Farewell, Alexander Madiebo

Biafran War General Alexander Madiebo (1932-2022) 

BY AHAMEFULA NJOKU

Shortly after the book, ”The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War,’ written by Alexander Madiebo, who was a Lt Colonel in the Nigerian Army and later promoted to a Major General was published by Fourth Dimension Publishers, Enugu in 1980, l saw my father reading the book on a daily basis. At that time, l did not realise my full connection to the events and some personalities in that book or indeed that of the entire Igbo race for that matter. l later realised why he was reading the book with great interest. My father, an entrepreneur at the young age of 34 years in 1967, was one of the richest men in Port Harcourt with ownership of four houses there, a lot of landed properties, two brand new cars, the best photo studio, Sams Photos, with 13 members of staff and a manager, often frequented by Nigerian President Nnamdi Azikiwe, opposition leader Obafemi Awolowo and even Europeans, including those working in the crude oil industry. All these were lost, including three of my siblings to the Biafran war.


Many years later when l read the book from cover to cover, it dawned on me that Madiebo who hails from Awka in Anambra State and recently died at the age of 90 years was not just a master story teller but a world class military strategist.

When you read his book, you learn many invaluable lessons of life. The most important lesson you would learn is that every action a human being takes carries consequences.

For example, it was Madiebo and one or two other persons who convinced Chukwuma Nzeogwu after the January 1966 coup failed in the South of Nigeria and General Aguiyi-Ironsi had become the Head of state of Nigeria to surrender himself to the authority of the new leader. Had Nzeogwu done otherwise and proceeded to ”complete” the coup in Lagos and southern Nigeria, the history of Nigeria could have been different today and maybe the 1967 to 1970 civil war may have been averted.

In my work with some Nigerian politicians, businessmen and indeed many human beings, l have observed that many of them pay scant attention to strategy or often ignore good advice based on research, experience, feedback. A few of them who are patient and wise enough to adopt a strategy for what they want to achieve often do better than others who do not. The reason is obvious. To formulate a good strategy for whatever you want to do and execute same is very tasking. Many human beings do not have the patience, wisdom or resilience to execute same.

Madiebo in that classic book also told the story about how his course mate at the United Kingdom elite military academy, Sandhurst, General Yakubu Gowon had tried to get him out of harm’s way by penciling down his name for a course abroad at the height of the 1966 crisis. But Madiebo, a very wise man, turned down the offer because he felt he needed to be around to protect his wife and children as the uncertain events of 1966 unfolded. Had he accepted the offer, he would have been outside the country when the epochal events of 1966 to 1967 unfolded and perhaps he would not have played the central role of the General Officer Commanding of the Biafran Army and a war tactician of the highest order.

Madiebo also told a story of how he advised an Igbo officer to leave the Kaduna Army Officers Mess at the army barracks in 1966 after the counter-coup because of the mutiny by ‘northern’ soldiers against their southern colleagues. Madiebo left, but the Igbo officer who refused to heed his advice was later that night arrested at the same officers’ mess and was killed. This story often reminds me of the famous statement by one philosopher that, ”He who cannot be advised cannot be helped.” In life taking a good advice from someone who is more experienced and more knowledgeable than you can make a big difference in your life. If you take the advice, you move to success, if you do not, sooner than later you would come face to face with failure to your utmost regret.

Another lesson one can learn from Madiebo’s book is the importance of planning and organisation in whatever anybody who wants to be successful in life does. In all the battles he plotted in Biafra, he did a lot of planning and succeeded in defeating the enemy with minimal resources. His story of how he escaped from Kaduna to the Eastern part of Nigeria in the water tank of a train after hiding in the bush is another interesting narrative full of wisdom and strategy.

Madiebo also has a great sense of humour. Although the events he narrated were very serious and grim, underneath them was a mischievous sense of humour. He told a story about a telephone conversation with Lt Colonel Emeka Ojukwu who was in charge in the army formation in Kano. When Ojukwu was being told of the events of the January 1966 coup, he kept saying, ”good, good, good” to every statement made to him. One could not then decipher whether he was in support of the issues being discussed with him or against.

Ojukwu, the Oxford trained historian in one of his displays of a sound knowledge of the English language, once sent a signal to Madiebo. Ojukwu in a very short message was trying to give a background to a situation that required that Madiebo take over a particular war assignment from two officers who ought to have carried out the assignment. To paraphrase him, he told Madiebo that a certain Biafran officer ”hopes” while another officer is ”hopeless.” This was Ojukwu’s way of telling him that the two officers cannot be in charge of the impending battle.

He also narrated an encounter with Frederick Forsyth, the celebrated British Broadcasting Corporation Correspondent and famous author who he frightened off from his area of operation because he didn’t know whether Forsyth was a spy for someone or a genuine sympathiser. Another funny narrative of his was how Achuzia, a civilian was given the title of a Lt Colonel by Ojukwu for his bravery during the war. But Achuzia was posturing as a full Colonel. According to Madiebo, in the military tradition, a Lt Colonel could be addressed as a Colonel although he was not a full Colonel. Achuzia was protesting that Madiebo was ”demoting” him from the rank the Head of State had bestowed on him by designating him as a Lt Colonel. Still on Achuzia, Madiebo told another story of how Achuzia, a fearless soldier went into another battle without adequate planning and lost. While trying to evolve a battle strategy, Achuzia who had grown impatient told Madiebo to stop all these ”Sandhurst” planning and allow the boys (soldiers) to fight. After the battle was lost, Ojukwu now directed Madiebo to take ”personal” charge to recover the place. And Madiebo did. I later met Ojukwu, himself, in 1994 and had a good relationship with him.

Madiebo is a foremost military tactician and strategist. He narrated how he was on a routine visit of the front lines of the Biafran war fronts before the first shot was fired and saw some young Biafran soldiers with their rifles engaged in idle chats. He reprimanded them and told them to start digging trenches to keep them busy and create a defensive strategy. When the war started shortly, it was those trenches that saved the soldiers from artillery bombardments and death.

One of Madiebo’s fascinating narratives was the ‘Abagana Ambush’ where the dreaded Nigerian commanders, Colonel Murtala Muhammed set up a convoy of ferrets, armoured vehicles, transport vehicles and hundreds of Nigerian soldiers and military stores to ”link up” Onitsha. However, the convoy was destroyed by a Biafran ambush party. Some of the arms and ammunition recovered were used by the Biafran Army that was suffering from scarcity of these military wares.

I later realised my further connection to Madiebo when l found out that he attended my school, Government College Umuahia. In his own book, ”The Last Flight: A Pilot Remembers The Airforce And The Biafran Air Attacks,” another Old Boy of my college, Capt August Okpe observed that Government College Umuahia produced 13 senior and mid-level officers in the Nigerian armed forces who later transfered their services to Biafran Armed forces at the onset of the civil war hostilities.

As the Chairman of the 2007 Dinner Committee of the Lagos Branch of the Government College Umuahia Old Boys Association Awards And Dinner night l interacted with some of these gentlemen including Lt Colonel Anthony Eze who also played a prominent role in the war. It was Eze that told me that if a complete account of the Biafran war was to be written, Ojukwu, Madiebo and himself would have to sit down together and write it. They never did.

However, anybody who wants to know why Biafra failed should read Madiebo’s book. And l think Ojukwu in many of his interviews after the ill-fated war, agrees largely with Madiebo that Igbos should not fight another war.

Madiebo also made me to develop interest in military books for which l can modestly say that l am a connoisseur. It has influenced me to the extent that l do not do anything serious without evaluating it and painting possible scenarios around it, including its outcome and potential consequences.

In conclusion, l wish to send my condolences to Madiebo’s wife, children and family. As one great philosopher said, ”If we are related, we shall meet.” I met Madiebo in several ways after l first met him in that book which my father was reading in 1980.

Njoku, a lawyer, author and political strategist, writes from Abuja.

------------------THIS DAY

INTERVIEW: Abaribe: I’m Determined To Be The Change In Abia

THIS DAY INTERVIEW

Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe believes that Abia State, must strive to be the industrial heartland of the nation and he thinks of himself as a governor who can drive this. Segun James reports

Why do you want to become the next governor of the state?

My reason is simple: Abia State deserves the best possible material to lead it and I think I am the best person at this time to lead the state. This is the 21st century; this is also a transition year and this is also a year where so many things are happening both in Nigeria and all over the world. And what Abia needs now is a man that has integrity. Abia needs a man that has credibility, a man that has the capacity to do the job and Abia needs somebody, who at all times the people can go to sleep and say they know that Abia is in very good hands.

I am putting myself forward for Abia people to be the governor for all, not the governor of the North, South, East or West, but the governor for every Abia person. And I think that with the pedigree I have and with what I have done for the people of Abia and indeed, the people of Nigeria, all the oppressed people in this country know that I put them first in everything, that I will do a great job for them.

This will be your fourth or fifth attempt, do you think people will give you their votes this time?

I think that what is important is the adage: if you try and it doesn’t work, then you try again. It doesn’t matter how many times I have made attempts, I think that this is the right time and Abia people know and I have their support and their encouragement. I have had consultations with all persons in Abia, all manner of people; I have had with the leadership, I have had with the led, market women, with the youths, I have had with the political leaders, I have had with academia, I have had with all. At every point I have met with them, Abians asked for one thing: leadership that puts them first and I intend to do that.

As the Senate’s minority leader. What’s your take on the Electoral Act?

It is a good piece of legislation. It was meant to cure some of the problems that were in the previous acts all this while. The basic thing that we have in the Electoral Act today is the fact that it will make rigging almost impossible. There are two things that were done in that Electoral Act. First is the direct transmission of results in each polling unit. Even if you have problems in a polling unit, the cumulative of all the polling booths will give you a near accurate figure. Also, there is a provision in the Act that if you, by any means, force a Returning Officer to announce a result that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) does not have, that set of results will not be processed.

The other thing about the Electoral Act, which is good, is the very famous one, which everyone saw when the Senate rejected President Muhammadu Buhari’s amendment, which is section 84(12). What that section does is that it codified what was already supposed to be the norm of our society. Usually, if you want to run for election, the norm used to be that you would resign. You won’t sit in office and at the same time utilize your office to run and manipulate state resources in running for election.

There is an aspect of that legislation, which people talk about, which I do not think is in the law. I have heard it said that, if you have not resigned by now, you might not be eligible to contest; that you ought to have resigned. No law is made to be retroactive, so Section 84(12) doesn’t say that you ought to have resigned by now. What is actually in the law is that if you are going to be a delegate for the purpose of primary or you are going to be an aspirant or a contestant for the purpose of primary, leading to an election that you will have to resign. The stipulation as to time is what is in the Civil Service Rules because you are a public officer and you are subjected to the same Civil Service Rules, which is 30 days before any contest.

So, it is actually 30 days before primary or 30 days before congress if you are going to be a delegate. It is not for three months. When the parties set their dates, I believe the 30 days will now kick-start from the date the parties put for their elections. That is what is in 84(12).

The President, in his wisdom, has said that it conflicted with the 1999 Constitution, where that particular part of the constitution wasn’t mentioned. So, we didn’t know exactly what he meant. As far as we know, we think that if you are in office and you still want to be in that office and also run or contest for an election, what you are doing is that you are short-changing the country because your office will suffer. And of course, when you are running for office, what it means is that you are going to neglect your official duties, and you swore an oath to fulfil your duty towards the public and towards Nigeria, so you cannot balance the two at the same time. It is not going to be in the interest of the country. The interest of the country should come first.

So when we got that communication from the President, we said some people must have mis-advised him to write that letter. For example, I run the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and I now want to be President and then I want to contest for primary while I am still running the NNPC, something is going to suffer. And what is going to suffer actually is my job for the people of Nigeria in the NNPC. We should not allow that. We just didn’t think that these are things that we ought to codify, but we have found out that because it wasn’t codified people were taking advantage of it and staying in their offices and utilizing the office to run elections and of course, to the detriment of their duties. That was why we declined to put an assent to it.

The All Progressives Congress, APC, is trying to get a foothold in the South-east. What do you think are the chances of the PDP for the presidency and to retain power in Abia?

I don’t think the APC has had a foothold in the South-east. What the APC has done, just like they have done elsewhere, is to poach the leadership that is already there from the PDP and when they poach them, they give them a lot of bogus promises, which they never kept. So, at all times, the PDP will always win the South-east; we have no problem about that. It is obvious that the APC has nothing to offer the South-east and we repeat not just the South-east; the APC has nothing to offer the country. What will they offer you? Is it fuel that is at N600 per litre? You can’t fly, diesel is at almost N800 per litre. And of course the worst, which is that we are in the middle of rising oil prices at the international market, yet we are still crying that Nigeria is not benefitting from the development. This has never happened. At least, everybody can say that when there is rising oil prices, we can no longer borrow; we can pay our debts; we can reduce the deficit but none of that is happening, we are not saving and we are doing nothing. We should ask ourselves one question and that question is this: what manner of economic management does the APC do that has led us to this type of Nigeria where nothing, literally nothing, is working and the country is grinding to a halt? When we asked this question, we were told that the real problem is that we are paying subsidies. Two things we can take from here; this same APC said that there was nothing like subsidy. This same President Buhari said subsidy was a scam, yet subsidy has risen under this government three times or four times more than subsidy under President Goodluck Jonathan’s PDP government that they persecuted so much.

We should ask ourselves another question: how did the consumption of Prime Motor Spirit, PMS, rise under APC from the 28 million to 30 million litres a day under (Dr Ibe) Kachukwu as minister to about 100 million litres a day under the present leadership of the APC? Something is definitely wrong. How can, within three to four years, you tell us that the consumption of petroleum products in Nigeria has quadrupled; how could that be? So, what we see is something that is inexplicable. The United States has an energy department that has the consumption rate of all fuel you use all over the world. If you check their figures, the whole of West Africa doesn’t take up to 35 million of litres a day, the whole of West Africa and you tell me that Nigeria takes over 100 million litres a day and we are paying subsidies on this phantom figures. So, there are things we cannot explain. We all know that the APC has nothing to offer an average man in the South-east, who finds it very difficult to do business, who finds it very difficult to move about, even if he is an importer he has to come to Lagos and the cost of moving his goods to Abia is costlier than what he used to bring it from Europe to Lagos. So, how would anybody survive in this kind of condition? And now after everything they told us that if they remove the PDP from power, they will now give us electricity. I think that was what Mr (Babatunde) Fashola said then.

Now, they are telling us that electricity has fallen because it is the dry season and that the water level has fallen. The same thing they complained about under the PDP. So, you can see that these people came to power on the basis of an issue of propaganda, misinformation, lies and everything, they can no longer sustain it. Therefore, there is nothing for Nigerians to look forward to other than to bring the PDP back so that we can restore the country the same way we restored it from 1999 to 2015.

What is your take on the Igbo quest for the presidency? Will your party, PDP consider the region for its presidential ticket?

Yes, we are clamouring for a president from our zone because we think that every other part of Nigeria has had a shot at the presidency. But beyond that, we think that we have credible, competent and very qualified persons within the PDP from the South-east who can lead Nigeria and take it out of the problem that it has today. And we are also encouraging them that they should come out and contest; they should talk to people from every part of Nigeria because to take the cliché, power is not served a la carte. I am sure that we have many credible people from the South-East that can bring Nigeria back from the brink and the PDP looks good to win the presidency in 2023.

Imo And The Second Coming Of Omenkeahuruanya

BY PAUL OBI

Paul Obi looks at the Rebuild Imo Project and the Omenkeahuruanya Movement spearheaded by Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha to herald his anticipated second coming

Imo occupies a central place in the Igbo-oriental cultural milieu, and mostly tagged along as the state of timber and caliber – like the late sage, Chief Sam Mbakwe. In Imo, Nigeria is bestowed with the rigour of Igbo culture and vibes of human capital development comparable anywhere in the world.

Yet since 2007, when the Achike Udenwa administration handed over the baton, it has been political harakiri on a free fall. From flogging of the men in cassock to Akpòlagi, and then ushered in constitutional vandals, the state of Sam Mbakee has become a mockery in democratic governance. Still, the episodes of January, 14, 2020 where jurists in Nigeria’s capital, far removed from the polling booth arenas in Imo thump printed for a contestant who came fourth in the real polls, Imo has regrettably lost the democratic appeal that makes her great. The sixty-four (64) thousand dollar question on the lips of many now is, is Imo politics stupid?

Imo is a great state with potentials; but as experiences have shown, it must first fix its wobble politics before economic growth would take stead. Thus, the problem of Imo is yielding so much of its political and democratic space to ‘yahoo yahoo governors,’ as Gov. Rotimi Akeredolu would say. Imo and her people, must therefore learn to keep their gubernatorial poll clean; keeping at bay political undertakers from participation. Imo might not be the only Nigerian state, confronting a democratic nadir. The plaque of mis-governance cuts across; particularly with the present collegiate club of state chief executives is alarming and runs deep. In Imo, the orgy of digression and distraction have been excruciating and outrageous. The stool and crown inside Douglas House is odious; and even smacks of perfidy – an amalgam of a stolen mandate.

Among the gubernatorial club and progressives, the heir of Douglas is not recognized nor accorded gubernatorial dues, and the emergence through the Supreme Court is seen as a heist. Among Imolites and the larger Nigerian population, the distrust is huge and damning. To many Nigerians, a forceful occupier does not have a place in a democracy, and as such lacks the constitutional mandate of Imo voters. In Imo, the wait to shift away that innocuous mandate chauffeured by the Supreme Court has been appealing and gladdening, just as kids wait for candy.

It is in that wait that the construct of the second coming of Omenkeahuruanya beckons. The definitive puzzle embedded in the name, Omenkeahuruanya is strong, potent and reliable. It symbolizes a performer, doer, a pragmatic character that delivers and perform that which is evident, and seen with beaming eyes. Not propaganda, nor a court of jesters, naysayers and poet-sychophants.

Omenkeahuruanya, is not just a pet name or an axiom for Rt Hon. Emeka Ihedioha. Within the six months of his stay in Douglas, Ihedioha lived to the billing of the name, and Imo had a semblance of what good governance should look like. It was evidently clear and seen that Imo was being railroaded back to the jubilant and ebullient years of Mbakwe, where infrastructural development and human capital development were at the forefront. Then, Ihedioha had multi-sectoral think-tanks to harness economic potentials that bestrode the Imo landscape for common good. Before occupying Douglas, Ihedioha had a good name – not perfect. Imperfection makes us human; perfection is reserved only for the divine creator. Rather, his dexterity and political sagacity remain tall and vast.

Conversely, some accused him of detachment and distance. Ironically, some insiders opined that Ihedioha takes care of outsiders and strangers far more than his inner circle and foot soldiers. Where and how then do we balance the equation? Still, very few Nigerian politicians can keep political group intact after or without power, the way and manner Ihedioha had sustained the Rebuild Imo Project group. Only Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, James Ibori (Ogidigbodigbo of Africa) and Liyel Imoke and few others share that feat. It takes expertise, political savvy, calmness and understanding of the political culture to thrive. Hate him or like him, no one can say Ihedioha is not a good politician. At least, he cares; not loud nor bombastic. He is well measured, collected and urbane with eyes fixated on rescuing Imo people from torrents of undemocratic rein, and decay of social life. In all, the Supreme Court somersault was a bitter pill and lesson to the ideals of Omenkeahuruanya.

Further, Omenkeahuruanya has learned his lessons. Next time, more attention will be paid to whoever occupies the Office of the Attorney General of the State (OAGS) even Chief of Staff (CoS). Before their eyes then, they allowed constitutional vandals to abruptly upturn the people’s mandate that was given at the ballot box, sweeping away the Rebuild Imo Project. Therefore, no such intellectual laziness should be allowed near the Omenkeahuruanya Movement and the Rebuild Imo Project. Rather, there is an urgency to open more; to be more receptive and embracing. There should be no need for commonpence, vendetta or payback. Instead, it should be governance, governance and governance, with Imo people front and centre.

In doing so, lessons must be learned. And if there is anything Omenkeahuruanya has to learn is from the current 2023 presidential run. Looking at the pool of presidential hopefuls, it is dominated by former governors. But only those who governed their states well in time past like Peter Obi; Bukola Saraki and Aminu Tambuwal are being taken seriously. The rest who pillaged, ravaged and manacled their states, running casino economies and atrocious governance in their infectious and incestuous wonderland have been declared non-starters by Nigerians. Thus, when politicians work and govern well to elevate and better the lives of citizens, people are aware, and are always on the verge to honour such politicians with a more higher and lofty elevation. What would the second coming of Omenkeahuruanya portend for Imo people?

Politically, the Rebuild Imo Project is presently facing an in-house tussle in Ihedioha’s main enclave over who takes over the Owerri Senatorial District in a zero-sum battle between the incumbent Senator Ezenwa Onyewuchi and Hon. Uche Onyeagocha. What would Ihedioha do now? Some are of the view that Sen. Onyewuchi has garnered so much experience that he should be allowed to go for a second term; others feel Onyeagocha connects well and he is likewise capable. From feelers on the field, attempts by Ihedioha to pacify the situation has not yielded positive outcomes. Onyeagocha is pressing on and he is being lend a space by supporters discontent with the status quo to wrestle Onyewuchi. How does Ihedioha intends to navigate this murky political waters?

Beyond the political uncertainty, from Ideato, Ikeduru, Mbaitoli, Ehime-Mbano, Orlu, Orsu, Isu, Nwangele, Owerri down to Mbutu; women, youths, business class and political class, the main political sing-song is for Ihedioha to return to Douglas House. It is a wait to restore real democracy and displace garrison politics of voting and electoral mandate stealing, arson and insecurity that has slowly come to define Imo. Ahead of 2023 gubernatorial poll, many Imo voters look forward to Ihedioha to hand him the tools to deliver Imo, just as Anambra citizens have done with Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo. Already, in a recent rally in Owerri last month to celebrate the new National Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Sen. Sam Anyanwu (Sam Dede), Rivers State Governor, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike forewarned Imo electorates that the “greatest mistake” they would make is to allow a comeback of hijackers of democracy in 2023. A clear path to veer away from that dangerous situation is a unified house built around Omenkeahuruanya as 2023 draws near.

Coincidentally, tomorrow is Ihedioha’s 57th birthday anniversary; therefore, the move to rebuild and restore Imo begins in earnest. Will Ihedioha shine? Will Imo relish his rein and stay in Douglas? What does Ihedioha’s second coming portend for Imo citizens? Can we flip the page of Willam Butler Yeats in his poem, The Second Coming to say that with Ihedioha, the Imo falcons can and will hear the falconer? The answers to the above puzzles yawn for a passionate appeal in support of Ihedioha; in Omenkeahuruanya, the symbolism is to do good that can be seen – practice what you preach. In Ihedioha, Imo awaits with nostalgia!

SOURCE: THIS DAY

Ehirim: The Technocrat Who Wants To Be Soludo Of Imo

BY ONYEDIKACHI NKEMJIKA

Tobechukwu Justice Ehirim

He holds a doctorate degree from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa; young, restless, angry and with huge grudge about how wrong things have gone in his home state, Imo. That may be an attempt at describing Tobechukwu Justice Ehirim, popularly known as TJ Ehirim, the intellectual and erudite don pressing to occupy the Imo State seat of power in the next election.

Ehirim had nurtured the desire more than three decades ago, which had to take on a new life and fresh desire due to the turn of events in the which he feels stultified development. He is disturbed by how bad the affairs of his lovely state have turned.

To him, the abstinence of men of quality has foisted on the state, poor thinkers and non-performers and he feels there is no better way to express his misgivings over the abhorrent state of things in the state than to throw his hat into the ring so as to implement the blueprint he has nursed for so long. He has therefore taken it as a major project, a mission driven by a passion that makes him swear like the Mandelas, Mbekis and Malemas of South Africa- no retreat, no surrender.

It was at the last edition of the Annual Igbo Heritage Lecture series, in Johannesburg, South Africa, that he unfolded his plan and regaled his audience in detail how he would devote all his time and resources to rid Imo State of the current bad government

“The Imo State of the Mbakwes cannot claim to be the heartland of Ndigbo and display such shameful and lacklustre performance in the choices of who governs them. My people must be emancipated, let the best of us lead the rest of us. Allowing the worst of us to lead the rest of us, is to deny ourselves modern freedoms, genuine growth and top quality development (not 419); a fatal error that requires marshal intervention and urgent remedy or we suffer the adverse consequences. The present governor of the state is not only grossly inadequate, he is insufficiently prepared for the job he got from the backyard and he must go,” he fumed.

The youthful administrator and technocrat with the above words, seemed to have served quit notice to present occupiers of the office; further vowing that he was ready as his warrior ancestors, to go the whole hug and ensure the change.

Waxing both historical and philosophical, he opined that his grandfather must have seen tomorrow when he named nwanagankpa, (the child that solves the hard tasks), which has since been upgraded to a chieftaincy title of nwanagankpa n’ Amazano, by his community of Umudim-Akuure, Umuele-Amazano, Umuaka of Njaba Local Government Area of Imo State. He therefore sees his quest as an ancestral command which would not be above his efforts to achieve.

“I have served Governor Hope (Uzodimma) a quit notice and he understands the seriousness that I attached to the notice. It is nothing personal. My state is in the state of emergency and all that is required is speed and urgency and I’m glad that the youths, the churches, the communities the civil society and the sons and daughters of the soil, home and abroad are unanimous in this new thinking that our destiny must only be resided in the hands of the best of us and not in the worst of us.

“I shall be the voice speaking for the millions who are disillusioned by the dismal performances of Uzodimma. It’s all about principle of nemo dat quod non habet, which simply means, you can’t give what you don’t have. Hope Uzodimma is an accidental leader, almost a disaster, who has shown that he is incapable of the high quality leadership that my state yearns”, he insisted.

Of grave concern to Ehirim is the wanton killings in Imo State which blame he on the doorstep of the governor, saying it was the consequence of entrusting people without leadership capacity with power, adding, “No leader worth his salt will supervise the systematic elimination of his fellow men and women, especially the youths and students, who are the critical workforce he requires to compete in the fourth industrial revolution, the way Uzodimma did. We can’t make a governor of men who have no conscience, who are affidavitely educated and whose pasts are not only tainted but riddled with the exact traits that our parents, teachers and Clergies warned us to avoid.

“Who does not know the occupation of our governor before his magical ascendancy into the red chambers and the catapult into the Douglas House? When people in power are those who went to kindergarten institutions, holding short term certificates and with little or no sources of reference are allowed entrance into the arena that is the preserve of the honorables and the celebrated, this is the result you get. It is this shame and hopelessness that I have come to erase and replace with the real hope. It is time to give the Imo situation the Anambra treatment.

“What we have is like a cancer eating deep into the state. The level of decay that I see in my state today cannot be viewed as ordinary. Hopelessness which has filled the air and the obstinacy of the man at the helm can be likened to that of pharaoh and how God used him to give His people freedom.

“Uzodimma is not an easy nut to crack, given the huge amount of wealth he has amassed to himself and the federal might. But I am the David, the only man in Imo State that can bring down the Goliath. He comes with a combination of incumbency power and the federal might but I come with the might of the people and the promise of God. I am the next Governor of Imo State. I have come to liberate my people and the political heavyweights in the state agree with that contention.

“I will be mobilising the greatest civil movement in history and raise a tsunami against the evil enterprise in Imo State. Because of me, the oppressed, the downtrodden and through the power of the Almighty, the courts, the riggers and even the presidency will yield to the will of the people.”

Ehirim who likens himself to former US President, Barack Obama and Chukwuma Charles Soludo, insists that the best in the society, rather than the dregs must occupy the political space and give sound leadership, adding that collaboration between him and Soludo would produce Igbo emancipation in values and development.

“It was on the crest of the same philosophy of the best must step forward and lead, wherever they are that the son of the poor Kenyan father emerged from obscurity to become the leader of the free world. It was with the same thinking that ndi-Anambra were able to dismantle the mafia network to produce the governor they deserve. We will be replicating the same in my state. Obama rose to become a doctor of law, it was not his money that made him the President, it was his quality. Soludo rose to the height of his profession.

It was not his money that made him the Governor-elect in the presence of a very fierce opposition, it was his quality. It was through the same thinking that Thabo Mbeki emerged from exile to become the wonder-working president of South Africa. I have also reached the pinnacle of my chosen career in Health and Public Service. There are lots of similarities between myself and those men. It is only fair that I be given an opportunity to serve my people,” he submitted.

On his pedigree, he said, “Everywhere I go and everything I’ve touched has turned gold. I graduated the best pupil in Umuele primary school in Umuele-Amazano and repeated the feat at St Augustine Grammar school, Nkwerre, a special model school set aside then, for the gifted children, before proceeding to University of Nigeria, Nsukka, to study pharmacy, where I also graduated with distinction. I served at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Owerri, where I left as the best graduating intern and later, State Specialist Hospital, Ekiti, where I also came out tops.

“I’m not the only one. Excellence actually runs in my family. My father, Chief Livinus Uzoma Ehirim, was a pioneer staff of the Nigerian Customs, who later fought the Nigeria Civil war on the Biafra side. My mother, lolo Adaeze Ehirim, knew that her son would one day become the leader of people. At birth, my grandfather saw the uniqueness in me and named me nwanagamkpa (the child that is destined to solve problems and resolve challenges. This is the background that influenced my past and is pushing my future. It is a tradition that hates slavery and detests the sight of people in anguish.

“In fact, I can say that my ambition to become the Governor started 32 years ago, when the Ozoigbondu, Chief Arthur Eze visited my school and the honour to decorate him with garlands fell on my little self as the brightest. Chief Arthur Eze, who lowered his frame almost to a breaking point, to facilitate the performance of the job my school gave me, told us how the future was ours to take and that the sacrifices they were making then was to prepare us to become future Governors and Presidents. I retired that day with the conviction that I was going to become a governor. Another prophesy came from a classmate back in 1991, George Ashiegbu, who later became a pastor, that I was going to become a Governor some day. Ashiegbu now leads Dunamis church in Ghana.

Indeed, spiced with a lot of philanthropic activities, his pedigree of excellence, diligence and ability to break new grounds, couple with his grip with the grassroots, may have been responsible for the huge fellowship he seems to be commanding presently, particularly amongst the youths.

“I arrived South Africa in 2003, at a time that going to school was not fashionable for our people. I was told that there is no place for people like me here, which I quickly rejected. I instantly chose the road less travelled and I assured them that I was going to break the glass ceiling. After initial difficulties, I was able to pay and write the qualifying exams that opened the doors and windows for the journey that later ensued. The South African Qualification Authority (SAQA) was swift in confirming my South African Bachelor of Pharmacy, followed by the admission into the prestigious South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC). In 2008, I topped it with a Supply Management Qualifications from the South African Development Institute and later an MBA from the world class institution, the Millark Business School in Johannesburg before crowning it with a Doctor of Philosophy.”

Narrating further, he said he later found himself in another huge medical facility, the Helen Joseph Hospital, where he held various top management positions, including the Pharmacy Manager; Coordinator, Mid-Term Strategic Plan Committee. It was here also, that he was again noticed by the Provincial Government, where he became a member, Department Special Task Force on Quality Pharmacycare and Reduction in Waiting Time for Patients at Gauteng Public Health Facility.

Other positions he held were, Operations and Warehouse Manager/Chief Pharmacist, Gauteng Medical Supplies Depot; Director, Procurement Authority, Gauteng Provincial Medical Supplies; Member, USAID/SCMS Re-engineering; Manager, Pharmaceutical Services, Gauteng Department of Health and many others.

“What is important in all these positions is the fact the South Africans didn’t have a problem handing the keys to their life into the hands of a foreigner. It didn’t matter to them that I am a Nigerian. All that mattered was my quality.”

He added: “In my first one week in office, I will declare a state of emergency on Imo State to atone for the lives of our people that were wasted, to satisfy the desperation and the ambition of one man and offer prayers for the repose of their souls. My Government will also seek compensation to the families of those who died the deaths they shouldn’t die.

“I will also declare state of emergency in health, education, hunger and basic infrastructures, like roads. These are what every responsible government should give to the governed as a matter of human right and without expecting a thank you. No human being should be allowed to suffer the pains and the indignity of the lack of basic necessities of life and that I will pursue.

“In addition, I promise to replicate what I did in the health sector in South Africa in Imo State. I will revolutionise the health sector and bring Primary Health Care to the doorsteps of every person living in Imo State at no cost to them.

“The message of the campaign, let the best of us lead the rest of us is now fast spreading across the Imo and beyond like a wild fire and the people, especially the youths are prepared to take their state back. I am the next governor. I’m the only person that has sufficient capacity to dare this lion and snatch the baton off him. I am the only person he is afraid of because he sees Ihedioha and Okorocha as people he can beat even in a sleep. Another Soludo is coming to Imo.”

THE HISTORY WE DIDN’T LEARN THE LESSONS WE DIDN’T TAKE

BY OKEY ANUEYIAGU

The Biafra War: Distribution of food and wood for cooking at the nurtrition centre in Umuoso, 1968. CC BY-NC-ND / ICRC / H.D Finck


By the turn of the years 1966-1970, it was incontrovertibly evident that Nigeria had committed massive crime against humanity, and had gone through a vicious journey through atrocities against its citizens, particularly the Igbo and other ethnic minorities of the then part of the country known as Eastern Nigeria. Today, it is becoming evident that nothing much has changed; and that this glaring passivity discounts in a rather frightening manner, the horror of this genocide and the ultimate impetuosity of this crime. It appears that as the world turned a blind eye in the past to this crime, it has, once again, anfractuously grown numb to these atrocities.

The shameful, but ignored history of these atrocities have never been taught in our schools for over five decades. The massacre and other related vicious episodes of Nigerian violence carried out against its citizens, and the Easterners, especially the Igbo, have become part of the history we did not learn, and the lessons we have not taken.

We have spent a considerable amount of time and wasteful energy trying to outrun the ghost of all those whose lives were wickedly taken, but the weight of the past and the haunting spirits of our sins are lurking night and day, behind us. I have, on my own, spent a lifetime trying to understand and comprehend the savagery in our past, wishing that I could turn back the hand of time and unsee the scenes that I witnessed as a child growing up; of children, men and women savagely terrorized and slaughtered simply because of their tribe, tongue or creed.

How our past informs the present in beautiful and tragic ways must be our primary concern as we constantly seek ways to correct the ills of our past and of a bewildering and checkered Nigerian history. Only when this is done and implemented to the fullest, can we build a virile and strong country.

The Inclination and the effort to learn and teach the history of the Biafra war and the horrors of it, must include the ghastly results of the ethnic cleansing, the tribal annihilation and the general hostility of the horrible era. This history when told, must also share the resilience, fortitude and perseverance of the Igbo people that survived that war. I believe that it is only in acknowledging our faults and admitting that these crimes were committed, that we can hope to grow and survive as a country. Otherwise, the omission of these events in the history of our nation must be considered as the perpetration and manifestation of a continuing oppression of the Igbo and other Easterners.

Why is it imperative that our sepulchral history must be told? Not as a politicized or polarized recounting of our past, but as pedagogical moments and as tools to help us understand our historical sordid past with an optimistic lesson that knowledge brings insights that help people change and heal.

It is claimed in several quarters that the most heinous crime against our society, apart from the physical atrocities from the pogrom in the North and some parts of the South West, and the genocide that followed in the East, is the deliberate exclusion of the teaching of the history of these events in our schools and our cultural institutions. It is rather shameful that our leaders considered and decided that the critical tribal theory of our disgraceful past have no place in the curriculums of our students. The question of why our leaders took these terrible actions remain painfully valid today. Some consider these actions to be because people may be made uncomfortable upon learning about the mistreatment of the Igbo, or may expose the attempts made by the active participants in these actions to surpress their wicked deeds and cover their perfidious pasts. Let us allow history, the clear metaphors of our lives, to be the judge.
The history of Nigeria’s sordid pasts and the senseless spilling of innocent blood preceded the January 15, 1966 military coup in which prominent politicians were murdered in cold blood. But this coup, the first military coup in the history of the country, signalled a new dimension to killings with some tribal undertones. This coup, tagged an Igbo coup because a radical and idealistic young Igbo officer led it, took the lives of many politicians of other ethnic groups, except that of the Igbo stock. Although it has long been proven by many authoritative sources that it was not a tribal (Igbo) coup, as many of the participants were from many other ethnic groups, the promoters and proponents of tribal dichotomy, have conveniently used this excuse to exact some form of comminatory actions and vengeance against the Igbo without any commiserate measures or limits.

As I grew up in the North, I witnessed and became an integral part of the history of these atrocities. In my book; Biafra, The Horrors of War, The Story of A Child Soldier, I chronicled a clear and vivid personal recollection of the crisis in the North, and all the way to the war in the East. It was a historical journey for me, and of an about to be forgotten dramatic but painful and perilous mental and physical struggle of a people. In my grappling with the horrors of the very long crisis and the almost forgotten war, with the devastating sordid and haunting imagery, I worry that our history has failed to recall and record the bitter and wicked account of our people’s journey through darkness and of a country that has gone berserk.

Today, it seems that the lessons of that war have been consigned in the dustbin of our scanty memories, and that the fissiparous forces have once again appeared, dripping with blood, in Nigeria.

Nigeria, a country with the greatest potentials for prosperity, not necessarily from its huge oil and hydrocarbon reserves, but from its vast and veritable human resources in a world ruled today by technology and digital economy, has fallen way back in meeting the threshold of global development. By general consensus, the problem of Nigeria is largely in part due to the country’s inability to learn from the history of its past, and by its refusal to utilize the opportunities of exploiting the events of the past, to reconcile with the present.

The gripping and memorable history of Nigeria’s vitriolic past that have been denied its people, is principally responsible for its failures. I believe very strongly that until we know our history, we will never have a future. To move forward, we must look back in order to solve a lot of our problems.

The crisis that led to the war in which 3 million Igbo and other Easterners died, led to the deep feeling of accumulated grieviances and general bitterness. People began to feel a lot of prejudices and repression toward each other. The prevalence of unjust and authoritarian rule emerged and began to truncate democracy and ravaging national unity which got displaced by tribalism, nepotism with primodial tendencies.

It appeared then, and even more prominently now, that we did not learn from the history of our past, and that we have deliberately not addressed several issues from our history that provided no books in our libraries, or our archives, but only those that are left in our blury and bloodied memories. The well-planned avoidance of a systematic recording and accounting of the crisis and the war, as we have no official history of these events, and as it has not been part of the teachings in our schools, is a major issue and a hindrance to the path to peace and prosperity. For these and many other reasons, the hypothesis of Nigeria as a Nation-State has been very contentious and hanging on a thin tread for decades.

Many believe, and I agree, that if we were allowed the ever so compelling privileges of studying the history of our past, especially that of the sordid history of the killings of over 3 million helpless people, our country would have hearkened to the admonitions and brutal lessons that those disturbing periods afforded us.,

What lessons do we as responsible Nigerians expect to learn from our past horrible history? There are many. This history, once it is properly told, will reveal The Truth. It will also acknowledge the harm committed by, and done to certain people, and will hold the perpetrators accountable. The lessons will point to Truth and Justice as the anchor and pillar for a strong country desiring unity and national harmony.

To know, acknowledge and to recognize the history of the crisis and of the war, is to prevent future occurrences. We all have a legitimate right to know the history of the war, and to deny us this inalienable right, is to destroy the future of the country. History may compel us to show remorse, and may also ensure forgiveness and healing from pains and horrors of our past, leading to institutional reforms and closure.

In my aforementioned book, I wrote extensively about the period in the history of our country between January 15, 1966 and January 12, 1970, as a period when darkness befell the nation. This period was marked by murder, killings, pillage and indescribable destruction. My personal experience of this parlous period, was to say the least, devastating. It is difficult to describe the effect that this war had on so many people, especially on the Igbo who were at the receiving end of the bitter and horrible experiences. Fifty years after the end of this debacle, all my thoughts – while inexplicably escaping from the hold of words and emotions – are always wandering and drifting over dark images and shadows in my attempts to meander into indescribable nightmares from the events of the pogrom, the genocide and the continuing neglect of the people who suffered through this period.

Today as many of us who witnessed this carnage ponder the devastation, all we have left are memories of horror and questions about how it was possible for people to inflict such pain and sorrow on their fellow citizens and phlegmatically go about as if nothing happened. One must also wonder why and how the history of this war was not told, preserved and conserved. The suppression of this story is responsible for the disunity in the land.
I believe that because we did not learn any lessons from this war, our country from the day that that war ended, until today, has become a wasted opportunity without any bright future. It has become a kleptocratic and an autocratic state that is very divisively dysfunctional, with political and economic structures that are not inclusive and devoid of equality. Contextualizing this country Nigeria ─– within the axiom of the crisis and the Civil War; its causes, results and outcome, ─¬─ exposes breathlessly, the level of evil, incompetent and tyrannical leadership, monstrous corruption, religious and tribal bigotry, violence and all manners of destabilizing vices.

There are so many unanswered questions about the crisis and the civil war that constantly beg for a clear resolution that many believe would enhance the protracted healing and some form of restoration and reforms.

Why have there been no answers and truthful explanation for the killings of politicians and other leaders in 1966? Who planned and executed these coups? For what purposes were these coups and counter-coups carried out? Were they military, tribal, ideological coups? The answers, and the correct answers are known by true patriots. No matter how mischief-makers may try to distort our national history, the truth can never be hidden, and it is only when it is told, and told with the boldest and truest inspiration and intention, that our country will be set free from the bondage of lies, deceit and bloodletting.

Why have there been no answers for the crimes against humanity committed against the Igbo in all parts of Northern Nigerian and in some parts of the West known as the pogrom? What about the brutal and senseless massacre of innocent Igbo citizens in Asaba; the deliberate Nigerian Government policy to blockade all routes into Biafra causing deadly starvation that took the lives of millions of children; and the other genocidal war crimes committed by Nigerian troops against innocents civilians, mostly women and the elderly during the war? These high crimes were not investigated, the perpetrators were not tried and brought to justice. The history of these ugly incidences have been deliberately discarded and buried for the sole purpose of preventing our people from knowing our evil past. How can we heal if we do not know what and why those things happened? How can we learn from our mistakes and make amends?

How can we begin to forgive if we do not learn of what happened? Remarkably, it appears that the Igbo, while not forgetting what they have experienced in the hands of their fellow citizens, may have learned the lessons of forgiveness. They may have forgiven the pains they suffered, and are continuing to suffer as members of a country they have invested heavily in founding and building. Otherwise, how do you explain the fact that the Igbo right after the war, embraced the concept of one Nigeria and began to rapidly reintegrate with the rest of the country, moving to live in faraway places like Sokoto and Maiduguri; places that witnessed their near annihilation.

Though the brutal war was fought and lost, the majority of the Igbo were ready to forgive their transgressors and those that mercilessly took the lives of 3 million of their own. This was one of the many paradoxes about that dreadful war. The ability of the Igbo to forgive the torments of that war, and their facility to regain equanimity in the wake of the unspeakable atrocities and the dehumanizing scars inflicted on them is a remarkable feat that is unparalled in the history of genocide, repression and persecution in the world. Many have posed the question of whether there is a special attribute in the Igbo DNA that activates a forgiving nature or spirit, and if there is a cultural disposition in them that prevents them from harboring any form of hate for their tormentors? Others think that they possess a God-given ability to endure agregious cruel acts and aggravated malice perpetrated against them without reciprocating in kind. But for how long will they continue to uphold this heteronymous disposition of willingness to forgive?

My punctilious and scrupulous dissection of this Igbo forgiving spirit, serves as a worthy exercise for the rest of Nigeria. It is a virtue worthy of emulation, because I believe that forgiveness serve as an instrument for stopping wars and promoting lasting peace and prosperity; that forgiveness entails a divine reciprocity, for when we forgive others, God forgives us. The lesson learned from the Igbo spirit of forgiveness, is an amazing lesson of how to create spiritual, physical and fiscal growth for our country.

But how do we forgive when we have been denied the history and knowledge of what transpired? How do we stop these atrocities when we do not even recognize that we have made surreptitious mistakes? How do we grow if we do not learn from our history and take lessons from our fugacious and perfidious past?

I will dare, with some measure of trepidation, to say that the calamitous and lugubrious condition that our country finds itself today is spiritual and karmatic. That the failure to admit and atone for our sins may be responsible for the many killings going on in virtually all parts of Nigeria. As trivial as this postulation may sound, I drew some of my conviction after I spoke to my father just before he passed at the age of 100 years a few years ago. I asked him why our country was falling apart so rapidly. With tears in his eyes, the old man began to explain that the country missed a great opportunity when after the war it failed to reconcile the waring factions, and truly rehabilitate the East. He regretted that a country he fought so hard with others to gain independence for, turned against him and his people.

When I noticed that my father was reluctant to discuss this issue further, I prodded and pressed him, realizing that his vast experience as one of the founding fathers of our country will be valuable in solving some portions of our dilemma. I asked him what he did after the war to influence the leaders then. He told me how he had met three of his closest friends and allies from the North; Malam Aminu Kano (who was the Federal Commissioner For Communication), Alhaji Ado Bayero (Emir of Kano) and Alhaji Maitama Sule. They all agreed that the war was unnecessary and that the outcome was disastrous for the Easterners. They agreed with my father, that there was a dire need to rehabilitate and reconstruct the East and its people. My father regretted that despite the good intentions of these men, the rest of the country was content on carrying out further spurious and punitive actions against the Igbo and other Easterners. The profundity and import of this brief interjection here, cannot be lost to our present day predicaments, as we ponder the wise words of a man who was knocking on the gates of heaven on his way to meet his ancestors.

I am optimistically hopeful that this write-up will not be negatively provocative and will not be viewed as an apologia for any tribe, religion or region, but as a chary and sorrowful cry of a human being who was entangled in the bilious and sickening incidences of our past. For those who are insouciant and unworried about these issues, may they never feel the pains and agonies of those that perished in the hands of their fellow human beings. May they never father children who were made orphans and left in desolation. May the dead bodies of their relatives never be dumped and abandoned in the forest of despair and on lonely roadsides, left to rot and to be eaten and devoured by vultures and wild animals. May they never suffer the fate of the Igbo and other Easterners whose mothers were made widows, and who could not provide breast milk for their young babies simply because they were themselves famished, malnourished and dying from starvation, torture, bullets and bombs, for sins they knew nothing about, or of.

May all mankind and people of good conscience; all people of our Creator, pause for a second and share the enormous burden of our past in recognizing and cherishing the contents of this story and the agonies suffered by many in our land. May we all be spared this experience and make ourselves tools and instruments for the repair of our past ugliness and our impending doom as our nation is engulfed and encircled in cataclysmic plundering, wanton rapings and kidnappings, killings and other traumatic decimations of no mean proportion.

These days, it is tough to get a supermajority of Nigerians to agree on the color of the sky, much less on the politically and ethnically delicate and sensitive topics of the ignominious pogrom and the civil war. Will the vestiges of these issues pollute our already convoluted political atmosphere? My clear wager is NO. And it is a pertinent and perspicuous NO. What bothers me, and should bother many other well-meaning Nigerians, is how we have incinerated our history to the point of overhandedness that cynically and with such agony, created silly, but painful diversions from the grave injustice that has been visited on a vast number of our fellow citizens.

I think that denying us the history of our past is in all circumstances, so injurious and cruel, and a shameful defeat of our constitutional and moral principles and the ultimate defeat of the triumph of equity, fairness, empathy and justice.

I am not a Historian. I am, but a conscious citizen who realizes that the only way we can all live a peaceful life is by us all recognizing our past mistakes. We must write and talk about them, relive and savour them, and use them positively to direct our present and future actions. For those who think that revisiting and studying this history is so complicated and dangerous, I invite them to consider that the price of freedom and emancipation, is embedded in the knowledge of truth, and by a reminder that freedom in this Country has never meant and felt the same for everyone and has more often than not, been conditional.

The intentional rush to obliterate the history of our past by our leaders who laboriously paint the mythical picture of a “one-Nigeria”, “a city upon a hill” or a site of moral justice, is hopeless and lacking in clarity and authenticity. In our collectivity, I reckon that we have mostly lost sight of the possibility that exist in the hidden and marginalized histories of Nigeria.

We MUST tell the stories of our past. This story will set us FREE.

The history we didn’t learn, and the lessons we didn’t take are responsible for the anachronism that our country has become today.

-----------------THIS DAY

Who’s Afraid Of Igbo Nation?

BY JOSEPH USHIGIALE

As the race for the choice of a geopolitical zone that would produce the next President gathers momentum, the thrust of the debate is defined by three pillars of argument: equity, numerical strength and qualified detribaalized nationally accepted Nigerians regardless of race, religion etc.

Let me begin from the last criterion for obvious reasons. Nigeria is bedeviled almost by insurmountable problems and currently hanging on the precipice of insecurity, unemployment, high inflation, diminishing standards of living, kidnapping and banditry and other sundry criminal activities.

The thinking is that, Nigeria is passing through these harrowing experiences because of past and present bad leadership. To stop this recurring phenomena, stakeholders are beginning to discuss new ways to throw up a credible and visionary candidate that would be accepted pan-Nigeria. A candidate who would take Nigeria as his constituency regardless of where he comes from or his religion. This is the current thinking of a section of the political class.

The second consideration is to throw the race open to every qualified Nigerian. In the end, who ever can muster majority votes will carry the day. This is essentially the beauty of democracy which is built around the ideal that it is of the people, by the people and for the people.

In Nigeria where the north alone has 19 states including the federal capital which is predominantly populated by northerners, the north alone has a commanding lead of 20 states ahead of the south which has 17 states.

This position is canvassed by a coalition of 75 northern groups under the aegis of the Northern Consensus Movement (NCM) which claimed that the north has a population of 120 million, with additional 40 million Fulani people to close at 160 million

The NCM president, Awwal Abdullahi Aliyu is confident that the next Nigerian president would be a northerner.

“We are ready for it. We believe in democracy. We know politics is a game of numbers. We know leadership is by ballot box. Leadership is by PVC, leadership is by election and that’s why we are calling our people to come out enmasse to get their PVCs.

“The 120 million northerners should get their PVC. The 40 million Fulani should get their PVC. Put together, 160 million. We will elect another fresh northern president by February 2023,” he stated.

Figures credited to the National Population Commission census of 2006 still records Nigeria’s population at 140m with the north having 75 million while the south recorded 65 million people.

Now those kicking against this approach argue that relying on the numerical strength of your bloc to win a presidential election engenders winners takes all and does not build a cohesive and united country.

This set of people arguing against the use of numerical strength by a dominant group to control power rather seeks inclusiveness built around compromise and consensus. They are the ones seeking the consideration of equity in building political alliances.

The foundation of this argument lies with the consideration that while the north has been in leadership position for decades through military and civil rule, every zone in the south except the South east is yet to lead the country. The nearest the region could boost as proximity to the corridors of power was during the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) when late Dr. Alex Ekwueme was vice to Alhaji Shehu Shagari.

According to unconfirmed sources, the military struck in 1983, when it became apparent that Ekwueme would emerge President after Shagari’s last term. So, who is afraid of the Nigerian President of South east extraction? The north unarguably has a phobia for the Igbo because of the audacity of Chief Emeka Odimegwu Ojukwu to declare a sovereign state of Biafra.

In the union that culminated to Nigeria today, it does appear the Igbo were endangered species from the get go. The Sarduana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello speaking with a foreign journalist then accused the Igbo of inordinate ambition. According to him, “if you hire an Igbo man as a laborer, tomorrow, he would want to become head man.”

He stated then that under his reign, no Igbo would be employed in his One North enclave. To him, rather than employing an Igbo chap, he would hire a foreigner on contract and pay him to do the job. His reason was that he had to preserve those opportunities that are reserved for northerners only.

It is not surprising that that the Sardauna’s philosophy has endured to this moment and has been elevated to state policy. Today, notwithstanding the federal character policy, the north has taken over every viable parastatals, ministries unchallenged.

Again nursing the same sentiments that greeted Ojukwu’s launch of Biafra, President Muhammadu Buhari while speaking on Arise Tv interview said the group, Indigenous People of Biafra who are like a dot in a circle have continued from where Ojukwu stopped would be dealt with summarily.

“So that IPOB is just like a dot in a circle. Even if they want to exit, they’ll have no access to anywhere. And the way they are spread all over the country, having businesses and properties. I don’t think IPOB knows what they are talking about language that they understand. We’ll organise the police and the military to pursue them,” the President assured.

Given these scenarios, the Igbo feel alienated and marginalised, they do not see themselves as part of Nigeria especially several decades after the civil war where no victor and no vanquished was declared, a section of the country still would not accept them back into mainstream politics. But why?

After General Yakubu Gowon declared the end of hostilities and no victor no vanquished, the Igbo had expected to be reintegrated into mainstream politics. And indication that it was not going to happen manifested immediately after the end of the war following the enactment of certain laws targeting them.

Igbo people believed as it later turned out to be that some of the laws enacted after the war were made to disenfranchise them in Nigeria. For instance, the Public Officers (Special Provisions Decree no. 46 of 1970): With the Decree many Igbo officers who participated in the civil war on the part of Biafra were summarily dismissed or compulsorily retired. This was against the earlier directive and assurance to the world by the Head of State that all officers would be reabsorbed to their former positions before the escalation of hostilities.

From the economic front, the Banking Obligation (Eastern States Decree): Banks in the Igbo region were made to pay all account owners a flat rate of 20 pounds independent of what they deposited in the banks before the war. The same with the Indigenisation Decree of 1972: With this law, Nigerians were given an opportunity to get involved in the country’s productive enterprises. Igbo people, because of their post-war situation, feel they were not ready for such exercise and were alienated from the nation’s economy.

In Rivers state, there was the Abandoned Property Policy by the Alfred Diete Spiff administration. This policy of confiscating properties in the Rivers state by the state government was seen as an economic attack on Igbo people, who fled the state during the war. Igboland, which used to be one of the three major regions of the country, became the region with the least number of states of the six geopolitical zones in the federation till this day.

Now let us also not forget that in addition to losing their means of livelihood, abode, entire life savings, over 3 million Igbo lives were lost during the civil war. By any form of punishment, the Igbo have sufficiently paid the supreme price for the civil war. The current hiccups perpetrated by MASSOB and IPOB are reactions to the punitive actions of the powers that be to continually rub it in and subjugate the Igbo to second class citizens in a country that they are equal partners in.

Let us be clear, I am not an Igbo, even if I was, I would be proud of my rich heritage which is what the Igbo parade. The Igbo come from a long history of struggle, enterprise and self determination. How many people know that long before Nigeria was amalgamated by Lord Lugard in 1914, the Igbo had already organised themselves into a nation state seeking self determination from the colonial masters?

According to the Blackpast website, an Igboman was the first to propose an Independent Igbo nation state in 1865 about 39 years before the amalgamation of what will later be known as Nigeria. It was neither Mungo Park nor Christopher Columbus, his name is James Africans Beale Horton.

Horton who was born in 1835 was the first to publish and send to the British government his proposal titled, “The EMPIRE OF THE EBOES/HACKBOUS/HEEBOS/IBOES/IGBOES/EGBOES, with the Requirements Necessary for Establishing that Self Government Recommended by the Committee of the House of Commons, 1865: and a Vindication of the African Race.”

His proposal included a concrete plan for a Self-governed independent nation, an army, currency, Support for modern civilization and economic empowerment. You can imagine where the Igbo nation would have been today had the British granted this approval.

A corollary of all this is that the Igbo remain a very formidable ethnic group that needs to be accommodated and given a sense of belonging. Rather than fanning this needless fear, Nigeria indeed stands to gain more from Igbo enterprise and ingenuity.

For instance, if not for the sentiments and hatred for the Igbo, Nigeria would have benefited more, curated and improved on the major technological groundbreaking breakthroughs recorded by Biafran in the area of refining, construction, bomb manufacturing etc.

It is about time we reduce the tension especially in the South east, IPOB is no threat to Nigeria or the federal government except that they have been given unwarranted and unnecessary attention. The use of a sledge hammer to kill a fly produces negative outcome. It is rather better to adopt a political solution to douse the tension.

Finally, as parties jostle to produce the next President, 2023 presents a golden opportunity for Nigerians to support the only zone that is yet to lead the country. There are innumerable safe hands in Igboland to guide Nigeria to Eldorado. Fear of secession is needless and would evaporate forever the day an Igboman is entrusted to lead the country and that time is now.

Obi Cubana: From Grace To Grace

Obi Cubana

BY MAJEED DAHIRU

Through a mutual friend, I met Obi Cubana for the first and last time at his Ibiza restaurant sometime in 2008; a year before the opening of his Cubana night club in 2009. I was publishing a soft sell magazine that was focused on making celebrities out of the bourgeoning Abuja businessmen, politicians and entertainers. I felt that the celebrity scene in Nigeria was overtly dominated by Lagos “boys” and “girls” whilst Abuja with a lot of success stories were grossly under reported and not well celebrated.

One of such success stories was that of then 33 years old Obinna Iyiegbu, aka Obi Cubana. Long before he recently became world famous, Cubana, who was fondly called “Okpole” by his friends and associates, was a successful food, entertainment and hospitality entrepreneur. His flagship business was the popular Ibiza restaurant, bar and night club. Ibiza is located on the very busy Porthacourt crescent of Garki Area 11 in the heart of Abuja city.


After many years of selling street foods from open parks and gardens to neighbourhood corner shops, Cubana, a political science graduate of University of Nigeria Nsukka, who chose entrepreneurship over paid employment, opened his Ibiza restaurant on a plot of rented land in Abuja sometime in 2006. Starting on a temporary structure of wooden frame, which was covered with plain roofing sheets on a floor that was barely covered with chippings of gravel, there was nothing so attractive or special about Ibiza restaurant except its food.

At Ibiza, Cubana and his team of dedicated staffs offered to the eating public the best of culinary services with specialization on the very rich cuisine of Nigeria’s south east region. Assorted dishes like Abacha, Nkwobi, Isi ewu, Ukwa, Ji akukwu nni, Utala na ofe nsala, ofe olugbu, ofe ora, ofe akwukwo, etc., were readily available on demand during the day and night. For lovers of sea food, Cubana introduced the innovation of “point and kill”: any specie of choice from his large pond at Ibiza and it will be served hot on a dish in quick time.

Ibiza was and is still one of the most popular destination for Abuja night crawlers as in addition to the food, all manner of drinks and alcoholic beverages are readily available on demand. The opening of Ibiza restaurant coincided with a period of relative economic prosperity in Nigeria, massive infrastructural expansion in Abuja and a boom in the housing construction sector of Nigeria’s federal capital city.

With an annual GDP growth rate of 6% in 2006 and general improvement in the economy at the time, there was a substantial restoration of Nigeria’s middle class with a reasonable margin of disposable income, many of whom resided in Abuja. With the surge in Abuja’s urban population, Ibiza became for many a kitchen away from their mother’s kitchen at home, where their cravings for the most delicious and sumptuous native Nigerian delicacies are served.

In addition to the prevailing clement economic climate at the time, Cubana along with his well-motivated staffs worked very hard to build, sustain and expand his customer base by his continuous innovation through massive reinvestment into his business to give it a competitive edge in the food and hospitality industry of Abuja. Also, Obi’s reputation as an amiable, humble and generous young man attracted massive good will and well wishes from people across the country.

These qualities combined to transform Ibiza from a shanty vendor to a food, entertainment and hospitality edifice, and Cubana from a tenant to the landlord of Ibiza premises. It was this phenomenal success story that led me to the young business man and seeking to feature him on the cover of the second edition of my magazine.

However, my meeting with Cubana wasn’t as fruitful as I had hoped. Whilst he received me warmly, Obi Cubana was a bit media shy and appeared more pre-occupied with quietly growing his business and we bade each other farewell on a friendly note and promised to keep in touch. By the following year when he opened his Cubana night club on the highbrow Adetokunbo Ademola crescent of Abuja, I knew I saw Cubana’s today; yesterday.

It was Cubana’s night club that separated Abuja men from Abuja boys due to its exclusivity and class. Before the opening of Cubana, it was a common happenstance for a “Daddy” who was supposed to be away on a business trip to “Lagos” to bump into his young “brother in law” who was supposed to be in school, in a night club. Obi’s Cubana solved this problem by meeting the need for privacy and fun for this category of high profile night crawlers.

Once again, Obi’s Cubana will make the difference by becoming the place of choice for Abuja’s super rich, middle age night life patrons away from the glare of their children, nieces and nephews. Therefore, when some people expressed doubt about the legitimacy of Obi Cubana’s money, after the carnival like burial ceremony of his late mother in his home town of Oba, Anambra state, where naira notes of different denominations rained, some of us who knew him before the Oba event didn’t have such doubt.

Like every one of us, Cubana is not without sin. But the notion that behind every wealth is a big crime may not always hold true in every case. Cubana is not the richest man from Oba, Anambra or even Nigeria. He is simply a manifestation of the Igbo philosophy of “onye nwere nmadu ka onye nwere ego” [he who has people is richer than he has money]. Cubana’s charity begins at home with family, friends and the general public.

And what played out at Oba was an open show of love and support in appreciation for a successful young man who remained level headed, kind and genuinely generous despite his astronomical economic rise. Judging From his humility and friendly association with people of different status [both high and low] including those that are lower than him in terms of material possessions, Cubana also personifies another Igbo philosophy which says “onye kakwam akolamu onu” [he that is richer than me should not mock me].

And for those who understand Igbo cosmology, Cubana’s phenomenal blow out after the Oba burial carnival from obscurity to global fame and subsequent his rise from grace to grace is actually an answered prayer of a dying mother for her beloved son who spared nothing to make her comfortable and happy in her life time. He has never been interested in spotlight. In fact, before his mother’s burial, only close friends and business associates knew the big masquerade behind the Cubana brand.

Cubana has been making entrepreneurial strides behind the scenes. The much-talked-about burial of his mother brought him out of his “hidden” because a golden fish has no hiding place. A lot of naysayers who doesn’t understand Obi’s success story started ascribing the tag of “overnight success” to him; as if he emerged from the blues. But Cubana has truly paid his dues to build the Cubana brand to what it is today.

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Ndigbo Urged To Sustain Culture Of Self-Help To Deepen Devt

 

Emeka Wogu. Image: Twitter

BY EMMANUEL UGWU-NWOGO

UMUAHIA (THIS DAY) -- With the ever increasing competition for government attention among the various sections of the country, Ndigbo have been urged to sustain their age-old culture of self-help in order to deepen development in their communities.

Former Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, made the call at the weekend in a chat with journalists after inaugurating a road project constructed by a private citizen, Mr. Julius Nwojo Osiri, at Abiriba in Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State.


He said the Igbo spirit of self-help was amply demonstrated in the construction of the road, adding that Ndigbo have over the years learnt to depend less on the government.

The former minister recalled that the culture of self-help was well entrenched after the civil war following the failure of the General Yakubu Gowon-led federal government to implement the policy of reconciliation, reconstruction and rehabilitation.

“We are development-inclined, resilience, and we don’t wait for the government to do everything for us,” he said.

To illustrate the power of self-help, Wogu cited Abiriba community fondly called ‘Small London’ because of its level of development, saying over 80 percent of the infrastructures in the community were products of self-help by the people.

However, he pointed out that there is a limit to what could be achieved through self-help, citing construction of highways, hence, the government should not abandon its responsibility to the people. He noted that the cry of marginalisation in the South-east region came about because of the non-implementation of the three Rs promised by Gowon.

The man behind the road project, Osiri, said he was motivated by the spirit of self-help inherent in Abiriba people to build the street in memory of his father, Prince Nwojo Egbebu Osiri, who passed on seven years ago.

“If you can’t do much, you can do a little to positively impact on our environment,” he said, adding that “every little effort counts.”

Osiri, who also dedicated his new house, advised that those who have the means should not hold back in helping to develop their communities, saying: “We shouldn’t be waiting for the government to do everything for us.

“In any direction you find yourself and you know you can impact on the society, please do so,” he said, noting that a little drop of water eventually make a might ocean.

When Igbo Arts And Music Meet…

Gerald Eze image courtesy of Gerald Eze

A recent collaboration between a Visual Artist and designer, Chuma Anagbado and a musician, Gerald Eze, who also doubles as a university music lecturer, is likely to bring about a revolution in the Igbo culture, writes MARY NNAH

“Oja is classical music. It is high art. It is not a bagger’s tool. It is the tool of a master performer. It does not communicate to just anybody, it is played for men of substance. Its appeal cut across cultures, and talks about connected cultures. It is spontaneous, yet it is of high essence. It is a force. It evolves and uplifts us”, these are the words of Gerald Eze, a skilled musical artist and university don, describing the Oja, a vital instrument of the Igbo music and culture.

Eze, who plays over 14 Igbo musical instruments, including the Oja, is collaborating with Chuma Anagbado, a multi-talented artist and designer, whose work cuts across traditional, digital, and emerging creative mediums.


They are both embarking on collaborative missions driving on the indigenous musical instruments of the Igbo and how they both seek to reinterpret the essence and utility of these instruments for a global audience, thereby connecting cultures. Their arts, they say, “Reimagines Igbo culture and identity.”

The collaboration is in the sense that while Eze plays the Oja (flute), at the same time, Anagbado’s laptop synchronises the songs with the digital image of the flute.

The intention, for these two Igbo creative artists, is to preserve the culture for posterity and they are willing to extend the frontiers of the culture and take it to another height with the use of digital arts while also exploring the NFT (Non-Fungible Token) Technology.

This collaboration, according to them, essentially seeks to document and promote Igbo oral musical tradition, particularly through the Oja and Ogene, among other local and contemporary musical instruments in an exhibition to be held before the end of the year.

Speaking on the reason behind the collaboration during a recent press conference, Anagbado said, “In essence both of us are reimagining our culture, which is the Igbo culture. We are actually creating this culture but we are putting it out as NFTs so as to take our culture and put it where it is supposed to be. We imagine what we have and then make it more relevant. So, I am creating the art and he is scoring the music and that becomes a video – an animated piece that is then put out as NFT.”

Speaking further on the essence of the collaboration, Anagbado posited that, “Within the Igbo culture is an embedding consciousness that you have to travel. We are all raised like that. As you grow up, there are reminders, placements and statements that will always remind you that at some point you will need to leave the geographical space of the Igbo. That essentially makes the culture a diaspora culture.

”If you look at all major events and innovation leaps, key players and influencers in Igbo land are mostly diaspora influenced and when I say diaspora, even the Igbos living in Lagos are diaspora. So, there is that consciousness that culture connects diaspora and the homeland. Within the construct of the culture, you must at some point, travel out of the Igbo geographical area to go and learn.

“Now what comes with all of that is that you then have a culture that people experience all over the world. It is likened to the Chinese and the Jews. And because the Igbos travel out a lot, everybody knows about the Igbos. So, the Igbos are like a clue connecting every other person in the world. Igbo culture is one that you would want to preserve but within all of its offering – music, arts and all of that, you have infusions of diaspora influences, like elements that have been picked up from other cultures around the world and that make the culture very robust.

“I will say it’s a universal culture and in preserving it, that culture needs to also travel into all the possibilities and places that it can be. So, it is just natural that we would go into this because we have experienced other cultures. We are doing this, as they would say, for the culture”, Anagbado explained further the essence of this uncommon marriage that brings together the brushstrokes and music.

Anagbado, whose art is driving conversations on cultural heritage, particularly the Igbo oral traditions, believes he is naturally cut out for the Igbo culture and so cannot but always be at the vanguard of stimulating the culture through his various artistic expressions.

With his experience across the world, Anagbado constantly evaluates practical ways of using both material and non-material aspects of Igbo existence in designing new structures and narratives to build a sense of identity.

For him, it is more than just an art project. “We intend to showcase the traditional art which is painting alongside playing the music instrument to show the emotions of art. We enjoin every creator out there to look for deeper meaning in whatever they do and carry an identity. We are really putting it out there that it is very important for people with like-minds to try working together: we can’t grow the culture when we are apart, we need to create a community which is what the collaboration entails.”

Beyond the fusion of music and arts and being creative, Anagbado is of the belief that they both are embarking on a divine assignment to bring the various segments of Igbos together.

“It is well known that Igbos are deeply fragmented, even though you may see a community on the surface – the Igbos are deeply fragmented and highly competitive, so what we are just trying to do is to move from competition to collaboration and from fragmenting to synergy.”

In like manner, Eze, the musician and a lecturer of music at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, also promotes and researches indigenous cultures through his music.

Using the Igbo’s traditional musical instrument, particularly the Oja, Obuaka and other 14 instruments, including Ogene, he is out to take the indigenous sound flair of Igbo to a new height.

“Igbo music has always been integrative. Even the shapes of the Oja and Obuaka are pieces of art. Philosophy, literature, music, arts and psychology are all the elements that come together in each festival that we have in the Igbo culture. So it is not out of place to collaborate with Anagbado”, the university don explained.

He noted further that one interesting thing that they both are doing in this collaboration is to explore new opportunities while reimaging the culture and connecting it.

“We explore new opportunities and that is why we are looking at the NFT space. Our ancestors explored the Oja and Igba in the village square but I try to explore the Oja in Highlife, Hip-hop, and Afro beat and these have been very successful. If you check out my videos you will see how the Oja is interacting with the violin effortlessly like it has always been there but this took years of effort.

“Anagbado has been developing his own ideas in the arts and it has taken him years, so the time eventually came for us to meet and since both of us are like minds, we felt we should come together and put out something that is collaborative- Music and Arts- in the NFT space. So, like he said, it is for the culture – to engage people and to keep the narrative going.”

For his message for people from this synergy – for the Igbo culture and other cultures, just like his partner, he said, “A sense of community is very important for the Igbos at this very moment. And the artist is always taking a lead in creating the conscience of his race in making people think critically. The artist takes it upon himself to create and to think.

“When I say artists here, I mean serious musicians, creative fine artists, those in architecture who are really breaking bounds and not just the fine artist. So for both of us to collaborate on this project, we are really putting it out there that it is very important that those of us with like minds should keep coming together because we cannot grow independently. We can develop independently but to sustain the growth, we have to come together. And we also can`t grow the culture when we are apart.”

On this note, Eze is focusing on the message of community – building a sense of community, which is what this collaboration entails.

He noted: “These are the sounds and symbols of the Igbo. They are not just coming to you from one person but from two creative persons who have travelled far and wide collecting ideas, connecting to people, integrating different forms and then we are now together to push it on. So, when these works get to people, I believe it will communicate that essence and feeling of community because whatever we have embedded in the work is also that which truly belongs to the Igbos but that which has truly evolved.”

Quote

I will say it’s a universal culture and in preserving it, that culture needs to also travel into all the possibilities and places that it can be. So, it is just natural that we would go into this because we have experienced other cultures. We are doing this, as they would say, for the culture

--------------THIS DAY