₦airaland Forum

By Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo

Just before you say Biafra, know and remember that the ideals of Nigeria have not been tried and found wanting. Instead, they have been found difficult and left untried.

Remember that Nigeria is a failed state that works for those who failed it. And these people who failed Nigeria can be found across every ethnic group in the country – and so are the casualties of this failed state.

Remember that Olusegun Obasanjo, who should have known better, failed to reform Nigeria structurally and permanently and as such set the stage for the failure of other leaders that followed.

Remember that the APC with its intellectual base in the South West again missed an opportunity to restructure Nigeria, so set the stage for many more wasted years of a nation in limbo.

Remember that Igbo people are better off in a united Nigeria that is working for all the people.

Remember that Nigerians of all ethnicities are losing patience with this failed state. Unfortunately, the people who failed Nigeria are lost in their own world, totally unaware of an impending revolt.

Remember that some Igbo youths, aware of Igbo’s chequered history with Nigeria, have run out of patience. They have pivoted to the only default position known to them – Biafra. They are in the driving seat of the search for a new Biafra. Whether you support them or not, they are driving and a part of you is on the bus.

Remember that there is danger in misunderstanding the outcome of the stay-at-home order carried out on May 30th across the South-East and South-South.

Remember that some people stayed at home because they agree with IPOB and MASSOB and other Biafran groups. Some others stayed at home out of fear of IPOB, MASSOB and other Biafran groups. Some stayed at home out of fear of the Nigerian police and other security agencies. And many more stayed at home in remembrance of their loved ones who died in the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War of 1967 – 1970.

Remember that any single interpretation of what happened on the 30th of May is not just false, it is also dangerous. The same way it is dangerous to allow some fantasies being peddled by some pro-Biafran groups about the imminent arrival of Biafra. For instance, the one that said that the U.S. President, Donald Trump, is going to approve Biafra’s Independence and hand the paper over to Nigeria for implementation. In fact, Trump just did the opposite - he just sold arms to Nigeria. Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to how the arms would be used should war ensue.

Having said all these and knowing that nothing that anyone writes here would deter those determined to fight for “Biafra now now”, here are seven simple steps to get your state of Biafra without firing a single shot. These steps are not dependent on what Nigeria does. Their implementations are solely in the hands of the Igbo. If 100% of Igbo people who stayed home on the 30th wanted Biafra, they can implements these steps easily and in 5 to 10 years Biafra would be theirs.

1.Form a political party with self-determination and self-rule for Igbo people as a platform. United Progressive Party(UPP) may already be positioning itself to be that kind of a party.

2.Elect majority of the region’s local and state government officials from that party. This will solve the problem of who is supporting Biafra and who is not amongst the ethnic minorities around the Igbo area.

3.Have two-third of elected officials sent to Abuja elected from that political party. You will be sending a clear message across Nigeria and the world, and the agenda of these officials in Abuja will not be ambiguous.

4.Once two-third of all elected Igbo officials are from this political party with a platform that says self-governance and self-determination, a pseudo- referendum would have taken place.

5.The party can demand a regional parliament in Enugu to govern themselves, similar to what happened in Scotland and Quebec. At this point, the government in Abuja will concede to demands to devolve power from the center as they do everything to delay the inevitable.

6.After a few years of regional governance, if so desired, then demand a formal referendum from Nigeria. A referendum to leave Nigeria can take place in 6-8 years time.

7.If the referendum passes, Biafra can be a state of its own.

Of course, there are other permutations and combinations that could give birth to Biafra. But those paths are lined with tears, blood, anguish and death.

http://saharareporters.com/2017/06/02/just-you-say-biafra-rudolf-ogoo-okonkwo

I thought he is not supposed to be in company of more than 10 people

Yes, you where the first to pay #20000, but turned around to pay them 70% of the salary

Jonathan won the election against buhari in 2011, 2015 he lost to the same man, what changed?

My attention has just been drawn to an attempt in a section of the social media to credit President Goodluck Jonathan with what he did not say about my book, ‘Against The Run of Play’, in order to discredit me.

Yesterday, President Jonathan said: “I have just read Segun Adeniyi’s new book, ‘Against the Run of Play’ which has so far enjoyed tremendous reviews in the media. My take on it is that the book as presented, contains many distorted claims on the 2015 presidential election by many of the respondents. There will obviously be more books like that on this subject by concerned Nigerians. However, I believe that at the right time, the main characters in the election including myself will come out with a true account of what transpired either in major interviews or books.”

The respondents President Jonathan was referring to are the people who spoke to me and whose claims he apparently disputes or disagrees with. This should be clear enough to those who did not choose to read his statement with a tendentious accent. But apparently, it is not. President Jonathan did not say I distorted his views and the fact that others may have presented him in ways he doesn’t like cannot be taken as an indictment of me or of my work.

For the record, after my first conversation with President Jonathan, I asked for his email address and promised to send him the raw text of our conversation which he could then amend as appropriate. I sent it to him that very day. When I went for a second meeting, I took along a printed copy which we both went through line-by-line. Whatever he wanted to be removed, reworked or rephrased was done while in some areas he provided further context to what he said.

Incidentally, a few hours after our second conversation, President Jonathan called me that he felt uncomfortable about a certain response he gave to a particular issue. He told me what to do and I reflected it immediately. I went into all that length because he is a man for whom I have tremendous respect and my intention was/is not to embarrass him or anybody. I just wanted his side of the story told in a way he is comfortable with.

I went through this same process with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Senate President David Mark, APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, former NGF Chairman and current Transportation Minister, Mr Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, former Niger State Governor, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu and a few other principal actors who all have in their emails the raw text of our conversations.

The reason I did that was so I would not misquote, misrepresent or distort the views of any of the people who spoke to me on trust. My intention was not to ambush or set up anyone. This is why I gave them the opportunity to go over what they told me again before putting it in print. Fortunately, none of them has come out to say I distorted their views. Besides, I left out so many things in my book so as to avoid unnecessary controversies. For instance, President Obasanjo made some strong remarks about former Vice President Atiku Abubakar which I decided to remove even after he (Obasanjo) had approved it for publication. I did the same to some of the things others told me that I believed could raise unnecessary dust or distract from the story at hand.

Therefore, I did not distort President Jonathan’s view and he did not say I did. Now that he has reaffirmed what he told me that he is writing his own account, I will enjoin Nigerians to wait for his book. I hope others will join him in writing their own accounts so that we can have the complete story of the 2015 presidential election. The more accounts and the more perspectives we have, the better for our education and learning. In the same vein, I will also implore all the key actors in the major historical junctures of our national life to documenting their experiences for the present and for posterity.

Meanwhile, I am aware that hackers have succeeded in breaking the code to the online edition of my book and are already circulating the book online. I have received it from different sources, even on WhatsApp. Though sad, it is a familiar story for me. In the case of my earlier book, ‘Power, Politics, and Death’, it actually went viral on the day of the presentation. So, that I enjoyed three days of grace this time is a bonus.

While I feel pained losing the revenue that could have accrued to me from online sales, I wrote the book because I believe it is an important story that should be documented and widely read. I have a feeling this book will be widely read, though at my expense and that of my publishers. But I am comforted by the fact that we are succeeding in dispelling the myth that Nigerians do not read. Nigerians do read. It is our task to write on what will interest them and present and package such in ways they will find appealing.

That said, however, I am more worried for people in creative arts and sciences, especially those in Nollywood, who are practically at the mercy of hackers and pirates. The authorities should do more to protect their works from the antics of people who reap where they do not sow. When creative people in both the arts and sciences cannot be guaranteed the legitimate benefits of their sweat and investments, they lose the incentive to take the risk to create and innovate. And when that happens, the whole society loses. Protecting intellectual property is therefore good for all of us, not just for the artistes and the inventors. We will all be the better for it.

http://saharareporters.com/2017/04/30/%E2%80%9Cagainst-run-play%E2%80%9D-what-president-jonathan-did-not-say-olusegun-adeniyi

politician are busy saying about the role the played in the last general election, what about the voter on the street who made it possible for a winner/loser to emerge in the election, nobody seems to remember him/her,
maybe i should write a book on THE VOTER.

Shortly after I arrived at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Monday morning, I received a message that the Chief Security Officer to the President, Bashir Abubakar, would like to see me in his office. What came to my mind immediately was that it was the Presidency’s Media Office that interfaces with journalists and not the CSO. I felt I should inform the presidential spokesmen before honoring the strange invitation.

I proceeded to the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, and informed him of the invitation. Adesina advised that I honored it and updated him on developments. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, was not in the office at the time but I contacted him on the telephone.

On getting to the CSO’s office, he was initially polite. He offered me a seat and asked how I was doing and I replied I was fine. He then first confronted me with my column, Aso Rock Lens, published on Saturday, April 22, 2017. He was angry with one of the items in the column titled ‘Seat of power’s event centers going into extinction’. In that piece, I highlighted some places in the Presidential Villa that hitherto had hosted high-profile events. I wrote that lately, events had not been held inside the halls. He said I was insinuating that government had collapsed in Nigeria.

The CSO then brought out a copy of April 23, 2017, edition of SUNDAY PUNCH. He was visibly angry about the lead story titled ‘Fresh anxiety in Aso Rock over Buhari’s poor health’. That story was about how the President had not been seen in public in the last two weeks except when he made brief appearances at the mosque inside the Presidential Villa for Juma’at services last Friday and penultimate Friday. That story included the reaction of Adesina, who said the President was recuperating and that the prayer of all was that he recovered fully soon.

The CSO queried the motive behind the two stories.

He told me that the President was free to rule the country from wherever he liked. He said the stories were meant to portray the President as incapacitated and that it had to do with the politics of 2019.

He told me he would take me to the President’s official residence to see him and then tell him (the CSO) if Buhari was incapacitated. He never did that.

Abubakar added that if God had sanctioned it that Buhari would rule the country for eight years, no man could stop him. He made reference to the fact that people who were not even sick died daily.

The CSO thereafter directed one of his men to take my statement and revert to him. The man took me to his office. I wrote in the statement that I had no ulterior motive in writing the stories in question. I was updating presidential spokesmen of developments as earlier agreed. The gentleman took my statement and I returned to the CSO’s office.

On getting there, Abubakar asked the Officer-in-Charge of the Department of State Services, Victor Nwafor, to seize my accreditation tag. He said he should escort me to retrieve my personal belongings from the Press Gallery and then leave instructions with security operatives that I should not be allowed access into the Presidential Villa again.

Nwafor carried out the assignment dutifully. He passed the message to the security officials at the Admin Reception and then handed me over to another security operative who he instructed to do the same thing at the Pilot Gate before escorting me to where I parked my car to ensure that I left the premises immediately.

I was driven from there in a security vehicle. At the Pilot Gate, the gentleman assembled all security operatives there and delivered the message to them. I caught one of them, a policeman, snapping my photograph with his telephone handset and I protested. I told him I am not a criminal and he has no right to snap me. He was apologetic and attempted to show me the handset to prove that he had deleted the picture but I told him I was not interested in his claim.

I was driven in the same security van to where I parked my car and I drove out of the Presidential Villa from there.

The CSO had penultimate Thursday had an interactive session with members of the State House Press Corps, during which he handed them guidelines on how to report the Villa.

He had also in January complained about a story on an accidental discharge that injured a female worker at the State House. Although all national newspapers reported the incident, he singled out The PUNCH and Daily Trust.

His argument was that the story was not informative, educative or entertaining.

http://saharareporters.com/2017/04/25/reporter’s-diary-my-encounter-buhari’s-chief-security-officer-–-punchman

Abbey2411:
send a copy of your cv to abbey4abbey@gmail.com you'd send me airtel voucher of #200 to 08027358248 for browsing.

please, i also need help in re-writing my CV. Thank you

Thank you all for your responses

Well I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but all I need is an advice on what to tell this lady friend of mine, and I kinda like her.
Yesterday she just inform me that she is about to graduate from the university with a third class degree after spending 6yrs in the university. though according to her, the major reason for the low grade was lack of money. She is so demoralized at the moment and I have been so disturbed cos I have been thinking of spending the rest of my life with her.