This is it! The most unimaginable nightmare! This is it! The most painful column I have ever written or will ever write. The column I wished I never wrote. The agonizing column. The column written amidst sorrow, tears and blood. Please, pray for me. More than any time in my life, I need prayers. Prayer is the only healing balm for me now. Prayer is the only thing that can save me from these troubled waters, from this ocean of sorrow threatening to consume me. I write with a heart brimful with sadness. By the Orwell River in Ipswich, England, where I am sitting, I am scribbling these painful words. By the time you are reading this, I should be home to face the shocking reality. You know why I am writing, you Father of the fatherless, you Creator of all things good and bad, you giver of life and taker. You gave him to me, now you have taken him. You gave me a friend and a brother. Now, you have taken both. Who will be my friend? Who will be my brother? Sadness is now my name. Sadness like those missing girls stolen from us in the middle of the night and taken into captivity. Sadness is the tattoo mark emblazing my face like Mike Tyson’s facial tattoo. I have been reading Mike Tyson’s bizarre memoir: MIKE TYSON, UNDISPUTED TRUTH, MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY and I was planning to write on it. But I am compelled to jettison that to write this sad column. Oh, my God! You know why I am sad. My best friend is gone. My twin brother is gone. A good man is gone. A generous man is gone. A man who gave all his life serving God and journalism is gone. A man who is the other part of me is gone. Dimgba Igwe is gone. What will I do now? Who will I turn to now? Who? Why must all my friends and heroes in journalism die so cruelly, landing on the front page? My editor Dele Giwa died the same way: killed dastardly through a letter bomb on October 19, 1986. And up till today, the riddle of his death remains unsolved. It has become “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma,” to use a phrase by Winston Churchill. Like Giwa, Dimgba Igwe in the throes of death was crying: “I don’t want to die.” For four hours, he was bleeding on the road to Golgotha. No ambulance. No oxygen mask. No Samaritan hospital. From St. Raphael Hospital to the General Hospital Isolo where there was no surgeon to attend to him, it was the story of Nigeria’s systemic failure as a country. He finally gave up at Lagos State University Hospital, Ikeja. If I am angry at all, it is not with the bloody coward who killed him and fled in panic. I will forgive the hit-and-run killer. And the Dimgba Igwe I know, will forgive the man who killed him. What I cannot forgive is a nation with health institutions that can do nothing, once your life is in danger. It’s the same story all over Nigeria. Of course, you know that once you are taken to LUTH on emergency, you are as good as dead. And this is a country without a functional 911 which you dial in emergency and get help. Only in Nigeria will you commit this heinous crime and vanish. In a civilized country, the killer would have been caught on camera. The security agents would have tracked the car down. Not so in Nigeria. I remember the sad death of my other Sunday Concord friend May Ellen Ezekiel whose death in a Lagos hospital shook the nation. Dimgba Igwe and I were at the helm in Weekend Concord where he was my deputy. The best decision I ever took in life was to choose Dimgba Igwe as my deputy. He complemented me in every way. Now, he is gone. Like everyone else, I am confused. I am lost. Please, pray for me. More than any time in my life, I need prayers. Lots of them. Because I don’t know how I can cope without my friend, my business partner, my co-author, my soul mate, my chief critic. He was the voice of restraint—always fearing for my life, because of my constant prone to accidents. I remember an accident in Paris, when I stumbled, crashed on the street and seriously injured my arm in the bid to protect my camera and photos. Dimgba Igwe was there for me when I was down and out in Paris. And at the Golden Tulip, where we had lodged to write Governor Fashola’s biography, I had another accident in the night after my writing, resulting in a deep cut on my lower and upper lips. Again, Dimgba and the hotel medical staff quickly rushed me to hospital where I was told I could have bled to death, if the broken glass had cut my throat. You read it all in this column! Against this backdrop, I was the one more prone to death. In his last interview, Dimgba Igwe told YES INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE how he nicknamed me “Iniquity Man” because I won’t sit in one place. As his twin brother four years older, I used to imagine a future where two of us would be old and I would die first and Dimgba would be there, paying me tributes, looking back at the lives we lived. But alas, the imagined future is dead and Dimgba is gone in his prime. The Dimgba I know was a kind man who didn’t deserve this cruel death. If anything, he would have hated this big embarrassment of being on front page, killed doing what he loved best: jogging. He believed the best way to prolong life is by exercising, by running and pumping oxygen into the heart. He was the one who introduced me to jogging. And for more than 10 years, I have been jogging with him. Our houses are next to each other on that God-forsaken Dele Orisabiyi Street in Okota which has not for once seen any government repairing it in years. Recently after returning from a first-time trip to Banana Island where he had gone to visit our friend, Elder Ekeoma whose daughter was marrying, Dimgba Igwe had an epiphany. He was so sad that he would be leaving the well-tarred streets of Banana Island and be returning home to that hell of a street in Okota. “Ogbeni, we must work harder and have a place in Banana Island,” he told me. Dimgba was a hard-working man, a visionary who should have lived long to reap the fruits of his toil. The greatest honour that the Lagos State government can do in memory of my departed friend is to tar his street. I am sure even the inhabitants wouldn’t mind if the street is renamed Dimgba Igwe Street after this great son of Nigeria—if the road is tarred for his sake. That would make him happy in his grave. That was what he yearned for and even begged our friend, the governor who gave us his word that he would assist. Every morning, we run on that bad road. I couldn’t join him last Saturday because I was in the UK with my family for my son’s graduation—a day I was looking forward to with the pride and joy of a father. Dimgba opted to stay and take care of the home front while I was away. Somehow, I feel guilty. If I had known it will end this way, I would have taken my beloved brother along. Pastor Igwe must have prayed that morning. His first act at the break of every new day is to go on his knees. He sings in praise of God, blesses the name of the Lord, speaks in tongue and prays for the Lord to deliver him from all evils. But on that Black Saturday, the devil struck. On the eve of his death, I had called him from Ipswich and told him the books I had bought for him. Books like JFK’s Last Hundred Days, by Thurston Clarke, The Virgin Way, by Richard Branson,God is not a Christian, by Desmond Tutu and an epic book on the history of Jerusalem from the days of David up to the current day. He was so excited. He was waiting for the books. He loved books. Now, the evil forces have brought him to book. Adieu, my friend, my brother. Like King David mourned his friend Jonathan, I cry: “How have the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath. Publish it not in Ashkelon.” For a great man of journalism has passed away. Our latest book is a book called 50 World Editors, featuring conversations with editors around the world whom we met in the course of our travels. We were planning to launch it, but see me now! This morning, I came across the New Men’s Devotional Bible you gave me on my 60th birthday. Oh, you really tried on my 60th birthday and I was looking forward to celebrating in grand style your own 60thbirthday. But, see me now! In the Bible you gave me, you wrote: “Ogbeni, be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.” (Ephesians 6: 10). My friend, I will be strong in the Lord. I will fly the flag and search for heaven that you so much cared about. Ogbeni, thank you. Good night and enjoy your freedom.
All Progressives Congress (APC), has alleged President Goodluck Jonathan knows more than he is willing to admit on the issue of those who are behind the Boko Haram insurgency or he is willing to sacrifice the battle against terrorism on the altar of political expediency.
Reacting to the President’s journey to Chad with former governor of Borno state, Ali Modu Sheriff who has been fingered in the sponsorship of Boko Haram, APC expressed shock in the action of the President, saying that it is in bad taste.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party wondered what message President Jonathan was sending to his compatriots and indeed to the international community when he took Modu Sheriff along during his visit to Chad Monday to confer with President Idris Deby on cooperation against terrorism.
‘’This action by President Jonathan confirms what the APC has always believed: That the President either knows more than he is willing to admit on the issue of those who are behind the Boko Haram insurgency or he is willing to sacrifice the battle against terrorism on the altar of political expediency. Either way, this action by the President is the height of indiscretion at best, or a palpable exhibition of callowness at worst.
‘’It also confirms our fears that Modu Sheriff was planted as a mole in the APC by his friends in high places, who are jittery about the birth of the party and would do anything to destabilize it,’’ it said.
APC said the President could not pretend not to be aware of a report sent home by Nigeria’s Defence Adviser in Ndjamena, Chad, in 2011, detailing the suspicious activities of Modu Sheriff in Chad concerning alleged Boko Haram sponsorship and asking the Federal Government to investigate him.
‘’If this is a joke, it is one joke taken too far, especially at a time that Nigeria has been losing territories after territories to Boko Haram; at a time that the same Modu Sheriff has been fingered by another source other than the Nigerian Defence Adviser in Chad, and at a time that calls are being made for an independent investigation into the allegation that Modu Sheriff and former Army Chief Azubuike Ihejirika are Boko Haram sponsors.
‘’Or could it be the case of it takes a thief to catch a thief?’’ it queried. [myad]
President Goodluck Jonathan has described the signs and banners known as #Bring Back Jonathan 2015 that are flying around in Abuja, the nation’s federal capital, as offensive and repugnant and has directed that they should be removed immediately.
The signs and banners are materials being circulated in Abuja to campaign for President Jonathan’s second tenure moves that is said that have attracted about 10 million Nigerians across the country, and to foreclose the government search for the over 200 female students of the government gilrs secondary school, Chibok in Borno state, by members of Boko Haram on April 14 this year.
A statement today by the special adviser to President Jonathan on media and publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati quoted the President as saying that the campaign signs are highly insensitive parody of the #Bring Back Our Girls hash tag, and that they were being circulated without his knowledge or approval.
The President “condemnes the #Bring Back Jonathan 2015 signs which appear to make light of the very serious national and global concern for the abducted Chibok girls.”
He assured Nigerians and the international community that his administration remains fully engaged with efforts to rescue the abducted girls and that he will not knowingly promote any actions that will fly in the face of the seriousness of their plight and the anguish of their families.
Jonathan however expressed appreciation to what he called ‘broad range of stakeholders’ for the enthusiastic show of support for his administration. [myad]
The President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s Meetings to stem the growing tide of insurgency with Idris Derby, Chad’s President, should give Nigerians something to cheer about. It is important that a country that chose an isolanist policy is seeing the need to open up to its neighbors on the important issue of fighting terror. Without their help, there is no way the insurgency can be cornered and smashed. My question and that on the lips of many is where does Cameroon stand in war along our common borders? Is Cameroon as committed as they should be or they are just interested in a game of one-upmanship? Let me concede that this and the other countries of the Lake Chad basin have sufficient reasons to not be happy with their neighbor, Nigeria. This country under the present government has become something of a 1,000Kg Panda, throwing the entire neighborhood into a state of nervous excitement and agitation. We failed to nip the Boko Haram in the bud. Now it has grown into a phenomenon threatening, not only the territorial integrity of the country but the peace of our neighbors. At the rate they are growing, Boko Haram can use their newly declared Caliphate as a territory to launch attacks against Mr. Obama and David Cameron. We suddenly have become a nuisance to ourselves, the neighbors and the international community. Problems between us and our neighbors, especially Cameroon, are often forced by this country’s arrogance. Our officials always behave like they are running puppet regimes in Nigeria’s interest in the neighboring countries. When the Boko Haram violence first hit the sky, we behaved as if it was the neighbors who were feeding it and without putting much thought to it, shut our borders with Chad, Niger and Cameroon. This is why the meeting with Derby is important. The border closure has been hurting the booming informal trade between us and these countries. The informal trade routes are like blood supply veins in the body. As a consequence of the continuing closure, prices of goods on both sides of the border have spiraled beyond the reach of ordinary people. For example, the food additive, Maggi Cube sold for two Naira, eighty kobo at Wuse, Abuja market sell for fifteen Naira (N15) at the border crossing. A senior diplomat revealed at the early stage of this conflict that our government never showed that it was important to speak to the countries of the Lake Chad Commission on the need for joint efforts to tackle the then emerging threat. Without gainsaying it, every leader in the neighborhood felt hurt by apparent snub. Nigerians have a wishful thinking that Cameroon in particular is our country’s ally without realizing that they see themselves first as a French outpost before anything, and that they are often forced by circumstances to see things in Nigeria’s way. To be fair, though, to Cameroon, we all know that there is a shared feeling of envy and deep hatred against Nigeria by most countries on the continent. They lurk in dark corners, waiting for the day opportunity shows up to slight us. It is a psychological thing which, in the case of Ghana and Cameroon – and the new-comer South Africa – they used soccer to assert their dominance over us. These past few years when Nigeria re-discovered its football talent and prowess, we are no longer being treated as anybody’s doormat. Boko Haram has however, changed that equation. In the war against the insurgents, Nigeria’s military appears all but exhausted. Americans are warning that the prestige and integrity of the armed forces is being eroded and the British, in a report by their semi-official think-tank, the Chatham House starkly projected that the sitting administration lacked the structural capacity to end the Boko Haram threat. Parents of the kidnapped Chibok school girls said earlier in the week, on Monday on the BBC that events in the North-East show that all hope is lost and that the search for their girls is not on the radar of the army, which is now barely managing to cling on to their foothold in the area. In international relations, any country that appears to be going through a turbulence – economic, security or democratic is bound to be taken advantage of and I think this is what Cameroon is attempting to do. From the way things are going, Paul Biya looks as if he has played into the hands of hard-line elements in Cameroonian establishment who are trying to ratchet up tension between us and them. Agreed that no country, Cameroon inclusive, must remain silent when there is a border incursion of the type they have been experiencing from the Nigerian side by both Boko Haram and the army. I don’t think it speaks to good faith that Cameroon should disarm the 500 Nigerian troops who for “tactical reason” strayed into their country. To turn the screwdriver a few notches, Cameroon announced a complete border closure following the initial report of Ebola fever appearance in Lagos. Local and international radios have been kept abuzz with reports that 27 armed (and highly spirited) Cameroonian troops “saved” the 500 Nigerian soldiers from Boko Haram. Nigeria is being projected as “hostile” and its fighting army as “spineless.” These do not bode well for good relations. I don’t know if President Biya has sincere desire for peace with Nigeria but if it is true that he has, there ought to be a demonstration of this through a toning down of the anti-Nigerian rhetoric among their public officials. To de-escalate the rising tension and allow our forces and the policy-makers remain focused on the issue at hand, the Government of Nigeria should call for an all-inclusive dialogue among the members of the Lake Chad Commission. More than at any time, we need better relations with all our neighbors. The meeting with Derby makes for a good start. But the old fox in Yaoundé should be the main target of our outreach.
[su_heading size=”11″ align=”left” margin=”10″]Read More Articles From This Author:Garba Shehu
Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Okogie has blamed the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, which registers every organization which goes about deceiving people in the name of church, noting that there are several “useless” institutions that have been registered as churches which are currently painting the Church of God in bad light.
Okogie was speaking on the divorce crisis rocking the Christ Embassy church founder and senior Pastor, Chris Oyakhilome, describing the drama going on between Pastors Chris and Anita Oyakhilome as disturbing. He said that when pastors refuse to honour the vows they took at the altar of God, what then should be expected of ordinary members of their congregation?
“When the going was good, they took vows on the altar of God to stay together in sickness and in health, until death do them part. They promise to make one another faithful partner in the presence of God, their family and friends and vow to be each other’s faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow. (with their separation ) It shows that they cannot live by what they preach. The Bible says: ‘What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.’ So why are they putting asunder what the good Lord has joined together if they are men of God as they claim?”Okojie said
Asked what the development portrays for the Church of God, the cardinal replied with a question: “What Church are you talking about?” He went on “It is not good. Are they true pastors? Good shepherds of the Lord are expected to do everything to shepherd their flock including their spouses even when they err. If God forgave us in spite of our filth, why can any man who is truly called pastor not forgive any malfeasance?”
South East Leaders and Presiden Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
It really boggles one’s mind the degree to which Ndigbo appear to be excessively reveling in complacency over President Goodluck Jonathan’s so-called favourable disposition to Igbo interest as relates to his 2015 Presidential ambition. As it were, it is though understandable that this Igbo complacency about President Jonathan’s administration is drawn from some empirical facts. For one, analysts believe that until the ascendancy of President Jonathan, no one of the past administrations in Nigeria – be it the military or its
civilian counterpart – ever made conscious efforts towards genuinely initiating the process of the de-marginalization of Ndigbo – a people erroneously and hitherto perceived to be the “real enemies” of the corporate entity called Nigeria by a section of fellow compatriots who are wont to think that they are more Nigerian than others. And the reason for this line of thought is not unconnected with the fact that the Igbo were the first to rise up to say no in practical and clear terms to the mindless, senseless and idiotic killings of their kiths and kin in the old Northern region, in the 1960s. As painful as the thought of this orgy remains, it is clearly a bygone however. And so that Dr Goodluck Jonathan appears to be the first and the only Nigerian President to genuinely show more than a passing interest in the question of Igbo de-marginalization in the scheme of things in Nigeria, apparently leaves no one in doubt about the rationale behind the enormous goodwill and rapport he is enjoying among the Igbo.
No doubt, a cursory look at the level of improvement which the Igbo seem to experience – as opposed to the status quo ante – in terms of their involvement in the running of the affairs of the Federal government is not unlikely to make some gullible minds to fall to the illusion that this seemingly remarkable trend as it were, has ultimately ushered in the full de-marginalization and reintegration of the Igbo into the mainstream of governance and government at the centre. But this is not certainly the true picture of the Igbo situation in Nigeria today. Truth be told, the Igbo are yet to be fully involved, absorbed or re-absorbed into the diverse network of Federal government business. To be precise, it is axiomatic that up till today compatriots from certain sections of Nigeria still maintain hegemonic control of government business in almost all facets of our national life. But then, let us leave this issue here for now.
Meanwhile, one wonders if it will be a misplaced assertion to submit that the same government of President Jonathan (irrespective of the thinking of the South-East elite club) has no known place or visible space for the Igbo youths in his national agenda for Nigerian youths. Lest we mix everything up, this piece is not concerned with the much talked about but less felt SURE-P youth empowerment programme of this government or its politically motivated new found love affairs with Nollywood and/or Hollywood where of course we have no illusions about the commendable survival efforts of the preponderance of Igbo youths in the industry. By the same token, the focus is not on the few individual Igbo youths Mr. President has appointed in few positions of influence in order to use them or their appointments in due course to advance the cause of his 2015 Presidential project. Rather, the main focus here borders on the fate of that section of Igbo youths/wards who do not receive any form of government support in their daily struggle to survive and who are hardly allowed to come close their elite class by the angry looking security details of the latter. Of specific concern here is the question of the real Igbo side of a related national space such as the President has created for the youths and/or wards of the Niger-Delta region via the amnesty programme. However, while of course the attempt here is not to de-emphasize or down play the peculiar exigencies that interacted to give birth to the amnesty programme for the Niger-Delta wards, but talking about the kind of special national space the President has created for the North or, better still, the Hausa-Fulani folks through the Almajiri education programme reinforces the bone of contention here. Understandably, it is commendable that the Northern wards are immensely benefiting from the Almajiri education programme. Ditto to the Yoruba who equally derive a good deal of benefits from this same programme. Yet the big question remains: whither the Igbo share of this mileage?
But lest err, let no one be deceived that the so-called Girl-child education programme purportedly put in place in the South-East as Almajiri education equivalent is anything to write home about. The fact of the matter is that, this so-called Girl-child education thing purportedly existing in the South-East is not only ill-conceived but also it appears to negate the real needs of the people of South-East, which accounts for its total failure so far. Little wonder the programme is perceived in certain quarters as solely designed to be used to show President Jonathan’s stage-managed/feigned appreciation of the imperative of ensuring national spread and balancing in the pursuit of the entire exercise. Somehow, this might not be unconnected with the truth. Otherwise, it baffles why the federal government always takes great delight in enthusing about the achievements of the Almajiri education system in the North and elsewhere while it says little or, more often, nothing about its Girl-child education counterpart in the South-East. Incidentally, apart from Ebonyi state where the FG might be inclined to point at the possible presence of Girl-child education infrastructure, one is totally at lost at the knowledge of the presence of same anywhere else in the South-East geo-political zone. Again, this explains why some persons have argued that the Girl-child education project is a white elephant project meant to placate potential critics – especially those of South-East origin – who might be impelled to raise issues concerning the discriminatory or lopsided nature of the Almajiri education programme as tilted solely in favour of the Muslim faithful. As seemingly untenable as this argument may appear, it is curious that no Igbo leader or group has thus far deemed it necessary to question the level of implementation of this Girl-child education programme in the South-East states. Worst still, not even the Governors of these states under whose watch the programme is meant to be smoothly implemented are least interested in telling us how they have failed in this regard. For some of them though, it appears there is no need for this Girl-child education project in the very first place. The reason being that the handing over of schools to churches and the unrelenting efforts of the state governments concerned in providing these schools with financial and moral support fundamentally obviates the need for such a separate scheme like the Girl-child education. In the circumstance therefore,one still wonders if it cannot be safely submitted that the Girl-child education in the South-East only serves as a conduit pipe through which the Federal government enriches Igbo politicians and their ilk.
As farcical as this whole Girl-child education thing looks, there is no gainsaying that this is perhaps one of the reasons some Nigerians are wont to think that President Jonathan’s government is running out of track. But this in itself is their thinking and they are well entitled to hold it. However, this brings us to yet another serious issue as it adversely affects the Igbo. To say the least, it is appalling that of all other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria today, only the Igbo nation has no one of her sons/daughters heading any of the country’s strategic security agencies – military and para-military entities alike. At the moment, therefore, while some folks riles that no Igbo is among the country’s service Chiefs, other believe that the issue is not such a serious one to “make fuss about it”. Unfortunately, this same situation is no less the case in the para-military categories such the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Prison Service, Nigeria Fire Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defencde Corps, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, just name them, where so far no Igbo man or woman is heading any of these organizations. And to even add insult to injury, the Federal Road Safety Commission which hiterto was ably headed by Mr. Osita Chidoka has long been handed over to somebody from one of ethnic nationalities Mr. President appears to be desperately striving to please at all cost.
What is more, in what seems to be a swift show of astuteness, the same Mr. President has(without being reminded) readily re-appointed Mr. Ita Epkeyong as the Director General of State Security Service, who incidentally hails from his Niger-Delta region. Besides, whatever are his reasons, the same President Jonathan has gone ahead for the second time in close sucession to appoint a new (Acting) Inspector General of Police – in the person of Mr. Suleiman Abba who took over from Mr. Muhammed Abubakar – from the same North-West geo-political zone like his immediate predecessor (pretending in each of the foregoing cases to be completely unaware of the fact that the South-East geo-political zone is not represented in the present team of the country’s Service Chiefs). Yet, with all due respect, all these Igbo politicians and business men dancing around naked for President Jonathan’s undisclosed 2015 Presidential ambition seem not to recognise this undeserving, disgusting and deplorable ill-treatment of Ndigbo in the sharing of the headship of the country’s command structures and its attendant far- reaching pernicious implications for the Igbo nation.
As we know it well, one the reasons why the desert and arid people of Northern Nigeria are deemed today to have more top military and para-military brass (whether in service or out of service) is not because of their false claim of being more populated than the savannah people of Southern Nigeria, or their ostensible penchant for opting for Armed Forces jobs either. Rather, it is basically because of their long stay in positions of power secured through a series of successive and successful coups that invariably gave them outright privileged dominance in the areas of recruitment, promotion as well as appointment of key officers of military and para-military bodies in Nigeria – an advantage they still subtly and, in some cases, brazenly employ to shortchange others (especially as still obtainable in the Nigeria Customs Service at present). Yet somebody, somewhere will continue to argue that this glaring aspect of continued marginalization of Ndigbo is not such a serious matter for the Igbo to begin to register their displeasure in an ungentlemanly manner deviod of voilence.
But be that as it may, while it is perhaps expedient for Ndigbo to continue supporting President Jonathan by their unrelenting efforts to drum up his 2015 Presidential ambition and/or even joining the supposedly growing queue of other Nigerians ostensibly “begging” him to run for the second term, it is imperative for the Igbo foot soldiers in this lucrative business of drafting Mr. President to equally strive to remind him to attend to Igbo interest in much the same way he is seen so far to be attending to other nationalities’ interest. And there is no gainsaying that one of the ways of doing this is for Mr. President to appoint qualified senior security personnel of Igbo origin into the top security echalons in Nigeria, bearing in mind that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Agreed, President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan is one of “us” and our “brother” and so we must never abandon him; but he must be seen to be treating us not only as such, so to speak, but also as one of the equal members of this federal entity called Nigeria. Otherwise, a situation whereby no qualified senior Igbo security personnel are at present principal Heads of military and para-military bodies in Nigeria does not in any way speak volumes about our professed “affinity” with President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan and/or his professed recognition of the need to carry Ndigbo and Igbo youths in particular along, especially as relates to the security aspect of his national transformation agenda. This in fact accounts for why it is apparently outrageous that Igbo youths are actively participating in the ongoing naked dance for President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s undisclosed 2015 Presidential ambition/project.
Founder of American University of Nigeria (AUN) Yola, Atiku Abubakar in a group photograph with the 15 abducted Chibok girls who escaped from Boko Haram custody, and were recently awarded scholarships to study at the AUN Academy in Yola, Adamawa State on Tuesday
Acting Nigerian Inspector General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba has confirmed that about 20 policemen out of many of them that were declared missing in Gwoza, Borno state after a battle with members of Boko Haram are yet to be found almost a month after. Several policemen were declared missing at the Gwoza Police Training School in Borno state early last month. Answering questions from newsmen shortly after a close door meeting with Vice President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja today, the Inspector General of police admitted: “I must tell you it is just less than 20 (policemen that are still missing), but we are still concern with every one of them and unless we are able to account for each and everyone of them, we will not relent in that efforts of tracing them.” He said however that the turn out of those missing has been impressive “because, we have been able to trace some of the officers who have reported, either back to their bases or their families. “When you go through what they went through, the likelihood of you knowing what to do is not very tenable. There is a possibility that the decision of what to do may not be easily comprehensible. “So, some they went back to their homes but our concern is that once they are in safety, we are satisfied and the process of bringing them back to their units has already commenced. The Inspector General said that every police officer faces all sort of characters, including crimina once he is on duty and is therefore constantly in danger of being attacked. “So, to us, facing dangers in the performance of police duties is not new. What is new is that this time around, the enemy is highly armed and that is why the military is there to support us in fighting them.” On the ongoing reorganization in police, Suleiman said that it is meant to repositioning officers for what he called advancement, adding: “what we are trying to do is a normal thing. It has always been done. We access performance and also take into cognizance vacancies available. We are all aware that quite a number of commissioners of police retired recently. Some of them were course mates of the retired Inspector General, so they left along with him after their 35 years in service. “So, it is just an effort to fill vacancies and, of course, to reposition the officers, based on performance, to face the challenges. The police boss said that his priority is to change the culture that has been there for too long in the system, saying that this is a big challenge for him, “and I consider it most important and most difficult. I should know that I am going to make a lot of changes. Those involved in the changes will tell you changing the culture, changing the character, changing the attitudes of personnel is very difficult. “Naturally, it comes with resistance, it omes with a lot of challenges on its own. Somehow someone has to do it and I felt not minding the challenges I will face, the good thing is that we have started. “Like I said, it is a difficult thing to do but it will take a little while to see it through.”
President Goodluck Jonathan has made a call to his colleagues African leaders to be part of the digital revolution that is taking place all around the world. “We must, in fact, be at the forefront of that revolution, creating information societies and knowledge based economies.” The President who spoke today at an international conference on information and communications technology in the Chadian capital, noted that because of the strong correlation between the efficient deployment of ICTs and socio-economic development, African countries stand to gain a lot from the effective adoption of the new technologies. “Africa and Africans must be active participants in the digital revolution that is taking place all around the world. We must in fact be at the forefront of that revolution, creating information societies and knowledge based economies. “African governments must facilitate and support the deployment of the necessary ICT infrastructure required to connect our citizens to each other and the rest of the world, we need to educate our citizens on ICTs and make them digitally literate so they can actively participate in this revolution, we need to encourage the development of our local ICT industries, creating companies to drive added domestic economic value, create jobs and support sustainable growth in GDP.” President Jonathan said that to ensure Nigeria gets the full benefits of new information and communication technologies which include improving national commerce, the development of an ICT workforce, the creation of high skilled, high paying jobs, improved international competitiveness and the establishment of stronger, more competitive small and medium businesses, the Federal Government is judiciously implementing a National ICT Policy, National Broadband Strategy and Roadmap and the Guidelines for Nigerian Content in the ICT industry. “The results of our efforts in this regard include an ICT sector that is 19% of our Services sector which in itself is 54% of total GDP. In addition to this, the ICT sector has an enabling effect on other sectors of the economy contributing a further 2.56% of added value.” President Jonathan said that in addition to encouraging and facilitating the development of ICTs within Nigeria, his administration is also helping to increase the geographic spread of high capacity broadband networks to support the harmonious and integrated development of regional economies in Africa. “With over 10 terabytes of undersea cable landing on our shores we are, through the bi-lateral Nigeria Niger Joint Commission, extending that capacity to Niger and we are in the process of entering into an MoU with the Chadian Government to interconnect the optic fibre networks of Chad and Nigeria.” According to him, information and communication technologies as well as the internet have clearly become catalysts that can expand the scope and scale of socio-economic development, even as he commended his Chadian counterpart for hosting the conference.
The recent spate of defection by some Nigerian politicians from one party to another is a shameful phenomenon that graphically retells the odious rat race, ideological vacuity and mundane craving that typify Nigeria’s political life. Lacking in any form of public-spirited motive or any principled intention to develop the structure and content of partisan politics, this wave is nothing more than self-seeking, whimsical and disdainful political prostitution. To this end, it calls to question the capacity, moral integrity and character of those who are ruling or aspiring to rule this country. While the cases of many sinecurists and position-seekers flirting around from one party to another in search of comfort zones are well known, erstwhile ‘progressives’ and supposed champions of the masses who are equally becoming turn-coats give cause for worry. Since the last election, it is not as if a better formula to govern the country has been found. It is not as if a new set of policy framework for socio-economic development has been formulated; neither is it that a roadmap for industrialization has been drawn. It then beats the imagination what the attraction of defection from one party to the other is apart from power for its sake. In the last 15 years, the quality of political leadership at all levels has remained generally low. Power, violence and money remain instruments of statecraft in the hands of the ruling party, while vanity or indiscernible ideas characterize the opposition. The result is the forfeiture of character as the system remains unable to build strong institutions. The fear of poverty, the unwillingness to develop indigenous capital, inferiority complex, acute selfishness and the imperviousness to a conference of reason have conspired to unleash mediocre persons on the polity. In the continuing sequence of this entropic trend, the political party has become a mere special purpose vehicle for some aggregation of political aspirants. A few months ago, President Goodluck Jonathan in his usual, self-inculpating posture aptly expressed this degenerate quality and moral bankruptcy, when he stated that more than 50 per cent of those in politics had no business being there. In the same vein, a former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) boss once observed that judging by their proclivity for gluttonous accumulation of wealth, many politicians and aspirants were mentally and psychologically unsuitable for public office. All these raise the question: what is the character of the Nigerian political elite? What, in the thinking of the politicians, is the whole purpose of the political party? Owing to the absence of any identifiable ideology within the Nigerian political party system, there is a dissonance between the idea of development of the political class and the aspirations of the people. Where Nigeria needs simple, basic amenities for survival, there is a deliberate dehumanization of the people through abuse of tax-payers’ money by the ruling elite. At a time when the nation’s political experience needs sound footing in democratic governance, the absence of internal democracy testifies to the lack of character in all the parties. If this odious political state is not a reflection of the way Nigeria is, what is? Why wouldn’t the masses vote for mass mobilization movements in the mould of Aminu Kano’s Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), or the National Conscience Party (NCP) of the late Lagos lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi to sack atrocious political parties? Moreover, when the decadent society from which the political elite is recruited is considered, it boggles the mind what kind of model they would be for present and oncoming generations. Unlike in established traditions of excellence, where the succession management process considers the institutions that nurtured would-be politicians, the Nigerian situation is an all-comers affair of contractors, lawbreakers, political hangers-on and sundry jobbers, all lacking in the requisite knowledge for governance. The situation is so deplorable and so scary that senior citizens, who have had the best of this country and may not benefit from any transformation agenda, are now the ones seeking a revolution on behalf of the populace. In the contemplation of some, the redemption of Nigeria’s state of spiraling decadence is so far-fetched and the possibility of a revolution so slim that Nigerians would have to take solace in the anticipation of a spiritual super force or divine direction. Whether Nigeria could even be extricated from the morass of degeneracy through this means is, of course, a matter of metaphysical conjecture. But one reassuring perspective is that this rudderlessness and moral degeneracy has not always been the case. In earlier democratic encounters, politicians had always defected from one party to another; but such carpet-crossing had been based on profound ideological differences and working principles. Not a few have marveled at the exemplary character of Nigeria’s political fathers: the simplicity of Tafawa Balewa, the selflessness of Ahmadu Bello, the nationalism of Nnamdi Azikiwe and the enduring vision of Obafemi Awolowo, all of which tower above their personal foibles. So, a good place to start Nigeria’s clean-up is for the nation’s school curriculum to take history and civic education seriously. Nigerians have to learn from the past; they have to learn the culture of civility, heroism, patriotism and other virtues that build successful nations. Today’s generation of moral orphans need to know and understand that the present obsession with inordinate materialism, the rabid pursuit of power for its sake and the abysmally low productivity in virtually all aspects of national life stand in contrast to the vision of the nation’s founding fathers. Another way of morally fumigating the nation’s political space is to have good people as political aspirants. Yet, it would be simplistic to assume that some air-splitting ethical evaluation of would-be leaders can be carried out to ascertain who a good person is. The political space must however, be made safe for good people and genuine potential political leaders to vie for elective positions. To complement this, communities should inculcate the system of fielding decent people who are not ambitious but competent, and dissuade scavengers and incompetent persons. Furthermore, there is need for a human capital development plan in order to entrench the inexorable symbiosis between the quality of universities and the intellectual capital of a country. Besides its contribution to global culture and civilization, what this wedding of town and gown would do is to re-introduce the value of scholarship to personal refinement and positive transformation of Nigeria’s immediate environment. Judging by the frenetic struggle over political positions, it is clear that pecuniary incentives and other attractive appurtenances of office are the primary motivations of today’s ruling class, and not service. Thus, there is need for a constitutional means to reduce and de-emphasise the monetary rewards and scandalous perquisites for public office holders. This reduction of pecuniary rewards would attract people who are genuinely interested in public service, and dissuade political scavengers. This position is based on the conviction that the political space is not occupied only by redundant and money-hungry politicians as there are also many well meaning persons who are morally upright, politically sagacious, determined, and visionary enough to become change agents. This is where the role of the media comes in. Apart from providing information that would enable people become free and self-governing, the media’s first loyalty to citizens demands that it sincerely highlights and celebrates courageous and self-sacrificing Nigerians who can transform the country, and at the same time bring to opprobrium fortune-seekers in government and party careerists who will routinely run the mill. At the regulatory level, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be equipped through legislation to implement the INEC laws. In the same vein, political parties should professionally organize their structures of management in such a way that they are not brought to ridicule and abuse by crashers and opportunists. They should deliberately write and publicize their vision and mission statements as well as their manifestoes to ensure that the aspirations and personal philosophy of their members align with their objectives. Parties should ensure that members pay subscription fees regularly, while stiff rules should be put in place for the re-entry of defectors. To stem the corruption pervading the party system, the law should be enforced to peg contribution to a political party at a certain amount. This will not only remove the parties from the pocket of a few godfathers, it will help the process of mass inclusion and engender the culture of questioning.
As embarrassing as it is, the on-going carpet-crossing phenomenon is an opportunity for political parties to look inwards and re-invent themselves. As parties are now, all are in bad odour and those crossing from one party to the other are merely carrying the same stench around. This shame is made more painful because this is the time Nigeria needs men and women of character, oases of sanity in a desert of though. (This is Guardian’s Editorial). [myad]
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President Goodluck Jonathan has described the signs and banners known as #Bring Back Jonathan 2015 that are flying around in Abuja, the nation’s federal capital, as offensive and repugnant and has directed that they should be removed immediately.
The President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s Meetings to stem the growing tide of insurgency with Idris Derby, Chad’s President, should give Nigerians something to cheer about. It is important that a country that chose an isolanist policy is seeing the need to open up to its neighbors on the important issue of fighting terror. Without their help, there is no way the insurgency can be cornered and smashed. My question and that on the lips of many is where does Cameroon stand in war along our common borders? Is Cameroon as committed as they should be or they are just interested in a game of one-upmanship?
Acting Nigerian Inspector General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba has confirmed that about 20 policemen out of many of them that were declared missing in Gwoza, Borno state after a battle with members of Boko Haram are yet to be found almost a month after.
President Goodluck Jonathan has made a call to his colleagues African leaders to be part of the digital revolution that is taking place all around the world.
I Wish I Never Write This, By Mike Awoyinfa
This is it! The most unimaginable nightmare! This is it! The most painful column I have ever written or will ever write.
The column I wished I never wrote. The agonizing column. The column written amidst sorrow, tears and blood. Please, pray for me.
More than any time in my life, I need prayers. Prayer is the only healing balm for me now. Prayer is the only thing that can save me from these troubled waters, from this ocean of sorrow threatening to consume me. I write with a heart brimful with sadness.
By the Orwell River in Ipswich, England, where I am sitting, I am scribbling these painful words. By the time you are reading this, I should be home to face the shocking reality.
You know why I am writing, you Father of the fatherless, you Creator of all things good and bad, you giver of life and taker. You gave him to me, now you have taken him. You gave me a friend and a brother. Now, you have taken both.
Who will be my friend? Who will be my brother?
Sadness is now my name. Sadness like those missing girls stolen from us in the middle of the night and taken into captivity. Sadness is the tattoo mark emblazing my face like Mike Tyson’s facial tattoo.
I have been reading Mike Tyson’s bizarre memoir: MIKE TYSON, UNDISPUTED TRUTH, MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY and I was planning to write on it. But I am compelled to jettison that to write this sad column.
Oh, my God! You know why I am sad. My best friend is gone. My twin brother is gone. A good man is gone. A generous man is gone. A man who gave all his life serving God and journalism is gone. A man who is the other part of me is gone. Dimgba Igwe is gone. What will I do now? Who will I turn to now? Who?
Why must all my friends and heroes in journalism die so cruelly, landing on the front page? My editor Dele Giwa died the same way: killed dastardly through a letter bomb on October 19, 1986. And up till today, the riddle of his death remains unsolved.
It has become “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma,” to use a phrase by Winston Churchill. Like Giwa, Dimgba Igwe in the throes of death was crying: “I don’t want to die.”
For four hours, he was bleeding on the road to Golgotha. No ambulance. No oxygen mask. No Samaritan hospital. From St. Raphael Hospital to the General Hospital Isolo where there was no surgeon to attend to him, it was the story of Nigeria’s systemic failure as a country. He finally gave up at Lagos State University Hospital, Ikeja.
If I am angry at all, it is not with the bloody coward who killed him and fled in panic. I will forgive the hit-and-run killer. And the Dimgba Igwe I know, will forgive the man who killed him.
What I cannot forgive is a nation with health institutions that can do nothing, once your life is in danger. It’s the same story all over Nigeria.
Of course, you know that once you are taken to LUTH on emergency, you are as good as dead. And this is a country without a functional 911 which you dial in emergency and get help. Only in Nigeria will you commit this heinous crime and vanish.
In a civilized country, the killer would have been caught on camera. The security agents would have tracked the car down. Not so in Nigeria.
I remember the sad death of my other Sunday Concord friend May Ellen Ezekiel whose death in a Lagos hospital shook the nation. Dimgba Igwe and I were at the helm in Weekend Concord where he was my deputy.
The best decision I ever took in life was to choose Dimgba Igwe as my deputy. He complemented me in every way. Now, he is gone.
Like everyone else, I am confused. I am lost. Please, pray for me. More than any time in my life, I need prayers. Lots of them. Because I don’t know how I can cope without my friend, my business partner, my co-author, my soul mate, my chief critic.
He was the voice of restraint—always fearing for my life, because of my constant prone to accidents. I remember an accident in Paris, when I stumbled, crashed on the street and seriously injured my arm in the bid to protect my camera and photos.
Dimgba Igwe was there for me when I was down and out in Paris. And at the Golden Tulip, where we had lodged to write Governor Fashola’s biography, I had another accident in the night after my writing, resulting in a deep cut on my lower and upper lips.
Again, Dimgba and the hotel medical staff quickly rushed me to hospital where I was told I could have bled to death, if the broken glass had cut my throat. You read it all in this column!
Against this backdrop, I was the one more prone to death. In his last interview, Dimgba Igwe told YES INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE how he nicknamed me “Iniquity Man” because I won’t sit in one place.
As his twin brother four years older, I used to imagine a future where two of us would be old and I would die first and Dimgba would be there, paying me tributes, looking back at the lives we lived. But alas, the imagined future is dead and Dimgba is gone in his prime.
The Dimgba I know was a kind man who didn’t deserve this cruel death. If anything, he would have hated this big embarrassment of being on front page, killed doing what he loved best: jogging.
He believed the best way to prolong life is by exercising, by running and pumping oxygen into the heart. He was the one who introduced me to jogging. And for more than 10 years, I have been jogging with him.
Our houses are next to each other on that God-forsaken Dele Orisabiyi Street in Okota which has not for once seen any government repairing it in years.
Recently after returning from a first-time trip to Banana Island where he had gone to visit our friend, Elder Ekeoma whose daughter was marrying, Dimgba Igwe had an epiphany. He was so sad that he would be leaving the well-tarred streets of Banana Island and be returning home to that hell of a street in Okota.
“Ogbeni, we must work harder and have a place in Banana Island,” he told me. Dimgba was a hard-working man, a visionary who should have lived long to reap the fruits of his toil.
The greatest honour that the Lagos State government can do in memory of my departed friend is to tar his street. I am sure even the inhabitants wouldn’t mind if the street is renamed Dimgba Igwe Street after this great son of Nigeria—if the road is tarred for his sake.
That would make him happy in his grave. That was what he yearned for and even begged our friend, the governor who gave us his word that he would assist.
Every morning, we run on that bad road. I couldn’t join him last Saturday because I was in the UK with my family for my son’s graduation—a day I was looking forward to with the pride and joy of a father. Dimgba opted to stay and take care of the home front while I was away. Somehow, I feel guilty. If I had known it will end this way, I would have taken my beloved brother along.
Pastor Igwe must have prayed that morning. His first act at the break of every new day is to go on his knees. He sings in praise of God, blesses the name of the Lord, speaks in tongue and prays for the Lord to deliver him from all evils. But on that Black Saturday, the devil struck.
On the eve of his death, I had called him from Ipswich and told him the books I had bought for him. Books like JFK’s Last Hundred Days, by Thurston Clarke, The Virgin Way, by Richard Branson,God is not a Christian, by Desmond Tutu and an epic book on the history of Jerusalem from the days of David up to the current day. He was so excited. He was waiting for the books. He loved books. Now, the evil forces have brought him to book.
Adieu, my friend, my brother. Like King David mourned his friend Jonathan, I cry: “How have the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath. Publish it not in Ashkelon.” For a great man of journalism has passed away.
Our latest book is a book called 50 World Editors, featuring conversations with editors around the world whom we met in the course of our travels. We were planning to launch it, but see me now!
This morning, I came across the New Men’s Devotional Bible you gave me on my 60th birthday. Oh, you really tried on my 60th birthday and I was looking forward to celebrating in grand style your own 60thbirthday. But, see me now!
In the Bible you gave me, you wrote: “Ogbeni, be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.” (Ephesians 6: 10).
My friend, I will be strong in the Lord. I will fly the flag and search for heaven that you so much cared about. Ogbeni, thank you. Good night and enjoy your freedom.
[myad]