I am not the only one who had thought the whole idea was crazy, even though I had overlooked it as a rhetorical garbage, hearing about it as a speculation and what the news outlets had gathered.
I am not the only one who felt the pain that a brother in a new line of attack wants his own brother permanently out of his face.
And I am not the only one who had seen the order from Theodore Ahamefula Orji’s administration in Abia State asking non-indigenes of the state to leave his government office jobs alone drawn from the deadly Boko Haram incidents Vanguard’s Pini Jason called ‘Tufiakwa,’ an outright abomination in Igboland.
I am not the only one who had thought the decision of a 21st Century persecution of a group of people profiled for some inexplicable events I’m yet to fathom, was bizarre and should be condemned in its entirety.
And, for sure, I am not the only one who is seeing the ridiculous measure as a tactic to change its subject, hijacking the peoples mandate to run a regime typical of banana republics.
And what would have amounted to such unimaginable action as a move beyond reasoning by Orji asking non-indigenes in his state to leave his civil service alone?
If this clueless ‘executive’ and his action is not an indication of madness and psychological problems, I don’t know what else is.
After giving a thought to Orji’s weird decision, I had hoped it was like another sensationalized story and, thus have this to say: One, I really hope Orji’s cabinet reverses its decision. Two, I hope the decision is not true and had been taken out of context through its legislative process before becoming law. Three, I hope it’s like one of the practical jokes picked up by the tabloids targeting its reading audience for some cheap shots. Four, if indeed it’s true that Abia State had a plan to sack her own kith and kin from a land that was once one entity and a land once a whole before the mean strategy of divide and rule by the colonization powers and military juntas, Igbo, then, should forget about its own national state. And five, if as it has become true and all the Igbo-related states are now bent, watch the forbidden decision unfold in Abia, and do nothing by way of mass movements - demonstrations, sanctions and other related measures to proclaim Abia a pariah state - Igbo should forget its national state, living as predicted and appears; a peoples disappearing cultural heritage and natural being, coupled with the landscape that identifies it as a national state.
That would mean Igbo is done with its nationhood, eventually. It would mean no such thing as Igbo. It would mean Igbo would be extinct as a people, evolving to a blend of other people, culture and languages. And it would mean what its culturally heritage rivals had haggled on, over time in terms of its exceptional culture and tradition, that Igbo never had a unique culture, was never distinct as had been thought, which evidently had become the simple truth.
It is pointblank in this regard that no one should come after me as in the past on my essays, reports and views which caused all sorts of outrage from related events over time, and the analysis following the thoughts I had penned into perspective; issues concerning Nd’Igbo and how to screw in the nuts and bolts needed for a permanently structured place, appropriately. As those thought-provoking papers were directed toward effective leadership which had been lacking, measuring the capability and the capacity of the seriousness in which organized people gets things done. Even though it came with reasonable and logical responses from a very few on the subject matter, many, beyond imagination, chipped in with their ideological views, unrelated and incoherent to the topic in question with quantities of angry mail that flooded my mail box. Some of the bunch were sociological anger by its expression. “Who is it you are writing for?” How much are they paying you for all these your write-ups?” “You have been sent to destroy my political career.” “When you collect, you write good and when you don’t collect, you criticize.” “What did Nd’Igbo do to you?” “I like the way you write but people are complaining that you only criticize Nd’Igbo,” read some of the angry mails and comments.
And with all that hate mails popped out due to the magic pen I had used to write about a peoples social ills, not too many are now raising hell to the line of profiling, bigotry and hatred instituted by the government of Abia State on a people it shares the same lineage. A people culturally and linguistically bonded. A people known to have shared the same ancestors. A people commonly bonded by way of its worship until the advent of the missionaries and the colonial mandates; and a people that have lived, prayed and worked together for onward objectivity.
Many are now tight-lipped for having nothing to say on a variety of reasons - not wanting to be disturbed - being preoccupied with personal obligations, got bills to pay, not the one to fix Igbo problems, none of “my” business and besides, “they should put their own acts together,” and things like that.
Many do not want it mentioned in their face, the in-your-face kind of attitude, for problems heavily accumulated and problems requiring little or nothing, best known to them. Gestured moves like, I don’t have a job and why should I be worried about something that is not going to fetch me a job or pay my bills. Who cares and why couldn’t those non-indigenes stay in their respective states of origin or relocate elsewhere no such laws of eviction exists? Why are all the brouhaha news when there are numerous overwhelming challenges facing them ahead? Why are they in such a bad shape, anyway, and why would all these nonsense stick out when the sitting governor was not legitimately elected in the first place?
Many are moving on, doing their own thing as it pleases them; for their property, life and wealth comes first before any social ills sort of, that will not contribute to their welfare.
Many gave a thought to Abia State’s newest proposition, writing and talking about it as a taboo and should not be allowed to be implemented in the said state; for it would ruin the foundations of Igbo cultural heritage.
And many, as obviously may have been the case, indicated the sanction did not target Igbo indigenes but non Igbo indigenes, and no matter what the decision may have seemed to be, that it included Nd’Igbo on its eviction notice to proclaim the action was not bias, and that realistically, no Igbo had been affected or evicted from the state’s franchise following the strange decision.
Nevertheless, when a government respects the rule of law, upholding democracy its legislative body makes, it should be known that a legislative process in any democratic order involves representations from districts/zones in which proposals are tabled or set in motion for legislation, and when passed on the terms of required figures favoring the proposition which then becomes law, and despite the negating party which may be short of gridlock or fails to garner enough counts to kill such proposition, the yays takes it away, thus making its sponsored motion law, as in all democracies, unless otherwise.
So, as it happened, Abia State in what it had claimed as events that led to evict non indigenes from its governmental offices, the Boko Haram terrorists, it saw threatened the state from its relative bombings elsewhere which ignited the deal of persecution and justifying it with action “timely taken” by Governor Orji.
Persecution had been a classic case of human endeavor. But persecuting a cousin is way out of fashion. I would have been less worried if the Abia State government had been concerned on the mounting pressing problems in the state - widespread scandals of kidnapping, rape, assassinations, civil unrests resulting from related socio-economic problems as part of unending tragedy in the state, rather than its new measure, taking its woes on a people of its kind, moving to where they find life sustainable and comfortable.
In analogy to persecuting people on reasons of faith, language, religion, culture, economics and what have you - the Spanish Inquisition; Adolf Hitler’s persecution of Jews and Gypsies in Europe; and persecutions in related African countries, draws Abia’s “non-indigenes must go” into perspective with a whole lot of questioning, though.
“If we had some sense of shame, I mean even a little, some people called traditional rulers in the state should know they have no business in this matter, and it is totally out of place for them to log unto this dirty side of politicking to champion a cause,” writes Ikenna Emewu (Daily Sun). “So base and inane as this discriminatory policy of a state against its own blood. If indeed, this list of traditional rulers – about 10 of them and some others in the list is real, I really sympathize with the communities they rule.”
The traditional rulers had been something else but total blame should be irrelevant when a cast of administrative personnel lumped together would endorse an arbitrary measure which makes it scary. The traditional rulers, to be precise, are the architects of destruction in Igboland, in every aspect of its civil liberties, even though the enlightened ones among them sit idly and watch these ridiculous measures unfold. What unfolded in Abia State should not be of a “stunning gig “ based on how Ndigbo operates, remarkably with the traditional rulers who have no business in a just, representative and accountability government but the desire to put in monkey wrench to cause havoc in every of its dealings, adding insult to dishonor. And on the claim that Imo was not nice to Nd’Abia on the breaking down and carving out of the state from a previously dissected Eastern Region to East Central State, to Imo State - Yakubu Gowon and Murtala Muhammad military juntas - a plot orchestrated to keep Igbo divided; which should be taken that Abia had declared its isolation from Igbo in its entirety and no longer care..
The point is, nobody seems to be paying attention as to where Orji’s executive order may lead to and when that decision had been to kick the rest of Nd’Igbo out from its civil service, that could also be making a whole lot of stuff clear for Nd’Igbo: that, say, for instance, an Arochukwu is being savagely axed or murdered in the most brutal way, and a fellow Igbo who stood by watch the horrific event take place must not be questioned or blamed in an act of feud across state lines among brothers, because Orji had fired the first shot in what would be a long battle of a brothers war. That when an ethnic slur is rained against an Ngwa at a market square, it would be fine to cheer on remarks of bigotry and hatred, because Orji started it all. That assuming a Bende man got into squabbles of civil unrest in the northern landscapes and about to be lynched for simply being Igbo while an Igbo at the scene could have intervened but didn’t on the grounds of an irrational executive order by Abia State government.
As the list goes, that an Abriba girl happens to be hijacked by a gang of cultist rapists and another Ihiala man was well positioned to have stopped the rapists and wouldn’t do it just to retaliate by way of personal vendetta, getting even as a result of the actions by Abia government against Nd’Igbo. That an Mbano trader could not meet a fellow colleague of Njaba descent on business related talks over pounded yam and ofe olugbo, bitter leaf soup, at an eatery around the block because the restaurateur hails from Ohafia.
Or as we may have discovered the tragic events of our time, that Nd’Igbo whose history has been of political impotence and victims of genocidal campaigns; and all of a sudden, the northern Islamic Jihadists and terrorists begins to sound positively bloodthirsty again, as in the Sharia Debacle of 2000, and had turned en masse against Igbo women, men, children and their properties in another cycle of wanton killings, and demolitions; and as in a new balkanization theory begun by the state of Abia which would justify the gruesome acts of the Islamic “Jihadic” nihilists and hoodlums on the basis “Igbos have no business to where they don’t belong” in supposedly a Nigerian national state having no restrictions on the free movements of peoples.
What message would Abia State be sending to the rest of the nation when it creates a platform encouraging the northern Islamic terrorists that its acts of terrorism is justified for the purpose of deliberately eliminating its own kind by walling.
Igbo, from generations, not even recorded, has been spoken within the borders in predawn Southern Nigerian Protectorate, a colonial schedule by fabrication - Umunede, Agbor, Asaba, Okpanam, Okitipupa, Igurita, Auchi, Lagos, Abeokuta, Omoku, Ikwerre, Ogoni, Bonny, Okirika, Nando, Ugep, Adadama, Degema, Ogoja, Iva Valley, Enugu, Enugu Ukwu, Ohaji, Egbema, Diobu, Yenagoa, Ahoada, Umuapu, Osina, Akokwa, Umuobom, Arondizuogu, Ikot Ekpene, Nsugbe, Otura, Nnewi, Ogidi, Abagana, Obodo Ukwu, Orlu, Amaigbo, Abba, Ore, Benin City, Warri, Abonema, Obigbo, Umuahia, Uzuakoli, Ogbunike and the list goes on and on - identified with its roots, accent, way of life and tradition.
During the Sovereign National Conferences debates upon the birth of the Fourth Republic when Olusegun Obasanjo who came close to death under Sani Abacha’s gulag, was handed the mantle to take over the affairs of state in a fraudulent election conducted by the Abdulsalami Abubakar’s military juntas, series of groups surfaced on ethnic and tribal lines suggesting the necessities of a sovereign national conference as a road map to a working document for the country. Obasanjo singlehandedly killed that motive.
By then, many groups erupted, waxing stronger save for an Igbo-related group, though the late Stanley Macebuh had earlier founded Post Express, first online national newsreel that provided all around the clock news-related analysis to the nation’s readers. It was during this time I was able to connect with my colleagues piecing together stuff for North Carolina-based Chuck Odili who emerged stronger with the Nigerian World website and the Naijanet discussion group which ignited a new political era for the Fourth Republic with political discourse at its best, before folks who joined lately and hijacked the forums to something else, seeking relevance.
It was also then, that every Nigerian sought the Aburi Accord, the first post-independence conference to resolve the nation’s internal strife and would be breached by the federal Nigerian vandals in its quest for genocide and occupation of Igboland.
Mobolaji Aluko, then Yoruba mouthpiece in its social network began corresponding with me with regards to the Aburi Accord.. Aluko lectured at Howard University, Washington, D.C., and had appeared at Nigerian World related political discourse in an attempt to sell his sovereign national conference campaigns to a young, radical audience that declined to buy his product. Aluko, irratical, angry, mischievous and tribally bent political salesman, left the forum, and in a nutshell, created his own website to promote his agenda and the Yoruba ingrained Awoist principles.
The irony during this period a “reborn” nation was seeking its path to a sound democratic order, Igbos were hovering, knowing not what to do until the Dallas Igbo elites, spearheaded by Acho Orabuchi, founded Igbo Forum, a platform that was way overdue and applauded gracefully. As it happened, it would not be long when the rascals would hijack the place ridiculing the place beyond imagination. Igbo Forum and its sister discussion groups never would be the same again, henceforth.
Sadly, as it developed, Igbo happened to have fallen into a country widely known for its philandering politicians reason why nothing works in its endeavor to get things straight - a brutal police and military force, an Islamic “Jihad” terrorists, a murderous gang of militants, a failed state, collapsed culture and corrupt leaders - virtually in everything that is bad, including the churches all across the land purportedly to have followed the Gospels accordingly, but deviated, misinterpreting the Biblical principles, taking the whole concept to a whole new heights and blown out of proportion. And in some of the bizarre cases, they hold their mouth while the congregational leads are engaged taking advantage of their victims, the gullible and vulnerable ones who had been left with no choices, and who are eventually castigated for attempt to destroying God’s House of Worship by seducing and charming these congregational leaders, offering them what they couldn’t refuse. Such has been the dilemma of these congregational worship centers.
Moreover, as these atrocities and moral outrages are been unveiled, taking other parts of the world, for example, the social media have had a part in changing all that - in their leaderships like in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and now all around the world with Occupy Wall Street, demonstrations, denouncing corporate greed; with an impact already felt and a big ups for digital social media - Facebook, Twitter and other networks.
Are Nd’Igbo using these social media networks effectively?
The answer would be an “absolutely not!” In June of 2010, twenty-eight-year-old Khaled Said from Alexandria, Egypt, was beaten badly by Egyptian Police while witness and several hand held cameras documented the assault. Despite police denial and cover ups by the Egyptian state, contrary evidence was posted by Egyptians on Facebook and Youtube. It was this disturbing development that that twenty-nine-year-old Wael Ghonim, Googles marketing big wig took his expertise to work. He created the Facebook group “We Are All Khalid Said,” for people to join in protest for the case. Ghonim was arrested returning to Egypy from Dubai where he started the movement that eventually ousted Hosni Mubarak. The Internet movement spread elsewhere in the Arab League becoming a phenomenon all around the globe.
Similarly, there has been cases of murder, extra judicial killings in all the Igbo states, corrupt politicians and scores of atrocities all over the land, and yet the only tool left could not be utilized to effect changes as seen in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, the ongoing strife in Syria, Yemen, and several parts of the globe, using the Internet as a force of change and “liberation.”
The arrival of the rascals at Igbo Forum when Igbo elites took things for granted - the inability to set standards with guidelines for decorum and topics to be posted and discussed relative to current trends on all Igbo-related political debates and engaging the politicians in a sense of belonging to their best in providing the structural needs of the people they had been elected to serve.
While Igbo Forum emerged, its counterparts had already concluded its phase of its charter and ready to present its recommendations to the much, looked forward to Sovereign National Conference. By this time, the forum had begun to fall apart for lack of keeping up its archives resulting from non payment of dues. As it happened, a series of Igbo forums begun to surface since the breakouts wanted to go on to the local level - remotely to their enclaves - Nd’Ngwa Forum, UmuAnambra Forum, ASA-USA Forum, Akah Forum, NdiIgbo Forum, Old Orlu Province, Waawa Forum, Njaba South, World Igbo Forum, Igbo Events, Igbo Worldnet Forum and the list goes on and on.
Quite disturbing, typical and indication of a people divided. And when one looks at all the nonsense coming out from Abia and the gang of Orji’s election fraudsters who stole the peoples mandate, one would be wondering if Abia’s really the part of Igboland and origin where prominent Igboist in the likes of Michael I. Okpara, Alvan Ikokwu, Francis Akanu Ibiam and numerous other good men came from.
Until now, Igbo seems not to be getting it, regardless of the ongoing pathetic thirteen years of the nation’s fledgling democracy in the Fourth Republic; that after thirteen years the experiment seems not to be working and an alternative should be sought; which brings to mind Aluko responding to an article I had written years ago giving references to the Holocaust, Apartheid, the Armenian Genocide, the Rwandan Genocide, the Russian Pogrom and Revolution, all all related human atrocities in which the anti-Igbo Pogrom bears the same resemblance, and using the Aburi Accord as an analogy the Nigerian vandals negated; thereby, a sovereign national conference of that nature would not work in a situation no formal apology came forth, effectively. In that regard, I cited sections vii, viii and ix of the Aburi Accord for reference to weigh in the irrelevance of a sovereign national conference. Sections vii, viii and ix of the Aburi Accord:
(vii) With a view to promoting mutual confidence, all decrees or provisions of decrees passed since January 15, 1966, which detracted from the previous powers and positions of the regional governments should be repealed. Law officers of the federation should meet in Benin on January 14, 1967, and list all the decrees or provisions of decrees concerned, so that they may be repealed not later than January 21, 1967, if possible.
(viii) A meeting of Permanent Secretaries of the Ministries of Finance of all the governments in the federation should be convened within two weeks to consider ways and means of resolving the serious problems posed by displaced persons all over the country.
(ix) Displaced civil servants and corporation staff (including daily-paid employees) should continue to be paid their full salaries until March 31, 1967, provided they have not secured alternative employment. The Military Governors of the East, West and Mid-West should send representatives (Police Commissioners) to meet and discuss the problems of recovery of property left behind by displaced persons.
Aluko had written extensively on a working document on behalf of the Yoruba elite, and had concluded it was only principles based on Awoism that would work in a Nigerian entrapment, and considering a modelled Western Nigerian framework, through the profound leadership of Obafemi Awolowo.
At this time in question, Igbo had already been divided on its cause of action in determining if a charter drawn from the various sections of its grouping, suggesting what and what not should be included in the charter. Orabuchi, Francis Elekwachi, Nkem Ekeopara’s “Nd’Igbo Generation 1960-!970, Ralph Uwazuruike’s Movemen for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Oguchi Nkwocha’s Biafraland even though he had consistently been against any decision on a Nigerian national state, Okenwa Nwosu, Iselle Obikpani, Ekwe Nche, Enyimba, M.O. Ene’s Kwenu, Cornelius Akubueze and the rest, took part in what had been an arduous task to bring forth a binding document by way of joint sessions with the related factions. Town after town, hamlet after hamlet, village after village, brothers after brothers and cousins both near and far after cousins of the same lineage, raised their voices and said thus far and no further; that Igbo must come up with a charter in the event of an endorsed sovereign national conference, submitting its own line of constitutional guidelines to be deliberated in what the opposing sides had called “conference of sovereign nationalists.”
I had connected with Elekwachi on a series of hiccups relating to the document he had presented on behalf of Pan-Igbo Constituent Assembly in Diaspora (PICAD), the committee he founded in collaboration with Obi Nwakanma, Cornelius Akubueze and others. Elekwachi had commended my insights when the confusion on who is an Igbo and the full definition and meaning of Igbo Proper, which fired up another cycle of debates and symposiums. I had already been exhausted with these debates that had been mind boggling, looking at how the Yoruba nation fair with its stanby, ready made document to keep a Nigerian national state intact and viable.
With respect to what was about to explode among Igbo elites and the ones so distrust of an Igbo charter on the bearings of the document prepared without appropriate and adequate consultations; I gave a deep thought researching and studying the facts and logic about a Igbo Charter to be submitted on behalf of PICAD and a very few other committees. In an exclusive article which was bordered on a profound Igbo national state, putting together analysis and all the stuff detrimental to a healthy Igbo nation, laying empahasis on Igbo as one infinite, indivisible people. Thus I wrote:
“the Igbos are a people whose origin is of one lineage, their genealogies can be traced back through many generations of forefathers to a common ancestor. This type of societal identification is not the same as a national or linguistic grouping. One can join a nation; one can learn a language; both are voluntary. But in blood heritage, it implies Igbos have an inherited customs and traditions which led to a particular order of social organizations. The Igbo of Nando has the same socio-cultural structure as the Igbo of Abakaliki, Ikwere, Obigbo, Nkwerre, Igurita, Okpanam, Ibuzo, Elele, Omoku, Orlu, Abriba, Waawa, Obowu, Nnewi, Idemili, Ihiala, Nsugbe, Amazano, Awkuzu, Nteje, Okigwe, Eziama Obiato, Onitsha and Abagana, Arochukwu, Ohafia, Amaigbo, Arondizuogu, Owerri, Mbaise, Umuohiagu, Oko, Diobu and any community where Igbos can be found. It is in this vast genealogical structure that provided a simple basis for alliances and inheritance. Lands and rights go to sons and brothers on the paternal side. Residential groupings, too, are familial. Villages, kindred and hamlets are made of men descended from a common paternal line women marry in, though many also are of the same paternal line linked by a lineage traceable back to a primal patrilineal ancestor.
So, too, is the traditional way of marriage as no dating occurs when a man expresses his interest in a woman, parents and relatives arrange marriages. As custom dictates, the groom to be has to go through series of interviews and other custom-related events such as paying dowry to the bride to be family before the marriage can be arranged and finalized.
By this order and method, and as we head to the conference table to write a charter for the Igbo nation, we must bear in mind the above particular order when our decisions and resolve begins to climax. We must also bear in mind Igbo nation is a nation state, and that Nigeria must not be included in her principles. In choosing this method, of not including Nigeria or any other entity in her preamble and the entire document, and by not mixing any political principle that varies with the ideals, customs and traditions of Nd'Igbo, treating at great length the needs or rights supposedly appropriate to Igbos everywhere.”
The article was followed by an overwhelming line of commentaries and rejoinders at a time the simmering sovereign national conference proposals had begun to wane, losing steam from a burnt out flame under Obasanjo’s watch and on the premise there was ultimately no need for sovereign national conference as long as a legislature was in existence, a legislature as in all democratic orders to rewrite the constitution through its representatives. The SNC died a natural death the way Obasanjo wanted it.
As the case turned out, the SNC fizzled out for many reasons. Obasanjo, a Yoruba should continue with running the affairs of state, and with the applications of SNC, Obasanjo’s presidency might be jeopardized on the grounds of presiding on a constitution fabricated by the military juntas, and not through normal constitutional conferences procedure. And also, the Yorubas, in respect, should grip firmly on the presidency on the course of its two-term llimitations, and for the first time in the nation’s history, a Yoruba president that could be costly if given away. Obasanjo knew very well the implications of a dim wit sovereign national conference. He alerted his kinsfolk to relax the pace of their desperation based on complications of the agitation on a so-called “better ways to govern ourselves.” Forthwith, Yoruba and Afenifere backed off.
Some weeks ago, I had gone to Town Hall Meeting in my district on related community projects that would create more jobs within the district and with the only community bank in the neigborhood --Union Bank -- and a long standing commitment to help small businesses grow in the community, hoping favorably on the takes of Councilman Bernard Parks (8th District), Councilman Herb Wesson Jr. (10th District), and Mark Ridley Thomas (Supervisor, 2nd District) in a series of ground breaking projects, all in the community.
While exiting the meeting, I bumped into Derek Brown, pastor, the House of Judah Christian Center, who had recognized me from when we met sometime ago in Los Angeles. Brown was classmate to former Kansas City Chiefs running back, Christian “Nigerian Nightmare” Okoye at Azusa Pacific University in Southern California. Brown, later would move on transfer to University of Oregon, Eugene, to finish up his college scholarship sports program. We spoke at length on gists surrounding his college years at Azusa with Okoye, and how Okoye talked him into Igbo dishes which he is now fond of, patronizing West African-related restaurants in Greater Los Angeles, from time to time. Brown had asked where to locate a Nigerian community in Greater Los Angele, and my answer to his question was a capital “Nada!”
Brown and I talked about a whole lot. His days of flirting with Igbo girls in college and all that cultural stuff; how his dates’ brothers and relatives were always around protecting them. He finally gave up as his routine dating became a trend, the frustrating run around, playing hard to get delay tactics. We also talked about politics and the failed African states. We talked about sports in general and how African athletes were shopped for and picked up at Azusa, for professional and international engagements; and one of the reasons Azusa still stands out for its excelling sports programs in small town San Gabriel Valley. Our hangout was a full historical discussion describing the magnitude of our bonding as one, infinite, indivisible people, never mind the past, that we should work in unity because “working together works!”
Igbo is one, infinite, indivisible people!
Ede chaa nam!
Showing posts with label Biafra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Biafra. Show all posts
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Police arrests MASSOB leader Uwazuruike, 250 others, in Enugu
FROM SAFER AFRICA GROUP
On 24 August, police arrested the leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, along with over 250 members of the organization, in Enugu, capital of Enugu State.
Arrest of MASSOB members
Uwazulike’s arrest followed the earlier arrest of about 200 MASSOB members by the police. The members were arrested as their buses drove into Enugu from different parts of Igboland for the 12th anniversary ceremony of an Igbo youth organization, the Igbo Youth Movement (IYM). The highpoint of the ceremony was to be the conferment of an honour on the ailing ex-Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, currently in a London hospital after suffering a stroke in December 2010.
The MASSOB youth were apprehended on the highways leading into Enugu, by soldiers who said they were instructed to stop them from entering the city. The soldiers first took the arrested youths to the headquarters of 82 Division, Nigerian Army, there in Enugu, before handing them over to the police.
Thereafter, the soldiers raided the venue of the ceremony, the Hotel Presidential, carrying away about 50 members they found outside, in five Hilux patrol jeeps. Apparently suspecting that some of the MASSOB youths may have gathered at Ojukwu’s residence in the former Government Reserved Area (GRA), the soldiers proceeded to search the house, but found none of the youths there.
Arrest of MASSOB leader Uwazuruike
Sources say after he learnt of the arrests, Uwazuruike went to the Police Commissioner’s office, accompanied by the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, and some other leaders. His mission was to ascertain why members of his movement were arrested and to possibly negotiate their release. However, while at the police headquarters, the MASSOB leader was himself arrested and detained around 7.00pm.
Police explanation of the arrests
The State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, had said the MASSOB members were arrested based on an intelligence report which said they were coming into Enugu to disrupt the peace. He said: “We arrested the MASSOB members who are up to 200, because we don’t know their mission to Enugu. We were informed that they were coming to cause havoc. We have commenced investigation to ascertain their true mission to the state”. Police authorities reportedly said Uwazurike was arrested and detained for “treasonable felony”.
Reactions from MASSOB members
MASSOB activists, however, view the arrests as a further incident of official repression of their group. One member said: “This arrest clearly demonstrates the double standards and injustice applied by Nigerian rulers. Niger Delta militants destroy heavy oil installations and they are rewarded with scholarships to study abroad. Boko Haram fighters bomb police headquarters and the government is begging them to come for peace talks. But MASSOB, which has chosen to be non-violent, is constantly harassed and brutalized by the police”.
At the ceremony which the MASSOB youth were going to attend, IYM honoured Ojukwu with an award as the Igbo Icon of All Time. His wife, Bianca, who came back from London for the ceremony, received the award on his behalf.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Igbo were not prepared for Biafra -- Metuh
By Ajibola Abayomi, Daily Independent
National Vice Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), South East, Olisa Metuh, believes the realisation of Igbo presidency is not far-fetched. In this interview with Acting News Editor , Saturday, Ajibola Abayomi, he speaks on issues affecting the growth of PDP in the region. He also speaks on other salient issues.
nite With the indifferences within the South East over the National Assembly (NASS) leadership zoning, do you not think this may igcrises within the PDP in the region soon?
The leadership of the party that cuts across the country, within the rank and file of our party, is talking; elected legislators too would have their say. At the end of the day, we would come up with something that is best for the country and the party. Controversial views are necessary for democratic development. Yes, some are not happy about what they assume about the NASS zoning order, but we would resolve whatever it is at the end of the day in the interest of our party and the country.
Are you not bothered that some Igbo leaders like former Governor of Anambra State, Emeka Ezeife, are beginning to call on the people to dump the PDP for another party in their own interest?
Chief Ezeife has never been a member of PDP. I am not saying he cannot comment on issues as a citizen of this country, but it is not for him to tell PDP what to do in its own affairs. When we have differences in the party, we have a channel of communication of reaching out to our leaders. We can table our matter before the President as a party man or the acting national chairman of the party. I am not bothered about people making comments to gain relevance; after all, the Igbo were led to Biafra. We were not prepared for it. Check for yourself, whether the reason for that was wrong or right. A discussion with leadership of the party is much more rewarding than to be crying wolf. Through that approach, we can negotiate or agree on several things.
Other concerned Igbo have criticised those who claimed to be the eye of the zone in PDP. Frankly, would you say you people have let down the South East zone in the party’s sharing formula?
I don’t want to make any categorical comment on this for now. Recently, I attended a meeting with South East governors and we are already making some moves that would be rewarding. I want to keep that to myself for now. So far, I am impressed with the way the governors are handling the matter, whether they negotiated before they gave their support to the President is a matter for discussion for another day.
Going by the way PDP in the South East lost some of the seats it won during the 2003 elections, don’t you think that the opposition was right to have accused your party of rigging?
In 2003, the PDP won virtually all seats in the South East including that of the governors. The trend did not really change during the last election. The only thing was that we lost the governorship election in Imo State. Again, if you recall, we didn’t win that in 2007. Right now we have over 85 per cent of the elective seats in our zone. What else do we want? We are on course; in Imo State, we are in the majority in the House of Assembly and in Anambra we also have a good showing, which in any case have now silenced those who think we have been rigging elections in that state. We are leading other parties with wide margin with the number of seats we have won so far.
Talking about the national chairman of PDP, why is that even among the governors, there were divisions as to whether the zone should have it?
The truth is that when the last national chairman of the party resigned the feeling was that another person should be nominated from the South East but for some reasons our leaders never bothered about that. Nature does abhor vacuum, the constitution of the party allows for the deputy chairman to become acting chairman and he has been performing creditably well. The party is moving and whenever the leaders decide to have a national convention another chairman would emerge. Apart from the leadership of the party, there are lots of things that are bothering our people in the South East that we must articulate in our own interest. For instance, the position of permanent secretary has been eluding our people. Apart from the ministry of transport and labour, the other sectors numbering about 13 have no Igbo representation. When you even rank these sectors in whatever category, our people are not in any of the leading ones. We shall make a strong case for that. Our people have been constantly denied opportunity to grow in the civil service. Other zones have six states and we have five states. People from other zones have been heading several ministries while our people have been denied clear opportunities. We would no longer close our eyes to that. In Abuja for instance, what is bad if an Igbo man becomes the minister of the Federal Capital Territory? Our people have contributed about 70 per cent of the total development in the city. We have the worst road network in the entire country when you take a sample of federal roads. Let them give us minister of works and see maybe that road would not be repaired. The Enugu-Onitsha road is the worst I have ever seen. Something must be done to correct all these. In terms of erosion, our people are seriously affected. What is bad to have minister of environment from the East?
Your agitations bother on the impact of the Federal Government in the South East and your party has been in power at the centre since 1999, is that not a failure on the part of the PDP not to have met the infrastructure demand and the call for equal representation at the federal cabinet?
It is not a failure. It is a neglect of the zone because these issues have been highlighted several times, even before I became the national vice chairman of PDP in the South East. I also championed this cause when I was a youth leader of PDP. All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and several Igbo groups have also agitated for these including former governors. So, we have been neglected.
So who is to be blamed for the neglect, is it Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) or which party?
I won’t say that PDP as a party has neglected the South East but I can say it over and over again that the South East has not been treated well. We are beyond the issue of House of Representatives Speaker. What we are asking for is beyond that. We are bothered about equal representation and equitable distribution of national wealth.
But you are not going to table the agitation of your people before the government of the ACN or Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). If you can’t get anything for your people under the PDP, where else do you want to go?
The PDP has never failed the people of the South East but has failed to have a role in governance. The truth is that for the past 12 years the party has never had a position on governance in the country. The past Federal Government failed to have a clear role in governance. All you hear was that the politicians should not have a role in governance. They were saying the parties should concern themselves with organising congresses and settling disputes. The new leadership of PDP is now canvassing for the participation of professionals and party men in governance by charting a new course for the nation.
To what extend have you engaged the governors of the South East in ensuring that the dividends of democracy are provided for the people to start with at home?
In 2008, good politicians and the governors of PDP in the South East ensured that I was elected as national vice chairman of PDP. I would ever remain grateful to them for that honour. The issue of my influence over them as national vice chairman has been minimised. In 2010, I assisted the President to win the party’s primaries as well as all the governors in the South East. We were there for them during the planning of their election campaigns and manifestoes and we mobilised resources for them, so whatever favour they have done for me, we have repaid them. We also assisted our candidates who vied for House of Assembly and National Assembly polls. So now is the time to start the business of working for our people in ensuring that the dividends of democracy get to them. The most important thing for us is to swing into action within the first two or three months because if we fail to plan with them within the first one year in office, we may never have control over them.
There have been controversies as to what the South East PDP leaders negotiated with President Goodluck Jonathan before leading the people to endorse him. What did you demand from the President on behalf of the people?
I was never involved. The governors and Ohanaeze Ndigbo were involved in that. When I challenged the governors that they have not been carrying the leadership of the party along all through the negotiation with the President they apologised and promised to involve everybody and since then we have resoled to work together on that.
How long do you think the Igbo can wait to actualise the dream of producing an elected president?
When the environment is right and when our people understand what leadership is all about. For now, our people do not understand what leadership is all about. God appoints and gives leaders to the people based on what they deserve. It would happen when our people stop infighting, work together and be united as we are doing right now. Then God would smile on us and say this is the time to produce the president of the country. We don’t want to produce a president that would be stopped by court injunction from performing his duty. Our people are becoming more matured and exposed about political happenings now. Maybe now God will continue to consider us but God was right in the past.
It is said in some quarters that the Igbo have settled for the post of vice president come 2015. How true is it?
We are focused now with what we shall get from the current dispensation under President Goodluck Jonathan. Our approach is that we don’t bother him too much such that he would be distracted from performing his duties as president. If you help to produce somebody and he gets elected as President, you should not bother him too much. If you elect a man in Jonathan’s posture, all you need is to trust him and allow him to work. If there are things to discuss or negotiate with him, then we will do that diligently by involving all those that matter.
National Vice Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), South East, Olisa Metuh, believes the realisation of Igbo presidency is not far-fetched. In this interview with Acting News Editor , Saturday, Ajibola Abayomi, he speaks on issues affecting the growth of PDP in the region. He also speaks on other salient issues.
nite With the indifferences within the South East over the National Assembly (NASS) leadership zoning, do you not think this may igcrises within the PDP in the region soon?
The leadership of the party that cuts across the country, within the rank and file of our party, is talking; elected legislators too would have their say. At the end of the day, we would come up with something that is best for the country and the party. Controversial views are necessary for democratic development. Yes, some are not happy about what they assume about the NASS zoning order, but we would resolve whatever it is at the end of the day in the interest of our party and the country.
Are you not bothered that some Igbo leaders like former Governor of Anambra State, Emeka Ezeife, are beginning to call on the people to dump the PDP for another party in their own interest?
Chief Ezeife has never been a member of PDP. I am not saying he cannot comment on issues as a citizen of this country, but it is not for him to tell PDP what to do in its own affairs. When we have differences in the party, we have a channel of communication of reaching out to our leaders. We can table our matter before the President as a party man or the acting national chairman of the party. I am not bothered about people making comments to gain relevance; after all, the Igbo were led to Biafra. We were not prepared for it. Check for yourself, whether the reason for that was wrong or right. A discussion with leadership of the party is much more rewarding than to be crying wolf. Through that approach, we can negotiate or agree on several things.
Other concerned Igbo have criticised those who claimed to be the eye of the zone in PDP. Frankly, would you say you people have let down the South East zone in the party’s sharing formula?
I don’t want to make any categorical comment on this for now. Recently, I attended a meeting with South East governors and we are already making some moves that would be rewarding. I want to keep that to myself for now. So far, I am impressed with the way the governors are handling the matter, whether they negotiated before they gave their support to the President is a matter for discussion for another day.
Going by the way PDP in the South East lost some of the seats it won during the 2003 elections, don’t you think that the opposition was right to have accused your party of rigging?
In 2003, the PDP won virtually all seats in the South East including that of the governors. The trend did not really change during the last election. The only thing was that we lost the governorship election in Imo State. Again, if you recall, we didn’t win that in 2007. Right now we have over 85 per cent of the elective seats in our zone. What else do we want? We are on course; in Imo State, we are in the majority in the House of Assembly and in Anambra we also have a good showing, which in any case have now silenced those who think we have been rigging elections in that state. We are leading other parties with wide margin with the number of seats we have won so far.
Talking about the national chairman of PDP, why is that even among the governors, there were divisions as to whether the zone should have it?
The truth is that when the last national chairman of the party resigned the feeling was that another person should be nominated from the South East but for some reasons our leaders never bothered about that. Nature does abhor vacuum, the constitution of the party allows for the deputy chairman to become acting chairman and he has been performing creditably well. The party is moving and whenever the leaders decide to have a national convention another chairman would emerge. Apart from the leadership of the party, there are lots of things that are bothering our people in the South East that we must articulate in our own interest. For instance, the position of permanent secretary has been eluding our people. Apart from the ministry of transport and labour, the other sectors numbering about 13 have no Igbo representation. When you even rank these sectors in whatever category, our people are not in any of the leading ones. We shall make a strong case for that. Our people have been constantly denied opportunity to grow in the civil service. Other zones have six states and we have five states. People from other zones have been heading several ministries while our people have been denied clear opportunities. We would no longer close our eyes to that. In Abuja for instance, what is bad if an Igbo man becomes the minister of the Federal Capital Territory? Our people have contributed about 70 per cent of the total development in the city. We have the worst road network in the entire country when you take a sample of federal roads. Let them give us minister of works and see maybe that road would not be repaired. The Enugu-Onitsha road is the worst I have ever seen. Something must be done to correct all these. In terms of erosion, our people are seriously affected. What is bad to have minister of environment from the East?
Your agitations bother on the impact of the Federal Government in the South East and your party has been in power at the centre since 1999, is that not a failure on the part of the PDP not to have met the infrastructure demand and the call for equal representation at the federal cabinet?
It is not a failure. It is a neglect of the zone because these issues have been highlighted several times, even before I became the national vice chairman of PDP in the South East. I also championed this cause when I was a youth leader of PDP. All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and several Igbo groups have also agitated for these including former governors. So, we have been neglected.
So who is to be blamed for the neglect, is it Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) or which party?
I won’t say that PDP as a party has neglected the South East but I can say it over and over again that the South East has not been treated well. We are beyond the issue of House of Representatives Speaker. What we are asking for is beyond that. We are bothered about equal representation and equitable distribution of national wealth.
But you are not going to table the agitation of your people before the government of the ACN or Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). If you can’t get anything for your people under the PDP, where else do you want to go?
The PDP has never failed the people of the South East but has failed to have a role in governance. The truth is that for the past 12 years the party has never had a position on governance in the country. The past Federal Government failed to have a clear role in governance. All you hear was that the politicians should not have a role in governance. They were saying the parties should concern themselves with organising congresses and settling disputes. The new leadership of PDP is now canvassing for the participation of professionals and party men in governance by charting a new course for the nation.
To what extend have you engaged the governors of the South East in ensuring that the dividends of democracy are provided for the people to start with at home?
In 2008, good politicians and the governors of PDP in the South East ensured that I was elected as national vice chairman of PDP. I would ever remain grateful to them for that honour. The issue of my influence over them as national vice chairman has been minimised. In 2010, I assisted the President to win the party’s primaries as well as all the governors in the South East. We were there for them during the planning of their election campaigns and manifestoes and we mobilised resources for them, so whatever favour they have done for me, we have repaid them. We also assisted our candidates who vied for House of Assembly and National Assembly polls. So now is the time to start the business of working for our people in ensuring that the dividends of democracy get to them. The most important thing for us is to swing into action within the first two or three months because if we fail to plan with them within the first one year in office, we may never have control over them.
There have been controversies as to what the South East PDP leaders negotiated with President Goodluck Jonathan before leading the people to endorse him. What did you demand from the President on behalf of the people?
I was never involved. The governors and Ohanaeze Ndigbo were involved in that. When I challenged the governors that they have not been carrying the leadership of the party along all through the negotiation with the President they apologised and promised to involve everybody and since then we have resoled to work together on that.
How long do you think the Igbo can wait to actualise the dream of producing an elected president?
When the environment is right and when our people understand what leadership is all about. For now, our people do not understand what leadership is all about. God appoints and gives leaders to the people based on what they deserve. It would happen when our people stop infighting, work together and be united as we are doing right now. Then God would smile on us and say this is the time to produce the president of the country. We don’t want to produce a president that would be stopped by court injunction from performing his duty. Our people are becoming more matured and exposed about political happenings now. Maybe now God will continue to consider us but God was right in the past.
It is said in some quarters that the Igbo have settled for the post of vice president come 2015. How true is it?
We are focused now with what we shall get from the current dispensation under President Goodluck Jonathan. Our approach is that we don’t bother him too much such that he would be distracted from performing his duties as president. If you help to produce somebody and he gets elected as President, you should not bother him too much. If you elect a man in Jonathan’s posture, all you need is to trust him and allow him to work. If there are things to discuss or negotiate with him, then we will do that diligently by involving all those that matter.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
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."
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."
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Political suicide: Anioma people cannot deny being Igbo. We will be irrelevant politically if we do
Peter Agba Kalu/The Sun Publishing
There is an atmosphere of peace written all over the way to Ibusa that will tempt any writer to toy with the idea of spending few weeks in the town in order to write a book. The billboard of Fred Ajuda’s late mother welcomes you to the town as you begin to wonder where on earth is this once upon a time news making socialite shortly after that you will be Welcome to the world of Obi Modestus Emeka Nwaka, a Prince of Ibusa and President Ohaneze Ndigbo, Delta State, also executive member Anioma State Movement. He spoke to Peter Agba Kalu
Sir, recently, Chief Mike Okwechime, the President National President of Izu Anioma told a local publication and I quote; “We may speak a dialect of Igbo but we are not culturally and socially Igbos by Ohaneze’s definition’’. What do you have to say?
This is nothing but falsehood and a damaging betrayal of our Igbo brothers from South East who found our son His Excellency Amb. Raph Uwechue worthy to head the very Ohaneze which he tried to ridicule.That will tell you that what Chief (Col.) Mike Nduka Okwuechime (Rtd) said is absolute fallacy of what Ohaneze stands for. I intentionally pronounced his names in full in order to show you that he is totally and entirely an Igbo. It is a pity that Okwuechime and his likes are allowing themselves to be used to subvert the Ohaneze and what the Igbo nation stands for in all ramifications
This unfortunate behavior is unexpected of a man of his age and caliber. For us to deny our Igboness is to stab our brothers across the river on the back, knowing fully well that they had to endure a 30months of near hellish suffering as a result of the revolutionary tendency of one of our own, Col. Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. I am not trying to bring back the sad historical moment or playing on emotion to score a cheap political point. But, I think it’s wise and necessary to reflect on what transpired before, during and after the Nigerian Civil War, in order to disclose the unity of purpose of Igbo people worldwide.
Sir, don’t you think singling out Okwuechime will be lying to one self, a critical look at the issues at hand will tell you that not a few people share his opinion?
Our Igbo origin has never been in doubt before and after Civil War. Anioma people were known as Western Igbos before the Amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914. And in 1939, the Obi of Agbor, Obi of Idumuje-Ugboko and the Obi of Aboh, for themselves and the entire Western Igbo people, petitioned the Colonial Administration for carving out the Western Igbos from their Kits and Kins East of the Niger. Consequently, in 1956, Western Igbo leaders organized the AMA1 conferences where it was resolved that the answer to the political problems of the Western Igbos was to create a West Niger Igbo State with the Headquarters at ALIDINMA. The agitation for the creation of the West Niger Igbo State assumed the name ANIOMA after the civil war.
Have you always been your brothers-keeper or is this a sudden self-centered desperation in order to gain the support of the South Easterners in your pursuit of Anioma State creation?
I think with this, your extreme question that boarders on self assessment, it is pertinent at this point to look back and critically outline the roles of the Delta Igbo’s during the most critical period in the life and history of our brothers across the Niger.
A significant officers and men of Midwestern origin-Delta-Igbos fought on the side of the Biafran Army. Col. Mike Ndukwe Okweuechime, to start with was the Chief of Linguistics, Defence headquarters, Biafran Army till the end of the civil war on January 12, 1970. Navy Commander Frank Anukwu from Ika was in charge of Biafran Navy till the end of the war. Brigadier Nwawo from Aniocha North was General Officer who commanded 4 Command (Special) Division of Biafran Army. Col. Joe Achuzie from Oshimili South was General Officer Commanding (GOC) 16 division.
Late Col. B.S.A. Nwajei from Oshimili North was at a time, the Commander 14 division. Col. Ochei from Oshimili South was Commandant of School of Infantry Biafran Army. Col. Morah and Col. Henry Igboba from Aniocha North and Oshimili North, respectively fought gallantly for the survicval of Igbo people during the war. Late Major Albert Okonkwo from Oshimili North was the Administrator of the defunct Republic of Biafra Mr. George Nwanze from Oshimili North was the secretary to Odumegwu Ojukwu, Head of State defunct Republic of Biafra, to mention but a few. It is important to mention that the above top military Officers and highly respected men of substance from the then Midwestern region, did not fight as mercenaries. I want to state that as a matter of historical fact, I too fought gallantly on the side of Biafra. In fact, I came back from my studies in oversea and was confronted with the war, as Igbo people were been slaughtered all across the North, we had to ran from Jos to Ibusa where I joined Force with the Biafran Army.
Most importantly, it should not be forgotten that late Chukwuma Nzeogwu of Okpanam in Oshimili North died at Oboleke fighting on the side of Biafran Army. It is paramount to mention that late Col. Okonweze from Asaba was killed at Abeokuta during the counter Coup of July 29, 1966. Late Col. Henry Igboba from Ibusa suffered the same fate in Benin City in 1967. Late Mr. Ogwude from Ogwashiuku, a Parmanent Secretary was killed in Benin City the same 1967. The Benin City, Sapele Warri, Isheagu, Ogwashiuku and Ogbeke-Asaba massacres, to mention but a few, were reprisals against Ndigbo on both sides of the Niger Ndigbo east and west of the Niger shared a common fate during the Civil War as a direct consequence of the January 1966 Military Coup which was purportedly described as Igbo Coup.
Don’t you think Igbo delta People not just those across the Niger, but those in River State etc have not been receiving their own share of respect and acceptance that prompted Okwuechime to voice out his frustration?
The truth is that Ohaneze Ndigbo and the World Igbo Assembly (IWA) has created solid sense of belonging everywhere Igbo people reside. To buttress this fact, the brotherly relationship between Igbo South East and Anioma people is based on mutual love and respect manifesting in the election of Late Ogbueshi Dr. J.B. Azinge of Asaba as Deputy president General of Ohaneze Ndigbo before the tenure of Col. Joe Achuzia as Secretary General. The incumbent President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo is his Excellency Ambassador Raph Uwaechue of Ogwashi-Uka in Aniocha South of Delta State.
As it stands now what is the most important or if I may ask critical support the delta Igbo people need from their brothers across the Niger?
Very good! Very good question. I wanted to make the appeal even if you did not come up with the question. We want our brothers to see reason why they should come together to support Anioma State as the Sixth State to be carved out for the Igbo nation. Justice equity and fair-play demands this, the reason being in a memorandum signed by Chief Sam O. Mbakwe, Chief C.C. Onoh, Dr. Okigbo, Chief S.G. Ikoku to mention among others, that was forwarded to the then President and Commander-in-Chief, President Ibrahim Babangida and to all members of Armed forces Ruling Council, as was published (bring out document to quote date and paper) on Daily Times of Wednesday, April 17, 1991, on page 17. These great Igbo leaders after many years of Deliberation and consultation all across Igbo land jointly requested for the creation of Enugu or Wawa state from Amambra, Abia out of the old Imo and Anioma from old Bendel State.
It is on record that Enugu and Abia has sealed through, so as you can see justice equity and fair-play demands that the next state to be carved out for ndigbo should be Anioma State.
What is your opinion on Col. Gaddafi recent call for the division of Nigeria along religious lines?
Well, some one said he was mad and I asked, the man who wakes up every day and use dagger to butcher his brother, pregnant women and the one who suggest since you can not be your brothers’ keeper why not go your separate ways; who among the two is mad?
Your opinion on Igbo leaders starting from Ekwueme?
Ekwueme is a great man, but he is not using his position for the interest of Ndigbo, he is more or less playing politics with it.
IWUANYANWU?
Iwuanyanwu is a politician who is neither here or there
OJUKWU?
One of the greatest Igbo Leaders ever.
ORJI UZOR KALU?
Courageous young man, the type of leader the Igbos people need today; through out his tenure as governor he was bold and courageous like Okpara out of his love for his people. They want to make him look small, may be because of his age. But with time, Igbos will realize that he is a great lover of the Igbo Man.
RAPH UWEUECHE?
He has sacrificed a lot for the interest of Igbo man. His contributions went a long way to help the Igbo man during the war. He is committed to the well being of the Igbo man.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Prof Soyinka..Only a blighted Nation Neglects Its Brightest…
Prof. Wole Soyinka at a press briefing in Lagos on the Niger Delta crisis. Photo: Sylva Eleanya.By Emma Okocha, Vanguard
”A dying man needs to die, as a sleeping man needs to sleep , and there comes a time when it is wrong , as well as useless to resist.” – Stewart Alsop; Stay of Execution.
”Even in totalitarian states, the time comes when past errors are admitted. In Nigeria , we fail to establish a climate of inquiry.When power is placed in the service of vicious reaction a language must be called into being which does its best to appropriate such obscenity of power and fling its excesses back in its face.
The cold reality of power is, of course, that it has to be endured. Even when it is culpable and seen to be so, its effective reality is that it cannot be escaped for a duration, be this regulated by constitutional agreements, or subject to abrupt termination by a contending interest.
All that is left then to the populace over which it is made manifest, is an attitude towards it, outwardly expressed or internalized. It is this, which constitutes the accessible arena of public activity – acknowledged to be also of the mind as of public expression – media criticism, street demonstrations civil disobedience etc….Books and all forms of writing have always been objects of terror to those who seek to suppress truth.”
‘The level of contempt for civilian life has finally reached its nadir, more armor is seen patrolling the townships and the villages today than any during the civil war. I believe, however, that the will of our people cannot be broken.
The current phase of despondency is understandable; one does not see the the tentative foundations of one’s nation smashed repeatedly by juggernauts out of control without an acute sense of futility. Yet the alternative, to abandon one’s goal is such a negation of existence that one can only view it as worse than physical annihilation. Our people have just undergone a savaging , contemptuously inflicted upon them …..”
Nobel Laurette Wole Soyinka in his Preface, The Man Died, October 1983
”It is only a blighted nation that neglects its brightest….these people, I’m talking about are not produced in hundreds.”
1975 Coup Destroyed Nigeria, Chief P. C . Asiodu, to Willy Eya, the Sunday Sun, Jan.10, 2010
Norman Cantor and Richard Scneider in their classic, How To Study History, defines history as a study of what men have done and said and thought in the past.
Progressively, they went on to describe History as a biography, that is, a work of the creative imagination in which the author attempts to recreate the life and thoughts of particular men who actually lived at a certain time. While the political-institutional historians may not come with us on this , we may borrow a leaf from the school of intellectual historians.
To this school, History is regarded as the development of higher thoughts and feeling, that is, embracing the study of of philosophy, art, literature, science and mathematics.
Hence, in the waning days of 2008 autumn, at a Harvard International Conference, enter the Nigerian world renowned bard. Not given to much hyperbole, Chinua Achebe on his wheel chair, decided to don the hat of an intellectual historian, as he tried very hard to acknowledge the presence of the multidimensional, genius in our midst.
The revered author, recounted the misery that was Biafra. The starvation of children, the bombs that destroyed families and cities. He stated that eventhough the enclave took the very worse, the saddest day for Biafra and Biafrans was the day it was rumored that ”The Man had died in a Nigerian cell.”
Biafra flew their flag at half mast and for days amidst more destruction and casualties from the air, across the battle fields, the Biafran people mourned the ’supposed passage’ of the only true Nigerian they dearly loved and respected for his courage and friendship.
When the Niger Delta insurgents, refused to trust their destiny in the hands of the Nigerian diplomat at the UN, it was Professor Wole Soyinka they chose, to negotiate for them and represent their interests with the Federal government.
When the same Niger Delta militants struck the Atlas doves in Lagos and the OPC wanted some fight, it was Prof. Soyinka that intervened to save the day.
The OPC did not listen to any other but would rather defer to him. They have followed him and know he would not betray their cause.
At the last Achebe Colloquium in Rhode Island, after everybody had gone to bed, we discussed the Nigerian problem and in the presence of Chief Solomon Asemota, the leader of the Niger Delta.
Without much sleep the Professor was on his way to Boston the following morning for another conference this time on Darfur, Sudan. Apart from Sudan, was he not the international voice that stood against the tyranny and the savagery of Ugandan’sIdiAmin.
While his fellow renowned Literati mused their opposition in their kitchens, the Shango apostle, was all over the world openly, condemning the cannibal Head of State for his grave human rights violations against his people, and specifically exonerating a confused African perspective from the heinous crimes of the former Ugandan heavyweight champion, who had boasted of his love and readiness to marry the Queen of England. In search of heroes, some of the uninitiated African actors were already falling to the Amin ploy.
They were falling to the evil machinations of the IdiAmin propaganda of not only ”marrying the Queen” but of his plans to cage the imperialistic hold on Uganda.
Professor Soyinka was unrelenting and having suffered from IdiAmin’s kind, he was able to discern and define the beast for what he was.
Always staking his life, his safety, Professor Wole Soyinka has over the years, continued to dare the African oppressors, starting from the eerie day, an unknown masked man took over the radio station in Ibadan in 1965, to announce the correct election results!!
In his war classic of the Man Died he was the first Nigerian from inside the sordid incaceration of Kikiri maximum security prisons, to announce to the world the horrific death of the late Nigerian Secretary- General of the Post and Telegraph Workers Union.
According to courageous the Professor, ”GogoNzeribe was arrested for some undisclosed offence during Gowon’s regime,and imprisoned in Dodan
Barracks, where he died of starvation…!! He was arrested and brought out daily, for flogging.
One day he fought back, and this resulted in orders that he should be permanently locked up in a solitary cell and forgotten. ” He was the first and only voice that blew the whistle on the Asaba, Ishiagu and Igbodo genocide visited on the Western Ibos, when the Federal Army took over the Midwest, in September, 1967. When the butchers were sure that Ogbeosuwah was covered up by sand it was the same Shango prophet, who
characteristically from a detention hole, wrote about the Midwest atrocities. ”In Shaki before my transfer, I received eye witness accounts from a Federal soldier, a young school -leaver who saw his ideals shattered by the wanton execution of civilians.
He protested and feeling that his life was in danger, he fled to Lagos. He was arrested and incarcerated. The daily executions and torture were still in progress when he left.
He saw entire Mid West Ibo families wiped out in cold blood….” [ See, The Man Died, page 121-122] Therefore we are not surprised that after the deaths of GaniFawehmni, ChumaUbani, BekoRansomeKuti, TunjiOtagbeye the mantle of Civic Society leadership should now naturally fall on the shoulders of the prophet the masses already know his own sacrifices for their cause.
So who is that historian of whatever school, who would attempt writing the history of contemporary Nigeria, without first giving to his readers, some chapters, on the life and times of the most activist renaissance leader of our people.
Professor Emeritus, Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laurette, Poet, Playwrite, Dramatist, Novelist, Essayist, Activist, Human Rights Crusader, Nigeria’s most internationally recognized face, African Ambassador, Alphonse Fletcher Fellow, Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Yale and Visiting Professor, Harvard, please take over the ship and in your own fraternal orders, AHOY!!
Whatever is happening now in Abuja with him in command, speaks of his restless foolhardiness and his abiding patriotism.
Countrymen, a lot is amiss within the Nigerian federation. This is the time to ride the train or remain a sinner spectator. Such men like Professor Wole Soyinka are not produced in hundreds. Only the blighted nation neglects its bright minds.
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