Brethren Ministers: Be afraid....

M. O. Ené

Allowing [Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-]Ojukwu to be given such an honour and the speech he is likely to deliver on behalf of other honourary graduands will be volatile and dangerous at the time some people are calling for the so-called IGBO PRESIDENT. This will create a very serious problem for us. I have spoken to two Igbo ministers and found that they are afraid to make comment. Mr. Sidi A. Ali, a member of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University's Governing Council in a letter allegedly written to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Ufot Ekaete. Saturday, June 01, 2002, Weekend Vanguard http://www.vanguardngr.com/news/articles/2002/June/01062002/N3010602.htm     THE NEWS  Let's get one thing straight: I do not know much about the procedure for selecting honorary awardees in federal universities. The last time I read that some folk got honorary Ph.Ds from Bayero University, Kano, late General Murtala Muhammed got one too. I do not know if vice chancellors follow formal procedures that rope in governing councils and even the visitor. In the case of UniZik, Awka, Anambra State, I can only say that I know VC Professor Pita Ejiofo; he is a levelheaded academician. If he made a mistake in the process, especially in a dangerous pre-election year, I am sure he will readily rectify it. However, the fact that the inclusion of Ikemba Nnewi of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) raised Mr. Ali's eyebrows tells me that the students were right in screaming "foul" and in threatening to react. They submitted a communiqué on the ugly development and said amongst other things: "It is also believed to be based on selfish political reasons contrary to the assumption that education, which is believed to be a unifying factor common to all, should be detribalised and devoid of naughty political manipulations." The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is obviously trying to share out doctorate degrees as political inducements. But this is hardly the issue I wish to address.   THE POINT  The point here is that some erstwhile loquacious ministers of Igbo extraction in the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ) are learning the hard way to zip their traps, not wail while the bereaved sob. This is good news… no tongue in cheek! Why? Since the stubborn "nza," which challenged its chi to wrestling contest after a sumptuous meal, has also learnt to fly without perching, we won't begrudge it its meals -- that would be abomination, since its flesh is edible meat; on the contrary, we must learn to shoot without missing. Case closed. Everything else is embellishment.   THE IDIOT No one expects sitting ministers or political appointees to block the reelection bid of their boss, not openly in any case -- with the glaring exception of Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Rimi (MAR) of the Federal Minting Board who wants OBJ out by any means possible. So the unnecessary dismissal of potential Igbo candidates for the presidency by some Igbo ministers has become very troubling to say the least. Not even Max Gbanite who is drafting retired General Ibrahim B. Babangida (IBB) as an "Igbo candidate" for the presidency has put down another Igbo potential aspirant. What then is the scornful spirit that drives these mouthy ministers? In case you have forgotten, let's rehash briefly. Minister Ojo Maduekwe fired the first salvo soon after the Igbo Summit of January 19, 2001 in Enugu. It was at the height of his fraternal fracas with Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu (OUK). Okay, now we understand he meant we should not be using the term "Igbo president," or we would be idiots. Well, let's take the semantics at its face value for now. In that case, if he is one of the two ministers with whom Mr. Sidi Ali spoke, he should have told the man that it was "idiotic" to use "the so-called IGBO PRESIDENT." By the way, isn't the term "Igbo minister" also idiotic? Since Professor Sam Aluko told us that there are no "oil-producing" but rather "oil-endowed states," I think we should watch our semantics. For example: there should be no more tribes -- which was why we changed the 'though tribe and tongue' anthem; and no one must use the term "Igbo president." Brother Minister Ojo Maduekwe has willed and decreed it loud and clear: There is no such thing as "Igbo president." Now, that would be "idiotic."   THE BANDWAGON  We must skip flip-flopping OUK, the Igbere chief engineer of an Igbo landlord in Aso Rock come 2003. Fast forward to the other Southeast governors who trooped to Abeokuta to endorse OBJ, or was it to ask him to declare either way. Either way, Anambra State Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju put a seal on it: they didn't see an alternative to OBJ. Ah ha, now you know why Sir Emeka Offor backed off from tormenting the man from Uli! Enter Dee Emma, Chairman of the Ohanaeze Political Action Committee Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu. He explained further: There was no Igbo candidate standing. Huh? Was he sitting throughout his Abeokuta trip; didn't he see Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim walk in late? Chief Martin Okeke of Odenigbo hollered from Abuja: No Igbo candidate would beat OBJ! Ah ha, the idea of a soon-to-be Igbonized IBB begins to make some sense after all -- since no true Igbo can do it! From Lagos, one Chief Azuka Alagwu of Oliver de Coque's collection of "nnukwu mmanwu" (big masquerades) said it was OBJ all the way. Now I begin to understand why Ikemba Nnewi decided to drop the "chief" appellation. Truth be told, anyone can support whomever s/he likes. Senators Anyim and Adolf Wabara openly support OBJ and so do the southeast governors, except Abia's OUK. The trouble is when we follow that bandwagon wave and put down the legitimate aspiration of Igbo people. This is totally and utterly unacceptable.   THE BLACKMAILER  Just when you thought the ministers and political appointees would learn from Chief Ojo Maduekwe's misfire and the backfire of Ndiigbo, Federal Health Minister Professor Alphonsus Bosah Chukwura Nwosu (ABC) aims and fires a blinding bazooka: Those who clamor for Igbo candidates for the presidential elections next year are cheap blackmailers! Say what! Was that really necessary? What other minister would utter such a needless nonsense? Don't get me wrong, I know ABC. He is a charming man and all, but the handshake just got past the elbow. Someone should remind him what happens when the market is stirred up. Question: What makes the supporters of former Vice President Alex I. Ekwueme (AIE) or General Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu (IOS) or former Minister John Nnia Nwodo (JNN) blackmailers and supporter of OBJ "whitemailers"? Now, tell me that the "cheap blackmail" statement can be explained away, and I will show you nation of magic makers. Obviously, ABC Nwosu prefers expensive blackmail or cheap sycophancy. Now we know.   THE LONE RANGER We are not done. Okwadike (Dr.) Chukwuemeka Ezeife (OCE) weighed in. Before entertaining himself with the unnecessary and unsolicited history of his polygamy, the presidential adviser told the world that unnamed potential Igbo candidates were "lone rangers" who had not grassroots support and therefore inconsequential in their scheme to return OBJ to power. Meanwhile, Ezeife who is a member of Action for Democracy (AD), a predominantly Yoruba party, has tried to amend his speech, but we have heard enough. Enough is enough with these people who color their speech the color of the dominant currency in their pocket. It is interesting that we do not hear from the people who wanted Chief Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo (JIM) lynched in 1999. What is Ohanaeze Ndiigbo waiting for? Another disaster before these loudmouths are reigned in?   THE PEOPLE Thanks to MASSOB's Ralph Uwazuruike and company, Ndiigbo have finally called an immediate stop to the nonsense. It had to stop. The treatment meted to Iwuanyanwu in Umuahia was enough to remind him of Otokoto Uprising in Owerri during the iron regime of late General Sani Abacha. Igbo youths and students should wait for the other loudmouths to come back to base. Now you know why I am thrilled that they are getting the message and shutting the heck up… if they had nothing better to say. Of course, Odenigbo's Okeke could still lash out at Ikemba as he does well, but his sour services are now featherweight. We cannot have these loose cannons denigrating their own people; we get enough from the likes of Abubakar Jika and Remi Oyeyemi. [Abati appears to have chilled while he retools for the 2003 big bash, assuming an Igbo gets to challenge OBJ and to threaten his chances of reelection.] Before you label me, please look around the other zones. While late Chief Bola Ige was minister of justice, he did not hide his support for OBJ, even while he warned PDP to keep its filthy paws out of Yorubaland. Yet, not once did he dismiss the prospects of Chief Olu Falae making a return match or Chief Harry Akande of then APP (now ANPP) or Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, of National Conscience Party. Defense Minister retired General T. Y. Danjuma does not insult his people. You will not catch Chief Tony (Mr. Fix It) Anenih trashing Chief Harry Marshall. Why then should these lower-level ministers by all accounts display such senselessness? Of other ministers in their group, none has trashed their folks. You don't read that an Arewa minister mauled Rimi or Ghali Umar Na'Abba (GUN) or dismissed the chances of IBB or Buhari.   THE CHOICE  My position on the presidential issue is documented. I took a stand long before the push for an Igbo in Aso Rock was adopted in 2001. An Igbo candidate should not the end-all and be-all of our politics. In fact, I consider the local government level much more important. Every Nigerian who wants to run in the presidential election should feel free to follow OBJ's footsteps: pray, fast, organize another Abagana ambush or parade presidential pleading parties, and then speak with "God"! So, come on everybody: AIE, Buhari (WAI not?) Gani, GUN, the Harrys, IBB, Ikemba, IOS, JNN, MAR, OBJ, Olusola Saraki, etc. Come on folks, let's shed some of the excess naira accumulated these past years. The more the merrier! Nigerian politicians should desist from intimidating known or suspected opponents. PDP minimizes itself by muscling out and or muzzling strong opposition to the OBJ. The party should stop micromanaging the INEC registration exercise and or harassing potential opponents, as is being done to Ikemba and as was done to JIM in Savannah Bank. PDP must not stand in the way of APP/UNPP forming a credible opposition in ANPP. Instead, it should spend its energy wooing AD, even if it means a promise to revisit the Sovereign National Council (SNC). It should instead hurry and resolve the Niger-Delta nightmare in the making. There should be no semantics here; this is politics. Again, the earlier PDP realizes that many of its elected officials are un-reelectable, the better, starting from my Enugu West senatorial zone where the likes of Hon. Gary Ene and Senator Collins Ndu, who wrestled the seat from Rev. Hyde Onuaguluchi, are busy attending to their business in Abuja, not that of their constituencies.   THE OPPOSITION  Only a strong and focused opposition will save democracy in Nigeria come 2003. Once ANPP becomes the super force it ought to be, it will relieve PDP of the present pressured-pot position. Because the party was busy destroying the opposition, it is left with no one to fight; so it is fighting itself as in the carnage in Jos, the volley in the valley of Enugu, intifadah against the VP in PDP's Kano, etc. The southwest is not spared. Only a strong ANPP (APP+UNPP) will help PDP and the entire nation scale over the big gully of political "homicide-bombers." Badmouthing Igbo presidential candidates is counterproductive. Frustrating them is futile. It will only quicken the demise of PDP in the entire East, its strongest base, especially with the off-shore/on-shore debacle into which the Federal government stepped with its eyes wide shut in an election year! No amount of pressure will force a satisfactory bill through the House and Senate, especially with the preponderance of northern legislators in the House. Suddenly we realize that PDP has wasted all these years trying to Mugaberize Nigeria. ANPP could not wait to quietly pick up the pieces and beat PDP like a flat drum in the coming local government elections by selecting and presenting enlightened teams of fresh blood ready to make a better impact. Thereafter, PDP will realize too late that Nigerians have had it with the arrogance of power and insensitivity to issues of quality of life, little things that make society fit for human habitation.   THE END  The Igbo must make the cost of sellout dear indeed. On the evening of last Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, former World Igbo Congress Chairman Chief Austin Egwuonwu and his wife hosted Hon. Mao Ohuabunwa, who chairs the southeast caucus in the house of reps. Many agreed that those who trash individual Igbo candidates are exercising their democratic rights, even when we find their choice of words offensive. However, it was agreed that Ndiigbo should draw the line on attacks on their right to present candidates for presidential primaries and eventual election. So Igbo politicians who have developed a self-hating complex and Minister Modupe Adelaja's foulmouthedness or OBJ's knee-jerk crudity must await the reaction of Ndiigbo worldwide. While Ndiigbo do not subscribe to "wetie" treatment because of Odinani laws on the sanctity of life, they have an age-old method of cleansing the land of such traitors. National social ostracism has been used once in the last 40 years. Like the name "Pontius Pilate," no Igbo child today bears the name today, and it will not be mentioned here. It took no written laws or popular rules. Ndiigbo just knew when they had had enough. It was not applied to the Arthur Ezes and Daniel Kanus and Arthur Nzeribes. No, these types are quietly consigned to the dustbin of infamy in history and should never again rise in Igbo assemblies and utter words worth the breath. In fact, any event that invites these people must be boycotted. These people now know the gravity of their garrulity. They know now that Ndiigbo cannot take it any more. We shall surely strike down those who strike at us. And that's why the two ministers of Igbo extraction are afraid to speak to their fellow PDP journeymen named Sid Ali. And so they should. Be afraid, brethren ministers, be very afraid.   MOrE MOE www.kwenu.com ======================================================================= Weekend Vanguard Ojukwu: Zik Vasity students threaten to disrupt convocation Saturday 1st June, 2002 By Tony Edike, Enugu STUDENTS of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University , Akwa, Anambra State have threatened to disrupt the 5th Convocation Ceremony of the institution billed for today if the Ikemba of Nnewi, Chief Ojukwu Odumegwu Ojukwu's name was not restored in the list of honourary award recipients during the event. The Student Union Government (SUG) of the University alleged in a statement circulated in Enugu Thursday that the name of Ojukwu was removed from the list of those to be honoured following a letter written to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Ufot Ekaete by a member of the University's Governing Council, Mr. Sidi A. Ali. A copy of the two-page letter dated March 30, 2002 which was presented to newsmen by the aggrieved students reads: The vice-chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Akwa, Professor Pita Ejiofor without the knowledge of the University Governing Council of which I am a member appointed by the Federal Government announcement (sic) the awards of four honourary degrees to some Nigerians which are Igbos with Professor Soyinka from the West. While the main issue is Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu who with his new label of calling for Igbo president come 2003, I think this is a very dangerous political move. :"The council has decided to postpone the convocation, hoping the Education Minister, Professor Babalola Aborishade will intervene. Allowing Ojukwu to be given such an honour and the speech he is likely to deliver on behalf of other honourary graduands will be volatile and dangerous at the time some people are calling for the so-called IGBO PRESIDENT. This will create a very serious problem for us. "I have spoken to two Igbo ministers and found that they are afraid to make comment. "I will expatiate on a personal call, possibly on return from Ilorin to see the Chancellor of the University, His Royal Highness, Alhaji Sulu Gambari who himself was not consulted and only heard the fixing of convocation day and selection of the awardees on the air." The letter was signed by Mr. Ali. The UNIZIK students in their resolution at the end of their meeting in Akwa, stated that the name of Ojukwu was consequently removed from those to be honoured at the convocation, an action they said has hurt the students. The students said the peace and stability of this university has been threatened. The students said in the resolution, which was signed by Okoye Ogochukwu Secretary General, Iroagbu Martins, Director External Affairs/PRO and Nwagu Kenneth Chikezie, Executive President, that Ali's action had no doubt "x-rayed and anatomised tribalism and ethnicism of the highest order." "It is also believed to be based on selfish political reasons contrary to the assumption that education, which is believed to be a unifying factor common to all, should be detribalised and devoid of naughty political manipulations," they added. According to them, the activity of Ali was a very big slight on the Igbo nation, and Nigeria in general. The consequent removal of Chief Ojukwu's name from the award recipient list was a clear case of injustice and calculated attempt to perpetuate marginalisation of Igbos even in their own land. They stated, adding that the act did not go down well with the entire students of the University, the Igbo students and the entire Nigerian students. The SUG, however made a 7-point demand which they said was a pre-condition for holding the convocation including the restoration of Ojukwu's name in the award list. They demanded that an open letter of apology be written to Ojukwu for the slight on the Igbo nation and Nigerians within 24 hours. http://www.vanguardngr.com/news/articles/2002/June/01062002/N3010602.htm

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