*Ekwunife calls on FG to address reports of attacks on Nigerian Businesses by Ghananian Authorities*
The Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District and a frontline Governorship Aspirant for the 2021 Anambra Governorship election, Senator Uche Ekwunife has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to address reports of attacks on Nigerian businesses by Ghananian authorities.
In a statement on Thursday, Senator Ekwunife described the reported humiliation of Nigerian business owners by Ghananian authorities as disturbing and unwarranted. She expressed displeasure and disappointment at the manner in which the Ghanaian authorities are treating Nigerian business men and women.
According to her, “these actions on law abiding Nigerians and their businesses totally fall short of brotherliness, the content and spirit of Ecowas Treaty and such other International Conventions, of which Ghana is a signatory to”.
The Senator questioned why Ghanaian authorities should take pleasure in humiliating and destroying Nigerian businesses when Ghanaians are going about their normal businesses in Nigeria unmolested. She urged the Federal Government to investigate the matter with a view of coming to the aid of the affected Nigerians.
Senator Ekwunife warned that if these attacks are not nipped in the bud by the Ghanaian authorities, it may escalate into the streets as we witnessed recently in South Africa. This, she stated can smear the diplomatic relationship between the two West African countries.
The Senator also used the opportunity to call on INEC to maintain their integrity by ensuring free, fair, credible and transparent elections in the upcoming by-elections in some states and the Governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States to avoid the crises we are seeing in some countries where elections were rigged.
Malian army officer Colonel Assimi Goita announced himself on Wednesday as the coup leader who overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
“Let me introduce myself, I am colonel Assimi Goita, chairman of the National Committee for the salvation of the People,” he said after meeting top civil servants.
The colonel had appeared among a group of officers seen on television overnight Tuesday-Wednesday to announce the takeover, but did not speak.
The young military officers have indicated their interest to hand over to democratically elected executive in shortest possible time
Our children must know where they are coming from… Vision is important, so too is memory
Though the reintroduction of history into the curriculum of primary and secondary schools across the country last year by the Federal Government received commendation from many, the decision was not just borne out of the need to restore the subject in schools but in recognition of its contribution to the socio-political, economic and cultural development of Nigeria, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.
Prof. Osinbajo stated this on Monday at the inauguration of the Nigeria History Fund by the James Adekunle Ojelabi Foundation. The fund is dedicated to, among other things, supporting history students with a scholarship scheme.
According to the Vice President, “when the Federal Government decided to reintroduce history into the curriculum across primary and secondary schools last year, it was a decision borne out of the recognition that first our children must know where they are coming from and have an understanding of the life that preceded them.
“History is far too essential for us to deprioritise. It encourages us as individuals to not restrict ourselves to thinking in the short-term, but to remember that we too are living histories.”
Continuing, Prof. Osinbajo said “…we cannot sure-footedly chart a course forward without understanding where we are coming from. Vision is important but so too is memory. Nation building requires us to develop both faculties of imagination and remembrance. Indeed, this stewardship of national memory is a cardinal civic obligation.
“The future of a Nigeria that works for all of us, regardless of religion or ethnicity, depends on full and accurate knowledge of our histories.”
Speaking on the role of history in harnessing Nigeria’s rich cultural diversity, Prof. Osinbajo said the nation’s diversity as a unique strength for promoting national development would not be realized without a thorough understanding of its different cultural practices and social norms which are embedded in history.
He said: “We are blessed to belong to a nation that possesses such a rich history of art, technology, trade, metallurgy, political administration among many fields of human endeavour but this bountiful inheritance is often underexplored and underappreciated.
“History is a vast reservoir of cultural, spiritual and social capital waiting to be mined by a generation that will not neglect the ancient landmarks of our odyssey as a people.
“Whilst our ethnic diversity is a great strength, one of the biggest challenges to nation-building is this same ethno-religious diversity which can also engender detrimental social conflict.”
Describing the Nigeria History Fund as a befitting tribute to the late historian, James Adekunle Ojelabi, the Vice President said “as black people, as Africans, as Nigerians, we must reclaim our histories and nurture academic environments that make that possible.”
Commending the late historian, Prof. Osinbajo said “…as someone for whom so much of his life was dedicated to ensuring that the stories of our past were given the attention they rightfully deserve, supporting history students with a scholarship scheme is a thoughtful tribute to his legacy. I am also delighted to hear that the fund will keep conversations alive about the importance of history for modern day Nigeria.”
In his remarks, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo of the Trinity House, Lagos, who was Guest Speaker at the occasion, underscored the importance of history in the development and affirmation of people and their communities.
The event which coincided with the first anniversary of the James Adekunle Ojelabi Foundation featured presentation of awards to deserving individuals, including notable historians, like Prof. Bolanle Awe, Prof. Banji Akintoye among others.
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State yesterday insisted that no amount of threat, intimidation, or arm twisting will make him repeal the anti-open grazing law.He raised the alarm that Miyeitti Allah is planning to foist violence on the state.
Ortom said these in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Terver Akase, titled ‘Miyeitti Allah planning to destabilise Benue’.
Ortom said his offence was his dogged stand against open grazing of animals in the state and his call for the declaration of armed herdsmen as terrorists.
The statement reads in part, “For Governor Ortom who had previously come under a series of threats even to his life from armed herdsmen and their conspirators, the latest plot by these enemies of Benue State is not an unfamiliar terrain.
“The governor says he is not intimidated or distracted by the antics of armed Fulani herdsmen and their sponsors. No amount of falsehood in the media or any other platform can change his commitment to selfless service to Benue people.
“The governor says for the umpteenth time that the state will not repeal the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law to pave the way for Fulani herdsmen to take over the people’s ancestral lands for cattle grazing. The Law has not only come to stay; it is fully being enforced.
“The Ranching Law has been well accepted by the people of Benue State and no intimidation or arm-twisting tactics from the named groups can change it.
“Governor Ortom urges security forces to check the activities of Miyetti Allah groups who have sworn on several occasions to foist violence on Benue, and bring their members to justice for their crimes against the people of the state.”
Can you show me one multi-ethnic state in Europe where one group is positioned to dominate the rest that hasn’t broken up?
For those who may not know, what you call ethnic groups in Nigeria are called nations in Europe.
There’s nowhere in the world where the white man accepts domination from another white man in perpetuity.
It used to be so under the Roman empire and the like. Not anymore. The Communists tried it, dividing society into capitalists and proletariats, deluding themselves that ethnicity is effectively swept under the carpet, but what followed? The Communist edifices in Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and the big brother, USSR, all collapsed, while the two Germans that are ethnically the same but split by communism vs capitalism were reunited. Such is the power of ethnic nationalism.
Czechoslovakia was made up of two ethnic groups, the Czech and the Slovakians. Both separated peacefully on 1st January 1993. The former is today 10.6 million people and the latter 5.4 million. Added together, they’re not up to Lagos. Yet, they split for peace. Two masters can’t be in the same house.
Yugoslavia in 1991 was 23.2 million, barely more than Lagos population. It broke into six countries same year – all along ethnic lines, namely: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
Macedonia, Montenegro,Serbia, and Slovenia.
Then the big brother, USSR. It had, at least, the following ethnic groups identified by their languages:
Regional languages:
Ukrainian
Belarusian
Uzbek
Kazakh
Georgian
Azerbaijani
Lithuanian
Moldavian
Latvian
Kyrgyz
Tajik
Armenian
Turkmen
Estonian
Minority languages:
Abkhaz
Bashkir
Buryat
Chechen
Finnish
Volga German
Korean
Ossetian
Tatar
& various others.
Today, your fingers will not be enough to count the number of countries that have emerged from the USSR.
Sit down there and be preaching unity in Nigeria as if you’re the kindest gentleman on earth while you have no solution to the genocide in Southern Kaduna, the illegal but officially condoned arms in the hands of killer herdsmen roaming the country, and be condemning those better informed about the fact that the country is undergoing the strains of a forced union and should be peacefully restructured or let people go their separate ways.
In Europe, the two best examples of fairly stable multi-ethnic states are the UK and Switzerland. The former is led by reasonable men who permitted regional autonomy to the Irish, the Scots and the Welsh, while the English dominate Westminster. That’s something some of us are asking for, but you’re fighting against it in your own country wracked by ethnic crisis. Your own people are better off under oppression of fellow black men because your people have bad leaders who can’t do better than their new internal colonisers.
The latter country, Switzerland, has four ethnic groups. Each of them rotates the presidency annually through seven cantons that constitute the federation units. All the four languages of the four ethnic groups are recognized as official languages and school languages to boot, namely, German, French, Italian, and Romansch that has just a few thousand speakers!
There’s nowhere in the world where the Caucasians allow the domination of their group by another.
In Canada, Quebec is the only full French-speaking province, aside a little section of New Brunswick. The other seven provincesare English-speaking. Yet, Canada is bilingual for the sake of Quebec! And each of the provinces is largely self-governing.
Here we are in Nigeria, you have people arguing vehemently that a decrepit, structurally-flawed, and crisis-prone artificial contraption badly configured by the British only needs good people to survive. Why not centralise the powers of the British regions to London and see what happens?
