Following allegations by an employee of Diamond Bank, Mrs. Vivian Dimgba, that a Catholic priest and Principal of Imo Girls’ College, Owerri, attempted to assault her over how she dressed, the school management has now denied the woman’s version of the story.
It would be recalled that Dimgba’s story trended on social media and some news blogs over the week when she shared a picture of what she wore during her visit to the school to enquire about admission for her housemaid.
She identified the priest as Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Okwara.
Dimgba wrote on the Facebook wall that as she waited for information on her enquiry, “a priest in an all-white garb walked in. He came to me and said that he thought I was Bob Marley when I was walking in. I smiled, thinking he was trying to either banter or throw me a compliment.
“He now asked ‘Why are you dressed like this?’ I replied and asked him what he meant? I told him that it was a week day and I was working and it was how workers dressed. I was still smiling, trying to humour him and seriously hoping that it was all a joke.
“He said, ‘And why do you have a hair like that?’ I looked at the teachers, all with their weaves hair. I now turned and said, ‘Father, these are braids and I only came here to make inquiries.’
“He said, ‘Oh! You’re laughing! Oya, get up and get out. Go and change. We don’t tolerate hair like these here.’
“Then it dawned on me. I turned to the woman in front of me and I asked her if I was in model government college school? Maybe I was in the wrong place. While I was talking to the teacher, this priest, went in and grabbed a cane and started coming menacingly towards me with it.
“He wanted to start flogging me, screaming that I was indecent and a bad influence on the girls who saw me come in. He had to be held down by four women and man.”
One of our correspondents went in search of the Rev. Fr. Okwara, at the school on Friday but he was unavailable at the time.
However, the vice principal of the school, Mrs. Florence Amahuru, who spoke on his behalf, said that Dimgba’s allegations were “simply mischievous.”
According to her, unlike the attire the woman shared on the social media, she was indecently dressed, which made the priest to reprimand her.
The woman explained that the priest and the members of staff of the school were surprised by what the woman was putting on and told her that such indecent attire was a bad influence on the children, especially girls.
“The principal is a disciplined man. He never assaulted her but reprimanded her for putting on cloths that exposed her body. She was almost naked. The picture she shared on Facebook was not what she wore to the school. The inner wear including her breasts were exposed.
“It was when the argument became heated that he went into her car and wore a jacket to cover her exposed body. Her tummy was completely showing.”
Amahuru said she knew the woman was trouble when she came back to the premises with her husband and started taking pictures of people and shouting.
Dimgba had said in her version of the event, “I don’t know the laws and regulations they have in these schools. But decency I know can be subjective. So, what was the yardstick he used to measure my indecency? He was going to flog me with a cane if not that he was held down.”
She had also indicated that she was suing the priest for abuse of power and threat to do bodily harm.
“He (the priest) comes in the morning and leaves by 10am same morning for the whole day. And he has done that every other day for the past three years,” she said.
But the vice principal of the school said this was another lie.
“I had to drink my urine to survive in the desert, Nigerians were just dying like chickens everyday on our journey through the desert. I buried some of them and others we just threw away their bodies because there was no time to bury them. I can never wish my enemies to go through such horror in a bid to travel outside the country to earn a living”.
This was an account of one of the 84 Nigerians who tried to escape to Europe through Libya but were deported to the country after spending one and a half years in dehumanizing conditions. It was indeed a tale of horror and a pitiable sight last Tuesday at Government House Benin City, when Governor Godwin Obaseki, received 84 Libya deportees as they narrated their ordeals in the hands of the Libyan authorities even as they also lamented the death of many Nigerians in the desert.
I went through hell in Libya——Survivor
Speaking with Saturday Vanguard, one of the deportees, 27 years old Eric Idemudia narrated his harrowing experience on his aborted journey to Italy through Libya “I stayed in Libya for one year and six months. My journey started when I met one man called Dickson in Benin who asked me if I was interested in traveling out and I said yes. He said he would help me to Italy but I told him I was only interested in going to Austria. When I asked him how much it would cost me, he said N500,000 and I told him I would pay. So, I looked for the money and I went to give him at Agbor park after informing my family that I was traveling outside the country. When I got to Dickson I discovered that we were five boys and nine girls.
The next day we boarded a vehicle to Kano and from there proceeded to Niger Republic on motorcycles. In Niger, we stayed in one Alhaji’s ghetto, spent about two weeks there before we mounted pressure on our sponsor to call the Arab man who was to take us to Libya. I complained to our sponsor that he did not tell me this was how the journey would be but he kept telling me that I should not be bothered. I was the one paying for everything, my family was even sending money to me. Then, one night they came with about 16 Hilux vehicles and took about 200 of us. 34 persons were inside the vehicle I boarded as we squeezed ourselves inside it. We spent two weeks in Agadez before we entered the desert.
After the third day in the desert, one of my friends said he was thirsty, but unfortunately what was available in the desert was salt water. At a point, my friend ran to meet somebody in another Hilux to beg for water but unknown to him, the person added Tramadol into the water and my friend drank it. After drinking it he became dizzy, he fell down and died. We dug the ground of about one foot, buried him and we moved on. “The next day, Saturday, another boy complained of being thirsty, and we advised him to drink his urine. I had been taking my urine also, that was the only way to survive in the desert because there was no water. As we set out again at about 2am to continue our journey, this particular boy fell down and died.
In the desert, there was nowhere to hide , the sun was just too hot. On our was to Tripoli, about ten persons died and the drivers said we should just push them out of the vehicle as there was no time for burial. I spent sixteen days in the desert before we got to Libyan Toll gate where we slept. The following day we got to a place called Saba, where we met a man who was notorious as a killer. He would get hold of the immigrants and ask them to inform their family to send money to them and those who could not get money, he would kill them. We saw a lot of corpses in that place.
At that point I wanted to go back home but it was not possible. I was in that ghetto for five months, I could not get to the sea to move to Europe. “Another thing I discovered was that some of us were sold as slaves to some Nigerians who were into human trafficking. They would ask the Nigerian immigrants to call their family in Nigeria to send money to them. We were therefore at their mercy because they gave us little food just to survive everyday. I was sold to one Nigerian unknown to me that I was a slave to him. My people back home sent over one million naira to him thinking I was the one making use of the money.
I spent five months in another ghetto, and it was there that some people came to arrest us, and took us to a prison called Griyan prison. We were fed with one small bread called Oza, and that was what we would eat throughout the day. The second day they came with partly cooked rice, soaked in water and people were eating and dying. After spending two days we were moved to Tripoli, which was the worst. They brought one pack of rice and asked five of us to eat it.
That was what we suffered before we were finally deported. “I cannot advise anybody to pass through this in life. But the problem is that these sponsors are still hypnotizing our people to go this way, collecting money from them. People died like chickens every day there, I buried many people with my bare hands. So, it is better to suffer here than over there. Even if you don’t have food to eat in your country it is better than going to Libya to die.
I was a bricklayer before I left and I am ready to go back to it”. One of the deportees, Miss Blessing Sunday was from Ovia North East Local Government Area of the state. Another deportee, Miss Rosemary Oboh pleaded with the governor to employ her father while expressing their appreciation to the governor for the warm reception accorded them. She said, “It was wrong for us to sneak out of our country. We did it because we thought we would be able to achieve something. We love you for welcoming us back home as a father, a leader and our governor”.
Share your harrowing experience with others——Gov Obaseki
While receiving the deportees, Governor Obaseki who was visibly touched, assured the deportees comprising sixty males and twenty-four females, that his administration would place them on a monthly stipend for three months while they undergo various vocational training. “You should see your current situation as a passing phase in the journey of life. You are back to where you came from and you will be taken care of.
For the next three months, we will put you on a special stipend” the governor said adding that his administration would ensure that they receive vocational training while those who were interested in pursuing higher education would be given scholarship. He explained that the goal of the government was to make them ambassadors who would sensitise other youths about the risks associated with illegal migration. “You will not wish what you went through for even your enemies.
So we will make you ambassadors, to share your harrowing experience with others. We are not out to judge you, we will not judge you. We are all humans and we all make mistakes. Anybody can be deceived. I want to welcome you back home”, the governor said Earlier, the Attorney General of the State and Chairman Task force on Anti- Human Trafficking, Professor Yinka Omorogbe informed the deportees that her team was willing to receive all Edo indigenes back home because they were precious to the state. On how the returnees were received, Prof.Omoregbe narrated to Saturday Vanguard that “We received 84 returnees from Libya, comprising 60 men and 24 females. We have been doing a lot of counseling, we gave them welcome packs and we tried to let them know that they were precious people. We told them that this was a new beginning that they were back home to settle down.
The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA informed us that this batch was coming, we then dispatched our team to Lagos to bring them back to Benin. In our effort to ensure that they were fine, our medical team carried out full examination of the returnees. Some of them were referred to the hospital for further medical treatment. We intend to rehabilitate them back into the society. We have programmes lined up for them and we are determined to give them another lease of life”.
One week to the governorship election in Anambra State, the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra has threatened voters with death if they vote. They also vowed to disrupt the election.
The members of the group marched around some streets in Onitsha, Anambra State on Friday, vowing a lockdown on the day of the election, which is scheduled to hold on Saturday, November 18, 2017.
Members of the group can be heard threatening voters in videos of the march circulating online.
They said, ““If you vote you will die. Don’t go out, stay in your house. If you vote on November 18, you will die. We are not running around for the zoo.
“There will be no election. We will not participate, we will not vote. Nothing concerns us with any election. We are formidable.
“We are in Onitsha to tell the Federal Government to produce Kanu. They should release all the Biafrans in Nigerian prisons.”
Speaking with one of our correspondents on the telephone, IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, noted that the purpose of the demonstration in Onitsha was to show the world that “the threat of bullet” would not stop the group from realising its aim of having Biafra Republic.
He said Igbo people living outside the South-East should contact their families at home to boycott all future Nigerian elections, including the governorship election.
Powerful said, “Today in Onitsha, we broke the python Buratai, Ohanaeze, Obiano and Igbo governors brought to our land. Anybody doubting the resolve of IPOB under the supreme command of Nnamdi Kanu is mistaken.
“We will put Anambra State on lockdown on November 18. This is a taste of what is to come. Nigeria should be prepared.
“It is also very critical to inform every Biafran, be you IPOB family member, businessman, farmer, artisan, driver, teacher, doctor, motorcycle/tricycle union, civil servant, trader, market leader, National Union of Road Transport Workers, National Association of Road Transport Owners, fisherman, market men and women, including politicians who believe in freedom and liberty of a free independent State of Biafra, to boycott the Anambra State election.”
According to him, the election boycott will give their agitation a global momentum needed to make world leaders accept a peaceful break-up of Nigeria.
“They will be morally bound to consider a possible date for Biafra’s referendum for independence without delay. A vote in Anambra elections will mean electing into office the same people who, over the years, have been responsible for the death, pain, misery, agony and suffering of our people. We would have only succeeded in renewing our suffering for another four years,” Powerful said.
Steer clear of Anambra, police warn IPOB
But the Public Relations Officer, Anambra State Police Command, Nkeiruka Nwode, said the IPOB march was of no effect, as the state police command had concluded arrangements for effective policing of the state during the election. She asked residents of the state to go out en masse to exercise their franchise on the day of the election.
Also, the Force spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, warned the IPOB members to steer clear of the state during and after the forthcoming governorship election, in their own interest, saying the police would deal with IPOB members “the way an outlawed group should be dealt with.”
He said the police were fully on the ground to ensure a hitch-free and violence-free poll, adding that battle-ready operatives including police special forces, anti-riot personnel, and counter-terror squad had been instructed to deal with troublemakers.
“They (IPOB) should steer clear of Anambra because we have deployed enough personnel in the state; any miscreant who misbehaves would have himself to blame as he would be dealt with. IPOB should not test our will or resolve,” Moshood cautioned.
Army places troops on alert
Meanwhile, the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, which covers the South-East region, has placed its troops on the alert to forestall any security breakdown in the Anambra governorship election.
Although the spokesperson for the division and Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Sagir Musa, said he could not comment on security measures for the elections, a top source from the division said the troops were on red alert.
“Talk to the Commissioner of Police,” Musa simply said when one of our correspondents called to ask for his response.
But, the source said, “The troops are always on ground to prevent any breakdown of law and order during the election. As you know, the police are the first line of security and we cannot usurp their role.
“On October 14, we ended the 30-day Operation Python Dance II in the South-East, including Anambra State, and the exercise was to sharpen the skills of troops for occasions such as this election. So, you cannot rule out our involvement.
“We have mastered the areas and we are familiar with the hideouts of the troublemakers. All these preparations will count for the troops on Saturday. But the army cannot deploy its troops unless the security situation degenerates, which is not anyone’s wish.”
We’ll deploy 5,000 men –NSCDC
Also, the spokesperson for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Emma Okeh, said the agency would deploy 5,000 personnel, including special forces and regular officers. He cautioned against disruption of the poll by any group of persons, stressing that the corps would not spare anyone caught violating the law.
He said about 1,000 intelligence and surveillance operatives were on the ground in the state, adding that regular personnel would move in soon with sniffer dogs.
“I urge the electorate to come out en masse and vote for the candidates of their choice. It is their election, it is their state and whoever they elect as governor would determine their future,” Okeh said.
No inconclusive election in Anambra, Senate tells INEC
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission on Friday asked the commission to make sure that the election was conclusive, saying the credibility of the election would serve as a litmus test for the 2019 general elections.
The chairman of the committee, Senator Suleiman Nazif, stated this when he led other committee members, including Senators Mao Ohuabunwa and Aliu Sabi, to a meeting with INEC officials and political parties at the INEC headquarters in Awka, the state capital.
“I want the leadership of INEC to ensure that Anambra governorship election is conclusive, free, fair and credible,” Nazif said.
He urged INEC to ensure a level playing ground for all the political parties contesting the poll, adding that the committee members were in the state to find out the challenges of the commission, with the aim of putting heads together towards proffering solutions.
Speaking, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Dr. Nkwachukwu Orji, noted that the state was second in the country in terms of the collection of permanent voter’s cards, stressing that the collection of the cards in the area would end on November 15.
He said the commission would deploy one card reader per voting point and that there would be field technical officers who would handle any challenges arising from the use of the card readers.
Orji also reiterated the commitment of the commission to conduct a free, fair, credible and acceptable election to the people of the state.
Mr Popoola Olugbenga, a Physiotherapist with Federal Medical Centre in Yenagoa has expressed concern over the habit of giving native massage to pregnant women in the state.
Olugbenga, who is also the Head of Physiotherapy Department in the hospital told the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday in Yenagoa after a two-day physiotherapy outreach that local massaging was not an alternative to ante-natal care.
He explained that the physiotherapy outreach organised and sponsored by the department was part of social responsibility activities to communities in Bayelsa State.
The physiotherapist said that the programme, held in about three communities in the state, was aimed at educating the people on the need for healthy living.
He urged pregnant women seeking native massage to desist from it, noting that such act could endanger the baby’s condition in the womb.
Olugbenga said “women should know that pregnancy is not a disease that they should be going out from the routine antenatal care; moreover, not even every health challenge needs massaging.
“Pregnant women should know that the native massagers have limited knowledge about antenatal care; they have limited knowledge about other related diseases like stroke, cerebral palsy, facial nerve palsy, among others.
“Obviously, these diseases can be preventable if people begin to give proper attention to their health.”
On prevention of stroke, Olugbenga said regular exercise, good lifestyles, eating balanced diet, regular check up with medical experts, especially on blood pressure could go a long way.
The physiotherapist added that stroke, cerebral palsy and facial nerve palsy, could occur when blood circulation from the brain to other parts of the body was poor, describing the brain as power house of human body.
Mr Francis Iyado, another Physiotherapist, explained that many stroke-related issues were caused by lack of attention to one’s health.
He said “stroke could be in form of blindness and one may not know that it was stroke; sometime, it could make one unconscious and you begin to loss memory.
“We must always give proper care to our health, exercise regularly, avoid excessive alcoholic drinking, maintain healthy lifestyle, among others,” Iyado stated.
Mr Genesis Nemekie from Okutukutu Community, Yenagoa Local Government Area, said the medical outreach to the people in the area was a welcome development.
The Sultan of Sokoto and President General of the Supreme Council For Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar II, on Wednesday said the injustice in appointments and allocation of resources in the country were responsible for crisis and disunity in the country.
The monarch said this at a Collaborative Interfaith Peace and Security Capacity Building Workshop, organized by the Nigerian Army Resource Centre, NARC, in collaboration with Inter-Religious Peace Initiative in Abuja.
Represented by the Executive Secretary of Abuja National Mosque, Alhaji Ibrahim Jega, Abubakar said an all inclusive governance remains the panacea in addressing the myriads of problems confronting the country.
He urged leaders at all levels to be equitable, fair and just to every member of the society in the distribution of amenities and resources, irrespective of the political, religious and tribal inclinations of members of the society.
According to the monarch, “When it comes to issue of dispensation of justice and equitable distribution of resources, that should be done without fear or favour, affection or ill will.
“You are not there yourself as a leader and because you have some encounters with a group of people, either a person or a group of persons in a particular area, you should not hold on to it so as not to extend justice to them.
“Allah says “do not allow your hatred of a particular group of people to make you decide not to extend justice to them. Whatever happens, you must extend the spirit of justice to them all without fear or favour, affection or ill-will.
“This issue of justice goes down to whatever decision you are going to take, whether it’s against you or against your parents or against your own children or against your other relations, let alone saying you will not extend justice because you know somebody or because he is from your town. Justice must be based on fair and equitable distribution of assets to all.”
The men of the 32 Artillery Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Akure, Ondo State, have arrested four men in Ikaramu Akoko, in the Akoko North West Local Government Area of Ondo State, for allegedly posting nude pictures of some ladies on the Internet.
Though the identities of the suspects had yet to be disclosed by the brigade, punch metro gathered that three of them were members of the National Youth Service Corps who were serving in the state.
According to a source, the suspects usually invited their girlfriends to a hotel where they would ask them to put off their clothes before taking their nude pictures.
The source added that the suspects would later demand money from the ladies with the threat to post their nude pictures on the Internet if they failed to do so.
He said, “Many ladies, including female corps members, have fallen victims. They were making a lot of money from the act before they were caught.
“They would invite their girlfriends to a hotel in Ikare Akoko, and after having sex with them, they would take their nude pictures.
“Some days after, they would demand money from the ladies and threaten that if the ladies failed to give them the money, they would post their nude pictures on the Internet. Any of them who failed to give out money, would find her nude pictures on the Internet.”
The Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, Major Ojo Adelegan, confirmed the arrest of the suspects and said they had been handed over to the appropriate security organisation for further action.
Adelegan, however, refused to disclose the identities of the suspects.
“I can confirm their arrest, but they are no more with us. They have been handed over to another security agency,” the army spokesman said.
Similarly, the Head of the Public Relations Unit of the NYSC in Ondo State, Mrs. Christy Olatoye, confirmed the arrests.
She said the suspects were in the custody of the Department of State Services in the state.
She said, “The matter is with the DSS; we cannot interfere. All we will do is to give them any information they need. It is a criminal offence; we can’t stop the DSS from doing their work.”
However, the Public Relations Officer of the Ondo State Police Command, Mr. Femi Joseph, said the matter was not reported at the command.
“We don’t know anything about it. We are not aware of the matter,” Joseph said.
I write as an Ijaw son from Bonny and Nkoro in Rivers State. Ijaw is my tribe, but Biafra remains my national consciousness. I have noticed an inexplicable and unnecessary division in the South-East and South-South in analogy to the reinvigorated quest to restore the Sovereign States of Biafra. I think our people in these sister regions should reflect on these political and divisive ascriptions and rediscover themselves. We are neither South-South nor South-East. We are the people of the Eastern Region, a people politically and economically impugned by our enemy in their bid to break our solid SOLIDARITY. We were too formidable for our enemies. Some of our people think Biafra is an Igbo thing because they are ignorant of the origin of the name. Let me do justice to the origin of Biafra.
*THE ORIGIN OF BIAFRA*
Biafra is not aboriginal to Biafrans, since it was birthed out of the need to work together and escape the pogromists, rapists, land invaders, and religious fundamentalists called Fulani. The leader of the Eastern Region, Dim Ojukwu, an educated military officer, assembled stakeholders from Ijaw, Obibio, Efik, and other tribes that constituted the region in his bid to come up with a name that would reflect the heterogeneous ambience of the region. Chief Frank Opigo, an Ijaw traditional ruler that hails from today’s Bayelsa, suggested BIAFRA, and this went down well with everyone in attendance, for it referred to the water body that covers the entire region. What Ojukwu sought after was a name that would not be exclusionary to any of the tribes (Ijaw, Ibibio, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Annioma etc) in the region. Biafra became the baby of that quest.
Biafra, having come from a non-Igbo stakeholder, became the national consciousness of both the Igbo and non-Igbo constituents of the Eastern Region. Thenceforth, the need to actualise the nation of their dreams, the Land of the Rising Sun, became the aspiration of every easterner. The failure of Nigeria to heed the Aburi Accord reached in Ghana for restructuring stoked the fire of the agitation for freedom. The Sovereign States of Biafra was declared, but it was short-lived because of avoidable internal wranglings that spiralled into the loss of the Civil War. The incongruity in the Eastern Region was the result of the feud between Ojukwu and Dr. Kenule Benson Saro-Wiwa, an illustrious Ogoni son and Ojukwu’s military mentality and disposition.
*WHY THE STRUGGLE FAILED IN THE 60S*
Popular perception has it that the struggle for emancipation from perceived and obvious oppression by Nigeria was scuttled by the Civil War. That is part of the truth, not the whole. Biafra was rocked by internal wranglings. Two prominent figures in the region, Ojukwu and Saro-Wiwa, became estranged friends over an issue that should have remained personal. In one of our serious meetings, I was made to understand this side of the story. Legborsi, Emmanuel, a very prominent Ogoni son who doubles as a formidable member of my team, *THE SOUTH-EAST/SOUTH-SOUTH COALITION FOR BIAFRA* , opened up the Pandora Box concerning the real cause of their feud. Ojukwu and Saro-Wiwa were caught in a love triangle, with Princess Amina, the daughter of the then Sultan as the magnetic force. As scions (sons of very wealthy parents), they had the needed charisma to steer the imagination of the Sultan. Gowon, a senior military officer, joined the fray, but found himself as an underdog, financially and academically, for the duo of Ojukwu and Saro-Wiwa were of both fabulous financial and transformative academic standing.
Ojukwu and Saro-Wiwa, once friends, now rivals, had to slug it out. The laurel at stake was Amina’s affection. Saro-Wiwa, dishonestly struck a cord in Amina’s emotion and carried the day. The Sultan, according to the veracious story, could not find his daughter and had the innocent Gowon, the suitor he abhorred, to blame for it. A triangle of hate became the result of this misdeed by Saro-Wiwa: Gowon hated both Ojukwu and Saro-Wiwa; Ojukwu hated Saro-Wiwa for edging him out in the most dishonest manner; and Saro-Wiwa burned in annoyance over the contest. An Ikwerre elder, nonagenarian, corroborated this story when I met him. He told me that the struggle hit the rock then because of two reasons :
(1) the feud between Ojukwu and Saro-Wiwa
(2) the militarised mentality of Ojukwu’s.
The elder thinks that if Ojukwu, though well educated and exposed, were a civilian, he would have appreciated the need to dialogue with other stakeholders before going to war. If the stakeholders had been told what each constituent would benefit from the emerging nation, the leaders would have had what to say to their people to excite them to take the struggle seriously. Ojukwu, on the other hand, wanted these stakeholders to convince their people to fight first and discuss later. This did not go down well with them. Some, however, saw the need to fight. The festering relationship between Ojukwu and Saro-Wiwa led to a huge sabotage. The bottom line of the accounts of Legborsi and the elder is that our people were not united. Our disunity caused by personal grouse and lack of tact cost us that war. It is incontrovertible that we would have won the war had our house not been in disarray.
*THE URGENT NEED FOR OUR UNITY NOW*
Several years have gone by, yet the socio-economic and political inconcinnities that gave rise to the agitation then still stare us in the face. As a matter of fact, there is no gainsaying that if our fathers had reasons to fight then, there are more reasons to fight now. The situation today is worse than it was then. Oppression, socio-economic exclusion, and glaring prejudice meted out to the South-South and South-East, the real economic mainstay of this contraption called Nigeria, have reached unbelievable and unimaginable proportions. Even Ojukwu could not have conceived the precarious level of hate shown to us by the sons and daughters of Uthman Dan Fodio. The unfair treatment we are shown should make our unity imperative. Our personality issues and lack of tact gave them the happenstance to divide us and make us conquerable. We, the South-East and South-South people, are the victims of their jihadist rituals. Our women get raped, our lands invaded, our crops killed, and our men butchered.
The Igbo, Ijaw, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Annioma, Ibibio, Efik etc have always lived together in love and conviviality. A critical observation of our values and culture reveals our common ancestry. We dress alike, eat alike, behave alike, and worship alike. How different are we, brothers and sisters? Let us come together and fight this monster. They have sent their soldiers to occupy our two regions out of fear of our imminent reunion. Exasperated by their inability to stop us from uniting, they have taken to poisoning our children under the pretense of immunization devoid of the viva of the health departments. In their bid to hold on to power at all cost, they flouted the constitutional proviso concerning absence of the President. Their hatred for us led to the embargo placed on our Igbo brothers and sisters, which makes it difficult for any of them to become President of Nigeria. We and our Igbo brothers and sisters are the real victims here. We have to come together, sit together, discuss together, reach documented agreement, and escape together.
Our unity is the only leeway out of this fortress called Nigeria. Is it not shameful that whereas we have all the resources the Gambari are the ones exercising power over them all? Our Igbo brothers and sisters own both oil and the business environment that sustain this oppressive dungeon called Nigeria, but travel to the East and you will weep. They killed the Bill seeking the relocation of company headquarters to regions where the raw material is fetched. They killed the Bill seeking compensation to develop the Eastern Region. Whatever comes from the South-East and South-South dies on arrival. If bills that seek better welfare packages for our regions always die, who is that mad person that is telling you that we can restructure this dangerous citadel that they claim belongs to them? Was it not the failure of Nigeria to heed restructuring agreement that sparked off the Civil War? The only way out of this quagmire is the unity of South-East and South-South. Let us unite and live in peace and harmony. Our sister regions need respite from rape, massacre, genocide, pogrom, alienation, discrimination, and prejudice. Let us keep our unreal differences aside and face the enemy together. They will continue to defeat us as long as we remain divided. Our division is their strength, but our unity is their weakness. Jasper Adaka Boro, Dr. Ken Saro-Wiwa, and Sen. (Dr.) Obi Wali are some of the great men this fake nation has killed gruesomely. We have not found Mazi Nnamdi Kanu even as I write. Do you see how they hate us? The python that danced in the East has become a crocodile smiling in the South-South.
Brothers and sisters, Saro-Wiwa was guillotined by Nigeria after a kangaroo judgment. Boro was used and shot. Obi Wali was butchered like a condemned chicken. Our beloved leader of IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is nowhere to be found because of his liberating activities. Nigeria is a place where it is a heinous crime to speak up against oppression and neo-slavery. Nigeria has become too dangerous for Christians. Nigeria has become too stuffy for anything that breathes. We have to go, brothers and sisters. We have overstayed in this prison. We do not even know who signed the 1914 amalgamation, since all our nationalists were either adolescents, toddlers, or unborn at the time. Nigeria is the property of Britain’s under the management of the Fulani. Let the South-South and South-East come together and rebirth Biafra. They hate us and we hate ourselves. Let love and understanding lead the way this time. Let us dialogue and end our differences once and for all. The enemy has become vicious. We should become more tactical now. May God bless us all as we heed this clarion call. May God bless the entire constituents of the Old Eastern Region.
Russell Idatoru Bluejack is a thinker, revolutionary writer, university tutor, and socio-economic and political analyst that writes from the creeks in the coastal
The whisteblower who led the Economic and Finacial Crimes Commision (EFCC) to the $1.6m apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos where the recovered the sums of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 in April 2017, may reportedly be paid 325m naira.
The Federal Government’s whistle-blower polic states that any whistle-blower whose information leads to the recovery of over N5bn will attract a 2.5 per cent reward and that is 325m of the 13 billion naira recovered.
Speaking at the ongoing 7th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption holding in Vienna, acting Chairman of the EFCC – Ibrahim Magu, did not disclose how much would be given to the whistle-blower while he disclosed that the anti-graft agency was counselling the man on how to make good use of the money.
“We are currently working on the young man because this is just a man who has not seen one million naira of his own before. So he is under counselling on how to make good use of the money and also the security implication. We don’t want anything bad to happen to him after taking delivery of his entitlement. He is national pride”.
The major issue in Nigeria could be traced back to the business decision taken by the colonial masters in 1914 to bring together oil and water.
The forceful amalgamation of different protectorate gave birth to the name- Nigeria . If our Colonial Masters had taken our interest into consideration before the amalgamation, they should have understood that a goat and a lion cannot live under the same roof. Or is it that difficult to realize that a sheep and wolf can never stay in one territory?
Now when two tribes that have entirely different cultures, belief, language, religion, lifestyle are forced to live together what result do you expect?
The Igbo tribe has no single culture similar to the Hausas, while the Yorubas have their own contradicting culture and belief with a different language altogether .But our Colonial Masters for selfish and business reasons neglected this mismatch in culture and religion to create a new Nation-Nigeria. According to Oxford dictionary, a nation is said to be specific people with the same culture, belief and language occupying a specific geographical location. But our wise masters amalgamated the Biafra nation, the Arewa nation and Oduduwa nation and called them one nation. It is important to note that even the middle belts are shared to these different nations Eg. South south, South east, westerners ,the north etc.
These different nations have different dominant religion which is Christianity and Islamic. Though both groups claimed superiority over others especially the Islamic which sees any non Muslim as a taboo, that is why major religious crises in the world are being carried out by muslims…
NOW WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD?
1: There is an urgent need to return power to the Regional Government.
2:Self Determination clause should be acknowledged by the Constitution as marriage is not by force.
UNTIL these measures are taken, we can never have a peaceful Country…..
In a recent interview with Vanguard, Minister of Information and Culture – Lai Mohammed while responding to how he feels when he issues statements on behalf of the Federal Government and it’s descrIbed as a lie by People, said:
“I have two burdens. Now, becoming the face of government again, it is automatic that whatever comes from Lai Mohammed, we must shoot it down as fake news and a lie. Unfortunately, my father gave me the name Lai also. So, it makes it very easy for them. But what I challenge them every time is please, give me one thing I said that is not true. “
Responding to the minister’s statement, Femi Fani-Kayode in a tweet this morning called him an ‘ugly, diaper-wearing little chimpanzee’.
