Abaribe, Ekweremadu: A Tale Of Two Revisionists

Enyinnaya Abaribe and Ike Ekweremadu 

BY LEO SOBECHI

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

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

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

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

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

Rich Contrasts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Legislative Stature

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sign Of Things To Come

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

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

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

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

They Were Paid N10m To Kill Me, But I Escaped — Imo Journalist

Illustration: Greenbarge Reporters

BY EMMA NNADOZIE

OWERRI, IMO STATE (VANGUARD) -- A journalist in Imo state, 55-year-old Prince Chibuzor Ndukwe, has miraculously escaped from hired assassins who were paid N10m to kill him. He was abducted from his residence, blindfolded and taken into a thick bush. Few days later after his abductors confirmed payment of N10m for him to be killed; he succeeded in escaping from their grip. His narrow escape was as miraculous as it was bizarre. He gave a vivid account of the incident. Excerpts:

My travail started with the destruction of my house in the village by some hoodlums. They came with sledgehammer and were busy destroying my house in broad daylight while armed policemen were there.

Later, another group came and kidnapped one of my guards, they thought I was the one. Unfortunately, when they discovered that it was not me, they connived with their police collaborators, tagged him an IPOB member and threw him into the cell at the Anti-kidnapping Unit, Owerri.

When we got information that my guard was in their cell, we moved in, pacified them with some money and he was released.
My abduction

On the day of my abduction, I was lying down on the bed at 7:15 pm when one motorcyclist rode into my compound. When my wife asked what he was looking for, he said he came to drop something from my wife’s school for her.

My wife wanted to know why he came at that time of the night but he assured that there was no cause for alarm and left. We did not know that he came to monitor us.

Fifteen minutes after he left, some other men came in a red Toyota vehicle, drove inside my compound and one of them, armed with a dagger, proceeded straight to my bedroom.

When they dragged me outside to the sitting room, I saw one of them pointing a gun on my wife’s head. As soon as we came out, he directed the gun at me and shouted that if I talk, he would kill me.

They asked where I kept the money and I said I didn’t have money in the house, I don’t normally keep money in the house. They said, ‘go and bring your ATM card, where is your car key? Where is your phone?’

I brought my two phones which they collected as well as my wife’s phone before they asked me to lie down. I then asked them, ‘why do you want me to lie down, tell me what you want, is it not money, let me look for money and give you, leave me alone’, but they said no, that I should go out.

They led me out and I followed them. They went to the car, asked me to open it and enter. They then collected the key from me immediately I entered, blindfolded me and asked me to lie down flat.

But when I demanded to be allowed to sit since I had already been blindfolded as it would not be easy for me to lie down, one of them hit my face with the butt of the gun which forced me to lie down in the car.

I was sandwiched between two of them with another one behind the wheels while three of them entered another other car and zoomed off to an unknown place.
Exchanges with their paymasters

That was how these people took me away on that Friday night. They took me to one small old building on the road where we spent the night.

When we were going, they were calling the people that sent them, what I heard was, ‘pay the money now. We are with this man now, if you don’t do it, we will leave him oo. We don’t need to waste time with this man inside this vehicle, we want to complete the mission and go our way’.

It was like they had a little misunderstanding with the people that hired them. The people didn’t pay that money that Friday evening, so the following day, being Saturday, I was still in that small building, blindfolded.

There were tiles there. I managed to know this because I raised the blindfold after they locked me inside and went outside the building.

I saw the window, I saw that it was a burglary proof that they used in that room and when they started coming, I put back the blindfold. I was there that Saturday.

In the night, they picked me, took me to a bush where I was kept in a two-storey building.
Torture

In the building, they left one of them, who was armed with a gun, to keep watch over me. Meanwhile, they tied my legs and hands. They then started to beat me and told me that I should forget this world, that it was over for me.

They were beating me with something like a metal; they hit it on my head and cut a small part of my head, they did same on my legs. On my hand, there were bruises, they cut my hand also and tied me with chain and other things.

So, I was there till Sunday when the money they were asking for came. I heard them when they were quarreling with the people that hired them. They were telling the people, ‘you raise the money na, what is going on, what is happening, we will leave this man o’.

They were speaking in Igbo. The person replied them that they should exercise patience, that they would bring the money in cash that night, that it was not going to be by transfer again.

On Sunday morning, their boss, called Mopol left. They left their member called ‘Agile’ to stay with me and monitor me. In the same building they kept me, there were three or four churches where people were singing praises.

The one who was guarding me pointed gun at me saying that if I made the slightest noise he would kill me there. I stayed there till the people at the church dismissed and left.
‘N10 million paid for my head’

Their boss came back at 3pm. I knew the time because they were openly talking about time. I gathered all information while they were communicating.

They were freely behaving as if my fate was already concluded and nothing would make me survive and tell any story. In fact, they had already condemned me and that must be why they were discussing not minding whether I heard or not.

One of them said it was ten million naira that was given to them to kill me. He said “this night, at least, we go go rest now, after tonight we go go relax’.

I kept on asking myself the meaning of that. After that, they brought bread to me to eat, I said I don’t want to eat, they brought water, I said I didn’t want to drink.

They said ‘ok, make you no think say na this thing go save you, whether you eat or not’.
Going to the ‘gallows’

On Monday morning, they walked me downstairs and crossed a tarred road. I discovered that the building was near a tarred road and nobody knew that something terrible was happening in that building.

This is because, as we walked down, we crossed the tarred road and I heard voices of other people around. The one that took me down handed me over to another person.

After crossing the road, another person took over and we started walking inside the bush. After sometime, he asked me to sit down, he called the other person and told him, ‘come now, let’s go and waste this man and get away’.

I was crying, pleading with them to spare my life because I have five small children, that they should not waste me. As we were walking inside the bush, we got to a certain point where they removed what they used in covering my eyes.

I now saw the kind of hefty men that were holding me. The next thing they did was to show me a dead body around.

They said, ‘do you see that dead body, na so you go be very soon.’ We passed that one, they showed me another dead body.

By then, they had removed the rope with which they tied my leg, leaving the one on my hands. I then told them I wanted to urinate and they agreed.
Narrow escape

While we were trekking, one of the abductors was in front, the second one was behind. After I requested to urinate, the one at my back moved in front, following his colleague and they were walking slowly while waiting for me to finish urinating.

When I was about to finish, the other one turned and said ‘come, haven’t you finished?’ I said ‘it remains small,’ he said, okay and turned because I was watching them.

As he moved, a voice came to me saying, ‘man, can’t you run away now?’ It continued like a whisper saying, ‘run away’.

Immediately that voice came to me, I turned round and started running inside that bush. When they noticed it, they turned back and pursued me.

And the place I entered was a thick forest, so I entered one small bush and stayed quiet, they fired shots but they didn’t get me, they flashed their torch light but they didn’t see me.

Inside the bush, I used my teeth to untie the rope with which they tied my hands and I started creeping slowly on my knees like an animal.

They were looking for me here and there and I heard them quarreling and asking the one at my back why he left me to escape. As I was creeping away from them, crying in pains, they continued blaming each other.
How succor came

When I got to one road, I started walking fast heading to nowhere in particular. I walked till I got to another road and saw a light from a generator.

I didn’t know that one of them was around that place and I started to move fast.

Unfortunately, the sound of my feet alerted them and they pursued me until I got to a fenced compound and I jumped into the place and continued running when one of them shouted on his colleagues warning that they should not follow me because vigilante men were around the place.

If they had followed me, they would have caught up with me because when I ran into the compound, nobody came to my rescue because they were all asleep and there was also no vigilante men there.

I had to run into one man’s house and started knocking at his door, I pleaded with the man to help me but he refused. I started telling him that ‘I am Prince Ndukwe Chibuzo, the son of a traditional ruler, I came from Ihitte-Uboma, I was kidnapped from my house’.

I began to explain to the man but I think the man was afraid; he didn’t open that door. I now said ‘ok forgive me, help me, let me stay at the corner of your compound till the morning so I can explain myself better’.

He didn’t say anything, he left me. I stayed there. I think the man contacted the vigilante people on his phone.

So, vigilante people came from nowhere to where I was and began to flash light. I wanted to run, but they said “don’t run, we are here for you’.

When they flashed that light on me, I asked them ‘are you vigilante?’ they said, ‘yes’ and I said ‘God, thank you’. They now took me to a better place. That was how I was saved.

I cannot imagine my escape, up till now; I have never believed that I am out of these people’s hands. The vigilante people later told me that we were in Anyara in Isiala-Mbano, about seven kilometers to Owerri town.

Later, the vigilante people gave me hot water to drink because I had not tasted anything for days. They called their President General and other notable men in the community including the chairman of the Local Government.

They later invited policemen from Anti-Kidnapping Unit in Owerri. We met them while we were on our way to Owerri.

Initially, I was very skeptical to go with them. However, after much persuasion including making a call to their Commissioner who assured me of my safety, I followed them.

I later heard that a team of policemen from IGP’s Intelligence Response Unit also came to the place after getting information that I escaped and they frantically searched for me.

But the network was very poor and they missed where I was with the vigilante team.
After rescue

Meanwhile, it was gathered that after he was rescued, he made a statement with the operatives of IGP’s Intelligence Response Team in Owerri, IRT who swung into action.

Sources said few weeks later, men of the IRT succeeded in arresting one of the key suspects in the kidnap saga. The suspect, according to reports, turned out to be one of the escapees from Oweri Prisons during the end SARS protest.

Police sources said he played a prominent role in the kidnap of the journalist in connivance with other suspects still at large, said to be close relatives of the victim.

It was also learned that the police team arrested a serving policeman suspected to be the supplier of arms to the kidnappers. Police sources said he was later taken to the Commissioner of Police for interrogation after which he was dismissed from the police and handed over to the investigating unit.

So far, it was further learned that the team was closing in on other major suspects in the crime, including those that allegedly paid N10m for the journalist to be killed.

Amazing Story Of Onyeka Nwelue, Nigerian Youth Who Founded James Curreý Society In UK

Onyeka Nwelue image courtesy of Onyeka Nwelue

BY LUMINOUS JANNAMIKE

ABUJA (VANGUARD) -- Anybody that observes the stable rise of Onyeka Nwelue in the field of African literature and how he has been able to build for himself an empire around the art of storytelling, may not know that this has been the childhood ambition of the Imo-born academic and entrepreneur

Onyeka studied Sociology and Anthropology at the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) before earning a scholarship to study Directing at the Prague Film School in Czech Republic.

Nonetheless, he has always had a strong desire to become literary giant, an ambition he never considered quitting even as he worked hard and persevered through all the odds that came his way.

While reminiscing on his past during a chat with Sunday Vanguard, the UK-based Nwelue said that since childhood, he had always dreamt of becoming wordsmith, adding that his successes in life were divinely orchestrated by God.

He said, “I started out as a visual artist. My parents were very supportive of my craft. My aunt, Flora Nwapa, Africa’s first woman to be published by James Currey lived with my mother. So, when I said I wanted to be a writer, they all supported it.

“I began writing in English when I was 12 years ago. I didn’t struggle as a child. Not at all. I was greatly supported by family. They thought what I chose to do, is honourable.”

Born in 1988 into a lineage of talented griots in the enterprise of storytelling, it is no wonder that Nwelue was able to grow to become an outstanding artist whose achievements cut across filmmaking, book authoring, publishing and selling as well as talk-show hosting. He is one of Africa’s most respected personalities in Oxford, UK.

Speaking of his roots, “I hail from a lineage that, on both the paternal and maternal branches, is steeped in the knowledge and traditions of the Igbo people, a lineage that is characterized by academic and professional distinction in various spheres, and members of whom have consistently ventured into and distinguished themselves in public service. I think because of the kind of support I got from my family, my life was shaped into believing so much in my craft. I have also had to dig deep into my ancestral line.”

When clocked age 27, his book ‘Hip-Hop is Only for Children’ won the ‘Creative Non-Fiction Book of the Year’ at the 2015 Nigerian Writers’ Awards. Three years later, his novella entitled, ‘Island of Happiness’ which was adapted into an Igbo-language film, ‘Agwaetiti Obiụtọ’, won ‘Best Feature Film by a Director’ at the 2018 Newark International Film Festival.

His quick understanding of the intricacies literature helped him to secure an opportunity to study Ancient Classic Literature, under Professor Martin Puchner at Harvard University.

While James Currey co-founded the African Writers’ Series with Chinua Achebe under Heinemann Publishing and published over 250 books by African writers, Onyeka Nwelue founded the James Currey Society, through which he established the James Currey Prize for African Literature and the James Currey Fellowship in cooperation with African Studies Centre, at the University of Oxford.

Nwelue’s unbelievable journey isn’t just about fame and fortune, but also about putting them to worthy causes. He believes in giving back to society. The literary icon has been a regular philanthropist to the needy around the world. He does whatever he can in his capacity to support the education of the youths.

He said, “I established the Onyeka Nwelue Scholarship for Outstanding Imo State Economics Student and I hope this can last longer. I am helping set up and build a film school in Haiti. This is different from the James Currey Prize and many others I want to set up. I have a publishing house, Abibiman Publishing in London and co-founded World Arts Agency in Johannesburg.”

At 33, Nwelue is an Academic Visitor at the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford and the English Language Department of the Faculty of Humanities, Manipur University in Imphal, India.

Having lived in Mexico, France, the US and now splits his time between the UK and South Africa, Nwelue is also an expert in the music industry with the aim to make La Cave Musik, his record label, bigger and influential while producing stars in the industry in a bid to take over the global music industry.

Like millions of Nigerians, Nwelue dreams of a secure and prosperous Nigeria but insists the youths must rise to the occasion by acquiring education and participating in politics.

According to him, “We are living through a critical period in the Nigeria story. More so, we are living through defining times for Ndigbo and the South-East. Given the insecurity crisis and a case of snail-speed development that is now being reversed, fresh thinking is required to chart the course forward for the country. Young people should get involved in education and politics by all means. They may just find their life purpose through these platforms.”

One Of Calgary's Top Lawyers Charles Osuji Recipient Of Prestigious Awards in 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Charles Osuji. Image courtesy of Charles Osuji

CALGARY, AB, CANADA, DECEMBER 30, 2021 (24-7 PRESS RELEASE) — Osuji’s acclaim began in 2016 when he was nominated as the 2016 Professional of the Year by Obsidian, Alberta. The next year, he was rated one of the Top 3 Employment Lawyers in Calgary, Alberta for 2017 – an award he’s won every year since then.

2021 Awards & Recognition for Charles Osuji

This winning trend continues today. In 2021, Osuji added many awards and recognitions to his already lengthy list of accomplishments, including being named “one of the best lawyers in Canada.”

Lexpert Rising Star: 2021 Leading Lawyers Under 40, Canada

Every year, Lexpert selects lawyers who are “at the top of their professional game while still dedicated to giving back.” This year, Lexpert named Charles Osuji a 2021 Rising Star in Canada’s Leading Lawyers Under 40 category.

Osuji has risen in the Canadian legal community “fast and furiously” while maintaining his humility, kindness, and generosity with his time and professional talent. “His unique combination of high intellect, tireless work ethic and business acumen fuels this rising star, but Osuji remains grounded by his role as a model citizen for all young professionals.”

Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Canada, 2022

Charles Osuji was recognized and chosen by peer review as a Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Canada, 2022, for his outstanding professional excellence in private practice. For Osuji, this award is “yet another confirmation that there’s a place for you at the table if you consistently put in the work and keep a good name while surrounded by a tribe of supporters…There are no limits!”

2021 Avenue Calgary Top 40 Under 40

Avenue Calgary recognized Osuji as a Top 40 Under 40 this year for his ability to “champion diversity at his law firm and mentor other immigrants to succeed in business. Osuji says, “Excellence in diversity – that’s the story I want to tell.” And he tells it well by inspiring, hiring, and mentoring locally and internationally trained lawyers from a range of cultural heritages.

2021 Power of Inclusion Community Award

The Council of Nigerian Professionals, an organization that empowers people to enrich our community with a focus on Canada’s socio-economic and political needs, recognized Osuji’s contributions to the community with the Power of Inclusion Community Award.

The Power of Inclusion Award is given to “individuals, leaders and community members working tirelessly within their sphere of influence to be inclusive of others irrespective of culture, creed, beliefs, social class, sexual orientation and more.”

2021 Top 25 DEI Persons of the Year Award

The Canadian Multicultural Group named Charles Osuji one of the Top 25 DEI Persons of the Year in 2021. The Group recognized Osuji’s unique approach to law and leadership, and highlighted the prominence of diversity in his practice.

Evidence of this diversity is in the multilingual staff at Osuji & Smith, who speak English, Igbo, Bengali, Edo, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, French, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, and Urdu.

Top 3 Lawyers in Calgary, Alberta

Besides all this national recognition, Osuji was recognized as one of the Top 3 Employment Lawyers in Calgary, Alberta by ThreeBestRated for the fifth year in a row. He was also named one of the Top 3 Business Lawyers in Calgary, Alberta for the third year in a row, and one of the Top 3 Divorce Lawyers in Calgary, Top 3 Estate Planning Lawyers in Calgary, and Top 3 Civil Litigation Lawyers in Calgary, Alberta for the second year in a row.

2021 Nominations

The accolades don’t end there for Charles Osuji in 2021. In addition to the awards, he was nominated for the Black Excellence Award by Calgary Black Chambers, the 2021 Les Prix Canie Awards’ Black Entrepreneur Award, and the 2021 Torch Awards by Better Business Bureau.

Ongoing Nominations & Awards for Charles Osuji

The acclamation of 2021 followed increasing recognition in 2020, including being named a Young Influencer by Canadian Magazine in their list of Canada’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers, and the 2020 Immigrant of Distinction (Achievement Under 35) Award by Immigrant Services Calgary.

Osuji was also nominated for the 2020 Employer Awards for Newcomer Employment by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the 2020 Canadian Bar Association’s Douglas Miller Rising Star Award.

Awards Osuji won in 2019 included the 2019 Hope Awards by Aspen Family and Community Network Society, the 2019 Entrepreneur of the Year (Afro Canadians) Award by Diversity Magazine, and the 2019 CY Ekwulugo Award for Volunteering and Community Service, courtesy of the Igbo Cultural Association of Calgary, Alberta.

Influential & Award-Winning Lawyer Charles Osuji

Despite all this attention, Osuji remains dedicated to giving back to the community in various ways while leading his own law firm with excellence. His entrepreneurial, multicultural, and holistic approach to the practice of law makes him a role model for diversity and the legal profession in general.

Besides running a free legal clinic primarily for Calgary’s newcomer population, and mentoring Canadian immigrants through the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society, Osuji continues to offer his expertise with:

– Alberta Legal Aid,
– the Alberta Law Society Lawyer Referral Service,
– Igbo Cultural Association of Calgary,
– the Mustard Seed,
– Habitat for Humanity, and
– his church, where he plays piano.

Osuji’s law firm Osuji & Smith Lawyers has won awards and recognitions as well, including:

– Top Choice of Business Law Services of 2021 in Calgary
– 2021 Best Business in Canada by Canadian Business Review Board
– Best Employment Lawyers in Calgary
– Best Real Estate Lawyers in Calgary
– Best Family Lawyers in Calgary
– Best Divorce Lawyers in Calgary

Osuji & Smith Lawyers provides services in various areas of law including employment and labour law, family, real estate, wills and estate, corporate commercial and business, personal injury, civil litigation, and immigration law.

Contact Lawyer Charles Osuji, one of Calgary’s top lawyers, at 403-283-8018 or by email at info@osujismith.ca.

Founded in 1980, Osuji & Smith: Calgary Employment, Business & Family Lawyers is a diverse, fast-growing, award-winning Calgary full-service law firm with a focus on Employment Law, Civil Litigation, Real Estate, Family & Divorce, Personal Injury, Immigration, Business and Corporate, Wills and Estate.

Hero Lager Supports Igbo Apprentices With N50m Grants

SUN NEWS ONLINE

The grand finale of the IgbaBoi Hero campaign from Hero Lager in promotion of Igbo apprenticeship scheme popularly called, Igba Boi, has been held in Lagos. The IgbaBoi Hero initiative of Hero Lager, a premium beer by International Breweries Plc, a proud part of the world’s largest brewer with over 400 beer brands, AB InBev, culminated in the award of certificates and financial grants totaling N50 million to graduates of the scheme.

The Initiative was launched to reinforce its Ahagiefula (Legacy) Campaign message – May Your Name Never Be Forgotten. This campaign was built upon the insight that the Igbo people’s biggest ambition is to leave a legacy that makes their names renowned. The Igbo Apprenticeship (Igba Boi) system is the longest existing communal legacy of the Igbo People.

Igba Boi was activated in six markets across the South East and Lagos, including Ogbaru Main Market, Onitsha, Nkwo Nnewi Market, Awka, Coal Camp Market, Enugu, Alaba International Market, Owerri, Ariaria International Market, Aba, and Alaba International Market, Lagos. The campaign reached a total of 12,290,487 million people, 4680 apprentices applied to the programme and 300 apprentices were eventually shortlisted. These 300, got a total 1.4 million + votes of confidence from consumers who were asked to vote in support of their ambition.

Giants Now: Osi Growing Football In Nigeria

BY MATT CITAK

Osi Umenyiora

Osi Umenyiora growing football in Nigeria with The Uprise

Osi Umenyiora put together a dominant career with the Giants.

In 129 games from 2003 to 2012, the defensive end amassed 75.0 sacks, good for the sixth-most in franchise history. Additionally, his 32 forced fumbles ranks No. 1 all-time among Giants legends, while his 70 tackles for loss comes in at No. 4. Umenyiora was a two-time All-Pro, two-time Pro Bowler and of course, a two-time Super Bowl Champion during his years with Big Blue. He was inducted into the Giants Ring of Honor back in 2015.

As impressive as he was on the field, Umenyiora has made a tremendous impact off the field as well. While he was born in London, Umenyiora's parents are both originally from Nigeria. He has quietly been donating resources to Nigeria for two decades now, but he recently decided he wanted to do more for his homeland.

Umenyiora's latest humanitarian effort is called The Uprise, a football program established in Nigeria by the former Giant and Ejike Ugboaja, a former Nigerian professional basketball player.

Through this program, three young men earned the opportunity to travel to the International Combine in London.

"We had some of the guys come over to the UK combine, and the people who saw them were wowed," Umenyiora said. "They were amazed by the level of size, strength and athleticism these guys have, and I was just telling them there's so many more of them there who just need that opportunity, right? And the mentality and the work ethic that they all have, it's not just, 'Oh, I need to make it the NFL.' They want to go to school, they just want a chance to do something better with their lives, and American football is pretty much a sport that gives them that opportunity."

Check out the video below to view Umenyiora's inspiring effort to help grow football in Nigeria through The Uprise.

 In the latest edition of Papa's Perspective, Bob Papa and John Schmeelk look back at some of the most memorable matchups between the Giants and Bears, which can be found in the audio below.

Ckay Tells The Story Behind His Viral TikTok Hit 'Love Nwantiti'

Ckay

Ckay is opening up about his career.

The 26-year-old performer stopped by the Spout podcast to discuss the incredible year he’s had, as well as the success of his viral song “Love Nwantiti.”

Host Erik Zachary began by bringing up Ckay‘s recent performance at the O2 Arena in London, which the musician called “surreal.”

“Like that was so… It was like, it was my first time performing at the O2, you know, and yeah, it was crazy to see the love, man,” he said, adding: “A big shout out to Wizkid for having me on there. Big shout-outs.”

He then shared the story behind his hit track “Love Nwantiti,” which had already been a commercial success in Nigeria in 2019 before blowing up on TikTok this year.

“Yeah, I was literally freestyling,” he explained. “So I make my beats most of the time. I was literally in my living room, I didn’t even make ‘Love Nwantiti,’ in a studio like I would usually do.”

He continued, “The funny thing is, so I made this around midnight, and I was supposed to put words to the chorus the following morning. So, you know, after I slept, I woke up and I listened to the song again, I’m like, yo, this is fire as it is but I was just like, you know, let me just try to put some words in it. So I tried to put some words in it, and it just wasn’t [as good.] So I left it like that and, you know, we put it on.”

Ckay added that the version of the song that ultimately got released was the first take he did in his living room.

“Wow, that is… You didn’t recut it or anything. So this is like what you recorded in your living room,” Erik said.

“Exactly. That’s what you’re hearing right now,” he replied.

-------------------JUST JARED

Recognized For International Human Rights Work, UWindsor Prof Receiving Prestigious U.S. Law Award

Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, president of the International Criminal Court, has served as Judge of the organization since March 2012. He's also served as legal advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. (International Criminal Court)

ONTARIO, CANADA (CBC)--A professor at the University of Windsor will be accepting a prestigious award in Washington this April.

Chile Eboe-Osuji is accepting an award for his work to further international human rights and accountability — as a jurist, teacher, scholar, prosecutor and international official.

The award is called the Goler T. Butcher Medal, and it's presented by the American Society of International Law. It also came as a bit of a surprise.

"I feel greatly elated by it. It was not something I expected," said Eboe-Osuji. "When it came I was here in Toronto preparing my course for my students at the University of Windsor and I got this email from the American Society and it was a letter and I was greatly, greatly elated by it."

Eboe-Osuji said it was his family that initially pushed him in the direction of law.

"You have parents who encourage you into a certain direction ... my father was very instrumental in nudging me in the direction of the law and I accepted it, I did not rebel. I was not the rebellious kind," he said.

Born during the Nigerian Civil War, Eboe-Osuji said it left a "lasting impression on his mind," but that his work in international law was "happenstance."

In 1997, while practising law in Toronto, Eboe-Osuji said a colleague asked him to be part of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

From there, his extensive resume continued; He is the president of the international criminal court and has served as a judge for the organization for nearly 10 years, and he was the legal advisor to the United Nations high commissioner for human rights — all while he is teaching law and political science at the University of Windsor and Lancer University.

Despite this work, Eboe-Osuji is quick to point out the work that still needs to be done abroad and at home in Canada.

"There has been some progress made, in fact progress came about amid a horrid global experience in the Second World War," he said, referring to the formation of the UN and recognition that "human beings have a role in international human rights."

But genocide continues, he said, and it's almost like 1945 was forgotten.

"Canada has come a long way this country has done important things some on a global stage," said Eboe-Osuji.

"The reconciliation project is important to pursue it and ensure there is confidence that lessons of that experience have been learned," he said.

"And Canada also, I do believe, can come back to what it used to be known for during the eras of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, as that middle power that was the voice of conscience amongst nations."

One positive step, is seeing more non-white Canadian judges, he said.

Eboe-Osuji will be presented this award on April 7 in Washington, D.C.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of.

Camouflage: Best Of Contemporary Writing In Nigeria

BY TOYIN FALOLA

Many critics have categorized the different periods of the Nigerian literary scene in different nodes from means, methods, and concerns. No matter the generation, worldviews are shaped by the problems facing them at that period. The literary and national consciousness of the first and second generation of Nigerian writers was predominantly dominated by the notion of instant Nigerian dream and gradual process of the views and moral standing of ethnic conscious Nigeria.

These two generations sought to carry out their intentions with different methods in a bid to reconstruct, adjust, refute and even restructure Nigeria’s history and European standards. As a result, most of their works were laced with complex language, obscure linguistic, and sophisticated writings, creating the notion that the average Nigerian writing across genres should have specific tenets or features.

Post-independence Nigerian writings are particularly rich in language, content, phases, trends, and even structure across all genres. The emergence and inclusion of migrant writers, considered contemporary cosmopolitan writers and domiciled outside their natal matrix but are still very involved in Nigerian affairs, is the game-changer in Nigerian literature.

Adesanmi and Dunton (2005), in a narrow but relevant scope, opine, “Third generation writers prominent among whom are Chimamanda Adichie, Sefi Atta, Helon Habila, Chris Abani, Chika Unigwe, Helen Oyeyemi, Teju Cole, Unoma Azuah, Biyi Bandele, Maik Nwosu, Okey Ndibe, Chuma Nwokolo, Segun Afolabi, Uwen Akpan and Uzodinma Iweala, were born after or around 1960 and were, therefore, temporally severed from the colonial event.” Though limited to Nigerian authors, their assertion reveals that migrant literature and writers constitute a significant generation in the periodization of African literature.

Furthermore, Adesanmi and Dunton highlight the defining characteristics of third-generation writers thus, “Third generation writers’ works are decentralized and not subject to conventionally erect structures or ideologies. They maintain that fluid plot, faster-paced narrative and language shorn of the domestication impulse of the first and second generation of writers with setting almost always urban and Euromodernist”. Still ascribing defining characteristics to third-generation writers, Olaniyan (2012) describes their literary productions as “an overall healthy development of cultural creativity, the type that continually breaches accepted boundaries and invents new forms and suggests new meanings.”

This anthology under review, Camouflage, edited by Nduka Otiono and Odoh Diego Okenyodo, assembles a new generation of writers in Nigeria and the diaspora ranging from the age of 24, which is the youngest, and the oldest about 46. Most of these authors are well known in various capacities, from writers’ forums to winning international awards. The features and ideologies of this new generation of writers in the Nigerian literary scene are in line with the notion of Nduka Otiono’s Introduction in this collection. Otiono established in “Of Chameleons and Gods: A Generation in Search of New Idioms” that there is a total disconnect “between learned critics and academics in the ivory tower and the creative activities of new Nigerian writers,” which has affected the outlook of the writers in the Nigerian literary scene.

Also, based on the criticism of the new generation of writings in Nigeria, Otiono shows how Niyi Osundare, Olu Obafemi, and Charles Nnnolim identify that pale work, ideological sterility, and lack of proper idioms are the significant problems associated with the works of these new writers. However, it is pertinent to state that this critical collection aims to delegitimize and reconstruct the notion that a generation is better than another generation ideologically, stylistically, or aesthetically. Following T. S. Eliot’s goal of his famous essay, “Tradition and Individual Talent,” which hinges on the idea of innovation and expressionism, the contemporary, evolving, and complex ways of living have inspired much of the new writing socially and politically. Even from the title, which shows borrowing and intertextuality, a modern technique by these new writers, from a giant from the African literary scene, Jack Mapanje, Otiono concludes “Camouflage, to the various guises and voices which our contemporaries deploy to speak to the Nigerian condition and to overcome censorship—be it under military adventurers in politics or under pretentious “democrats” in the new dispensation.”

Through the critical reading of the poems and short stories in the collection, the authors adopt the concept of realism as there is a sign of a tremendous pursuant and continuance in the idea of realism by early writers in Nigeria. Currently, most of these new authors take on the transitional role of realism, in which they use descriptive images and inventive idioms to represent the disillusionment and dystopia of the Nigerian space as it is. They are also observant writers, documenting everyday life in straightforward prose and accessible poems, with the skilful description of characters from all levels of the society, accurately detailing their manners and speeches.

In the interaction of the literary with the notable developments in Nigerian literature in different climates such as philosophical, social, or cultural, the various works of the individual authors in the collection shows the movement to a self-conscious trend which is unique and overtly contributes to the idea of generic instability which, even though is problematized, produced an array of resistance for older generations and also to the function of the contemporary Nigerian literary scene.

Following Nduka Otiono’s categorization of the authors in the collection and their specificity, ranging from “David Nwamadi’s “Boom-Time for Grave Diggers;” Angela Nwosu’s “The Final Tea;” Chiedu Ezeanah’s engagement of national tragedies; the unorthodox pidgin poetry of Victor Eboigbe, “Gari don pass Naira;” to the bold, feminist erotic offerings of some of the female poets featured, especially Victoria Sylvia Kankara, Lola Shoneyin, Nonye Bethel and Nkechi Nwosu-Igbo,” it is significant to point out that these instabilities and troubled canon convention by these new authors can be considered as a form of symbolic and metaphorical action that has further shaped our understanding of the Nigerian world and reinvented the Nigerian literary scene. These generic trends and conventional discourses confirm or answer what Okey Ndibe suggests on the idea that we need a new way of telling our stories.

As a result, these new writers have reinvented, reconstructed, and reimagined new languages and devices that justly adapt to the new Nigerian complexity. More importantly, to answer the older critics and how they harshly berate these new writings, I claim that these stories and new writings may seem to be “poisoning” the Nigerian literature, but it is also an antidote for the disillusioned and new Nigerian complexities. These authors’ reshaping and evident rewriting in the collection shows a performative aesthetics that offers and creates new ways of perceiving the new Nigerian reality.

Overall, the analyses of Camouflage’s poems and short stories address and open up many questions and interrogations, particularly in the Nigerian literary scene and space. One of such is the threshold of boom, prosperity and utopia, and postcolonial conditions that the typical Nigerian writer is opened to and its sustainability and continuance by the new crop of writers. In addition, the concerns and subject matter that permeate most of the literary works in the collection seek to continue in the vigorous pursuit of holding leaders accountable for the unpleasable, nervous, and traumatic conditions the average Nigerian citizen faces daily.

It is pertinent to state that these established writers in the diaspora tend to explore cultural diversity in their works. Each of the literary works in the collection is an authentic and apt representation of the numerous phases and chains of events that reeks of disillusionment, which has overridden Nigerians from the period of independence until contemporary times. They seem unchanged, and, obviously, these conversations and topics are what early writers dwelled on and what the new writers are seeking to pursue in different patterns. However, these literary works’ conversations include nodes of community sharing, a different or strange identity, and headstrong resistant literature that are significant stylistic deviations from the old generation of writers. More importantly, they are still relevant in the discussions about the dysfunctionality in the sociocultural and sociopolitical spaces of the country. Excitingly, this collection opens up new dialogues concerning genre, language, and idioms and draws attention to the disillusionment of Nigerian society. It is coming urgently when readers home and abroad are introduced or fed wrong notions about the Nigerian state. These works are a sort of re-representation of the Nigerian consciousness, contributing significantly to the postcolonial conditions of scholarship in Nigerian literature.

This book is about the Nigerian post-independence conditions and new Nigerian realities, and it is also effective in problematizing and dramatizing the relationship between ideology and aesthetics that tends to reshape the Nigerian experience. Interestingly, the anthology litters the individual works of the contributors alphabetically rather than thematically, which gives the reader a memorable and fascinating surreal experience of encountering the unknown and navigating different styles and ideologies while digesting the collection.

Finally, the collection will contribute to the existent, vibrant scholarly discussions and materials on the Literature of Nigeria and the Diaspora literature. It will contribute to new trends and generic structure in this aspect of literature and will be helpful to sociologists, psychologists, policymakers, and other categories of people. This is because it will give exposés on the intricacies of the Nigerian daily experiences and image, which as Nduka Otiono rightly put, “Nigerian writers and intellectuals more positively project the country’s image internationally than the billions of naira spent on foreign missions and image laundering.” Thus, the array of writers portrayed in the anthology, Camouflage, confirms that literature and liberal arts in Nigeria are significant exports that should be seriously considered.

SOURCE: TRIBUNE

The Need For Cooperation Among Igbo Leaders

BY CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE 

The fallout of Lord Lugard’s yoking together of disparate ethnic nationalities to make up the political entity called Nigeria without getting the concurrence of ethnic leaders is the incessant threats of secession, which are being mouthed by Nigeria’s ethnic champions. The chequered history of Nigeria is replete with morbid tales about how some ethnic groups tried to secede from Nigeria at different periods since she came into being. But Nigeria, a heterogenous country, has not disintegrated, as feared by many people. Some other countries ,which have ethnic heterogeneity as Nigeria has, have, however, split into many different countries. For example, think about Ethiopia and Sudan. The two countries, which have the common feature of ethnic heterogeneity , had broken up, causing other countries to emerge from them.

Is Nigeria not a cat with nine lives? It is a cat with nine lives in the sense that the fratricidal Biafra -Nigeria civil war and other bloody political conflicts, which occurred in Nigeria, had failed to cause her dismemberment. Had the Igbo people won the civil war, the map of Nigeria would have been re-drawn, excising the sovereign state of Biafra, and perhaps other areas, from Nigeria.

Before the outbreak of the Nigerian civil war, Isaac Adaka Boro had declared the Niger-delta republic. The metaphoric reference to it as a candle in the wind aptly illustrates and encapsulates its brevity. Again, we have not forgotten that the northern people threatened to pull out of Nigeria in their nine point programme over some national issues. Nigeria overcame that threat to her existence and continued to exist as one indivisible political entity.

More so, over the years, Nigeria has been wracked by ethno-religious crises , which had the potential of causing her dismemberment. The north, which is the hotbed of religious crisis, has been erupting in religious conflicts with its disastrous consequences. The maitatsine religious crisis, which occurred in the 1980s, is still fresh in our minds. Again, when Abuja was slated to host the 2002 Miss World Beauty Pageant, Moslem faithful kicked against it, throwing Nigeria into a religious crisis. In fact, a fatwa was placed on a journalist , who wrote that Prophet Mohammed would have been a spectator at a Miss World Beauty were he alive. Sectarian violence , which has characterized Nigeria since her inception, has not caused her disintegration. More so, the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which was presumably won by Chief MKO Abiola, polarized Nigeria. It threw Nigeria into a political cul-de-sac, and caused the deaths of some notable NADECO members, who were agitating for the revalidation of MKO Abiola’s stolen political mandate. It took the deaths of key political actors during that period such as Chief MKO Abiola and Sani Abacha for Nigeria to return to political stability. Their deaths paved the way for the birthing of the fourth republic in Nigeria.

Although Nigeria has practised representative government for more than two-twenty years, her successive leaders( both political leaders and military rulers) have failed abysmally to make Nigeria a truly united and egalitarian nation-state. Consequently, the issues that caused the Nigeria -Biafra civil war have continued to rear their ugly heads up in our political polity. The Igbo people have continued to allege that injustices are being meted out to them in the country. For example, they always point to the fact that no Igbo person is deemed qualified to occupy a top position in our country’s security architecture. Again, admission into unity schools in the country is designed to favour northern school pupils at the expense of those from the southeast. That discriminatory school admission policy is a proof that Nigeria has not become an egalitarian nation-state. The maltreatment of the Igbo people in Nigeria has caused the resurgence of the pro-Biafra separatist rhetoric and sentiments. So, when Nnamdi Kanu , the leader of the proscribed IPOB, launched into a ceaseless tirade against the ruling Fulani political oligarchy, it resonated with millions of Igbo people. They idolise, eugolize, and lionize him, exalting him to the status of a god. And they have acquiesced into his teachings and ideologies. It is believed that his regular radio programme radicalized his followers. His radio programme,which was always broadcast on the pirate Biafra radio, would demonize the ruling political elites.

In fact, the violent agitation for the creation of the sovereign state of Biafra is linked to Nnamdi Kanu’s incendiary comments on the radio Biafra. The militant wing of the proscribed IPOB is accused of executing homicidal deeds in the southeast. But the leaders of IPOB have continually denied that their members were perpetrators of those murderous deeds. So the atrocious murders committed in the southeast are blamed on unknown gunmen. But who are the unknown gunmen? Today, the spectre of the dreaded unknown gunmen attacking innocent people creates a climate of fear among the southeast people.

That is the chief reason why people abide by the weekly sit-at-home order declared by the secessionists to show solidarity with the detained Nnamdi Kanu. Nnamdi Kanu, who jumped bail and went abroad, was brought back to Nigeria through extraordinary rendition. He is , now, standing trial for treasonous offences. His detention and ongoing trial at the federal high court, Abuja, has incensed his followers to no end. Consequently, in response to his continued detention at the DSS facility in Abuja, the IPOB group has declared a weekly sit-at-home on Mondays to compel the federal government to release him , unconditionally. However, the IPOB leadership said that it has suspended the weekly sit-at-home order. For a while now, the southeast is shut down on every Monday. The observation of sit-at-home on Mondays, and on other days, which IPOB leaders will ask people to sit-at-home, depending on their whims and caprices, have caused problems for the people of the southeast area. The shutdown of the southeast on every Monday and on some other days have caused economic losses to the southeast governments and the downtrodden. People whose survival depends on their daily earnings are deprived of the opportunity to either ply their trade or open their shops for businesses on Mondays so as to earn money. As a result, they go to bed on empty stomachs on those days . Again, it has negatively affected school children in the area because their teachers have not taught all the topics in their schools’ curricula. Can ill-prepared pupils and students pass competitive external examinations by themselves?

While IPOB leaders have repeatedly said that the group has suspended the observation of the sit-at-home on every Monday , it is still observed as the people in the area have mortal fear for the enforcers of the sit-at-home order. But one pertinent question has cropped up: Are the IPOB leaders and the enforcers of the sit-at-home working at cross-purposes? My extrapolation from the IPOB leaders’ narratives is that the falcon cannot hear the falconer , anymore. Has the IPOB supreme leader created a Frankenstein monster, which he and his leadership team cannot control? Now , at this critical juncture of Nnamdi Kanu versus the federal government of Nigeria , it is pertinent that Igbo leaders and the IPOB leadership should reach a common ground and tease out a concurrence on their stand regarding the detention of Nnamdi Kanu and the IPOB’s agitation for the creation of the sovereign state of Biafra.

Both groups should , also, know that the strident calls for the emergence of a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction will not become a reality if the Igbo people fail to put their house in order and achieve unity. Releasing Nnamdi Kanu, unconditionally, and ceding the presidential seat to the southeast geopolitical zone are steps that should be taken to douse the rising political tension in the area. They will address the issues of marginalization and political ostracization, which the Igbo people alleged that they are experiencing.

Okoye writes from Uruowulu-Obosi

INTERVIEW: LARRY GAGA: 2Face Encouraged Me To Go Into Music

BY GBENGA BADA 

Larry Gaga Ndianefo does not like granting interviews and this, he said, is because he’s the shy type. Unknown to many of his fans, Larry holds two different degrees and three chieftaincy titles. With a name that evokes admiration and respect in the music industry, this hitmaking singer-songwriter takes ASSISTANT ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR, GBENGA BADA on his journey into creating music and how it takes him half a year or more to perfect a hit song.

So, where in Nigeria is Larry Gaga from?

I am from Anambra state.

Many people feel you just came into the music industry from nowhere, tell us the story?

Well, you need to correct yourself, I have been there for a long time. I have been in the music industry but maybe behind the scenes.

So, what have you been doing behind the scenes?

Well, there’s a record label, I don’t know if you guys remember, YSG, and had an artist then called Vector. So, I have been there for some time.

Being behind the scene, was that deliberate?

No, it wasn’t but you know this music thing started for me officially because a whole lot of artists used to meet me and request I listen to their album to choose the right songs and it was those qualities that made 2face give me the idea to do my own thing since I know how to think of exact beats that will fit a song as well as the right music act on the song and with that, I tried Gaga Shuffle with 2face and that was it. We released the song after seven months.

Why did it take that long to release a song?

That was because it wasn’t something I do. I am into oil and gas and I play big but I just like music.

So, when did you discover your love for music?

I would say from my childhood days. I have always loved music but I would say officially when I started rolling with 2face, like early 2000s.

So, how actually did you meet 2face because you speak so fondly of him?

Okay, so, I used to live like a few houses away from the Plantashun boiz in those days. I met Blackface first and we all became friends but it happened that I got closer to 2face and we have since remained that close.

So, you mentioned being a player in the oil and gas sector, has that part of you now taken the back seat?

No, it’s still there. I still do my business in the oil and gas sector.

But the music seems to be taking the centre stage?

Well, I would say it’s the passion that I have for music that makes it look like it’s taking the front seat but now, I think I am getting deep in the music.

So, for you, does music pay as much as oil and gas?

No, definitely not.

But the general belief is that entertainment – music and films – pays as we have seen with top music acts?

Well, yes but I don’t climb the stage to perform and collect the kind of money they collect. I only make and create good songs.

So, would you like to climb the stage to get such pay?

No, I am not into that but I might be giving it a shot soon because of several requests.

Egedege is a big song currently…

I have always had big songs (laughs)

Well but this is catching like wildfire, how do you feel about it?

Thank you and I appreciate the compliment but you know this song is just catching on like a wildfire truly I might have to be performing the song on stage because I have been receiving a lot of calls from the East and South South because they just want me to be on the stage and perform the song.

What inspired the song Egedege? tell us the back story

Okay, I actually went for a burial and I was sitting with my friends with kids around and they were shouting Larry Gaga then this lady walks in and I remember this same lady, Theresa Onuorah, very well growing up. My dad used to have this turntable and we listen to her songs so I saw kids shouting her name and I was surprised she was still alive and I just said it randomly to my friends that I would do something with this woman, the next thing, she called me and said she heard I wanted to do something with her and I said it’s true. So, I told her I would go back to one of her favourite songs that I used to listen to while growing up – which by the way, I was always scared of because of her voice and that was it.

Why the choice of Flavour and Phyno on the song?

I guess that’s just the Larry Gaga in me. When I listen to a beat or song, I know exactly who to put on the song and for Egedege, it was just Phyno and Flavour that could do it for me, nobody else.

Can you expatiate on that a little further?

When I listen to a song or a beat, I can tell exactly, who would do justice to the beat or the song, I just know. I think it’s innate, it comes naturally to me.

Are there other living legends that bring such memory to you?

They are all gone. People like Osita Osadebe, Oliver De Coque, so, they are all dead.

From your point of view, how big is Egedege?

I know it’s big, you know, I am used to hits. I have not felt it deep down in me as to how I should but in the East, I think it is very big due to the messages I get from there.

Are there other training you got to make you create music?

It just came to me. I listened to a lot of songs growing up, I like music, I listen to all genre of music, old music, international sounds, Nigerian music, highlife, a whole lot.

So, tell me, how did you come about the personae you have created for yourself in the music industry?

I have been like this from time immemorial. Everything I do or I set myself to do, I do it well. From my secondary schooling to university, I have always excelled at whatever I do, so I have always had that in me.

What happened with what you did with Vector and YSG?

Well, he didn’t do well. I know you guys want to ask me raw questions and I know where you are going to but basically, nobody is above mistake. I had a partner and they didn’t get along but I am neutral and cool with Vector, so we are very good friends till now.

You have these significant silver teeth, is this part of the art?

I have had this since 2005/2006. I used to do boxing and karate and one small boy finished my denture but that was by the way. I used to do boxing but my mum never liked it, she always complained so after the incident, I just quit then I traveled to Dubai to fix my teeth and that’s why I have two silver teeth.

You are have deliberately stayed on a low profile and in the background despite your huge achievements in the music industry, what’s the reason for that?

I am shy. I am a shy person. This interview is just because I felt like, let me just do it.

You said something about taking your time to get the music right like a perfectionist…

Yeah, for all my songs, I take my time to create a song. If you notice, before Egedege, I haven’t released a song for like one year. If you follow me very well, you would notice this and this new song is something I have been working on for over seven months, traveling back and forth because madam Theresa Onuorah isn’t based in Lagos, although she has been coming in and out of Lagos to perform the song with me at occasions.

Would it be right to say you take such a long time to create songs that eventually become hits because you have other sources of income?

Definitely, because I have other businesses that I do. I am also a hustler, if you bring other businesses for me you know I am an Igbo man, so basically, that’s it.

There’s an increase in the popularity of musicians from southeast Nigeria doing highlife, can you speak on that?

I think it’s just the time and we just follow the trend now that people like Flavour, and Phyno paved the way. We are just following the trend and people are enjoying the trend.

What’s the next musical conquest for you?

Just keep your fingers crossed.

Ichoku Academy On The Window Way

BY AMALUWA BENITA CHIDUBEM

It is December, the last month of the year 2021, but some events cannot be forgotten. One of such events was held in Unizik at the Awka Window on America. The Window positioned beautifully at the school of Post Graduate Studies in Nnamdi Azikiwe University offers educational resources, services and programs at no cost at all. According to the US Public Affairs Officer, Mr. Stephen Ibelli, “The Awka Window on America is a welcoming, collaborative, technology-driven centre where young people can share ideas, develop skills and grow capabilities.”

“The Window way”, hosted by Ichoku Academy was an entertainment and enlightenment program for secondary school students in Awka . It was held on the second of September,2021. The event was organized to bring children together to the Awka window on America at Unizik and engage them with music that they can relate with, ultimately educating them through music.

Ichoku Academy comprises mentors in different musical aspects. As a voice coach in the Academy, I engage pupils and students on voice training and stage performance. The Academy also has mentors in other aspects of music like music theory and indigenous Igbo music. The Ichoku Academy also has an ensemble troupe made up of children and teenagers, and their duty is to entertain and educate people in society.

The Ichoku Mission is to bring children to the realities of opportunities around them in order to maximize these opportunities as they grow in society. Indeed young people sometimes do not attain their potentials because they are not aware of an opportunity that is just at their doorstep.

My experience at The Window Way was a rather splendid one. The seminar kicked off with a simple prayer and opening speech by the founder of Ichoku Academy, Gerald Eze. He mildly introduced himself and then went on it introduce “The Incognitos”, a band consisting of some mentors of the Ichoku Academy. I couldn’t help but notice the expectations on the faces of the pupils and students as well as their parents and teachers.

I introduced myself and my bandmates made a brief speech about the seminar and went on to sing ‘Autumn Leaves’ by Nat King Cole, a cool and icebreaking song. The ambience it imbued on the environment was enough to know that the choice of song was apt. Next was Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time”. I saw some parents mouthing the words and even singing along. This was truly an instantly blissful moment for me and my bandmates.

While the audience was still relishing the imports of the songs they had listened to, two guys interrupted the event in a surprising manner, and right there was a drama performance that was going to take the audience around the happenings in the Nigerian society (with a focus on Awka). They linked all these happenings with how the Awka window on America was going to be of great benefit for the Nigerian child and youth.

The actors stormed the arena with hunter outfits and as if that wasn’t enough, they fought over a wife and nearly killed each other only to tell the audience at some point that they were only rehearsing. The experience was captivating and highly engaging. Eventually, when the audience was totally fixated on them, they were on to converse with themselves about the Awka Window and its benefits. Such creative minimalist performance which employs tragic-comedy to educate is indeed a special experience to behold. It was pure genius to say the least.

After the Drama, the event went on with a speech by the deputy director of The Awka Window On America, Dr. Martha Egenti. She spoke extensively on the program and activities of the window. Some students of the Ichoku Academy also had a chance to showcase their talents. The spectacular Oluoma Odimegwu, who for a while has been learning the Ubo-Aka and keyboard came up to play her Ubo and sing some folk songs with the accompaniment of Gerald Eze who played the Oja and Flute, and Nwabuogu Odimegwu who played the Ubo-aka. Oluoma played the keyboard and sang “Let It Go” from Frozen with commendable expertise.

Michael-Salem Ezenwuba strutted to the stage with confidence. The 14-year-old stunned the audience with his rib-cracking folktales, and like a master minstrel sang the accompanying folk songs while playing the Ubo-Aka.

The event ended with a round of questions from the audience about the centre and the answers were supplied by Dr Martha Egenti. To close the show, Dr Martha Egenti asked the audience to supply the answers to the questions: “What is the capital of America?” and “Who is the Vice President of America?” The answers were gotten by the 13-year-old Ikechukwu Mbagwu and he was gifted a brand new Ubo-Aka by the Ichoku Academy.

Duet performance of “A Whole New World” from Aladdin ended the event as the attendees gradually exited the seminar. A round of pictures and handshakes were taken. It was indeed amazing.

This day was a very remarkable one for me.

*Benita Amaluwa is a 200 level student of music at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.

Father Omega: Reverend Father Of Revolutionary Music

BY UZOR MAXIM UZOATU

It makes for history when a reverend father appears in bowler hat and offers revolutionary music that rivals Bob Marley’s offerings for class. Reverend Father Emmanuel C. Umezinwa, aka Fada Omega, is indeed a class act. A Professor of Music at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Father Umezinwa wowed the audience with his accomplished performance in the forecourt of Testimony Place, near Arroma Junction, Awka, in the evening of Sunday, December 5.

“A Cry for Nigeria” was the first number dished out by Fada Omega. In his brief introduction of the song, Father Omega narrated that he was inspired initially by the riffs of Bruce Springsteen. Even as reggae is the underlying beat of his music, Fada Omega is quite eclectic.

The ace music prelate followed up with “Undertakers”, a no-holds-barred rendition of the state of a nation being buried in installments by the leaders.

Fada Omega upped his ante with the pulsating number “Stop Fooling Yourself” that got the audience singing along with gusto.

His rendering of the fourth number, “Revolution”, laid bare the revolutionary ethos of the priest who would not sit idly by while the underclass suffered.

There was a short interlude of a conversation between Father Umezinwa and the managing director of Anambra Newspapers and Printing Corporation (ANPC), Sir Chuka Nnabuife.

Sir Nnabuife started out wanting to know whether Father Umezinwa preferred Fada Omega or Fada Emma as his stage name. Fada Omega took the prize.

The personable reverend father revealed that he was not restricted to reggae or country music but could put to application a wide range of musical genres.

Fada Omega is not one to fall for easy labels, but insists that music helps to foster change in society, arguing that “Jesus Christ was a revolutionary.”

He informed the audience that, back in 2005, he went for voice training in a studio in the United States only for the studio manager to wonder at the Nigerian being able to sing excellently through all the ranges.

Fada Omega is a natural baritone who does not believe in the existence of falsetto or false voice in the music get-go.

He had been composing and playing music for the past 30 years or so, and in 2003 recorded highlife tunes for his age grade in his native Akpo town in Aguata LGA of Anambra State.

He had over the years been producing classical music on radio. He hardly uses notes when composing the songs. He is quite open to his music being recorded for keeps.

The Fada Omega concert was engineered remarkably by a First Class student of his in the Music Department, Gerald Eze, a winner of the coveted Christopher Kolade Music Award and the singular exponent of the Igbo musical instruments Oja and Ubo-aka. Gerald Eze talked of his intent to immortalize the musical genius of Fada Omega.

The generous hosts, Dr. Patrick and Barrister (Mrs.) Amaka Ezeno, offered to keep to the testimony of hosting the performances as ever. A sage like Fada Omega would always find a home here, Mrs. Amaka Ezeno asserted.

In a lighter mood, Igwe Chidi Onuigbo said he was very afraid that Fada Omega, without the restraining clothing of the soutane, could go on a rampage!

For Hon. Ikem Uzoezie, a former member of the Anambra State House of Assembly, “Fada Omega’s music is timeless and will go a long way in assisting the social revival needed in Nigeria.”

Rev. Father Chika Okpalike of the Ekwulobia Diocese marveled at the abiding relevance of Fada Omega’s songs, having been composed three or two decades earlier.

The evening’s performance was rounded off with the number “We Shall Overcome.” It was music that throbbed with the hope inspirited on mankind by Nelson Mandela.

Fada Omega represents a phenomenon whose time has come. Given the great influence of prelates on the people, Fada Omega carries remarkable charisma into the turf of changing the society for the better. He stands up for his beliefs, daring all dictators and the conservative types. He has built up a good following, and it aids the progress of the society that he is working with the Department of Theatre Arts of Nnamdi Azikiwe University for the release of his musical videos. A professional to the core, Fada Omega is intent on going to the last detail to see that everything is done well.

It was indeed an evening to cherish, complete with a two-man theatrical performance.

Necessary lessons were learnt from all Fada Omega’s songs, notably “A Cry for Nigeria”, “Undertakers”, “Stop Fooling Yourself”, “Revolution” and “We Shall Overcome.”

Fada Omega is a voice destined to rule the waves. Nobody who encounters him in song is ever bound to forget him in a hurry. He makes sound and meaning with an assurance that uplifts the soul. In this day and age of meaningless songs by ill-assorted youths calling themselves musicians, Fada Omega is the way to go.

Ikpeazu: ‘Bakin Zuwo’ Of The East

BY LEO SOBECHI

Okezie Ikpeazu image via The Guardian

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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