Embattled former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja not to set aside the subpoena it issued to compel former President Goodluck Jonathan to appear as a witness in his ongoing trial.
Jonathan and Metuh Metuh further challenged Jonathan’s insistence that the defendant must deposit with the court, for and on behalf of himself, the sum of N1billion in line with provisions of Section 241(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, before he would mount the witness box. Jonathan had in a motion his lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, moved before the court on Wednesday, urged trial Justice Okon Abang to compel Metuh to pay the N1bn to cover travelling expenses for himself and his security personnel from his home town, Otuoke in Bayelsa State, to Abuja and also for time that he might spend appearing before the court as President of Nigeria between 2010 to 2015. Jonathan maintained that the evidence Metuh is seeking from him would amount to an invasion of his personal right to privacy, and family life as provided for in Section 37 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. He told the court that the evidence sought to be obtained from him was likely to expose him to a criminal charge, penalty or forfeiture. The former President further argued that the subpoena ad testifiandum Justice Abang issued against him on October 23 was vague, applied for and obtained on frivolous ground and in bad faith, saying it was meant to embarrass him as a person. Besides, Jonathan argued that Metuh was not a personal aid or his appointee and therefore could not have dealt with the President directly under any circumstance to warrant the invitation of the applicant to testify in the charge. He said there was no nexus between hiim and Metuh and the charge for which the defendants are standing trial. However, the ex-President said he was not doubtful of the fact that there was a contractual agreement between Metuh and the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, retd. Ozehkome said: “The linchpin of this application is not that the former President is throwing doubts on transactions involving the defendants and Dasuki, but that he was not physically present when the transactions were going on, because he had many appointees. “My lord, because of this, we are saying that he will not be a good witness to state what actually happened regarding the transactions. “He can never be able to know details of transactions all his aides carried out within his over four years tenure in office. He is not saying that the transactions are fake or incorrect or fictitious, no! He is only saying that he does not know the details. “Whatever evidence he will be giving based on the subpoena will amount to hearsay evidence”. Neverthless, in a five-paragraphed counter- affidavit that was moved by his lawyer, Mr. Emeka Etiaba, SAN, Metuh said he does not have N1bn to give Jonathan who he said had in his own motion admitted that he (Metuh) served the nation well. Etiaba drew attention of the court to the fact that the bailiff earlier deposed an affidavit that he had yet to serve the subpoena on Jonathan. “This application is therefore not only soeculative but premature and deserves to be struck out. “With respect to demand for deposition of N1bn, the 1st defendant in his affidavit averred that he does not have such amount. “We believe that such demand is punitive and meant to frustate the 1st defendant’s attempt at obtaining an evidence that will assist him in the defence of the charge against him before this court. “It is the view of the 1st defendant that from the first day that he was arrested, he made it clear that the release of the money was authorised by the former President and was released by the former NSA, Dasuki. “My lord this application simply seeks to set aside the subpoena and to save this nation the embarrasment of having a man who means a lot to the entire country as a former President, to step into the dock to give evidence. “My lord it is unprecedented, and the embarrassment could have been aborted if the charge against the 1st defendant was not preferred after he had disclosed to the EFCC the source of the fund for which the defendants are standing trial. “My lord in the circumstance, it is our position that this application be struck out”, Etiaba added.
On its part, the EFCC, through its lawyer, Mr. Sylvanus Tahir, told the court that it would remain indifferent to Jonathan’s application. Meantime, the court is still entertaining arguments from all the parties, including Dasuki who is asking Justice Abang to hands-off the trial for the Court of Appeal to decide the merit of appeal he lodged to void subpoena issued to also compel him to testify in the matter. It will be recalled that Justice Abang had on October 25, handed the bailiff five days to serve the subpoena on Jonathan to enable him to appear as a witness in Metuh’s trial. EFCC had in the seven-count charge it preferred against Metuh and his firm, Destra Investment Ltd, alleged that the defendants had before the 2015 presidential election, received N400million from the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, without executing any contract. It said the fund which was released to Metuh and his firm by the erstwhile NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki, retd, was part of about $2.1billion earmarked for the purchase of arms to fight insurgency in the North East. He was equally accused of money laundering. EFCC alleged that Metuh engaged in an illicit transaction that involved $2m
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A former Chairman of Police Service Commission, Chief Simon Okeke, has told former Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State and his successor, Willie Obiano, to settle their differences out of public domain instead of ‘washing their dirty linen in the public’.
Chief Okeke reasoned that since former Governor Obi claimed that Governor Obiano owed him N7 billion, nothing stopped him from deducting the amount from the N75 billion he claimed that he handed over to Governor Obiano.
He condemned the ‘embarrassment’ generated by their claims and counter claims. He said he wondered whether former Governor Obi wanted to be the godfather of Anambra politics.
The former police boss said at the age of 80, he has no more interest in partisan politics but would only offer advice as an elder statesman.
In his words, “Having hit 80 and sound in health, I will only advise. I remember that before Obiano was made the Governor of Anambra State, Obi called me as the Igbo leader in Abuja and Chairman of Anambra State Public Officers and Elders Forum and told me that he would introduce to me who would be the next Governor of Anambra State.
“I rallied the Anambra people at Chelsea Hotel, Abuja and the entire executive members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) led by himself, Chief Victor Umeh, Tim Menakaya, Uche Ekwunife and many others gathered. It was there that Obi raised the hand of Obiano and declared him tested and trusted person to take over from him. He appealed for support for Obiano. On that ground I called all Anambra people living in Abuja to go home enmass and vote accordingly. I told them that Obi had done well and the man he presented to us as tested and trusted should be voted for. Even though I was a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member then, ours is ours,” Chief Okeke said.
He noted that it was shocking that within one month or so of Obiano’s take over there came up stories of discord between him and Mr Obi.
“Here is a man he said is tested and trusted. If indeed he is asking Obiano to pay him N7 billion because Obiano is now untested and untrusted and Obiano could not then there is a big question mark on the ex-Governor. I do not know whether Obi really demanded that or not because I was not there. I expect that Obi would have called us again to tell us that he no longer trusted this man. If Obiano has committed an offence against the State, I will be the first person to cast my vote against him. But as at today, I have not heard that Obiano committed a fraud to the magnitude to be voted out.
Okeke was of the view that if Obi had reached an agreement with Obiano to lend him N7 billion for an election signed and sealed, that it would have been a different thing. He said Obiano would have to pay that but not from Anambra purse. He told the duo to settle the matter outside the people’s view.
He noted that Governor Obiano had performed excellently to deserve a second tenure. He mentioned security as a major breakthrough of Obiano’s administration.
He also said it would be rational, cost effective and would lesson tension to allow Governor Obiano to complete his two tenures instead of dissipating energy to shop for replacement.
The Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) candidate for the November 18 Anambra State governorship election, Dr. Stephen Obiorah Mbah, has said that his edge over other candidates is that he has uses his hard-earned money for the election with no sponsor or godfather that he would be accountable to if he wins.
Mbah spoke, on Wednesday, in Nnewi, when he visited some prominent men and elders at Ekwusigo, Nnewi North and Nnewi South Local Government Areas of the state including the monarch of Nnewi community, Igwe Kenneth O. Orizu III, Chief Ejiamatu Igbokwe and former Chairman of Police Service Commission, Chief Simon Okeke.
He said that the political parties spending heavily to win the gubernatorial election did not mean well for Anambra people as they were bound to recoup all their election expenditures before, if ever, they could begin to work for the state.
He noted that this extravagant spending to win election had been responsible for non-performance of past and present administrations in the state. Mbah said as someone who had lived in America for 22 years and studied their system very well, he would do away with wasteful spending beginning from his campaign style up to when his party would take over leadership of the State.
He also said as a servant of the people of Anambra, he might even be coming to office from his present home, saying that he would not engage in ostentatious living while people he governed were struggling to survive.
He explained that it would amount to a breach of social contract and nonchalance par excellence for a governor not to feel the pulse of the people he governed. He said he was coming to serve not to enrich himself.
” While should I live in luxury while some families could not afford three square meals and people wallow in abject poverty. My government would be people oriented and since nobody sponsored me to become a governor I will not be accountable to anybody except the people of Anambra State who gave me the mandate. Just give me four years I will transform this State to look like America where I lived for many years. What I will do in Anambra would attract other States from the federation to copy from Anambra State,” Dr. Mbah promised.
Addressing Dr. Mbah and his entourage, Chief Igbokwe, who was a former member of Zikist Movement said that Mbah deserved unflinching support since he is still a virgin politician who had not been contaminated with corruption. He noted that the election would not be one of rice and beans “but we are starting a revolution in the State.”
Chief Igbokwe described the mega political parties contesting the gubernatorial election as hawks who had once again come up with their hollow promises only to renege after getting the people’s mandate. He said that would not happen again, adding that the Anambra people were now politically conscious to decipher the antics of the crafty politicians. He called for maximum support for Dr Mbah who he said had come out with good intentions to govern the State and right the wrongs.
At the palace of Igwe Orizu III, Dr. Mbah was blessed by the monarch who simply prayed for God’s will to be done just as all the members of Igwe’s cabinets concurred.
I was tempted to describe the ongoing campaign for the November 18 gubernatorial election in Anambra State as a comedy, but on reflection chose to see it as a tragicomedy because of reasons you will soon find out. On Friday, October 20, my party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), kicked off its own campaign in Onitsha. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was unbelievably there. So were various APC governors, including Rochas Okorocha of neighbouring Imo State and Yahaya Bello of Kogi State. The APC governors raised the hand of APC candidate, Tony Nwoye, asking Anambra people to vote for him.
In other words, Governors Bello and Okorocha want Anambra State to be governed the way their own states are administered. The same day Bello was advising Ndi Anambra to make their state APC like his own, the media reported that a director in the Kogi State Teaching Service Commission, Edward Soje, had committed suicide because his wife gave birth to triplets after 17 years of childlessness and he had no money to support the family. Soje was paid last in December, 2016, and ever since he had been depending on charity and borrowing from friends and relatives. Yet, Governor Bello wants Anambra to become an APC state, like Kogi State. Ironically, Governor Bello has been sending delegations to Anambra State in the last two years to understudy how Anamabra State, under Willie Obiano’s leadership, has raised internally generated revenue by 300 per cent almost overnight.
Just last night, I saw a YouTube where a Kogi civil servant was weeping uncontrollably because he watched his daughter die of a simple illness. He could not afford the hospital bill. The video has gone viral. Kogi workers have, in recent months, been on strike over non-payment of salaries, despite the bailout from President Muhammadu Buhari and despite the humungous Paris Club refunds. APC governors dominated in sheer number last week’s meeting between them and President Buhari who wondered how some governors go to sleep when they have not paid salaries for months. The comic show of APC governors asking Anambra people to vote APC in the impending election so that their state could be run like APC ones would have been more complete if Governor Rauf Aregbesola had made it to Onitsha penultimate Friday to join the APC rally and raise Tony Nwoye’s hand. I don’t know if anyone remembers the last time public servants, like doctors, received their pay in Osun State. Maybe eight months ago or even longer. A sitting judge even publicly called for the governor’s impeachment.
Governor Aregbesola’s absence at the APC rally in Onitsha was made up for by Governor Okorocha’s presence and exuberant remarks. Yet, towards the end of every month, civil servants and teachers in Imo State troop to neigbouring communities in Anambra State to borrow money and foodstuffs from their Anambra counterparts. While civil servants and pensioners in Anambra State promptly receive their pay, which was reviewed upwards two years ago, their Imo counterparts wait for theirs for several months.
Okorocha’s Imo State has a queer value system. While President Jacob Zuma is facing over 70 cases of corruption and gross abuse of office at home in South Africa, Okorocha declared him a role model. He built a huge statue for the South African leader in Owerri and ordered a traditional ruler to confer on him a chieftaincy title. The whole world has been in great shock. And the shock came when Nigerians were yet to recover from the shock of how Rochas woke up one morning, two months ago, and decided to destroy the Ekeukwu Market in Owerri and, in the process, a young boy was killed. Most victims have yet to find an alternative means of livelihood, all the more so in these very hard times. Still, Anambra people are enjoined to make the governance of their state look like that of Okorocha’s Imo State.
Truly, wonders will never end, as Election Day approaches in Anambra State. It is turning into a farce. Our immediate past governor, Peter Obi, who is a personal friend, has strongly accused his successor of running a government of deceit and lies. Interesting. Why has our amiable former governor refused to comment on how the Lagos State Police Command under Marvel Akpoyibo arrested on Sunday, June 1, 2009, a whopping N250million raw cash in a Government House SUV belonging to Anambra State in his private office complex at 7, Aerodrome Road, Apapa, Lagos? We hope Peter Obi will someday be frank enough to tell the whole world how efforts were hurriedly made, including a meeting at a hotel in Maryland, Lagos, with a view to killing the story. Will Peter Obi be courageous enough to tell the whole world how much so-called communication consultants charged to kill the story and even turn some opinion moulders and columnists into his public relations consultants?
Peter Obi says that the dispute between him and his successor is not over a demand for repayment of some N7billion purportedly spent from his personal resources for the election of his successor. Perhaps, Obi is right. But the problem is that I have not seen one single person from Anambra State who believes his account. Joe Martins-Uzodike, Peter Obi’s Commissioner for Information and Man Friday, has consistently made the payment of this amount the first condition for a possible reconciliation between Obi and his successor. Uzodike’s repeated demand was made on various radio programmes, and it is available to every Anambra person.
Why has Peter Obi, the epitome of transparent leadership, been reluctant to tell the world that his Next International built the largest shopping mall in Abuja while he was serving as our selfless governor? Why has he been reluctant to tell us that he promised that public schools in Anambra State would be so well run under his leadership that his two children would attend them, but rather than fulfill the promise he ensured that his children have been in London?
Obi is a lover of education and healthcare. So, he built the Anambra State University Teaching Hospital. He brought journalists from all over the country to write flattering articles about the hospital. But for the eight years he was governor, the school could not earn accreditation because it had little equipment and insufficient regents as well as grossly inadequate staff. Consequently, the medical students were becoming perpetual students until there was a leadership change three and a half years ago in Government House. The students have now become doctors, and some are training to become consultants in the same school, a development, which would not have occurred if Peter Obi had remained governor. Lest I forget, it will be great if Obi can tell us why medical doctors in the state civil service were not paid for more than half a year. Why were they on strike for this long? No other governor in our state’s history has this dubious distinction.
I am glad Anambra is doing well right now. Salaries and pensions are paid before month end. Roads and bridges are being developed at an impressive speed. Lagos can compete with Anambra in infrastructural development. But not in security, agriculture or education. Supporting Willie Obiano is not a matter of party loyalty. It is a about the future of our state.
•Hon Okechi, a former chairman of the Anambra State House of Assembly Committee on Information and of Public Petitions, is a founding APC member in the state.
Nigerian-international singer, Bukola Elemide popularly known as Asa, has revealed how she lost her virginity at the age of 28.
In a rare interview conducted by Funmi Iyanda long time ago in the UK, but which was released on YouTube during the week, Asa opens up on her music, sex life, battle with depression and rumours of her being a lesbian. It’s quite thrilling. Enjoy it.
Do you remember the first time you and I sat down to talk in Lagos?
Yes, at the studio?
Yes, at the studio. Maybe almost 10 years ago.
Yes. I remember.
That was the first time you made me cry. You played a song out of the guitar. Can you remember the song you played? It’s so beautiful!
Yes. It’s so beautiful.
You played the song so beautifully in the studio that day and I cried. I cried because I knew you were going to be really, really big. And from that moment in the studio, you fought the jailers.
I remember you said exactly this (thing) 10 years ago. And I was shocked. I didn’t know what it meant. I didn’t know what you saw. I just said ‘wow that’s profound’. Since then, I have always loved you and appreciated your support.
Let’s talk about Bed of Stone. It’s an incredible journey from your first album, Asa to Bed of Stone. Bed of Stone is a mature, adult… I mean all the other albums were way above your age. That time you wrote and you sang like a soul has come from some other time. But this particular one was self-assured and mature and adult… who is he?
Actually at that time, he was nobody. It was just a dream, fantasy, just projecting what I wanted. That was a time in my life that I said, ‘okay, if you want to find somebody, you have to get up and go out’. I wasn’t sitting in the house and hoping one day he would open the door (laughter). And so I remember a comedian who made a joke and said ‘girls, when they are in their 20s, they don’t care, in fact they have a list of the kind of person they want’. And I had a list. I want a tall guy. I want him dark and handsome. And then at 25, I started to tweak it a little. I was still a little bit tough. I want him tall. He has to be tall. Emm.. I don’t want no artiste. Then at 28, I said if he is 4ft tall, I am okay (laughter). The twist was that I want him to be 4ft tall, no problem, but he should be able to buy me my shoes and my bags. At 25, I already started buying all those things. I‘ve been responsible for all those things. No, I don’t want a man who I would have to take care of. And then at 28, I called Janet, my manager and said ‘there is a problem’. I also called my mum and said ‘there is a problem’. I told her so many things and she was shocked. I was actually a very late starter and my mum had no advice and the only thing she could shyly say was ‘ehn… it could be painful at first’. And I was like ‘what’s this woman saying?’
Hold that, if I understand you correctly… that nothing, nothing…
No. Nothing.
Until 28?
Yes, nothing until 28. I’m not ashamed to say it.
Until 28?
Yes, until 28.
Twenty-eight?
Yeah! (Audience claps) No, no, no, don’t clap for me; I am not proud, I’m not proud…
Was it because you were shy?
Well, I was shy. I was also very… I was somewhere else. I was in a place where I needed to carry the world on my shoulder. And I needed to be straight. You know, I needed to focus on my career so I wasn’t thinking about that aspect. And of course, I was still siting in the house thinking he would come up and I would say, ‘I’m here for you, I’ve been keeping it for you’ (laughter).
I spoke to you at that time and I saw the pain you were in because people don’t understand you. They don’t see a man with you, so they assume you were lesbian.
And so many stories that you were lesbian, so much that you sued somebody about it, you think you should have let it go…?
Yes, I was like ‘what would Beyonce do?’ she would keep quiet. But that was then… (People were like) ‘You have to do it, you have to do it’. But looking back now, no…
Following Beautiful Imperfection, I heard that tour was grueling, you were performing day in, day out and you were exhausted.
Yes, it was grueling. I didn’t know I was (exhausted) until we stopped. I gave so much. Every night I had to give three hundred percent. I was so naked in front of the people. It took me a while to get back to normal me. It was disturbing, a little bit depressing. I did go into depression. And I then I told the crew and said ‘you know what, it’s better to go somewhere new, somewhere different’, also to write, but really just to meet people, just to see people.
What is Dead Again about?
Dead Again means…
Well, hold on, let’s play it. I like to listen to it; then you tell me what Dead Again is all about.
I must say you are part of the inspiration for this song. I remember when we sit down at the coffee shop and we would have conversations. I would listen to you talk, and you said ‘it’s like someone picked up the knife and…’ so we all clicked! I sang it with the anger still in me but I couldn’t sing it again. I just couldn’t sing it. This version you have is the demo version. Each time I tried to redo it, I lost the fire. I lost the purpose.
How did these songs come to you? What is the process of writing the songs? They are so different and they cut across such a wide range of human emotions.
Sometimes they come like this and sometimes they don’t. A lot of times they don’t come. And so I have to go to find the inspiration. I have to sit down wherever I am and find it. It’s almost technical; it’s like handwork, like sewing. You really have to go for it.
People think it is just talent, once you have talent, you just sing.
No. It’s something you have to work on everyday. I learnt that the hard way.
The newly appointed Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Gida Mustapha, has vowed to join the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration fight corruption, insecurity as well as efforts to revive the economy.
He spoke to State House Correspondents after a closed door meeting with President Buhari at Aso Rock Villa shortly before he left for the All Progressive Congress (APC), National Executive Council (NEC), meeting.
Mustapha, who was announced as the new SGF, Monday after Buhari sacked former SGF Babachir Lawal, and former Director General National Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke, for corruption, said though it was not proper to talk before he is formerly sworn in, he already knows his brief and will execute to the latter.
He said already the vision of the government on how to run the country is well documented and everyone is expected to run with it.
Asked what Nigerians should expect to see differently from the SGF office, he said, “Well, I’ll wait until the oath of office is administered on me. Once that is done, I’ll now begin to take briefings from the office and begin to chart a roadmap. Is always not too fashionable to begin to talk about an office you have never occupied. That will be being too presumptuous and I wouldn’t want to do that at the moment. I will want to step into the office first.
“But I have a general picture of where we should be going, and I can assure you that my responsibility is that of coordination and ensuring the implementation of government policies as generated. Nigeria is not in lack of information and policy formulation, sometimes is the synergy of those policies for the purposes of attending the goal that has been lacking, and I think those are some of the things that I am going to bring to the office. There must be coordination, there must be synergy so that we can have a thrust that can move us forward.
“We need an emergency acceleration to get out of where we are, and I can assure you that Mr. President is focussed on the three-pronged approach to take his government to fight corruption, diversify the economy and also the other aspect of security. We’ve done so much in the area of security. Even the diversification of the economy so much has been achieved.”
Mustapha spoke on the agric policy of the administration, saying if all hands are on deck, the country will begin to feed itself.
He said, “There are no poor farmers in Nigeria again. Honestly, for anybody that is able. We can deploy our hands and our energy to growing our agriculture.
“I have been speaking to some of the governors, they are doing remarkable work with the Anchor borrowers grower scheme and other schemes that are coming up. I believe that if we can do that consistently for a number of years we’ll get out of this quagmire. Because a nation that cannot feed itself has a long way to go in terms of institutional and industrial development.
“So, like I said I will not be too quick to say what I am going to do in office, but I have a general picture. Mr President has cast the vision, all of us that are appointees of government have the singular responsibility to ensure that we run with that vision. He has made it plain and whichever vision that has been made plain for those that are being charged with responsibilities we are supposed to run with that vision to ensure that at the end of the day the dividends of democracy is delivered to the people of Nigeria.
“We went round and campaigned and sought for their mandate, freely they gave us and it behoves on us charged with responsibilities to ensure that we do not disappoint them. The expectations are great out there. You live with families and you know the expectations of families. You live in communities, you know the expectations of those communities. You live in geographical jurisdictions and you know the expectations of those people. But we’ve come at a time when the resources are very very lean, in some cases not available but I believe with prudent management as being put in place by Mr. President we’ll be able to navigate these very difficult terrain and at the end of the day every Nigerian will have a smile on his face.
“We are not promising heaven on earth, but we can move our people from this state of squalor in which they are to a state where there will be hope, there will be expectations. And hope does a lot of things, because your desire for living for tomorrow is to rekindle back hope. And if there is hope that things will be better, the people of Nigeria are very understanding people and I can assure you that they will continue to give this government the kind of support that will require to push the nation ahead.”
The SGF said his meeting with president Buhari was full of humour and jokes.
He said, “The President in his normal candor and humor just cracked jokes and he was in very high spirit. I was pleasantly gladdened in my heart when I saw how robust and how uplifting he is in his spirit and in spite of the enormity of the fact that he has to deal with navigating the affairs of this nation. But he looked in-charge, quite calm and calculated, and the beauty about it is that his recovery process has been very very remarkable, is just a miracle and I just want to thank God for that.”
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said he will appoint more ministers into his cabinet and also make more board appointments in response to the demand from members of his party.
The President announced this on Tuesday in his speech at the National Executive Council meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja.
He said: “Last year I said we would re-constitute the Boards of Parastatals. I must regret the fact that we have not done so, for many reasons,” President Buhari said. “Some of us in this meeting may know I had given instructions since October 2015 for this exercise to start.
“But there have been inordinate delays through several committees in an attempt to get the balance right and to make sure all parts of the country are equitably represented. On the other hand, I am keenly aware that our supporters are very eager for these appointments to be announced.
“By the grace of God, these appointments will be announced soon, especially now that the economy is improving; we will have the resources to cater for the appointees,” he added.
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Former head of state, Yakubu Gowon, was gifted with opportunity for atonement when he recently appeared on AIT’s People, Politics and Power programme. Unfortunately, the man, who wanted to ‘go on with one Nigeria’ (Gowon), flunked the grace of history.
Perhaps, the greatest take-away was Gowon’s inadvertent exoneration of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. He had actually set out to vilify the venerable Biafra leader by heaping inordinate falsehood on the dead, who can no longer defend himself.
Gowon claimed he went to Ghana for the famed Aburi Accord unprepared. That, according to him, accounted for why highly cerebral Ojukwu bamboozled all of them and wringed the concessions he got. He added that secession was not on the card in Ghana and, of course, it couldn’t have been. It was not on Ojukwu’s agenda either. However, secession crept into the matter when the pogrom against the Igbo in the North continued unabated and Gowon, admittedly, could not halt it. According to Gowon and rightly so, the Igbo saw Biafra as the only hope for safety and freedom.
One curious thing about Gowon’s weird claims was the agreement that nobody should talk about decisions reached in Aburi back home until he did. Strangely, Gowon claimed he was struck down by fever and could not tell Nigerians what was agreed at Aburi. Nobody knows why Gowon must speak directly when he could easily delegate the job to government officials or issue a statement, assuming he was truly indisposed. It was his devious silence and continued killing of the Igbo that compelled Ojukwu to speak out. Immediately Gowon became aware of Ojukwu’s ‘lies’, his fever disappeared and he led the most sweltering policy against a people in Africa. His attempt to rewrite history failed woefully but awaiting the judgment of time.
I don’t think Gowon has recovered from that strange fever. In fact, he may never recover under the circumstance if he, the man leading Nigeria to pray, could miss the opportunity to set records straight and lead us into a new light of love, unity and greatness. Nigeria has remained dry sand that refuses to stick together in one heap because of activities of Gowon and his co-travelers.
He told the world that the military was not involved in the Igbo massacre up North. Did it matter who was involved? What mattered was that genocide was going on but Gowon’s government gave tacit approval by failing to nip it. He merely said killing Igbo was ungodly but couldn’t he have declared state of emergency in the North to stem the killing instead of taking steps that further aggravated the situation by alienating and infuriating an already suspicious people? If the exasperated they saw Biafra as escape route from extinction, why blame them?
However, Gowon, who very well understood that Biafra was survivalist quest callously supervised the worst massacre in Nigeria’s history, foisting a civil war with its obnoxious blockade and starvation policy, as weapon of warfare spearheaded by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. God has graciously allowed Gowon to outlive Awolowo and Ojukwu but it is a tragic testimony that he remains remorseless despite his grand old age of 83 years. Some leader, this! And to think that he flaunts assumed credential of a pious Christian, leading Nigeria to pray points to end-time prophecy of fakery in the house of God.
Gowon’s multi-speak is baffling. I would not call him a liar but he owes history explanation ofa duty to explain inconsistencies in his account of what transpired before, during and after the Aburi Accord, which he reneged and plunged Nigeria into gross darkness that consumed three million lives, especially Igbo children and women. There are documentary evidences that his account of the sad episode keeps changing like shifting sand. He wants us to believe that he fought the war to keep Nigeria one and not preserve his blood-soaked ‘throne’ as was self-evident. If indeed keeping Nigeria united was his goal, how come then his no victor, no vanquished policy to achieve same was spurious? His touted three ‘Rs’ – reconciliation, reconstruction and reintegration – was for mere political correctness, as the Igbo were neither reconciled to Nigeria nor reintegrated. Today, they are reconstructing North East that destroyed itself but nobody has reconstructed South East that Nigeria destroyed and the region remains derelict except for self-efforts.
Gowon should tell the world if he succeeded in keeping Nigeria united. He laid foundation for bleeding the Igbo, a path succeeding governments have religiously trodden. He balkanised the land and superintended over the crushing of the Igbo but unfortunately for him and gloating Nigeria, Biafra, like an abiku, no dey die easy.
Today, Nigeria has lost sleep because of strident cries of the people over marginalisation, which has given rise to Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Independent People of Biafra, IPOB, and others. Other afflicted sections of the country, reeling under the weight of hegemony of Hausa Fulani have joined the fray. The Yoruba is clamouring to go solo under Odua Republic; the Niger Delta is ever on the boil and has brought Nigeria to its knees, proposing five separate republics instead. The Middle Belt has debunked the myth of ‘One North’ and has asserted its separate identity. All these clearly point to failure of Gowon’s touted drive to save the monolith.
Of course, Nigeria must be saved but not just by prayer, as my elder and brother in the Lord, Gowon purposes. It is doubtful if those that attend his prayer meetings are not praying amiss. He that comes to equity (God) must come with clean hands. Gowon’s hands are stained with blood and he cannot be raising them up, praying to a holy God. I don’t know how God reacts to him but commonsense dictates that he should purge his heart of its blackness so that he can have clearer view of heaven.
The blood of Abel (Ndigbo) still cries from the ground many years after it was spilled by Cain (Gowon and Nigeria), prancing about in magisterial impudence. When God heeded the cry for vengeance, it hit Cain so hard but his lamentations did not save him. Soon, that too may be the lot of Nigeria and her unconscionable leaders; unless…
Your Honours, Biafra may not require much introduction to the Honorable House of Representative and the American Government. History books are filled with the story of the war of independence fought between Nigeria and Biafra from 1967 to 1970 in which about three million Biafrans were killed through the use of economic blockade by the Government of Nigeria to starve the Biafran civilians to death. Worse still, the Nigerian Government concentrated on the bombing of Biafran civilians in their homes, schools and village markets which the Government blamed on the incompetence of the Egyptian pilots employed by Nigeria to fight the war against Biafra.
It is an undisputable fact of history that we had a country called the Republic of Biafra which fought a war of independence with Nigeria from 1967 – 1970 and governed the people of Biafra as a de facto government until the end of the war. Though Nigeria did not recognize our country, five sovereign nations recognized the Republic of Biafra, namely: Tanzania, Haiti, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Zambia. Instead of admitting Biafra as a member of the United Nations having been recognized by five sovereign nations, the Arab nations and all Moslem countries helped Nigeria to defeat Biafra which victory Nigeria got by bombing and shooting our civilians, killing the Biafrans who surrendered and using starvation as a weapon of warfare against the civilian population of Biafra contrary to the laws of war.
The leaders of Biafra decided to surrender our sovereignty but not our identity as a people. Our leaders gave up the war of arms and ammunition in order to save the children and our race from annihilation so that we could live and fight again in a better and lawful way for our national liberation. Since after the war with Nigeria, the elders and traditional rulers of the remnants of the Biafrans have continued to provide the people with leadership and governance under our native laws and customs which resulted in a community-based governance of indigenous people of Biafra under customary law. This community-based governance of the remnants of the Biafrans by our Council of Elders has helped to maintain our identity as a people even though we lost our sovereignty which we now seek to regain by legal method.
It is our submission that what Biafra lost after the war was its sovereignty only. We the indigenous people of Biafra are still alive upholding our ancestral identity. The Biafran leaders thought it wise to give up the fight and our sovereignty in order to save the children who would grow up to fight their own war in their own way. It is now 57 years after the war of arms and ammunitions. Though the Customary Government of the Indigenous People of Biafra has been in federal high court with suit number FHC/OW/CS/192/2013 to establish her rights to Self Determination, the present agitation throughout Nigeria has presented a strong case to review the forceful amalgamation of the Northern part of Nigeria with that of the South.
Biafra was an ancient country which appeared first in the map of the world drawn by the Portuguese explorers between 1492 and 1729 located in the African continent. The map is still available today in the British Library and other Libraries of the world and shows Biafra as a large country then spelt variously as “Biafara”, “Biafar” and “Biafares” having boundaries with such ancient empires as Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan, Benin, Kamerun, Congo, Gabon, and others. It was in 1843 that the Map of Africa showed our country spelt as “Biafra” having some parts of the modern day Cameroon within its boundary including the disputed Bakassi Peninsula. The original territory of Biafra was not restricted to the present Eastern Nigeria alone. According to the ancient maps, the Portuguese travelers used the word “Biafara” to describe the entire region of the Lower Niger River and eastwards up to the Cameroon Mountain and down to the eastern coastal tribes, thus including parts of the modern day Cameroon and Gabon.
From the historical records, Biafra had existed on the Map of Africa for more than 400 years before Nigeria was created in 1914. The British had diplomatic dealings with Biafrans before the new country called Nigeria was created. The Biafra Nation practised autonomous democracies among its clans as practised among the Ibos today. Therefore, the Republic of Biafra which was declared in 1967 by General Odumegwu Ojukwu following the massacre of the Ibos in Northern Nigeria was not a new country but an attempt to restore the ancient Biafra Nation that existed before Nigeria was created by default..
The map of Biafra was deleted in 1884 – 1885 in the Berlin Conference in Germany when the Europeans and Americans placed the map of Africa on a table and shared the lands of Africa among themselves as colonies which act is known in history as the Scramble for Africa. They colonized the lands of Africa and created some new countries and redrew the maps. One of the new countries they created was Nigeria. This arbitrary sharing of the lands of Africa and creating artificial boundaries to merge incompatible tribes into one nation has caused much spilling of blood in Africa. Some of the indigenous people of Biafra were carved into Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, etc. Most of the descendants of the ancestors of Biafraland have lost their ancestral root but only the Biafrans living in the present South East Region of Nigeria, parts of the South-South Region and parts of the Middle Belt Region are still upholding their ancestral identity as descendants of indigenous people of Biafra.
2.THE BIAFRA’S CASE FOR SELF-DETERMINATION:
We have instituted a suit in the Federal High Court of Nigeria seeking, among other things, to exercise our right to self-determination. It is our position that what Biafra lost after the war of 1967-1970 was its sovereignty and not its people and what Nigeria got was a mere military conquest and not political victory. We have been forced to become Nigerians in an unholy marriage with the people of the North and West who hate us with perfect hatred because of who we are. The Government of Nigeria has persecuted and maltreated us beyond description. However, despite all the persecutions against us, we have continued to maintain our indigenous identity as Biafrans, though some of our brethren in the present South-South and Middle Belt of Nigeria have been forced to deny their Biafran identity in order to escape the persecution. We are an enterprising and industrious Christian nation practising republican democracy with an ideology of meritocracy and fair competition for which we are hated and persecuted by other Nigerians. International law is clear that it is the will of the people that determines and legitimizes the political status of a people. We are not free in Nigeria to develop and exercise our talents for the benefit of humanity. We feel like slaves in Nigeria and are actually regarded as second class citizens. It is therefore our people’s will to become an independent nation. As the people of South Sudan said in the course of agitating for their independence, we also say that “unity by force is slavery”. Thus, we have put the Nigerian Government on Notice that we are Biafrans by indigenous identity, though forced against our will to become Nigerians. We now strongly desire for independence by due process of law.
3.THE NATURAL LAW OF FREEDOM:
It is necessary at this time to ask the most important question: Why do the remnants of the Biafrans still desire freedom from Nigeria? It is natural that whenever a people are oppressed and persecuted by the government of the country in which they live, they will desire freedom. This is a spiritual principle which we can also find in the Bible. In Exodus 3: 7 – 10, the LORD God Almighty said to Moses, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians…Now therefore, behold the cry of the children of Israel has come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
God said that the cry of the children of Israel had come unto him by reason of their bondage, persecution and oppression in Egypt. In the same way, God is saying that the cry of the Biafrans has come unto him by reason of their bondage, persecution and oppression in Nigeria. But who cried among the Biafrans? Was it the big man and his family who had denied their Biafran identity in order to receive favour from the oppressors? Was it the Abuja contractor who is in the good books of the oppressors that cried? Or, was it the politicians imposed on the Biafrans by the oppressors that cried? In every country where the people of an ethnic identity are persecuted, there are always some evil people among the oppressed tribe who would deny their identity, betray the common good of their people and receive favours from the oppressors. These people do not cry for freedom and in fact do not want their troubled tribe to be free because they are benefiting from the oppressive government. They live in opulence in the best mansions and drive the best cars and jet planes despite the excruciating pains of poverty in the land. These politicians from Biafraland serving in the Nigerian Government do not represent the people of Biafra. Their involvement in the government of Nigeria should not be used to assess the will of our people for self-determination.
We want to be free to develop our talents as a Christian nation for the benefit of mankind and to worship our God without interference from the Moslems who are forcing all Nigerians to convert to Islam or be killed by the Islamic Jihadists. In three years of separate existence from 1967 – 1970 as Biafrans, we astonished the whole world with our scientific and technological inventions that would have helped all nations of the world today. We are a gifted nation and should be allowed to shine as stars in our own country known from time immemorial as the LAND OF THE RISING SUN.
THE RISE AND FALL OF NATIONS:
We the Biafrans have no intention of destroying Nigeria which was created by the Great Britain. Though we were forced against our will to become Nigerians, we have developed all parts of Nigeria with multi-billion naira investments which generate revenues to the governments of the various States where our investments are located but the people of other tribes do not invest in our own region. The peoples of other tribes see us as intruders and invaders from the East coming to dominate them in their own lands. Unfortunately, we have not developed our own region because we were deceived into believing in One Nigeria where everybody would have equal citizenship rights. We do not think that Nigeria will collapse or disintegrate if we leave the unholy union because the owners of Nigeria can live happily and manage their country without us. Egypt did not collapse or disintegrate when the Israelites left. India did not collapse or disintegrate when Bangladesh left. Ethiopia did not collapse or disintegrate when Eritrea left. Sudan did not collapse or disintegrate when South Sudan left last year. At the moment, Scotland wants to leave Britain and we believe that the Great Britain will still remain even if Scotland leaves the union. Why are the Nigerians afraid to let the Biafrans go? If Nigeria shall disintegrate at all, it will not be caused by the Biafrans but by the wickedness and injustice in the Nigerian polity.
That the indigenous people of Biafra have an unquenchable thirst and hunger for freedom is certain. The message of Biafra has been passed down to the children from generation to generation just as the message of the captivity of Israel in Egypt was passed down from generation to generation for four hundred years. We believe that the map of Biafra deleted by the Europeans at the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885 shall be redrawn, even if it does not include all the original tribes that made up the ancient country. In the Suit No FHC/OW/CS/192/2013, the Claimants defined the indigenous people of Biafra as the inhabitants of the South-East geopolitical region of Nigeria, parts of the South-South geopolitical region of Nigeria and parts of the Middle Belt region of Nigeria. Though our enemies sowed some seeds of discord among us to divide the Eastern Region of Nigeria, we know that we are of a common ancestry. In fact, anybody who takes time to study the history will understand that all the people in the Eastern Nigeria and parts of the Middle Belt are of one ancestral root. This is why their customs and traditions are similar. The Biafra case for self-determination pending in the Federal High Court Owerri is an official demand on the sovereign to let the Biafrans go.
REQUEST FOR URGENT INTERVENTION BY US HOUSE OF REPPRESENTATIVES:
The fact that the Biafrans have maintained their identity as a people and continued to struggle for independence for 57 years since after the war despite the persecutions meted out to them is clear evidence of the will of the people for self-determination. We are a viable nation and strongly believe that we shall gain independence from Nigeria. We have remained as a people practising community-based customary governance under our Council of Elders. We therefore request the US House of Representatives to accord due recognition to the Customary Government of Indigenous People of Biafra and the Council of Elders of Indigenous People of Biafra to enable us to satisfy the requirements of international law for sovereignty. We are an enterprising people in science, arts, commerce and industry. In fact, with all the natural resources in Biafraland, our land may be described as a land flowing with milk and honey. We strongly request for the assistance of the United States Government in our quest for independence.
CONCLUSION:
It is our opinion that the amalgamation of all the tribes to form the entity known as Nigeria was like a forced marriage of incompatible bedfellows. It is a spiritual principle contained in the Bible that two cannot walk together unless they are in agreement, Amos 3:3. The peoples of the east, west and north are not in agreement and their lifestyles are incompatible. The United Kingdom of Great Britain is an excellent example where the four countries of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland exist in harmony as a nation but each remaining separate and autonomous. History has taught us that forced political marriages do not last. The major countries amalgamated by the British Colonial Masters have broken up along the lines of compatible tribes and tongues. India was a colony of Britain but broke up after its independence resulting in the three countries today called India, Pakistan and Bangladesh after brutal and prolonged civil wars. South Sudan was another great empire built by the British which broke up into two countries in July 2011 after prolonged civil war. Other great empires of the modern world wielded together by colonial powers have broken up along their ethnic lines. Malaysia broke up immediately after independence into Singapore and Malaysia. Indonesia broke up into Indonesia and East Timor. Czechoslovakia broke up into The Czech Republic and The Slovak Republic. Yugoslavia broke up into five countries namely, Serbia, Croatia, Kosovo, Monte Negro and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The USSR was formed in 1917, three years after Nigeria, and broke up few years ago into dozens of separate countries. The truth is that forced marriages do not stand the test of marriage and must be dissolved either by Court Order or by self-help of desertion. The Americans have also predicted the collapse of Nigeria within 15 years from 2005.
We would like to allay the fears of the members of the international community and the peoples of other tribes in Nigeria who have various investments in Eastern Nigeria. We would also like to allay the fears of many Biafrans who have properties and investments in the northern and western Nigeria. When independence is achieved by legal method, all parties are happy and satisfied as there will be no loss on either side. In fact, a Biafran may decide to hold double citizenships or nationalities just as some Nigerian citizens are also British citizens and American citizens. If the Biafrans gain independence, all the westerners and northerners in the East will continue to live in Biafraland and carry on with their works and businesses. The only difference is that it would be like living in a foreign country of which the nationality laws permit a person to acquire the citizenship of the country by naturalization.
Your Honors’, assist us to ensure that machinery is urgently put in motion that will lead to urgent but peaceful separation of Biafra from Nigeria without rancour, friction or bloodsh
Yours faithfully,
Signed:
Engr Anthony Aniebue
Administrator-Customary Government of Indigenous People of Biafra
