olafolarin:

@ Beaf,

He was loathed in east because he was the leader they so much wanted,desired and craved for but never had.Instead they had Zik who put personal interest above national development.iN THE fIRST republic,the hausa's were a miinority tribe and its completely counterproductive for Zik to take his party to the Hausas in order to be in Govt.Zik's people are still in the trenchies till today because of Ziks lack of foresight and big-throat.
Whatever wealth Zik amassed at the time,should still be enough to cater for the teeming Ibo populace.

I didn't even mention east. I am from Delta state which is not in the east. Wetin east do you?
You will generally find that Awo was loathed for intense tribalism everywhere outside Yoruba land.

He was loathed because these peoples were intentionally misinformed about who he was and what he stood for. Propaganda can do such wonders especially at a time when there was no widespread access to news and information as we do have now. If we who have access to easily accessible news, it would be easy to discover that the much-maligned "tribalist" supported a non-Yoruba in the person of Ernest Ikoli against a candidate from the same Ijebu Division as himself Mr Oba Akisanya in an election on March 5, 1941, we need to cast out this type of baseless accusations and free ourselves from defeatist propaganda which are sadly being propagated from generation to generation.

Yar’Adua has committed impeachable offence — Prof. Sam Aluko
By DURO ADESEKO
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Professor Sam Aluko


Renowned economist and former chairman of the Economic Intelligence Committee (EIC) during the regime of General Sani Abacha, Professor Sam Aluko, says that President Umar Musa Yar’Adua has committed an impeachable offence by embarking on deregulation.

Aluko told Saturday Sun that the deregulation of the Naira, civil service and oil is an impeachable offence for which the President could be impeached. He quoted a section of the constitution, which stipulates: “The state shall manage and operate the major sectors of the economy.” According to him, Chapter Two, section 16 of the constitution made it clear, among other things, that the state shall control the national economy.

The professor argued that since the National Assembly, governors and ministers swore to uphold the constitution, steps should be taken to correct the violation of the constitution or action taken against the violators. He also called on Nigerians to challenge the government in court over deregulation, saying that the government does not know the meaning of deregulation.
Aluko spoke on how he checkmated the forces pushing for deregulation during Abacha era. He also spoke on several other issues.

Nigerians can’t understand the need for deregulation and the need for the removal of subsidy when the country has crude oil. Could you please explain?
It is not only Nigerians who don’t understand deregulation. The government itself doesn’t understand what it means when it talks about deregulation. Deregulation means lack of government control. This means a free-for-all economy. Nobody leaves its economy to be free-for-all. Nobody leaves the vital sector of its economy free-for-all. Petroleum is the most vital sector of the economy today. If you talk of deregulation of the oil sector, which means down-stream, it is to deceive the people. The upstream is not deregulated. Government controls the upstream.

What is upstream and downstream?
Upstream is the exploration and allocation of oil blocks. You cannot just go and pick oil blocks. Government controls it and regulates it. They are talking of deregulating the downstream sector. That is what the public buys. The public doesn’t buy the blocks. The public buys petrol, diesel, kerosene and the gas. Instead of saying that they want to increase price, they are talking of deregulation. There is no relation between deregulation and price. China increases and decreases price and controls the economy. Cuba increases and decreases price and controls the economy. Russia was increasing and decreasing price and it controls the economy. Talking of price is not the same thing as deregulation.

Deregulation itself came into economic vocabulary through Britain and America. In those days, the economy of Britain was virtually nationalized. The public dominated the economy. Then came Margaret Thatcher in Britain and Ronald Reagan in America. They said they want the private sector to be dominant and they were talking of deregulation. Even in the circumstance, it was deregulation with strong police might, strong government control to ensure that the private sector does not misbehave and the government was able to police the private sector. It is unlike here where the government cannot even police itself. So, it is a misnomer for government to talk of deregulation. It is sacrilege against the country. It is highly contemptuous.

This is a country where we are the sixth largest producer of petroleum in the world. We should be producing, refining and exporting our excess produce. The price we are paying now for any oil product is higher than we should be paying. The cost of a litre of petrol, from exploration to the refinery, is about N12. I mean if we refine it here; from mining till the pomp price. It should be about N12.That is the cost per litre. But when you import from Britain or America or other countries, 66 per cent of the price of that import is tax put by those countries. More than two third of what we are importing is tax being paid to those countries.

It is not the cost of production there.
In Britain or America, the cost of fuel is about one third of what they are charging. The remaining two third is tax they collect from the community to finance their own government. So, when you go and import there, you are paying tax to the British government. When you come and tax us here on what you are importing, we are paying double tax. We are not only paying tax to America, Britain and all those countries, from where we are importing, we are now paying tax to the government that really should not be collecting tax. When they talk of subsidy, I have always said there is no subsidy given to petrol in this country. You have subsidy when the cost of production is higher than the selling price. The cost of production per litre, if we refine it in Nigeria, is about N12 per litre. So, if you are charging N67, it means that the consumer is paying about N55 per litre.

We are supposed to have four refineries in Nigeria. Why are they not functioning? Why do we have to import?
Really, there should not be four refineries in Nigeria. There should be 14 or more refineries in Nigeria. We have four now that are not working. They are not going to work as long as we continue to import because the importers will not allow it to work. The government itself doesn’t want the refineries to work. Before Babangida came, the NNPC engineers and staff maintained the refineries adequately and perfectly. When Babangida came and introduced SAP and said he wanted to deregulate the economy, he wanted private sector to take over the economy, he took the maintenance of the refineries from the NNPC and started awarding contract to fake people-politicians, army people who have no skill to maintain the refineries. Those people will take the contract, award the contract to some other people until the final man will not have enough money to repair the refinery. That was when the refineries went into liquidation. If only Babangida did not take the management of the repairs and the turn-around of maintenance of the refineries from the NNPC, they will not only have been maintaining the four refineries very well, they would have built four, five, 10 or more refineries by now.

At that time, Babangida introduced a system whereby he will compel the NNPC to give potential refinery builders to export the crude oil, make profit and invest their profit in building refineries. They would export two ships, make their money and disappear into thin air. That is what has been happening since Babangida time till today.

Why didn’t you correct it when you were in government during Sani Abacha era?
We corrected it. That was why, during the Abacha era, there was no question of deregulation. This is because I told them exactly what I am telling you now. When I told the Provisional Ruling Council, which was the cabinet, that for every ship-load of fuel being imported into Nigeria the profit of the importer was N110, 000 dollars, they were aghast. I said we must make the refineries work and that was why at that time, the refineries were working. In fairness to Abacha, he was a listening Head of State. Abacha would say Professor is saying something that made more sense to me than what all these people – the CBN, Ministry of Finance, and National Planning – are saying. All of them are involved in the conspiracy against this country by saying that we must deregulate, we must privatize and government must do nothing. That was why, at that time, Abacha wanted to stop importation of fuel by saying that we must make the four refineries work.

There was a time when the then minister of works, I don’t want to mention his name, but he is dead now, wanted to import bitumen. It was to be 550 million dollars worth and he went to Abacha to get permission to import. Abacha gave a covering approval. But Abacha said look, I will refer this matter to the National Intelligence Committee (NIC) chairman by Professor Aluko. He referred it to me and said I should advise him on what to do before giving a final approval.

I then called the MD of the Kaduna Refinery and told him my committee wanted to see him on Saturday about the possibility of him producing bitumen. Kaduna produces bitumen but government was not encouraging it. We went to Kaduna and asked what could we do about this. He said instead of giving them 500 million dollars to import, if we gave them 50 million dollars he would not only produce more bitumen for the refinery, but also produce for other states.

We made the recommendation to Abacha. Abacha then summoned a meeting and said they should give the money to Kaduna Refinery to produce the bitumen for the ministry of works, contractors and all those making our roads. Abacha then withdrew the provisional approval earlier given to the minister of works. The minister of works was furious because he thought of the money he would make. Abacha then removed him and asked me to nominate somebody to replace him. So, I nominated my secretary at the Economic Intelligence Committee at that time. He was then a soldier. He became the minister of works. His name is Garba Mohammed; he was a Major General in the Army at the time. Really, if we want to work, there are capable people in our system to work. But they will not let them work. That is why they keep on saying government can do nothing, government would do nothing. They say government has no business with business.

You gave the example of bitumen. What went wrong after Abacha era?
During Abacha era, the four refineries were working. They were not only working, they were also producing bitumen. Warri Refinery was working and producing. Port Harcourt was also working. Importation was reduced. At that time, the importation of bad fuel was in our refineries. When I reported to Abacha that we were importing bad fuel, he was furious. After his death, I heard that it was Abacha who imported bad fuel. It was not true because he was very furious and he summoned the minister and the GMD and said they should remove their bad fuel and stop paying them.

Another example is that the government wanted to devalue the currency. We fixed currency at that time at N21 to a dollar. People said that you cannot fix, that we must allow the market to determine the rate and I said that no civilized country allows the market forces to determine the rate of exchange, especially in a developing economy like our own. We must control it and we must regulate it. We must also regulate the rate of interest between what a bank can charge and what it can pay to the depositors. So, we fixed the rate of interest between depositors rate and every rate at four. In other words, if I put my money in the bank and they pay me 10 per cent, they must not charge more than 14 per cent to a lender.

That four per cent will be the margin for the bank. The ministry of finance went behind our back and told Abacha and the Provisional Ruling Council that it was better to allow market forces to take its place and that our naira was over valued and so on and so forth. Abacha and the Provisional Ruling Council, in their wisdom, gave approval that they should go and deregulate the exchange rate, which is what they are doing now. Instead of N21 they were using N60 per dollar. My wife was the chairman of the National Commission for UNESCO. She had a meeting with minister for education and she heard that it was N60 to a dollar for the budget of 1996. When I heard, I got in touch with the Secretary to Government of the Federation and started to speak with the head of state about the exchange rate. I told them that I was going to resign as Chairman of the Economic Intelligence Committee if government maintained the stand.

Abacha summoned a meeting of the Provisional Ruling Council and the cabinet and he said the CBN, minister of finance, National Planning Commission, the presidential advisory council came to him and said it was a good thing to deregulate and that he gave them approval. He thereafter asked them to make their case. They were all present at the meeting. After they spoke, I told the meeting that the people were deceiving government. I told the meeting that if we made it 60 dollars to the naira, our cost would also be 60 to the naira because cost would rise, and we gain nothing. I also told them that prices would rise faster than depreciation in our currency and I gave examples. I said once we moved the lead, the Naira could land anywhere. It could go to N70, N80, N90 or N500 and they said no, it wouldn’t be so.

Abacha said: ‘Professor said it could go N60, N70 or N80. To what do you say it will go?’ They said it depends. He then said: ‘Professor has made a point. I cancel the approval I gave to you.’ He said he couldn’t do it alone because the Provisional Ruling Council gave the approval because the members were misled. One of the Generals said: ‘Why do we have to go to a meeting? We have heard the two sides and we are all here. Let us vote and see if we support what these people are saying as against what the National Intelligence Committee is saying.’ They voted 24 to 0. The exchange rate remained at N21 to a dollar until Abaca died in 1998.

During Abacha period, he did not allow IMF, World Bank, which were the regulation, to talk to him at all. I told him that the people were enemies of a developing economy and would always tell him not to act. Throughout the four years we were with him, it was N 21 to one dollar. The CBN and others tried to manipulate things to sell to the banks. But, officially, it was N21 to a dollar. In the award of contract, official foreign exchange, it was N21 until the coming of General Abdulsalami in 1998. He told me later that one mistake he made was to listen to the institutions on the deregulation of foreign exchange.

Abdulsalami Abubakar regretted the action after leaving office?
He regretted it after leaving office. He told me that he was sorry to have done that. When Obasanjo came, I had a quarrel with him. We were friends and we are still friends. I still like him. I was one of those who used to brief him when he was military Head of State. When the military was about to hand over power to him in 1999, I was one of those who briefed him. We had about two weeks to brief him. I was the only one brought to the Provisional Ruling Council meeting to participate in the briefing. So, he invited me to have a close discussion with him. I had a whole evening with him in Abuja, two days before he assumed office. I told him that the refineries would not work as long as he allowed the importation of fuel. I said during his regime as military head of state, he built three of the four refineries in Nigeria.

He almost completed the Kaduna Refinery, which was concluded by the Shagari regime in 1981. I told him that during his second coming, he must build at least four five or six more. I told him that our population had increased and that the consumption pattern had increased and people were importing and they didn’t want the refinery to work. He assured me that he would not allow any importation of fuel. I told him that the export terminal he built in Port Harcourt area was being turned into import terminal. It is trite because there was no logistics for the importation of fuel. Why must we allow export terminals to be turned to import terminals? He said he would not allow that. But you could see that during his term, there was more importation than ever before and the refineries did not work.

Why?
It was simply because his political party hierarchy got control of him. Left to him alone, in his heart of heart, he would not do that. But he was a prisoner of his political party. And the party is still there. The PDP is one of the greatest enemies of this country.

When you saw him later, did you discuss it with him as you did with Abdulsalami?
Of course, I discussed it with him. I said it openly that the Abacha regime was better than his own and he said I was senile. Later, he apologized. I am sorry for him because at the end of his eight years, the refineries were worse than the beginning. Three years of his reign as military head of state, he built three refineries and made them work and as civilian president, he could not even make those three refineries work. Something must be wrong. It must be the political machine and the political machine is still there. They are saying that the president can rule from Saudi Arabia. Can Saudi Arabia President be ruling from Nigeria? Can American president rule from Japan? You can see the kind of people they are.

Deregulation is a fraudulent use of our resources. There is nothing like that. If we have a government, we should be having today more than 10 to 15 refineries. After 1999, I wrote to all the governors along the coast and told them they can’t build refineries alone. I advised that two or more governors could come together and build a refinery. Lagos alone consumes more than 30 per cent of the total consumption of refineries in the country. Lagos should be able to build a refinery either in Ikorodu or in Badagry or even on Lagos Island. None of them replied. That is because they too were involved and gaining from the importation.

Venezuela is about 38 million people and that is about one third or one quarter of Nigeria. They have eight refineries and they are building four more. The Venezuela ambassador to Nigeria recently was telling our minister of information that in their country less than N400 fill the tank of his car. He had to spend about N3, 000 to fill his tank in Nigeria.

So, deregulation is not limited to fuel?
The naira has been deregulated. Even the civil service has been deregulated. All the things that the civil service should do have been contracted to private people. Our roads have been deregulated. Our ports have been deregulated. Our road from Lagos to Ibadan has been given to a company whose chairman is a lawyer. The ports have been commissioned to private people. There is congestion there because the private people are using the ports for their interest. Almost all sectors of our economy have been deregulated. And it is contrary to our constitution. The fundamental objective of our constitution provides that the major sectors of our economy would be in the hands of the government. That is what our constitution provides.

What section of the constitution talks about this?
Chapter two. The president, Vice president, governors, deputy governors, ministers and National Assembly members swore to uphold and to respect the constitution. Section 16 of that chapter two provides: “The state shall, within the contest of the ideals and objective from which provisions are made in this constitution. That is the economic objective. The state shall harness the resources of the nation and promote national prosperity on an efficient, a dynamic and self-reliant economy. The state shall control the national economy in such a manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity. Without prejudice to its right to operate or participate in areas of the economy, the state shall manage and operate the major sectors of the economy.”
That is the area of the constitution that is against deregulation. So, they are violating the oath to which they swore.

What is the consequence of the executive violating the constitution?
A breach of the constitution attracts punishments. I expect Nigerians to challenge the action of government on deregulation in court. The governors, ministers and the National Assembly members swore to the oath of office. They must defend the constitution. It is an impeachable offence. The president should be impeached.

Was the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) right to take the steps it took with regards to restructuring in the banking system?
Although we say we run a democracy, our leaders behave like czars. They behave like the feudal lords. It is the same thing when Chukwuma Soludo said for a bank to be a bank in Nigeria it must have N25 billion. The former governor of the CBN, who opposed that was retired. Soludo was put in his place. I said at that time that it was not proper for every bank in Nigeria to have N25 billion. In economics, we have large industries, small industries and medium industries. There are large enterprises, medium enterprises and small enterprises. Why must we not have large banks, medium banks and small banks? But nobody listened. Before then, banks looking for five billion naira, which was the original target given to them. They were still looking for that and it was moved it to N25 billion and they gave them only two years to raise the money. They had to play all sorts of tricks and that is what landed us where we are.

What does it portend for the economy of Nigeria?
It portends that we have to be dishonest. When you are looking for N5 billion and it is raised to N25 billion, you have to play some special pranks to get the N25 billion. They compelled so many banks to come together. That created not only boardroom problem but also managerial problems. That is what led to the problem that occurred when Sanusi came. It wasn’t strange to those of us who knew what was happening. When they were declaring all sorts of bogus profits, I asked from what economy did they make it. The economy is not functional. Therefore, what did these banks do to declare such profit? They were buying and selling dollars. They will buy dollar at a lower rate from the CBN, sell at black market rate and pocket the gain. They were doing fraudulent banking. They were not doing banking. It is not the fault of the bankers. They were compelled to do so.

You remember when Moses was caught in Egypt, when he was trying to save Israelites from the Egyptians; he said he was compelled to do it because he was an Israelite. He said he saw his people being maltreated. He said even if people thought he was an Egyptian, he was an Israelite – a Jew. Equally, the banks were compelled to do hanky- panky things. You cannot blame the new governor of CBN, who was also a victim of that system. He was in First Bank and he knew the problems that the bank had, much more than Soludo who was never a banker. When Soludo was appointed, I was very pleased. I said well, he would now take an economist rather than the view of bankers on the economy.

I thought he was going to be neutral. He was worse than even the banker. So, when this banker came and discovered what he himself has experienced within the system, he was able to expose it.
The only problem that I have is that the CBN is a banker’s bank. If I have a problem, I should report to my bank for solution and assistance. If the bank feels that I have problems, it is not for the bank to expose that problem to the public. I would have expected the CBN to call these erring banks and find out what was going on. I expected the CBN to tell them that what they were doing would not help banks, rather than expose them to ridicule. That has a lot of bad effect on the banking system. Banks are run on confidence. If somebody goes to a bank and discover the bank is collapsing, they will quickly withdraw their money. It exposes the banking system to a lot of danger.

Was the arrest of the CEO’s justified?
That is what I am saying. That you don’t just go and arrest top executives of banks. You know I was in government with Abacha. One day, General Abacha called me and said the then governor of Central Bank was misbehaving and he was going to remove him. I told him he should not remove him; that it was wrong to remove governor of the CBN. I told him he would be like Idi Amin and would destroy the financial system. I told him that if he had any problem with the CBN governor, he should call him and that if he found out that there was anything wrong, he should set up a committee to look into it. He agreed with me. He asked me to set up a committee secretly and not let the CBN governor know. I refused and told him it should not be done secretly. I told him that if I was going to investigate the CBN, I must tell the governor of the CBN, and outline the terms of reference so that he would prepare to defend himself.

I set up a committee and made one or two bankers, First Bank and other bank’s MD, part of my committee. When we looked into the matter, we discovered that it was all lies. The CBN governor had done nothing wrong. It was just a rumour because people didn’t like them. Abacha was happy and he retained the man until he died. So, you see, there are a lot of things that you cannot see from outside and you think that it is true and they might not be all true. I am not justifying the bankers, because they were not financing industries and they were not doing real banking. But I don’t think they are as fraudulent as the nation now makes them to look. They have some honour.

The way you spoke about General Abacha contradicts the impression people have about him.
You see, I am always sorry for people in government. I have a little soft spot for them. There is nobody ruling this country that will want the country to be in bad shape. But he may take some actions and react in some manners that people don’t understand. As I told you, apart from Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who I was very close to, and who listened to advice, I don’t know of other leaders who listen to advice more than Abacha. Not one. I gave you some examples. When the wife started the empowerment programme, she (Mariam) made herself the chairman of the programme to be able to run the finances, sign cheques and so on and so forth. During the 1995 budget, all the places, where the programme was mentioned, they said, accounting officer, first lady. It was in about 28 places. When I saw the budget, I called the minister of finance and asked how the first lady could be an accounting officer. The first lady was not a member of government. Even the head of state was not an accounting officer; how could his wife be accounting officer for a programme? My committee deleted anywhere first lady was written and replaced it with the permanent secretary and the director general, as the accounting officer.

I then wrote a memo on behalf of our committee to Gen. Abacha saying that I just discovered that the first lady was made accounting officer. I told him that neither him nor the first lady could be accounting officer. I told him that even he, as head of state, cannot be accounting officer. I wrote that his wife cannot be accounting officer for any programme. I wrote that we had substituted every place his wife was made accounting officer, with the director general or the permanent secretary.

Immediately Abacha saw the letter, he sent for me. He thanked me and confessed that he had raised objection to that. You can imagine what Obasanjo would have done to Mrs. Abacha if she were to be the accounting officer. He would have said Mrs. Abacha stole billions and billions of naira. The money they said Abacha stole was not true.

What of the money recovered, known as Abacha loot?
Anybody who served in government knew that Abacha controlled our budget so much that nobody could steal out of it.

Not even himself?
Not even himself. He had no right to take money. No head of state can go into the treasury and take money.

What Nigerians were told was that he commanded the CBN to bring cash.
It was a lie. Nobody can tell the CBN to bring money. He could take bribe. No CBN governor would agree to do that.

Are you saying on your honour, sir that Abacha never ordered for cash from CBN?
If Abacha were to be alive, nobody would talk of recovered loot. It is because Abacha is dead. Where is he now to come and defend himself? What happened really was that all of them were rich. Those that awarded illegal contracts are rich.

Are you saying that Abacha made his money before he became head of state?
He made a lot of the money before he became head of state. Even the Swiss ambassador told me that a lot of the money was made before Abacha became head of state. Look at Obasanjo. Obasanjo didn’t steal, but he is very rich. He is rich now. He is a member of Transparency International.

Did Abacha ever offer you money?
No. He never did. During one Christmas, I was going to my office and I discovered that they were carrying big bags. So, I asked, ‘at this time of night, what are you carrying about?’ They said they were bags of money. I said for what? And they said from the CBN. And I said for what? They said it was for Christmas bonus and Sallah. It was a time Sallah and Christmas coincided. The second day, we had a meeting and I said I wanted to raise a matter of national importance. I said Mr. Head of State and the cabinet, where, in our budget, did we put Christmas bonus or Sallah bonus? I said I saw a large number of people carrying all sorts of sack of money and they said it was official bonus they withdrew from the CBN. Abacha said the money should be returned to the CBN. That is how we stopped it. You find some people who will be going about abusing Abacha and they would come to me to see how they could get oil block, oil lifting and so on.

I always told them that I didn’t know anything about it. I have never seen a crude oil in my life. That was how we operated. A lot of my members were working so hard for government and never asked the head of state to give anything. I never asked and I will never ask. Even all this talk of severance allowance, I never got any. I was the economic adviser for four years and I did not take a kobo.
I was earning allowance as chairman, EIC. My allowance was N15, 000 a month. The government gave us a flat each and we fed ourselves. It was a part-time job. I never used government car. I had my driver.

Would you say that Abacha was a good head of state
Oh yes. After he died, I made a public statement that Abacha’s economic policy was better than that of Obasanjo. People are saying it now. Petrol was N17 per litre during Abacha era. He increased it from N14 to N17 and set up Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). Obasanjo increased petrol 12 times in eight years. Abacha increased only once by N3. Obasanjo took it from N18 to N70.

I don’t approve of all that Abacha did because no military is perfect. I don’t buy the idea that a bad civilian is better than a good military. If the military comes to power today many Nigerians would jubilate.

You spoke so well about Abacha. Can you compare him with Awo?
No. Nobody can be compared to Awo. You can’t compare any military with Awo. Awo was a democrat. I was very close to him and I was one of the closest to him in our party. Immediately he died, I stopped membership of any party.

Why?
Because he was the only one who was willing to listen to common sense. If we were in a meeting, until he listened to some of us from the university, he will not take a decision. But this set of politicians would say it is theory. But I told them that people who went to the moon are by theory. It was not by magic, it was by theory.

What is the truth about your turning down a political appointment by Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the 1960s?
It has always been my own policy because I went to a school – London School of Economics, where I was given scholarship for the MSc by the Western Nigerian government. The London School of Economics gave me scholarship for PhD. So, when I finished, I came back and I was employed as a lecturer in Nigerian College. I earned 950 pounds at that time. Then, the government, of which Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the premier, offered me the post of economic adviser on 2, 050 pounds when I was earning 190 pounds at the university. I worked harder in government than I did at the university. I was ready to take the job if they would let me earn 950 pounds so that when I disagree with them, I could come back to my job. I was not sure that the job I was going to do warranted 2, 050 pounds. We were in an economy where per capital income was less than 300 pounds. The gap between the rich and the poor at that time was so much I did not want to be part of it. It was exploitative. So, I turned it down. I was ready to take it if they would let me earn my 950 pounds. The government said no. I turned it down.

What was the stand of Awolowo?
Of course, he was quite happy with me. We still continued to write papers for him. That was one of the factors that endeared me to him. He said I was somebody you could rely upon. When we were at the university, our condition of service was that we could not take extra pay. Any money we earned was paid to the university. That time, we devoted our time fully to the university.

Was Awolowo a listening leader?
He was a listening leader. The difference between Awolowo and Abacha was that Awolowo would have done his homework and would say: ‘Look, this is what I think.’ He would then ask you: ‘What do you think about what I think?’ But Abacha would ask you, ‘what do you think?’ And we would say: ‘You should not do this, it is not right.’ Most of the time, he would say: ‘Professor, you know I am a soldier. I didn’t go to school. But what you are saying look more reasonable to me than what these other people are saying. So, it was easier really to get Abacha to do certain things than for Awolowo to do certain things. Awolowo would have had his own original thinking. He would have done his own homework. But most of the soldiers in position don’t do any homework. Abacha knew a lot about the country, but by his own training, he was a soldier. He wasn’t an economist or a technocrat. Awolowo was an economist, a lawyer and a politician. He had the quality that no soldier has.



.

The part of this topic i want to attack is that Awolowo introduced tribalism into nigerian politics, this opinion is a fallacy. To start with human beings by nature are tribal whether you are an african, asian, european , etc, human association mostly is based on language, colour of the skin,religion, culture, tradition and values.
I live in britain, using britain as an example, i was suprised when i first came over to britain and saw the level of dislike between the english, scottish, welsh and the irish despite the fact that they are under the same kingdom. take Ghana for example, we have the ashantis, fantis, gans, and the hausas, the problem of tribalism exists there too, take the rwanda genocide for example between the hutus and the tutsis where millions of people were killed because of tribalism, i can continue to give example across the world but my point here is that tribalism is a human problem all over the world and it can even take the form of racism, so to say that its chief Awolowo that introduced tribalism to nigerians is ridiculous and silly.
One problem Chief awolowo had was that he was a blunt man and he will always say things the way he sees it which most people believes a politician shouldn't do, but it's an irony that we always complain when our politicians lie to us even though we ourselves don't always like hearing the bitter truth.
It's also laughable that people will say he's only interested in the western region, people forget that under parliamentry system of government which nigeria started with, every regional leader is mainly responsible for their regions. one man's hero is another man's villain, even ghandi,abraham lincon, john kennedy, roosevelt, clinton all these great leader still has their own critics till date.
Awolowo and co faught for nigeria independence, even when the northerners were against it, so why are people saying he didn't believe in nigeria.
All said, everybody has a right to their opinion anyway.

@Lanrefemi

Thank you my brother. You speak the truth that people refuse to acknowledge

Beaf:

Awo was a ruthless tribalist. He created the title Olu of Warri to reward the Itsekiri's for their vote. This has directly lead to bloodshed between the Ijaws (original settlers in Warri), the Urhobo's and the Itsekiri.
Awo's hands are steeped in blood.

becareful about arguments you acnnot defend

IS WARRI AN ITSHEKIRI WORD OR IJAWS?

Beaf:

I didn't even mention east. I am from Delta state which is not in the east. Wetin east do you?
You will generally find that Awo was loathed for intense tribalism everywhere outside Yoruba land.

Beaf you spoke the truth on this issue.

Boxing Match in Ghana - 1952
Speedy Twitch (NG) vs Attu Clottey (GH)
Referee - Nnamdi Azikiwe (NG)

The Ghanaian boxer had knocked out Speedy and Zik the referee had to start the count down, , Zik started dragging the countdown and interjecting in between counts of 1, 2, "speedy, dide" 3, "speedy o de dide now!" , 4 , 5, 6 , 10.

Unfortunately speedy was out cold and the Ghanaian won the match.

The morale of this story is that Nigerians of this generation don't know jack about tribalism, you don't even know the first thing about the next tribe to judge them on any platform.
Is it not ironic that Zik an Igbo man and Speedy an Ijaw man decided to communicate in a language not even close to theirs (Yoruba) and used it as tool to communicate in their present circumstance. The founding fathers of Nigeria were not tribal and it is evident in their relationship with the language and culture of the other tribes in Nigeria, Bola Ige for example could speak Hausa, and Igbo as fluently as any one from that area.

The concept of tribalism came in as a result of the ineffectiveness of government and the govt leadership, especially the military. Those who continue to champion the course of ethinicity today are not enlightened and definitely still living in the 18th century or worse

This generation of Nigerians need as a matter of urgency to learn about the other tribes in nigeria, and not just from hearsay and newspapers. They need to have a mutual respect for each other and relate as equals rather than master and benefactor

awolowo was a devil and still is,YES he will be remembered as one of the top nigerian govt officials{following the footstep of ADULF HITLER}that joined nigeria in the killing of millions of children with a starvation policy,and made millions miserable with serious financial hardship his evil action did not take him far but to hell!!!

matazzmagi:

awolowo was a devil and still is,YES he will be remembered as one of the top nigerian govt officials{following the footstep of ADULF HITLER}that joined nigeria in the killing of millions of children with a starvation policy,and made millions miserable with serious financial hardship his evil action did not take him far but to hell!!!

ur father ojukwu was a devil and still is and would forever be and will as go to hell

liers

alj harem:

your father ojukwu was a devil and still is and would forever be and will as go to hell

liers

My sincere advice is to ignore such people, they are myopic and bigoted, joining issues with them will only further degrade you.
The march for the emancipation of Nigeria will continue and these tribalistic, uneducated, and uninformed mooncalf will not deter us

we should tell ourselves the truth. Topics like this encouraged Osama bin laden to unleash terror on the world, the hatred in the hearts of Germans fuelled both first and second world war. let us try to build a strong and united nation here.

This thread don show face again.

afam4eva:

This thread don show face again.

Shebi na your D*U*M*B* igbo boys dey Bring am back to live

The late Harold Wilson, a former Labour Prime Minister of Britain was to later describe Papa Awolowo as a leader capable of being the Prime Minister of Britain and the President of America.WORD.

The true lessons we learnt from Awo- Adebanjo
Politics Jan 31, 2011

By Bashir Adefaka
Chief Ayo Adebanjo, lawyer and prominent disciple of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, began his political career as Organising Secretary of the defunct Action Group, AG.

The chieftain of the newly established Social Democratic Mega Party, SDMP, told Vanguard that Nigeria’s only panacea to solving its protracted socio-economic and seeming perplexing political problems is in the convergence of the long clamoured Sovereign National Conference. He also bared his mind on other burning national issues. Excerpts:

Are you rattled that the Nigeria of Awolowo’s dream, is yet to be actualised?

I’m not rattled; I’m saddened! You see you are rattled about something when you don’t expect such a thing to happen. This one ought not to happen if they had followed the training that Awo gave us. Unfortunately those who claim to be Awoists; I call them artificial Awoists because many of them are fake! What they appear to be is different from what they actually are. It’s unfortunate and there is no doubt about that. I’m saddened. It is not the dream of yesterday that we are having now.

With violence erupting across the country, what do you think can be done to prevent a post election crisis in Nigeria?

You see the problem of Nigeria is not strange. Only that people who are dealing with it, make it look as complex as it has become. Many of our leaders don’t even understand the problems, how much more finding solutions to them. You know in mathematics, you have got to understand what the problems are before you think of the theory to apply in solving them. If you don’t get the fundamental right, you can’t get the answer. Also, it’s like a doctor who has a wrong diagnosis of a disease, he can’t apply the actual medicine.

Adeba

You see, fundamentally and I will continue to repeat that, and may be to the hearing of President Jonathan, if he’s lucky to get in, his first priority should be to re-organize Nigeria as a true federation. Not the fraudulent one that we are having, which we call the Federal Republic of Nigeria, whereas it is actually unitary.

Our forefathers granted us independence from the colonialists as a federation, as at that time, the country was divided into three Regions: West, East and North and that was after the London Constitutional Conference of 1953, following the controversial motion by Chief Anthony Enahoro for self-government. It was the late Chief Enahoro’s motion that led to that London conference and it brought for us true Federal Constitution.

As a matter of fact, when Chief Awolowo and others won the elections in 1952, there was no position for premiership. They were called Leaders of Government Business. It was after the London Constitutional Conference of 1953, that they went to London and Chief Awolowo fought assiduously for a Federal Constitution saying minority must be provided for and there should be no ethnic nationality in Nigeria that will not have access to the highest position in Nigeria.

Federalism provides a situation where each federating unit has a space. Not about diversity in religion, culture and social upbringing; it is necessary however, but once you don’t give cognizance to all these, you have all these clashes.

Do you see the continuing crisis on the Plateau as a consequence of this?

The Plateau crisis is purely religious. In that place, most of the people are Christians. You would find out that the latest situation there is that the Fulanis were attacking people from other tribes, the Christians and all that. Can you imagine people going into the churches bombing the people therein, matcheting them? Can that happen in Yorubaland? There is a problem ditto Niger Delta.

I have always held the view that no amount of government bodies that NDDC sets up in the Niger Delta will resolve the problems over there. What will resolve the problems generally both in Niger Delta and every other place is: give them their autonomy. Give us the Constitution where Bayelsa will be autonomous, where Rivers will be autonomous, where Ogun will be autonomous, where Imo will be autonomous and Kaduna will be autonomous. Then we all come back to live peacefully together. In any Federal Constitution, it is the federating unit that feeds the centre; unlike Nigeria where we all go to Abuja for loan. But by the way you distribute your revenue and all that, the centre takes all! These are the problems and that’s why the Niger Delta problem will never stop!

How can we then get a truly federal Constitution?

Under a Federal Constitution the police, I mean the security is a state matter. Imagine somebody coming from Nasarawa to become Police Commissioner in Ogun and all that. To show you how fraudulent our leaders are all approaching this thing, the United Kingdom from where we took over our independence, police is a Local Government affair and that is why you have the metropolitan police in London. You don’t have Inspector-General of Police in that situation.

The moment a police officer is employed in a metropolitan city, he is entirely there as a metropolitan police officer. As a result, if a policeman is employed in Lekki area, now talking of Nigeria, as a recruit, he will be in Lekki Local Government and no corner in Lekki where criminals are that he will not know.

But when you say you are one Nigeria and you bring a Commissioner of Police from Jigawa to come and solve security problem in Lekki, how will he do it? In America whose Constitution we copied, police is a state matter. But here, if anything happens in any state, Federal Government will say oh yes, go and close down the House of Assembly using the police and they do all unconstitutional things. These are our problems and then they say there is crisis here, there is crisis there. Fundamentally that is it.

Many of us that are existing till today would know that if we have been practicing the Federal Constitution as Awolowo had it, we won’t have problems. But the fact that Awolowo insisted and we succeeded then to have a Federal Constitution which, as a consequence, warranted distribution of revenue based on derivation. At that time he (Awolowo) fought for 50 per cent for any product that came from your area and that entitled us to derivation on our cocoa where we were having 50 per cent, the North had 50 per cent on their groundnut and the East had 50 per cent on their palm kernels.

So, by the time we had those things, we had a lot of money. By the time we were advocating free education in 1953, there was no question of supplying free textbooks and free exercise books but after 1953 Constitutional Conference, the marketing bonds were broken and the revenue was based on what you had, we had plenty of money and in addition to free education, therefore, Awolowo was able to give free textbooks and free exercise books.

And that was why before the election of 1999, you will remember, Afenifere and NADECO insisted on Sovereign National Conference to talk about restructuring the national Constitution. Many of you may not understand when we talk of restructuring the country. You know when you talk of restructuring a country there must have been a structure there before. It was the military that de-structured Nigeria in 1966 after the coup. Because there was a Federal Constitution that already structured the country but when they came, they suspended it and that is why we are advocating that we should go back to the basics.

And at that time in 1999 we, the NADECO led by Afenifere leaders, didn’t want to take part in Abdulsalami’s Constitution and people didn’t understand. I said, “Well before we do any election, let us have a Constitution of the people. It is under the Constitution we are going to have an election.” But Abdulsalaami said he had no time. He said, “I am going; when you get your democratic rights and you are in power, you can do that.” We knew that we were not being tasked. While we were insisting then, there was a clamour from the populace. As a result, we participated because truly we didn’t want what happened under Abacha to repeat itself.

What particular thing that happened under Abacha are you referring to?

Abacha pretended to do Constitutional Conference but loaded the place with his people. That was the time Ojukwu said publicly that the election to that Constitutional Conference was more valid than that of Abiola. We boycotted it querying why we should go to a Constitutional Conference when the government had already loaded its own nominees in it. Even those elected were a minus. So we leant our lesson from there and that was why we took part in the Abdulsalaam Constitution in 1999.

Like General Abdulsalaam said, did you make any effort afterward to decide your fate the way you really wanted it and how?

Unfortunately we told our flagbearers that we had only won the battle but not the war and that they should not take part in any meeting of government in Abuja until we had the Constitutional Conference. Because, go to history, we and the Alliance for Democracy, AD, made the Sovereign National Conference, SNC, an election issue. Thereafter, as Afenifere we toured every House of Assembly in the Southwest asking the lawmakers to pass a resolution that there must be Sovereign National Conference and that, after the resolution has been passed, you; our flagbearers should follow it up. Don’t go and collaborate with any government in Abuja until the conference has been held.

Then they said, ‘Oh, we are in minority’ and we said to them, we had done it before.

The Action Group was in the minority in the First Republic when we collapsed the McPherson Constitution.” Because when Chief Enahoro made that resolution, Mcpherson then said that our ministers from the West must no take part in that motion for independence: ministers then were chosen from each House of Assembly and then our people said what for? So our people like Bode Thomas, Chief Ladoke Akintola and even the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Aderemi, went to the cabinet under the platform of the Action Group. Mcpherson said to the Ooni during the visit, “Your Highness, I won’t like to sack you because you are CMG. And then the Ooni said, I won’t even give you the right to sack me. I will resign. He resigned as minister and that was what caused the crisis of 1963.

You see, we knew that Nigeria was a tripod: East, West and North. The moment any of the three legs is removed, it can’t stand! That was why the colonialists asked for the Constitutional Conference of 1953 which gave birth to the 1954 Constitution that made us truly Federal and the Constitution of the West was separate, East separate and North separate. That was what we had until independence in 1960. And even when they were going to change the Constitution to Republic, it’s the same thing but the coup of 1966 brought this thing by the military and so, the reason we are shouting for restructuring of the country.

But they failed to restructure and our flagbearers whom we gave the mandate failed to insist on our mandate that we were not taking part in this government unless there was a restructuring of the country.

The military used their powers to create so many Local Governments. Lagos is bigger than Kano but out of Kano they created Jigawa. Kano has about 40 Local Governments, Lagos has 20. That is the awkwardness of it because there was no basis, no yardstick for creating Local Governments. The military just used their veto and that time too they even located the headquarters for a Local Government without knowing where it was, only to find out later that no place was bearing that name. They did the revenue allocation to the number of Local Governments and that is why the South, I mean Lagos in particular is being cheated under the system.

And that is one good thing that Bola Tinubu did by creating Local Council Development Areas that Obasanjo chose to sabotage. We can go on and on and on; one thing leads to the other.

So, without this fundamental change in our set up, we can’t have peace. And I had told Obasanjo before when he said “the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable”. I said he’s talking nonsense; there is nothing more negotiable than the unity of this country. We must sit down at the roundtable conference and decide whether we want to live together or not.

And how do we live together? Every club has its own rules and regulations. So by the time we sit down together, you will be able to say no, you are cheating us. We will do it among ourselves peacefully. That is why people say if you make changes impossible, you will make violence inevitable. If we sit down and we say no you are cheating us because you don’t give us 100 per cent derivation and then you say no, you can’t have 100 per cent; take 50 and let’s have 50. You negotiate it! They will then feel as part of the federation. Nobody wants to leave a big country.

You have always talked about these problems but nothing has changed. What do you think is responsible?

Yes, this is not the first time really that I am talking about the problems. We will continue to talk until the right thing is done. That thing is still there and until you remove the cause of the problems we will continue to suffer the pain! We will continue to talk until we get there and that is why we are hoping now that, under the Attahiru Jega-led INEC, people’s votes will count this time around. And that is why Jonathan has a stake. If he is lucky to have it and he misses the point and the opportunity to organize a Sovereign National Conference, he’s doomed!

Obasanjo missed the opportunity of his name being written in letters of gold and so his name will be written in dust. I said it before to him, when he called his fake Constitutional Conference which had nothing that came out of it, that if he thought he could maneuver the system, he was joking. Because Obasanjo thought he could use that conference to his own advantage. No! You can’t cheat the people and expect that people will not react! He missed that opportunity and I hope Jonathan will not miss his own opportunity because, you can’t do a thing the wrong way every time and you expect a different result.

What is your assessment of the way and manner your children in the Awolowo school went about picking their flagbearers for the April, 2011 general elections?

Who do you refer to as my children?

The progressives in the filed.

Those you call progressives are not progressives. I maintain it until they come back under one banner and that is the essence of our establishing Social Democratic Mega Party, SDMP, which now has Chief Olu Falae as its National Chairman and Professor Pat Utomi as its Presidential Candidate. We are not known because we have not got the money. That’s our handicap but the ideology, the principles and the manifesto we stand for can’t be beaten. The quality of our leadership can’t be compared even with that of PDP or ACN. You won’t find all those dubious characters in SDMP.

It’s a thing I have said publicly ad I can still repeat it. Who are the characters in PDP? A few who are there haven’t got the courage to come out because they want to take the advantage of being in power. I believe there are some progressives in the PDP but the platform on which they operate doesn’t allow the progressive in them to manifest. Even the young progressives who have something against PDP and ACN, when they come they are told, “Can you win an election?” But you have to fight for it because impossible can always be possible.

By the time the Action Group started in the 50s we were losing elections in Lagos, we lost election in Ibadan, in Ilesha. We were able to win the majority but we were not as popular then as we are now. So, we started by preaching especially the free education which Chief Awolowo worked hard upon and implemented. Nobody believed it was going to be possible but by the time we started the free education on 1st of January, 1955 people were amazed asking: “Is it true?”

How did you do it?

Before we started the free education scheme we had registered the students, we built the schools and we had established Teachers’ Training Colleges where teachers taught teachers. All those were done. We did real planning before we went into the implementation of the scheme. Unlike now when people would go into government without preparing for governance and they just pick up programme and implement it without actually having to have planned for it. That is why they fail.

And that is why we say any political party that follows strictly what Chief Awolowo left behind has no other result to achieve except success.

Go to the archive! If you go to Sopolu Library in Ikenne, there is nothing about this country that Chief Awolowo had not planned for. Except that he didn’t plan for corruption that permeates what is happening now. When you ask your candidates to pay millions of naira each before they can contest an election, is it for whoever wins that election to go into government and serve diligently? How do you therefore expect him to get there and not be corrupt?

Lastly, the Afenifere has been silent. Has it lost its voice or what is happening?

No, no, no. It is you press people we should ask. We have our secretariat at Jibowu in Lagos, but whatever we do you don’t publish us and those that are opposed to us have a way of making the media not to publish us but their own activities are given prominence. I say this with authority. Yes!

You see what is happening all over the place now. AC would claim that they are party of Afenifere, they are Awoists. Where in Awolowo’s politics will you see them conducting primary elections and those primaries are marred with violence?

My Yoruba friends, see where our problem started below;[/b]

Legendary Harold Smith Speaks about Nigeria

Posted by sirlawie in What's New on January 5, 2011
Written by Olufemi Adefolaju - Aug 24, 2007


The man Harold Smith is not new in Nigerian history. He is one of the architects of colonial foundation that midwife Nigerian independence in 1960. I met him in a meeting three weeks ago where he opened up a bit about the lingering problem in Africa especially; Nigeria unbalanced protracted social political situations.
We asked if he could make this known to the media. His response was “I am in my 80s now; I have agreed but in the past ‘they’ did not want me to say anything, but now I don’t want to go to my grave without telling the truth about the atrocities perpetrated in Africa by the colonialists. Brothers and sisters; on Ben TV last Thursday, Harold Smith was on a program to reveal what went behind the scene before the independence. The Oxford University graduate had this to say about his role in Nigeria pre and after independence era. ‘Our agenda was to completely exploit Africa. Nigeria was my duty post.
When we assessed Nigeria, this was what we found in the southern region; strength, intelligence, determination to succeed, well established history, complex but focused life style, great hope and aspirations… the East is good in business and technology, the west is good in administration and commerce, law and medicine, but it was a pity we planned our agenda to give power “at all cost” to the northerner. They seemed to be submissive and silly of a kind. Our mission was accomplished by destroying the opposition at all fronts. The west led in the fight for the independence, and was punished for asking for freedom. They will not rule Nigeria!
Harold Smith confessed that the Census results were announced before they were counted. Despite seeing vast land with no human but cattle in the north, we still gave the north 55 million instead of 32 Million. This was to be used to maintain their majority votes and future power bid. He stated that the West without Lagos was the most populous in Nigeria at that time but we ignored that. The north was seriously encouraged to go into the military. According to him, they believe that the south may attend western education, but future leaders will always come from military background.
Their traditional rulers were to be made influential and super human. The northerners were given accelerated promotions both in the military and civil service to justify their superiority over the south. Everything was to work against the south. We truncated their good plan for their future. “I was very sorry for the A.G; it was a great party too much for African standard. [b]We planned to destroy Awolowo and Azikwe well, the west and the east and sowed a seed of discord among them”. We tricked Azikwe into accepting to be president having known that Balewa will be the main man with power. Awolowo has to go to jail to cripple his genius plans for a greater Nigeria. However, Harold Smith justified the British agenda of colonialism in Nigeria, which he believed was originally to help build Africa after the ruins of slave trade, but lamented that the British only looked after themselves and not after Nigerian interest. The British really let Nigeria down. When I see Nigerian been accused of fraud and from what I saw on the streets of Lagos; the British were worst fraudsters.Looking at the northern leaders now he said, “If they have any agenda in Nigeria at all, sadly it is only for the north, and nothing for Nigeria. He stated that the British look after the British people and this is so all over the world. He said the time has come now to see people of intelligent minds with an open and inclusive agenda for all Nigerians in power…people who will really look after Nigerians large population…but “I still curiously and sorrowfully see now that the British has not let go of Nigeria…her wealth,. her potentials, her future. He opined that the Caucasian people now assert themselves as the keeper of the “New Age” keys. He therefore said that it is only logical for Europeans to maintain their position of power, scientific superiority, economic exploitation, they must continue to perpetuate their lies and falsehoods and this is the most unkindest cut of all in relation to Nigeria situation!
According to him, Nigeria, a great nation was crippled not because of military juntas or corrupt leaders alone but by the British and American fear of Nigeria great future. He confessed, “The fear of the place that will be our ‘dumping ground’ really occupied our minds”. Some of the things he said were not new to Nigerians or to the whole world but hearing it from the horse’s mouth is quite revealing and established more reality zones. He finally submitted that the colonial masters have caused havoc while they were in Africa, and planted timed bombs when they finally left. What we see since independence, the administration of new internal colonial masters by fellow Nigerians holding sway in power is doing more damage to Nigeria. Instead of detonating the time bombs planted by the British, the north is planting mines. He added that ‘It was my duty to carry out all of the above and I was loyal to my country. Nigerians should try to be loyal to their country leaders and followers alike. Love your country. You have got the potentials to be great again and the whole world knows this’. I am sorry for the above evil done to Nigeria. I can’t say sorry enough……
Source: Conscience Daily International

Villain

Enough said. . .

EzeUche_:

Villain

Enough said. . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

EzeUche_:

Villain

Enough said. . .

Did you see the article by Harold Smith?

What does it say?

Yoruba>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Igbo>>Itsekiri>Hausa.

jason123:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

fstranger1:

Did you see the article by Harold Smith?

What does it say?

Yoruba>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Igbo>>Itsekiri>Hausa.

Villain

Enough said. . .

lol @ disgruntled ibo elements. It's really f'uk'ed up to be ibo and absolutely irrelevant.


ndo,

Ennuff said

Donlittle:

Ennuff said

. . that what

I ve painstaking read thru all d post BUT none of dem seems to POINT to what could make a NIGERIAN a national hero?
In my opinion AWOLOWO is a national hero for d just dis SINGULAR reasons:
1.He built d first stadium in Africa in IBADAN(Liberty stadium still in USE)
2.He built d first TV station in Africa which today forms d NIGERIA TELEVISION authority!NTA

This are rear achievements back then when even most countries in d west are still blind!
Imagine someone achieving such for Nigeria now,he would be tagged a global hero.!

Nigeria Tribune–Reports reaching our information desk says that late Chief Obafemi Awolowo committed Suicide just as he was about to celebrate his golden jubilee.

According to sources, then Action Group [AG] heavyweight, late Chief Obafemi Awolowo learned of a possibility of military court martial against an insurrection he was engineering alongside his political associates when he realized that Ibrahim Babangida wanted to become a life military president in Nigeria-state.

This is breaking News… RR is investigating this report…stand-by…

Read additional reports on this bombshell revelation on Awo’s suicide mission, including truths, lies and secrecy surrounding it, written by Abdulmunini Adeku at NigerianFinancialtimes:

Twenty –three years after he suddenly was reported dead of natural cause and two years shy of his golden jubilee , facts are now emerging on the reasons that led to First and Second Republic political heavyweight ,Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo committing suicide.

It was learned that he did it to stem the tide of a possible military court martial into an insurrection he was planning to lead alongside his political associates at the time when it became evident that then Military President ,General Ibrahim Babangida was intending staying in power forever.
In a no-hold barred interview with FS Online recently,a grass root politician ,Mr Adebayo Adeyinka who lives within the College Road at Ifako-Ijaiye axis in Ogba ,a suburb of Lagos, Nigeria was livid with rage when he learned that a key politician connected to the issue was denying the incident.
He revealed that Chief Awolowo wanted to lead some kind of guerilla warfare or militant campaign against the government of President Babangida so that he can be overthrown through a popular or people -led putsch.
According to him , the Elder Statesman summoned a meeting of his core loyalists over the issue and this was even filmed so as to strengthen the extent of commitment of each of the politician that attended the meeting,
He pointed out that however unknown to all of those who were privy to this meeting and clarion call , Chief Lateef Kayode Jakande ,Former Executive Governor of Lagos State had a different plan as he betrayed them to the military .
He Said:’ But unknown to them , Chief Jakande was planning to betray them, he went to President Ibrahim Babangida and promptly showed him the tape
“Papa Awolowo was invited for a meeting with President Ibrahim Babangida who was then staying at Dodan Barracks which was the seat of power as at then and the truth of his clandestine meetings was revealed to him by the gap –toothed General
“He gave Papa some options and that was for him to be ready to face a court martial , be ready to go to a prison or better still go on exile
“At this stage Papa felt instead of allowing some ambitious khaki boy to mess him up he should just pack it in and call it a day ,so Chief Awolowo decide to commit suicide so as to save himself from the ignominy of going to prison for the second time in his lifetime .
“But before he did this he called his core loyalists for a meeting ,before then he had called up Late Chief Bola Ige [Cicero],since the latter had a very strong understanding of the Hausa Language having had his formative years as a young man in Kaduna but discovered that the late Esa-Oke strongman was innocent after he was interrogated by Papa
“He called others for enquiries while asking them to tender the video cassettes of the meeting they all attended to discuss the plans to topple President Babangida for examination ,at this juncture Chief Jakande developed a cold feet as he could not produce his own copy of the video which was freely distributed to all that was present at the meeting previously before the betrayal and that was how the cat was let out of the bag
“So he cursed him at this point and pointed out that he will never have any form of relevance politically as far as Nigeria was concerned and till today members of the Awolowo Dynasty avoids him like a plague.
“I was their when the letter he wrote to the family to beg them for forgiveness over the unfortunate incident was read in the presence of all present ,if he continues to deny I am ready to confront him publicly again on the same issue as I can even remember that elders asked him to go to the grave of the late sage to plead for forgiveness
“When he was questioned he lied that the National Security Organization now State Security Services had visited his house to check on him and in the process took the tape in question but” Awoists” knew that this was a very weak argument as he did not inform their political group of this development before their enquiry on the subject
“That was how Senator Abraham Adesanya assumed the leadership of the Awolowo camp of Yoruba politics after the demise of the man ,he was not even so close to Awolowo during his lifetime like Chief Jakande and that was why many called him Baba Kekere on account of this cosy relationship
“Before he gave up the ghost , he said his prayers and then took the poison which killed him almost immediately but the public was not fully aware as they were given a different account of what happened.
“We were simply told that he died while he was brushing his teeth in his bathroom at his Park Lane,Apapa residence here in Lagos
“He was stupendously wealthy during his lifetime, infact there is know company at Oba Akran in Ikeja ,Lagos where he does not have at least a five percent equity, Dideolu Court in Ogba alone cannot be valued at less than N10 Billion ,that was the place that he had in mind to be his Seat of power if he was elected as Nigeria’s President.
‘He owned Shonibare Estate but the man he was using as a front and who later went to prison over some issues which Awolowo himself was privy to eventually laid claim to the estate.
“He got all of this wealth due to a great measure of goodwill and tax waivers he gave to investors whenever they come to establish their business.
“Anytime you buy a bottle of Coca-Cola you are enriching the Awolowo Dynasty ,go to Ijebu Ikenne and you will discover that the price of a bag cement there is different from other parts of the nation due to the subsidy that the citizens enjoy on account of Awolowo who was their son and I hope you know that West African Portland Cement is in Ewekoro and not Ikenne.
“On account of this great betrayal Awolowo family members regard the “Awoist” as a group people should deal with using a long spoon till this day and this explains why when The Peoples Democratic Party Government gave some of them political appointment lately they accepted it without thinking twice.
“Dr Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu was made an Ambassador by Former President Olusegun Obasanjo while , Mr Segun Awolowo Jnr was given a plum job at the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja as a Secretary.
“Recently when Afenifere was disintegrating Mama out of concern for her husband’s legacies decided to call a truce because as she puts it then, she did not know what she was going to tell her husband the day they meet in heaven
“He made Sijuwade rich , because he was his business associate and in fact some of us held very strong views that he was one of his fronts and later the same man became the Ooni of Ife”he added
Mr Adebayo Adeyinka recalled his several years of following grass root politics right from the days of Action Group to the Unity Party of Nigerian era in the second republic but now lamented that he had since lost all interest in partisan politics due to the massive corruption in our polity.
He listed such blue chips like Dunlop Nigeria Plc ,Guinness Nigeria Plc, Neimeth Pharmaceutical Nigeria Plc ,May and Baker Nigeria Plc ,Vitafoam Nigeria Plc ,Wahum Nigeria Limited ,CAP Nigeria Plc , International Paints of West Africa [IPWA], Berger Paints Nigeria Plc ,Berec Nigeria Limited ,Kabelmetal, Nigeria Bottling Company Plc ,Leventis Nigera Plc ,West African Portland Cement Company,[Lafarge ],Wema Bank Nigeria Plc, Scoa Nigeria Plc ,CFAO Nigeria Plc, Cadbury Nigeria Plc ,Wemaboard Estates, Odu’A Group, Livestock Feeds Nigeria Plc , Nigerian Breweries Plc as places the Awolowo family have commercial interest to mention just a few.
Apart from this stocks analysts believe that the most visible of his investment ,The Nigerian Tribune Newspapers cannot be valued at less than N100billion today in terms of brand evaluation as Thisday Newspapers was valued by the Owner ,.Mr Nduka Obaigbena at N200 Billion recently during a media chart while celebrating his fiftieth birthday sometimes last year.
Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was a leader who believed that the state should channel Nigeria’s resources into education and state –led infrastructural development.
At his own expense albeit controversially ,he introduced the free primary education for all of the Western Region ,he equally established the first television service in Africa in 1959 and expanded electrification projects in the region using the proceeds from the highly lucrative Cocoa export industry.
The Cocoa House in Ibadan regarded by many as one of the major landmarks of Nigeria’s architectural history was built as a result of his economic blueprint which was targeted towards the emancipation of his people from poverty
He built the first stadium in West Africa , the Liberty Stadium ,Ibadan and he coined the name “Naira “for Nigeria’s official currency ,it was previously called Nigerian Pounds.
During the 1970’s ,he was very critical of Nigeria’s military expenditure insisting that more should be spent on development
He ran a free health care programme for children up till the age of eighteen years .
On his death on the 9th of May,1987 as a mark of respect for his legacies ,The University Of Ile-Ife which ironically he helped to build as Premier of the Old Western Nigeria was re-named in his honour as part of a post humous celebration of his life and times.
His portraits adorn public places in Nigeria especially in his native Yoruba land where he is seen as an icon.
His picture also adorn Nigeria’s one hundred naira note.
He has been described surprisingly by some of his greatest critics and even political opponents as probably the Best President Nigeria never had.
He struck a chord with the womenfolk during his lifetime when in a rare show of public affection for his wife of several years, Chief Mrs Hannah Dideolu Awolowo told the world that the woman was his jewel of inestimable value.
How right or prophetic he was because his wife has continued to strengthen the mileage of the husband’s name even in death.
During an exclusive interview with FS Online at his Ilupeju home in Lagos last year, Chief Lateef Jakande upon being probed with questions over his relationship with Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo on account of what feelers were suggesting had denied that they had a bad relationship shortly before his death.
He insisted that those that said that they had any problems between them prior to Chief Awolowo’s death were not been honest as they were all telling lies.
____________________________________________________________ ___________

Willy+willy:

Nigeria Tribune–Reports reaching our information desk says that late Chief Obafemi Awolowo committed Suicide just as he was about to celebrate his golden jubilee.

According to sources, then Action Group [AG] heavyweight, late Chief Obafemi Awolowo learned of a possibility of military court martial against an insurrection he was engineering alongside his political associates when he realized that Ibrahim Babangida wanted to become a life military president in Nigeria-state.

This is breaking News… RR is investigating this report…stand-by…

Read additional reports on this bombshell revelation on Awo’s suicide mission, including truths, lies and secrecy surrounding it, written by Abdulmunini Adeku at NigerianFinancialtimes:

Twenty –three years after he suddenly was reported dead of natural cause and two years shy of his golden jubilee , facts are now emerging on the reasons that led to First and Second Republic political heavyweight ,Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo committing suicide.

It was learned that he did it to stem the tide of a possible military court martial into an insurrection he was planning to lead alongside his political associates at the time when it became evident that then Military President ,General Ibrahim Babangida was intending staying in power forever.
In a no-hold barred interview with FS Online recently,a grass root politician ,Mr Adebayo Adeyinka who lives within the College Road at Ifako-Ijaiye axis in Ogba ,a suburb of Lagos, Nigeria was livid with rage when he learned that a key politician connected to the issue was denying the incident.
He revealed that Chief Awolowo wanted to lead some kind of guerilla warfare or militant campaign against the government of President Babangida so that he can be overthrown through a popular or people -led putsch.
According to him , the Elder Statesman summoned a meeting of his core loyalists over the issue and this was even filmed so as to strengthen the extent of commitment of each of the politician that attended the meeting,
He pointed out that however unknown to all of those who were privy to this meeting and clarion call , Chief Lateef Kayode Jakande ,Former Executive Governor of Lagos State had a different plan as he betrayed them to the military .
He Said:’ But unknown to them , Chief Jakande was planning to betray them, he went to President Ibrahim Babangida and promptly showed him the tape
“Papa Awolowo was invited for a meeting with President Ibrahim Babangida who was then staying at Dodan Barracks which was the seat of power as at then and the truth of his clandestine meetings was revealed to him by the gap –toothed General
“He gave Papa some options and that was for him to be ready to face a court martial , be ready to go to a prison or better still go on exile
“At this stage Papa felt instead of allowing some ambitious khaki boy to mess him up he should just pack it in and call it a day ,so Chief Awolowo decide to commit suicide so as to save himself from the ignominy of going to prison for the second time in his lifetime .
“But before he did this he called his core loyalists for a meeting ,before then he had called up Late Chief Bola Ige [Cicero],since the latter had a very strong understanding of the Hausa Language having had his formative years as a young man in Kaduna but discovered that the late Esa-Oke strongman was innocent after he was interrogated by Papa
“He called others for enquiries while asking them to tender the video cassettes of the meeting they all attended to discuss the plans to topple President Babangida for examination ,at this juncture Chief Jakande developed a cold feet as he could not produce his own copy of the video which was freely distributed to all that was present at the meeting previously before the betrayal and that was how the cat was let out of the bag
“So he cursed him at this point and pointed out that he will never have any form of relevance politically as far as Nigeria was concerned and till today members of the Awolowo Dynasty avoids him like a plague.
“I was their when the letter he wrote to the family to beg them for forgiveness over the unfortunate incident was read in the presence of all present ,if he continues to deny I am ready to confront him publicly again on the same issue as I can even remember that elders asked him to go to the grave of the late sage to plead for forgiveness
“When he was questioned he lied that the National Security Organization now State Security Services had visited his house to check on him and in the process took the tape in question but” Awoists” knew that this was a very weak argument as he did not inform their political group of this development before their enquiry on the subject
“That was how Senator Abraham Adesanya assumed the leadership of the Awolowo camp of Yoruba politics after the demise of the man ,he was not even so close to Awolowo during his lifetime like Chief Jakande and that was why many called him Baba Kekere on account of this cosy relationship
“Before he gave up the ghost , he said his prayers and then took the poison which killed him almost immediately but the public was not fully aware as they were given a different account of what happened.
“We were simply told that he died while he was brushing his teeth in his bathroom at his Park Lane,Apapa residence here in Lagos
“He was stupendously wealthy during his lifetime, infact there is know company at Oba Akran in Ikeja ,Lagos where he does not have at least a five percent equity, Dideolu Court in Ogba alone cannot be valued at less than N10 Billion ,that was the place that he had in mind to be his Seat of power if he was elected as Nigeria’s President.
‘He owned Shonibare Estate but the man he was using as a front and who later went to prison over some issues which Awolowo himself was privy to eventually laid claim to the estate.
“He got all of this wealth due to a great measure of goodwill and tax waivers he gave to investors whenever they come to establish their business.
“Anytime you buy a bottle of Coca-Cola you are enriching the Awolowo Dynasty ,go to Ijebu Ikenne and you will discover that the price of a bag cement there is different from other parts of the nation due to the subsidy that the citizens enjoy on account of Awolowo who was their son and I hope you know that West African Portland Cement is in Ewekoro and not Ikenne.
“On account of this great betrayal Awolowo family members regard the “Awoist” as a group people should deal with using a long spoon till this day and this explains why when The Peoples Democratic Party Government gave some of them political appointment lately they accepted it without thinking twice.
“Dr Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu was made an Ambassador by Former President Olusegun Obasanjo while , Mr Segun Awolowo Jnr was given a plum job at the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja as a Secretary.
“Recently when Afenifere was disintegrating Mama out of concern for her husband’s legacies decided to call a truce because as she puts it then, she did not know what she was going to tell her husband the day they meet in heaven
“He made Sijuwade rich , because he was his business associate and in fact some of us held very strong views that he was one of his fronts and later the same man became the Ooni of Ife”he added
Mr Adebayo Adeyinka recalled his several years of following grass root politics right from the days of Action Group to the Unity Party of Nigerian era in the second republic but now lamented that he had since lost all interest in partisan politics due to the massive corruption in our polity.
He listed such blue chips like Dunlop Nigeria Plc ,Guinness Nigeria Plc, Neimeth Pharmaceutical Nigeria Plc ,May and Baker Nigeria Plc ,Vitafoam Nigeria Plc ,Wahum Nigeria Limited ,CAP Nigeria Plc , International Paints of West Africa [IPWA], Berger Paints Nigeria Plc ,Berec Nigeria Limited ,Kabelmetal, Nigeria Bottling Company Plc ,Leventis Nigera Plc ,West African Portland Cement Company,[Lafarge ],Wema Bank Nigeria Plc, Scoa Nigeria Plc ,CFAO Nigeria Plc, Cadbury Nigeria Plc ,Wemaboard Estates, Odu’A Group, Livestock Feeds Nigeria Plc , Nigerian Breweries Plc as places the Awolowo family have commercial interest to mention just a few.
Apart from this stocks analysts believe that the most visible of his investment ,The Nigerian Tribune Newspapers cannot be valued at less than N100billion today in terms of brand evaluation as Thisday Newspapers was valued by the Owner ,.Mr Nduka Obaigbena at N200 Billion recently during a media chart while celebrating his fiftieth birthday sometimes last year.
Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was a leader who believed that the state should channel Nigeria’s resources into education and state –led infrastructural development.
At his own expense albeit controversially ,he introduced the free primary education for all of the Western Region ,he equally established the first television service in Africa in 1959 and expanded electrification projects in the region using the proceeds from the highly lucrative Cocoa export industry.
The Cocoa House in Ibadan regarded by many as one of the major landmarks of Nigeria’s architectural history was built as a result of his economic blueprint which was targeted towards the emancipation of his people from poverty
He built the first stadium in West Africa , the Liberty Stadium ,Ibadan and he coined the name “Naira “for Nigeria’s official currency ,it was previously called Nigerian Pounds.
During the 1970’s ,he was very critical of Nigeria’s military expenditure insisting that more should be spent on development
He ran a free health care programme for children up till the age of eighteen years .
On his death on the 9th of May,1987 as a mark of respect for his legacies ,The University Of Ile-Ife which ironically he helped to build as Premier of the Old Western Nigeria was re-named in his honour as part of a post humous celebration of his life and times.
His portraits adorn public places in Nigeria especially in his native Yoruba land where he is seen as an icon.
His picture also adorn Nigeria’s one hundred naira note.
He has been described surprisingly by some of his greatest critics and even political opponents as probably the Best President Nigeria never had.
He struck a chord with the womenfolk during his lifetime when in a rare show of public affection for his wife of several years, Chief Mrs Hannah Dideolu Awolowo told the world that the woman was his jewel of inestimable value.
How right or prophetic he was because his wife has continued to strengthen the mileage of the husband’s name even in death.
During an exclusive interview with FS Online at his Ilupeju home in Lagos last year, Chief Lateef Jakande upon being probed with questions over his relationship with Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo on account of what feelers were suggesting had denied that they had a bad relationship shortly before his death.
He insisted that those that said that they had any problems between them prior to Chief Awolowo’s death were not been honest as they were all telling lies.
____________________________________________________________ ___________

If the post preceeding mine isn't inciteful then i don't know what is! So much falsehood has been peddled and some now believe it to be true, a few of us have stayed on the sidelines and not join in the madness of insulting our founding fathers from whatever tribe but this constant dig on Obafemi Awolowo is getting out of hand. I would respectfully ask whoever the moderator is to please appeal to the better nature of the people involved to please desist from the slanderous comments. We can all take it to the gutter if needs be, but of what benefit will that be for anyone?

OTAPIAPIA man!!!!!!!!!!!!!! VILLAIN joh

I know that Obafemi Awolowo is a World Hero, I have some problem to resolve with Ibrahim Babangida and will never allow who caused the death of this great man to go unpunished

Chief Thief Ole obafemi awaloawo was a cowardly villain who knows nothing about finance/accounting/book-keeping but was always fixated with the nation's treasury. Case in point to buttress this fact is outlined below:

Awaolowa pleaded with Zik (another fool) for form govt so that he (awaolowa) will be made the finance minister, but was turned down by the dumb Zik.

Awaolowa got his chance when released from prison for treason and was offered his life long dream of finance minister/commissioner by gowon.

Awolawao finally met his waterloo when he tried YET AGAIN (reminiscent of 1965 treason act) to overthrow govt, this time that of IBB. IBB gave "baba" two choices; go to jail or exile. Awolaowa didn't choose from any of the two choices as offered by IBB. He felt he cannot be dictated unto by an ordinary khaki boy. Little did the world know that awolaowoa had his most cawordly plan. He devised his own choice, independently. HE DRANK THE MOST POPULAR RAT POISON IN AFRICA CALLED "OTAPIAPIA".

"Chief Obafemi Awolowo: National Snake Or Villain?"

pretty much a rock star.

though i suppose it depends on which team you play for. For mine, definitely a rock star