we can make the government and other relevant stakeholders, including the higher institutions, development partners etc, to take more interest in the scheme with a view to adopting it and promoting it further, more successful entrepreneurs will be created and their economic activities will fast-track development not only in the region but also in the country.

Seeing the Igbo apprenticeship scheme as the soul of their businesses, how does it make business concerns owned by Igbo people more sustainable?

Sustainability is another discussion altogether and is not the focus of the summit. However, we believe that at the summit, some insights will be shared on that because we are beginning to see that Igbo businesses don’t usually continue after the founders pass on.

We can name many businesses, which were giants in the 70s, 80s and 90s owned by Igbo men of that era. Most of those businesses are no more. Several reasons have been advanced for that. However, we will focus mainly on Igbo apprenticeship at the summit.

------THE GUARDIAN

ABUCHI ILOANYA: Enterprise And Growing The Abutex Brand

Abuchi Vinbcent Iloanya. Image: Facebook

Abuchi Vincent Iloanya started and established the Abutex Food Equipment company some four years ago, headquartered in Alaba International Market, Lagos State, after he gained ‘freedom’ or graduated from a master he served for six years. He was under his big boss as an apprentice, like many young Igbo boys do, learning the rudiments of the food equipment business.

Of course, he wanted to be like his master but had a different idea on how the business could be fine tuned to keep in line with the demands and pace of the digital age. He knew to keep with the evolving markets, he had to employ the Information and Communications Technology approach which he embraced with both arms. Then Jiji and OLX presented him the opportunity he wanted.

“My business expanded long time ago using Jiji and OLX for marketing tools. But it expanded and blew the moment I started using Instagram. Instagram has been a blessing to me, I won’t lie.

Instagram brought my business out there and connected me to so many big people in the society. Celebrities and politicians all patronize me, all thanks to my mentor, Mark Zuckerbek,” he said in a recent interview.

The business, grew in leaps and bounds because Abuchi Iloanya, beyond making use of social media tools applied the best ethics of business which is evident in their vision and mission statement.

“A passion for professional equipment. We are passionate about our each and every piece of our equipment. Our highly trained technicians are constantly working to develop new and more
efficient systems and processes.

All our machinery either meet or exceed international standards.
A long-term approach for our products. Each product purchased from Abutex comes with a long term commitment. We fully support all our machinery and back that up with warranties on all parts,” says a statement in their vision and mission booklet.

Abuchi Vincent Iloanya, the Managing Director of Abutex Food Equipment company was born in Onitsha, Anambra State, Nigeria on March 11, 1992. He is a native of Awkuzu in Oyi Local Goverment Area of Anambra State.

His company, Abutex Food Equipment company is Nigeria’s leading company in industrial kitchen equipment, with headquarters in Alaba International Market and an ultra modern showroom in Lekki Phase 1, all in Lagos.

He has also won many awards as an entrepreneur, including Abutex’s 2013 quality system certification. His company, Abutex has developed competences in a wide range of world standard quality products,complete services and self-innovation. From mixers to ovens,cooking equipment to refrigeration, Abutex Food Equipment has carved a niche for itself,

He finished his secondary school in 2008 at Showlight International School, Onitsha Anambra State but couldn’t go for university education because of financial difficulties. He has one elder sister and three younger brothers.

SOURCE: THE NATION

Experts Say Pope’s Metaphor Of A ‘Field Hospital’ Has Special Punch For Africa

BY CHRISTOPHER WHITE

ENUGU, NIGERIA (CRUX) - According to a range of scholars at a Pan-African Congress on Theology, Pastoral Life, and Society, the pope’s metaphor for the Church as a “field hospital” provides particular resonance for the African continent - and, they say, must guide pastoral practice in the realms of education, liturgy, and the laity.

The pope used the phrase in his first major interview after his election in 2013 where he emphasized the need for the Church to respond to immediate and pressing needs of the people before less life-threatening concerns.

“It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars,” he said at the time. “You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else.”

During the December 5-8 congress at the Bigard Memorial Seminary in southeastern Nigeria, a number of the delegates relied on the pope’s metaphor to cast a vision of a church in Africa that encourages a reshaping of their ministries and programs more closely modeled after the pontiff’s method of dealing with a wounded flock.

Father Osita Asogwa, a lecturer in philosophy at Bigard Memorial Seminary, told attendees that the pope’s vision of a field hospital must focus on “pastoral care in concrete situations.”

Asogwa’s remarks focused particularly on the realm of education, and he encouraged a complete rethinking of the way it is approached in the African context.


Motivated by the pope’s call for greater missionary activity, Asogwa said the “good news must speak directly to the person,” with a particular focus on “renewal and revival.” He went on to add that education should focus on the “reality on the ground,” to better understand the field hospital in which the Church is operating and focus less on intellectual concerns and more on the need to speak to people about their particular sufferings and situations.

He criticized the fact that to this day, there are no pontifical universities in Africa - a question that he said he has posed to Roman curial officials, and it has gone unanswered. Further, he said educational programs have too often been shaped with the Vatican in mind, and that “Rome may not like it” is “a mantra that has killed most of our academic activities.”

For Professor Patrick Chibuko, chair of Sacred Liturgy at the Catholic Institute of West Africa, Francis’s lifestyle of simplicity and a focus on the margins “portrays the type of ecclesiology he is proposing to the Church.”

The field hospital, Chibuko maintained, “demands a corresponding liturgy in content and expression.”


Liturgy, he went on to argue, must appeal to the head, the heart, and the hands and that the appeal to intellect, emotion, and service must all be present. Chibuko also noted that liturgy could not be “strict and static,” but should reflect the life of the Church.

“It is, by nature, dynamic, since it is at the service of the Church,” he noted, adding that in the field hospital, liturgy cannot be only Roman but one that appreciated local culture and “helps Africans understand themselves.”

Dr. Nontando Hadeb, who teaches pastoral and systematic theology at St. Augustine College in South Africa, said that the field hospital of the Church must be outward focused and that the laity should serve as the “focal point of the hospital” and that programs and ministries should be shaped based on different needs and realities.


“Just like a hospital has different patients with different health needs, the laity is not homogenous. They have different needs, different voices, different wounds,” she continued. “They are the ones having to live in the world, and they represent different voices, the able bodied see things differently than the disabled, there are sexual minorities, there are the divorced, the remarried, and others. We have to listen to them.”

“You must walk with them and provide different solutions,” she concluded. “You can’t just give one medicine.”

Follow Christopher White on Twitter: @cwwhite212

Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi: Defying The Odds

Earnest Azudialu-Obiejesi. Image: Facebook

BY THIS DAY

Chiemelie Ezeobi reports that in defying the odds, Dr. Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi, Group Managing Director of Nestoil, has transformed his humble beginnings from a trading business to the commanding heights of corporate Nigeria which has also established a foundation – with far more reaching impact on communities

The Nestoil Tower in Victoria Island is an unmistakable edifice in the heart of Victoria Island of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. This amazing piece of Architectural genius has not always been the Head Office of Nestoil. The journey began in a one room office in Idumagbo Avenue in Lagos Island. This was Nestoil’s first corporate office. Starting out as a young businessman, he had always desired to build something that will have its roots in the local environment; one with global appeal, creating exceptional value and outliving him.

Early Start
From his humble beginning in Okija in present day Anambra State, Azudialu-Obiejesi had set his eyes beyond the confines of his village on lofty targets in distant and difficult terrains. He knew quite early that the world out there is competitive and unforgiving of errors, he therefore took time to study in order to gain inspiration for the task he had envisioned.

Azudialu-Obiejesi commenced his primary education at St. Johns School, Fegge Onitsha Anambra State in 1964. However, this was truncated by the Nigerian civil war which raged from 1967 to 1970. After the war, he got into New Bethel Primary School Onitsha to complete his primary education. In 1973, he gained admission into the elite Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha (DMGS) for his secondary education which he completed in 1978. After his secondary education, he attended Government College Owerri, Imo State for his Higher School Education.

Upon completion of this program, he worked with his father at the family trading business, DA Ifeanyi & Brothers Trading Company, where he participated in trading activities. This was to be his first real exposure to the business environment. During his tutelage under his father, he was able to learn the rudiments of the trading business and started thinking of ways to transform, expand and revolutionise the family business.

In 1983, with encouragement from his father, he set up what was to be the first of many business ventures – Obijackson West Africa Limited. The company engaged in direct procurement from overseas suppliers and manufacturers of household goods and consumables, engineering and carpentry tools, cosmetics and beauty products. The company’s head office was located in Lagos, and branches set up in Onitsha, Aba, Maiduguri and Cotonou. Azudialu-Obiejesi nurtured the company from inception, grew and diversified it, with extensive interest in Manufacturing, Haulage and Real Estate development.

Upon leaving Okija, his comfort zone in Eastern Nigeria, he realised that the future, though pregnant with promises, requires starting out early, with diligence, out-of-the-box thinking and hard-worn genius for the promise to be liberated from the clutches of obscurity.

Humble Beginning

Unknown to many, Nestoil started from a one room office on Idumagbo Avenue in Lagos Island in 1991. Dr Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi had decided to give up the trading business and chart a new course in his entrepreneurial journey. He settled for the Oil and Gas industry.

From a staff strength of about 10 persons, he has nurtured Nestoil into a conglomerate which has created about 2,000 direct jobs. The conglomerate renders services spanning Pipeline Constructionrepairs and maintenance, Fabrication and Pressure Vessel Manufacturing; Detailed Engineering Design and consultancy; Civil Construction Works as well as Dredging and Shoreline protection. These companies virtually cover the entire value chain of the Oil and Gas industry and they all operate from the very impressive 59-hectare Abuloma industrial layout.

At the time Dr Azudialu-Obiejesi ventured into the Oil and Gas industry, Local Content in the industry was still a figment of people’s imagination. He saw the landscape move from a tranquil one to a stormy one with locals demanding more say and involvement in the industry.

After nearly 20 years of literally weathering the storm alone in an industry dominated by foreign companies, government finally signed the Nigeria Content Bill into law and set up the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to enforce compliance and protect the interest of local players in the industry. The move has seen the emergence of new indigenous players in the Oil and Gas space.

Seeking Solutions to Festering Challenges

Like great entrepreneurs and inventors whose paths to greatness seem impossible and were first derided for taking on arduous and risky ventures, young Azudialu-Obiejesi took the road less travelled. He walked the path of greats like Alexander Graham-Bell who invented the telephone in 1876, from a small workshop after working through the years on ways to transmit multiple telegrams and discovering that voice could travel through wire. He walked the paths of the likes of Thomas Edison, the inventor of the incandescent light-bulb who did over a thousand experiments before eventually stumbling on the formula for creating a light bulb.

In deciding that his next move was going to be Nestoil, Azudialu-Obiejesi must have raised so much dust carving a small office out of a retail shop with a mandate to capture the commanding heights of Nigeria’s Oil and Gas value-chain. Through dint of hard work and focus, he has established an indigenous Oil and Gas conglomerate that will seek to maximise Nigeria’s energy potential through value-additions such as B&Q Dredging, Energy Works Technology (EWT), Impac Engineering, Hammakopp amongst others.

What’s more fascinating is that he dreamed big dreams that had no semblance with his reality at the time. From his small shop in Idumagbo avenue, he built a business better known today as the face of local content in the Oil and Gas industry. All men dream dreams but few bring them to life.

Brand Builder – Creating Novelty from Obstacles

Charismatic leaders usually define the life, character and personality of the brands they help nurture to success. Such brands are defined by the character and personalities of their founders or those who run them. It is virtually impossible to divorce Nestoil as a brand from its iconic founder Dr Ernest Azudialu Obiejesi. Indeed, the Nestoil brand has taken on the doggedness of its founder earning it the reputation of “King of the Swamps”.

The Shell Nembe-Cawthorne Channel Trunk Line Replacement Project (NCTL) project is a case in point. This was the largest single pipeline construction under the SPDC Joint Ventures Asset Integrity Programme that replaced more than 1000km of deteriorated major pipelines and flow lines in Nigeria. The 97km Package A of this project was executed by Nestoil under the leadership of Dr. Azudialu-Obiejesi. This project involved major construction in a harsh mangrove swamp terrain and traversed 3 cluster communities and hundred autonomous communities in both Bayelsa and Rivers state of Nigeria at the height of militancy in Niger Delta. Nestoil completed this project one month ahead of schedule without a single fatality. 99% of the workforce in this project were Nigerians including the Project Manager. This pipeline has the capacity to evacuate about 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The Shell Kolo Creek Trunk Line (KCTL) Replacement Project is another project that validates doggedness and innovation. This project, which is a first of its kind involved a method of pipeline installation that preserves the delicate natural environment of the Niger Delta. It is well known that the Niger Delta is an incredibly well-endowed ecosystem that contains one of the highest concentrations of bio-diversity in addition to supporting abundant flora and fauna and more species of freshwater fish than any ecosystem in West Africa. The fact that this pipeline was laid by Nigerian engineers without disrupting this unique environment is quite remarkable.

One project that may have thoroughly tested Nestoil’s resolve to deliver in spite of very harsh terrain, militancy, and frequent kidnappings is the Obiafu, Obrikom, Oben (OB3) gas pipeline. The section of the project that Nestoil is working on is the swampy areas starting from Omoku in Rivers State to Umukwata in Delta State. A large portion of this section transforms from dry land to swamp during the rainy season, hindering work on the pipeline for about seven months each year. Part of the Nestoil scope is to cross the 48-inch diameter pipeline under the bed of the River Niger over a 2 km span. This has never been done anywhere in Nigeria but Dr Azudialu-Obiejesi is confident that despite setbacks the company has faced till date, Nestoil will deliver on this project sooner rather than later. The 48-inch diameter and 65-kilometre long gas pipeline is the largest gas pipeline ever built in Nigeria and is expected to boost domestic gas supply by two billion standard cubic feet per day (bscf/d) when it begins operation.

A Heart to Give

As his businesses began to flourish, Dr Azudialu-Obiejesi set up the Obijackson Foundation as a platform to propagate his humanitarian endeavours. Through a well-thought out strategy of empowerment, the Obijackson Foundation became a catalyst for growth, job creation, skill acquisition, healthcare delivery, infrastructural overhaul and cultural renaissance. The evidence is overwhelming. Roads are being tarred in Okija and beyond, Street lights are being installed and street sweepers employed to clean Okija streets; scholarships are being awarded to indigent students, widows are being supported with seed capital to set up businesses. The list of social and infrastructural intervention is endless.

There is also the Obijackson Women and Children’s Hospital in Okija which he has built and developed into the foremost Women & Pediatric health-care institution – first of its kind in eastern Nigeria. The hospital with state-of-the-art diagnostic, surgical and other equipment has delivered over 300 women with zero mortality till date. Patients who have no funds to pay for treatment are catered for by the Obijackson Foundation. Nobody is turned away from this hospital on account of inability to pay their bills. Dr Ernest Azudialu himself says the sheer profile of the hospital and the impact in saving the lives of women and children across eastern Nigeria makes this project extremely humbling and fulfilling. This hospital directly employs about 100 locals. Hundreds more are indirect employees in the form of contractors and other service providers.

The Power of Education

Despite being introduced into the trading business at an early age, Dr Azudialu-Obiejesi found time for formal education. He believes in the power of Education as the only springboard that can actually lift humanity out of poverty. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accountancy and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Benin. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree in Business Administration (DBA) from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (FNSE). He was a finalist in the prestigious Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 and gained recognition from the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) for Industry Achievement of the Year Award 2014. Under his leadership, Nestoil companies were nominated in 2017 and 2018 by the London Stock Exchange Group as a Company to Inspire Africa, being companies that generated vital employment opportunities, contributed to sustainable economic growth and are the bastions of best practices and good corporate governance practices.

Succession in the Radaar

After nearly 30 years of founding a business, Azudialu believes it is time to hand over to the next generation. His shoes may appear too large to fill but Azudialu-Obiejesi disagrees. He says he has seen enough talent within his pool of Nestoil employees that are driven by uncommon passion – a restless spirit seeking answers to Nigeria’s engineering and technology challenges especially in the Oil and Gas industry. Their relentless quest to deliver exceptional value continues to define the Nestoil Brand as it takes on more audacious mandates within the oil and gas industry.

A Missed Flight Leads To A Connection

Wedding guests spray money at the bride and groom, a tradition in Nigeria’s Igbo tribe. Image: Houston Cofield /The New York Times

BY VINCENT M. MALLOZZI

Brooke Watson and Nelson Madubuonwu dated briefly at their Memphis high school. A “magical” misprint on her plane ticket brought them together several years later in New York.

Once upon a “magical airline ticket,” Brooke Watson and Nelson Madubuonwu made a connection that brought them to a special place in each other’s hearts.

“Everything happens for a reason,” said Ms. Watson, a 28-year-old senior data scientist with the American Civil Liberties Union in New York.

Ms. Watson and Mr. Madubuonwu, a 28-year-old product manager for Facebook in New York, first met in 2007 as students at White Station High School in Memphis. They lost touch for six years before finding each other again on social media.

“Brooke and Nelson have always felt like they have this wonderful, kind of magical connection,” said Ms. Watson’s father, Dennis Watson. “They’re both very bright and interested in similar things, and they have very interesting careers — they’re just a nice match.”

The two dated briefly in December 2012, but were just friends in August 2013 when they boarded a train for Kennedy International Airport, where Ms. Watson had a one-way ticket to Australia and dreams of starting a new life there after graduating from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a degree in microbiology. She was a four-year athlete there on the swimming and diving team, and competed in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Trials in swimming.

“I had a couple of interviews set up in Sydney, but I was also ready to work in a bar or on a farm there if I had to,” said Ms. Watson, a daughter of Karen Watson and Mr. Watson of Memphis. (Her father is a lawyer there and her mother an executive with a charitable foundation.)

“I was caught up in the adventure of it all,” Ms. Watson said.

But Ms. Watson, who had asked Mr. Madubuonwu upon arrival in New York to help her navigate the city’s subway system to the airport as he was now living in Manhattan, soon found herself in an unexpected adventure. The travel agency she used to book her flight had printed the wrong name — “Brooke Wa” — on her ticket. With the last four letters of her surname also missing in the airline’s database, she was not allowed to board the plane.

“I was sort of freaking out, and to make matters worse, the flight was delayed several times,” Ms. Watson said. “I called my mom, who proposed that I come back to Memphis. But that really wasn’t an option.”

She tried canceling her ticket and buying it back, but the new fare, she said, was $6,000, which she could not afford.

“At some point the plane left and I wasn’t on it,” she said. “I sort of meekly turned around, holding a backpack filled with all of my belongings and with nowhere to stay in New York City, a place where I had never been.”

Her plane had departed, but Mr. Madubuonwu had not.

“I was just about to leave when I heard this kerfuffle at the check-in counter,” he said. “Then Brooke came back and told me what had happened, and I told her that she could stay with me and my roommate at our apartment in Morningside Heights for as long a she needed to.”

Ms. Watson accepted the invitation, and rebooked a ticket she would use three days later. In the interim, she and Mr. Madubuonwu walked around Manhattan, enjoying museums and restaurants, and most of all, each other’s company.

“I think I had always really, really liked Nelson, but I didn’t let myself think we could have a future together because our lives were going in different directions,” said Ms. Watson, who also has a master’s degree in epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“Nelson was this extremely attractive and charming 22-year-old man living in New York,” Ms. Watson said, “so the thought of him wanting to date someone exclusively who lived in another country didn’t make sense to me.”

But it all began to make better sense after spending that small stretch of unexpected time together, which Ms. Watson referred to as “our very wonderful delay.”

“During those three days, I think I saw a little bit more of who Nelson really is,” Ms. Watson said. “He’s a very caring, very smart and very thoughtful person.”

Mr. Madubuonwu, who graduated from Yale with a degree in political science, said those 72 hours “created a feeling of inevitability about us becoming a serious couple that was both incredibly powerful and palpable.”

“I had already seen Brooke as a wonderful person who could be a great partner, but it didn’t seem likely as we were going to be living in different parts of the world,” said Mr. Madubuonwu, who is the son of Paul Madubuonwu and Sandra Madubuonwu. (His father is an associate professor at Meharry Medical College in Nashville and past president of the Anambra Family Association of Memphis, the largest membership organization of the Igbo tribe from Anambra, Nigeria. His mother, is the director of maternal health at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis.)

“Brooke and I were never going to work unless somehow we happened to be in the same place at the same time,” he said. “But as it turned out, that magical airline ticket gave us a glimpse of how great our lives could really be together.”

By the time Ms. Watson took off for Australia, Mr. Madubuonwu was grounded in the belief that he had found the woman with whom he would spend the rest of his life.

“At that point, I didn’t want to be with anyone else,” he said.

During the next six months, Ms. Watson lived and worked in Sydney before backpacking through parts of Southeast Asia, including Indonesia and Thailand.

During that time, they visited each other twice, she returning to spend the holidays with him in December 2013, and he traveling to Sydney in March 2014.

“Nelson was incredibly supportive of my time spent abroad,” she said. “He never tried to persuade me to come back.”

Their long-distance relationship continued, each sending the other old-fashioned letters and a never-ending stream of emails, exchanging everything from jokes to newspaper articles to their deepest-rooted feelings for one another.

“Our relationship was built on a bedrock of communication,” Mr. Madubuonwu said. “Given our far-flung time zones, I would be in my bed talking to Brooke at the strangest times of the night or early hours of the morning.”

On one of those nights, in August 2013, Ms. Watson, who had spurned numerous offers to date other men while she lived abroad, called Mr. Madubuonwu to tell him, for the first time, that she loved him.

“I thought about Nelson constantly, and it got to the point where I could no longer hold in the fact that I loved him,” she said. “So I called him and just threw the “L” word out there because I wanted him to know how I was feeling.”

Mr. Madubuonwu returned the “L” word on the spot, and when Ms. Watson returned from Sydney in June 2014, they began dating immediately.

“Every time I learned something new about Nelson, I fell in love with him a little bit more,” Ms. Watson said. “There was never a time when I wasn’t interested in him or fascinated by him or excited about seeing him.”

There was a time, however, when Ms. Watson wondered if she would ever see Mr. Madubuonwu again.

In May 2016, Ms. Watson, who was in England, received a call telling her that Mr. Madubuonwu, who was in New York, had been rushed to an emergency room after his appendix had ruptured.

“He was so sick, we thought he was just going to die,” the groom’s mother said. “Brooke was in London at the time and flew all the way back and stayed at Nelson’s bedside the whole time — that’s when I knew she was the one.”

They were engaged on New Year’s Eve 2017 in the company of friends and family in Memphis.

“My father appeared in a dream for me and gave me signs and indications that this actually is the woman for Nelson,” the groom’s father said. “I should not object. Because it is not uncommon for families from Africa to object to this kind of marriage — an interracial marriage. But my father gave me a clear sign that this is the right person for Nelson.”

The couple had a traditional Nigerian wedding ceremony on Oct. 4 at Memphis Botanic Garden. The following day, they were married in a legal ceremony at Shelby Farms Park, also in Memphis, where the Rev. Ken Zelten, a senior pastor ordained by the Order of Franciscans Minor, officiated, with Sanket Karuri, a close friend of the groom, taking part.

“It’s funny, because they both kind of liked each other in high school, but they kind of tiptoed around each other, so I don’t think they were ready at that point,” said Mr. Karuri, as he gathered for pictures before the Nigerian wedding in an outdoor courtyard. He and other groomsmen were dressed in white Igbo garb, called a senator, and leaning on canes beneath a fading sun, while the bridesmaids wore gold dresses and geles (headpieces), another Nigerian cultural wedding tradition.

Music began blaring from inside Hardin Hall, a ballroom at the Memphis Botanic Garden where members of both families began entering in small groups. Some marched into the room, others danced. The groom wore a red tunic, called an agbada, the bride a red dress. The bride’s family formed a cluster on their side of the ballroom to symbolize their home or village as it would be in an Igbo state in Nigeria. Members of the groom’s family walked across the ballroom bearing gifts for the bride’s family that included beer, wine and a platter of food.

The groom’s father, wearing a large crown and holding a staff, wore an elaborate blue garb, as did other elders of both families.

A member of the groom’s family then declared to the bride’s parents that the groom had brought gifts as a symbolic exchange for their daughter. A representative of the bride then formally introduced both families to each other, telling them a bit about the couple’s history. The ceremony then continued as the bride’s father told his daughter to go to the groom, but unbeknown to her, the groom was hiding among the 275 guests.

“Brooke loves hard, and the Madubuonwus love her,” said Chelsea Cravens, the bride’s older sister. “She’s made a real effort to know all of them individually and learn parts of their culture, that’s just who she is, always.”

Afrobeat music began pulsating as the bride danced rhythmically around the ballroom, holding a glass of wine as her bridesmaids tried to help her find the groom. Each man in attendance was encouraged to shout out to the bride that they were the groom in an effort to confuse her.

But as was the case years earlier, she found the man she had been searching for.

ON THIS DATE

When Oct. 4, 2019

Where: Memphis Garden

Families United Perhaps the most emotional moment of the evening was when the bride and groom’s maternal grandmothers walked into the ballroom hand in hand.

Made in Nigeria Chinekwu Osakwe, the best friend of the groom’s younger sister, helped coordinate the wedding and also got both parties outfitted in tailored clothing from Nigeria.

Spraying Cash As the ceremony wound down, guests danced while celebrating the bride and groom by “spraying” them with money, an Igbo tradition.

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES

You’re Not God, Joe Igbokwe Tackles Abdulrahman

SUN NEWS INTERVIEW

Joe Igbokwe. Image via Sun News

BY DANIEL KANU

Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) spokesman, Joe Igbokwe, is always at his best element when defending actions affecting his party.

In this interview with Sunday Sun, he said that the insecurity in the land is being sponsored just as he countered the comments by ACF chieftain, Mohammed Abdulrahman, on how the president will emerge in 2023, advising that his views should not be dignified.

He looked at what is wrong with Igbo politics and what needs to be done, among other national issues.

 Excerpt:
How would you react to the statement credited to Alhaji Mohammed Abdulrahman in his recent interview with Sunday Sun that it would be impossible for any Southern Christian to be president of the country?

Was Olusegun Obasanjo not president? Was Goodluck Jonathan not president? So, why can’t others emerge? If somebody sits in one corner of Nigeria and just be making noise and you people (media) will just be taking him seriously… Both Obasanjo and Jonathan have been Christian presidents, so what makes him think that no other Christian can emerge? Is he God? We have had Christians that have been presidents….Was Gowon not a Christian Head of State? So, what makes him think he knows the mind of God? What is the meaning of that? He probably does not understand the dynamics of Nigeria. He is just saying his own thing, he is just saying his opinion, it cannot be substantiated, he has not facts. It is the votes that will count, he that is talking has only one vote, I am sure he doesn’t understand what is at play. It is serious politics and if you have a shallow mind you will not understand what is going to play out. So, it’s big politics, not somebody just in one corner of a place and just wants to be in the news. When you get to the football pitch you see thousands of spectators, but only 22 players are in the field doing the job, others will be clapping, shouting, doing all kinds of things, but real actions are in the field of play with the 22 players. So, whatever you call his name he may just be one of the spectators in Nigeria’s politics, the real actors are doing their permutations and calculations and when we get to the bridge we will cross it. You know talk is very cheap, you can say whatever you want to say, but the real action is out there and big players know what is involved. He is at liberty to say what he is saying. Everybody is at liberty in a democracy to say whatever, anything the person likes. When the chips are down then we talk about the realities on the ground. It will begin to manifest itself, left and right, front and back, up and down. It is then you know those that are men. It’s not everybody that talks that should be given attention because some want to attract cheap popularity.

He even indicted the national leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu that he should bury his presidential ambition in 2023 as he is not a true Muslim and two-faced, meaning he cannot be trusted?

After President Buhari in 2023, power must come to the South, I don’t know where it is going to go to, but this is what I know, okay? The real politics is being played in the field, spectators can be doing their own, and when the time comes we will see it. Tinubu is a man of great philanthropy, he has touched lives, he has given his service and is still doing it, he is a great political player too…so, let’s not preempt 2023 now until we get to the bridge. It is not every view that must be taken seriously. Some views need to be ignored rather than dignified.

When you look at what is happening in Nigeria today can you say you are satisfied with our situation?

I am satisfied because. Number one, we still have democracy. If you go to Chapter 7 of my book “Heroes of Democracy,” I said it is not over until it is over. You see, I didn’t know that after the struggle we will have a party like the PDP in power that almost rendered useless what we struggled for. But no matter the way you look at it…democracy is better than any military regime, no matter how good you think that regime is anywhere in the world. So, we are getting better, of course, there will be challenges, but you know it’s not a one-dash race, it’s work in progress and with time you overcome. We are getting better if you look round, but we are not where we are supposed to be because power fell into the wrong hands in 1999, they retarded our progress, but all those things they destroyed is what the APC is repairing now.

Most Nigerians are worried about the delay of the ministerial list given the consequence it will have on the nation?

No, why, how, for how many months? Was it not just the other day, just recently that he took the oath of office? Let me tell you why it’s being delayed. Before you bring those names it must go through security checks by the DSS, I am sure you know that? They will have to do a thorough investigation about the person, that is the work of the DSS, before you send the list to the National Assembly (Senate) otherwise you will bring it and they will just rubbish it, you go back, so you have to be very sure of the names you are sending, their credibility and all that. But meanwhile the system is going on, the permanent secretaries are there, everybody is there so work is going on nothing is being retarded or neglected, but we should make haste to make the ministers come on board and I am sure they are sensitive about it.

Are you really worried about the security challenges that we are facing today in the country?
Well, for me, I am seeing the security challenge as fake, it’s just the fallout of the 2019 election, people want to sabotage the system, it’s not real. The losers of the election are bent on bringing the government down, it’s not natural, and the security trend you are seeing is man-made. You know we have been on this thing for too long, I am a writer and we look at things deeply, it’s the fallout of the 2019 election. Those who lost in the election have sworn that there will be instability in this country. They are the people sponsoring them, but they will be defeated, mark my word they will be defeated in the fullest of time. It’s being sponsored, but we will bring the war to their doorstep and they will be defeated, the way we defeated them in 2015 and 2019, we will defeat them again. This government will defeat insecurity, we will defeat Boko Haram, we will defeat the insurgency, yes, life and darkness have no meeting point. We will defeat them because they are agents of destruction, they can never get anywhere.

Do you think Nigerians will get things better now from the 9th Assembly as the preferred candidates of the party emerged in leadership positions?
Of course, didn’t you see the struggle? Didn’t you see the campaign? You know we missed it in 2015 and Saraki and co thoroughly messed us up. They made mincemeat of the government in place, abused the president, abused the courts and abused due process. Now, you can see the work we put in place to get him out of that place, we didn’t only get him out of that place we made him to lose Kwara State, the state they, the Saraki dynasty, have pocketed for over 40 years now. The dynasty has been crushed, this is a big game. We now have the leadership of the National Assembly that will cooperate with Mr President, taking decisions with frightening speed because the National Assembly leadership will cooperate with Mr President. That in itself is a humongous achievement.

You think that won’t amount to a rubber stamp Assembly?

No, no, no, not a rubber stamp, you saw what these people (PDP) did to us, they were fighting the budget, in whose interest were they working? They were not working for the nation; they were working for their pocket. They padded the budget, now it’s not going to happen again. We now have a National Assembly that will pass the budget as and when due, after the due process they will pass it because they are in a hurry to get things done. Saraki and co delayed governance, punished Nigerians, mismanaged our money, it’s not going to happen again.

Some critics say that leadership in Nigeria has become essentially transactional…?

(Cuts in) No not under Buhari, we have implicit and total confidence in this president. You know leadership comes from the top; initiatives must come from the leader, that’s the man we are looking at…, if you steal money he will catch you the way he is catching them now and then. Can’t you see how much that was recovered from former President Jonathan’s wife on Monday? He is dealing with corrupt people.

But some are of the view that the anti-corruption war is lopsided and used against the opposition as a witch-hunt and not those in the APC?

But you know that there are also those in the APC that are in the EFCC net? Go and do your investigation well and you will find out. Many of them that are in the APC are in court so that you are in the party does not stop anybody from prosecuting you if you are found to be corrupt. The anti-corruption battle is not one-sided as some people claim.

People of the Southeast are clamouring for 2023 president of Igbo extraction. How feasible is it?
Well, it is the right of any section of this country to aspire to produce the president in the land, but where are your plans? We asked them (Igbo) to come into APC in 2015 they refused they went to PDP, we asked them again in 2019 they refused, I can’t say much. But I can only say that the Igbo are due to produce the president of Nigeria for the sake of national unity. Even though politics is a game of number, yes I know, but I am in the APC and I have millions of people in APC and I think if Nigerians want peace, if Nigerians are looking for peace, if Nigerians consider the fact that since 1970 this vibrant section of people have not produced the president of Nigeria, they are not strangers in this country, even though we have not played our politics right. We have not positioned ourselves. Assuming that we had 30, 35 or 40 per cent of the vote in the five states for the APC, it would have been easy for us. Are you going to be president with the vote of other people? But if you are looking for national unity it’s something that is imperative, it’s something we need to do for the sake of national unity. A people sit down and know what they want politically and then strategize rightly towards achieving that purpose. Is the Southeast playing the right politics that will get them what they want? We probably need to think about that.

But Obasanjo became the president and the Southwest did not support him…?
(Cuts in) Do you know why he became the president? There couldn’t have been anybody that will be president in 1999 except the Southwest because their son won an election. Yes, Abiola won and that was a big stake they had in their hand that was why the president was ceded to them. You remember it was Olu Falae and Obasanjo. It was zoned to them because Abiola finished the battle. Abiola won the election fair and square. We (Southeast) have not won an election or have they? So, what are you going to bring to the table? South-south can make a claim that you are eating their oil, that we are using their oil to develop Nigeria and, therefore, they must be president. What are you bringing to the table? The only thing we are bringing to the table is because of national unity, that Igbo should produce the president. We need to reassess our strategy and play real politics rather than what we are doing now.

UNIZIK Suspends Embattled Lecturer, Orders Verification Of Staff Certificates

Image via Punch

BY SAMSON FOLARIN

AWKA, ANAMBRA (PUNCH) -- The Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, has suspended embattled senior lecturer, Peter Ekemezie, over allegations of certificate forgery, plagiarism, among others.

The PUNCH learnt that the decision was taken at the end of the 117th general meeting of the varsity’s governing council.

The council, while ordering Ekemezie to hand over all the school property in his possession to his head of department, banned him from visiting the campus.

In addition, the certificates of all workers of the institution were to be verified, beginning with the academic staff.

This was after weeks of reporting by The PUNCH on the senior lecturer, who had been allegedly covered up by some powerful forces in the school for years.

He was to be promoted from the position of a senior lecturer to a Reader (associate professor) despite the allegations against him when our correspondent began reporting the case.

Ekemezie was employed by UNIZIK in July 2010, but his employment immediately generated controversies because he was allegedly employed as Lecturer 1 Level 11, instead of Lecturer 2, Level 9.

Sometime in 2013, one Mrs Egolum claimed that the 46-year-old collected money from her to help her process a special degree programme at the University of Port Harcourt.

Investigation into the allegation by a senior staff committee set up by the management of UNIZIK led to the discovery that Ekemezie himself was allegedly parading a forged BSc certificate.

The committee’s recommendation to the management was reportedly swept under the carpet.


A few years after, some lecturers accused Ekemezie of using plagiarised works to gain promotion and special favours from the institution, an allegation confirmed by another committee set up by the school.

Like the BSc certificate, the recommendations were also allegedly ignored.

Ekemezie himself wrote a petition to the Commissioner of Police, Anambra State, accusing some lecturers of fighting against his promotion and planting incriminating documents in his curriculum vitae to implicate him.

The police investigated and discovered that he lied. He was subsequently charged with giving false information and certificate forgery.

Still, the university did not act.

The Chairman of the Governing Council, UNIZIK, Azeez Bello, while promising that the council would act on the matter, said some members of the institution’s senate might have been compromised.

Ekemezie’s claim to being an external examiner at the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, and University of Benin were denied by the authorities of those schools.

The Anambra State indigene later concocted lies against our correspondent and filed a suit before a Magistrates’ Court. The matter was struck out.

Further investigation into the academic records of the lecturer showed that he allegedly did not also meet the minimum number of years for his postgraduate diploma, master’s degree and Doctor of Philosophy.

The Dean of the UNIZIK School of Postgraduate, Prof. Philomena Igbokwe, while reacting to enquiries from our correspondent, said the lecturer completed his PhD in just 14 months, instead of 36 months.

“According to extant regulation, the timing is not in line with (the) approved duration,” she had said.

The revelation opened floodgates of criticism of the school’s system by some academics and online readers of The PUNCH.

Our correspondent learnt that the university governing council met last Wednesday and Thursday and deliberated on the various issues.

A release by the Director of Information and Public Relations, Dr Emmanuel Ojukwu, titled, ‘Governing Council of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Interdicts Dr Peter Ekemezie,’ stated that the matter had been on for some time.

“The governing council at its 117th general meeting held on Wednesday, June 26, 2019, considered the report of the appeals and petitions committee on the petitions against his person titled, ‘Fraudulent Claim of Patent by Dr Peter Ekemezie and other irregularities in his current appraisal.’ Council noted that the matter, which had lingered for more than five years, was a criminal case, pending before the court of law. It, therefore, resolved to suspend deliberations on it.

“Guided by the provisions of Section 13.1.5 of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Senior Staff Conditions of Service, the Governing Council decided to interdict Dr Peter Ekemezie from his duties in the university with effect from Wednesday, June 26, 2019.

“Council, thereafter, directed as follows: He shall be entitled to receive one-half of his salary; he is required to hand over all the university property in his possession to his head of department and he is forbidden from carrying out his duties or visiting the university except with the express permission of the vice-chancellor,” the statement said.

A source privy to the resolutions at the meeting told our correspondent that there was an instruction for the verification of staff certificates.

The source explained that it was to restore sanity to the system.

“The council was very angry that this case lingered this long. The new vice-chancellor is a pastor with the Deeper Life Bible Church and he is strict and firm. He said even if his own sister committed an offence worthy of sacking, he would do it,” the top varsity source said.

Speaking with our correspondent on Monday, the varsity spokesman, Ojukwu, confirmed the verification of the certificates, adding that it would begin with the academic staff.

He said the new management of the varsity, led by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Charles Esimone, was determined to redeem the school image.

“This council is determined to do the right thing to correct all the anomalies. The society should learn from the university. So, the VC wants to restore the quintessential university culture and this has started,” he added.

The Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, UNIZIK chapter, Dr Steven Ufoaroh, said the verification of staff certificates would expose more workers with fraudulent claims.

He said, “The university council members and the VC are living up to expectation because the issue of discipline ends at their doorstep. If this had been done earlier, all the attacks on the school image would have been unnecessary. I believe with this, all similar cases may be exhumed and people will sit tight and know their proper placement based on their academic qualifications.”

A former Head of Department of Pure and Industrial Chemistry, Prof. John Nduka, lamented the poor appraisal system which ensured the promotion of Ekemezie without verification of his academic claims.

He blamed the former vice-chancellor, Joseph Ahaneku, for the rot in the system, adding that several letters he wrote to him calling attention to the problems were ignored.

Nduka said, “If Ekemezie started work in 2010 with an alleged forged BSc certificate and somebody is just talking about it today, after he had gained promotion, what do we say about that?

“The issue of forged certificate had been known in the institution before the former VC promoted him to become a senior lecturer. The records are there. The committee report was dated January 23, 2015. That is over four years already. Does it take donkey’s years to handle such matters?

“The university law is that when you have a case, a university committee is set up to do preliminary investigation and if a prima facie case is established, the management places such a person on suspension. Then the VC refers the matter to the senior staff committee within a minimum of three months and maximum of six months and after that, the senior staff committee submits its report to the VC, which he will then send to the council. The council only ratifies the decision of the committee. It does not take more than six months. Maybe the new VC has woken up.”

The Director of General Studies, UNIZIK, Rev. Fr. Obi Oguejiofor, described as “shameful” the silence of the former administration over the matter.

The professor of philosophy explained that ASUU held a congress on Monday over the latest revelation that Ekemezie had his PhD in 14 months, adding that the union chairman was mandated to take up the matter with the VC.

He said the news of Ekemezie’s suspension and certificates verification were good for the school’s reputation.

“I spoke to the former VC, but he did not act. This matter is a big shame to whoever is connected to UNIZIK. I told the former VC to his face. But he left him to operate for years. I fail to understand a situation where someone with all the allegations against Ekemezie would be left to roam round for that long; it is not tolerable” he added.

A senior lecturer in the school, Dr Chigozie Anarado, said the decision was long overdue.

He noted that the varsity authorities must review how its standards sunk to the present level and make radical changes.

Anarado said, “It is a mixed feeling for me because I believe this ought to have been done a long while ago. But it is better late than never because at the end of the day, posterity will judge us.

“But we must go beyond that. We need to unravel how we got to this point ab initio. It is good that verification of certificates is done because there could be more fraudulent academics lurking around the corner. I am sure it is not only in UNIZIK you have this kind of thing. When you see something like this, you can be sure it is a representation of what is happening in other varsities. But it is important that we begin to clean up so that we can ultimately make the society a better place.”

Governor Ihedioha Reacts To Demolition Of Monuments Built By Okorocha In Imo State

BY ELLA/KEMI FILANI NEWS

OWERRI (KENI FILANI) --Imo state governor, Emeka Ihedioha, has denied reports he ordered the demolition of some monuments built by his predecessor, Rochas Okorocha.

Earlier today, a team of state government officials in company of some firece looking soldiers, began the demolition of the Akachi center, a tourist site built by Rochas Okorocha and was commissioned by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, last week.

Many people believed the demolition was on the order of the new state governor.

The governor has since denied this claim. Read his statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Osuji Steve, below…

SOURCE: KEMI FILANI NEWS

Single Mother Sells Baby For N600, 000 To Buy Phone In Imo

Imo State Police Command. Image: AIT

BY SAMUEL ODUOYE

OWERII (NIGERIAN HERALD) -- Nneka Donatus, a 27-year-old single mother, has been arrested by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Imo State Police Command for selling her baby girl a day after putting to bed.

Donatus was arrested alongside a level 12 civil servant at the state Ministry of Women Affairs, Ujunwa Udechukwu, 40; and Nneoma Onwusereaka, 37; who allegedly facilitated the transaction between the single mother and a couple.

Speaking to Southern City News at the command headquarters in Owerri on Thursday, Donatus said she sold the baby to buy a phone, wrapper and slippers for herself, since she won’t be able to raise the newborn alongside her other five children.

The woman, who spoke in her native dialect, said, “I sold my baby girl for N600,000 and used N15,000 from the money to buy a phone, wrapper and slippers and transported myself back home.

“I asked Nneoma Onwusereaka and her husband, who had the balance to use it to start a business for me. I have five children already and I am separated from my former husband.”

The civil servant who allegedly connived with Donatus to sell the baby told the police that she was rewarded with N10,000 for connecting the buyer with the seller.

The 40-year-old civil servant admitted that she made a mistake, adding that the N10,000 was paid into her account the following day.

Herald Nigeria gathered that the mother of the woman reported her to the SARS operatives when the baby was nowhere to be found following her birth on March 28.

The state Commissioner of Police, Rabiu Ladodo, explained that his command was fighting hard to ensure that child trafficking, which he considered as a serious crime against humanity, was curbed in the state.

Certificate Of Return: Ohanaeze Disowns Okorocha

Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha.

BY MAGNUS EZE, STANLEY UZOARU

Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has dissociated itself from a call on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to release the certificate of return to Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha.

President of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter of the body, Odozi Nwodozi, had, in a statement on Wednesday, alleged that the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) collaborated with INEC and denied “Okorocha and Senator Benjamin Uwajimogu” their certificates just to cripple the Igbo attempt at a shot in the leadership of the ninth National Assembly.

President General of the apex Igbo organisation, Chief Nnia Nwodo, yesterday, warned presidents of its chapters to desist from issuing statements without clearance.

He disclosed that the Ohanaeze Lagos State was being investigated for some pronouncements credited to it.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the President General on Media and Publicity, Emeka Attamah, said while Ohanaeze Ndigbo will always speak out on matters concerning Ndigbo generally, it will not allow itself to be dragged into partisan politics concerning individuals.

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo frowns seriously at the tendency of some of its officials or mischievous elements using the name of the body to issue unwarranted statements purporting them to emerge from the apex Igbo cultural organisation.

“Let it be known that any statement not emanating from the president general, the national publicity secretary, his deputy or the special adviser on media and publicity to the president general of the organisation, should not be countenanced by the press or the public.

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo is at the moment looking into a statement credited to its Lagos State chapter president and will not hesitate to discipline any state president or official, who issues any statement without authorisation,” Attamah stated.

When contacted, Nwodozi said his statement was not intended to embarrass the organisation but aimed at drawing attention to the APC’s exclusion of the Igbo from national polity, including the leadership of the National Assembly.

Meanwhile, governorship candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in Imo State,Uche Nwosu has blamed the ad hoc staff engaged by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the dismal performance witnessed in some parts of the country, including his state during the 2019 general elections.

Nwosu, who reacted to the vote of confidence passed on INEC by 75 political parties on the conduct of the 2019 elections,while addressing newsmen in Owerri yesterday, agreed with the parties stand, but differed with the type of staff engaged by the commission.

He maintained that the electoral umpires performed well in terms of preparation and logistics but added that their efforts were sabotaged by the university professors and lecturers engaged as presiding officers

While describing the single act by INEC to engage the university dons as the greatest mistake made by the commission, he advised against the use of ad hoc staff in future elections.

He said: “One of the best ways to strengthen the electoral system is for the commission to permanently do away with auxiliary staff and recruit more Staff instead.”

Further buttressing his stand Nwosu said: “I want to advise INEC to stop making use of ad hoc staff. These ad hoc staff were the ones who compromised the last elections.”

SOURCE: DAILY SUN

Towards The Igbo Renaissance

Image via The Reflector

BY ANIEBO NWAMU

THE CABLE, APRIL 16, 2019

The first newspaper I read as a boy was called The Renaissance published in Enugu. I later learned it was once known as the Biafran Sun. And while I continued to read my favourite title every day a copy was delivered to our home, it was renamed Daily Star. A vernacular title called Ogene soon followed. Today, however, you can hardly find any paper that resembles Ogene.

As I now wonder what has happened to the “Jews” of Africa, I remember that the tonic Ndigbo needed is in the title of the first newspaper I read in the early 1970s. Together with their kith and kin of the south-south, Ndigbo have taken a stand this year through their votes. But there’s still a problem.

Where would an outsider find the Igbo leader today? Not any of the five state governors. Not a senator. Not a first-class chief. Not even an elder statesman of Igbo extraction.

But it’s not totally true that Ndigbo know no king. Although there were fewer human kings in the days of yore, there were masquerades, speaking in their guttural voices, in Igbo-land to provide leadership.

Generations of Igbo people will forever remain grateful to Chinua Achebe for telling the story of pre-colonial Igbo-land through Things Fall Apart. As he shows in the evergreen novel, the masquerades in Igbo-land – egwugwu or mmanwu– are regarded as the ancestors from beyond whose advice cannot be ignored. Their voices are unlike human voices, but they speak the truth at all times. Perhaps it’s because masquerades have been abandoned that Ndigbo now act and talk individually. Were it in the good old days,egwugwu would, for instance, have been able to state the position of Ndigbo in the current affairs of the country. However, how the dead ancestors transform to egwugwuis what I don’t know and cannot describe today!

I’ve heard leaders of other parts of the country say they have been seeking “a handshake across the Niger” but don’t know Igbo leaders with whom they can strike a deal. Of course, they can’t converse with weird masquerades! With traditional religionists vanishing in Igbo-land, the custodians of eternal wisdom (mmanwu) are hardly heard these days. Even the Igbo language is facing extinction due to the foolishness of the “modern” Ndigbo.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo comes closest to what could be regarded as the Igbo leadership today. The socio-cultural group now led by Chief Nnia Nwodo has left no one in doubt about Ndigbo’s determination to take their rightful place in Nigeria and in the world. Nnamdi Kanu is perhaps the next most influential after Ohanaeze. Touch Kanu and you face opprobrium from millions of youngsters!

What do the Igbo want in 2023? It’s restructuring or nothing, because Nigeria’s unbalanced “federalism” is hurting them the most. For there is no pretending that Ndigbo are still bearing a cross in Nigeria. Appointments made at the federal level in the past four years have cleared all doubts! Now it’s no longer the Igbo alone that complain about the imbalance in the leadership of the nation’s security, judiciary, legislature and executive.

Away from government, an Igbo employee has to be 200% better than a non-Igbo to be considered half as good. Luckily for the Igbo, many are self-employed as traders and technocrats. That’s why they hardly get to the top except they’re indispensable. The unwritten rule seems to be: “Let them be hewers of timber and drawers of water while we help ourselves to the treasury.” Whenever there is a crisis in any part of the country, Igbo people and their shops are the first to be attacked. For no just cause. Just envy.

The Igbo masquerade would tell you that rotation of political offices is older than Nigeria, at least in the Igbo area – it was not started by the NPN of the Second Republic as many have erroneously stated. Right from the earliest times, monarchies were not permitted in Igbo communities (except in Onitsha, though the people of “Onitsha Ado” trace their ancestry to the old Bini empire). There can be no better explanation for Ndigbo’s republicanism than their love for rotation of leadership positions. Even if all other parts of Nigeria are against rotation, Ndigbo should not be. Rotation (or what “special” linguists now call “zoning”) is not democratic, but Nigeria has not grown above it.

The current hullabaloo would have been avoided if visionary people had led Nigeria. It was Alex Ekwueme that actually divided Nigeria into six geopolitical zones. The 1995 constitutional conference supported him and agreed that the presidency should be rotated among the zones for 30 years (that is, one term of five years each) in order to achieve national unity and stability. One “Nigerian factor” has been that nobody has cared to prosecute Abdulsalami Abubakar and his military goons that, after Abacha’s death, threw away the recommendations of the 1995 conference and, instead, gave us a fraudulent constitution. Imagine the billions that were wasted on that conference and the billions that have been wasted on the review of the 1999 Constitution since 2001.

By the way, where is the sixth Igbo state recommended by the conferees of 2005 and 2014? Maybe that has entered voicemail too.

Ndigbo know it should be their turn to produce the president in 2023 but they’re not enthusiastic about it. Political offices are relatively inconsequential. Even then, their undoing has been that any position reserved for them gets contested by scores or even hundreds. Everyone feels he’s the most qualified. Egoism – it’s wrong. When the Igbo rally round a leader, once again, it will be the beginning of their renaissance.

I’m no chauvinist. Far from it. But, like most Igbo, I’m a realist — realists say things the way they see them. Come to think of it, is tribalism not a huge problem in Nigeria? Why do some people bury their head in the sand like an ostrich whenever ethnicity is mentioned, yet they drink, eat and bathe with ethnicity every day? If preaching oneness is the solution to the problem, why have we not been united all these decades? Even the Nigerian constitution devotes several clauses and sub-sections to the “Federal Character Principle” and the like, yet all the people who have ruled and ruined Nigeria did so by practising tribalism of the crudest kind. All the talk about “zoning” or rotation of offices is nothing more than tribalism.

Everyone has the right to express their feelings on any subject. So I don’t criticise those who frown at my “daring” to mention “Igbo” when everyone ought to be preaching national unity. But they should not attempt to deny me my own right to freedom of expression. Is it fair if I don’t show interest in the affairs of the zone I come from?

Meanwhile, I’ve not spared Igbo people that have contributed to the nation’s problems. I’m only asking that the Igbo who are honest and competent should be recognised for what they are. They should be treated like other Nigerians.

Ndigbo’s ingenuity and hard work should be a source of strength for the nation; it should not attract envy or jealousy. The generation that fought a civil war (to defend themselves) 52 years ago is dying off. Most promoters of MASSOB and IPOB today had not been born then. As I once wrote, it is most regrettable that the “Asian Tigers” like Malaysia, Singapore and the Koreas have overtaken a people that, almost 50 years ago, made ogbunigwe bombs and rocket launchers, made trucks and tanks from scrap, refined fuel at their kitchens, built airstrips overnight and achieved other incredible feats.

One Abdullah, in a rejoinder to my column, taunted me by asking why, if the Igbo were so enterprising, they hadn’t turned their native homeland to a mini Taiwan or at least a “Nigerian tiger”. In response, I told him he was ignorant, and that I didn’t think he had ever travelled more than 20km from the place he was born.

Had he ever visited Nnewi, Aba or Onitsha or seen the technological wonders the Igbo “boys” are performing in Lagos and several major cities around the world, his opinion would have changed. As far back as the 1980s, Nnewi was viewed as Nigeria’s Silicon Valley because of the numerous industries that were in operation there. And Abdullah’s shoes supposedly “made in Italy” were actually made in Aba.

The bad policies of incompetent governments have frustrated many industrialists, the Igbo not excluded. Nigeria has been the loser.

Nwamu, a book editor and entrepreneur, is the CEO of Eyeway

2023: My Fears For Igbo Presidency – Paul Unongo

Paul Unongo image via Sun News

BY GYANG BERE

JOS (SUN NEWS) -- Paul Unongo is the former Chairman of Northern Elder’s Forum who resigned during the peak of herdsmen killings in Benue and Plateau states.

In this interview in Jos, he advised the Igbo not to wait for other Nigerians to give them the presidency, but to organise themselves as Nigerians and not Igbo to canvass support for the slot.

He also expressed fear that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo might not sacrifice their ambition of becoming President in 2023 for the Igbo after working so hard to capture power from the PDP.

Unongo praised Nigerians for rewarding President Muhammadu Buhari with a second tenure, saying that the president has demonstrated courage in the fight against corruption in the country. Excerpts:

There has been this debate about whether Nigeria should be restructured or not. Where do you stand?

There is need for us to understand what we mean by restructuring and this can be traced back to history. In Nigeria, when you benefit from goodness you don’t do good to others, you do terrible things to pull anybody else down. I think the British sowed a seed and they had divide and rule. They were loyal to their metropolitan powers in their metropolitan countries and they taught us that we are a bunch of African natives brought together to work for the metropolitan powers and it was true. They didn’t teach us that this education was supposed to be applied to now work for our country. They didn’t teach us how to work for our tribes and we too, when we gained freedom to do it on our own, we didn’t even disabuse our minds that government is not a body you steal from; government is an organization that organises human beings and shares the values and the good which they have in a proportionate manner that will allow for the society to develop and at the same time allow us not to kill one another.

So, do you consider restructuring as an option to solving Nigeria’s problems?

That is another thing entirely. When you are talking to a Yoruba man that is in Afenifere, he has a different conceptualization of restructuring. When you are talking to an Igbo man who is a Biafran at heart, he has his own definition of restructuring. When you are not an Afenifere member, and looking at the economic benefits of Nigeria, as long as he is benefitting, he has a different definition. When you are talking to another Igbo man who is not an Ohanaeze Ndigbo member and he is thinking about his businesses, where he has to be free as an entrepreneur, he is talking about where he can go and sit down to be the greatest entrepreneur, he has a different definition of restructuring. I think if Nigerians will have a dialogue, let us agree on what it is we are talking about, and if restructuring is a game politicians who feel that the British came to this country and divided us into power blocs and one power bloc is dominant and we don’t like the domination of that power bloc because the British has effectively done that and we are consolidated into dividing Nigeria into the North and South. The more educated and wise people came from the South. In those days, the less educated people came from the North and this was the thing that you can trace as the cause or factor of the Nigerian civil war or the first coup, you can trace it back to this first major issue. If this is what people are talking about restructuring, let’s say so. Is it that the British came and divided Nigeria into two uneven houses, gave over a half of the land of Nigeria, in fact, almost three quarter of the landmass of Nigeria to the North and divided the remaining one set of the landmass of Nigeria for the West and the East and we in our own wisdom created Mid-West which didn’t make sense. If this is what we are struggling with, let us say so…. So, what do we mean by restructuring? If by restructuring, you say restructure Nigeria physically so that we can have components that will be recognized by the constitution that power will be given to them to maintain federalism so that they can be equal in physical shape, say so; let’s put it up for discussion. If by restructuring you say you want to change people’s way of life, have you found a way of life that will be common to everybody and things like that; or like the British made a mistake. Are the Yoruba enjoying power with the Fulani so much that they are now saying restructure Nigeria into Yoruba, into Igbo, into Fulani and they have created something called Fulani/Hausa, then what happens to a Berom man, what happens to a Tiv man and so on?

So, what will you recommend as restructuring?

Wait, I can’t talk about what I don’t know. Are you saying that democracy should be defined by another means instead of one man, one vote?

People expected that their votes would count in the last general elections, but some people felt that their votes didn’t count, how do we handle that?

Look, you are not going to build a country by day-dreamers. There is a reality confronting you and you are afraid of taking it up. I always get angry with my Igbo friends.Why are you afraid in Igbo land? You want to talk about something for which you went to war and three million human beings were killed and you think this was a joke. Why did you go to war? You went to war because you thought Hausa people were dominating you and when you talk about restructuring you don’t want to be dominated by Hausa people and you said they are not educated, and you insult them yet you came down and accepted a system of governance without qualifying it. Why didn’t you present a proposal to the British and say look, a man who is not educated up to Masters degree level should not have one vote so that three people from the North will make one person from the East. Who will agree to that kind of rubbish? That is what you people are talking about. People want to have preferences on the basis of democracy, not on the basis of one man, one vote. If you tell me that because I am a Tiv man, that my one vote should not be one vote, but my one vote should be one over 10 of one vote of a Yoruba man. You take 10 Tiv people you join them to become one vote, you take 10 Berom people, you join them to become one vote of somebody from Yoruba land or somebody from Igbo land, I will never agree. This is the debate they are afraid of. The British gave the North advantage by giving us a political system based on democracy and the definition of democracy is that the majority people will always have their own way while the minority might have their own say, not their own way, that is the meaning of democracy anywhere in the world, that is why it becomes necessary to socialize human beings, it is not an issue of right, but socialization; that it is right for these other minorities in terms of their population, let one of them also rule. And when a society develops to a particular place like in the West, even the children of one person can be president three times. In America, Bush was President, another Bush came and he was President another Bush came to try to be President and if he tries it again he might be President. Nigeria is avoiding debate, Nigeria wants us to wait, vote so that the majority population which God gave us in the North should be vitiated so that 20 people from the North should be equal to one person in the West or in the East, it can never happen. We must be very truthful to one another and if Nigerians had allowed the Azikiwes on what they were doing, nobody would have been talking about the North. Awolowo introduced tribalism into Nigerian political process. He was so grossly involved in regionalism that Azikiwe ran away and nobody was talking about Nigerianism any more. Now, we from the North have found out that power is in our number, we will do everything to make sure that Northerners perceive that they have interest in maintaining some fragile unity so that they can always determine who is going to be in power because these people don’t respect us, they felt we are not educated.

Based on the theory of population you have propounded, are you saying that the North will remain in power because of their population?

Yes, if they remain united, but they are not united.

Do you see justice in what the British did when they structured a particular section of the country in such a way that they will always have advantage over others?

It is my dull brain, your dull brain and your sister’s dull brain that brainwashed us into giving tribe such important expression and political evaluation. That is what is stopping Nigeria from developing. My own theory is that, I have been given an assignment. I am the Chairman of Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, I accepted that not because I need a job, I don’t need any job at 84. I felt that if I could stimulate Nigerian thought, what do we really need as a nation-state? Federalism? Look I am so disappointed, Nigerians are so bright, they can put a man on the moon and bring him back if they want with their own technological advancement. Nigerians can think out any problem, I see what Nigerians are doing in the white man’s world. When I come to this country, I see Nigerians who are stopping other Nigerians from doing what they are doing in the white man’s world in their own world.

There has been this agitation that the Igbo people from the Southeast should be given the opportunity to produce the president in 2023. What is your take on that?

Given the opportunity by who? What do you mean by giving the opportunity? Okay, the tickets by people, the Berom people and other tribes should be given the opportunity to contest too.

Presidential election in Nigeria is done through zoning. Don’t you think that the position should be zoned to the Southeast?

Election by the wisdom of political parties is by zoning. What you people don’t know, is that there is a young man from Cross River who was a governor who insisted on contesting and becoming a presidential candidate of a political party with Prof Jerry Gana. Telling him that he will not, Jerry Gana was proved wrong by the courts and the young man was right. He is the only one I respect as a Nigerian, because you people created a cocoon for yourselves and forced yourselves into the cocoon and then you cry wolf and the wolf is in you. It was the political parties that said, there should be power sharing between the North and the South. I can start agitation that this is North and South thing; when it comes to the North it is always Fulani so I want it to be on the basis of my tribe. If a Fulani has been president, nobody from the North who is a Fulani man should be president again, this will be a ridiculous country, but that is the thing that is being asked.

Looking at the agitation for Igbo presidency…

I will not look at the Igbo Presidency, I will look at Nigerian Presidency. I am not going to be boxed, I am not going to be forced, I am not going to be pushed to play the foolish thing that some people are playing by talking about Igbo Presidency. Tell me why you are not talking about Berom Presidency, tell me why you are not talking about Mangu man?

If a Nigerian comes out from the East in 2023 to contest for presidency, will you mobilize Nigerians to vote for him?

Of course yes. I am encouraging my son, Rochas Okorocha, to come out and stand as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He has more guts and courage than anybody I have seen from the East. I will support him if he comes out.

Where do you want the Presidency to be zoned to in 2023?

Is that what you mean by restructuring? Let’s say you break Nigeria may be into 24 provinces as it used to be and this time don’t make the mistake of the British, break them evenly, because when you talk about democracy, do you know that Borno State is about four times the total population of Southeast Region and my Benue State in terms of space and land is about one and half times of the total Southeast. What is called South East today, what are you after, do you want us to divide Nigeria in terms of landmass?

But landmass does not translate to population?

That is another lie that you people don’t know. Lagos is not the smallest, you are talking about a metropolis during the colonial days, you are talking about a place that was the headquarters of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for many years, you are talking about a place that all the industries were concentrated, you are talking about a place that is so cosmopolitan. If you go to Lagos you will be shocked that the proper Lagos, there are more Igbo than Yoruba and that is what Lagos is and you have that phenomenon reflected in Kano with one exception. I want to summarize what I have told you: those of you talking about restructuring, the intellectuals are little bit dishonest, they are talking about power sharing and they have at the back of their mind as I do too, an element of, ‘are we being fair to the three mega tribes built by Britain – Yoruba tribe, Hausa tribe and Igbo tribe? These things have entered the intellectual capacity that the Igbo man, the Yoruba man and even Hausa Fulani people daydream that Nigeria is a country of three tribes. It is not true. If you are going to talk about tribes, there are so many tribes in Nigeria and some of these tribes also have political ambition. It is because they didn’t have somebody to lobby for them, they would have wanted to produce the president. Did we award presidency to other tribes and decided that we will not award to the Igbo? Let an Igbo man organise a political party that will involve all the people of Nigeria.

Organise a political party? How?

Yes, we have seen how APC was formed, look at how Buhari came in with other little political parties and it became something that could win an election. Will it be fair to now tell people like Prof Yemi Osinbajo or Tinubu who came into this alliance that at the end of the day it becomes something that should be captured, that an Igbo man has to be president, so after Buhari the ambition of Tinubu should be quashed, the vice president should not nurse the ambition to be president. Tinubu that is the leader of a political party that is winning election should not nurse ambition, will that be fair? Since the presidency is going to the South only somebody from Igbo land can stand as president. I think what I am telling you is that, the Igbo should stop destroying potential Igbo people that are old enough to take up this challenge. I want an Igbo man to organise me like the Yoruba people organised us and I want an Igbo man who will organise us just like the way a Bousa man organised us and we will get to a point that we will not be calling on tribes. If Rochas Okorocha comes and wants to be president of Nigeria I will support him, if Ben Nwabueze is strong and says this place has become upside down, so we men of ideas should try to be president, if I am standing as presidential aspirant and Ben Nwabueze is standing, I will step down for him and I will canvass for him. I canvassed for Zik, I took him across the whole of this nation. I was the General Secretary of the Party that pushed Zik to become the president of this nation. He was Igbo, but we didn’t sit down in one place and said since he was an Igbo, let him be president, no. I presented him to Nigeria and said this is the best material we have as president. We didn’t have money and he was the best material and I was very proud. I didn’t feel I was being disloyal to the North, I didn’t feel I was being disloyal to the Fulani or Tiv, no. I just felt that out of the human beings in the country the best person that could be president then was Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe.

How do you think we can improve on the electoral system in Nigeria, drawing from the 2019 general elections?

I think the election was very good. INEC has tried, Nigeria is a place that you cannot satisfy all, but I said we should adopt the electronic system. I was one of those who went to the last constitutional conference and I insisted that we should all go electronic. I think all the problems that we are having now, ballot box snatching, violence, if we have electronic voting we will go to sleep. As the man is voting at his polling booth, his vote goes straight to the collation centre, elections will be finished in three hours, you can even vote in your house. That will prevent the issue of somebody breaking somebody’s head, there will be no ballot box snatching because there will be no box to snatch. I am hoping that this INEC of Prof Mahmood Yakubu should be bold enough to recommend complete electronic voting. It should be designed in a way as you vote here, result should appear at your polling unit, the state headquarters and at the collation centre in Abuja. The voter should be checked to know if he is the right person that is voting, when we do this and if anybody is trying to cheat, it will be difficult and if he does, he should be taken and put in jail. There will be no killing, there will be no fighting.

How do you view the anti-corruption crusade of President Muhammadu Buhari. Some say it is lopsided, has he achieved anything?

Nigerians are afraid of giving a person who is their political opponent credit, but I am not. I think in the whole history of Nigeria, we have paid lip service to anti-corruption except the man called Buhari. It is only during Buhari’s time that I saw hundreds of thousands of naira seized and displayed on television and people touched them with their hands. We have seen people who are trusted with the responsibility of organising the welfare of people and these got away with it except in Buhari’s administration. So, I say with all sense of responsibility that only one leader in Nigeria has attempted to recoup that which has been stolen by wicked people who ought to be called leaders, but unfortunately they are not leaders. Also, I have been in this country’s public life for not less than 50 years, I have seen only in the administration of Buhari people showed fear that if I steal maybe they will catch me, and if they catch me, this man will disgrace me. So, I say let’s reward Buhari and I thank Nigerians for rewarding Buhari with a second tenure and he deserves it.

Nigerians had high expectations when Buhari came on board…

He didn’t come with high expectations, he came when the country was almost dying and people said he will do better, many people believed in him. Anything that was better than PDP at the end of Jonathan’s administration was the time Buhari came and the man told us that he was going to concentrate on three areas, security, economy and corruption. He said that he cannot allow a sovereign country like Nigeria that boasts of the biggest army in Africa to be humiliated by Boko Haram. Boko Haram had captured, retained and was running administration in 17 local government areas in Nigeria. He said he will beat Boko Haram and he will regain all Nigerian territory back and he will drive them out of existence, he did it. He also said that this economy has been battered and so terribly treated by impunity, he would bring order to this economy, that he will know how money is going out and how it comes in, by streamlining N1 billion account that people take money out. I will streamline all proceeds and receipt of government into one account and I will know how the money is going out and how it is being used, and I will put it to developmental projects, I will develop the infrastructure, I will develop projects that have consequential bearing on the welfare of the people, and I will leverage and dash money to the very poor to help themselves, he did it. Then he said those who steal and make it like a joke, the joke is up. If you steal any money in this country I will make you vomit it, we will show the people when we catch them, if you bring it back I will announce and keep it and use it as Nigerian money, he has done it. So, in terms of his announced policies, he has delivered in all the three, Nigerians were right when he asked of their mandate to re-elect him.

After he won his re-election, he announced that the next four years will be tough. Looking at when he came on board in 2015, Nigerians couldn’t afford a square meal again, price of goods has risen in the market. What should we expect in the next four years?

I think he meant that this is not the time we shouldn’t say we are going to fold our hands and sit down that we have done very well, we will eat and enjoy for tomorrow we die, no. It used to be owambe without work; people eat and enjoy and he said he was going to drive Nigeria to work harder and if I were in a position like him I will say the same thing, because I want an opportunity to lead Nigerians to work.

You were the chairman of Northern Elder’s Forum and you resigned at the peak of herdsmen killings in Benue, Plateau and Taraba states. What informed your decision?

I resigned based on three reasons: one, I felt our government took too long on acting to separate the killers from the poor farmers. I felt that they should have sent police, soldiers to come and stop the killings and I requested for it. I said it, I even went to Mr President with the pictures of people that were killed and women that had their stomach split, I showed these pictures to the Minister of Internal Affairs, but I thank God they are men of honour. The government acts, but sometimes they act too slowly on critical issues that involve human lives. So, men may misunderstand and interpret wrongly that Mr President was interested, I mean even if you are Mr President’s biggest enemy, will you believe that Mr President will organise Fulani herdsmen to kill your people to conquer their land, so that he will gain what? But when you give room for people to say you have sympathy for what is happening and I do know that these people are not Muslims because most of the people who take these cows around are not Muslims. So, I wanted us to have a position and we had a position paper, which we wanted to talk to the President about. The second reason I resigned was that some of the younger people within the Northern Elders Forum that didn’t know what we were fighting requested that I show too much interest in the killing in Plateau and Benue that I called the people my people, I did it, they are my people. To show interest, yes I showed interest, so they said if I couldn’t lead the whole of the North, I should resign because they were pro-Atiku and I said that in the North, if Buhari stood election with Atiku that the people of the North will vote massively for Buhari against Atiku, so did that happen? They said I was partial, I was too concerned about two people which I was happy, I was too concerned about Buhari, I am an intellectual, I am a specialist. So, I couldn’t have been arrogant by telling them that the theoretical thing has happened, so who is right?

Were you compelled to resign?

I was not compelled, I am too old to be compelled by anybody in this world. I don’t want to be anybody’s leader. Those who think I am taking side with anybody they don’t like. Before I was appointed leader of Northern Elders Forum, I was not told that I should not express my opinion, and they said I cannot express my own personal opinion. I cannot tolerate that, so I had to go away so that I can express my own opinion. The last reason was that people were beginning to feel I was enjoying this position. They were feeling that when I am called leader of Northern Elders Forum that I was enjoying it and that I was being compensated. I want to state categorically that there was no financial compensation or social compensation. I was only doing a job which brings my people together. I felt it was good for the people of Northern Nigeria to also have unity.