SSS arrests The Sun columnist Okey Ndibe
• Seize his US passport
By SEYE OJO
Monday, January 10, 2011
Okey Ndibe
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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Fiery columnist with The Sun Publishing Limited, Dr. Okey Ndibe, was on Saturday night arrested by Nigerian security operatives as he arrived the country from his United States base.

No reason has been given for his arrest but the operatives immediately seized Ndibe’s travelling documents, including his American passport.
He was arrested at about 8:45p.m and later released at about 11:45p.m. However, he was asked to report at the State Security Service (SSS) office today where he is to meet with senior operatives of the service and probably know what his offences are.

Speaking on the arrest, Ndibe asserted that he came to Nigeria for a family commitment. His flight, according to him, arrived the Murtala International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos at 8:45p.m. As soon as he alighted from the aircraft, some security operatives accosted him and said he needed to speak with the SSS. He was thereafter led to the first floor office of the SSS.

His words: “One of the SSS officials took my passport and asked me to take my luggage. On getting to the office, he made entries into a computer from my passport and asked if I had other passports. I said yes that I was also an American citizen. He took the passport as well. He also made numerous phone calls.”
Ndibe revealed that the question: “Are you a journalist?” was thrown at him and he answered: “I teach but I also do a weekly column with `Daily Sun which is also online.”

The columnist maintained that the SSS official later made more phone calls before he was released at 11:45p.m but was asked to return to the office today. Ndibe is a Professor of English Language and teaches as a full time lecturer at the Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. He is also a part time lecturer at the Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where the Nigerian literary giant, Professor Chinua Achebe also lectures.

He averred that the US passport was a property of the United States government, which the Nigerian government should not withdraw from anybody. Nigerian government, he said, could only confiscate Nigerian passports, adding that there was no way he would leave behind his Nigerian passport and travel. Asked what he perceived as the motive behind the development, Ndibe declared: “The only indication was that in late 2008, I got an anonymous tip-off that I should not come to Nigeria, that there was an order to arrest me at any entry point.”

Ndibe, however, said few days into the regime of President Goodluck Jonathan, there was a policy statement that human rights would be respected. He said word also came that the order on people like him had been lifted.
“I was not altogether surprised. Governments make commitments that they don’t keep. At least, in the area of human rights. There are in Nigeria today other more pressing things than harassing writers. “I will continue to write the way I write; I write for the propagation and deepening of democracy in my country and offer no apologies for that. I have not broken any law and have no cause to worry,” he stated.

A senior SSS source told Daily Sun that Ndibe might have been put on the action list of the last administration in the country. He explained that the statutory order was to pick and escort Ndibe to the headquarters of the security agency. The order, he disclosed, was modified to talk to him, take his passports and let him go.
According to the officer, the new thinking at the SSS was that things had to be done more orderly, with utmost respect for human rights and due process.

On the particular offence that Ndibe might have committed, the source answered with an African proverb: “When a mother straps a child on her back when she is going to the farm, she will not know all the leaves the child will pluck on the way.” While saying that the offence might be anything, he revealed that a particular agency had requested that Ndibe should be picked up.

Fielding questions on why Ndibe’s US passport was seized, he said it was taken from him with other travelling documents so that he would not use it to escape from the country. Seizure of the passport, he stated, should not be an issue because it’s an elementary procedure to take hold of such travel documents and not necessarily an affront on any country that issued them.

that interesting.

who else is on that list.

You

The federal government does not have the right to confiscate any passport except ordered by a law court, one of Gani's numerous victories.

Becomrich tip off: Dont go to Nigeria or you are next. .im sure you are on that list

I am intrigued by the heat and dust raised as a result of the seizure of Prof. Okey Ndibe’s Passports for 2 days, following his identification on the State Security Service (SSS) Wanted Persons’ List at Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, Nigeria on Saturday 08-Jan-2011.

Prof. Okey Ndibe (PON) is a Lecturer, Writer, Newspaper Columnist and Social Critic. He speaks on behalf of the people whenever and wherever he identifies anything that is not in their interest. The natures of some of his calling make him an enemy of any government that is not loved by the people. He is also a danger to all those benefitting from bad governance of the people, whether he identified and/or criticized them or not. Everybody knows that he has been a thorn in the flesh of Nigerian governments in recent years.

There is no doubt that Prof. Ndibe is smart. He has won accolades in the Academic world. As a writer, his intellect is unassailable. A master like Chinua Achebe must have seen something in him during his early years as a writer; therefore, his intuition should be first class. He was born in Yola, Nigeria and had most of his education in Nigeria, therefore, he does not lack commonsense of the Nigerian situation, which those born outside Nigeria have to assimilate. From his writings, it is easy to see that he keeps abreast of happenings in Nigeria and is even more informed of what is on the ground than many of us residing in Nigeria.

Consequently, when he packed his bag to come to Nigeria from the US, he knew exactly what he was doing and the personal security scenarios he could encounter in nascent democratic Nigeria. He knew the occupational hazards attached to his calling in Africa so it seems to me that he wanted to test the waters under President Goodluck Jonathan. I would not be surprised to hear that he came with his medical and spiritual doctors, as well as his lawyer – just in case.

I tried to find out if President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) or his assign made a statement on the incident but I guess that the journalists at the State House need more time before they ask somebody about it and tell us. Or maybe something was said and I missed it. In the end, the SSS told Prof. Ndibe that he was free to go, but arrested his two Passports and asked him to go to their Kingsway Road Ikoyi office on Monday 10-Jan-2011.

From Prof. Okey Ndibe’s account, he was neither insulted (ala African style) nor assaulted. We did not hear that he was locked up in some smelly mosquito-infested Cell and served some dubious beverage, like Tea, programmed to alter some neurons in his brain some months after the encounter. No type of bomb exploded near him during or after his encounter with the SSS. We did not hear that somebody shot at his car on his way home; that he fainted; that he was hypnotized; that he had a nightmare, etc., etc. After he collected his Passports, he did not report that any of them was mutilated.

Whatever the case, it seems to me that President Goodluck Jonathan has emerged from this episode smelling like a bunch of Roses. Prof. Okey Ndibe smells nice too, as he now knows that the government takes note of his arguments. If I were a political Sci-Fi writer, I would have put this incident down as a symbiotic “collabo” between GEJ and PON; where President Goodluck Jonathan adds some animated GIF Feathers to his Human Rights digital Cap, and Prof. Okey Ndibe’s worldwide rating soars – as the courageous patriotic critic that left his comfortable life in the US to dare the Nigerian Lion in his den and came out unscathed.

In my estimation, there is no winner and no vanquished so I think that GEJ should be given the benefit of the doubt and all assistance to move the nation forward until he proves unworthy of such help.

The travails of Julien Assange of Wikileaks have shown us that freedom of the Press/speech, as enshrined in any Constitution, could still be subject to interpretation anywhere in the world, regardless of the type of Passport(s) you carry. It is noteworthy (and food for thought) that even after Mr. Assange’s indictment, the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill is still on the front Burner in Nigeria’s National Assembly.

I am not holding brief for President Goodluck Jonathan but I want things to be put in their proper perspective because, time and again, we saw some overzealous Nigerian officers take laws into their own hands in the heat of the moment. GEJ is not a foolish Captain, so he knows that he has fifth columnists on board. It is hard to believe that he would authorize that Prof. Okey Ndibe be arrested at election time. Besides, he knows that Prof. Ndibe is famous and has many friends in Nigeria and in the western world.

Prof. Ndibe was born in the home state of His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, and writes for the Sun Newspapers owned by Chief Orji Uzor Kalu. I guess that it would be difficult for Prof. Okey Ndibe to sustain criticism of these political juggernauts and their friends at this time. Somebody should correct me if I am wrong.

Ehee, Oh yes, Prof. Ndibe, having noted how Nigerians (including Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka) rallied round you when the SSS pounced, I hope that your perception has shifted enough to look again at my unacknowledged emails to you on my dispossession by Mr. Nessim Gaon of Israel: http://en.netlog.com/jonathanobikpo/blog, http://jonathan-obikpo..com. Those who choose your line of business should use their talents and connections to fight corruption, injustice and oppression whenever and wherever they rear their ugly heads, no matter whose ox is gored. This should not be Animal Farm ooo! It is true that I left a caveat that those who want to assist me should evaluate if they could sacrifice their personal wellbeing before offending almighty Mr. Gaon, but you have made it clear that you have the interest of others at heart so I expected that you would do something to assist. Besides, you are not one of those with loots and who stashed them away in Swiss or British Banks, so you have nothing to fear from Mr. Nessim Gaon. I beg, my brother, stand up and be counted.

In spite of everything, many of us in Nigeria appreciate your work and those constructive criticisms designed to keep our rulers on their toes, and awake to their promises and responsibilities.

Jonathan Obikpo