Ojukwu’s excuse, absolute nonsense –Gowon

Nigeria’s wartime Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon has given further insights into happenings that led to the Biafra war, which ended 50 years ago. According to excerpts from an exclusive interview with the former military leader and published as part of Mike Awoyinfa’s Press Clips column in this edition of Saturday Sun, Gowon said Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu’s excuse for avoiding initial peace meetings before the war eventually broke out was absolute nonsense.

His words, “For absenting himself from the meetings, Ojukwu tried to use insecurity as excuse.  But to me, that was absolute nonsense.  Even in Accra, in Aburi, there could be the question of insecurity there.  Anything could have happened.  If we wanted, could we have not have arranged for some deranged persons in Ghana to deal with that particular problem?  That was really the question that he tried to raise.  That it is insecurity.  We promised him security.  That all of us were there and none of us would have had any desire to hurt or harm him, or to hurt the Ibos.  Because if you do anything, you are hurting the Ibos.  And if you do that, then they would have had all the rights to say that if you have done this to our leader, we are not accepting anyone else, unless you produce him.  At least, we are honest and honorable enough to ensure the security of everyone there, for the sake of the country.”

While dismissing insinuations of existing rivalry between him and Ojukwu, he said “I don’t know why people keep referring to the so-called rivalry between me and Ojukwu.  There was no question of rivalry between us at all.  As young officers in the army, our relationship was exceptionally good.  We were very friendly.  The only time that anything happened was in 1964 after the election, when Zik sacked Balewa and Balewa sacked Zik.  That was the time that probably you can say certain developments led me to give a warning, because there was this question of some of the senior military officers between Banjo and Ojukwu, urging the military to intervene on behalf of Zik.

“Of course, I listened to their presentations and what I thought they meant was that there should be military intervention led by us the senior officers at the time: With David Ejoor as the GSO 1, as the Senior Staff Officer, and then myself as Adjutant General of the Nigerian Army and then Ojukwu as the Quartermaster General and then Banjo as the head of the electrical and mechanical engineers.  Now, four of us: Ejoor from the Midwest, myself from the North, Ojukwu from the East and Banjo from the West.  So if you have four of us from the four regions of the country at the time saying that we are heading a change on behalf of Zik, and not the government, what does that mean?  So, I warned, asking: “Is that what you meant?  Count me out!  God help anybody who starts any such nonsense.”

“Afterwards, I went to see our commanding officer, a British officer and told him he should get all of us senior officers and brief us on whom our loyalty belonged.  Yes, our loyalty belongs to the government.  Zik is part of government and Balewa is also part of government.  So when you start talking of starting something like that in favour of one particular person and not the whole government, there would be problems.  So I asked the GOC to call of us and discuss.  And I can assure you that I did not mention any name.  No name was mentioned but he called all the senior officers to be briefed on the correct thing to do, which he did and made contact with the Inspector General of Police Mr. R. Bovell and the Attorney General and all the legal people to be able to define what our loyalty should be.  And of course, we were briefed on what our loyalty was.  And so, probably that stopped the possible first coup in Nigeria.  The next time it happened, it was not by the senior officers but by the majors and captains at the time.”

BIAFRA : Amotekun and Biafra

IS it just merely fortuitous that the utterly unnecessary Amotekun controversy in the South West is coming at exactly the same time as Nigeria is commemorating 50 years to the end of the county’s three-year fratricidal conflagration – one of the bloodiest and deadliest civil wars in Africa? That was a largely ethno-regional inspired conflict among supposed brothers in which no less than two million lives were estimated to have been lost. This was in addition to the colossal loss in properties, businesses and infrastructure on a humongous scale. The absolutely avoidable arrogance and total lack of humanness in the response of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mallam Abubakar Malami, to the decision of the South West governors to set up the Western Nigeria Security Network popularly known as ‘Operation Amotekun’ shows vividly that the mindset that led the country down the ruinous path of war is still alive and well in some quarters in today’s Nigeria.

In his brusque and uncharitable reaction to the Amotekun initiative the AGF, Malami, failed to acknowledge that the governors were responding to serious existential threats to their people throughout the length and breadth of the region largely by an assortment of heavily armed criminals.

Anybody reading Malami’s position with little information about happenings in contemporary Nigeria could be forgiven for believing that the governors just woke up one day to engage in a fantastical enterprise just to flex muscles with the Federal Government and threaten the security of the nation. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Thousands of lives have been lost, maimed, raped and denuded of their humanity by these elements operating with impunity in the South West.

However, Malami opts for a rigidly and narrowly legalistic position on the matter. As far as he is concerned, the relevant sections of the extant 1999 constitution place the responsibility for the defense of the country’s territorial jurisdiction and maintenance of security solely in the hands of the military, security and police agencies all controlled by the Federal Government. If these laws are patently not working thus endangering lives and property across the country, Malami does not see it as his responsibility, given the sensitive office he occupies, to help strengthen and reshape the laws as well as adjust them to the realities that confront millions of Nigerians daily. Nigerians he seems to believe are made for the laws and not the laws for Nigerians.

In displaying an utterly discreditable deficit in emotional intelligence and a capacity for human empathy, the AGF does not even refer in a fleeting sentence to the huge scale of loss of lives and property in the South West, which prompted the governors’ action. He gives the impression that the laws as they exist are working quite efficiently and need no tinkering with. It is, of course, not impossible that he is on permanent mental vacation on some exotic resort while residing physically in Nigeria. Were Malami to face the reality, he would admit that in most states of the country today, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is virtually entirely dependent on the state governments for funding, equipment and operational costs. So much, then, for his deification and mummification of sections of the constitution that have outlived their usefulness; such would have since attracted the urgent remedial intervention of a more brilliant, objective and proactive AGF.

A few weeks ago, the military high command gave the indication that soldiers will soon be withdrawn from the diverse operations in which they are involved across the country. In taking this decision, they argued that many of these areas have been stabilized and the police can now revert to their constitutional role of maintaining internal security while the military concentrates on its stipulated institutional role of defending the country’s territorial integrity. The bottom line is that those Unitarian sections of the constitution so gleefully cited by the AGF to thwart the Amotekun initiative have become worse than useless. It is dangerous at a time like this to have an AGF with a unitary mindset that seeks, against all canons of rationality, to impose a monist and monolithic security structure on a plural polity like Nigeria.

It is unfortunate that revered elder statesman and former governor of Kaduna State in the Second Republic, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, could have inexplicably come to the conclusion that the establishment of the Amotekun initiative was a forerunner to the creation of an Oduduwa Republic in the South West. Nothing could be more preposterous as he offers no empirical or logical basis for this kind of assertion. The South West has been consistent in making a case for the re-federalization of Nigeria rather than giving any inkling of wanting to break away from the country.   It is indeed the rather reckless and extremist posturing of the likes of Balarabe Musa, Dr. Junaid Muhammed, Meyitti Allah spokesmen and other hot heads from the North that play into the hands of those who habour separatist designs for the country.

When certain incredibly irresponsible voices from the North, contend that the retention of Operation Amotekun will cost the South West the presidency in 2023, they create the impression that they are a set of first class Nigerians who have the prerogative of handing out the presidency at their will to second hand citizens of their choice. This is brazenly unintelligent and counterproductive in maintaining the country’s cohesion and harmony. It is indeed the unidirectional thinking and excessively centralizing mind set of the likes of Malami, Junaid Muhammed, Balarabe Musa, Meyitti Allah and others that enable groups like the banned Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) to win converts and sympathizers to their secessionist causes. Nobody wants to be accorded inferior second class status in a country where we are all supposed to enjoy equal citizenship.

Responding to the misgivings of many in the South East on the perceived marginalization of the region in terms of appointments after the 2015 elections, for instance, some members of the ruling party publicly stated that positions would be filled based on the electoral performance of the party in the different zones of the country. That was unnecessary and insensitive. Again, the strong armed response of the administration to IPOB’s largely ineffectual Biafra agitations only helped to further its cause in the minds of many people of the region. You can forcefully drive an organization underground; it is more difficult to eradicate the imprints of an idea from the minds of men.

Instead of approaching the whole Biafra issue from an essentially hostile and uncompromising perspective, for instance, is it not possible to perceive Biafra as a national asset? Just as the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr is now a public holiday in the United States, is it out of place for Nigeria to have an annual National Biafra Day owned by all Nigerians? There would, in my view be two aspects to such an annual Biafra remembrance day. First, will be symposia, conferences and other activities nationwide that will apply the lessons of Biafra to contemporary experiences such that we will annually renew our commitment to ensuring that ‘Never Again’ would such a tragedy of colossal proportions be allowed to happen in our country ever again.

On the more positive side, we would also celebrate annually the example of Biafra, which demonstrated the capacity of the black man to rise to the demands of scientific and technological development when faced with acute existential challenges. To demonstrate my point, let me quote extensively from a presentation by the late Professor Pius Okigbo at the First Obafemi Awolowo Foundation Dialogue in February, 1993. In his pungent words, “Why do I seem so confident that the Nigerian is capable of producing the technological change required to propel the country into the next century? I am heartened by the fact that it has been done before. The Nigerian civil war proved beyond doubt that with determination and a conducive environment, the Nigerian can be induced to recreate a technological civilization. The ‘Biafran’ scientific community was able to develop entirely out of purely local materials, weaponry that included anti-aircraft rockets, mortar bombs, land mines, tanks and armoured troop carriers, food substitutes involving the use of hitherto unused plants and crops”.

Continuing, Professor Okigbo said, “They succeeded in building out of entirely locally fabricated materials, a giant petroleum refining facility and thereby made the technology so diffuse and more universally understood and applied than anywhere else in the world. They installed an air traffic control on wheels for use in an airport utilized only in the hours of darkness. Yet, save the airport of Johannesburg, that airport was able to handle more flights in those few dark hours per night than any other airport in Africa operating twenty four hours a day. These are solid technological achievements started and learned in less than three years of wartime. It gave at once to the blacks anywhere the confidence that here at last, since the iron age, it has been possible to create in black Africa a truly indigenous technological civilization”.

To fully liberate the potentials of Nigeria for rapid socio-economic advancement including ensuring maximum security for her people, the likes of AGF Malami and his fellow travelers must find a quick way of escape from the unitary mindset that inhibits creative intellectual exertions.

Nnamdi Kanu Releases Fresh Proof Against Buhari On ‘Jubril Of Sudan’

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has again alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari is dead and that the person in Aso Rock, Nigeria’s presidential villa, is an impostor whose name is Jubril Al-Sudani from Sudan.

Naija News reports that since Kanu resurfaced in Israel in October 2018, he has been alleging that President Buhari is an impostor, a claim which the President quashed after the IPOB leader presented what he described as “scientific proof.”

Reechoing his earlier stance that Buhari is dead and replaced by “Jubril of Sudan“, Kanu cited the absence of President Buhari at the official Buckingham Palace photo call for African heads of state at the banquet in London as part of the British-Africa Summit as a proof that the President is an impostor.

This online news platform understands that the IPOB leader made this claim in a post on social media network, Facebook on Wednesday, January 22.

Official Buckingham Palace photo call for African heads of state at the banquet in London as part of the British-Africa Summit

Kanu wrote: “I remember releasing incontrovertible scientific evidence to prove beyond every conceivable doubt that Abba Kyari and his gang of Fulani terror sponsors recruited a 45-year-old Sudanese man Jubril Al-Sudani to replace the dead dictator Major General Muhammadu Buhari.

“Among the scientific evidence I presented, was the fact that Jubril is not as bald as Buhari, which led me to challenge him to remove his cap in public. Thanks to the ancient British royal dress code for state banquets, the world can now see that Jubril is not Buhari after all.

In England, you must remove your cap if you want to enter a royal banquet unless you are a crowned head i.e. a king or queen. Below [see photo above] is the official Buckingham Palace photo call for African heads of state at the banquet in London as part of the British-Africa Summit. Buhari is nowhere to be found even though we are told he is in the UK. But we know Jubril attended the event and probably hiding in a toilet somewhere. He doesn’t want to remove his cap.

“I am sure Femi Adesina will come up with his usual and now legendary photoshopped pictures in the next few hours to deceive the already gullible Nigerian public. Thankfully this original picture taken of the attendees to the banquet is there as an eternal reminder of the shame of Nigeria,” the IPOB leader wrote.

Meanwhile, Naija News understands that President Buhari was absent at the photocall because Geoffrey Jideofor Onyeama, Nigeria’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, represented him. This was made known by Bashir Ahmad, the Personal Assistant to the President on New Media.

BIAFRA : Amotekun: IPOB promises to bring back BSS

Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has vowed to re-launch it’s rested outfit, Biafra Security Service (BSS) to get even with the southwest security, Amotekun.

The Publicity Secretary of IPOB Emma Powerful who disclosed this to our correspondent in Owerri condemned the planned proscription of the Yoruba security outfit by the Federal Government, alleging that it was deliberately kicking against Amotekun because it supported the killings in the North and other parts of the country.

Powerful also described the Miyetti Allah’s call for the ban of Amotekun as wicked and selfish.

“They want to commence the killing of innocent citizens they have wasted in the guise of Fulani herdsmen, otherwise why would they stop the outfit that has been well applauded by everybody; what is their interest?”

Powerful explained that with the re-launching of BSS, all activities of the Fulani herdsmen would be a thing of the past. He assured that the security outfit will protect the entire southeast and other Igbo centralised zones.

“BSS would adequately protect the Igbo territory just like Amotekun would do in the West; our lives and properties would now be safe; our women would be free from rape while going to their farms,” Powerful assured.

Meanwhile, IPOB has also responded to the threat by the central zone chairman of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Kennedy Olorogun to beat “Biafrans of Ijaw origin in Bayelsa State.”

According to a press statement IPOB warned IYC not to allow itself to be ridiculed by Olorogun, pointing out that Ijaw is the birth place of Biafra.

“It is a thing of shame to see the most respected group among Ijaw people allow itself to be ridiculed by the unguarded utterances of one man, whose claim to Ijaw is at best questionable, to issue a press statement against the great Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB, threatening to ‘beat’ Biafrans who are themselves of Ijaw nationality and indigenes of Bayelsa State.

“Unknown to Mr Olorogun Kennedy whose first name points to his true origin, Bayelsa State and Ijawland is the birthplace of Biafra. Mr Olorogun Kennedy is craving the attention of his Arewa masters by making attention-grabbing comments on the pages of newspapers to attract more financial reward from those that have rendered Niger Delta desolate,” Powerful alleges.

He further pointed out that “those leading IYC central zone know nothing about Ijaw people, history, struggle, survival and enemies.

He added that “Mr Olorogun is pretending he was not aware of a previous and ongoing dialogue between IPOB leadership and prominent Ijaw people in the Diaspora.

“Maybe Mr Olorogun is not aware that IYC elders council publicly hosted Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in Igweocha (Port Harcourt) in 2017 at a public event held in Niger Street. One will begin to wonder who this man is truly representing; is it the Ijaw people or the enemies of Ijaw people?”

Speaking further on the destructions on Ijaw land by various insecurity challenges, Powerful said: “Boko Haram, herdsmen, ISWA etc and all other terrorist organisations in the North have killed countless Nigerians and Nigerian military officers yet no northern community has been burnt to the ground, rather they keep sending more soldiers of Biafra, Oodua and the Middle Belt origin to be killed in the name of preserving Nigeria’s territorial borders.

“Nigerian Army has never taken offense and burnt down communities as a result of the activities of these terrorists but at the slightest provocation of sea pirates in Ijawland they will take offense and burn down the properties of law-abiding Ijaw citizens yet IYC has been mute about this.

“The whole world knows that IPOB is the only organisation bold enough to confront the excesses of the terrorist government of Nigeria and if IYC central zone is standing against IPOB but mute against the evil meted upon Ijaw people by the oppressive Nigerian military then it means that its loyalty is no longer towards the Ijaw people but those who oppress us.

“Again, I said they don’t know the Ijaw struggle nor the Ijaw history. I say this because they claim that Ijaw nation is not Biafra and accused IPOB of attempting to cause trouble in Ijawland which according to them is not Biafra.

“This is not only hilarious but appears to be informed by ignorance. Funny enough, no one can tell the Biafra story without mentioning Ijaw, not even Igbo which he was warning in his so-called letter. Biafra is a country that began its advancement from the coast, from Ijawland.”

The IPOB spokesperson further said: “Before the creation of what is called Nigeria today (before 1914), every enlightened Ijaw man knows he was a Biafran and that his nation, Ijaw, is one among many in the Biafra territory.

This is why Major Isaac Adaka Boro in his book “The Twelve Days Revolution” where he was trying to describe the location of the Ijaw nation he was agitating for which he called “Niger Delta Republic”, wrote: ‘The Niger Delta we shall consider is strictly the area occupied by the Ijaws, the aboriginal tribe of the Delta.’

“To confirm the consciousness of Biafra in enlightened Ijaw men of old, one year after Isaac Adaka Boro’s declaration of the Ijaw nation he called the Niger Delta when the defunct Eastern region which comprised all parts of the Biafran territory in Nigeria wanted to go her separate ways from Nigeria because of genocide against Biafran people by the rest of Nigeria.

“Another Ijaw son who died as a king in Ijawland, Frank Opigo reminded the Eastern Assembly that the identity of our collective people is Biafra and the name was adopted because no one could dispute that reality. How then can anyone say Ijaw nation is not Biafra when Biafra herself got her name from an Ijaw body of water which the oppressive Nigerian state changed after the genocidal war to the name of an Ijaw kingdom Bonny. What is called Bonny River today was once called Biafra River.”

He, therefore, warned Olorogun from overstepping his bound “I want to call on the IYC President and every other Ijaw leader to reprimand IYC central zone chairman and call him to order because he obviously doesn’t know the dictates of his office.

“There are many ways through which he can seek relevance but using the hallowed name of IPOB to attract cheap publicity will be his undoing.

“For the avoidance of doubt, IPOB meetings in various zones were held last Sunday across Bayelsa State and will continue to hold in Yenegoa Province Biafraland until eternity,” Powerful stated.

‘Let Us Go’ – Onyeka Onwenu Begs Buhari Govt (Video)

Legendary Nigerian songwriter and singer, Onyeka Onwenu, has asked the Federal Government of Nigeria led by President Muhammadu Buhari to “let Igbos go” if Nigeria does not want them.WATCH THE VIDOE HERE

Naija News reports that the Nigerian legendary singer made this statement at a conference tagged: “Never Again Conference: Nigerian Civil War 50 Years After” in commemoration with the Biafra War 50th Anniversary.

According to Onwenu, Nigeria cannot continue to inflict pains on Igbos and expect them to take the pains, adding that the Igbos are children of God and are in Nigeria for a purpose.

The legendary songwriter warned the “rest of Nigerians” that even if they continue to insult the Igbos, they (Igbos) will not bow to pressure.

Onwenu, who is the immediate past Director-General of the National Center for Women Development in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, warned that Nigeria cannot drive Igbos to the sea and cannot tell them to shut up.

The singer cum actress, asked the Nigerian government to allow “Igbos go if they (Nigeria) don’t want them” in what appears to be a support of the agitation for the Republic of Biafra championed by Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Her words: “Listen, let me say to the rest of Nigerians, you insult us, (sometimes we do same to Nigerians and that is terrible, we have come to a stage where we have to be insulting each other so badly)”?

“Go ahead, we will not succumb, we will not bow. We are children of God, we are here for a purpose, God has put us for that purpose, you cannot drive us to the sea, you cannot tell us to shut up, take the pains that you’re inflicting on us on top of it.

“Listen, if you don’t want us, then let us go”

Group asks Buhari to withdraw treason charges against IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu

A group, Ibeku Youth Assembly (IYA) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government to allow the leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, return home and bury his late parents, Eze Isreal Kanu and Ugoeze Sally Kanu.

The youth group pointed out that any attack on the IPOB leader by Nigeria security operatives if he surfaces for the funeral of his late parents, may spring up avoidable war, which it opined will lead to the final death of Nigeria as a democratic nation.

Ibeku Youth Assembly is the apex youth body in the hometown of the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

DAILY POST recalls that Nnamdi Kanu had last November announced the demise of his parent, Eze Isreal Kanu and Ugoeze Sally Kanu and blamed the incident to the alleged invasion of his Afaraukwu Ibeku Umuahia residence by soldiers of the Nigeria Army in 2017.

However, the IPOB leader in a statement last week, announced February 14 for the final interment of his late parents.

Kanu said that he would not reveal his security strategy to ensure he return home and bury his late father and mother.

However, in a statement signed and issued to newsmen on Monday in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, the IYA President, Comrade Kingsley Nwabuko, called on Buhari-led government to grant Nnamdi Kanu presidential pardon, as well as step down his treason trial for the corporate peace of the country.

According to the organization, “Federal government should see reason and pardon the agitator. He needs to return home as the first son of late Eze Isreal Kanu to bury his parents. Kanu and IPOB are armless in their clamor for Biafra republic.

“They have been peaceful in their demand. Buhari should compel the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami to withdraw charges against Nnamdi Kanu and engage the IPOB leader to further dialogue, so that there will be calm in the south east zone.

“It is obvious that the Igbos have continued to be marginalized in this Nigeria system, particularly the present government. South east has been relegated to the background, and they cannot boast of any government presence in the region. This is what led to myriads of agitation in Nigeria today.

“Again, it is in our knowledge that foreigners will attend the burial of Eze Kanu. Government should be careful to avoid any foreigner being killed by the military. Because, any foreigner that government’s forces attack or kill as a result of IPOB agitations may cause heavy crisis.

“We urge the South East Governor’s Forum led by Governor Dave Umahi to meet with President Buhari again and fashion out solution, ways to invite Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB for dialogue before the funeral date.

“Federal government, the Nigeria Army should also apologize to Kanu’s family and the people of South East over invasion of Umuahia home of the IPOB leader, which he (Nnamdi) he claimed led to the death of his parents.”

BIAFRA : 2023 presidency: Biafra group issues strong warning to South-South elders

The Biafra Nations Youth League, BNYL, has described the agitation for South-South Presidency 2023 as baseless.

Recall that the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, through its National Publicity Secretary, Sara Igbe, had said that the presidency should be zoned to the South-south while the South-east continues to agitate for Biafra.

The Chief Press Secretary of BNYL, Comrade Richard Odung, in a statement to DAILY POST on Monday, lambasted the PANDEF for making such claims that the South-east prefers Biafra while the South-south wants 2023 Presidency.

The statement added, “It is laughable for a reasonable elder to reason too low, when has the Biafra that Akwa Ibom fought for, the Biafra that Cross River fought for, or the Biafra that many Rivers people fought for become a South-east project?

“Does he know that it was the Ibibio that were in full control of the Eastern Government and then the Biafran Republic, apart from Ojukwu, the rest top figures before and during the war were South South people.

“We [South South] were in charge of Radio Biafra, we were in charge of the Biafra Military as Chief of General Staff, the Eastern and Biafra Government Secretary was an Ibibio man, others were Cross Riverians.

“98% of our war veterans are former Biafran Soldiers.”

Odung claimed that PANDEF does not have the mandate of the entire tribes in the South-South to decide on what the people wants.

“[BNYL] sees PANDEF as Edwin Clerk’s creation. It does not have our mandate.

“How many Cross Riverians are in the forum? How many Ibibio, apart from Obong Attah, whom he lobbied to join him to demand for oil well in Abuja?

“How many Igbo speaking people of Rivers and Delta State are in PANDEF?

“How many Ogoni and Andoni are there?

“To BNYL, we see an Ijaw interest group speaking for a multiethnic region, and if that is so, the Ibibio is the most affected during the war and we deserve that Presidency, because we suffered just as the Igbos suffered.

“We lost everything. We were also giving 20 pounds along with the Igbo to start life afresh, we do not want anybody who comes to pretend to speak for us in other to attract sympathy and bring his tribe man as Presidential candidate,” he said.