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.

Nigeria Has Not Been Fair To My Father - Hafsat

Hafsat Abiola-Costello

By Ademola Adesola, The Nation

Hafsat Abiola-Costello, the eldest daughter of the late martyr of democracy, Chief MKO Abiola, in this online interview with Ademola Adesola, reflects on the issues confronting Nigeria 13 years after the death of her father

Another anniversary of June 12 is here, has the country been fair to your father?

MKO Abiola was a man that united the whole country. In the June 12 election, he won more votes in the North than he did in the South. On June 12, 1993, Nigerians voted en masse for a man whose platform was a promise that Nigerians would say “farewell to poverty”. Eighteen years later, 70% of Nigerians have less than a $1 a day and 90% live with less than $2 a day. You ask: Has the country been fair to my father? I ask you: Has the country been fair when the issues that demanded they pay the supreme price still stares us in the face? What a journey it has been and how instructive it is on the nature of struggle that we are here 18 years later still so far from our destination. The simple answer to your question is “no”, the country has not been fair to him or been fair to the ideals which he died for.

The 2011 election was adjudged as credible by local and international observers. Is it comparable to the one that got your father the mandate he was eventually denied of?

I think what we can say is that the April 2011 election was probably the most credible since the return of democracy in 1999. But is it as credible as the June 1993 election? I can’t say. Certainly, I hope that the 2015 election will be even better conducted than this recent past one. There were problems still and there’s room for improvement.

What is your opinion on the debate about making June 12 Democracy Day in Nigeria as against May 29 as it is being advocated by some people?

I think when we are confronted by a government that is confused about its raison d’être, easily distracted with the trappings of office and not with what the position is meant to achieve in the lives of 150 million Nigerians, if we, citizens of this entity, begin to talk about symbolic dates, then we run the risk of pushing too many issues onto the table before a community of people who already have a propensity to become distracted from their main assignment. So, it is important that June 12 be given a pride of place; it is important that MKO Abiola be honoured appropriately as the father of the current democracy we are experiencing. But for now, we must simply focus on the main point – the desire and just demand of the Nigerian people that they see an end to poverty. That’s the prize that we need to keep our eye on.

Are you interested in politics to the level of contesting election for political office?

Yes, I am! I think public service is the most important career that well-meaning citizens can pursue in a country like ours where there is such need and where, because of the weakness of controls, so much depends on the abilities and integrity of the people holding office.

Let’s talk about your mother. What do you really miss about her?

My mother was a lovely person. She was kind and graceful, intelligent and principled. I miss everything about her. The way she was driven by ideals to the point that she would set aside her own interests and the way, whenever we were coming home from school, she would cook jollof rice with so much pepper that our tongues would cry for water.

How do you view the present situation of the trial of her killers?

I actually do not follow that particularly actively.

Are there particular reasons why your siblings are based abroad?

Globalization! Khafila married a Welsh man who has a company in New York and Moriam married a Jamaican who also works in the US. Hadi, the baby, just graduated from college with a dual degree in Economics and Accounting and was given a great job in DC. And in my case, I married a civil servant in the European Commission and have moved with him and our kids on his different postings. To be sure, for all of us, home is best but inclination must intersect with opportunity for us to come home.

Let’s talk about your project, Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND). What are the major impacts and achievements that it has recorded since inception?

KIND has trained over 3000 young women in service-leadership since 2001. We have also impacted several women politicians at the local level with skills to enhance their service delivery. We were deeply involved in mobilizing the womenfolk to participate actively in the electoral system. Since 2006, we brought the Vagina Monologues to Nigeria to raise serious awareness about the prevalence of gender- based violence and to also raise funds for organizations working with victims of gender-based violence. For several civil society organizations, we have provided the necessary linkages and support in accessing support for their work and providing an active mentoring network.

Would you really say the feats achieved thus far are encouraging enough to keep on with the vision?

Definitely yes, and that is what informed our plan to open a KIND’s Women Development Centre in our nation’s capital. We are excited to embark on this new phase of our journey – helping women seek leadership positions in order to contribute their quota to nation-building. We have commenced outreach efforts to seek support towards a fund raiser that will coincide with the 60th posthumous birthday of my mum in August.

How has life been with your immediate family?

Life has been kind. We are all healthy and of my mum’s 7 children, 6 are married with 13 children between us.

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.

Jonathan's Ambition, a Threat to Igbo Presidency - Udenta O. Udenta

Leadership Nigeria/All Africa

As the pioneer National Secretary of the defunct Alliance for Democracy, AD, Udenta O. Udenta is an intellectual power house, whose disposition to national issues has won him recognition. He recently had a chat with journalists and joined in the raging debate over zoning, as he calls on President Goodluck Jonathan to respect the zoning principle of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP. He stresses that not doing so, will be a hindrance to a South-East presidency in the near future. Stanley Nkwocha was there. Excerpts:

You just launched a campaign for an Igbo presidency come 2015. What is the drive?

In my booklet "Rotation of power and Igbo possibility", I argued that 2015 is the realistic year for the realization of a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction. There are a number of reasons for making this assertion. On the basis of the principle of rotation of power and the zoning of political offices, at least in the context of the PDP, presidential power is expected to remain in the North till 2015. Three out of the five core Igbo states are currently controlled by the PDP, so we expect the South-East PDP leaders to honour the party's zoning arrangement and deprecate any attempt to deconstruct or distort it.

I am also of the view that flowing out of the 1998-1999 all parties' agreement on zoning, the other main parties like the AC, ANPP, and to an extent, the newly formed CPC, have also domesticated the idea and practice of rotation of power and the zoning of political offices in one form or the other. Their rotation of power thesis may not be as explicit as that of the PDP, but it is embedded in the structure of power relations within these parties. I am no prophet or soothsayer, but I dare say that the above named parties will most likely throw up Northern Presidential candidates and Southern running mates, and I expect their South-East leadership to endorse it and work in tandem with the core instincts and impulses that define their parties' being and reality.

Closer home in Igbo land, objectively speaking, I cannot see the viability of a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction emerging out of the APGA, and other South-East leaning parties in 2011. I am compelled to declare that these parties need time to merge forces, strengthen their organizational ranks, deepen their philosophical and ideological foundation and establish a network of strategic, inter-group understanding and partnership. All these can be accomplished between now and 2015.

Finally, there are existing limit-situations in Igbo land which need to be bridged and over come. Igbo Civil Society/Activist platform needs to be created, an engaging and compelling Igbo political blue print need to be constructed, Igbo political elite need to be re-united, Igbo political base will require re-constitution and the Igbo political possibility need to be canvassed across the country, among political, ethnic and cultural stakeholders so that they will appreciate its harmlessness, buy into it, and collectively work towards its realization.

In the text of the pamphlet , you argued that a Jonathan Presidency in 2011 will endanger the cause of the Igbos for President. Can you buttress this claim?

My statement is axiomatic; it is self-evident. It is self-declaratory. President Jonathan became Vice-President in 2007 on the premise and perimeter of zoning. He is a product of zoning. His current presidency is a child of circumstance. The South-West have had their chance, under Obasanjo, and in the context of the PDP, between 1999-2007. If President Jonathan contests in 2011 and somehow, wins the election, he may be inclined to pass the presidential baton to the North, maybe not even in 2015, but in 2019. This will keep the Igbo in Perpetual wait for Presidential power, and in a national political environment in which zoning would have been rendered irrelevant. This is a clear and present political danger that nobody can wish away.

Assuming that the Igbo are not even desperate for presidential power, now or in the near future, nobody can take their support for granted. It will be naïve political thinking that because a new national chairman of the PDP has emerged, a few appointments made, and the governors speaking solely for themselves, one will assume that the Igbo support is a fait accompli, a done deal. This is a fatal and self-destructive political reasoning. The emerging signals are even very ominous. From the loss of NAFDAC chairmanship to the loss of INEC chairmanship; from the loss of NIMASA Director-Generalship to the loss of the Governorship of the Central Bank, and possibly from the potential loss of the Vice-Chairmanship of the NCC to the humiliation out of office, of a decent, hardworking, very competent Managing Director of NSITF, in the person of Chief Joe Okoli, in the name of sectional supremacist politics, and nothing more, the picture for the Igbo is grim.

President Jonathan has done nothing in this regard. Rather, he is systematically rendering the Igbo irrelevant in the polity. It is, of course, to be expected that this unbecoming scenario will not come to pass if a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction were to be in office. He will endeavour to safeguard that which is decently meant for the Igbo, and ensure that the rest of the country get their decent due also without discrimination. He will not, I suspect, allow the prevalent situation in the NNPC, Niger Delta Ministry, Ministry of Petroleum Resource, Foreign Affairs, and very many commanding heights of the nation's political and bureaucratic infrastructure which are now sectional properties.

Is the hue and cry generated over zoning not regrettable bearing in mind that it is an PDP's agenda? What is the role of other parties in the polity?

The hue and cry over zoning, as you put it, is not regrettable. The debate must go on, until the core issues around it are clarified and our people enlightened. We must move beyond myth and legend, beyond the illogic of instant gratification of power. And zoning is not only a PDP affair. It has always been, in one constitutional and administrative form or the other, a mechanism of achieving national integration, national consensus and inter-elite understanding. It is in the constitution in the form of the federal character principle and the constitutional provision that a minister who shall be appointed from a state must be indigenous to that state.

Regarding the other parties, it is no accident, but rather a solemn concession to the principle of zoning and the reality of rotation of offices that in the 2007 election cycle, Gen. Buhari's running mate, Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, is from the South-East; that Abubakar Atiku's running mate, Sen. Ben Obi, is also a South-Easterner, while the party's National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, is a South-Westerner. As for the PPA and the APGA, the respective running mates to Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu and Dim Odumegu Ojukwu also came from the North. And I am inclined to think that the choice of Governor Sambo as the Vice President to President Jonathan is a concrete validation of zoning because, in its absence, and with the only qualification for such high appointment being intellect, experience and competence, President Jonathan should have chosen any competent individual from his home state, and possibly his local government as his Vice President.

Would I be wrong to say that disunity amongst the Igbos has largely marred their chances in the past and may still pose a challenge to your struggle?

The question of the disunity among the Igbo political elite has been over celebrated. There is disunity among the political elite all over the country. There is disunity in Yoruba land, disunity among the Southern minorities elite, disunity among the middle belt elite, and disunity among the core Northern elite. The problem is that the Igbo elite are disadvantageously placed in the structure and dynamics of power relations in Nigeria.

They are completely marginalized, to the degree that the little space that is afforded them inevitably leads to a vicious scramble for relevance. From 1999 till date, no Igbo elite has been strategically placed in terms of the relations I mentioned above, in terms of fundamental nation-decision-making, and in terms of power and influence leverage. The six key national power positions-and I am talking of executive power have eluded them from 1999: President, Vice President, Chief of Staff to the President, National Security Adviser, Secretary to Federation Government and Head of Service. This last position was only occupied by an Igbo person for a few months.

Inevitably, when such an elite group are so marginalized, they begin to look inauthentic, playing nothing but secondary, marginal role. Inevitably also, they begin to quarrel among themselves for the dregs of power made available to them. I have already conceded that disunity among the Igbo political elite is a concrete limit-situation in the search for Igbo political possibility. It is a major drawback to the realization or affirmation of Igbo political goals. It requires principled agitation to overcome this, like the struggle against the institutional marginalization of the entire Eastern Nigeria which the Dr. Arthur Nwankwo led Eastern Mandate Union championed in the mid and late 1990s.

Today, I believe that it is the responsibility of the political wing of Igbo civil society leadership to lead the way in the re-constitution of the Igbo political base and in realizing Igbo political possibility. They can do this by unfurling their intellectual depth and ideological clarity, and tapping into their work in the area of political empowerment and voter mobilization. With all hands on deck, it will be quite possible to have a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction in 2015; a president who will lead the nation wisely, and with passion and patriotic favour. And a President who will abhor narrow-mindedness and supremacist sectional instincts.

You described the debate on the constitutional provision that the President can contest as puerile. Shouldn't the constitutional provision override party position and zoning in this case?

I state that those who confuse the issue of zoning and rotation of power with the constitutional provision on eligibility for the office of President are either puerile or out rightly mischievous. And they know this to their bones. Were Nigeria to be a one party state, one can even begin to take them half-serious. What we are practicing is multi-party democracy. If your party slams the door on your ambition at any particular time, you open another door. Afterall, there are 59 political doors to open in Nigeria today. The latest example is the Governor of Abia State and Senator Chukwumerije. Before them was Governors Ohakim, Yuguda and Shinkafi. Don't forget that Atiku Abubakar contested the 2007 Presidential election as a sitting AC Vice-President.

My point is that why the constitution is clear about the conditions any adult Nigerian can and must meet before he is elected President, the various political parties have a right to put mechanisms in place that will guarantee inclusiveness, party cohesion, national integration and respect of the nation's various diversities. Zoning of political offices and the rotation of power is one such mechanism. There is no conflict between them and the provisions of the constitution.

You are fighting a cause for the Igbos, but the PDP chairman - an Igbo man himself last week said the PDP has breached zoning over the years and it may no longer be tenable. Where lies your support?

I don't know the context under which he made that statement. I didn't even read that statement. However, when a breach occurs, you repudiate and sanction those who caused the breach. You enforce party discipline to ensure that future breaches are curtailed. You don't cast over board or distort a party principled position because someone has breached it. You don't, forever, deconstruct our constitution because it has been breached. You punish the breachers.

Lets talk about the imbalance even in zoning. The North West is being accused of playing pranks with the entire North. Is this infraction not a threat to zoning itself?

Who made the accusation? In our democratic journey this far, the North-East produced the prime Minister between 1960-1966, not that there was any conscious effort to zone that position to it. During the second Republic the North-West produced President Shehu Shagari. Between1999-2007, the South-West produced Olusegun Obasanjo in the first real zoning exercise. President Yar'adua, now late, came from the North-West. On the basis of zoning in the PDP, it will be the entire North that must rise to the occasion and throw up the best possible candidate they have for the job.

You have said without zoning an Igbo presidency may be difficult, but if competence and acceptability becomes yardsticks over zoning as canvassed, can't the Igbos throw up a competent and acceptable candidate?

There is no conflict between zoning and competence. Every village and hamlet in Nigeria has very competent people in all human spheres. If you zone a particular position to a particular zone, it is the responsibility of that zone to go for the best material they have. It is not for me to tell them how to go about it. Like I stressed earlier, President Jonathan's zone, or even state, has very competent people. He should have chosen any one of them to be his Vice-President. It is on the basis of this that zoning will make the Igbo Presidency project an attainable ideal. Without zoning, it becomes very difficult, just like without zoning it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, for President Jonathan to have become Vice-President in 2007.

The South East governors have announced their non intention to either vie for the Presidency come 2011. Is this not damping your agitation?

When I heard that Statement I wept. I can't believe any South-East Governor will be so un-Igbo to utter that kind of rubbish. They spoke for themselves, the five of them. They didn't speak for Ndigbo, neither for the leaders nor the people. They are on their own, and must be made to retract such an insult to the collective integrity and stature of Ndigbo. If it is possible to attain the presidency in 2011, the Igbo will go for it. If it is possible to achieve it in 2015, the Igbo will go for it. Ndigbo know who their leaders are. They cannot be deceived or distracted from the historic mission of producing a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction in as short a time as possible. South-West, South-South and the entire Northern Governors have not even taken a stand on this issue, and five individuals, without consultation, without discussion, want to lead Ndigbo on a path of political perdition. Unless and until that statement is comprehensively disowned by the governors, I and millions of Ndigbo would have lost any respect we have for them.

You called on the Igbos to vote for another candidate with Igbo running mate if the PDP's emerge out of disrespect. Is this tenable under the complex politics of the South East?

It is quite tenable, but it is a bridge we have to cross when we get to it. It requires mass sensitization and mass mobilization work, but its achievable.

You called for an Igbo leadership summit. The North just had its summit. Won't these regional summits threaten the unity of the nation?

No. These regional summits will rather strengthen Nigerian unity. Consultation, reaching out is the stuff democracy is made of. Democracy is dialogue. You cannot shut down the space for discussion, for inter-change of ideas. It is by so doing that you can aggregate the instincts, impulses and passions of our diverse people and channel them for the consolidation of our democracy, and sustainable social and economic transformation and development.

Kidnapping As Big Business in South-East

BY IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN, LEADERSHIP NIGERIA/ALL AFRICA

Abuja — Historians and archaeologists have it that the Igbo culture - their way of life was in the beginning a culture of life (ndu bu isi) instead of death. According to them, "Life was celebrated while death was despised and feared. The only death celebrated was someone who lived long (usually above 60 years) and had grown up children."

Today, they say the opposite is the case: "Igbo efulefu"-useless, fools, political/economic criminals, are now making Igbo culture a culture of death, killing and kidnapping. True, in the last few months, kidnapping has become a big business in the region that has produced great people - living and the dead. Our Assistant Managing Editor/Chief-of-Reporters, IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN examines the strange phenomenon.

P resident Goodluck Azikiwe Ebele Jonathan is not a poignant person prone to emotion-laden speeches. The few public speeches he has made since he became president can testify to that. But when asked to comment on the state of security situation in the country -especially the increasing rate of kidnapping in the South-east part of the country recently - he was strangely emotional.

"Any responsible leader should be worried about the state of security in the country, especially in the South-east; it is very embarrassing; it is unacceptable to us and we shall do everything within our means to confront the problems", the president stated emotionally while chatting with some media executives on national television.

The President talked about the socio-economic and political implications of the crime situation saying, it was the only reason the nation lost the hosting right of the ongoing soccer World Cup to South Africa. He said from the security report at his disposal, it was obvious that the crime of kidnapping is an organised one involving many persons or groups - the security agents, the judiciary, the banking sector and some lawyers. He asked: "I hope when we start arresting them, some professional bodies will not complain?"

True, like the information available to Jonathan, kidnapping has become a big business in the South-east. The dreadful hallucination-kidnapping which was first carried out in Port-Harcourt on February 18, 2006 by a group of heavily armed militants to draw the government's attention to their demands has now graduated to a frightening fraction in different parts of the nation. Even the peacefulness, serenity and safety of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja is not out of danger. Kidnapping has now become a veritable, real tool in the hands of intelligent but criminally minded persons for making "cool money."

"It is distressing that kidnapping for ransom has become a burgeoning business in many parts of Igboland. Of recent, Anambra, Enugu, Abia and Imo States have been hotbeds of commercially-motivated kidnapping. In a bid to increase the ransom payable after the kidnap, the kidnappers now specialize in kidnapping monarchs, home video actors and actresses, traditional rulers of big towns, high profile business tycoons, politicians, children and relatives of wealthy politicians", an analyst said.

To be sure, a couple was recently kidnapped immediately after their wedding in Anambra State . His Royal Highness, Igwe Mbamalu Okeke of Abagana, Igwe J.C Nkwocha of Alor, Dr. Anayo Edemobi and sibling of Minister of Information and Communications Dora Akunyili, have all been victims of these dreadful criminals in the state.

From the capital of old Eastern Region-Enugu State , Igwe Uche Nwachime in Nkanu, was abducted and later slaughtered because his relations had refused to pay ransom on time as requested by the kidnappers. Report also had it that the proprietor of Gold Riveri Hotel Enugu was kidnapped and later released upon the payment of a N5 million ransom. In Abia State , which is fast becoming the most notorious state where kidnapping business booms, the chairman of Enyimba Football was kidnapped. Justice Awa U. Kalu was shot in a failed kidnapping bid. Some Imo State indigenes had also been kidnapped recently; they include Mr. Celestine Ngaobiwu, a member of the Imo State House of Assembly and two sons of the Speaker of the Imo House of Assembly.

Three persons were killed earlier in the year when unknown gunmen kidnapped a movie star Peter Edochie in Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of Anambra State . According to reports, the victims were killed to facilitate Edochie's kidnappings. The actor hit the limelight as Okonkwo in the television adaptation of Chinua Achebe's book, "Things fall Apart." He was kidnapped after his bodyguards were overpowered. Few days after the Edochie incident, about six people were killed in Imo State when kidnappers reportedly invaded Orlu and Ikeduru areas of the state. Two kidnapped Indians were reportedly rescued with some of the gang members seriously injured when a team of policemen confronted the gang at Ama Nwozuzu in Ikeduru. The cases are endless.

The wide-ranging state of insecurity in the South east, security experts say, had reached a stage where practically everybody is now worried about the frightening dimension the region is headed. Presently, hardly can people sleep with both eyes closed for fear of being kidnapped. Businessmen, politicians and other wealthy persons have taken voyage as well as with their businesses for fear of being kidnapped. In the last few years, kidnapping and hostage taking have moved from the Niger Delta creeks to Ndi-igboland. The ogre has broadened and taken unfathomable derivation in the land where many able-bodied but unemployed youths proliferate. Within the South-east, Abia State is the epicentre followed by others in the region. Everybody is now concern. It is expected against obtainable verification that the rich government officials, traditional rulers, elected politicians and their immediate families are now the target of the men of evil.

There appears not to be hiding place for the rich, even though some of them have relocated their families outside the South-east geo-political zone or outside the country. Even Lagos that was once regarded as insecure state is now a heaven of choice for many.

Recently, the profit-making activities in Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia State, were crippled as banks were forced to close their doors against demanding customers after frequent violent attacks on banks. At a point, the evil men outsmarted all procedures adopted by the banks to avoid them.

"While insecurity disrupts socio-economic and political activities in the country, it also slows down the pace of economic growth and development. Many investors continue to flee the country", an Aba based bank manager who does not want his name mentioned, told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY.

Sadly, the news the international community has about the South east is that it is most unsafe to live and do business. To be sure, the World Bank recently rated Imo State as one of the worst states in the country to do business. "Before any foreigner contemplates of coming to Nigeria, he or she would not only be calculating the high cost of investing in the country, but also the safety of his or her life", the bank manger said.

The National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) recently expressed regret over the serious security problems in the South east region. It said that "the security challenges had worsened the already bad and unfriendly business environment that is negatively affecting the growth of businesses and socio-economic activities in the area."

"If industries are closing shops and investors are not forthcoming because of insecurity and other attendant problems faced by businesses, then the future, particularly that of the children should agitate the minds of everybody."

Apart from NACCIMA, the police, states in the south east and other segments of the society are worried. Recently peeved by the state of insecurity- kidnapping in Anambra, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, announced the deployment of 16 units of anti-riot policemen to the area to complement the efforts of policemen attached to the state commands. But in spite of this, security experts and monitors say the level of insecurity in the region had heightened.

The chief police officer had partly blamed the high wave of crime in the country, especially in the South-east on materialism and loss of societal values. He noted that people were ready to do anything to get rich and be celebrated in the society. While also blaming the high rate of kidnapping and armed robbery in these areas on unemployment, he however said that most of the graduates of Nigerian universities are half-baked, but carry about certificates they could not even defend.


Perceptibly troubled by the disturbing state of insecurity in the South east in recent times, President Jonathan recently invited governors in the region to Aso Rock for a meeting. Addressing journalists after the meeting, Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State lamented that they were spending huge funds to support the police and other security agencies "but we found out that the hoodlums' firepower is more than the police. The security agencies are trying but they need more support from the Federal Government."

Obi requested for the purchase of two or more helicopters with modern communication equipment and detectors, placed in strategic locations in the south east where it could be called up in a matter of minutes to intervene in any security situation.

According to Obi, "I do not play politics with security. The security situation in the Southeast is pathetic. The militants who were displaced from the core Niger Delta regions have left their creeks, came upland to terrorise us. We must rise to the occasion. And since no state can do it alone, resources must be pooled together to confront this ugly development."

Those who should know said the fear of kidnapping is real in the South east because of lack of effective and reliable security machinery to confront the kidnappers. "Many people in the South east now live in perpetual fear of kidnappers. It has curtailed the freedom of movement of the people. For example, some prominent citizens from the South east now travel to their respective villages with full mobile police escorts. What a miserable life! If living in one's own village can now be classified as dangerous living, then life in itself is not worth living", an Abuja based lawyer, Mr. John kalu said.

The Minister of State for Information and Communication, Mr. Labaran Maku recently said that the Federal Government had taken steps to confront the situation calling on the affected communities to cooperate with security operatives to tackle the problems.

"The Federal Government through Federal Executive Council (FEC) called on all communities in the south-east and in other parts of the country where security has become an issue to cooperate with security agencies that are already undertaking the operation to fish out the criminals wherever they may be hiding and deal with the situation decisively", the minister said

He said kidnapping was disrupting normal life and commercial activities in some states and government could not stay back and watch criminals take over the entire situation.

He added, "So government is undertaking joint security operations to fish out the camps, know where those people are staying and this cannot be done by security agencies alone. The entire communities, especially state government, local government, traditional rulers and community organisations should cooperate."

"The criminals are not ghosts, they come from amongst our communities, they don't come from outside, so if the public can give cooperation and give sensitive information to security agencies, it will help security agencies."

Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State was so overwhelmed with the security situation in his state that he recently granted amnesty to kidnappers and armed robbers who made life in the state terrifying and dreadful. He made the announcement when a delegation of the various groups of kidnappers visited him at the Government House, Umuahia. They were led by the Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in the state, Nathaniel Ubong. Mr. Orji told his guests that his government was committed to the success of the programme. The governor said he was surprised that Abia State was not one of the states covered by the presidential amnesty for Niger Delta militants and that he had protested the exclusion to the Minister in charge of the amnesty programme of the Federal Government, who assured him that the programme would be repeated to accommodate Abia State. The governor, who said the Minister's assurance encouraged him to make the offer so that Abia will also benefit, said kidnapping had made Abia State more notorious than the states where it first started. "The disadvantages of kidnapping are massive, because it has driven away contractors and investors from the state and Aba in particular, making development difficult," Mr Orji said. He urged the repentant kidnappers to go and inform others to lay down their arms as the amnesty programme is real.

The governor added, "All the arms you have packed somewhere bring them out for the world to see so that the Federal Government will accept you into the amnesty programme."

"You cannot harbour grievance against your fatherland, it is only in the atmosphere of peace that development can take place."

Mr Ubong, the NSCDC Commandant, was quoted as telling Orji that the kidnappers approached him three times for the peace meeting but he did not think they were serious. "They finally came with a lawyer, who convinced me that they were ready to leave the bush and embrace the offer," he was reported as saying.

Spokesperson of the kidnappers, Stephen John, a native of Ukwa West LGA, said his gang resorted to kidnapping to protest their being excluded from the Federal Government's amnesty offer saying, "As oil producing communities, Owazza and Obokwe in Ukwa West LGA were neglected without hospitals, schools, good roads and other infrastructure."

Chimete Kingsley Onwudara, the groups' lawyer said the delegations were made up of representatives of the kidnappers and the communities who had come to ensure that government was serious with the offer. "In the next week, all the kidnappers will be out with their weapons, making Abia peaceful once again," he said.

Before then, in huge efforts to tackle the situation frontally, some states in the South east have enacted laws with a capital offence punishable by death while two other states: Rivers and Edo imposed life imprisonment on persons convicted for the offence of kidnapping. Other states, apart from Imo that passed into law "Prohibition of Hostage Taking and Related Offences Law" with death penalty as punishment for offenders are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra and Enugu . More states are warming up to join the list.

But can the death penalty stop people from being kidnapped? And how will Nigeria look in the eye of the world legalising what others the world over are proscribing?

Mr. Aster Van Kregfen, Amnesty International's Representative Researcher in Nigeria, said that retention of capital punishment had failed to reduce armed robbery or murder in Nigeria despite the execution of more than 2,600 prisoners since 1970. "Experience has shown that the threat of death penalty is not an effective answer to violent crime. It can actually exacerbate violence in a society", he said.

He said that killing every kidnapper not only flies in the face of global and national trends, but also a violation of Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a United Nations treaty.

Kregfen viewed kidnapping, as "a terrible crime that causes anguish to both the victims and their families".

His solution: "The way to be though on violent crime like kidnapping is to strengthen the police's ability to detect potential crimes before they occur and prevent them. The Federal Government needs to strengthen police training and resources to increase police investigation capacity and effectiveness."

UN views right to life as an inalienable right. This position as adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in1948 sees death penalty as a violation of this essential right. Besides, the world body has always argued that not only did death penalty dehumanise society; it has never been known as an efficient way to stop crime. The worldwide trend is to abolish death penalty for all categories of crime or at least retain it for exceptional crimes committed in exceptional circumstances. African countries such as Algeria , Mozambique , South Africa , Namibia , Tunisia , Angola and Senegal are among over 90 countries in the world that have abolished death penalty for any crime.

Kidnapping is not new in the world. In fact, security experts say Phoenix, Arizona has become the kidnapping capital of America, with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City with over 370 cases last year alone.

In fact, kidnappings and other crimes connected to the Mexican drug cartels are quickly spreading across the border, from Texas to California. The majority of the victims are either illegal aliens or connected to the drug trade. Recently, an ABC News' investigation uncovered horrific cases of chopped-off hands, legs and heads when a victim's family doesn't pay up fast enough. But can President Jonathan fix the problems in the South-east as he promised. Ndi-Igbo, the peace-loving people of the south east, are eagerly and earnestly waiting for Jonathan.