By Obi Nwakanma, The Orbit/Vanguard
The news out of Imo State is not good. There is a sense of failure and a general feeling of siege; a situation that calls us all to rise and confront two important questions: first, how is it that a state so endowed with some of Africa’s best educated people can sit and allow the use of primitive and unregulated power to undermine its civic authority?
Second, how can the residents of Imo State tolerate the current situation in which the state slips suddenly into this primitive cauldron of violence that resembles Colombia under the siege of the drug lord Escobar?
What has happened to this state, once among the most stable and productive of states in Nigeria? Let me first note something that I find profoundly disturbing, which is given scant attention, and which might become the subject for sociologists to grapple with and which ought to disturb any person of conscience.
It is the absolute breakdown of the democratic community in the East in general, but in Imo State specifically.
Two conditions now best describe the relationship of people to community, and their connection to the idea of a collective public in Imo State: lethargy and fatalism. Imo people are lethargic because of a profound skepticism about the value of government in their lives.
There is equally a powerful sense of helpless fatalism about the ends to which society might arrive; that is this belief that governments are no longer established to cater and minister to people.
Government is now considered a cabal, a mafia, in which very closeted powerful interests come together in a devious partnership to subdue the will of the people and conduct public affairs as though it were a private party – with invitations only.
Since 1983, the Imo people have not had a great government with the kind of public spirit that characterized the administration of the late Dr. Sam Mbakwe (please note that Sam Mbakwe earned his doctorate degree academically and was not a dot.com or honorary or “Aba-na-anya” “doctor”). Mbakwe was the last productive governor of the old Imo State – comprising Imo, Abia and parts of Ebonyi State today.
His administration had immense respect for the people, and he established a clear programme of action; set goals that have thus far remained unsurpassed by any succeeding administration after him. Imo was lucky in two respects: one, it had an energetic and dynamic founding military governor in the now retired Admiral, then Commander Godwin Ndubisi Kanu, and in the founding civilian administration of governor Sam Mbakwe. These two set the tone of government and the expectations of the public in Imo.
But alas, since the Buhari years – from the administration of General Ike Nwachukwu to the current administration of Mr. Ikedi Ohakim, a nearly 20-year spectrum, Imo State seems to be trapped in a limbo.
Unemployment, very slow social and economic development; and now increasing crime – especially kidnappings seem to be the legacy of governments in Imo State.
The news in Imo state is increasingly dreary: reports of kidnappings and other crimes that were once unimaginable here proliferate. I was talking earlier on about a breakdown of community and its undergirding social mores. Nothing drove this more forcefully home to me until last year, when I was burying my father.
I returned to a changed society. In the old Igbo world, wherever death occurred, neighbours brought food to the compound to feed the bereaved from the backyard. The community joined in the ritual of mourning and burial.
There was a full accent of what the Igbo call the “umunna” and it took ownership of the dead. Today in Igboland, the “church” the nuclear “family” and the “social club” have replaced the “umunna” – the bedrock of community.
The new fangled “Traditional ruler” has replaced the Town Council, and there is a profound breakdown and dangerous alienation taking place in Igbo land today. This kind of alienation makes it impossible to deal with the social questions that confront us, or indeed, to create grounds that would sustain a civic order based on shared, cohesive visions for social development.
Once upon a time, it would have been impossible, for instance, for anybody to just walk into a community, kidnap or rob anyone, without confronting the will of that community. Escape would be impossible.
But today, the fracture in the architecture of community makes security – the security of the populace – almost impossible to guarantee. Now, comes the news last week that kidnappers brazenly took journalists, among them a sports crew from a South African Television network which came to report some event in Owerri; Professors, and the Chief Judge of the Imo state customary Court on their way from the Airport.
implication of this ought to startle us: Imo State has finally slipped into lawlessness. All it takes now is for any group of young men to acquire some guns and some logistics and they’d go off on a limb and seek targets for kidnapping.
This is the highest symptom of social failure. Highly educated and disenchanted youth, with an increasingly fatalistic outlook on life, acquire more sophisticated means of organizing crimes while public policy and action on social security remains primitive. We are on dangerous grounds here.
Targeting a judge for kidnap is, to date, the boldest act against the authority of state and its institution of law. To put it simply: the law, in its formal sense no longer exists in Imo State. It is now a jungle out there.
The administration of the current Governor Ohakim has clearly lost control of the situation. We must hasten to add, that Ikedi Ohakim did not create the situation that has now snowballed into a kidnap and crime culture. He inherited a broken people from this past 20 years of visionless governance of the state.
But he has contributed immensely to a mood of disenchantment by continuing to perpetuate the absolute lack of accountability and inaction which continues to alienate people and make government meaningless in the lives of people.
A current allegation – and we take it for now as simply allegation until further clarity – by a citizen of Imo state, Mr. Samuelson Iwuoha that he was assaulted and battered by the governor of the state in connivance with some public security official in Government House is serious.
It reflects the increasing sense of the jungle in Imo state. It calls for independent investigation of the governor on both the substantive allegation of corruption and in the secondary allegation of assault following Mr. Iwuoha’s attempt to force the state government to come clean on public account.
Finally, the failure to open up alternative channels for public action drives people towards serious crimes.
A state like Imo, without credible social and economic programs for its teeming population of the jobless and underemployed; or whose programs are more on paper and declared intentions than on reality risks the kind of anomie that now threatens to make Imo state a kidnappers den. The situation in Imo state is serious, and calls us all to action -both the administration and the citizens of the state.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Political Leadership Has Failed Nd'Igbo - Onuma
Interview/Daily Independent/All Africa
KALU ONUMA, political historian, is the Secretary General of Ndigbo, Lagos. He champions the cause of justice in the country, but more importantly the cause of Igbo people. In this interview with Senior Correspondent, DANIEL KANU, the scribe of the Igbo socio-political organisation speaks on the state of health of President Umaru Yar'Adua, the Igbo nation and the nation's democratic journey so far among other salient issues. Excerpts:
We have had 10 years of uninterrupted democracy, what is your assessment so far?
Well, we have to congratulate ourselves for having seen 10 uninterrupted years of democracy in Nigeria as you have rightly pointed out. But let's not forget that it is coming at the same time when we ought to be celebrating 50 years of Nigeria's independence. And when we look at Nigeria from the perspective of our 50 years anniversary, you would find out that there is so much that needs to be done. So much that requires our analysis and equally progressive thought. But if I should summarise it in a few sentences I will say I am disappointed with our achievement so far.
In which area are you hinging your disappointment?
Well, there is so much to say about what has been the problem of Nigeria. But I think that leadership is neither here nor there in terms of looking at Nigeria and moving it forward. We have had some remarkable turns in this country but I will rather say that the whole problem of Nigeria hinges on our inability to create a constitution truly federal that would take into consideration all the diversities at the various levels and various competing issues that has been the bane of development for this country. I am under no illusion that if we get the constitution right, that is, a people's constitution from which will emerge the kind of leadership that we are looking for it will not be difficult for the various regions, like it has been tested and tried before, to pick up again and develop each according to its own ability and each according to its own pace. Without this, get a good leader, get a good crop of people and it will still be the same old story, because the instrumentality of carrying out what ever we have asked them to carry out is faulty and there is nothing they could do about it.
Many believe that even if you bring the American constitution wholesale to Nigeria that it will still fail because the problem is with the people, the operators and not the constitution per se.
Yes, I agree with you that the American constitution definitely will not work in Nigeria. The mode of government even in Republic of Benin or Cameroon, which are our nearest neighbors, however you look at it, will not work in Nigeria. Therefore what exactly will work in Nigeria is something that evolves from the people. We know that our history or histories as it were is not the same history or histories as the people of Republic of Benin or Cameroon or even America that you have used as an example. So what I am actually saying here is that the people knowing themselves, knowing the various confusions, knowing the various characteristics that make them up should be able to come up with the way of managing themselves. I will tell you this if you look at the microcosm of how villages and towns have been managed autonomously or collectively in the Southern Nigeria, you will realise that what we are actually trying to say for those of us who think that the constitution is the problem or the instrument of carrying this out is the problem or even the system of government that we are carrying out is the problem is that when you look closer these villages or towns run smoothly without hitches and it is only on very few occasions that issues come up here and there, and within their own system unwritten constitutions are in this villages but they still carry it out and know how to nip any problem in the bud. I am equally of the opinion that Southern Nigeria as it were divided into South South or South East cannot develop at the same pace with South West, cannot develop at the same pace with North Central or North East and so on. These are distinct geographical areas with different types of people, with different kinds of beliefs, and different kinds of cultural values and these values cannot be thrown as a blanket all over the country and expect them to develop at the same pace. We cannot continue in this path if we do not trace back ourselves and look at the constitution again and see how we can correct some of the problems.
There are some people that are even worried that the value systems of Nigerians are no longer what it used to be...
Nothing is constant except change itself. What you are actually looking at in terms of values each generation redefines its own goal, redefines its own values, try to build on the shoulders of those that have been there before, tries to borrow from different cultures and in an age, where the world has been so narrowed down, you cannot expect values to remain the same. What you are trying to refer to is a situation where you find that some of the norms that have held people are now beginning to crumble. In the real sense of it, life moves on, people evolve; people try to see how they readapt some of the things that have been before and manage to find tools to help them improve on tomorrow. Having said that, you cannot see what is bad and call it good, you cannot see what is good and call it bad. What is good in one generation flows over into another generation and what we should be looking at is to try to create a kind of atmosphere, where a symbiotic exchange happens between cultures, happens between people and some of those ones that are not good tested by the society itself will die their natural deaths, and some of those that are good will move on. Things naturally must change, today the gadgets that you are using now to talk to me is more sophisticated and there are a lot of improvements from the ones used by journalists 15 or 20 years ago. Previously, they come with their pen and paper and when you talk they have to probably meet up with what you are saying by using their shorthand style but shorthand is already out of the question now and many do not even remembers how it is done, except those who still go to commercial schools. But even at that it is no longer fashionable anymore, so we keep moving. Values are defined, each generation by the people living within that generation and what becomes good for us is something we collectively decide by trials and error and there is nothing we can do about it. And, it has not been without challenge to do distinctively with the political arena where there is so much confusion based on the fact that we have continually refused to do the right thing.
Let's zero down to President Umaru Yar'Adua's ill health. Some say he should resign while some disagree, what is your take?
We don't need to over flog what has been said I belong to the group that says it's time to call it quit. Even if he comes back it is absolutely impossible for him. He is a very sick person and Nigeria needs a very strong person, somebody with all the health that God could give will even break down under the weight of the problem that Nigeria carry. We need a leader with all the health that will give all the attention needed, if possible more than 24-hour attention to the problems of this country. He did in Katsina State and got away with it for 8 years, this is Nigeria. you are not talking about Katsina State here, you are talking about over 450 distinct tribes or ethnic groups each with its own values, problems, challenges, headaches all concentrated in the center, heaped on your shoulders and that should not be and this is what we have been complaining all the while. If Nigeria has been truly federal where the regions are independent, where the regions have the powers to do their own things at their own pace, the center will be so weak and so irrelevant that yes, we could excuse this President Yar'Adua's absence, but it is not so in our present scenario. He should, even as he is back, tender his resignation; continuing is more like deceiving Nigerians and he did promise in his inaugural speech that he was not going to deceive Nigerians that he was going to be a listening President and the great majority of Nigerians are simply saying thank you very much, you have done quite well but your health cannot allow you to continue thus far. That is all.
What are your views on the issue of Eze Ndigbo in Diaspora, which are been banned in some states like Lagos?
This is an institution that emerged from the desires and aspirations of Ndigbo living in the Diaspora. I am a bit confused by how this whole issue has been politicised, how some of our Ezes in Igbo land have gone about this matter as if the question of that institution could not have been agreed better, could not have been looked into better and could not have been really analysed and taken care of. My view is simple, the institution of who culturally holds forth for Ndigbo is something that we have to promote in Lagos, in Kano, in Kaduna, anywhere there are Igbos there must be a place where they come together to promote our culture, our tradition and this does not in anyway stand in parallel with our Ezes in Igbo land and the question is quite simple; if there are things that the Eze Ndigbo in Diaspora have been doing, which does not look right in anyway, it is only in conversation, sitting together with the people, consulting widely with the Igbo communities, town union associations all over the world that you will come to a resolution of the matter. You do not just enter a town, go to the indigenes and tell them that you are an Eze from Igbo land and that you have banned so and so people, it smacks some lack of common sense and it smacks some irresponsibility because it shows that you are not even in control of what you are doing. And who says that one person or groups of persons without consulting the people, the Oha (the people), who are actually the people that make the Eze important make decisions which are contrary to the norms of the people already living in that place. There are so many fine gentlemen like the late Eze Ihejiahi, who have been monumentally instruments of sanity, at very terrible times. In Kaduna, he has been a stabling hand in what the Igbo have done and achieved, same with Ohazulike here in Lagos, same with so many of them in the North where our Ezes suddenly have woken up and realised that they are important, where have they been all this while? So, the point I am just making is that the issue of nomenclature, name, and title should be looked into again. Whether the institution is required my answer is yes, whether they have played very important role in the socio-political and cultural live of the people in Diaspora the answer is yes. Whether they will be useful to us politically, culturally and economically in the future my answer is yes. What becomes the problem? How to now liaise between the Ezes in Igbo land and the ones in Diaspora we have to look at it again. There are so many Igbo communities in Mali that have no direction, that hardly comes home, that hardly visits home, same in Cameroon, same in Gabon, same in Equatorial Guinea, same in Lome; these people have families, they have children; most of their children don't even speak Igbo, most of them don't even know anything about Igbo values and cultures, some of their parents are even beginning to forget their own personal identity. It is only by creating such institutions that we will be able to start slowly and quietly but surely re-instill our Igbo-ness even in very consequential ways. I think it is important that we look at this question strongly again and find ways to resolve the matter.
KALU ONUMA, political historian, is the Secretary General of Ndigbo, Lagos. He champions the cause of justice in the country, but more importantly the cause of Igbo people. In this interview with Senior Correspondent, DANIEL KANU, the scribe of the Igbo socio-political organisation speaks on the state of health of President Umaru Yar'Adua, the Igbo nation and the nation's democratic journey so far among other salient issues. Excerpts:
We have had 10 years of uninterrupted democracy, what is your assessment so far?
Well, we have to congratulate ourselves for having seen 10 uninterrupted years of democracy in Nigeria as you have rightly pointed out. But let's not forget that it is coming at the same time when we ought to be celebrating 50 years of Nigeria's independence. And when we look at Nigeria from the perspective of our 50 years anniversary, you would find out that there is so much that needs to be done. So much that requires our analysis and equally progressive thought. But if I should summarise it in a few sentences I will say I am disappointed with our achievement so far.
In which area are you hinging your disappointment?
Well, there is so much to say about what has been the problem of Nigeria. But I think that leadership is neither here nor there in terms of looking at Nigeria and moving it forward. We have had some remarkable turns in this country but I will rather say that the whole problem of Nigeria hinges on our inability to create a constitution truly federal that would take into consideration all the diversities at the various levels and various competing issues that has been the bane of development for this country. I am under no illusion that if we get the constitution right, that is, a people's constitution from which will emerge the kind of leadership that we are looking for it will not be difficult for the various regions, like it has been tested and tried before, to pick up again and develop each according to its own ability and each according to its own pace. Without this, get a good leader, get a good crop of people and it will still be the same old story, because the instrumentality of carrying out what ever we have asked them to carry out is faulty and there is nothing they could do about it.
Many believe that even if you bring the American constitution wholesale to Nigeria that it will still fail because the problem is with the people, the operators and not the constitution per se.
Yes, I agree with you that the American constitution definitely will not work in Nigeria. The mode of government even in Republic of Benin or Cameroon, which are our nearest neighbors, however you look at it, will not work in Nigeria. Therefore what exactly will work in Nigeria is something that evolves from the people. We know that our history or histories as it were is not the same history or histories as the people of Republic of Benin or Cameroon or even America that you have used as an example. So what I am actually saying here is that the people knowing themselves, knowing the various confusions, knowing the various characteristics that make them up should be able to come up with the way of managing themselves. I will tell you this if you look at the microcosm of how villages and towns have been managed autonomously or collectively in the Southern Nigeria, you will realise that what we are actually trying to say for those of us who think that the constitution is the problem or the instrument of carrying this out is the problem or even the system of government that we are carrying out is the problem is that when you look closer these villages or towns run smoothly without hitches and it is only on very few occasions that issues come up here and there, and within their own system unwritten constitutions are in this villages but they still carry it out and know how to nip any problem in the bud. I am equally of the opinion that Southern Nigeria as it were divided into South South or South East cannot develop at the same pace with South West, cannot develop at the same pace with North Central or North East and so on. These are distinct geographical areas with different types of people, with different kinds of beliefs, and different kinds of cultural values and these values cannot be thrown as a blanket all over the country and expect them to develop at the same pace. We cannot continue in this path if we do not trace back ourselves and look at the constitution again and see how we can correct some of the problems.
There are some people that are even worried that the value systems of Nigerians are no longer what it used to be...
Nothing is constant except change itself. What you are actually looking at in terms of values each generation redefines its own goal, redefines its own values, try to build on the shoulders of those that have been there before, tries to borrow from different cultures and in an age, where the world has been so narrowed down, you cannot expect values to remain the same. What you are trying to refer to is a situation where you find that some of the norms that have held people are now beginning to crumble. In the real sense of it, life moves on, people evolve; people try to see how they readapt some of the things that have been before and manage to find tools to help them improve on tomorrow. Having said that, you cannot see what is bad and call it good, you cannot see what is good and call it bad. What is good in one generation flows over into another generation and what we should be looking at is to try to create a kind of atmosphere, where a symbiotic exchange happens between cultures, happens between people and some of those ones that are not good tested by the society itself will die their natural deaths, and some of those that are good will move on. Things naturally must change, today the gadgets that you are using now to talk to me is more sophisticated and there are a lot of improvements from the ones used by journalists 15 or 20 years ago. Previously, they come with their pen and paper and when you talk they have to probably meet up with what you are saying by using their shorthand style but shorthand is already out of the question now and many do not even remembers how it is done, except those who still go to commercial schools. But even at that it is no longer fashionable anymore, so we keep moving. Values are defined, each generation by the people living within that generation and what becomes good for us is something we collectively decide by trials and error and there is nothing we can do about it. And, it has not been without challenge to do distinctively with the political arena where there is so much confusion based on the fact that we have continually refused to do the right thing.
Let's zero down to President Umaru Yar'Adua's ill health. Some say he should resign while some disagree, what is your take?
We don't need to over flog what has been said I belong to the group that says it's time to call it quit. Even if he comes back it is absolutely impossible for him. He is a very sick person and Nigeria needs a very strong person, somebody with all the health that God could give will even break down under the weight of the problem that Nigeria carry. We need a leader with all the health that will give all the attention needed, if possible more than 24-hour attention to the problems of this country. He did in Katsina State and got away with it for 8 years, this is Nigeria. you are not talking about Katsina State here, you are talking about over 450 distinct tribes or ethnic groups each with its own values, problems, challenges, headaches all concentrated in the center, heaped on your shoulders and that should not be and this is what we have been complaining all the while. If Nigeria has been truly federal where the regions are independent, where the regions have the powers to do their own things at their own pace, the center will be so weak and so irrelevant that yes, we could excuse this President Yar'Adua's absence, but it is not so in our present scenario. He should, even as he is back, tender his resignation; continuing is more like deceiving Nigerians and he did promise in his inaugural speech that he was not going to deceive Nigerians that he was going to be a listening President and the great majority of Nigerians are simply saying thank you very much, you have done quite well but your health cannot allow you to continue thus far. That is all.
What are your views on the issue of Eze Ndigbo in Diaspora, which are been banned in some states like Lagos?
This is an institution that emerged from the desires and aspirations of Ndigbo living in the Diaspora. I am a bit confused by how this whole issue has been politicised, how some of our Ezes in Igbo land have gone about this matter as if the question of that institution could not have been agreed better, could not have been looked into better and could not have been really analysed and taken care of. My view is simple, the institution of who culturally holds forth for Ndigbo is something that we have to promote in Lagos, in Kano, in Kaduna, anywhere there are Igbos there must be a place where they come together to promote our culture, our tradition and this does not in anyway stand in parallel with our Ezes in Igbo land and the question is quite simple; if there are things that the Eze Ndigbo in Diaspora have been doing, which does not look right in anyway, it is only in conversation, sitting together with the people, consulting widely with the Igbo communities, town union associations all over the world that you will come to a resolution of the matter. You do not just enter a town, go to the indigenes and tell them that you are an Eze from Igbo land and that you have banned so and so people, it smacks some lack of common sense and it smacks some irresponsibility because it shows that you are not even in control of what you are doing. And who says that one person or groups of persons without consulting the people, the Oha (the people), who are actually the people that make the Eze important make decisions which are contrary to the norms of the people already living in that place. There are so many fine gentlemen like the late Eze Ihejiahi, who have been monumentally instruments of sanity, at very terrible times. In Kaduna, he has been a stabling hand in what the Igbo have done and achieved, same with Ohazulike here in Lagos, same with so many of them in the North where our Ezes suddenly have woken up and realised that they are important, where have they been all this while? So, the point I am just making is that the issue of nomenclature, name, and title should be looked into again. Whether the institution is required my answer is yes, whether they have played very important role in the socio-political and cultural live of the people in Diaspora the answer is yes. Whether they will be useful to us politically, culturally and economically in the future my answer is yes. What becomes the problem? How to now liaise between the Ezes in Igbo land and the ones in Diaspora we have to look at it again. There are so many Igbo communities in Mali that have no direction, that hardly comes home, that hardly visits home, same in Cameroon, same in Gabon, same in Equatorial Guinea, same in Lome; these people have families, they have children; most of their children don't even speak Igbo, most of them don't even know anything about Igbo values and cultures, some of their parents are even beginning to forget their own personal identity. It is only by creating such institutions that we will be able to start slowly and quietly but surely re-instill our Igbo-ness even in very consequential ways. I think it is important that we look at this question strongly again and find ways to resolve the matter.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Achebe's Laboratory - Realising Father's Dream in Son
By Yemi Adebisi, Daily Independent/All Africa
Lagos — Most foremost African writers fight injustice, preach liberty, moral, through their pens while some prefer to confront their 'opponents' to iron out their differences physically. Though there are a number of these literary evangelists that never started as a writer, but as fate would have it, ended up being a voice to reckon with in the Diaspora. For instance, the late Cyprian Ekwensi read Pharmacy, but his fame would not shine in the drug laboratories. He breathed his last in the cold room of short stories and children literature. The acclaimed father of African literature, Chinua Achebe also started with the intention of becoming a world renowned medical doctor.
Today, his contributions in the world famous record of fiction cannot be overemphasised. He is also one of the few African writers that suffered the brunt of the gun, because of what he put down in one of his novels, A Man of the People. He didn't find it funny when the military was all out for him during the Nigeria's first military coup: "One Sunday morning I was telephoned from Broadcasting House and informed that armed soldiers who appeared drunk had come looking for me to test which was stronger, my pen or their gun.
The offence of my pen was that it had written a novel called A Man of the People, a bitter satire on political corruption in an African country that resembled Nigeria.
I wanted the novel to be a denunciation of the kind of independence that people were experiencing in post-colonial Nigeria and many other countries in the 1960s, and I intended it to scare my countrymen into good behaviour with a frightening cautionary tale. The best monster I could come up with was a military coup de'tat, which every sane Nigerian at the time knew was rather far-fetched. But life and art had got so entangled that season that the publication of the novel and Nigeria's first military coup happened within two days of each other," Achebe recalled recently.
Claiming the reason behind his choice of 'war', he said Nigeria has not offered the best to justify her freedom from the colonial master going by the dividend of democracy: "Our 1960 National Anthem, given to us as a parting gift by a British housewife in England, had called Nigeria "our sovereign motherland." The current anthem, put together by a committee of Nigerian intellectuals and actually worse than the first one, invokes the father image. But it has occurred to me that Nigeria is neither my mother nor my father. Nigeria is a child. Gifted, enormously talented, prodigiously endowed and incredibly wayward."
What is Achebe's continuous worry about his country Nigeria? "Being a Nigerian is abysmally frustrating and unbelievably exciting. I have said somewhere that in my next reincarnation I want to be a Nigerian again, but I have also, in a rather angry book called The Trouble with Nigeria, dismissed Nigerian travel advertisements with the suggestion that only a tourist with a kinky addiction to self-flagellation would pick Nigeria for a holiday. And I mean both."
It is amazing that the only daughter that took after Achebe in the art of writing is Chinelo Achebe-Ejueyitche. She teaches and writes in New York, U.S., where she lives with her family. She has also worked in publishing. Her first book, The Last Laugh and Other Stories, was published by Heinemann in 1992. However, other children have proved to be the best in their various careers.
Chinua Achebe's dream to become a medical doctor was never a waste after all. His second child, Chidi Achebe has filled the gap with the latest world record he broke in the United States of America (USA).
He said recently, "In our family, several members have both science and art degrees or intersecting interests. Dad, as you know, started off in medicine and we can all be grateful that he ended up as a writer. My elder brother, Ike, holds a masters and a PhD in History from the University of Cambridge in the UK and another masters in Computer Sciences. My maternal uncle, the late Dr. Samuel Okoli (one of my mentors), was a UK trained physician, Obstetrician/Gynecologist, and apart from running a hospital in Lagos, also was deeply interested in the arts, music and literature."
Of recent, at a time of recession, he installs a new laboratory and dental clinic in Dorchester, the United States of America, catering to the health problems of the people. This report affirms why this promising Nigerian doctor is the future of healthcare.
"I used to always say to my family," recounts Dr. Chidi Achebe, "why is it that when you go to clinics in the wealthy neighbourhoods, like Wellesley, they have labs? Why don't we have that here in Dorchester? I don't ask that question anymore," he says. "If it's not in Wellesley, then I don't want it here. I just want the same standards, since we're in the same country."
However, many Nigerians have registered their displeasure to the choice of location of such edifice in the United States of America. A Nigerian writer, Godfrey Ebuchulam, in his reaction through a mail said this is the high time Africans learnt how to build their homes. "Congratulations to Dr. Chidi Achebe on his new lab. Now that he has built this facility in America, his father is at home, why not build the same facility at home (Nigeria)? Charity must begin at home, where this is a person from China, he/she would find a legal way to build it in China first, then he/she would build one in America, and later show others how to duplicate the same lab in their countries. Africans are here building in America, yet, our people at home who have no advocate die in silence, those who can afford it would come here (America) for care. What about the person who is unable to afford the costs to come to America, is her/his life worthless?" he queried.
Be that as it may, the record has been made through the dark pot of an African legendary writer.
The laboratory has been described as a gift of the University of Massachusetts Memorial Labs, one of the largest and growing lab companies in the New England region.
But it has only been since Achebe took the job and hired an outstanding team of medical workers that Harvard Street Health Centre has received, what he calls, a facelift.
The centre has historically concentrated on primary care, but with a difference, according to Achebe, they are open to black men with criminal records being released on parole.
"I am a black male, and I think that one of the things that we are suffering from in our community is the fact that our men have not gotten the kind of healthcare that they deserve. They're not able to function in the family unit to lift the whole family, and one of the things that we want to remind the men is that if the pathology is yours, then it's going to be ours as a community, because people look at themselves as silos. But if the men are not taking care of themselves and it's all about the women taking care of the kids then the balance isn't there."
The Centre also has a food pantry conspicuously tucked away in its basement.
"This is a big secret," says Achebe. "One of the reasons this pantry is arranged this way is to give our patients the respect that they deserve. We want to make it possible for people to come here and leave without drawing any undue attention to the fact that they are here picking up food."
Taking a moment to mention a handful of the doctors that he has on staff, Achebe continues, "We have been blessed with fantastic physicians committed to the community. My commitment to them is to work as hard as I can to help keep the standards similar to what you would expect in a mainstream hospital so that these well-trained doctors don't feel like they're slumming. You want them to know that they are working in our community and it's not so bad. That's why we're trying to get into this building next door, and if we get everything else that we're dreaming of then guess what? It's in Dorchester!"
With seven major health clinics located throughout the neighbourhood, there has never been a plan to have so much compacted into just one of the centres in Dorchester. The strategy, says Achebe, is to be the first.
"I spent two years getting an MBA from Yale University and one of the things that I loved the most about the time was a course I took on strategy. Getting to the finish line first is a humongous strategic advantage because you get to announce, 'Hey, I'm here!' Anyone else who is getting there behind you will look like a copy-cat."
When asked to suggest some strategic approaches to the national healthcare crisis, Achebe cited a unique trend-taking place in hospitals throughout the city of Boston, which involves hiring doctors who can run hospitals like him.
"A lot of these doctors can be productive towards the bottom line because they can see patients. I'm in clinic part of the week, so even though I have an MBA and I can speak the business language, I am also contributing to the bottom line as opposed to some figure clearly getting a big salary. Clinicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, any one of these people, with an MBA and the experience, can run a clinical setting. All of the major and tertiary hospitals in Boston are run by medical doctors and I think that is the future."
Lagos — Most foremost African writers fight injustice, preach liberty, moral, through their pens while some prefer to confront their 'opponents' to iron out their differences physically. Though there are a number of these literary evangelists that never started as a writer, but as fate would have it, ended up being a voice to reckon with in the Diaspora. For instance, the late Cyprian Ekwensi read Pharmacy, but his fame would not shine in the drug laboratories. He breathed his last in the cold room of short stories and children literature. The acclaimed father of African literature, Chinua Achebe also started with the intention of becoming a world renowned medical doctor.
Today, his contributions in the world famous record of fiction cannot be overemphasised. He is also one of the few African writers that suffered the brunt of the gun, because of what he put down in one of his novels, A Man of the People. He didn't find it funny when the military was all out for him during the Nigeria's first military coup: "One Sunday morning I was telephoned from Broadcasting House and informed that armed soldiers who appeared drunk had come looking for me to test which was stronger, my pen or their gun.
The offence of my pen was that it had written a novel called A Man of the People, a bitter satire on political corruption in an African country that resembled Nigeria.
I wanted the novel to be a denunciation of the kind of independence that people were experiencing in post-colonial Nigeria and many other countries in the 1960s, and I intended it to scare my countrymen into good behaviour with a frightening cautionary tale. The best monster I could come up with was a military coup de'tat, which every sane Nigerian at the time knew was rather far-fetched. But life and art had got so entangled that season that the publication of the novel and Nigeria's first military coup happened within two days of each other," Achebe recalled recently.
Claiming the reason behind his choice of 'war', he said Nigeria has not offered the best to justify her freedom from the colonial master going by the dividend of democracy: "Our 1960 National Anthem, given to us as a parting gift by a British housewife in England, had called Nigeria "our sovereign motherland." The current anthem, put together by a committee of Nigerian intellectuals and actually worse than the first one, invokes the father image. But it has occurred to me that Nigeria is neither my mother nor my father. Nigeria is a child. Gifted, enormously talented, prodigiously endowed and incredibly wayward."
What is Achebe's continuous worry about his country Nigeria? "Being a Nigerian is abysmally frustrating and unbelievably exciting. I have said somewhere that in my next reincarnation I want to be a Nigerian again, but I have also, in a rather angry book called The Trouble with Nigeria, dismissed Nigerian travel advertisements with the suggestion that only a tourist with a kinky addiction to self-flagellation would pick Nigeria for a holiday. And I mean both."
It is amazing that the only daughter that took after Achebe in the art of writing is Chinelo Achebe-Ejueyitche. She teaches and writes in New York, U.S., where she lives with her family. She has also worked in publishing. Her first book, The Last Laugh and Other Stories, was published by Heinemann in 1992. However, other children have proved to be the best in their various careers.
Chinua Achebe's dream to become a medical doctor was never a waste after all. His second child, Chidi Achebe has filled the gap with the latest world record he broke in the United States of America (USA).
He said recently, "In our family, several members have both science and art degrees or intersecting interests. Dad, as you know, started off in medicine and we can all be grateful that he ended up as a writer. My elder brother, Ike, holds a masters and a PhD in History from the University of Cambridge in the UK and another masters in Computer Sciences. My maternal uncle, the late Dr. Samuel Okoli (one of my mentors), was a UK trained physician, Obstetrician/Gynecologist, and apart from running a hospital in Lagos, also was deeply interested in the arts, music and literature."
Of recent, at a time of recession, he installs a new laboratory and dental clinic in Dorchester, the United States of America, catering to the health problems of the people. This report affirms why this promising Nigerian doctor is the future of healthcare.
"I used to always say to my family," recounts Dr. Chidi Achebe, "why is it that when you go to clinics in the wealthy neighbourhoods, like Wellesley, they have labs? Why don't we have that here in Dorchester? I don't ask that question anymore," he says. "If it's not in Wellesley, then I don't want it here. I just want the same standards, since we're in the same country."
However, many Nigerians have registered their displeasure to the choice of location of such edifice in the United States of America. A Nigerian writer, Godfrey Ebuchulam, in his reaction through a mail said this is the high time Africans learnt how to build their homes. "Congratulations to Dr. Chidi Achebe on his new lab. Now that he has built this facility in America, his father is at home, why not build the same facility at home (Nigeria)? Charity must begin at home, where this is a person from China, he/she would find a legal way to build it in China first, then he/she would build one in America, and later show others how to duplicate the same lab in their countries. Africans are here building in America, yet, our people at home who have no advocate die in silence, those who can afford it would come here (America) for care. What about the person who is unable to afford the costs to come to America, is her/his life worthless?" he queried.
Be that as it may, the record has been made through the dark pot of an African legendary writer.
The laboratory has been described as a gift of the University of Massachusetts Memorial Labs, one of the largest and growing lab companies in the New England region.
But it has only been since Achebe took the job and hired an outstanding team of medical workers that Harvard Street Health Centre has received, what he calls, a facelift.
The centre has historically concentrated on primary care, but with a difference, according to Achebe, they are open to black men with criminal records being released on parole.
"I am a black male, and I think that one of the things that we are suffering from in our community is the fact that our men have not gotten the kind of healthcare that they deserve. They're not able to function in the family unit to lift the whole family, and one of the things that we want to remind the men is that if the pathology is yours, then it's going to be ours as a community, because people look at themselves as silos. But if the men are not taking care of themselves and it's all about the women taking care of the kids then the balance isn't there."
The Centre also has a food pantry conspicuously tucked away in its basement.
"This is a big secret," says Achebe. "One of the reasons this pantry is arranged this way is to give our patients the respect that they deserve. We want to make it possible for people to come here and leave without drawing any undue attention to the fact that they are here picking up food."
Taking a moment to mention a handful of the doctors that he has on staff, Achebe continues, "We have been blessed with fantastic physicians committed to the community. My commitment to them is to work as hard as I can to help keep the standards similar to what you would expect in a mainstream hospital so that these well-trained doctors don't feel like they're slumming. You want them to know that they are working in our community and it's not so bad. That's why we're trying to get into this building next door, and if we get everything else that we're dreaming of then guess what? It's in Dorchester!"
With seven major health clinics located throughout the neighbourhood, there has never been a plan to have so much compacted into just one of the centres in Dorchester. The strategy, says Achebe, is to be the first.
"I spent two years getting an MBA from Yale University and one of the things that I loved the most about the time was a course I took on strategy. Getting to the finish line first is a humongous strategic advantage because you get to announce, 'Hey, I'm here!' Anyone else who is getting there behind you will look like a copy-cat."
When asked to suggest some strategic approaches to the national healthcare crisis, Achebe cited a unique trend-taking place in hospitals throughout the city of Boston, which involves hiring doctors who can run hospitals like him.
"A lot of these doctors can be productive towards the bottom line because they can see patients. I'm in clinic part of the week, so even though I have an MBA and I can speak the business language, I am also contributing to the bottom line as opposed to some figure clearly getting a big salary. Clinicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, any one of these people, with an MBA and the experience, can run a clinical setting. All of the major and tertiary hospitals in Boston are run by medical doctors and I think that is the future."
The Oracle of Africa
Photo by: Abayomi Adeshida/AFP/Getty ImagesChinua Achebe reminds us that his continent’s problems are as old as colonialism. By G Pascal Zachary, In These Times
Nigeria is no longer the butt of jokes, known only for spam mail importuning readers to assist in the recovery of an ill-gotten fortune. Home to one in every six black Africans, Africa’s most populous country is now a trendsetter worthy of serious attention, political analysis—and great puzzlement.
Anglicans in Nigeria now give orders to their American counterparts, who have aligned with them in opposing rights for gay Christians. Unrest in Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta region—where rebels abduct employees of Chevron, the California-based oil multinational—translates into higher gasoline prices for Americans, who consume more than 800,000 barrels of Nigerian crude a day (nearly as much as that provided by Saudi Arabia).
On Christmas Day, Nigeria broke into the consciousness of even the most provincial American when a Muslim from the country’s fundamentalist north tried to blow up a Detroit-bound plane by detonating explosives hidden in his underwear. Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, son of a wealthy banker, had visited Yemen, where he allegedly received training, material and instructions from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Suddenly, what happens in Nigeria seems of vital interest to ordinary Americans. Even to experts on Africa, Nigeria is an enigma—an energetic, dynamic country with a great gulf between rich and poor, whose president has been ill for months and is possibly incapacitated in a Saudi hospital. Politically rudderless and socially challenged, Nigeria is spawning something new. But Americans don’t know what it is.
Chinua Achebe gives us some clues as to what is afoot in his native land in a new collection of essays, The Education of a British-Protected Child (Alfred A. Knopf, October). The title refers to Achebe’s own rearing in a land occupied by Britain, where imperial hegemony co-existed with rigid notions of African inferiority and casual racism. “I went to a school modeled on British public [i.e. private] schools,” Achebe writes. The rare beneficiary of a formal education because of his father’s position aiding Anglican missionaries, Achebe’s youth in colonial Africa was one of privilege steeped in English literature. “Africa was an enigma to me,” he writes. “I did not see myself in” such required reading as Treasure Island, Oliver Twist, and Prisoner of Zenda. Even adventure stories he read about Africa, written by Englishmen John Buchan and Rider Haggard, distanced him from his roots and surroundings. Recalling his youth in the 1940s, Achebe writes:
I took sides with the white men against the savages. In other words, I went through my first level of schooling thinking I was of the part of the white man in his hair-raising adventures and narrow escapes. The white man was good and reasonable and smart and courageous. The savages arrayed against him were sinister and stupid, never anything higher than cunning. I hated their guts.
By embracing a different set of role models, notably a favored uncle who rejected both Christianity and the presumed superiority of white colonizers, Achebe transformed his own mentality, becoming the rare artist who can see the best in both the oppressor and the resister. Already 30 years old and a mature novelist at the time of Nigeria’s independence in 1960, in his new essays Achebe dissects Nigeria’s post-colonial predicament while at the same time providing rich insights into the condition of modern sub-Saharan Africa. His book, while slim, also offers subtle insights into the love-hate relationship that many writers from former colonized places have with the culture of their colonizers.
Author of the classic novel about the European invasion of Africa, Things Fall Apart, Achebe lives and works in the United States, but his heart is in Igboland, the southeast portion of Nigeria that his ethnic group considers home. Many Igbo (also known as Ebo) are commercially minded, are the driving forces behind
Nigeria’s prominent movie industry, and are present so widely throughout the world that they are sometimes called “the Jews of Africa.” (Full disclosure: I’m married to an Igbo from Nigeria.)
In his unabashed Igbo pride, Achebe is a rare African artist who openly and whole-heartedly proclaims his ethnic affiliation in defiance of the conventional wisdom that African nations suffer from too many ethnic—read “tribal”—divisions and that the embrace of cosmopolitanism, if not narrow nationalism, requires the condemnation of ethnicity or at least keeping quiet about one’s own “tribe.”
Achebe’s full-throated affection for the Igbo language and culture enables him to avoid a major pitfall of writing and thinking about the continent—an approach that erases differences among Africans themselves in favor of a monolithic concept of African-ness that is believed, perhaps wrongly, to promote political power through presumed racial solidarity. In Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, Achebe recounts the tragedy of an Igbo hero who resists British meddling only to face humiliation and death.
The best-selling novel ever by an African writer, Things Fall Apart looks backward at the brutality and costs of colonialism—and prefigures the tragedy of the first modern ethnic war in Africa, the Igbo secession from Nigeria in 1967. Achebe lived through Africa’s first ethnic civil war and sided with the Igbo, despite holding a high-ranking post in Nigeria’s equivalent of the BBC at the time of the war. Three years later, when millions of his fellow Igbo were dead and Nigeria once more ruled the defeated breakaway province, Achebe left Nigeria to teach in America—for many years he’s been a professor of literature at Bard College—and never returned to Nigeria to live.
Despite his decades in America, Achebe remains alive to the problems, structural and temporal, that bedevil his country of origin. Awash in petro-dollars, Nigeria suffers from huge inequalities, and most people suffer from a lack of electricity, water, education and healthcare. While Achebe blames Nigeria’s leaders—or the lack of good ones—for the country’s troubles, he finds the root of the country’s problems in its colonial past. While Nigeria will celebrate its 50th anniversary as a nation in October, in Achebe’s eyes political independence was and remains a fraud, because of a range of economic, political and social constraints imposed on the country, chiefly by Britain. He writes: “Independence from Britain was virtually a trap and has remained so to this day.”
In labeling independence a sham, Achebe highlights the corrosive effects of competition between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Even as newly independent African nations struggle to build democratic institutions and address vast social needs, political elites in Africa, Achebe writes, “would soon be captured by Cold War manipulators and skewed into a deadly season of ostensible ideological conflicts, which encouraged the emergence of all kinds of evil rulers able to count on limitless supplies of military hardware from their overseas patrons, no matter how atrociously they ruled their people.”
Achebe’s emphasis on the failures of decolonization in Africa, while familiar, is a useful reminder that the region’s contemporary problems have historical roots and that aid donors and self-styled saviors of Africa’s poor—such as Bono and Jeffrey Sachs—often ignore these roots in crafting remedies that, implicitly, blame ordinary Africans for their plight.
While Achebe criticizes Western thinkers on Africa, he also sets himself apart from other African intellectuals by his complex stance toward the Christianization of his people. The Igbo are among the most fervent Catholics in Africa, and evangelical Christianity is also strong among them. Achebe’s own father was enlisted by Anglican missionaries to convert other “natives,” and Achebe himself benefited from the schools established by foreigners. Yet he remains alive to the damage done by Christianity and relishes how traditional spiritual beliefs persist among Igbo and other Africans.
The critiques of the colonial and the Christian legacies in Africa come together in Achebe’s powerful indictment against Western do-gooders who, he asserts, demean and diminish Africans in their pursuit of helping them. “Lurid and degrading stereotypes,” he writes, are invoked by aid workers, humanitarians and missionaries in order to drum sympathy for African causes. Yet by “dehumanizing the sufferer,” advocates of assistance for Africa, abetted by international media and Hollywood, promote corrosive stereotypes that drown out authentic African voices.
Achebe insists that the relevance of the African writer partly rests on his or her obligation to rebut persistent stereotypes of African backwardness. The need for alternatives is “the very reason the African writer came into being. His story had been told for him, and he had found the telling quite unsatisfactory.”
Indeed, Achebe is at heart a storyteller, not a policy analyst. While he helps to identify the sources of various pathologies in Nigeria today and in Africa generally, he refrains from presenting cures. “I am not an apologist for Africa’s many failings,” Achebe writes, but he believes these African solutions will be created by and for fellow Africans. In the final essay of this collection, “Africa is People,” Achebe invokes the powerful Bantu declaration, “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu.” (“A human is a human because of other humans.”) Africa’s future, Achebe insists, depends on a new appreciation for the value of “an African communal aspiration.”
G. Pascal Zachary, a member of the In These Times Board of Editors, is the author of the memoir Married to Africa: A Love Story and The Diversity Advantage: Multicultural Identity in the New World Economy. From 1989 to 2001, he was a senior writer for the Wall Street Journal. Zachary has contributed articles to In These Times for more than 20 years and edits the blog Africa Works, about the political economy of sub-Saharan Africa.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Line-up of heavyweights for Nigeria: The Series
By Chuks Nwanne, Guardian
GOOD product sells itself. This could be the best way to describe what transpired at the special presentation of the Nigeria: The Series, where two Nigeria's former leaders; General Yakubu Gowon and Chief Alex Ekwueme, publicly threw their weights behind the TV drama series aimed at telling the true Nigerian story to the rest of the world.
After listening to a detailed presentation by the production team at the Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos, the two former leaders, alongside the Information and Communications Minister, Prof. Dora Akunyili, who was represented by a top officer from the ministry, were convinced that Nigeria: The Series, will play a vital role in the re-brading Nigeria project, which the federal government is presently pursuing.
Co-produced by The Serengeti Network headed by America's Lloyd Weaver and Storm 360 led by Obi Asika, the project will take as its subject, the 150 years of unrelenting struggle against European forces, who appeared on the shore of Nigeria first as traders and missionaries, but later, with superior arms, destroyed the centuries old civilisations established by the ancestors. The 13 episodes drama, which is being put together to mark the 5oth Anniversary of Nigeria, will also re-enact in details, the continual wars of resistance waged by our forefathers and mothers, first with guns and cannons, bows and arrows and later with pen and words.
The series will bring to life the events and the personalities that brought about victorious declaration of the free and independent nation called Nigeria. The intention is to debunk the notion, especially from the western world, which posited that Nigeria as a nation was not fought for, and reveal for all Nigerians the common heritage represented by the inspiring deed of the forefathers of the country.
Speaking at the official presentation, former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon commended the initiators of the programme, which he believed, would make young Nigerians take interest in the country again.
"This is a welcomed series that will tell the history of Nigeria by Nigerians. It will show the true history and quality of Nigeria as a country. It's time for us as Nigerians to begin to sell the country properly and correctly to the entire world. "
Gowon, who was the chairman of the occasion, called on all well meaning Nigerians to support the initiative.
"I believe in this project and I call on my colleagues, the older generation to support it. We need to start re-making this country and the only way we can re-brand is by removing bad things from ourselves. We need to correct our own ways and move towards the part of good. But producers of this programme should try as much as possible to get in touch with the older generation and get interviews about this country from them, it's very important. We need to get their stories for this series. This programme is worth supporting," the elder statesman charged.
Observing that most members of the production team are from the Eastern part of the country, the former leader used the opportunity to clear the air on why Nigeria went to war against Biafra.
"The war was not a fight against the Igbo race, but a fight against the then leadership of the Igbos, who wanted to breakaway from the country. As the leader of the nation then, we wanted to find other means of resolving the problem, but by the time the declaration (of the sovereign state of Biafra) was made, we had no option than to fight. We fought not to kill the Igbos, but to keep Nigeria together; I had an Igbo girlfriend then, so, I couldn't have declared a war that will kill the Igbos. Nigeria would have been a failure, if we had let the Igbos go then. We know their contributions to the growth and development of this nation," Gowon declared.
In his own remark, former Vice President, Chief Alex Ekwueme observed that the project will play a vital role in keeping intact, the true history of Nigeria as against the ones usually told by the western world in history book.
"I remember those days, the only thing you hear about history in Nigeria is how Mungo Park and Landers Brothers discovered River Niger. I really congratulate the initiators of this project for thinking it wise to come out with a project that would define the true history of the country. I will join in asking all Nigerians to give this project their full support."
Earlier in his opening speech, the CEO of Storm 360, Obi Asika informed that the project is very important to the crew than anything else.
"We've been involved in so many TV productions in Nigeria, but nothing is important to us than this project; it's the story of our lives. If you are truly a Nigerian, you need to see this project; I cannot imagine any media that will be more engaging than Nigeria: The Series."
Asika is of the opinion that the project would go a long way in shaping Nigeria as a nation, calling on corporate organisations to support the initiative.
"We are going to bring to live people that helped shape this country. It's about us as a people and we believe that we deserve the best. This is a global story and we will run it in America, UK and other international platforms. Nigeria is 50 years this year and we are ripped to unlock other projects."
In his presentation, the co-producer and scriptwriter of the series, Lloyd Weaver, recalled how the idea of putting down the history of Nigeria on paper came to him years ago.
"As an American, I've lived in this country for 29 years now. I remember those days, my children used to bring their homework to me to help them out, but I've never seen anything about history in their whole work; that got me thinking. From my secondary school days, we knew how America became America through history. So, I decided to put down a script on the history of Nigeria, which we later developed into Nigeria: The Series."
According to the filmmaker, who took the audience through the production schedule for the project, every nation needs history to get to wherever it's heading to.
"We need the past to get to our target. History is about who we are and this show will clarify misconceptions, teach important lessons and celebrate the country.
The objective of the series, according to Weaver, is "to enlighten Nigerians, uplift their spirit of patriotism, inform and educate them about this nation. How many times have you seen the lives of the founding fathers of this nation in a story? You see such things in other countries, but here, you don't get to hear about them. This is a story of a nation molded from different tribes with distinct language and custom."
The 13 dramatic episodes will begin with the glorious and advanced kingdoms and nation states that prevailed from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Nigeria: The Series will tell of the thousands of brave men and women, who resisted the canons and maxim guns of the Europeans whose intention was to claim our lands as their own. The story will then move to the twentieth century to depict those valiant, brilliant and determined men and women, who ultimately outwitted the British and boldly declared Nigeria an independent and free nation among nations.
In presenting the 150 years for freedom, Nigeria: The Series will create for all Nigerians an acute understanding of the true heritage of the country, by depicting the forefathers from early childhood through their moments of confrontation with the British colonists.
Meanwhile, The project will be film on location throughout Nigeria with key scenes filmed in London, The United States and Ghana, using absolute state of the art high definition technology and will gather together the most experienced Nigerian technical crew from home and the Diaspora. The crew will meticulously recreate five different historical eras with attention to historical detail in costumes, building, music, and settings.
The production will also involve Nigerian actors, who will portray characters ranging from Al Kanemi, Caliph Attahiru1, Nanna of Itsekiri and Oba Overanwen N'Ogbaisi, to Ahmadu Bello, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Margaret Ekpo, Herbert MaCaulay and others.
To achieve this target, the crew has involved the services of an Advisory Committee headed by historians, Prof. J.F Ade-Ajayi, who will guide the crew in the production, as well as make contributions in the scripting of the storyline. Other members of the committee include Prof. Obaro Ikime, Mahdi Abdullahi, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Chief Mrs. HID Awolowo and other key witnesses and participants.
It would be recalled that the project had already received the endorsement of the Information and Communications Minister, Prof. Dora Akunyili, who had pledged the support of her ministry. The programme is also open to corporate organization, government agencies and individuals, who would want to use the platform to showcase their goods and services to the world.
GOOD product sells itself. This could be the best way to describe what transpired at the special presentation of the Nigeria: The Series, where two Nigeria's former leaders; General Yakubu Gowon and Chief Alex Ekwueme, publicly threw their weights behind the TV drama series aimed at telling the true Nigerian story to the rest of the world.
After listening to a detailed presentation by the production team at the Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos, the two former leaders, alongside the Information and Communications Minister, Prof. Dora Akunyili, who was represented by a top officer from the ministry, were convinced that Nigeria: The Series, will play a vital role in the re-brading Nigeria project, which the federal government is presently pursuing.
Co-produced by The Serengeti Network headed by America's Lloyd Weaver and Storm 360 led by Obi Asika, the project will take as its subject, the 150 years of unrelenting struggle against European forces, who appeared on the shore of Nigeria first as traders and missionaries, but later, with superior arms, destroyed the centuries old civilisations established by the ancestors. The 13 episodes drama, which is being put together to mark the 5oth Anniversary of Nigeria, will also re-enact in details, the continual wars of resistance waged by our forefathers and mothers, first with guns and cannons, bows and arrows and later with pen and words.
The series will bring to life the events and the personalities that brought about victorious declaration of the free and independent nation called Nigeria. The intention is to debunk the notion, especially from the western world, which posited that Nigeria as a nation was not fought for, and reveal for all Nigerians the common heritage represented by the inspiring deed of the forefathers of the country.
Speaking at the official presentation, former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon commended the initiators of the programme, which he believed, would make young Nigerians take interest in the country again.
"This is a welcomed series that will tell the history of Nigeria by Nigerians. It will show the true history and quality of Nigeria as a country. It's time for us as Nigerians to begin to sell the country properly and correctly to the entire world. "
Gowon, who was the chairman of the occasion, called on all well meaning Nigerians to support the initiative.
"I believe in this project and I call on my colleagues, the older generation to support it. We need to start re-making this country and the only way we can re-brand is by removing bad things from ourselves. We need to correct our own ways and move towards the part of good. But producers of this programme should try as much as possible to get in touch with the older generation and get interviews about this country from them, it's very important. We need to get their stories for this series. This programme is worth supporting," the elder statesman charged.
Observing that most members of the production team are from the Eastern part of the country, the former leader used the opportunity to clear the air on why Nigeria went to war against Biafra.
"The war was not a fight against the Igbo race, but a fight against the then leadership of the Igbos, who wanted to breakaway from the country. As the leader of the nation then, we wanted to find other means of resolving the problem, but by the time the declaration (of the sovereign state of Biafra) was made, we had no option than to fight. We fought not to kill the Igbos, but to keep Nigeria together; I had an Igbo girlfriend then, so, I couldn't have declared a war that will kill the Igbos. Nigeria would have been a failure, if we had let the Igbos go then. We know their contributions to the growth and development of this nation," Gowon declared.
In his own remark, former Vice President, Chief Alex Ekwueme observed that the project will play a vital role in keeping intact, the true history of Nigeria as against the ones usually told by the western world in history book.
"I remember those days, the only thing you hear about history in Nigeria is how Mungo Park and Landers Brothers discovered River Niger. I really congratulate the initiators of this project for thinking it wise to come out with a project that would define the true history of the country. I will join in asking all Nigerians to give this project their full support."
Earlier in his opening speech, the CEO of Storm 360, Obi Asika informed that the project is very important to the crew than anything else.
"We've been involved in so many TV productions in Nigeria, but nothing is important to us than this project; it's the story of our lives. If you are truly a Nigerian, you need to see this project; I cannot imagine any media that will be more engaging than Nigeria: The Series."
Asika is of the opinion that the project would go a long way in shaping Nigeria as a nation, calling on corporate organisations to support the initiative.
"We are going to bring to live people that helped shape this country. It's about us as a people and we believe that we deserve the best. This is a global story and we will run it in America, UK and other international platforms. Nigeria is 50 years this year and we are ripped to unlock other projects."
In his presentation, the co-producer and scriptwriter of the series, Lloyd Weaver, recalled how the idea of putting down the history of Nigeria on paper came to him years ago.
"As an American, I've lived in this country for 29 years now. I remember those days, my children used to bring their homework to me to help them out, but I've never seen anything about history in their whole work; that got me thinking. From my secondary school days, we knew how America became America through history. So, I decided to put down a script on the history of Nigeria, which we later developed into Nigeria: The Series."
According to the filmmaker, who took the audience through the production schedule for the project, every nation needs history to get to wherever it's heading to.
"We need the past to get to our target. History is about who we are and this show will clarify misconceptions, teach important lessons and celebrate the country.
The objective of the series, according to Weaver, is "to enlighten Nigerians, uplift their spirit of patriotism, inform and educate them about this nation. How many times have you seen the lives of the founding fathers of this nation in a story? You see such things in other countries, but here, you don't get to hear about them. This is a story of a nation molded from different tribes with distinct language and custom."
The 13 dramatic episodes will begin with the glorious and advanced kingdoms and nation states that prevailed from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Nigeria: The Series will tell of the thousands of brave men and women, who resisted the canons and maxim guns of the Europeans whose intention was to claim our lands as their own. The story will then move to the twentieth century to depict those valiant, brilliant and determined men and women, who ultimately outwitted the British and boldly declared Nigeria an independent and free nation among nations.
In presenting the 150 years for freedom, Nigeria: The Series will create for all Nigerians an acute understanding of the true heritage of the country, by depicting the forefathers from early childhood through their moments of confrontation with the British colonists.
Meanwhile, The project will be film on location throughout Nigeria with key scenes filmed in London, The United States and Ghana, using absolute state of the art high definition technology and will gather together the most experienced Nigerian technical crew from home and the Diaspora. The crew will meticulously recreate five different historical eras with attention to historical detail in costumes, building, music, and settings.
The production will also involve Nigerian actors, who will portray characters ranging from Al Kanemi, Caliph Attahiru1, Nanna of Itsekiri and Oba Overanwen N'Ogbaisi, to Ahmadu Bello, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Margaret Ekpo, Herbert MaCaulay and others.
To achieve this target, the crew has involved the services of an Advisory Committee headed by historians, Prof. J.F Ade-Ajayi, who will guide the crew in the production, as well as make contributions in the scripting of the storyline. Other members of the committee include Prof. Obaro Ikime, Mahdi Abdullahi, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Chief Mrs. HID Awolowo and other key witnesses and participants.
It would be recalled that the project had already received the endorsement of the Information and Communications Minister, Prof. Dora Akunyili, who had pledged the support of her ministry. The programme is also open to corporate organization, government agencies and individuals, who would want to use the platform to showcase their goods and services to the world.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Decision 2010
By Anthony Akaeze, Newswatch
All is now set for the gubernatorial election in Anambra State taking place February 6
They spent the last moments of the event smiling and exchanging banters as if they are the best of friends. They are not. They are but rivals in search of a diadem. And each one of them had, in the last few months, traversed the state to canvass for votes as the Febuary 6, 2010 governorship election in Anambra State approaches.
Tagged the “Anambra Great Debate,” the event, which held in Awka January 26, was organised by The Anambra Rebirth and Anambra State Good Governance Forum for the purpose of familiarising Anambra indigenes at home and abroad, and Nigerians in general with the governorship candidates in the state and letting them know their manifestos for the state. By the time the debate ended, some people probably had changed or made up their mind on whom to vote for, as each of the six candidates separately took his turn at the forum to once more appeal to the people of the state for support to enable him clinch the governorship slot in the February 6, election.
The debate, in many ways, marked the beginning of the end of political campaigns in the state, which for many of the candidates, began many months ago.
It was billed to host seven candidates but only six turned up. They include Peter Obi, the incumbent governor of Anambra State who will run on the ticket of the All Progressives People’s Grand Alliance, APGA; Chukwuma Soludo of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP; Andy Uba of the Labour Party, LP; Nicholas Ukachukwu of the Hope Democratic Party, Chris Ngige of the Action Congress, AC, and Okey Nwosu of African Democratic Congress, ADC. Uche Ekwunife, the candidate of the Progressive People’s Alliance, PPA, was absent. Her media aide said she went on a campaign tour to a community in the state and could not attend the debate because the timing clashed with her political programmes which involved many of her supporters at the grassroots level. “She went on a community tour of Awada Obosi. The appointment had been fixed and had previously been shifted twice. The truth is that she has a high regard for the organisers of the debate and would have been part of it but for the fact that it conflicted with the community tour,” said Clem Aguiyi, her media assistant.
The seven candidates were chosen out of a motley 25 who registered for the election. The organisers considered them the front runners or serious contenders. But the decision did not go down well with the excluded candidates and they sought to make a show of it.
Midway into the programme which lasted two hours, a mild drama ensued when two of the excluded candidates walked up to the podium to apparently register their displeasure and protest their non inclusion. But an official came up and pushed them away. Soon, mobile policemen mounted the stage to prevent any trouble and possible disruption of the programme. For about ten minutes, the hall became rowdy, leading Reuben Abati, one of the three panelists, to appeal for calm.
But that incident did not take away the shine nor distract the contestants from further appealing to the consciousness of Anambra people.
Nwosu insisted that his decision to run for governor was borne out of the poor leadership the state has witnessed. “The biggest problem in Anambra State is that of leadership. Those who claim to lead us have failed us,” he said. According to him, rather than offer service to the people, past and present leaders of the state had drained the state’s scarce resources. He promised to provide the right leadership if elected governor.
Soludo also pooh-poohed the poor quality leadership in the state as the reason why he chose to join the gubernatorial race. Saying that his state had suffered from poor leadership since its creation, the former Central Bank governor reiterated his desire to utilise the resources of the state and turn it into a model for others. He promised to deploy every mechanism, “both formal and informal,” to create wealth through micro-credit schemes and agriculture. But his manifesto, he insisted, would be anchored on security which he described as the “bedrock of my programme and masterplan for a new beginning.”
Andy Uba said part of his plan would be to turn Anambra State into a food basket. Anambra State, he said, is blessed with fertile lands but these have not been harnessed because “there’s no system and infrastructure to assist the local people to bring their food into other parts of Nigeria.”
For Ukachukwu, the task of governing Anambra requires someone with a track record of achievement and experience. He said he loves taking on challanges and that was what has motivated him to offer himself for service. If voted into office, he would create jobs and wealth for Anambra people and provide effective leadership.
Ngige said he was inspired by the need to make a difference. Just as in previous electioneering campaigns, Ngige, a former governor of the state, said he was seeking to return to government house Awka to consolidate on his previous achievements. Part of his mission, this time, he said, would be to transform Onitsha, the commercial town, into a beautiful city that people would be proud of. Politics to him, is “not a means for personal aggrandisement" but for service to the people.
Obi, the incumbent governor, believes that his government, since the past few years has come to represent the new face of Anambra State. Apart from his achievements in the various sectors which he believes are enough to earn him a second term, Obi, who also blamed his predecessor for contributing to the state of insecurity in the state through the kidnapping saga involving him and his erstwhile godfather, noted that his government had been able to entrench credibility in the system, such that “the best people and right role models are celebrated” as against the previous system where people of questionable character, were the role models.
While the men were busy appealing for votes at the Emmaus House, venue of the event, Ekwunife was out in the streets canvassing for hers. She told her supporters at the Obosi rally that she would make the difference in government if elected into office. Her views that day were not different from what she told Newswatch in Awka the week before. “The issue at stake is not about gender, age or religion but about somebody with the confidence and capacity, who understands and can govern the state. We will make the people proud once they trust us with their mandate,” she said, adding that “in Igbo land, we say that when things go wrong, we usually look for a woman. So the time has come when we should think of supporting a woman. When you talk of proper change, changing from one man to another is not real change. Let’s change from man to woman.”
Anambra State has never had a more robust, if not competitive political run. What the people want to see now is a free and fair election. But some people already have their doubt about the capacity of INEC (The Independent National Electoral Commission), to conduct a free and fair election. Ndu Nnatuanya, a resident of Awka, is one of such pessimists. He told Newswatch in Awka two weeks ago that “the problem is that INEC has shown that it cannot guarantee a free and fair election. For example, seventy percent of the people have no voters card. INEC did not inform the people when the voters registration was going on. They said the exercise would last one month, but they only informed the people two weeks before the expiration. Even then, people that went to register could not find INEC. I didn’t see INEC at Ugbugbankwa or Amikwo where they were supposed to be registering people. The exercise has since ended. I don’t see how they can conduct free and fair election since many people couldn’t register and as such are ineligible to vote.”
That is not the only source of worry. Recently, there were reports in the newspapers that some electoral materials meant for the Anambra election were intercepted at Ihiala by policemen. This further raised fears as to whether there would be a credible election devoid of rigging. Such fears are not out of place. But Maurice Iwu, the chairman of INEC, told Newswatch, last week, that INEC has put in place the necessary machinery to conduct a free and fair election in Anambra on February 6. He said: “We have done all the necessary preparations to have a hitch-free election. We have done the voters registration. We have displayed the voters register, made the corrections and we have distributed the register to all the parties concerned. We have also followed the timetable we laid out. There is no date that we have missed.
All is now set for the gubernatorial election in Anambra State taking place February 6
They spent the last moments of the event smiling and exchanging banters as if they are the best of friends. They are not. They are but rivals in search of a diadem. And each one of them had, in the last few months, traversed the state to canvass for votes as the Febuary 6, 2010 governorship election in Anambra State approaches.
Tagged the “Anambra Great Debate,” the event, which held in Awka January 26, was organised by The Anambra Rebirth and Anambra State Good Governance Forum for the purpose of familiarising Anambra indigenes at home and abroad, and Nigerians in general with the governorship candidates in the state and letting them know their manifestos for the state. By the time the debate ended, some people probably had changed or made up their mind on whom to vote for, as each of the six candidates separately took his turn at the forum to once more appeal to the people of the state for support to enable him clinch the governorship slot in the February 6, election.
The debate, in many ways, marked the beginning of the end of political campaigns in the state, which for many of the candidates, began many months ago.
It was billed to host seven candidates but only six turned up. They include Peter Obi, the incumbent governor of Anambra State who will run on the ticket of the All Progressives People’s Grand Alliance, APGA; Chukwuma Soludo of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP; Andy Uba of the Labour Party, LP; Nicholas Ukachukwu of the Hope Democratic Party, Chris Ngige of the Action Congress, AC, and Okey Nwosu of African Democratic Congress, ADC. Uche Ekwunife, the candidate of the Progressive People’s Alliance, PPA, was absent. Her media aide said she went on a campaign tour to a community in the state and could not attend the debate because the timing clashed with her political programmes which involved many of her supporters at the grassroots level. “She went on a community tour of Awada Obosi. The appointment had been fixed and had previously been shifted twice. The truth is that she has a high regard for the organisers of the debate and would have been part of it but for the fact that it conflicted with the community tour,” said Clem Aguiyi, her media assistant.
The seven candidates were chosen out of a motley 25 who registered for the election. The organisers considered them the front runners or serious contenders. But the decision did not go down well with the excluded candidates and they sought to make a show of it.
Midway into the programme which lasted two hours, a mild drama ensued when two of the excluded candidates walked up to the podium to apparently register their displeasure and protest their non inclusion. But an official came up and pushed them away. Soon, mobile policemen mounted the stage to prevent any trouble and possible disruption of the programme. For about ten minutes, the hall became rowdy, leading Reuben Abati, one of the three panelists, to appeal for calm.
But that incident did not take away the shine nor distract the contestants from further appealing to the consciousness of Anambra people.
Nwosu insisted that his decision to run for governor was borne out of the poor leadership the state has witnessed. “The biggest problem in Anambra State is that of leadership. Those who claim to lead us have failed us,” he said. According to him, rather than offer service to the people, past and present leaders of the state had drained the state’s scarce resources. He promised to provide the right leadership if elected governor.
Soludo also pooh-poohed the poor quality leadership in the state as the reason why he chose to join the gubernatorial race. Saying that his state had suffered from poor leadership since its creation, the former Central Bank governor reiterated his desire to utilise the resources of the state and turn it into a model for others. He promised to deploy every mechanism, “both formal and informal,” to create wealth through micro-credit schemes and agriculture. But his manifesto, he insisted, would be anchored on security which he described as the “bedrock of my programme and masterplan for a new beginning.”
Andy Uba said part of his plan would be to turn Anambra State into a food basket. Anambra State, he said, is blessed with fertile lands but these have not been harnessed because “there’s no system and infrastructure to assist the local people to bring their food into other parts of Nigeria.”
For Ukachukwu, the task of governing Anambra requires someone with a track record of achievement and experience. He said he loves taking on challanges and that was what has motivated him to offer himself for service. If voted into office, he would create jobs and wealth for Anambra people and provide effective leadership.
Ngige said he was inspired by the need to make a difference. Just as in previous electioneering campaigns, Ngige, a former governor of the state, said he was seeking to return to government house Awka to consolidate on his previous achievements. Part of his mission, this time, he said, would be to transform Onitsha, the commercial town, into a beautiful city that people would be proud of. Politics to him, is “not a means for personal aggrandisement" but for service to the people.
Obi, the incumbent governor, believes that his government, since the past few years has come to represent the new face of Anambra State. Apart from his achievements in the various sectors which he believes are enough to earn him a second term, Obi, who also blamed his predecessor for contributing to the state of insecurity in the state through the kidnapping saga involving him and his erstwhile godfather, noted that his government had been able to entrench credibility in the system, such that “the best people and right role models are celebrated” as against the previous system where people of questionable character, were the role models.
While the men were busy appealing for votes at the Emmaus House, venue of the event, Ekwunife was out in the streets canvassing for hers. She told her supporters at the Obosi rally that she would make the difference in government if elected into office. Her views that day were not different from what she told Newswatch in Awka the week before. “The issue at stake is not about gender, age or religion but about somebody with the confidence and capacity, who understands and can govern the state. We will make the people proud once they trust us with their mandate,” she said, adding that “in Igbo land, we say that when things go wrong, we usually look for a woman. So the time has come when we should think of supporting a woman. When you talk of proper change, changing from one man to another is not real change. Let’s change from man to woman.”
Anambra State has never had a more robust, if not competitive political run. What the people want to see now is a free and fair election. But some people already have their doubt about the capacity of INEC (The Independent National Electoral Commission), to conduct a free and fair election. Ndu Nnatuanya, a resident of Awka, is one of such pessimists. He told Newswatch in Awka two weeks ago that “the problem is that INEC has shown that it cannot guarantee a free and fair election. For example, seventy percent of the people have no voters card. INEC did not inform the people when the voters registration was going on. They said the exercise would last one month, but they only informed the people two weeks before the expiration. Even then, people that went to register could not find INEC. I didn’t see INEC at Ugbugbankwa or Amikwo where they were supposed to be registering people. The exercise has since ended. I don’t see how they can conduct free and fair election since many people couldn’t register and as such are ineligible to vote.”
That is not the only source of worry. Recently, there were reports in the newspapers that some electoral materials meant for the Anambra election were intercepted at Ihiala by policemen. This further raised fears as to whether there would be a credible election devoid of rigging. Such fears are not out of place. But Maurice Iwu, the chairman of INEC, told Newswatch, last week, that INEC has put in place the necessary machinery to conduct a free and fair election in Anambra on February 6. He said: “We have done all the necessary preparations to have a hitch-free election. We have done the voters registration. We have displayed the voters register, made the corrections and we have distributed the register to all the parties concerned. We have also followed the timetable we laid out. There is no date that we have missed.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Assassinations too many: 53 Cases Recorded over the Years
By Vincent Ukpong Kalu, Sun News Online
The assassination of Mr. Dipo Dina, the Action Congress (AC) Ogun State standard bearer in the 2007 governorship election, last Monday, has once again brought to the fore the bloodletting in the country’s politics. At the last count, there are about 53 cases, with many of them unresolved by security agencies.
Politically motivated killings started during the military era. For instance, on October 19, 1986, an eminent journalists and founding editor of Newswatch, Mr. Dele Giwa, was assassinated with a parcel bomb. Elder statesman and NADECO financier, Pa Alfred Rewane was murdered in his Ikeja GRA residence, in 2004. Also, Mrs. Kudirat, wife of Chief M.K.O.Abiola, the acclaimed winner of June 12, 1993 presidential election, was killed in Lagos.
Under democracy, there has been an avalanche of politically motivated killings. The list is endless and the victims range from the mighty to the relatively unknown politicians.
On December 23, 2001, Chief Bola Ige, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, was brutally killed in his residence at Ibadan, Oyo State. Chief Harry Marshal, a chieftain of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) was, on March 5, 2003, murdered in his residence. He was a staunch member of Peoples Democratic Party and later defected to ANPP. The police claimed that they arrested the killers and paraded them before newsmen, but a weekly news magazine investigated and reported that the suspected criminals had been in police custody even before then. According to the magazine, the police brought out the suspects and promised them to own up to killing Marshal and get freedom.
On February 6, 2004, unknown gunmen killed PDP National Vice Chairman (South South), Chief Aminasoari Dikibo, in Delta State. The police said it was an armed robbery attack, while the family and most Nigerians think otherwise. On September 9, 1999, Sunday Ugwu, elder brother of Nwabueze Ugwu, a legislator representing Nkanu East in Enugu State, was killed in an alleged case of mistaken identity. Mr. Victor Nwankwo, Managing Director of Fourth Dimension Publishers and younger brother of Chief Arthur Nwankwo, was assassinated in Enugu in 2006.
On February 8, 2003, unknown gunmen killed Chief Ogbonnaya Uche, ANPP senatorial candidate for Orlu zone in his Owerri home. He was to contest the April 2003 general election against Senator Arthur Nzeribe.
Theodore Agwatu, Principal Secretary of Imo State governor, was also murdered in Owerri, the same way Issa Zaria, a Kwara State ANPP chieftain, was killed. Also felled by assassins’ bullets was Yemi Oni, Ekiti State Alliance for Democracy (AD) chieftain while returning from a campaign rally.
On March 4, 2004, Chief Andrew Agom, PDP trustee and ex-Nigeria Airways boss, was killed in the convoy of the then governor of Benue State, George Akume. Almost at the same time, the caretaker Chairman of Bassa Local Government, Luke Shigaba, was killed by unknown gunmen. He was said to have handed over as a caretaker chairman of the LGA two weeks earlier before picking the PDP ticket for the March 27 2004 council election.
In the same of month of March 2004, a lecturer with Alvan Ikoku College of Education, unidentified assassin in his office gruesomely murdered Chief Uche Ogbe in his office in cold blood. On September 6, 2003, a lawyer, Dipo Garba and his wife, Bosede were assassinated at their resident on Fulani Road, Kurmin Marshi, a suburb of Kaduna. Unknown gunmen in the presence of three of the children including a 10-month-old baby girl shot them.
Dr. Tony Iloegbunam, Head of Department, Geology and Mining, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) was shot dead by unknown two gunmen in his office about 11.30 am on November 12, 2003.
On December 23,2004, candidate for the vacant stool of Unuvworo of Ekpan in Delta State, Godwin Merarosue Itegu was killed by suspected assassins who invaded his residence. Two friends who were with him were also shot. A retired Central Bank of Nigeria staffer, Alhaji Sule Abubakari Okponbi was killed in his hometown at Agenegbode, Etsako East LG, Edo State. He was abducted by a nine-man gang and assassinated on November 22, 2005.
On May 15, 2005, AD chieftain and leading financier of Oranmiyan Group in Osun State, Alabi Olkoju, was murdered in Gbongan area of the state by suspected assassins. On July 17, Alhaji, Lateef Olaniyan (alias Lati Osogbo), a close associate of Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu was murdered at Elewure Bus stop, Sango, Ibadan.
On September, 28, 2004, the Executive Director (Services) of Nigeria Gas Company, Alhaji Ahmed Abdullah, was killed along NNPC Housing Complex road, Ekpan in Uvwie LG, Delta, Delta State by assassins. On October 12,2004, a popular pilot and air safety activist, Captain Jerry Agbeyegbe, was brutally killed in Lagos as he was cruising in his BMW car with a girl he had picked up on Victoria Island.
On January 4, 2005, a prominent medical doctor in Oyo State, Dr. Phillip Oguuniran, member of the state Hospital Management Board, was killed by yet to be identified assassins. On August 13, 2002, Mrs. Janet Olapede, a leader of PDP in Oniparaga, Ondo State, was clubbed to death by assassins.
That was not to be the end of the killing, as on August 15, 2002 Alhaji Ahmed Pategi, also a PDP Chairman in Kwara State, was assassinated at a place near Aiyetoro in Kogi State. Iyalekhue, former Edo State Commissioner of Police, was assassinated on July 31,2001.
On September 10, 2002, assassins also hacked Chief Igwe Barnabas, an Onitsha branch chairman of Nigerian Bar Association and his wife, Abigail Amaka down. The lawyer was said to be so critical of Anambra State government under Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju.
Hon. Odunayo Olagbaju, who represented Ile-Ife constituency in Osun House of Assembly, was murdered on December 21, 2001, two days after Bola Ige was killed. Another Ibadan businesswoman, Mrs. Suliat Adedeji, was murdered at the same time.
PDP chieftain and chairman, Community Development Committee (CDC), Warri-South West Council, Sunny Deghele, was shot dead on December 12, 2005. In March, 2004, Kogi State Electoral Commissioner, Chief Phillip Oloronipa, was killed at his residence in Kabba, Kogi State. On July 16, 2005, the PDP Assistant National Director, Research and Planning, Anthony Ozioko, was killed at his residence in Sabon-Gwagwa, Abuja by unknown gunmen.
On June 30, 2006 gubernatorial aspirant of Advanced Congress of Democrats in Plateau State, Jesse Arukwu, was abducted and on the second day, his lifeless body was found around his house in Bassa LG, Plateau.
Unknown gunmen on July 2006, assassinated Engr. Funsho Williams, PDP gubernatorial aspirant in Lagos State for 2007 general election in his home, in Ikoyi, Lagos. Incidentally, on the day Funsho Williams was buried, another gubernatorial hopeful of PDP, in Ekiti State, Dr. Ayo Daramola, was killed at his home in Ekiti.
On February 17, 2006, PDP chieftain, Robert Ogbonlu, was killed by gunmen in Obiaruku, Delta State. Also, Hassan Olejoku, an associate of former Lagos State governor, Ahmed Tinubu, was also sent to untimely grave by assassins.
Two gunmen assassinated Assistant Bishop of the Anglican Church in Bida, Niger State, Ven. Elijah Yisa on January 26, 2006 in his residence. Also, a lecturer with the Department of Social Studies, College of Education, Katsina-Ala, Julius Uga, was killed by assassins on July 10, 2006. Chief Godwin Ugokwe (Alias Boiling), an Aba-based international businessman, was murdered on August 20, 2006.
On January 14, 2006, suspected assassins invaded the home of former Kano State governor, Abubkar Rimi and killed his wife. On December 25, 2005, Delta State businessman, Mr. Jackson Edema, alias Sunny Deghele, was assassinated in front of his residence. October1 2005 saw the murder of Chief Peter Ofudje, a traditional chief in Effurum, headquarters of Uvwie LG of Delta State.
Last year, Bayo Ohu, The Guardian Newspaper Assistant News Editor, was murdered in his home at 9, Oyebiji Street, off Odukoya Estate, Akowonjo, Lagos, by gunmen. His murder is reminiscent of the death of Godwin Agbroko, Chairman, Thisday Editorial Board, on the eve of Christmas in 2006 at Iyana Isolo, Lagos. Agbroko was returning from work when he was murdered in his car a stone throw to a police station by yet to be identified gunmen. His assailants did not take anything from his car.
He died before rescue could come to him. Abayomi Ogundeji, another journalist, also of ThisDay, was killed in cold blood on August 17, 2008. His death was surrounded by controversy, as fingers pointed at the Nigerian Police. Even as the matter is in court, a principal witness was assassinated at her home.
In 1983, Agwu Okpanku, a journalist with Daily Nation, published by the late Chief K. O. Mbadiwe, was killed and his corpse dumped beside the railway track in Umuahia to create the impression that a moving train hit him.
Bagauda Kalto of TheNews magazine was taken from his hotel room at Durbar Hotel, Kaduna and killed during the oppressive regime of the late General Sani Abacha.
Chinedu Ofoaro of The Guardian was also killed between Owerri and Onitsha during the military government of General Abacha. Gunmen flagged down the commercial vehicle he was travelling in and singled him out. His corpse was not seen. His family petitioned the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa panel and blamed his disappearance on government.
Charles Nsiegbe, Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s associates, was assassinated on November 21, 2009.
In all these killings, the various Inspectors General of Police have promised to leave no stone unturned in arresting the culprits. However, at the end of the day the murder cases are not resolved. It is also important to note that the police have always said, each time somebody is killed, that it is a case of armed robber. Nigerians have always condemned such hasty declarations. Indeed, wife of the late Mr. Bayo Ohu, The Guardian assistant news editor, underlined this when she expressed disappointment that the police declared the killing of her husband a robbery case, when the assailants did not take anything from their home, except their victim’s phones and laptop.
The assassination of Mr. Dipo Dina, the Action Congress (AC) Ogun State standard bearer in the 2007 governorship election, last Monday, has once again brought to the fore the bloodletting in the country’s politics. At the last count, there are about 53 cases, with many of them unresolved by security agencies.
Politically motivated killings started during the military era. For instance, on October 19, 1986, an eminent journalists and founding editor of Newswatch, Mr. Dele Giwa, was assassinated with a parcel bomb. Elder statesman and NADECO financier, Pa Alfred Rewane was murdered in his Ikeja GRA residence, in 2004. Also, Mrs. Kudirat, wife of Chief M.K.O.Abiola, the acclaimed winner of June 12, 1993 presidential election, was killed in Lagos.
Under democracy, there has been an avalanche of politically motivated killings. The list is endless and the victims range from the mighty to the relatively unknown politicians.
On December 23, 2001, Chief Bola Ige, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, was brutally killed in his residence at Ibadan, Oyo State. Chief Harry Marshal, a chieftain of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) was, on March 5, 2003, murdered in his residence. He was a staunch member of Peoples Democratic Party and later defected to ANPP. The police claimed that they arrested the killers and paraded them before newsmen, but a weekly news magazine investigated and reported that the suspected criminals had been in police custody even before then. According to the magazine, the police brought out the suspects and promised them to own up to killing Marshal and get freedom.
On February 6, 2004, unknown gunmen killed PDP National Vice Chairman (South South), Chief Aminasoari Dikibo, in Delta State. The police said it was an armed robbery attack, while the family and most Nigerians think otherwise. On September 9, 1999, Sunday Ugwu, elder brother of Nwabueze Ugwu, a legislator representing Nkanu East in Enugu State, was killed in an alleged case of mistaken identity. Mr. Victor Nwankwo, Managing Director of Fourth Dimension Publishers and younger brother of Chief Arthur Nwankwo, was assassinated in Enugu in 2006.
On February 8, 2003, unknown gunmen killed Chief Ogbonnaya Uche, ANPP senatorial candidate for Orlu zone in his Owerri home. He was to contest the April 2003 general election against Senator Arthur Nzeribe.
Theodore Agwatu, Principal Secretary of Imo State governor, was also murdered in Owerri, the same way Issa Zaria, a Kwara State ANPP chieftain, was killed. Also felled by assassins’ bullets was Yemi Oni, Ekiti State Alliance for Democracy (AD) chieftain while returning from a campaign rally.
On March 4, 2004, Chief Andrew Agom, PDP trustee and ex-Nigeria Airways boss, was killed in the convoy of the then governor of Benue State, George Akume. Almost at the same time, the caretaker Chairman of Bassa Local Government, Luke Shigaba, was killed by unknown gunmen. He was said to have handed over as a caretaker chairman of the LGA two weeks earlier before picking the PDP ticket for the March 27 2004 council election.
In the same of month of March 2004, a lecturer with Alvan Ikoku College of Education, unidentified assassin in his office gruesomely murdered Chief Uche Ogbe in his office in cold blood. On September 6, 2003, a lawyer, Dipo Garba and his wife, Bosede were assassinated at their resident on Fulani Road, Kurmin Marshi, a suburb of Kaduna. Unknown gunmen in the presence of three of the children including a 10-month-old baby girl shot them.
Dr. Tony Iloegbunam, Head of Department, Geology and Mining, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) was shot dead by unknown two gunmen in his office about 11.30 am on November 12, 2003.
On December 23,2004, candidate for the vacant stool of Unuvworo of Ekpan in Delta State, Godwin Merarosue Itegu was killed by suspected assassins who invaded his residence. Two friends who were with him were also shot. A retired Central Bank of Nigeria staffer, Alhaji Sule Abubakari Okponbi was killed in his hometown at Agenegbode, Etsako East LG, Edo State. He was abducted by a nine-man gang and assassinated on November 22, 2005.
On May 15, 2005, AD chieftain and leading financier of Oranmiyan Group in Osun State, Alabi Olkoju, was murdered in Gbongan area of the state by suspected assassins. On July 17, Alhaji, Lateef Olaniyan (alias Lati Osogbo), a close associate of Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu was murdered at Elewure Bus stop, Sango, Ibadan.
On September, 28, 2004, the Executive Director (Services) of Nigeria Gas Company, Alhaji Ahmed Abdullah, was killed along NNPC Housing Complex road, Ekpan in Uvwie LG, Delta, Delta State by assassins. On October 12,2004, a popular pilot and air safety activist, Captain Jerry Agbeyegbe, was brutally killed in Lagos as he was cruising in his BMW car with a girl he had picked up on Victoria Island.
On January 4, 2005, a prominent medical doctor in Oyo State, Dr. Phillip Oguuniran, member of the state Hospital Management Board, was killed by yet to be identified assassins. On August 13, 2002, Mrs. Janet Olapede, a leader of PDP in Oniparaga, Ondo State, was clubbed to death by assassins.
That was not to be the end of the killing, as on August 15, 2002 Alhaji Ahmed Pategi, also a PDP Chairman in Kwara State, was assassinated at a place near Aiyetoro in Kogi State. Iyalekhue, former Edo State Commissioner of Police, was assassinated on July 31,2001.
On September 10, 2002, assassins also hacked Chief Igwe Barnabas, an Onitsha branch chairman of Nigerian Bar Association and his wife, Abigail Amaka down. The lawyer was said to be so critical of Anambra State government under Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju.
Hon. Odunayo Olagbaju, who represented Ile-Ife constituency in Osun House of Assembly, was murdered on December 21, 2001, two days after Bola Ige was killed. Another Ibadan businesswoman, Mrs. Suliat Adedeji, was murdered at the same time.
PDP chieftain and chairman, Community Development Committee (CDC), Warri-South West Council, Sunny Deghele, was shot dead on December 12, 2005. In March, 2004, Kogi State Electoral Commissioner, Chief Phillip Oloronipa, was killed at his residence in Kabba, Kogi State. On July 16, 2005, the PDP Assistant National Director, Research and Planning, Anthony Ozioko, was killed at his residence in Sabon-Gwagwa, Abuja by unknown gunmen.
On June 30, 2006 gubernatorial aspirant of Advanced Congress of Democrats in Plateau State, Jesse Arukwu, was abducted and on the second day, his lifeless body was found around his house in Bassa LG, Plateau.
Unknown gunmen on July 2006, assassinated Engr. Funsho Williams, PDP gubernatorial aspirant in Lagos State for 2007 general election in his home, in Ikoyi, Lagos. Incidentally, on the day Funsho Williams was buried, another gubernatorial hopeful of PDP, in Ekiti State, Dr. Ayo Daramola, was killed at his home in Ekiti.
On February 17, 2006, PDP chieftain, Robert Ogbonlu, was killed by gunmen in Obiaruku, Delta State. Also, Hassan Olejoku, an associate of former Lagos State governor, Ahmed Tinubu, was also sent to untimely grave by assassins.
Two gunmen assassinated Assistant Bishop of the Anglican Church in Bida, Niger State, Ven. Elijah Yisa on January 26, 2006 in his residence. Also, a lecturer with the Department of Social Studies, College of Education, Katsina-Ala, Julius Uga, was killed by assassins on July 10, 2006. Chief Godwin Ugokwe (Alias Boiling), an Aba-based international businessman, was murdered on August 20, 2006.
On January 14, 2006, suspected assassins invaded the home of former Kano State governor, Abubkar Rimi and killed his wife. On December 25, 2005, Delta State businessman, Mr. Jackson Edema, alias Sunny Deghele, was assassinated in front of his residence. October1 2005 saw the murder of Chief Peter Ofudje, a traditional chief in Effurum, headquarters of Uvwie LG of Delta State.
Last year, Bayo Ohu, The Guardian Newspaper Assistant News Editor, was murdered in his home at 9, Oyebiji Street, off Odukoya Estate, Akowonjo, Lagos, by gunmen. His murder is reminiscent of the death of Godwin Agbroko, Chairman, Thisday Editorial Board, on the eve of Christmas in 2006 at Iyana Isolo, Lagos. Agbroko was returning from work when he was murdered in his car a stone throw to a police station by yet to be identified gunmen. His assailants did not take anything from his car.
He died before rescue could come to him. Abayomi Ogundeji, another journalist, also of ThisDay, was killed in cold blood on August 17, 2008. His death was surrounded by controversy, as fingers pointed at the Nigerian Police. Even as the matter is in court, a principal witness was assassinated at her home.
In 1983, Agwu Okpanku, a journalist with Daily Nation, published by the late Chief K. O. Mbadiwe, was killed and his corpse dumped beside the railway track in Umuahia to create the impression that a moving train hit him.
Bagauda Kalto of TheNews magazine was taken from his hotel room at Durbar Hotel, Kaduna and killed during the oppressive regime of the late General Sani Abacha.
Chinedu Ofoaro of The Guardian was also killed between Owerri and Onitsha during the military government of General Abacha. Gunmen flagged down the commercial vehicle he was travelling in and singled him out. His corpse was not seen. His family petitioned the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa panel and blamed his disappearance on government.
Charles Nsiegbe, Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s associates, was assassinated on November 21, 2009.
In all these killings, the various Inspectors General of Police have promised to leave no stone unturned in arresting the culprits. However, at the end of the day the murder cases are not resolved. It is also important to note that the police have always said, each time somebody is killed, that it is a case of armed robber. Nigerians have always condemned such hasty declarations. Indeed, wife of the late Mr. Bayo Ohu, The Guardian assistant news editor, underlined this when she expressed disappointment that the police declared the killing of her husband a robbery case, when the assailants did not take anything from their home, except their victim’s phones and laptop.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
