Ex-soldier Emmanuel Ahia arms himself with ethics and respect - After war, he seeks peaceful resolutions

By Wendy Plump, Times of Trenton/New Jersey

Martin Griff / The Times of TrentonProfessor Emmanuel Ahia photographed in his Rider University office in Lawrence Township on Wednesday, June 2, 2010.

LAWRENCE -- It's funny how many life-altering coincidences seem to take place in the humble taxi. You climb in the back and some unexpected frisson with the person driving changes everything in a heartbeat.

"We just sat there and started talking. Actually we started blaming the older guys for the arrogance that drove them to pull all us young men into battle," Ahia says, laughing now at the memory. "But here we were, two young people from different sides and both grieving for people who had died, and we just met as friends.

"It made me realize, even though I still had a lot of bitterness then, that people can change. That it's pointless to treat them with indignity. Everyone wants the same thing. That is what the hunger is for in the world."

Ahia, 60, a lawyer and an associate professor of counseling at Rider University, has turned that simple lesson into a lifelong professional commitment to motivate people -- and countries -- to treat each other with respect.

He does this on stages globally and locally. For example, Ahia recently delivered a scholarly paper in England at the Oxford Round Table on how the ethical principles of mental health could serve as a model for public policy formation -- how undergirding policy with the concepts of benevolence, veracity and forgiveness can uplift the mental health of an entire nation.

But his professional roots touch down locally at the intersection of law and mental health. Here, Ahia drives home his commitment especially as it relates to the treatment of prison inmates.

"Whenever you are dealing with the legal system you invariably run into a lot of mental health issues -- substance abuse, early childhood traumas, anxiety, depression, impulse control problems," says Ahia. "You have all these people who may have committed a crime but what made them do it? That is never looked into.

"I'm not justifying anyone's crimes, but my personal contention is that there should be more mental health services made available to people who are in prison. I believe in the rehabilitation model. For the sake of society at large, we need to do this so that when they're released they come out a different person."

To that end, Ahia published the "Legal and Ethical Dictionary for Mental Health Professionals," newly released in a second edition. The dictionary seeks to explain -- in clear, concise English -- the twisted, confusing legalese that counselors face when advocating for their clients.

He intends the book to be a kind of end-run around legal jargon for mental health practitioners. Thus equipped, they come from a position of strength when assisting clients who are in prison or facing prison sentences.

Born in Nigeria, Ahia was still in high school when he went off, willingly, to war. He fought on the side of the Biafran minority, one of several minority groups that wanted to declare a state independent of Nigeria. The secessionists lost. Though Ahia was never a POW, his brutal experience of the war fell heavily on him. He came to the United States as a young man not long after his encounter with the taxi driver, and he became a U.S. citizen.

Ahia has been teaching at Rider since 1990. He uses this pulpit as a means of spreading his message of compassionate treatment for whomever he happens to be talking about -- POWs, inmates, regular human beings. Whether the message goes out through students or through international appearances like the recent trip to Oxford matters little to Ahia, so long as it gets out.

"I believe that people who live in a just society -- not a society that fakes justice but where true justice is experienced -- their mental health improves," says Ahia in his mellifluous Nigerian accent. "Governments, individuals -- they all need to be aware of the necessity of general benevolence. You approach things by wanting to do good for other people.

"The principles of reliability, veracity and forgiveness -- that is really what I am pursuing. In Gaza, in Germany during World War II, in China and Japan, in Cuba and in Nigeria, people want to be in relationships, international or local, with people they can trust. They want to be treated with respect.

"Money is hardly ever the issue. I prefer to treat people with dignity rather than give them money. When you disrespect people, they will not appreciate anything else you do for them. It all comes back to a mental-health issue."

Ahia is working on a couple of projects today, including a new version of an earlier book on client confidentiality in counseling relationships. In addition, he teaches several courses in the counseling department at Rider. The course in legal ethics is his specialty, although he also teaches courses in diversity and in multicultural studies.

"I teach these principles of justice and respect in all my classes," Ahia adds. "I will have people in their 20s to their 50s in class with me. And when you talk about some of the principles of fair play and of treating people as human beings, oh yes, the younger students don't have any problem with that.

"So this is good."

My mandate was to bomb oil installations and destroy Nigeria’s economy – Captain August Okpe

A PUNCH EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW -- BY NONYE BEN-NWANKWO AND ADEOLA BALOGUN


Captain August Okpe (rtd) was the Chief Pilot of Biafra during the civil war. He tells ‘NONYE BEN-NWANKWO and ADEOLA BALOGUN about his childhood days and his experience during the war.

Why did you decide to write the book, Last Flight, almost 40 years after the war?

I was taking my time. The Igbo say that whenever a man wakes up is his morning. But I don’t even understand it when people talk about the years. Books on the Second World War are still being written. Every now and then, somebody comes up with a fresh angle. What is the big deal about years? The book has been written; let’s just read it and know what it is all about.

Why did you title it The Last flight?

The title is derived from some components of the book. It has to do with what happened towards the end of the Nigeria/Biafra war. The book is written specifically to convey what happened in the air aspect of the Nigeria/Biafra war. Remember that a lot has been written about the ground war but nothing about the air war. I was actively involved in the air war, and it is only natural for me to write about it. I have the facts and figures. All I needed was to collate them and ensure that accuracy is maintained in terms of time. I am not writing a kindergarten book or fables for my children.

How long did it take to you write it?

It is difficult to say. I don’t know when it started and I don’t know when it finished. The important thing is that the book is out. What you want is information. It doesn’t matter how long it took to write the book.

Was there a reason you got enlisted in the Biafran Air Force?

I did not enlist in the Biafran Air Force. I was in the Nigerian Air Force and the crisis started. So, automatically, I had to join my own region. The upheaval, the national crisis, moved people. At one time in Lagos and the North, there were virtually no Easterners.

You look so young one would hardly know that you are in your 60s...

Are you jealous? I am 66. I am sorry, that is my age.

How did your parents take it when you decided to go into the military?

Everybody had grown up and left the house when I was born. My parents got married in 1915 and they didn’t have a child until 1925. Everybody told my father to remarry but he didn’t. I respect him so much because he lived an exemplary life. He made some of us look untidy by comparison. He was castigated and told that he married a beautiful ‘man’. But he ignored all the castigations. Later, they started having children until my mother got to her 50s. She thought she had malaria; she didn’t know she was pregnant. She went to the hospital and she was told that she was pregnant. Eventually, I showed up. I went to very good schools and decided to be a pilot. My mother was opposed to it. She couldn’t understand why I chose a profession that is full of danger. I persevered and went to Canada. When I finished training and came back, she didn’t know whether to cry or smile. There was a reception when I came back, where she told people how I was born. She said that since she took a lot of malaria drugs because she thought she had malaria, maybe the drugs affected my brain. Otherwise, she said, I would not have thought of becoming a pilot.

You trained in Canada. Why did you come back to Nigeria?

I came back to fly for the Nigerian Air Force that sent me there. You cannot go and train on your own; the Air Force sends you. When you finish, you are expected to come back and fly for the government that sent you.

How did you escape to Biafra during the war?

It is in my book. It is not something I can say in two or three words. It was very traumatic. The title of that chapter in my book is Fugitives from Injustice. We ran. We tried a lot of things. At a stage, we escaped by air planes. Food was not the problem. To reach a place of reasonable safety and stay out of harm’s way was paramount in our minds. We even grew beard so as not to look as armed forces personnel, because we didn’t want to be identified and we didn’t want to walk with erect. We tried not to show that we had anything to do with the military so that we would not get noticed. They were looking for us then.

Given the chance, would you want to be in the military again?

If I reflect on the experience and advantages I garnered from being in the military, I will do the same thing again for obvious reasons. It gives you a lot of discipline. I am the youngest in a family of six children. Like I said earlier, my parents didn’t marry on time. And when they did, they didn’t have kids on time. By the time they had me, my siblings had left. I grew up as an only child. People always felt I was spoilt until I got into the military. The military beat the spoilt brat thing out of me. Today, I see myself as an alert and very positive individual that has got the benefits that are derivable from the military. I got a lot of training from the military. They weren’t counting the cost; they just wanted result. With all the academic training I got in the military, I think I am a made person. I am very happy about it. The way I look, my gait, the way I speak, I have the military to thank for all this. In terms of physical regiment, they encourage sports. Up till tomorrow, I play squash, I swim and I play tennis. I am not likely to have the pot belly everybody is carrying about.

What was the war experience like?

I was trained for it. I was a military pilot. I wasn’t trained to just carry passengers in comfort. This one, you will be trained to recognise that you can be fired at and you are trained to use weapons of destructions; bombs and every other thing in between. The war came and we had to put them into practice. The unfortunate thing was that we were using the acquired practice against ourselves. That was the sad part of it.

Your father fought in World War and your son is also in the US army. Does it run in the family?

My father fought in the Second World War. That time, it was a world war. In one way or the other, people got involved whether they liked it or not. Nobody gets into the arm forces with the purpose of fighting a war. You don’t normally expect it. But after training as a pilot, I found myself in a regional war. My son is in the US army. He was in the 1991 war for the liberation of Kuwait from Iraq. He fought the war and came out with meritorious awards.

After the Nigeria/Biafra crisis, you were not reabsorbed into the Nigerian air force…

No.

Did you feel bad about it?

Not necessarily. They probably felt my activities were too prominent. You don’t fly an aeroplane and expect not to get noticed. My activities were reported in a lot of books. One book referred to me as the Chief of the Biafran Air Force, which I wasn’t. I was the Chief Pilot. I quarreled with them over that. I complained and automatically, the Federal Government saw me as a very senior rebel. It attracted a lot of prejudice against me in terms of many things. Some of this information was available to the military tribunal. Probably, that influenced their decision not to recall me. They recalled a lot of my colleagues, like Rear Admiral Kanu, Rear Admiral Madueke, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe and others.

But in 2006, you were eventually granted pardon and your sack was turned into retirement. Did you expect it?

In Nigeria, you don’t know what to expect and what not to. But the important thing is in the interest of restitution and peace and also for the country to move ahead. Since it was said it was a fight between brothers, one must expect such dispensation; no victor, no vanquished. It is okay to expect it. I turned my back on it anyway. If anything happened, fine. But it came that way and I thanked God for it.

During the war, did it occur to you that you could be killed?

It could have happened to me. The human system reacts to threat to itself. It is only natural to worry. I don’t think there is anybody who does not worry about threat. You will worry but your mind still has to be in control so that you can evade the forces that are trying to kill you. It is just like in the aircraft; when there is a problem, you do not go crazy in the plane. You get worried, I agree. But you have to be in a frame of mind to handle the reaction to emergencies. To have courage does not mean there is absence of fear. It is how you handle fear that matters most.

Why did you choose to be a pilot?

I have always wanted to be a pilot. That craving got satisfied when Nigeria decided to start an air force. I saw it as an opportunity to fly except that it was in the military. I joined the military as an air force pilot. Years later, I continued as a civilian pilot. After the war, when I was asked to leave the air force, I went and got converted as a civilian pilot. That was what I was doing until I retired in 2000. I have been flying aeroplanes since 1963. I have done nothing else since then.

We hear that people who are involved in war usually suffer a major trauma after the war. Have you experienced any trauma?

I don’t think I have any post-traumatic stress syndrome. If I have, it is not manifest and I don’t feel anything. Some of the soldiers, even those that are stoic and tough and unyielding are prepared to say that they are suffering from post-traumatic syndrome. It may be because they feel good about it or to get some compensation from the government. I don’t think I have it. I never knew what it was until they started talking about it. I think I am all right.

Do you still remember some of the horrible experiences of the war?

You can call them incidents or events, but not in the traumatic sense. At times, you might dream that you are crashing an aeroplane or firing or being fired at. But I don’t see them as nightmares.

Were you married during the war?

I got married just a month before the war started. It was okay. Flying in a dangerous zone as a married man and later as a father, I don’t know what to tell you about that. But we had to do what a man is supposed to do. It gave me more impetus to carry on the way I did to protect these children that I have produced during the same war. I hope that didn’t make me overdo it any way.

Was there a time you tried raiding oil wells in Port Harcourt?

Of course, yes. Any time the Nigerian forces overran a particular area and occupied it, we tried to deprive them of their resources there. My instruction from the Biafran high command was to inflict economic damage on Nigeria, to deprive them of the resources they used to buy armoured vehicles and the aeroplanes which they used against us.

As a civil pilot, was there a time you were almost involved in a crash.

There was a time something like that happened but luckily, there was no loss of life. Once you are a pilot, there is always that possibility that anything can happen. If everything is done well, short of the unexpected, flying is the safest means of transportation.

It is generally believed that military men are promiscuous…

I wouldn’t have entertained such question, but since you are a woman and women are always probing the men, I will answer. I want to disabuse your mind of the notion of promiscuity by the military. My colleagues in the military are very disciplined and moralistic individuals. My case is even worse because I am an airline captain. People say pilots are promiscuous. We are not promiscuous. One thing you must remember is that people in uniform look very attractive. If they appear to be promiscuous, it is the women that are disturbing them. Airline captain uniform is even very provocative.

You are yet to remarry since your wife died.

I am looking for another person. If I see, I will get married to her. Even my aunt asked me if I am still mourning my wife. I told her I had not seen the right person. If you see her, let me know. I want to remarry. I am told that married people live longer. Since I want to live long, I want to marry again. I am looking for the right person. Lots of women want to marry me. I can compete with any younger guy. A man is as old as he feels while a woman is as old as she looks. I may remarry any moment from now.

The Insane

By E.C. Ejiogu, Sahara Reporters

The first time I visited London, some of the several aspects of the city that caught my attention were the statutes of mostly those historical personalities who were involved in empire-building adventures abroad placed in the public squares. I even noticed that virtually all of them showed gaunt-looking individuals. This is particularly true about those of them from humble origins. I found that observation quite thought-provoking. This was to the degree that sent me on a foray to the library when I returned. It wasn’t long after that when I came across a book entitled Durable Inequalities (1998) by the historical sociologist Charles Tilly, who died a few years ago, which opened my eyes to the extensive scarcity of nourishments in that clime in the era toward 1800. I learnt from this book that even the English aristocracy and their French counterparts were not immune to the afflictions from the scarcity of nourishments that prevailed in English society and France during the era. One of the conclusions that I drew from all that is that hunger was one of the primary inducements of the quest by the British and French during the era in question for colonies in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere.

Wherever I go, I hardly take observations that I make each day of the goings-on around me for granted at all. Things just don’t happen. They have causal links. Since the early 1990s when the political circumstances tenable in the geographical space that became a country called Nigeria by the doing of British men who were induced by hunger to embark on empire-building adventures in the Niger basin, compelled me to leave its shores, I have been privileged to travel some beyond the US where I first landed. Each place and everywhere that I have been, I encounter individuals from all the nationalities in Nigeria except the Hausa-Fulani: On Oxford Street in London, there’s hardly a time when I uttered a word of Igbo or Yoruba loudly that I didn’t see many faces turn in my direction. In down-town Jo’burg, South Africa, it’s the same. On the two different times that I wandered the malls in Canberra and Brisbane, Australia lonely, the rare black faces that I ran into turned into Igbomen, one of whom even happened to have studied at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka just like me. Why doesn’t whatever it is that drive people from other nationalities out of Nigeria in stupendous numbers do the same to the Hausa-Fulani—the nationality that claims the largest share of Nigeria’s estimated population of 150 million people plus?

Sequel to General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s criminal annulment of MKO Abiola’s June 12 victory at the polls in 1993, the mobilization that it triggered world-wide amongst people from the space called Nigeria was devoid of them, I mean the Hausa-Fulani. The few of them who were in the US on all-expense paid scholarship were quickly corralled into what they called the Zumunta Group by the Nigerian Embassy as irritants to that mobilization here.

One is not bothered by why the Hausa-Fulani are not in the crisis-induced exodus from the geo-political space that the British made them share with the rest of the nationalities that call the Niger basin home. The reason for that is not even hidden from an observant child who is privy to what Nigeria is. The concern is rather about why educated people from nationalities in the lower Niger—the Igbo, Yoruba, the Bini Commonwealth, the Niger Delta peoples, et al have refused to re-calibrate their attitude towards the Nigeria project and even their understanding of what can be done to face it down and impose the right solution on it. I wasn’t there at the just-concluded second session of the shadow Parliament convened in New York last week by individuals from the space that exists as Nigeria, but a prominent participant confirmed to me yesterday that he couldn’t think of any Hausa-Fulani participant. Where is the logic in your continuing identification with Nigeria? Is there anything wrong with staking out your definitive claims in this Nigeria beyond the mantra of political correctness, which blindly accepts Nigeria as a given? What is wrong with changing tact to make the quest for justice for all as the corner stone of a Nigeria? Why would the inhabitants of the Niger Delta whose homeland is completely devastated by reckless hydrocarbon extraction be content with pay-offs by people who reside far away from that devastation? Would the world come to an end today if Nigeria is sorted out to reflect the nationalities that constitute it?

Someone defined insanity to me the other day as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome each time. In the epigram to his memoirs that he aptly titled, My Family and Other Animals, the late naturalist, Gerald Durrell opined that: “There is joy in madness which only but madmen know.” Clinging to Nigeria this way might be joyful, but it seems like madness to me all the same.

E.C. Ejiogu, PhD, is a political sociologist.

Fortune Of Power In Nigeria

By Osadolo Franics, Nigerian Observer

Unexpressly by the real political leaders of the imaginative one gargantuan north, ‘the people’ in this part of Nigeria believed they are BORN to RULE.


If this idea has being working for them, it is because they see themselves as a monolithic entity.

This is irrespective of their religious leaning or political divide. That is the reason why Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) is a very formidable non- partisan socio-politicaly organisation of the defunct Northern Protectorate and later Region. This geographical expression is composed of various non-related ethnic group as we have in the Southern Protectorate that could not stand as a single political entity called Southern Region.

This latter later dissolved into Western, Eastern and again Midwestern Region while the Northern protectorate refused to go the way of the south. It is this sustaining spirit that is their strength while the south chose to go the way of the confused tongued people that build the great tower of Babel but later abandoned the construction work. Those people that make up the southern protectorate have never pretended to see themselves as one, they never pretend to have a collective bargain but instead, they see themselves as clay and iron that can never mix together.


But the Northern protectorate, on the other hand, never pretended to be one single ethnic entity.

They recognised their differences but instead of letting it be their weakness, they fused together, down play their differences, and work together as a single unit with one bargaining voice which has made them become one great people. With their strength of unity, they can continue to claim that they are born to rule even over the weak South who is so because of their disunity and “over Sabi house wife’s attitude.’

And this is the undoing of the South. Thus, the North has one strong voice in Arewa consultative forum but the South has the ‘Ohanaeze Ndigbo’ for the Igbos of East, ‘Afenifere socio-cultural group’ for the Yoruba in the West. And most unfortunately , the Midwestern Region has no voice at all and likewise the other ethnic groups that do not belong to either the Igbo East nor the Yourba West. They are as dumb as the Midwestern Region.

Where Arewa, Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo stands, it is the Arewa voice that will be loudest while Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo will be shouting to be heard at the same time unfortunately, the non-Igbo or non Yoruba voice will be unknown, never to be reckoned with.

If not because of the militancy of some of the Youths in their midst, because of the oil wells in their land, Dr Goodluck Jonathan would not have been our president today at the demise of President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Because of the size of the North, they can always choose to have the best choice, than heave the others for the cacophony South and than the remnant for the non-Igbo and non-Yoruba. That is why the north has produced nine out of the fifteen leaders in Nigeria. In the militancy, that is the reason their coups had always succeeded and when the north says “no to the coup, it will fail.

The North has always had the fortune of power and can decide to give it to whoever she want, and if they say ‘No’, there is hardly anything anyone can do about it. They always strive for power. If you can find General Aguiyi Ironsi, ask him why he was killed over the coup d’etat he knew nothing about. Also, when you come across Brigadier Ogundipe, why he was brushed or shoved aside for a junior Lt Colonel Yakubu Gowon after Ironsi was assassinated, in a military that respects hierarchy, you will get a little understanding of what I am saying. After General Murtala Mohammed got a good dose of what he gave to General Ironsi, leadership was forced on General Olusegun Obasanjo when it was not his will.

Over June 12 1993 presidential election result, you can find out who ensured that Professor Humphrey Nwosu did not complete announcing the result so that it could be annulled. If you find Brigadier David Mark you can ask him who slapped the National Electoral Commission Chairman, Humphrey Nwosu, to stop him from announcing M K O Abiola as the president-elect. Is that Brigadier David Mark a British or American citizen or from the north of Nigeria? General Ibrahim Babangida can I tell us better why Chief Ernest Shonekan who never contested any election was handed over presidential power of Nigeria instead of the man M K O Abiola who was purportedly ‘Michael Jordaning’ to the first position in the June 12 1993 presidential election sprint.

Who decided to make Chief Olusegun Obasanjo the executive president of Nigeria in 1999? Who caused him to be released from the prison for that office? Was it his kinsmen from Southwest of Nigeria or the divergent southern leaders or the leaders from the North? I know that the defunct Midwestern Region and other Southern non-Igbo, non-Yoruba have no leaders to decide on that matter.

Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential contest and failure in that election was a fait accompli or chestrated by his kinsmen in the North. He was allowed to contest and he failed so that it would be said that Nigeria has democratised and so the Yoke of pariah status would be lifted off our neck or broken. It was the interest of the North to have our immediate late President Umaru Yar’Adua succeeds the former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Thus Muhammadu Buhari or Atiku Abubakar did not emerge as Obasanjo’s successor.

It was the prerogative of the North that makes Nigeria live without a substantive president for six months until Late President Umaru Yar’Adua left the world stage as a very good president for about thirty months who never was able to lead Nigeria according to the beauty of his mind.

He was cheated by a protracted illness. His Vice President, now the current President, academic Dr Goodluck Jonathan was unofficially declared a persona non grata to see his president for six months. This too was the handiwork of some Northern faceless cabal. Dr Goodluck Jonathan became Acting and now the substantive president of Nigeria by divine providence. But the background to this reality dates back to 1998 incident that brought Olusegun Obasanjo out of prison to the presidency.

Without any sentiment, the north has always had the fortune to decide who becomes the president of Nigeria, especially in plotting coup d’etat. This section of the country has got the penchant for successful coup making. In the North, there is still the core North. This is where most presidents or Heads of State always come from. Let us consider them; Abubakar Tafawa Balawa, Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari, Sani Abacha, Umaru Yar’Adua and Murtala Mohammed. Only this area alone have produced six leaders over us, the non-core North has produced Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar. That is three in all nine leaders over us in Nigeria.

Compared to the Southern part, the South East has produced Nnamdi Azikiwe and Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi. That is two in Number. The South West has produced Olusegun Obasanjo, Ernest Shonekan and Olusegun Obasanjo again. That is three. The South-South has just had the current leader in the person of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

He is completing the first term of his late boss, President Umaru Yar’Adua who has only one year to go in his first term of four years. Because of where President Goodluck Jonathan comes from, some persons even in his own political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are shouting fire and brimstone that he should not dare contest the 2011 presidential election because two terms of eight years which Umaru Yar’Adua is supposed to stay in the presidency still remains one term of four years for the North to go.

Therefore, there is no VACANCY for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the only president for one year completing the first term of the North is not yet qualified to contest for the presidency of Nigeria come 2011.. now how fair is it to brush aside a South-South Presidential candidate by the ruling political party?

With the heads like Ibrahim Babangida and Atiku Abubakar who want to make sure that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan does not rule Nigeria by their ambition, are they telling us that except them, no South-South person like the current ad hoc president is not qualified to rule Nigeria yet? If the northern ambitious leaders decide to make sure Dr. Goodluck Jonathan does not get the favour of PDP primaries, they would have been telling us that he is not a full Nigerian enough yet until 2015 or 2019 when they feel or think that they can leave the presidency for either the South-South or South-East.

As fellow Nigerians, the people of South-South want political leadership equity in Nigeria. Fifty years of our independence, Goodluck Jonathan is the first South-South person being made a president because his boss, Late President Umaru Yar’Adua died untimely in office. If he had not died, the South-South would not have had the hope of even producing an ad hoc president. The South-South would have had to wait till either 2015 or 2031.

If President Goodluck Jonathan is denied the presidency in 2011 because it is not yet the South-South’s turn to produce the presidency, until 2015 or 2019, then this section of the country would have been demeaned as insignificant or reduced to the status of slaves in this country.

We are interested in power balance or equation. Whether through coup d’etat or not, the South has been treated unfairly for too long when we check the list of the leaders we have had in this country since we gained independence in 1960 that is fifty years ago. Any denial of Goodluck Jonathan for the South-South, as president in 2011, it means we would have decimated the South-South’s Presidency till 2019 or 2027, that would be either sixty nine years or seventy seven years after independence. Unexpressly by the real political leaders of the imaginative one gargantuan north, ‘the people’ in this part of Nigeria believed they are BORN to RULE.

If this idea has being working for them, it is because they see themselves as a monolithic entity.

This is irrespective of their religious leaning or political divide. That is the reason why Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) is a very formidable non- partisan socio-politicaly organisation of the defunct Northern Protectorate and later Region. This geographical expression is composed of various non-related ethnic group as we have in the Southern Protectorate that could not stand as a single political entity called Southern Region.

This latter later dissolved into Western, Eastern and again Midwestern Region while the Northern protectorate refused to go the way of the south. It is this sustaining spirit that is their strength while the south chose to go the way of the confused tongued people that build the great tower of Babel but later abandoned the construction work. Those people that make up the southern protectorate have never pretended to see themselves as one, they never pretend to have a collective bargain but instead, they see themselves as clay and iron that can never mix together.

But the Northern protectorate, on the other hand, never pretended to be one single ethnic entity.

They recognised their differences but instead of letting it be their weakness, they fused together, down play their differences, and work together as a single unit with one bargaining voice which has made them become one great people. With their strength of unity, they can continue to claim that they are born to rule even over the weak South who is so because of their disunity and “over Sabi house wife’s attitude.’

And this is the undoing of the South. Thus, the North has one strong voice in Arewa consultative forum but the South has the ‘Ohanaeze Ndigbo’ for the Igbos of East, ‘Afenifere socio-cultural group’ for the Yoruba in the West. And most unfortunately , the Midwestern Region has no voice at all and likewise the other ethnic groups that do not belong to either the Igbo East nor the Yourba West.

They are as dumb as the Midwestern Region. Where Arewa, Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo stands, it is the Arewa voice that will be loudest while Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo will be shouting to be heard at the same time unfortunately, the non-Igbo or non Yoruba voice will be unknown, never to be reckoned with.

If not because of the militancy of some of the Youths in their midst, because of the oil wells in their land, Dr Goodluck Jonathan would not have been our president today at the demise of President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Because of the size of the North, they can always choose to have the best choice, than heave the others for the cacophony South and than the remnant for the non-Igbo and non-Yoruba. That is why the north has produced nine out of the fifteen leaders in Nigeria. In the militancy, that is the reason their coups had always succeeded and when the north says “no to the coup, it will fail.

The North has always had the fortune of power and can decide to give it to whoever she want, and if they say ‘No’, there is hardly anything anyone can do about it. They always strive for power. If you can find General Aguiyi Ironsi, ask him why he was killed over the coup d’etat he knew nothing about.

Also, when you come across Brigadier Ogundipe, why he was brushed or shoved aside for a junior Lt Colonel Yakubu Gowon after Ironsi was assassinated, in a military that respects hierarchy, you will get a little understanding of what I am saying. After General Murtala Mohammed got a good dose of what he gave to General Ironsi, leadership was forced on General Olusegun Obasanjo when it was not his will.

Over June 12 1993 presidential election result, you can find out who ensured that Professor Humphrey Nwosu did not complete announcing the result so that it could be annulled. If you find Brigadier David Mark you can ask him who slapped the National Electoral Commission Chairman, Humphrey Nwosu, to stop him from announcing M K O Abiola as the president-elect. Is that Brigadier David Mark a British or American citizen or from the north of Nigeria? General Ibrahim Babangida can I tell us better why Chief Ernest Shonekan who never contested any election was handed over presidential power of Nigeria instead of the man M K O Abiola who was purportedly ‘Michael Jordaning’ to the first position in the June 12 1993 presidential election sprint.

Who decided to make Chief Olusegun Obasanjo the executive president of Nigeria in 1999? Who caused him to be released from the prison for that office?Was it his kinsmen from Southwest of Nigeria or the divergent southern leaders or the leaders from the North? I know that the defunct Midwestern Region and other Southern non-Igbo, non-Yoruba have no leaders to decide on that matter.

Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential contest and failure in that election was a fait accompli or chestrated by his kinsmen in the North. He was allowed to contest and he failed so that it would be said that Nigeria has democratised and so the Yoke of pariah status would be lifted off our neck or broken. It was the interest of the North to have our immediate late President Umaru Yar’Adua succeeds the former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Thus Muhammadu Buhari or Atiku Abubakar did not emerge as Obasanjo’s successor.

It was the prerogative of the North that makes Nigeria live without a substantive president for six months until Late President Umaru Yar’Adua left the world stage as a very good president for about thirty months who never was able to lead Nigeria according to the beauty of his mind.

He was cheated by a protracted illness. His Vice President, now the current President, academic Dr Goodluck Jonathan was unofficially declared a persona non grata to see his president for six months. This too was the handiwork of some Northern faceless cabal. Dr Goodluck Jonathan became Acting and now the substantive president of Nigeria by divine providence. But the background to this reality dates back to 1998 incident that brought Olusegun Obasanjo out of prison to the presidency.

Without any sentiment, the north has always had the fortune to decide who becomes the president of Nigeria, especially in plotting coup d’etat. This section of the country has got the penchant for successful coup making. In the North, there is still the core North. This is where most presidents or Heads of State always come from.

Let us consider them; Abubakar Tafawa Balawa, Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari, Sani Abacha, Umaru Yar’Adua and Murtala Mohammed. Only this area alone have produced six leaders over us, the non-core North has produced Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar. That is three in all nine leaders over us in Nigeria.

Compared to the Southern part, the South East has produced Nnamdi Azikiwe and Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi. That is two in Number. The South West has produced Olusegun Obasanjo, Ernest Shonekan and Olusegun Obasanjo again. That is three. The South-South has just had the current leader in the person of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

He is completing the first term of his late boss, President Umaru Yar’Adua who has only one year to go in his first term of four years. Because of where President Goodluck Jonathan comes from, some persons even in his own political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are shouting fire and brimstone that he should not dare contest the 2011 presidential election because two terms of eight years which Umaru Yar’Adua is supposed to stay in the presidency still remains one term of four years for the North to go.

Therefore, there is no VACANCY for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the only president for one year completing the first term of the North is not yet qualified to contest for the presidency of Nigeria come 2011.. now how fair is it to brush aside a South-South Presidential candidate by the ruling political party?

With the heads like Ibrahim Babangida and Atiku Abubakar who want to make sure that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan does not rule Nigeria by their ambition, are they telling us that except them, no South-South person like the current ad hoc president is not qualified to rule Nigeria yet? If the northern ambitious leaders decide to make sure Dr. Goodluck Jonathan does not get the favour of PDP primaries, they would have been telling us that he is not a full Nigerian enough yet until 2015 or 2019 when they feel or think that they can leave the presidency for either the South-South or South-East.

As fellow Nigerians, the people of South-South want political leadership equity in Nigeria. Fifty years of our independence, Goodluck Jonathan is the first South-South person being made a president because his boss, Late President Umaru Yar’Adua died untimely in office. If he had not died, the South-South would not have had the hope of even producing an ad hoc president. The South-South would have had to wait till either 2015 or 2031.

If President Goodluck Jonathan is denied the presidency in 2011 because it is not yet the South-South’s turn to produce the presidency, until 2015 or 2019, then this section of the country would have been demeaned as insignificant or reduced to the status of slaves in this country.

We are interested in power balance or equation. Whether through coup d’etat or not, the South has been treated unfairly for too long when we check the list of the leaders we have had in this country since we gained independence in 1960 that is fifty years ago. Any denial of Goodluck Jonathan for the South-South, as president in 2011, it means we would have decimated the South-South’s Presidency till 2019 or 2027, that would be either sixty nine years or seventy seven years after independence.

Functional Igbo - Saving a Fading Language

By Ebenezer Edohasim, Daily Champion/All Africa

SOME years back, this writer, who is Igbo, visited a fellow Igbo family based in Lagos and was discussing in Igbo language with the head of the family.

Interestingly, the man's six-year old daughter called Nkonye, who was in primary two then, clung to her father, obviously listening to our discussion.

Suddenly, the little girl burst into laughter, rushed to her mother in the near by kitchen, and told her while still laughing that myself and her father were speaking French.

The father who felt embarrassed looked into my eyes in disappointment. I told him that if his six year old child could not identify her mother tongue, he and the wife are in real trouble.

Again, just some weeks ago at Ogudu, Lagos where we reside, my wife called a girl that hawks plantain because she wanted to buy. I asked the girl of her name and she said Ngozi, an obvious indication that she is Igbo by tribe.

Then I asked her in Igbo, Ngozi, Kedu obodo unu na ala Igbo? Meaning, Ngozi where is your town in Igbo land? She looked a bit embarrassed at my question, lifted her hands to partially cover her face apparently in shame and answered me in English Language; "I don't understand Igbo Language".

Honestly, I was disappointed. And I then asked her in English how old she was and she said 18 years. I enquired how often she travels to her home town and she said that she visited her Uturu town in Abia State only once, and that was when she was still a toddler and she cannot on her own travel home.

Cultural alienation you may say, but the reality is that there are so many Nkonyes and Ngozis born to Igbo parents scattered all over the world outside Igbo land, and this is a very disturbing signal that if Igbo Language is not revived it risks extinction in some years ahead.

However, despite lack of interest and carefree attitude of some Igbo parents to teach their children born outside Igbo land how to speak their mother tongue, one woman who took the bull by the horns to ensure her children and grand children who were already losing cultural touch with their roots, due to their inability to speak their mother tongue is Odoziaku Comfort Nwabuogo Ubosi.

She wrote a practical guide, Functional Igbo, which is indeed beginners guide to Igbo Language.

Odozoaku Ubosi, who is aging gracefully as she still looks elegant, very fresh and gorgeous at 71, told this writer that she was motivated to write the book because of the near heart break she almost suffered when she discovered that her children and grand children were not all that interested in speaking their mother tongue.

Equally, she was inspired to document the 98 page colourful book at a "time when there is suddenly an intense awareness that the Igbo language has actually gone out of fashion and the English Language has assumed the status symbol height at all levels within the Igbo system".

Again, her quest to persuade her children and grand children in particular to speak their mother tongue made her to start drawing sketches on functional Igbo which some people later encouraged her to put in book form to encourage learning of the language, not only by her own children but everybody interested in speaking the language.

That bold attempt culminated in the publishing of the book and its subsequent presentation to the public in Lagos last March. It was an occasion attended by prominent Igbos, with the five state governors in Igbo land ably represented.

A high percentage of the book deals with everyday situations and activities in the home, school or such other places. It begins with the basic Igbo alphabets commonly called abidii in Igbo parlance.

Other areas of interest are numerals, family relationships and greetings, simple instructions with relevant questions and answers, colours, some fruits, food and household items, and activities around the home.

The author also wrote on prepositions, words and opposites, with illustrations on parts of the body, few wearing apparels, cosmetics and personal hygiene. Others are animals and birds, means of transportation and traveling and finally types of buildings.

One thing the author handled very well was the use of photographs in illustrating all aspects of teachings in the book, which makes it a delight to readers, most especially children who learn faster with pictorials and diagrams.

The professional graphic touch added to aesthetics of the publication which is capable of compelling the reader to flip from page to page in order to appreciate various beautiful designs on the pages.

Equally, the quality of the bond paper used in the printing of the work is another plus as it puts this publication in a position where it could stand out in any local or international book competition in terms of paper and production quality.

The glossy bond paper of high grammage registered the colours very well, making it sharp and inviting to the eyes. On quality of production, it is a book anybody who sees it must like to open the pages to peruse the content.

There is a complimentary DVD attached to each book which gives the buyer the option of sitting comfortably to watch the electronic copy. It is available in some bookshops and supermarkets both at home and abroad, and at affordable price.

Irrespective of the accolades this vital book is receiving among Igbo and non Igbo, it major minus is that the author did not write most parts of the book in the standard or central Igbo, normally used in writing Igbo texts.

For instance, she used afele instead of efere, anala for anara, mvo instead of mbo, oloma for oroma, okwulu instead of okwuru. In numerical, she used ili na ofu for iri na otu and ili na ito instead of iri na ato among others.

However, she admitted that she wrote in her native Nibo, partly Onitsha and Awka dialects because she initially intended to address the short comings of her children and grand children in speaking the language, therefore, "they may be confused if it is in any other dialect, because that is not what they hear grandma speak"

She further attested that "Functional Igbo is written to motivate and encourage both children and parents to dialogue in the child's mother tongue. Therefore this simple book from the heart of a grandma is not expected to generate any academic heat or controversy as to Igbo grammar or correctness.

"I did not study the language at any examination level, so I take full responsibility for any lapses contained therein."

The author also affirmed that "if this book can draw attention of parents and grandparents to the danger of not passing down to their children and grandchildren, the language (Igbo) or any other mother tongue, for that matter, it would have achieved its purpose".

For Professor Chinyere Ohiri-Anicha of the University of Lagos, who wrote the book's foreword,

"Since, the writer had stated that the major objective of the book was to provide opportunity to be able to communicate with grand children, I had no problem with her choice of dialect.

"My main contribution is to ensure the manuscript conform as much as possible, to Igbo orthography"

Odoziaku Ubosi told this writer that the standard or central Igbo version of Functional Igbo is ready and shall in a short time be in the market for those interested in reading that edition.

She equally disclosed that there is a future plan to translate the book into other languages in Nigeria, especially Yoruba and Hausa.

The author regretted the apathy associated with the study of vernacular in Nigerian schools as those who study them were looked down upon by their peers, and therefore, called on federal and state government to package incentives to students who study vernacular to save our native languages from extinction.

"Governments could employ vernacular teaches on special salary scale and send them to various states, where they shall be visiting the schools in turn to teach native languages.

"Besides, they should make it compulsory for any secondary school student to pass his mother tongue and one other Nigerian language at the senior secondary school certificate level instead of the emphasis in acquiring English which is foreign".

She praised Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State for taking steps to revive Igbo language in the state and the upgrading of Ahiajoku Lecture series to an institute by Imo State Governor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, and thereby promoting Igbo culture.

The author equally appealed to all Igbo governors to work towards upholding and preserving viable Igbo customs and traditions.

Her appreciation goes to Ndigbo Lagos and Otu Ide Ndi Igbo which offered invaluable moral and financial support to make the publication of the book a dream come true.

Odoziaku Ubosi, an educationist, holds BA (Hons) in History, M.ED in Guidance and Counseling and taught in many schools across the country before retiring in 1991 from the Lagos State Schools of Administration as a director.

Arochukwu twins before Mary Slessor

By Onukwube Ofoelue/Sun News Publishing


In the past and present, Arochukwu is a town synonymous with civilization, prosperity and valour. In the Igbo heartland where it is located ,the town prospered by ruling the market of the entire Igboland .The influence of the place stretched to the present Niger-Delta and Southern Cameroon.

But Arochukwu was also identified with pain and sorrow- the pain of families who were swindled and sold into slavery through Arochukwu merchants.The town inflicted itself with the burden and superstition that twins were evil, and must never be allowed to live. This gospel of doom was preached among the people that interacted with Igbos- Niger Delta and Cameroons . Like the Aros, most of their neighbours believed that Chukwu-Ibinukpabi, the supreme God abhorred twins.

With this erroneous assumption, twin babies were seen as abomination and even killed.
Parents who stubbornly held to their twins were reduced to worthless outcasts and subsequently sent into exile, if they refused to get rid of them. The society and their immediate family ostracized them.
From the moment of the abhorrent birth,the unlucky parents of twins were usually given a wide berth by friends and relations . The normal celebration of the arrival of new babies were usually low-key, mournful and muffled when twins were born.

To the people then, twin birth was a mystery: how can a human being give birth to more than one baby ? As they conjectured, only lower animals like dogs, goats, cats and chickens have multiple births. And so, the mothers of twins were an aberration. They were treated as cursed, debased beings. However, with the coming of Mary Slessor, the killing of twins was stopped. But did that really stop the rejection of twins? No.

A young man, Elisha Nwangwu, a native of Arochukwu told Sunday Sun that as a twin living in Arochukwu about 15 years ago, he and his family, which included his twin brother Elijah suffered discrimination among their people.

Ostracized
Elisha and Elijah Nwangwu are twin brothers. They had never gone to their hometown, Arochukwu before. At 15, almost adults, they were to visit their ancestral home for the first time. They were excited. They could hardly wait to get there and meet the enthusiastic relatives who would welcome them home. Both wondered what these relatives would look like, who they were and how they were going to receive them.

On December 21 1992, their eldest brother, Okooro had employed the services of a chartered bus which took them all the way along with their mother and siblings. But little did they expect the hostility they met right in the ancestral home they had hoped and dreamt about all their lives.

The family was shocked at the way they were snubbed by almost everyone, and the feigned smiles and salutations they received. Elisha instantly wished they had not come. Unlike the people of Agbani, Enugu State where they had resided, who were very warm and friendly, the Aro people, their own people were the most unfriendly people they had ever met. But that was just the beginning.

They were later to learn that a family like theirs was regarded with suspicion and were rejected, just because of the twins. Although not reduced to the status of ohus, people whose ancestors were slaves, a man whose wife has given birth to twins was still regarded as an outcast, and the whole family blacklisted. The stigma persisted. The only difference was that they were not killed but superstition against them was still strong that they were harbingers of evil and bad luck.

‘How can anybody bear more than one child? Are they animals?’, many asked. Although Elisha’s family of the amadis- freeborns, the stigma was still there. “Nobody said anything against you, but it was written on their faces, and spelt out in their behaviour towards you. You were a reject, no matter what you did. And so was your whole family”, Elisha told Sunday Sun.

“They made life miserable for us”, Elisha recalled. He went on to narrate the ordeals his family passed through just because of his twin brother and himself. Elisha and his brother Elijah had learnt in school that it was in his hometown that the famous Mary Slessor fought against the practice and abolished the killing of twins. Old as it was, they had grown up to believe that the tradition died in the distant past along with all of its trappings.

“We went through the pains of stigmatism. Luckily for us, we were not interested in certain traditional practices , we would have been prevented from participating. But the people, especially the men avoided us. They would not answer our greetings, or answered with a grunt. They would not accept anything from our hands, and would not give us anything. In short, the hatred was too glaring. It was believed that twins were signs of bad luck and whoever accepted them accepted evil luck.”

Mary Slessor weeps
It was during those days that their mother had told them the pathetic story of their aunt, an incident that happened in the 60s. Auntie Roseline had gotten married as a teenager to a man from Arochukwu, their hometown. During her first conception, she had given birth to twin boys. She never saw those boys as they were stolen away from her in the dead of the night while she was still weak from labour and probably murdered. As soon as her family heard, they had come forward and taken her away from the marriage.

Unfortunately, she never was able to conceive again after that time. “Today, she is old and childless. The ones God had given her were murdered by a man who is supposed to protect her under the name of that cursed tradition”, Elijah added bitterly.

“My own mother must have had a similar experience”, Elisha observed. “She used to tell us that her first birth was to twins, but that they died, then they had left Arochukwu and refused to return. What she never said was how they died. Looking back, I am beginning to think they were probably killed, and that probably is why my father had kept away from Arochukwu all his life”.

Superstition and evil practices
First, they had been told that there was no accommodation for them in the family house and were forced to go outside and rent a place. But they noticed that most of the adult males avoided them, the twins particularly. Where their siblings were tolerated, they were shunned. Elisha recalled an incident in which they had gone on the yearly fishing expedition with some men. They were divided into groups but were rejected by the leader of the group they were to belong, a man involved heavily in traditional fetish practices.

There was a law barring any father of twins from participating in certain ceremonies and some of their rights were taken away from them at the event of the birth of twins into the family. In order to avoid being excluded, some narrow-minded men drove their wives away from matrimony. It was said that some even went as far as secretly eliminating one of the kids and claiming that they had given birth to a single child.

A twist of fate
A particular man, Okorocha Chime had had a very strong hatred for the duo, Elisha and Elijah, probably because he held a very exalted position in the village. So, he kept the boys at bay even though they were next-door neighbours. His wife on the other hand, loved the boys and in the event of one year, she too was visited by the god of twins and gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Despite his position in the village, Okorocha Chime was subsequently banned from participating in those benefits and he went home to lick his wounds. He began to accept the kids and before long, became very fond of the boys.

Reacting to the story, Mazi Rambo Ofo, a Paris-based businessman of Aro extraction who is also a twin maintained that he also passed through the same experience in his days in Arochukwu. He explained that twins could not go to Chukwu, the supreme deity whose oracle is in Arochukwu, and could not appear at the ulo-nta ceremony, the stool of the ancient Aro kindred where only true sons of Aro are can attend. “They were regarded as work of the devil as God created only one man and one woman at a time.

So, it is regarded as an anomaly and work of the devil. Their presence in any traditional setting rendered any dibia blind and every invocation null. They could not be accepted as leaders.” He said that twins were killed in the past and thrown into the evil forest so that their spirits would not reincarnate back to the village. “But things had changed. They only discriminated against us. My twin brother and I were treated as sub -humans.”

When contacted, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, a prominent son of Arochukwu said that such practices, both the killing and the discrimination were of the past. In his words, “Such discrimination against twins does no more exist any more in Arochukwu. They have been abolished. If they exist at all -in fact, they only exist in people’s imagination.

On his part, the secretary-general of Nzuko Arochukwu (Worldwide), Mazi Ani Onwumere told Sunday Sun that twins in the place were truly stigmatized in the past. He , however added that to be fully re-admitted in the community, the parents of twins and their twins usually had to undergo certain rites of cleansing to be accepted back into the fold. Once those rites were performed, they were as good as anybody. They can participate in whatever is going on in the community and can even go for the annual ulo-nta meeting. He cited the case of his uncle, Mazi Joseph Okereke Ukwerenyi, the eze-ogo designate of Amangwu Village, Arochukwu.

“His twins are 14 years old this year but he is not denied any traditional benefits he is due. During this year’s Ikeji Festival in September, he will be crowned the eze-ogo. If there was still discrimination, he wouldn’t have been chosen. The eze-ogo is the highest office in the village. What he did was to pass through that traditional cleansing”.