Inside the politics of JAMB's cut-off marks

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-74649" height="240" src="http://18694-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Prof.-Oloyede-Registrar-of-JAMB..jpg" width="400" /> </span></span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">By Reuben Abati</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I have followed with keen interest the controversy over the announcement of cut-off marks for Nigeria’s admission processes for the 2017/2018 session, with many commentators and the general public insisting that it is unwise, insensitive and retrogressive, to reduce the cut off mark for admissions into our tertiary institutions: 120 for universities, 100 for polytechnics and monotechnics, and a tentative 110 for Innovative Enterprise Institutions (IEIs). Whereas the complaint has been that there is a dumbing down and lowering of standards, which is of course an obvious reaction, I argue that there is need for a better understanding of the context in which the decision was taken in the hope that this would shed some light on this controversial matter.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I write as a reporter and as a stakeholder who attended the 2017/2018 Policy Meeting on plans and modalities for the conduct of admissions into tertiary institutions in Nigeria at the Andrews Otutu Obaseki Auditorium, National Judicial Institute in Abuja, on August 22. The meeting started on Sunday, August 20, 2017. On Monday, August 21, there was a special session for admissions officers of all tertiary institutions in Nigeria. There are 524 tertiary institutions in Nigeria (minus the IEIs) and every institution was represented on Monday and again on Tuesday, when a special policy session was held and decisions were taken at a combined session of Registrars and Vice Chancellors, Provosts and Rectors. The Obaseki Auditorium was filled up at this meeting, which was attended by over 1, 600 stakeholders in the education sector. In other words, it was a meeting of stakeholders and the decisions were decisions taken by all tertiary institutions in Nigeria. It is therefore wrong to accuse JAMB or report that it is JAMB that is fixing cut-off marks for university admissions.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I recall that at the meeting, when we were about to go into the policy making session, the Minister of Education had to excuse himself on the ground that he had other commitments; all JAMB officials were also asked to leave the hall. The JAMB Registrar explained that he wanted the heads of tertiary institutions to be the ones to take the decisions, not JAMB, not the Minister, and he didn’t want either the Minister or his own staff in attendance so nobody would turn around to accuse JAMB or the Ministry of Education of imposing decisions on the tertiary institutions.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">There were other stakeholders in attendance, the heads of the National University Commission (NUC), TETFUND, the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), NECO, NYSC and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) – all as observers. The heads of IEIs stayed away from this particular meeting because they had earlier informed JAMB that the heads of other tertiary institutions are in the habit of out-voting and outnumbering them at policy meetings and they would rather have their own separate meeting to serve their own interests. I concluded, there and then, that students’ admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria has become big business and politics, with stiff competition between public and private institutions.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This clarification is necessary because as I see it, some of the participants in that meeting have since gone on a holier-than-thou expedition to distance themselves from it. At the meeting, the JAMB Registrar repeatedly pointed out that the University of Ibadan had made it clear that its cut-off mark would never go below 200. There are other universities like that, including the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the University of Ilorin. I am surprised however that there has been so much uncomfortable hypocrisy from some universities that attended the meeting. The Vice Chancellor and the Registrar of the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti were both in attendance and the former spoke enthusiastically in support of the decisions. Yes, the ABUAD VC was there, but curiously, his employer, the proprietor and founder of the Afe Babalola University was the first person to denounce the decisions. We should take special notice however, of the intervention of the Vice Chancellor of the Tai Solarin University of Education, Professor Oluyemisi Obilade, and Professor Femi Mimiko. Out of over 1, 600 participants at a policy meeting, only two persons are standing up to report the truth?</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The objectives of that policy meeting were inter alia, to brief the Degree, National Certificate in Education and National Diploma-awarding institutions on the plans and modalities for the conduct of the 2017/2018 admissions exercise, introduce the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), seek the cooperation and understanding of stakeholders, discuss and agree on submissions of estimated intakes and compliance with the current prescribed quota from the NUC, NCCE, and NBTE, adherence to institutional/programmes cut off marks, compliance with entry requirements, procedure for selection of candidates who may not be admitted at their first choice institutions, adherence to admissions schedule as approved at the Policy meeting and implementation of the science-arts ratio. These issues were tabled, discussed, voted upon and decisions were taken. The states and private tertiary institutions were exempted from the last criteria, to be determined by their proprietors.</span></span><br /> <blockquote class="blockquote-style-1 position-center text-center width-100" data-align="center" data-position="center" data-style="style-1" data-width="100"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I am surprised however that there has been so much uncomfortable hypocrisy from some universities that attended the meeting. The Vice Chancellor and the Registrar of the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti were both in attendance and the former spoke enthusiastically in support of the decisions. Yes, the ABUAD VC was there, but curiously, his employer, the proprietor and founder of the Afe Babalola University was the first person to denounce the decisions.</span></span></blockquote> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It is important to understand the three main backgrounds to this policy meeting. At a similar policy meeting held on June 2, 2016, the various stakeholders at this same 2017 meeting, had adopted 180 as the minimum cut-off mark for admissions to all tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The regulator’s subsequent discovery is that most of the tertiary institutions did not respect this decision. They admitted students who scored below 180 and never reported same to JAMB; they introduced all kinds of back-door schemes and programmes under which admissions were offered.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In effect, the admissions process into Nigerian tertiary institutions was compromised; standards were violated. JAMB therefore decided that every institution must declare a lowest cut off point for its programmes and that every admission must be properly reported and documented, and brought to the notice of the regulator in order to enforce standards and have accurate statistics for educational planning. I got the impression for example, that some higher institutions must have been admitting all kinds of persons who did not have basic qualifications and never passed through the central admissions body. It is curious, isn’t it, that the same schools that voted for 180 in 2016, are now asking for 120, 110 and 100?</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Secondly, the evidence was provided to the effect that many tertiary institutions do not respect the admission quota in line with the Federal Character prescribed by the Constitution. Most universities simply admit students from their catchment areas and ignore students from other parts of the country. Bayero University, to cite a notable example, admits over 50% of its students from Kano state, and yet it is a Federal University. Even when students from other parts of the country who apply to such universities have high, qualifying scores, they are ignored.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Thus, every year, many qualified students from different parts of the country are left stranded. They miss the opportunity to go to university not because they are not qualified, but because they have been shut out by the politicization of education in Nigeria. To correct this mischief, JAMB has now created a second tier admissions platform called the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS). It is an admissions-market where students who have been rejected by their first choices can seek alternatives, where JAMB can help rejected candidates seek other offers, and every institution can go in search of qualified candidates who may have been rejected elsewhere. This is to help increase the admissions ratio in the country, reduce the politicization of admissions, check the exodus of Nigerian students to foreign universities, create more opportunities and ensure greater equity. The only ouster clause in this arrangement is that at the end of the day, the candidate is free to reject any offer that he or she does not find acceptable, and that has no limit whatsoever.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">JAMB in its explanation further recognized that ordinarily, a school certificate result should be enough requirement for admission to tertiary institutions as is the case in many countries of the world. In order to raise standards, Nigeria has a system whereby secondary school graduates still have to sit for UTME conducted by JAMB and Post-UTME, further testing conducted by the tertiary institutions, and confront other unwritten hurdles. The higher education seeker in Nigeria is thus taken through greater rigour than similar applicants elsewhere. In 2016, the Policy Meeting on Admissions had banned further conduct of the Post-UTME to reduce the burden faced by Nigerian students. At the 2017 meeting however, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu lifted the ban, noting that the tertiary institutions deserve the independence they have always asked for over their admissions process.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Indeed, this was the main point of the August 22 meeting. Tertiary institutions in Nigeria are the ones to determine their own admissions process. Cut off marks are to be fixed by the Senate of each institution, not JAMB. What JAMB has created through the CAPS is an open market that empowers admission-seekers, promotes healthy competition and provides an avenue for students to raise queries when they feel they may have been short-changed. The insistence on reporting is to aid transparency and data collection, we were told.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">If this works, in no time, every tertiary institution will establish its own brand equity. As is the case elsewhere, the labour market in Nigeria will soon begin to differentiate between the students who graduated from a school that admits with 100 over 400 marks and another school whose cut off mark is as high as 250, in the same manner in which there is a marked difference in the UK between a graduate of Metropolitan University and a graduate of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. This differentiation in quality and standards is perhaps long-needed in the Nigerian education market.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><blockquote class="blockquote-style-1 position-center text-center width-100" data-align="center" data-position="center" data-style="style-1" data-width="100"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Indeed, this was the main point of the August 22 meeting. Tertiary institutions in Nigeria are the ones to determine their own admissions process. Cut off marks are to be fixed by the Senate of each institution, not JAMB. What JAMB has created through the CAPS is an open market that empowers admission-seekers, promotes healthy competition and provides an avenue for students to raise queries when they feel they may have been short-changed. The insistence on reporting is to aid transparency and data collection, we were told.</span></span></blockquote> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">That is as far as the meeting went, and the report of what I saw and heard. My real concern, and a probable justification for the outcry over the reduction of cut–off marks below the average score is, however, traceable to the fact that Nigeria’s education system is now terribly commercialized and unequal. The law of supply and demand is probably at the root of the politics of cut-off marks. We have more than 524 institutions looking not for students but customers! Ordinarily, most students want to attend elite schools and the Federal institutions, which charge subsidized fees. For instance, Federal Universities charge as low as N35, 000, the state universities about N150, 000-N200, 000, and the private universities as much as N750, 000.</span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The competition for space in the schools with lower fees is much higher, often leaving the ones with expensive school fees with fewer applicants. While the more economically attractive schools can afford to have high cut off marks, it is not impossible that lower cut-off marks would attract more students to the less patronized schools! The implication is not far to seek. Beyond the policy meeting of August 22, and all expressed good intentions, and regardless of the choice of the stakeholders, therefore, JAMB’s next and biggest challenge, in my view, is to ensure that market forces do not ultimately subvert quality and standards in the tertiary education sector. It is also up to parents to determine the kind of school that they want their children to attend, and for every institution to choose between mediocrity and excellence.</span></span><br /> <br /> </div>

Inside the politics of JAMB's cut-off marks

  By Reuben Abati I have followed with keen interest the controversy over the announcement of cut-off marks for Nigeria’s admission pr...

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ASUU VS KOGI STATE GOVERNMENT: DISAGREMENT TO KILL THE INSTITUTION

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Image may contain: 1 person, standing" src="https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19225878_1122971557809001_1752025655552560711_n.jpg?oh=5f2b2d158f61a521f3477145b70501cd&oe=5A27F029" /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Education is and remains the bedrock on which socio-political and economic activities of every society, state or nation has its footing. It is in concordance to this fact that various societies of the world give great attention to acquisition of knowledge in schools and pay deaf ears to illiteracy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In Kogi state though, the case seems to be different as academic activities in its highest citadel of learning, the Kogi state university Anyigba has since January 2017 been laid to rest as a result of the prolonged strike action embarked upon by its chapter’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), as a result of the inability of the state government to meet up with some of the agreement reached by both parties last year.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> This though is not the first of such industrial action embarked upon by the association as they have been records of incessant strike actions in the past. It is disheartening though that cases like this keep showing up its ugly head one administration after the other, leaving the world with no choice than to wonder if Nigerian leaders give any value to education.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In 2013, it was the national ASUU strike which lasted from July to December that year. Six months wasted on doing virtually nothing. Imagine six months without academic activities within any of the government owned higher institutions within the country. It simply means no acquisition of higher education, no researches or further studies and definitely no discoveries.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The present administration of President Muhammad Buhari owned up to the fact that such trend is not worth emulating. That surely remains why no record of such has been kept by his administration. The prolonged home stay of students of Kogi state university is not just denting an indelible mark on the state and national image, but also leading to under utilization of bright minds.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Apportioning blames won’t be the case here, but a national appeal to the office of the President for intervention in the crisis is what is been sort after. Seven months has gone by and still students remain at home. 99% of them are doing nothing rather than praying for the full reopening of school. Fresh graduates are unable to be mobilized for their compulsory one year national youth service. Parents are tired of seeing their children wallowing in idleness. Something needs to be done pretty fast to salvage the situation. The idle mind remains the devil’s workshop, and a workshop carved out of an idle youthful mind will surely result in a calamitous end.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div> <br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All grievances must be kept aside and all agreements fulfilled. A promise they say is debt that must be paid. As Nkem Owoh (Ukwa) rightly said “agreement is agreement”. Full reopening of the school is what everyone desires. Disagreeing to kill the institution must be the last resort. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Comr Ojonimi Amedu</span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ad manager, Spi-Media</span></span></div> </div>

ASUU VS KOGI STATE GOVERNMENT: DISAGREMENT TO KILL THE INSTITUTION

Education is and remains the bedrock on which socio-political and economic activities of every society, state or nation has its footing....

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90 Days Later: Details Of The Difficult New Struggle To Bring Buhari Back To Nigeria

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img src="https://secure.saharareporters.com/sites/default/files/styles/normal_medium/public/Buhari-Welby.jpg?itok=qzy0fqvJ" /></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SaharaReporters report this:</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <div class="first" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">espite recent high-profile visits to ailing President Muhammadu</span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="container container-pod container-pod-short" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 956px; padding-bottom: 28px; padding-top: 28px; position: relative;"></span><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Buhari in the United Kingdom, where for close to 90 days he has been undergoing treatment for a grave illness, SaharaReporters has learned that the Nigerian president is not as healthy as has been portrayed by members of his inner circle. Mr. Buhari’s illness remains officially shrouded in secrecy, but sources close to his inmost associates had long told this website that the president was beset by cancer.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In recent weeks, the cabal around Mr. Buhari has used a flurry of well-orchestrated visits to the ailing president by political personages to sell a narrative of “miraculous recovery.” But such rosy impressions are belied by a palpable deterioration in President Buhari’s health, according to accounts offered by a few sources knowledgeable about the Nigerian leader’s condition.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">President Buhari abruptly left Nigeria for the UK on May 7, 2017, arriving at Luton airport in London. He immediately proceeded to a London hospital where treatment had been set up prior to his arrival, said one of our sources. According to that source, Mr. Buhari’s initial treatment was so grueling that it left him devastated and weak, with severe difficulty speaking and eating.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For weeks after his arrival in the UK, no political figure in Abuja heard from Mr. Buhari either in person or via phone calls. In fact, for some time his aides with direct access to him were reduced to just two, while the remainder of the retinue that traveled with him was left in hotels in London, kept in the dark about his health condition.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The prolonged period during which Mr. Buhari was incommunicado fueled rumors that he was completely incapacitated. Some members of the cabal around him, as well as his wife, traveled to London in search of the president, but mostly came back empty-handed.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The spell was somewhat broken in late June when Mr. Buhari’s aides released an audio recording of his Sallah greetings to Muslims celebrating Eid-el-Fitr. The president’s message, spoken in a weary voice in Hausa, immediately drew criticism from Nigerians who pointed to the fact that the message seemed to ignore the significant portion of non-Hausa speaking Muslims in Nigeria.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mr. Buhari’s sign of life in his Sallah message seemed to energize members of his cabal to start envisioning a future past his presidency. In Saudi Arabia, a major player among the cabal, Isa Funtua, met with numerous political players, including Senate President Bukola Saraki, whom he designated as the arrowhead of a post-Buhari power arrangement.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A source familiar with that meeting disclosed that Mr. Funtua proposed that, even if Buhari were in a vegetative state, acting President Yemi Osinbajo should be barred from becoming the substantive president. His fear was that an Osinbajo presidency would alter the power equation for members of the cabal who believe that power should remain in the north for eight years. Mr. Funtua reportedly reminded the audience in Saudi Arabia that the last time an apparently “soft” southerner, Goodluck Jonathan, was given power, he used state resources “to marginalize the north.”</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He described Mr. Osinbajo as politically “stronger” and “wiser” than Mr. Jonathan, especially because of his godfather, former Governor Ahmed Bola Tinubu, whom he suggested should be completely neutralized because he was too ambitious and politically strategic.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a slight deviation from the Funtua plan, the other half of the cabal led by the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, was devising another agenda. The Kyari group would be open to extracting a resignation letter from Mr. Buhari and accept Mr. Osinbajo’s assumption of full presidential powers if the current acting President would agree to pick Attorney General and Minister of</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Justice, Abubakar Malami, as his Vice President.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, a snag to the plan was that Mr. Malami and Mr. Osinbajo have pretty much parted ways. Acting President Osinbajo has been directly coordinating justice-related matters, even convening meetings related to the national prosecution committee behind Mr. Malami’s back.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While the cabal’s jostling was going on, Mrs. Buhari traveled to London to see her ailing husband. A diplomat source said the First Lady rented an apartment in London away from the “Abuja House” residence where her husband stays.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SaharaReporters learnt that three or four days after her arrival in</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">London, Mrs. Buhari was told to join her husband for dinner. The meeting turned out heartwarming as Mr. Buhari reportedly managed to speak and to sit to eat with her. After subsequently spending more time with her husband, Mrs. Buhari told other family members that he was making “a miraculous recovery.” She then wrote Facebook updates warning the “jackals and hyenas” based in Abuja that the “King of the Animal Kingdom” would soon return and send them packing.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The same day, the president’s daughter, Zarah, took to Twitter to claim that her father was in great shape.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A few days later, acting President Osinbajo snuck out of Abuja for a one-on-one meeting with Mr. Buhari. On his return, he asserted that Mr. Buhari was in great shape, was recovering quite fast and would soon be back.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Despite those inflated claims, SaharaReporters learnt that the cabal was not quite satisfied with Mr. Osinbajo’s body language as he relayed the message to Nigerians. Some cabal insiders alleged that the acting President’s close aides had leaked information to the media, especially SaharaReporters, that Mr. Buhari was far from a picture of great shape.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SaharaReporters learned that Mr. Osinbajo encountered a highly emaciated and feeble Buhari who could not speak coherently. It was no surprise that the acting President did not bring back with him any audio, video or photo of the meeting.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On July 23, 2017, a few days after Osibanjo returned, the cabal arranged a visit by handpicked party leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Led by Odigie Oyegun, the visiting party included some governors and ministers. The meeting managed to produce a single photo showing Buhari sitting at the edge of the table, but without partaking in the feast.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The single photo perhaps caused greater harm than was anticipated.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Almost immediately, an announcement was made that seven governors of the APC as well as others handpicked from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were to visit Mr. Buhari in London on July 26, 2017. Led by Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, the governors gushed about Mr. Buhari’s recovery. They also claimed that their meeting with him lasted almost an hour and that the president discussed issues of national importance, a ploy to give the impression that he was closely monitoring events at home.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A bunch of photographs showed Mr. Buhari smiling. Even so, no single video or audio was presented to Nigerians from all the visits. Nor could any of the visitors tell when Mr. Buhari would return home.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Saharareporters also learnt former President Olusegun Obasanjo also visited Buhari in London in the company of former Osun state, Gov. Olagunsoye Oyinlola, although Obasanjo is yet to make a public pronouncement on the trip.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Several sources told SaharaReporters that the highly publicized visits were designed to create the appearance that Mr. Buhari was regaining his health and was prepared to resume in office.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yet, our sources revealed that Mr. Buhari’s ability to receive visitors was no indication of improved health, but came after his completion of a course of treatment that lasted three months. According to the source, since the completion of that course of treatment, Mr. Buhari occasionally enjoys momentary relief. “He can see people and sit for a little bit of time, but that does not mean he is healed as his doctors are yet to conclude that he is free of the disease afflicting him,” one of the sources said. They added that the President had not regained his health and had lost so much weight that he is “padded” just before his meetings with governors and politicians.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">According to the source, members of the cabal around Mr. Buhari were once again pressuring him to return to Nigeria, his frail health notwithstanding. Should the cabal win out again, they would simply use the president’s presence as a ruse to manipulate policies and politics to serve their individual interests.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The president’s doctors appear to have a different agenda. One of our sources stated there was no plan by Mr. Buhari’s doctors to let him travel to Nigeria in the near future.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“They [doctors] have asked that Mr. President should stay in the UK for another period of monitoring and round of treatment that could last weeks if not months.”</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SaharaReporters had revealed that the cabal behind Mr. Buhari was considering claiming that the president was embarking on his vacation after close to three months of treatment during this particular trip. Prior to the current medical trip, President Buhari had spent close to 50 days in London between December and February.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of our sources, briefed by one of the governors who recently saw Mr. Buhari, revealed that the ailing president “is only okay a few hours some days. And it takes a lot of work to prepare him for meeting people.”</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another source drew attention to Mr. Buhari’s look during his recent meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, adding that the president seemed a shadow of his former self.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One source said Mrs. Buhari had earlier been told her husband would be able to return with her to Nigeria last Wednesday, only to find out he was in no shape for the trip. She quietly left London alone and appeared in Imo State last Thursday for an event.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30.8px; margin-bottom: 16.5px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-shadow: none;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Placed in a desperate situation, the cabal has claimed that Mr. Buhari was waiting to regain some weight before returning to resume work. But after two previous occasions when the president was hurriedly flown into Nigeria, only to return to the UK for urgent care, there appears to be a sobering sense among some members of the cabal that their incessant game may be losing its efficacy. According to one source, “The only people who can give a trustworthy update on President Buhari’s real health status are his doctors, not politicians.”</span></div> </blockquote> <br /> <a href="http://saharareporters.com/2017/08/06/90-days-later-details-difficult-new-struggle-bring-buhari-back-nigeria" target="_blank">SaharaReporters</a> </div>

90 Days Later: Details Of The Difficult New Struggle To Bring Buhari Back To Nigeria

SaharaReporters report this: espite recent high-profile visits to ailing President Muhammadu Buhari in the United Kingdom, where fo...

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Nnamdi Kanu is a Lion of the East.- FFK says

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeGb5fBXAUOij5hA_tVk06vdyqGvdM7E2TEDJGBWT6BmxbNWMNd-fQOQWlqmOcIil27Tt72y5SHElmznurs61PCdB5jhmriQTqsnK5dLiiSs0NyTTfuLm3UvVno9pKBvp0rCzUnPRuQGI/s1600/d.jpg" /><br /> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 6px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Read the article below and tell us what you think</span></div> <blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <div style="color: #1d2129; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">"Let me make this abundantly clear right from the outset. I love and respect Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the supreme leader of the Biafran movement, the founder and convener of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) and the man that I have appropiately dubbed as the Lion of the East.</span></div> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a></blockquote> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <br /></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">I do not however agree with him on EVERYTHING and neither do I share his views about President Goodluck Jonathan.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">I do not believe that Jonathan was weak or that he was incompetent. As a matter of fact I believe that the contrary is the case.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">I believe that he exhibited immense strength and courage by letting go of power even though he did NOT lose the 2015 presidential election but was rather rigged out of it and even though he did NOT need to do so.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">If Jonathan had been a lesser man and if he had wanted to do so he could have knuckled down, called the bluff of the then opposition and held on to power even if it meant that the bloodthirsty sociopath that threatened to soak the nation in the "blood of dogs and baboons" if he was not declared winner of that election went ahead and carried out his threat.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Instead of calling the bullying beasts bluff and thereby endanger the lives of millions of Nigerian people, Jonathan said "my being President is not worth the drop of blood of one Nigerian" and he let go.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Only a strong and disciplined man who is not in the grip and under the power of satan and who is not driven by a primitive, bestial and compelling lust for power can do that.<br />Jonathan was not weak: he was strong.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Secondly I believe that his record of infrastructural development throughout the nation is second to none.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Most importantly in this context I believe that Jonathan, more than ANY other President in the history of Nigeria, did more to rehabilitate and empower the Igbo whilst he was President.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Having said this I must confess that, other than his past remarks about the Yoruba people which he made a number of years ago and which he has told me privately and said publicly that he no longer holds, I am on all fours with Nnamdi Kanu on virtually everything else.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">The truth is that I have a soft spot for him and no matter what he says or does I will always love him like a brother because he has managed to do, in a very short space of time, what most cannot do in a lifetime: he has won my respect and rekindled my hope in Africa and African leaders.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">I believe that he is a courageous, strong and dynamic young man and indeed the greatest thing that has happened to the Igbos in the last 103 years.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">As I alluded to in an earlier essay which I wrote after meeting him for the first time in Kuje prison in 2016, he is an Ojukwu, an Nzeogwu and an Azikiwe all rolled into one.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Despite the contrived and sponsored disinformation and rubbish that his many detractors are saying and writing about him, today he remains focused on his objectives and clear about his mission: nothing appears to move him and or distract him from his calling.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">He has a date with history and destiny and no matter what his enemies do to him or say about him he shall keep that date.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Most important of all is the fact that I understand what drives him and kindles his extreeme passion for the cause that he serves.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">I understand his burning yet clearly repressed anger at the shoddy and inexcusable plight of his Igbo people in the contraption called Nigeria.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">I can feel his pain and when you sit with him for a long period of time, to the discerning and the sensitive in the spirit, that pain is not only contagious but also literally tangible.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Rarely have I met a man that has so much genuine love and concern for his people. My admiration and respect for him remains intact and it cannot easily be diminished.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">And frankly if I had been born an Igbo person, given the history and what they have been through in the hands of Nigeria over the last 57 years, I would have been far more radical and uncompromising than even he is.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">The truth is that Nigeria should count herself lucky that he is a pacifist who has not called for and neither is he interested in an armed struggle.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">If that had been the case and if he had made his battle-cry "blood for blood", things would have been very different today and our country would have been in the terrible vice-like grip of another civil war.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Yet despite his pacifist and non-violent approach in this struggle there are still so many that simply hate this rising young star for no just cause.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">And there are thousands within the intelligensia and ranks of the Nigerian ruling elite both from the north and the south who oppose what he stands for and despise the very idea of the establishment a new, sovereign and independent Biafran nation.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">As a matter of fact they find such an idea and notion deeply offensive. They believe in freedom, the rule of law, the right of self-determination, the concept of restructuring and the cause of freedom for themselves and their own but they do not believe that the Igbo people deserve the right to have such freedoms or to make such choices.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">What a contradiction and what a tragedy. You are comfortable in your chains but when your Igbo brothers say they wish to break theirs and become free you seek to deny them that right and you join forces with the slave-masters and tell them that you will help them to keep the igbo in chains by force.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Can this be considered as being fair and just? Can it be right before God? Can it be sustained? Can it be justified and defended?</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Is it not an intellectually dishonest, spiritually jaundiced and utterly flawed position?</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Should we not bow our heads in shame when we think and talk like this? Are the Igbo not human beings too? Do they not share the same rights that we do and that we cherish?</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">You believe that the people of Scotland have the right of self-determination but you don't believe that the people of Biafra have that right as well.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">You believe that the people of Hong Kong have the right of self-determination but you don't believe that the Biafrans have that right as well.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">You believe that the Palestinians have the right of self-determination but you don't believe that the Biafrans have that right as well.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">You believe that the people of Northern Ireland have the right of self-determination but you don't believe the Biafrans have that right as well.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">You believe that the Basques and the people of Catalan in Spain have the right of self-determination but you don't believe the Biafrans have that right as well.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">You believe that the people of the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Israel, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Australia, Ghana, Kenya, Benin, East Timor, Ireland, Europe, the former Yugoslavia, the former Soviet Union, the former Czechoslovakia, the former Malaya, Taiwan, the Sudan, the countries of South America and South East Asia and hundreds of other nation states throughout the world and over the years have the right of self-determination but you don't believe that the people of Biafra have that right as well.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">O Nigerians, who has bewitched you? And who, like Apostle Paul's Galatians in the Holy Bible, has put you under a spell?</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">You scream "restructuring" when you know very well that the owners of your nation and the "born to rule" will never allow it and that it is an idea and concept that ought to have been accepted, established and implemented many years ago.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 6px 0px 0px;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What burns in the hearts and souls of most young Nigerians today, and this is especially and understanderbly so with the young people of the east, is total liberation and independence from Nigeria. That is what they want and not just restructuring. (TO BE CONTINUED)</span></span></div> </div>

Nnamdi Kanu is a Lion of the East.- FFK says

Read the article below and tell us what you think "Let me make this abundantly clear right from the outset. I love and respect Ma...

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Between Ndi'Igbo and GEJ By Reno Omokri

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <img alt="Image result for ebele jonathan" height="246" src="https://d3trvtyby69kq5.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/23130330/goodluck_jonathan_0505-768x474.jpg" width="400" /><br /> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">By now, I am sure my readers have read the very disparaging comments against former President Goodluck Jonathan which were credited to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">So pedestrian are those comments that I will not repeat them here. You can Google them on your own if you have not read them but I will not stain my writing space by republishing them.</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span></div> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></a><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br /> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Ndi'Igbo needs friends and support. No one can win in life if they walks solo. Ecclesiastes <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1349904019" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ"><span style="color: #222222;">4:11</span></span></span> says 'if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm </span><span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s2">alone</span><span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">?'<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">It was for lack of friends that Ndi'Igbo were defeated between 1967-1970. Is history about to repeat itself? You do not alienate the few friends you have and expect to attract more friends.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">This is the advantage the North has over Ndi'Igbo. They know their friends. If with all Jonathan did for Ndi'Igbo someone can dismiss him with the wave of the hand so casually and accuse him of doing nothing for Ndi'Igbo and Ndi'Igbo would applaud such a person instead of calling him to order, then do not expect those who are watching Ndi'Igbo acquiesce to this mistreatment of Jonathan to do anything for Ndi'Igbo when or if they get into power.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">If Jonathan can be so treated, then who is sacrosanct? <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">There are those who have said Jonathan lost the 2015 elections because his fondness for Ndi'Igbo alienated him from other sections of Nigeria. Today, people who hold such opinions are laughing at Jonathan.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">The fact that not even one prominent leader amongst Ndi'Igbo has stood up to condemn the hate speech against Jonathan is telling.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">This is a man who was the first person since the end of the civil war to make Ndi'Igbo Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chief of Army Staff. For 41 years before Jonathan, not one Ndi'Igbo came near such position.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Alas, none of the many Ndi'Igbo who benefited from appointments under Jonathan could stand up to defend him against those very mean words from Nnamdi Kanu.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">What a lesson to anyone who may be planning to toe the path of Jonathan! What a lesson.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">My advice to you and the Igbo race, go and learn diplomacy. It will help you more than physical strength and academic intelligence.</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Only a month ago, In my widely published article '</span><span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s3">Hegemony: What the Igbo can learn from Yoruba and Fulani about power</span><span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">', I advised Ndi'Igbo, saying that the Igbo often mistake discretion for weakness.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Nnamdi Kanu proves my point! Calling Dr. Goodluck Jonathan weak is just a manifestation of what I wrote about.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Nnamdi Kanu needs to understand something about leadership. Leadership is a platform that gives you the opportunity to increase your influence or reduce it until it is eliminated.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Upon his release, public sympathy for him increased his influence. The successful sit at home further increased it. However, his utterances since then have been steadily reducing his influence.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">I know Chief Femi Fani-Kayode very well. He will soon hear the things Nnamdi Kanu said about the Yorubas. He has already heard about the things Nnamdi Kanu said about Jonathan. It will not be very long before Nnamdi Kanu loses one of his most valiant non Igbo supporter. Apparently, what the Nigerian government couldn't do to Nnamdi Kanu, Nnamdi Kanu is using his own mouth to do to himself!</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Why does this keep reoccurring? Anytime I read or hear about Madiba Nelson Mandela, I have bittersweet memories. Why? Because we could have had our own Mandela in another Nnamdi!</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Nnamdi Azikiwe was at one time known all over Africa as Zik of Africa. It was a thing of pride and joy to pre-independent Nigeria. Everyone was proud of Zik including Northerners. This is a fact.</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">But the story ended tragically. No matter what may have happened to him through his political choices and alliances, it was a very great disappointment that a man who reached the peak of his political career as Zik of Africa ended up allowing himself to be known as the Owelle of Onitsha, not even of Nigeria, or Igboland or even Anambra, but of Onitsha.</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">The new Nnamdi ought to learn from this tragedy. When he was released, believe it or not, he was hailed and celebrated far beyond the borders of Igboland.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">On social media, every Wale, Dakolo and Nosa sang his praises. He was Nnamdi Kanu, the hero of the oppressed.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">But the more he talked, the more the Wales had a rethink and shrunk away from him, leaving only the Dakolos and Nosas.</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Then he talked some more and both the Dakolos and the Nosas felt unwelcome and beat a hasty retreat.</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Today, it is only Chukwuma and Ikechukwu that are singing his praises.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Nnamdi Kanu was created by President Muhammadu Buhari because before he was arrested, I had heard nothing about him. Absolutely nothing.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">But just like President Buhari has squandered whatever goodwill he had left by choosing to give his national Sallah message to Nigerians in a sectional language, so too has Nnamdi Kanu wasted away the considerable adulation he had outside Igboland by his Igbo supremacy tendencies.</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">I hope with Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB does not end up with a case of me and Ndi'Igbo against Nigeria, me and Abia state against Ndi'Igbo, me and Isiama Afara against Abia state and finally, me and my father's house against Isiama Afara. From what we are seeing, the omens are not encouraging at all!</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Shaka Momodu, an editor with ThisDay newspapers, taught me a lesson 26 years ago. We both had a mutual friend who turned out to be something of a nasty piece of work.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">When I discovered this, I quite naturally withdrew from this person and although almost all our other friends badmouthed this individual, Shaka would not.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">One day, I asked Shaka why he refrained from talking down this man. Shaka's response was telling and has stuck with me for decades</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">He said Reno, one day I had nowhere to sleep and ........allowed me sleep in his room for that day. I cannot find it in me to fight someone who accommodated me even if it was for just one day.</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">From that day till the day I die, and even when I am in God's kingdom after death, I will respect Shaka Momodu for having such sterling principles. I can only wish that Nnamdi Kanu had such high principles.</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Ndi'Igbo should remember the proverb: If you want to walk fast, walk alone.</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">But if you want to walk far, walk with friends.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">And now let me address the issue of President Muhammadu Buhari's unwise decision to address the nation in a sectional language.</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">In a country whose official language is English, President Muhammadu Buhari broadcasts his Sallah message in Hausa! Would Trump (whose origin is German) address America in German?<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">So what about all those Nigerians who can't speak Hausa? Ideally, the President should have spoken in English first, then if he feels like it, he may also speak in Hausa.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">The way he has now spoken only in Hausa makes it seem as if he is only concerned with those who gave him 97% of the votes while those who have him 5% can take a hike!<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">How would the rest of the country have felt if President Olusegun Obasanjo had released a Christmas broadcast to Nigerians in Yoruba of if President Goodluck Jonathan has done so in Ogbia?<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">How can a NATIONAL leader address Nigerians in a SECTIONAL language? Nigeria has never had a leader as divisive as Buhari! There is no difference between President Buhari and Nnamdi Kanu.<span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">President Buhari is the President of all Nigeria. He is not the President of only those who can speak Hausa! This is an outrage! President Yar'adua also spoke to the BBC News by phone. He is Fulani, like President Buhari. Yet he spoke in English because he was President of all of us!</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">At this stage, permit time to digress and say something about a loss I suffered.</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Eight years ago I cried as if I had lost my own brother. You gave me so much joy from my childhood to now. I thank God for giving the world the opportunity to benefit from your creative genius, Michael Jackson! You were the most consistently brilliant music star the world ever knew. Your dedication to your craft was matchless. You outshone Elvis, The Beatles, and even in death you continue to outshine contemporary stars. I love you Michael. Rest in the bosom of The Lord!</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Reno's Nuggets:</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">If you knew how quickly your boss will replace you if you die, you will pay more attention to your family rather than your job. How many burials have you been to? Do you ever see the dead man's boss there? Yet most men slave away at their work and prioritize it over their family who will be the one to bury them, mourn over them and carry on their legacies. Remember, your company has its own name, but your children bear your own name forever. Be wise. You are replaceable at work. You are irreplaceable to your family. Don't work for your salary. Work for your family #RenosNuggets</span></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1"></span><br /></div> <div class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">Reno Omokri is a Christian TV talk show host and founder of the Mind of Christ Christian Center and the Helen and Bemigho Sanctuary for orphans. He is the author of the worldwide amazon bestseller </span><span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s2">Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years: Chibok, 2015 and Other Conspiracies and </span><span class="m_-6032270343344407556m_2513941016295479003s1">three books, Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God, Why Jesus Wept and Apples of Gold: A Book of Godly Wisdom</span></div> </div>

Between Ndi'Igbo and GEJ By Reno Omokri

By now, I am sure my readers have read the very disparaging comments against former President Goodluck Jonathan which were credited to th...

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THE COMEDIC SIDE OF THE 90 DAYS AREWA YOUTHS ULTIMATUM AND THE PRO-BIAFRAN AGITATORS.

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"> <img alt="Image result for crying cartoon" height="400" src="https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/sad-cartoon-man-tears-image-crying-57325872.jpg" width="374" /><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Emeka (not his real name) is in Lagos, married with 3 kids and you see him locking his plaza anytime and every time in support of Biafra.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Emeka recently bought two plots of land around Badagry and already the foundations to a 4 bedroom masterpiece is taking shape on that land.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Emeka is from Anambra state, and a single pin he owns to his name is not in the village. Yet in Lagos, Emeka goes about shouting for all to hear 'Biafra or I die'.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, Musa(not real name) who lives in Kaduna, tired of a constant nagging national anthem from Emeka, suddenly assumes a potentially dangerous identity and declares a 90 days ultimatum telling the Emekas that all of them can leave his domain and disappear to their Biafra. Failure to do so, they would be forcefully evicted.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, there is Dapo (maybe it is me, maybe it is not), who is falling for a pretty intelligent damsel whom he is yet to tell how he feels about her. He is worried that he as a Nigerian, won't be in love with another Nigerian but rather a foreigner called Biafran. What an anomaly, for he would be needing to travel from one country into another just to see his in-laws who were once neighbors but now foreigners.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dapo's case is small, love they say can break barriers, although who knows how much a Biafran pound would exchange for when the time for dowry ever comes. For it is often said that the dowry to marry from that region in Nigerian Naira can make a young man hug a transformer, and how much more would it be in Biafran pounds? Let’s just hope by then Dapo won't tell the Oba of Lagos (the one who told Emeka to jump into the Lagos Lagoon) that he should allow him dive into the same Lagos lagoon when he is told to bring 3 billion Biafran pounds, which would be about 300 million Nigerian Naira, before he can be allowed to marry their beautiful Abian princess. That is if they even agree to allow him after the second civil war that led to an eventual separation.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, let's go back to Musa,the unknown spokesperson declaring absolute and beautiful bunkum on behalf of the entire Northern youth, and who is already getting a warning from his sensible governor who is ordering that all such irredentist fanning the embers of tribal war in his state be arrested. What a governor! If only Emeka's governors have been bold and followed the footsteps of the Kaduna mallam when Emeka's pro-Biafran radio Idol aptly called ‘The Director’ was issuing similar threats and hate speeches on Radio Biafra, perhaps our unity might not be as shaky as it is right now.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, in my true life fiction, it is Emeka one needs to pity the most. Emeka who for once haven't held his governors, chairmen, senators, representatives and himself responsible for the neglect in his region. Emeka who thinks all Igbos scattered worldwide hold the same views as his and would point fingers to all others in a constant self-absorbing manner that selfishly belittles the pain and neglect other regions are currently suffering.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Emeka would mostly act as if the North and West don't have poor people who have no hope too. To imagine that it is this same Emeka that statistics can prove has no single penny of his money going into investments and the development of his region (unlike Musa and Dapo), is the same person that is screaming the most for a break up of his country. Hmm… sounds like just too much palm wine taken in excess.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Musa, Dapo and the strong headed Emeka need to come together and truly see that the problem is not themselves but those who have selfishly enriched their pockets at the detriment of their people while posing as their leaders.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If only Emeka, Musa and Dapo can stop the joke, stop the comedy and the call to shed innocent blood and go after those who have held them in bondage for decades, then they can have true liberation for themselves as Nigerians and not as breakout factions acting as puppets for the same selfish greedy leaders using religion and region to separate them.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Musa, Dapo and the ever industrious Emeka; Oya! Give yourselves brain today. No more jokes, no more comedy. You can unite to shame your common enemies. It is very possible, yes it is doable for us to have a united prosperous Nigeria that shall respect the rights of every man.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; margin-top: 6px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My name is <b>MICHAEL ILORI</b>, and I just want to make Nigerian sense.</span></div> </div>

THE COMEDIC SIDE OF THE 90 DAYS AREWA YOUTHS ULTIMATUM AND THE PRO-BIAFRAN AGITATORS.

Emeka (not his real name) is in Lagos, married with 3 kids and you see him locking his plaza anytime and every time in support of Biafra...

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DR. NNAMDI AZIKIWE HIGHLIGHTS THE ERRORS OF OJUKWU AND GOWON LEADING TO BIAFRAN WAR.

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <img alt="Related image" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/79/54/05/79540551ca1faf79f484545cc9c55b6d.jpg" /><br /> <br /> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"> "Yes. I played a prominent role in Biafra for the unity of the country in order to restore peace and bring about unity of the country. That’s the role I played. I advised Ojukwu. I said well look, you have declared secession. What we should do is to get the elder statesmen and women of the nation to reconcile you and Gowon. I said by declaring secession, you get so many people who do not believe you to remain there. You see all of us were interned. As we were interned then, we couldn’t express our own views as we see it because, he made Decree Number 5 which vested absolute powers in himself and if you were against his views, it then constituted an act of subversion and the penalty was death by shooting. Well, it was a war-time measure and that is understandable. So, I advised him. I said go to the conference table and iron out your differences. Allow elder statesmen and elder stateswomen to bring the two of you to the conference table and settle this matter so that there will no more be civil war and the country may be united. He agreed. But Gowon was advised by the Ministry of External Affairs to insist on pre-conditions. That is that before he could negotiate with the secessionists, that they must accept certain terms; accept the 12-state structure and all. So, it was quite obvious that the Federal Government wanted Biafra to come to the conference table with their hands tied and their feet tied. But they won’t be free agents. That was the diplomatic mistake on the part of the Federal Government. So, when they did that, then Lt- Col. Ojukwu told me, “How can I go to the conference table based on these ultimatums?”<br />Still I advised Ojukwu to go to the OAU and ask them to use their good offices to settle the dispute and that we should avoid loss of lives. He accepted my advice in good faith. Then he said, ‘Now, you have some heads of state in Africa who are your friends, would you mind going to appeal to them to use their good offices so that the Nigerian civil war could be an item on the agenda for OAU summit in Kinshasa?’ I said I would gladly go. So he sent me to Monrovia as a peace envoy. I went there and met my friend, President Tubman. Tubman expressed his willingness to use his good offices. He told me he would see another mutual friend, the late Haile Sellassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, and both of them would see that the civil war was placed as first item on the agenda of the OAU Summit in Kinshasa.<br />I returned and broke the news to Ojukwu. He was very pleased. Then, when the OAU summit opened, Chief Awolowo, as Vice-Chairman of the Federal Executive Council and Commissioner for Finance, led a strong Nigerian delegation to Kinshasa and raised a very strong objective on the Nigerian civil war being placed as an item on the agenda on the grounds that according to the OAU Charter, this was a domestic affairs and member states were precluded from interfering in the domestic affairs of each other, which was really sound according to international law. But we wanted to solve it in the African way, to use mediation and conciliation to bring two warring brothers together.<br />The OAU accepted the submission of Chief Awolowo and so it was not put into the agenda. Well, history will show now between Chief Awolowo and myself, who actually accentuated the war. I was trying to get the OAU to settle the dispute so they could go to the conference table and he was thinking of legalism, that it would amount to interference in the domestic affairs of a member-state. But meanwhile here you have two brothers killing each other.<br />Well, Ojukwu told me, I have done my best. You see, Nigeria was relying on law and we are relying on humanity. What’s next? I said why not try other heads of states and see what could be done to bring about peace? He then said he left the initiative with me. I suggested going to some heads of state and see what can be done. But his advisers led by Dr. Nwakama Okoro suggested recognition. That if we can get other states to recognize Biafra, maybe the hands of Nigeria may be forced to go to the conference table.<br />Well, I thought that was a sound idea and I placed my services at their disposal so as to meet my friends. We had in mind President Senghor of Senegal, President Houphouet Boigny of Ivory Coast, President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, President Milton Obote of Uganda, President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and of course Francois Bongo, he is now Omar. He now has become a Muslim. He was then a Christian. The long and short of it all was that I and these great African statesmen agreed that if Gowon persisted with pre-conditions, then they would accord recognition to force the hands of Gowon to go to the conference table and bring about peace. That was one.<br />Two, Gowon had already predicted that the war would end on March 31 and as far as these African statesmen were concerned, these killings and atrocities did not do any credit to the image of Africa and as such what should be done was to stop it as soon as possible. Therefore if the war didn’t end by March 31, then the propaganda of ‘Biafra’ that it was an act of genocide would be justified. And they didn’t want to accept that.<br />I went on this mission and succeeded in persuading these heads of state to agree to give recognition just to force the hands of Nigeria, diplomatically speaking, to the conference table.<br />President Senghor said he couldn’t because the majority of his supporters were Muslims and rightly or wrongly they felt it was a religious war. And he said well, if he granted recognition, then his government would fall. But he supported the idea of forcing the hands of Nigeria to the conference table. Houphouet Boigny was prepared, provided his people backed him. Ditto for the others except Milton Obote who told us that Prince Mutesa and the Bagandans wanted to secede and he couldn’t support secession when his own state was confronted with similar problems. It left four of them. That is, President Nyerere, Houphouet Boigny, Kaunda and Bongo. They agreed on the understanding that the war did not end by March 31, 1968 and pre-conditions would be removed to make it easy for both Ojukwu and Gowon to go to conference table.<br />So they granted recognition and it worked like magic because immediately after this, Dr. Okoi Arikpo, who must be presumed to be responsible for this diplomatic blunder (he was the Commissioner for External Affairs]---a good man no doubt, but he is a very poor diplomat in my own humble opinion - announced to the outside world that Nigeria would no longer insist on pre-conditions and that he was prepared for conference table but the war did not end on March 31 and so, they left the impression, you see, that Nigeria wanted to annihilate the Ibos. You noticed the Soviets gave Nigeria more arms and Nigeria used those arms to destroy the secessionists. Here, I came in again and I advised Ojukwu. I said look since Gowon has withdrawn the pre-conditions, go to the conference table and argue the points so as to pave way for a peace conference. It was agreed that they should meet in Niamey. I advised Ojukwu to go. Again Gowon was ill-advised so he couldn’t come.<br />At Niamey here was Ojukwu. I was on his side. Gowon wasn’t there but Haile Sellassie, Hamani Diori, Tubman and General Akran were there representing OAU. So, I told Ojukwu, I said now you have an upper hand. These respected leaders of the OAU were there. I had briefed Ojukwu. I said ‘look your line of approach is to express appreciation for what the OAU was doing in order to maintain peace in Africa but you were prepared to co-operate and you are leaving the whole matter in the hands of the OAU to see what could be done to bring an earlier cessation of hostilities. I said just say that and thank them and sit down.<br />Now Gowon didn’t attend. He sent a junior man, I think Alhaji Femi Okunnu or so, to represent him. And they didn’t even attend this conference at which the four heads of state presided. It was only the Biafran side. So Ojukwu won a diplomatic victory and you know Ojukwu is a very good speaker if you give him all the facts. He was a good public relations expert and he won. He said, ‘well if Gowon was sincere why did he spite such great men and didn’t attend?’ That worked.<br />They agreed that Nigeria could be contacted so that we have a peace conference in Addis Ababa. It was a diplomatic victory for Biafra and so we returned to Biafra highly elated. And Ojukwu insisted that I should accompany him to Addis Ababa. Then something happened. Some of his advisers felt that I was becoming a victim of compromise and that I was a bad influence. That all I was trying to do was to make Biafra impotent. They told Ojukwu that Biafra was holding its own militarily. And why should we want a peace conference? That he should be very, very careful with me, especially as an Onitsha man because they thought that I was using him as a means to give publicity for myself internationally and that time will come when people will look more to me than to himself.<br />Well, as a young man, human, he fell for such flattery. I don’t want to mention all the names, but particularly influential in swinging his opinion at that material time was Mr. C. C. Mojekwu, who was based in Lisbon. Then Mr. Matthew Mbu was our Commissioner for External Affairs and he himself did as much as possible, but then he realized that he was having someone who has power of life and death over everybody. So, we went to Addis Ababa and on the night before the conference, Matthew came to my bedroom at about 10 in the night. He said, “Do you know that all we have done, this man is going to undo them tomorrow?’ I said ‘No’. Then he brought out a printed version of a long speech. The world press said it lasted for 90 minutes.<br />He [Ojukwu] went back on everything we discussed. He attacked the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union - all the nations of the world and the OAU, and said that they were misleading us and that the sovereignty of ‘Biafra’ was not negotiable. We went to the conference. I sat next to him. I thought that he was going to speak in accordance with the spirit of Niamey. But he spoke for 90 minutes and he just got the whole place upside down.<br />Naturally Tony Enahoro - he led the Nigerian delegation - replied in kind and so we were back to square one. So, when we returned, I advised him. I told him that I was surprised at what he did but it was not late. He said, ‘The sovereignty of Biafra is not negotiable and if anybody should try to compromise that sovereignty, then it will be an act of subversion.’ Well, that was quite clear to me so I said, ‘Your Excellency, you still have Port Harcourt and you can still bargain from position of strength - after all, the main issue in the civil war is oil and they say that in international politics, oil is combustible and as you have a combustible situation you can begin from the position of strength’. He said, ‘No, Port Harcourt is impregnable.’ ‘Very well, Your Excellency,’ I said. I went back to Nekede where I had been in protective custody since February, 1968. Two weeks later, Port Harcourt fell.<br />He sent for me. I said, ‘Well, Your Excellency, I did warn you. You cannot now negotiate from a position of strength but having received recognition from four states, we can still use them to see what we can do to appeal to the outside world.’ He said, ‘Very well, I think you should go to the United Nations to seek for recognition.’ I said, ‘Your Excellency, let us wait until after OAU summit in Algiers and find out what Africa thinks.’ In the meantime, I went to Tunisia to see my friend Habeeb Bourguiba of Tunisia. He wasn’t quite well, so we moved from Carthage to Hermit where he stayed. Ojukwu had always said the civil war would be won on the battlefield and not on the conference table, and Bourguiba didn’t take kindly to that. He said don’t you people advise this young man? I explained to him that I have done everything I could to advise him, but he insists on going to the battle field.<br />So we crossed our fingers awaiting the verdict of Algiers. You know it was decided by 33 to 4 in favour of Nigeria. I advised Ojukwu that to go to the United Nations to seek recognition would be unrealistic since Africa had decided by 33 to 4 in favour of Nigeria. I said Nigerian envoys, the Nigerian delegations, would just percolate the membership of the United Nations and they would frown at the whole thing. He insisted. I was then in Paris. I wrote him a letter. I said, ‘Since you refuse to go to the conference table to negotiate for peace, since you prefer that the civil war should end on the battle field and not on the conference table; since you said that the sovereignty of Biafra is not negotiable, I am afraid I cannot continue as a peace envoy because you have destroyed all the vestiges of any optimism for peace. Therefore I am relieving myself of my services as a peace envoy. I cannot continue as a peace envoy. I cannot continue as a peace envoy because you have let me down. You left me under the impression that if I succeeded in getting recognition you will go to the conference table. You got four recognitions; you did not go to the conference table. I am therefore going to London on exile.’<br />I went to London in voluntary exile and the British government granted me asylum. I do not see how anybody could say that I ran away from my country. I crossed the Atlantic 46 times, trying to negotiate with various heads of state so that they could grant recognition or make OAU to settle the dispute. How could the head of state turn round now and accuse all those who were politicians in pre-1966 and post-1966 as being responsible for the downfall of the republic? I did my best to preserve the unity of Nigeria and also to preserve the lives of old men, able-bodied men and women and children but I failed. What could I do? I went on free exile and they keep saying that I was among those responsible for the downfall of the republic. I plead not guilty".</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;"> *******<br />Excerpts from the interview he granted to New Nigerian Newspapers, 1979, as Presidential aspirant under the platform of Nigerian People's Party.</div> </div>

DR. NNAMDI AZIKIWE HIGHLIGHTS THE ERRORS OF OJUKWU AND GOWON LEADING TO BIAFRAN WAR.

"Yes. I played a prominent role in Biafra for the unity of the country in order to restore peace and bring about unity of the count...

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