₦airaland Forum

Why Nigerians Run into Trouble in South Africa

Written by Adejuwon Soyinka

A combination of stigmatisation, unemployment and desperate attempts to get the Golden Fleece abroad, makes Nigerians, some of who leave lucrative jobs and sell properties back home before travelling, frustrated and vulnerable to all sorts of crimes in South Africa

By ADEJUWON SOYINKA/Johannesburg

He is by every standard a successful Nigerian businessman resident in South Africa. His company, a construction firm, employs about 40 permanent staff including South Africans and other nationals as well as a pool of another 60 non-skilled workers who are engaged for the duration of any project his firm is handling.

Apart from running a company that he says is worth about ZNR20 million (South Africa Rands), Chibuike Okeugiri, construction engineer and president, Ohaneze Ndigbo, South Africa as well as chairman of Nigerian Regional Leaders Forum, South Africa is married to a South African; he is a card-carrying member of the ruling African National Congress, ANC, contributed financially to the electoral success of the ANC at the last presidential election and has resided in the country for slightly over 11 years.

Impressive as these credentials may look, Okeugiri says the fact that he is a Nigerian still makes things difficult for him in South Africa. “You know quite well that a Nigerian is already found guilty before trial in most countries. So, just by the name Nigerian, in a country like South Africa where there is a high level of xenophobia, you are looked at even when you are running a legitimate business as if there are other things [behind that is] sustaining you and not the business you claim you are doing,” Okeugiri said.

And he sure has good reasons for saying so. Sometime in April 2012, the South African police treated Okeugiri to a raw deal. He said it all happened while he was away to Nigeria where he was attending the burial of his uncle. “While I was away, South African policemen for no just reasons broke into my premises without a search warrant and tore every place open and nobody was there and then eventually instead of even conducting a search they started stealing items like laptops and desktop computers. They broke my safe with the anticipation that as a Nigerian they will see drugs there; … once they see you drive one or two nice cars they just assume that this man must have some other means.”

Okeugiri is however not one to allow such infractions go unchallenged. “When I came back, I decided to pursue a legal action against the South African police for that act. You know for such a behaviour, some Nigerians will just let it go for fear of more intimidation by the police but then we are not trying to encourage that. The more we try to get the government to understand that what their police is doing is not right, the better for the Nigerians because if we all keep quiet it will become the norm,” he said.

Whereas he chose to challenge the South African police in court, the same cannot be said of Chuks Okoye, another Nigerian businessman who has been in South Africa since 1997. Also married to a South African, Okoye owns a number of stores within Pretoria and Johannesburg apart from his investments in real estates.

But this did not prevent him from getting a taste of the South African police’s “hospitality.” Sometime in February 2011, Okoye said the policemen stormed his office premises in Central Pretoria and held him hostage for over six hours while searching through the office. “While the operation lasted, they changed sniffer dogs at least three times, each time believing that the sniffer dogs were not sensitive enough since they couldn’t sniff out drugs as they had expected,” Okoye said.

He added that “apparently they came with a view that as a Nigerian I probably may be dealing in drugs or stolen goods. Fortunately when they searched my premises they could not find an incriminating evidence but because I am a Nigerian, they subjected me to ill treatment; they seized my goods and invited the press to come in and the media had their own views because what the police told them was that my goods were imported illegally and I do not have proper permit to import. This was in spite of the fact that I tried to explain to them and gave them documents that were available in my office, they still refused and embarrassed me hugely.”

In view of this, the following day, he said South African newspapers were awash with stories of a Nigerian drug syndicate that was busted by the South African police. “Still that was not enough, they seized my goods and the customs did all the checks they could because they were under pressure from the police to find something wrong and that made the customs to withhold my goods for about two weeks again and I appealed to them that I was losing business and money as well. They locked me up for some days only to go to court and the case was discharged because there was no basis. The court even apologised to me,” Okoye said.

So why did he not claim damages for the losses incurred as a result of that raid and the infraction of the police? Okoye said, “As a foreigner I accepted my fate. I am not trying to press charges for damages and for lost opportunities because as a foreigner I fear for further attacks because people might lose their jobs if I do press for damages.” That exactly is where Okeugiri differs. He too is aware of the dangers of taking on the South African police in court, but he is willing to give it a fight. “They could plant something on you and then turn round to conduct a search and find it and they could even kill you. What they say here is that a dead man has no right in South Africa. So some of us carry firearms around and we are licensed to carry firearms,” Okeugiri said. He added that, “in most cases when a Nigerian is killed here, the police never come out with any meaningful investigation. So many Nigerians have died here and nobody takes the pain to investigate the cause of their death. In fact you can get a bail of ZNR 1,000 for murder and you may not get a bail of ZNR 10,000 for fraud.”

Once again, Okeugiri speaks from experience. As leader of the Ohaneze Ndigbo in South Africa, his organisation currently handles a number of cases in court involving the shooting of Nigerians by the South African police. For instance, he said, “There was a time the South African police launched a campaign that says no illegal standing. But in the real sense of it, speaking legally, how do you determine illegal standing and how do you define somebody to be illegally standing? Legally there is nothing like that but they used that campaign especially in Johannesburg to discriminate a lot against Nigerians.”

In one of such instances, Ekene Mbakwe, a 38-year-old Nigerian was standing, waiting for taxi in the Hillbrow area of Johannesburg when he was accosted by the South African police, who shot him in the course of an argument, resulting in the loss of an eye. “The case was brought to our office and we engaged on it as an organisation. At a stage the South African police wanted to negotiate with us but still we refused the negotiation and the case is still in court,” Okeugiri said.

There was also the case of Jude Okorie, a 35-year-old Nigerian. He had a shop where he runs a small business in Johannesburg. One day the police came to his shop looking for another Nigerian. He identified himself and they discovered that he was not the one they were looking for. But shortly after that something bizarre happened. “One of the policemen said he had been longing to shoot a Nigerian and he wanted to start with him (Okorie) and he shot him. This happened in Hillbrow about two years ago. He was shot in the stomach but he survived. In this matter like several others, we (Ohaneze Ndigbo) as an organisation have taken the South African police to court to ensure that there is a fair judgment. The policemen involved were arrested and later came out on bail. But we are very hopeful that we are going to get something positive out of all these court cases,” Okeugiri said.

Whereas, Okorie is hopeful about getting reprieve from the courts, Theophilus Anonefie can no longer have such hopes. He was killed. He was said to be looking for a house to buy and had followed an estate agent to a suburb of Johannesburg to look at a property when tragedy struck. “He drove into the area and parked waiting for the estate agent. Where he parked, the police sighted him and they asked him what he was doing in that particular area. He explained that he came to view a property that he wanted to buy and in the course of the argument one of the policemen shot him and he died,” Okeugiri said. Anonefie left behind a wife and a child. The policemen who killed him were granted bail because the South African judicial system ensures that murder is a bailable offence.

That is why Adedapo Adesanmi, national president, National Association of Yoruba Descendants in Southern Africa, said the best thing is for a foreigner to ensure that the police or anyone else does not kill him. “Life is so cheap here, they will just kill you and they will be released on bail while a good lawyer will help them to look for loopholes in order to wriggle out of the case,” he said. Adesanmi, who runs a property development and management company in South Africa said when he first came into the country, he was arrested by the police on false accusation, from jealous business competitors.
“At that time, I was into barbing salon business and I would carry placard and stand on the streets to encourage people to come and patronise me. Meanwhile the South Africans who were also doing the same business will just sit there and expect customers to come to them. So when they were not getting customers they became jealous. They lied that I was assaulting them verbally and the police came to arrest me. That happened a number of times and usually they would arrest me on a Friday so that on Saturdays and Sundays when most people usually come around to barb their hair, I would be in detention until Monday when the courts will sit and I will appear before a magistrate who will eventually throw the case out because the police will not be able to present any criminal case against me,” he said. This happened a couple of times until the magistrate warned the police never to bring me to court on such charges again.

“The judicial system is okay but the problem is with the prosecution and the police. The enforcement arm is open to abuse because their policemen are now exposed to what they call “jojo” which is bribe. We have seen instances where police plant drugs in the cars of people and then arrest them for drug possession especially if they know that you are a Nigerian. Once they do that you will then have to look for a lot of money in order for them to get you out of the problem,” he said. Confirming this, Okeugiri said the South African police in fact call Nigerians, automated teller machines, ATMs. “A Nigerian is the ATM because they say that once you touch a Nigerian, money will come out”.

Allegations of corruption against the South African police remain widespread in the country. In fact, Jacob Selebi, popularly known as ‘Jackie’, the immediate past South African National police commissioner, the equivalent of the inspector general of police in Nigeria was arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned for 15 years over involvement in unlawful and corrupt property deals. He was only recently released from prisons on parole on health grounds. However, Mangwashi Phiyega, the first female South African National police commissioner, who replaced the disgraced police chief has promised to check the excesses of the police and also curb rising cases of corruption within the force.

Such promises notwithstanding, Nigerians continue to bear the brunt of envy from South African business competitors; a scenario which also extends to regulated professions like law and medicine. In this respect, Omoregie Ogboro, a Nigerian lawyer based in Pretoria says he is a living example. “Even as a South African-trained lawyer, I still face problems in practice. I have to prove myself beyond doubt as an attorney. There are even situations where I would have to bring my qualifications to court just to clear the air. There are instances where I make appearances in courts where they cannot believe that a Nigerian can appear as a lawyer. So then the matter will be stood down and I will be invited into the chambers and asked to introduce myself and I will have to show my qualifications,” said Ogboro who has lived in South Africa for 12 years.

A similar scenario also recently played out in the medical profession where two Nigerian doctors were erroneously arrested and paraded as fake doctors on national television. Ogboro who represented the two doctors in court explained that Rasheed Aremu and Akinloye Eweoya were arrested by the police who accused them of not being qualified to practice. Ogboro said the two doctors own a number of clinics in different parts of Pretoria and Johannesburg and employ other Nigerian doctors. He said they ran into trouble when they accommodated two Nigerian doctors who had just arrived South Africa and were waiting to write an examination with which they would regularise their papers and then become fully qualified to practice as doctors in South Africa. Even that is not an offence.

“Before you write the board examinations in South Africa to regularise your practice, you join an established firm or surgery. All nationalities do the same thing ranging from Cubans to Portuguese, Zambians, Congolese, Zimbabweans, they all do it,” Ogboro said.

The matter went to court and according to Ogboro, “I wrote to the embassy and the embassy wrote to the schools they attended in Nigeria, the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council also sent a lot of verification and there is a body they registered with in the US which also sent letters identifying them and to cut the long story short, they found that these guys were well qualified. So they dropped the charges against them but look at the damage and the disgrace they had given them because they are Nigerians.”

Ogboro sees the South African media as unfriendly and quick to accuse Nigerians of any crime in the country without taking the pain to verify. “Once anything happens, the headlines you will see the next day are that ‘Nigerian fraudster’ arrested even when it may later turn out that the person arrested is not even a Nigerian at all.” The lawyer is not in any case saying that Nigerians do not sometimes get involved in criminal activities in that country. But he said “If you compare the number of Nigerians who are into crimes here with those that are doing legitimate business and doing very well, you will discover that the whole thing is deliberately blown out of proportion”.

Arguments such as Ogboro’s notwithstanding, the average Nigerian in South Africa is still seen first as a potential criminal sometimes due to racial profiling and at other times for reasons of actual crimes committed by some other Nigerians or people of other nationalities who parade themselves as Nigerians. So what is it about the Nigerian that makes him vulnerable to such suspicions? “I can say that Nigerians are very loud people. You see even in the criminal world here, if you talk about drugs, Nigerians are not doing drugs more than some other countries here but because of their lifestyle, it becomes difficult to identify those illegal dealings. Let’s take a country like China for instance, if any Chinese man is doing something here, he must have a shop, he must have a business place so when you ask him what he does he has something to show. But for most Nigerians here, they could have the money to open up businesses but then they don’t find it relevant to do that. They would rather prefer to drive very big cars and dress smartly and live in the suburbs but in the morning they sit down at home. Even your landlord that you are paying rent to will want to understand how does this man pay rent without going to work? So already you have given yourself a tag,” Okeugiri said.

That is not the only thing that makes Nigerians vulnerable. Hear Adesanmi, “Nigerians still come here to South Africa with the mentality that they can do anything and get away with it. You will find that Nigerians don’t obey traffic rules and that is because following rules has not been a part of us as Nigerians. These are some of the value erosions that we have suffered over the years as Nigerians and it is affecting us.”

Talking about value erosion, Okoye said it is so bad that sometimes he finds it difficult identifying himself as a Nigerian. “And the reason is very simple, when you see the kinds of crime some Nigerians get themselves into in this country, you will not want to be identified with them,” Okoye said. The businessman added that some unscrupulous Nigerians even go as far as generally seizing control of some parts of Johannesburg turning the area into a drug and crime haven. In this respect, he gave the example of Hillbrow, a suburb of Johannesburg that is now so prominent for drug peddling and other related crimes. Okoye attributes such desperation to the manner in which some Nigerians even came to South Africa in the first place which he says, easily predisposes them to crimes. And he is right. There are many who left lucrative jobs, sold houses and cars in Nigeria before relocating to South Africa without a clear idea of what to expect where they were headed.

In fact, the magazine learnt that almost on a daily basis, some Nigerians embark on a tortuous journey across deserts and land borders in search of greener pasture. For instance, investigations reveal that a good number of Nigerians who are illegal immigrants in South Africa actually do so by travelling first to Kenya due to the relatively relaxed immigration policy in that country. From Kenya, they then proceed on the journey to South Africa by walking across the land borders of Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and Botswana. Sometimes, this is a journey that takes an average of about six months and it is fraught with a lot of dangers.

By the time they finally make it to South Africa, such Nigerians then suddenly realise that the grass is not as green, on the other side, as they had thought. Faced with unemployment and lack of proper documentation to stay in the country, many of those in this category then resort to all sorts of crimes including drug peddling, armed robbery, gun running and fraud. Many of them, especially the men, also deliberately seek out South African women for marriage as a means of ensuring that they get naturalised as South African citizens.

If they stopped at that, the story would have been a little understandable. But they usually don’t. In most cases, the magazine learnt that many of them end up abandoning their South African women and children almost as soon as they get the South African citizenship. Meanwhile, South African men are often envious of their Nigerian counterparts for getting the attention of their women, yet they end up breaking their hearts. “In fact, it can even be worse than that,” says Asanda Dlamini, a South African lady from the Eastern Cape town area. She explained that some Nigerian men even get so mean as to use their South African girlfriends or wives for drug peddling and even prostitution. “I have a friend who married a Nigerian man and had a son for him. But the man introduced her to drugs and then started taking money from her in exchange for drugs. At a point she was fired at the bank where she was working and blacklisted from the banking industry.” Dlamini added that, “the man turned their matrimonial home into a brothel and was taking money from people who came to sleep with his wife in exchange for giving her drugs. Eventually he sold everything the family had and left the lady, who by then had become HIV positive, with nothing.”

Incidents like this, says Okoye, make it difficult for the average South African to trust Nigerians. Okoye who says he met and married his South African wife of 17 years long before deciding to relocate to South Africa, told the magazine that his marriage and motive for marrying a South African is still often viewed with suspicion by South Africans.

As far as Ogboro is concerned, what really gets Nigerians into crimes in South Africa is the lack of employment opportunities. For instance, he said despite the fact that he studied law in South Africa; it was difficult for him to get a place to serve his Articles of Clerkship, which is a prerequisite for getting registered as a lawyer in South Africa. “Where I served my articles was a place owned by Attorneys that I knew right from when I was in school and I used to bring them jobs. Even at that, the practice is that lawyers serving their articleship are paid by the law firm they are serving but in my own case I was the one paying the law firm,” Ogboro said. He was paid a percentage of cases he brought into the chambers. Such treatment, added to the high hopes of a greener pasture with which many Nigerians left their motherland even selling their property before travelling, ensures that they are suddenly left frustrated, unable to return home, lonely and vulnerable to all sorts of crimes.

But Ogboro says unemployment is not a tenable excuse for getting involved in crimes. “You just have to be disciplined, have a focus and know your objectives and what you want to aim at because we all have a choice. When leaving home you should always have at the back of your mind what you want to go and do where you are going. Don’t just go aimlessly,” he said. He explained that artisans like plumbers, mechanics, carpenters, electricians and cobblers are really engaged in South Africa.

While agreeing with Ogboro, Okeugiri believes that even when the Nigerian is into legitimate business, his interest in a foreign land still needs to be adequately protected by the embassy or Diplomatic Mission of Nigeria in such a country. “That is one of the challenges we have here. During the last xenophobic attack, (2008) Nigerians protected themselves by themselves. There was nothing the mission did,” Okeugiri said. He explained that what the Igbo did was to organise themselves as a group and ensured that they mobilised at least three buses filled with Nigerians many of whom have licenced guns to barricade any settlement with a predominance of Nigerians during xenophobic attacks.

He added that, “this is why I said that we hope that the current high commissioner (Ambassador Sonni Yusuf) will live up to expectations. It is either we have a mission or we don’t have a mission. The people in the missions cannot come here receiving salaries on behalf of Nigerians and then do nothing for Nigerians. The Gabonese high commission and those of other smaller countries here take full responsibility for their citizens here. If a citizen dies, they make sure that the case is properly investigated and his corpse sent home. But not in our own case here. Most Nigerians have been buried in mass graves here.”

Nigeria has two primary missions in South Africa, the Nigerian high commission in Pretoria and the consul general in Johannesburg. Efforts of the magazine to get the missions to respond to such allegations proved abortive as several calls, voice and text messages to the telephone line of Okey Emuchay, Nigeria’s consul general to Johannesburg initially went unanswered. A visit to the consulate in Johannesburg on Monday, July 30 also did not yield any result as Emuchay was unavailable having travelled out of South Africa while officials at the consulate advised the magazine to send an electronic mail for inquiries to which they have also not responded as at the time of going to press.

While agreeing with the fact that Nigerian embassies in different parts of the world often fail to protect the interest of Nigerians wherever they are, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairman, House of Representatives Committee on the Diaspora, however, said it will be unfair to generalise and say all Nigerian embassies are equally guilty. “Some are doing better than the others. Some have more challenges than the others,” she said.

Considering the enormity of the issues involving Nigerians in the Diaspora, Dabiri-Erewa says, “We need a Diaspora Commission with a focused, result-oriented person as head. It’s a large population of Nigerians in the Diaspora and it’s a lot of work. And our embassies also need to be a little bit more responsive, maybe better communication strategies can help.”

Whether this advice, if implemented, will help the likes of Okeugiri to stop moving around with a licenced gun and feel more comfortable in spite of his huge investments in South Africa however remains only a question time alone can answer.

joblessness can be fun atimes

Dbang is the worstest person to make a song remix with.very talentless except for making noise ......all the same he is entertaining and that has taken him far and i wish him all the best

As much as I hate to say it and I sincerely hope that I am wrong, it is very clear to me that if we do not have a Sovereign National Conference at the soonest (and I doubt that we will) then we should all prepare for a violent and bloody break-up of Nigeria within the next four years. If you remember nothing else that I have ever said, please remember this - FFK

http://www.facebook.com/femifanikayode

Faceoff between security forces and gunmen in Borno and Yobe states has caused the death of “hundreds”, a forum of elders said yesterday, urging both sides to agree to a ceasefire so as to end the bloodshed.
Joint military teams in the two restive states have upped their activities in Maiduguri and Damaturu in the past weeks to root out attackers from the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, aka Boko Haram, but residents say more innocent people than gunmen were killed in the process. The Borno Elders Forum, which had severally called for the withdrawal of the military, issued a statement in Maiduguri yesterday saying that the killings looking more like genocide and must be stopped.

“The killings run into hundreds, and it seems the people are facing genocide,” said the statement, which was titled ‘A Passionate Appeal for Restraint,’ and signed by former minister Shettima Ali Monguno.

But the Joint Task Force (JTF) in Borno State said there is no genocide in its activities and that it was operating with “utmost respect to the constitution.”

The elders’ statement said, “Nobody seems to care even as the fasting Muslims were killed, maimed, robbed, or displaced. It is indeed pathetic and unfortunate that such a situation will be allowed to happen to innocent Muslims. The blood of the innocent flows and they are on their own.”

It added: “The plight of the thousands of the victims of this crisis is horrendous. Thousands were displaced and thousands others are fleeing their homes, even in this Holy month of Ramadan.”

Yesterday’s call by the Borno elders came in the wake of allegations by some residents of Maiduguri that security forces were secretly burying corpses of civilians killed in the crisis in mass graves because hospital mortuaries are overstretched.

There have also been killings of civilians blamed on the Boko Haram sect itself, as well as criminal activities apparently by people who are exploiting the situation to engage in robberies.

“The Borno Elders Forum will not be tired or frustrated and will continue to call on all sides to restrain themselves. We are therefore calling on the aggrieved sect to respect and honor this Holy month of Ramadan, lay down their arms, embrace peace and dialogue, and as well consider retracing their steps back into the society,” the statement said.

“They need to reflect on the consequences of their actions on the larger society. They need to take pity in the plight of their own people in their own land.

“We equally call on the JTF and all security operatives to respect the rights of innocent Muslims. It is their duty to protect all Nigerians. They also need to honor this Holy month of Ramadan in which all Muslims observe fasting. Fasting Muslims need help, need assistance, need care and not harassment and violence.

“In the spirit of this Holy month of Ramadan we are calling for an immediate truce, an immediate cessation of hostilities which would lead to a permanent solution.

“We are equally calling for the return of the fleeing masses to their homes. We wish to request the JTF and the government to quickly facilitate their return to enable them celebrate the forthcoming Eid el-Fitr Sallah in their homes, happily with their children.”

The JTF yesterday dismissed the allegation of genocide by the elders’ forum. “There is nothing to respond in the appeal by the Borno elders. In my understanding, it is just a passionate appeal to concerned citizens to do what is right,” spokesman Lt-Colonel Sagir Musa said.

“It is a move in the right direction which is welcomed by the JTF. Be that as it may, let me reiterate that there has never been a recorded or an established case of genocide against the JTF in Maiduguri.

“We operate and will continue to operate within the mandate and powers approved by appropriate superior authority with utmost respect to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

‘Secret burials going on’

Residents of Kaleri, Gaidamari, Budun and Bulabulin areas in Maiduguri alleged it is common to see corpses of civilians immediately after confrontation between gunmen and JTF operatives.

“Last week, I personally saw a tipper loaded with dead bodies heading towards Baga road…it was very early in the morning but I don’t know their destination,” a trader, who gave his name as Muntari, told Daily Trust.

When our correspondents visited the morgue of the State Specialists Hospital in Maiduguri on Wednesday, it was found that the mortuary was filled up with corpses.

Mortuary attendants claimed they were still receiving dead bodies, most of them being dropped by security agencies without explanation.

A mortuary attendant who spoke on condition of anonymity told our reporter that between Sunday and Wednesday morning, 19 corpses were taken to the hospital from different parts of the town.

“We are still receiving corpses but the freezers inside the mortuary are filled up already and relatives are yet to come for claim,” the attendant said.

“Right now, the 19 corpses which were brought to the hospital are lying on the ground because the freezers are already filled up.”

A bad odour was oozing out from the mortuary even though the power generating set was functioning.

Another source said the smell was from the decomposing corpses lying on ground inside the mortuary since on Sunday.

No hospital official was willing to speak on the record yesterday on the number of dead bodies taken to the mortuary in the last ten days.


http://dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/other-sections/lead-stories/174654-borno-elders-cry-outgenocide-going-on-in-borno-yobe

Personally, now and for some time I feel so ashamed to have killed people to sustain the unity of Nigeria. I feel so sad to have shed blood for the unity of Nigeria. While some of us were dying in the battle field for the restoration of Nigeria as one country, some people have their eagle eyes on one particular subject, oil, the live wire of the economy, the new fulcrum or pendulum of power. While we fought for one country, some people have been reaping where they did not sow. They have been reaping from bogus population figures fashioned to suit their selfish purposes"

-Brig. Benjamin Adekunl

LAST WEEK IT WAS ASARI DOKUBO AND EK CLARK THAT TOOK THE BRONZE, FEMI FANI KAYODE SEEM TO BE CHASING COPPER COS GOLD AND SILVER NO DEY MAYBE NEXT WEEK SOMEBODY FROM MIDDLE-BELT WILL COME FOR HIS OWN MEDAL

awolowo of all people the most reveren men in yoruba land becouse of his selfish enterest stood on the side of lies and deciet millions of peopel dead and chideren dead of hunger and deases.becouse of bread and butter he sold his conscience for devil it's a shame.did they make him president as they promise! today bakassi is no longer ours becouse of there propaganda and determination to wine the war by all means they won the war the oil they got it instead of this southern minorities to support igbo's for the good of all they allied with enemies of the nation and subject everybody as slave in our own land.the judgement is now befor God we shall see how the end will look like

9ja_I_hail: When people kept blaming awo for been the problem the southern Nigeria had yoruban's will rise up for his defense,do anyone noticed through what a true yoruba son said on this article? Fifthly it was the lie that Gowon and the northern leaders fed to Awolowo that he would be made President of the country after the war and after being effectively being made de facto Prime Minister under Gowon during the war that got Awoloo to support them.

Awo shame to u even in grave just because of power, Northerners promised you a president of Nigeria then you decided to use the blood of innocent igbo children and women to buy ur way into the presidency of Nigeria.I love the Northerners for their smartness after the war they made you april fool.

UMU IGBO, gOD IS WITH US....THEY WILL EXPOSE THEMSELVES FINISH AND GOD WILL DESTROY THEM ALL.I WISH OJUKWU WAS STILL ALIVE TO SEE SOME OF THESE REVELATIONS

Controversial former minister of aviation and Obasanjo attack dog, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has hit out at a prominent Northern leader, Alhaji Usman Faruk, a former military governor of North-West State during the General Yakubu Gowon regime, who said recently at the Sultan Bello Mosque in Kaduna during Sheik Ahmad Gumi’s Ramadan sermon that Asari Dokubo needs to brush up on his history because the North essentially dominated the Yoruba people and conquered the people of the Niger Delta during the civil war and that "Awolowo attempted he failed talk less of one boy (meaning Asari)".

Faruk who also claimed that the North had a population of 120 million compared to only 50 million in the South said that the onshore/offshore issue was cheating the North.

This is even as the equally controversial former minister of the FCT, Malam Nasir Elrufai, yesterday described Boko Haram as freedom fighters to some when he said in a taped interview that "Someone's terrorist can be another person's freedom fighter".

In his response Fani-Kayode released the statement below;

I went through the story in Sahareporters and I must confess that the Elder from the north that spoke called Alhaji Usman Faruk is talking absolute nonsense and he has got his history completely wrong.

I do not share Asari Dokubo's views about bombing the north and splitting the country either but let us all try to be historically factual when we speak. The truth is that It was the 98 per cent yoruba Third Marine Commando under the able command of Brigadier General Benjamin Adekunle that liberated the mid-west and the southern minorities from the igbos during the civil war and NOT the north.

Secondly the north literally begged Awolowo not to declare Oduduwa Republic and go the way of Biafra even though that was his original intention. Thirdly if it hadn't been for Col. Obasanjo (as he then was) who was stationed as Commanding Officer in Ibadan at the time the Biafran forces, under the command of the gallant yoruba officer Col. Banjo, would have entered and swept into the west at Ore and the war would have been over very quickly. They sent Professor Wole Soyinka to Obasanjo and asked for safe passage but Obasanjo refused.

Fourthly it was the support that the south west gave to the north that allowed Nigeria to win the war. Fifthly it was the lie that Gowon and the northern leaders fed to Awolowo that he would be made President of the country after the war and after being effectively being made de facto Prime Minister under Gowon during the war that got Awoloo to support them. Had it not been for that strong support from the yoruba and particularly the efforts of the predominantly yoruba Third Marine Commando who pushed the Biafrans out of the mid west, the south south and back into the east and who evenually went into igboland, occupied it and took the surrender of the igbos, there is no way that Nigeria could have won the war.

No matter what side of the divide we are on in this matter we must get the history right because there are millions of young people on the internet and in the country today who do not know the truth and that can easily misled by this type of historical revisionism and falsehood. The arrogance of Alhaji Faruk is sickening and this is especially reflected by the contemptuos manner he reffered to the yoruba in his interview.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/femifanikayode/posts/342407195846984

By SaharaReporters, New York

Islamic cleric Sheik Ahmad Abubakar Gumi yesterday asserted that all the good things in Nigeria were being done by Muslims, contrary to what he described as a conspiracy to present Islam in bad light.

Sheik Gumi, who is based in Saudi Arabia, made the claim as he continued his series of Ramadan sermons at the Sultan Bello Mosque in Ungwan Sarki, Kaduna.

A source who is attending the daily Ramadan sermons gave SaharaReporters details of the sheik’s latest talk.

The source quoted the cleric, whose father was the late Sheik Abubakar Mahmud Gumi, as stating, “All the good things in Nigeria are done by Muslims.” Mr. Gumi reportedly claimed that General Danbazzau was removed as Chief of Army Staff because he is a Muslim, adding that the ex-general’s efforts to build a military hospital in Kaduna have since been abandoned. The cleric stated that the hospital would have served all Nigerians well.

The Islamic cleric also drew his audience’s attention that when Nigeria desperately needed a czar to take on the scourge of corruption, the country turned to Nuhu Ribadu, a Muslim. He reminded the audience that Mr. Ribadu even arrested his boss, ex-Inspector General of Police Tafa Balogun.

Sheik Gumi praised Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido for clearing the rubbish at the apex bank. In addition, he praised the work done by Nasir El-Rufai when he served as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja.

The cleric also drew attention to the late Abubakar Rimi’s tenure as a minister. He credited Mr. Rimi with firing a director in the ministry who used “juju” to terrorize people, adding that only a Muslim could do that.
Mr. Gumi also lauded the late Head of State, General Murtala Muhammed, for his foresight in moving Nigeria’s capital to Abuja, adding that the city’s central location has worked for the benefit of all Nigerians.

After reinforcing that Muslims were behind the good deeds he enumerated, Sheik Gumi wondered why there were attempts today to portray Muslims as people trying to stir trouble. He asserted that the country was already deep in problems, adding that there should be justice in order to secure everlasting peace.
Mr. Gumi argued that justice demanded that soldiers be sent to southern Kaduna, Jos and other areas where he alleged that Muslims have no protection. He stated that there are still refugees from southern Kaduna and that security agents had done nothing concrete to protect them from attacks.

He urged Muslims to work towards change, beginning with the registration of all mosques. “Let us register all our Mosques, collect 100 naira each,” he said. The cleric added, “This talk is not about Izala but just saving us in this world before we go before God. If we start registration of mosques, ignore those that will refuse the registration, let’s forge ahead and gather money and save our people from this challenges we are facing now.”

Peaceful World My Sincerest Wish: Chinua Achebe
Posted: August 12, 2012 - 08:13
Chinua Achebe
By Nasrin Pourhamrang

Recently, the classic African novel “Things Fall Apart” by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe was translated into Persian by Ali Hodavand and released in Iran. Nasrin Pourhamrang, Editor-in-Chief of Hatef Weekly Magazine interviewed the author on a wide range of topics from Art, culture and literature;politics, cultural and linguistic preservation;to the legacy of colonialism and his forthcoming book there was a Country-A personal history of Biafra.

Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. He was raised in the large village of Ogidi, one of the first centers of Anglican missionary work in Eastern Nigeria, and is a graduate of University College, Ibadan. His early career in radio ended abruptly in 1966, when he left his post as Director of External Broadcasting in Nigeria during the national upheaval that led to the Biafran War. Achebe joined the Biafran Ministry of Information and represented Biafra on various diplomatic and fund-raising missions. He was appointed Senior Research Fellow at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and began lecturing widely abroad. For over fifteen years, he was the Charles P. Stevenson Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College. He is now the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana studies at Brown University.

Chinua Achebe has written over twenty books – novels, short stories, essays children’s books and collections of poetry. His latest work There was a country – A personal history of Biafra will be available from Penguin publishers in September. Achebe has received numerous honors from around the world, including the Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as honorary doctorates from more than forty colleges and universities. He is also the recipient of Nigeria’s highest award for intellectual achievement, the Nigerian National Merit Award; the Peace Prize of the German Book trade (Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels) in 2002; the Man Booker International Prize for Fiction in 2007; and the Gish Prize in 2010.


Nasrin Pourhamrang: Technology has come to the help of the borderless world of art and literature and has eliminated the geographical frontiers. How do you feel about the fact that your novel has been translated into Persian and that Iranian readers can read some of your works for the first time and make an acquaintance of Chinua Achebe?

Chinua Achebe: I received the news of the Persian translation of Things Fall Partwith great joy!Of course, one of the goals of any writer is to connect with his or her readers. Things Fall Apart in particular, indeed all my books, have enjoyed a warm readership. I am particularly grateful for the effort of the translators of my work. They extend the reach of Art, in this case stories, to more people who may not have encountered them in the original English. I am told with this Persian translation that Things Fall Apart now exists in nearly 60 world languages! It is a wonderful blessing and I am deeply, deeply, grateful!So, the fact that readers in Iran can also read my work is very important to me.


NP: Are you familiar with Iran, its culture and civilization? Have you ever heard of the artworks of Iranian artists as well as the work of her authors and writers?

CA: I am a life-long student of Literature, History, Art and Culture. I can’t, however, claim to be an authority on Iranian history and culture. Let me also confess that I was caught looking through my Encyclopedia Britannica before this interview – my grandchildren insist that no one does that anymore!

Nevertheless, I am aware of the writings of Herodotus on the Persian Empire and the spectacular golden art work of the Achaemenid period. I have always wanted to seethe ruins of Thachar palace and Persepolis;the Quajarid reliefs, paintings from Iranian antiquity and the beauty of Persian calligraphyup-close. Of course, Persian carpets, as you are well aware, are adored the world over.In university, we encountered stories about great Persian emperors like Cyrus the Great who Alexander the Great revered. Also Darius the Great…and the later emperors.

As a writer, as you might expect, I have a special interest in the ancient scrolls of Persian philosophy. I have also been taken with the medieval poetry ofRumi, Hafez, Sa’adi, Khayyam, Farrid Attar; as well asepics such Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) by Ferdowsi. Modern Iranian classics such as The Blind OwlbyHedayat and Sin by Farrokhzad should be required reading around the world, in my opinion. On mydesk is Cypress Tree by Kamin Mohammadi, who I understand, is a very talented young female writer.


NP: What will you say if I ask you to talk directly to the Iranian audience and discuss your concerns and wishes with them?

CA: “Peaceful co-existence between all racial and religious groups is my sincere wish for mankind”
After the ancient civilizations of Africa, there are no peoples older than those that inhabit what the British first called “the Middle East.” The great world religions come from this part of the world. Islam and Judaism are considered Abrahamic religions because they are believed to descend from God through Abraham. We would not have Christianity without Judaism and the Jewish people. The three religions share many values and tenets and beliefs. There are parts of the Quran that integrate Jewish history.

I wish to highlight lessons from Iranian history that should be championed by Iranian people in today’s precarious world. It is important for all of us to remember that the Iranians and the Jewish people have enjoyed a very long, mutually beneficial and fruitful relationship. It dates back to 727 B.C. and the deportation of the Jewish people to Media and Persian from Samaria…that is nearly three thousand years ago! Cyrus the Great, who we have mentioned in this conversation, through a decree later known as the “Cyrus declaration” allowed the Jewish people who lived along the Babylon river to return to Judea to rebuild their lives. Many, however, who had lived in Persia for a few generations, decided to remain and formed permanent Jewish settlements of intellectuals, merchants and artisans for centuries.

Jewish scholars (something I am told can be confirmed in the Talmud – a revered Jewish book of rabbinical postulates), teach us that the environment was so tolerant for Jews in ancient Persia during this period that in a mark of their own magnanimity towards the Persian people, there was a call by Rabbis of the time for a picture of Susa the capital of Persian Kings to be engraved on the eastern gate of the temple of Jerusalem!
My appeal, therefore, is to the ancient virtue of Iranian hospitality, tolerance and peace. It is vitally important that the educated classes in Iran point out this glorious history which is central not just to the Middle East; but to all of mankind.

Finally, I would like to see the Dialogue of Civilizations proposed by former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami become reality–bringing together representatives of all of the earth’s people to Tehran in an environment of freedom of creative, intellectual,cultural and religious expression.

NP: Your new work There was a Country-A personal history of Biafra is due from Penguin Books next month- September, 2012 – in the United Kingdom. Can you tell Iranian readers what it is about?
CA: The Nigerian-Biafran war raged from 1967-1970 and claimed nearly three million lives. The conflict wiped out twenty percent of my people – the Igbo and other Easterners- who were known as Biafrans. In There was a Country- A personal history of Biafra, I tell three interweaving stories – using an autobiographical prism torecount twobroader stories – the story of pre and post-independence Nigeria, and the story of Biafra and its aftermath.

I have been asked why it took me over 42 years to write about Biafra…The answer is that I was not ready… I had to find the right vehicle that could “carry our anguish, our sorrow… the scale of dislocation and destruction…our collective pain.”In many ways, I can say that I have been writing this book for about four decades – at least in my head and the very scribbling on paper almost as long – particularly the research, interviews, data collection etc. I discoveredwhile working on the book, quite interestingly, that it would not be a straight forward work. I found that I had to draw upon prose, poetry, history, memoir, and politics and that they were independently holding conversations with each other – perhaps because no one genre or art form could bear the weight of the complexity of our condition.You see, the Biafran war was such a cataclysmic event that in my opinion changed the course, not only of Nigeria, which has not fully recovered from that conflict; but of all of Africa. I hope your readers pick up a copy!

Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe chats with former South African President Nelson Mandela at a Steve Biko memorial ceremony in Cape Town in 2002. Biko, a leader of the Black Consciousness movement, died after being beaten by members of Apartheid’s police force. Photo/AFP


NP: It is interesting to me that your first novel, “Things Fall Apart,” which is also your most widely read and translated book was published by a British publisher (William Heinemann LTD). Why did you offer it to a British publisher while it depicted the difficulties and cultural contradictions which the people of your country have suffered as a result of the colonial presence of the British in the past decades?

CA: That is a timely question…… In my new book,There was a Country-A personal history of Biafra, I point out that when a number of us [i.e. African writers] decided to pick up the pen and make writing a career there was no African literature as we know it today. There were many that preceded my time, but still, the numbers were not sufficient.And so I had no idea when I was writing Things Fall Apart whether it would even be accepted or published. All this was new- there was nothing by which I could gauge how it was going to be received.

In those days one had very few avenues to get published…we had very few choices. My first novel was rejected by a number of publishers before providence led it into the hands of Alan Hill at Heinemann after Donald McRae, another Heinemann executive with extensive experience in Africa encouraged Heinemann to publish the novel with a powerful recommendation: “This is the best first novel I have read since the war.”

So, you can tell that I had a good beginning and was only too pleased to have Heinemann publish the work. Later, Alan Hill and James Currey and I developed the African Writers Series (I served as first General Editor for the first one hundred titles). The African Writers Series ended up publishing many of the well-known writers of the era from Africa. In many ways, without the intervention of Alan Hill and Heinemann, many of the writers from that generation may not have found a voice.


NP: Over 50 years have passed since you wrote the book “Things Fall Apart.” Have your viewpoints and approaches toward the presence of a colonial power in the soil of your country changed since that time? Would you make changes and edits if you were to decide to write such a novel or rewrite it now and especially reconfigure the personality and reflections of the main characters such as Okonkwo?

CA: Every thinking person, if you consider yourself a serious intellectual grows…Intellectual evolution and growth does not mean, however, that all of a sudden horrendous things in our shared history appear less appalling. It means that greater knowledge and understanding help place the best and worst of events in clearer perspective.

The legacy of colonialism is not a simple one but one of great complexity, with contradictions- good things as well as bad. We do not have enough time to outline every aspect of the colonial and post-colonial condition…So, one cannot talk about making changes or edits to a book that was written to speak to a condition that existed and continues to exist in different forms and different guises.

In many ways, the world is a much different place today than it was in 1958 when Things Fall Apart was published.Some may say a better place – women’s rights are improving around the world, race relations perhaps can be said to have improved as well. In other ways, many things can also be said to have either remained the same or become worse. So the struggle to make the world a better place must continue!

(L-R) John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo; Chinua Achebe (center) and Wole Soyinka – after meeting with former Nigerian Dictator Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) to plead for the lives of the poet General Mamman Jiya Vatsa and sixteen other officers for staging what has since come to be known as a phantom coup March, 1986

NP: Your books and novels are considered to be the representative of modern African literature. In your view, what are the most prominent features and attributes of the modern African literature?

CA: Yes, well…remember that there was an entire movement, a whole group of us…InThere was a country,I discuss this in greater depth.

Things Fall Apart, I believe, now has a life of its own. I think it is now more famous than I am! (Laughter). The fifty plus translations are a big indication of its impact. I feel like a parent watching a child succeed from the sidelines. The other books have also been successful. It feels good. I am very grateful. What was the second part of the question?


NP: What are the most prominent features and attributes of the modern African literature?

CA: Yes…I have stated elsewhere that one cannot cram African literature into a small, neat definition. I do not see African literature as one unit but as a group of associated units – in fact the sum total of all the national and ethnic literatures of Africa.

National literature in my definition is written in national languages and has a potential audience throughoutthe countries that speak that language. Ethnic literature, by contrast is available to a particular ethnic group within that country or sub-region.

I have often been asked why I choose to write in English rather than in my native language.That is a flawed question and a false choice, because most of us think and write in and speak both our ethnic language and the national languages we were taught in school. Context is very important…Those that ask this question fail to understand my goal and the goal of several other pioneers of modern African writing. When I picked up the pen to make writing a career, African literature did not exist as it does today…the numbers were not there. One of the consequences of colonialism was the loss of the many traditions of Africa.

Many of us engaged Africa’s past, stepping back into what can be referred to as the “era of purity” before the coming of Europe. What we discovered we put in books and that became known widely as “African Culture.” Some of us would decide to use the colonizer’s tools: his language, altered sufficiently to bear the weight of an African creative aesthetic, infused with elements of the African literary tradition. I borrowed proverbs from our culture and history, colloquialisms and African expressive language from the ancient griots, the world views, perspectives, and customs from my Igbo tradition and cosmology, and the sensibilities of everyday people.

It was important to us that a body of work be developed of the highest possible quality that would oppose the negative discourse in some of the novels we encountered. By “writing back” to the West we were attempting to reshape the dialogue between the colonized and the colonizer. Our efforts, we hoped, would broaden the world’s understanding, appreciation, and conceptualization of what literature meant when including the African voice and perspective. We were engaged in what the Nigerian literary scholar Ode Ogede terms “the politics of representation.”

Chinua Achebe, about 1960. Eliot Elisofon—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images


NP: So your choice of writing in English was as much a political choice as a practical one?

CA: Yes. And this requires some further clarification…My books appear in English because it is Nigeria’s national language and the language through which I can reach the most readers, both in Nigeria and world-wide. Many of the national languages, as you are aware, are inherited languages from our colonial history that were “shoved down our throats.”Within Nigeria’s borders, there are two hundred and fifty (250) ethnic groups and distinct languages – note I said distinct languages not dialects – and this requires emphasis because Nigeria with 160 million people, exists in an area of Africa that is one of the most populous, as well as genetically, linguistically, and culturally diverse regions of our planet. A national language in such an environment despite its problems, serves both a practical as well as a logical way to communicate across this diversity, effectively.

Let’s be clear – there are areas of Africa where colonialism divided peoples…But on the whole it did bring together many peoples…And it gave them a language with which to talk to one another…The only reason why we can even talk about African unity is that when we get together we can have a manageable number of languages to communicate in.Indeed we would not be able to hold this conversation if we both did not speak English. We would not be talking about the influence of Things Fall Apart and its impact without this strategic choice.

So there were many practical reasons to write in a National Language: I have already mentioned the fact that I could reach many Africans across languages, but also I could reach others across the world as well, like you. But I have also stated multiple times that it is neither necessary nor desirable for an African writer writing in English to attempt to write like a native speaker…he or she must attempt to find a way as I mentioned earlier to alter the language sufficiently to bear the weight of an African creative aesthetic, infused with elements of the African literary tradition…reinventing the language of the colonizers to tell our stories and retell our collective histories.


NP: There is, however, the problem of the disappearance of native or indigenous cultures and languages…

CA: Yes, the“beating down” of older African cultures and languages, traditions, and philosophies must be halted. We must continue to recapture, revive these endangered cultures, languages and traditions… and this will require large scale intervention…This is a real emergency, and in my opinion requires bold action.

There are two levels to this solution. Economists often talk about the micro and macro levels.On the individual level…I have already spoken about African writers engaged in the retelling of their own stories and recasting their image and the image of their people through novels, children’s books, poetry etc. There are those that write solely in their native languages. I write a lot of poetry in Igbo and edited a literary journal Uwa NdiIgbo for several years – for a focused Igbo readership. I have given full scale lectures to upwards of 20,000 people at a time – the two most recent The Odenigbo lecture and the Ahajioku lectures in 1999 and 2009 respectively; in Igbo land in Nigeria.Thatkind of effort isimportant, but I am afraid itonly scratches the surface of the problem… the sheer scale of the crisis demands big solutions, large scale intervention.

Let me let you in on a well-guarded secret…For several decades, the Achebe foundation –an organizationthat is now run by my son Dr. Ike Achebe and on whose board I serve as Chairman-has been working quietly on the Igbo Language project. This initiative was developed to create a language dictionary, a vast array of language tools and educational and linguistic guides, as well asa data base of phonetics, syntax, grammar etc.- to preserve Igbo, a fast disappearing language.


NP: What you describe is quite remarkable but sounds so incredibly daunting…

CA: Yes, in many ways it is…but one must not let despair crush our resolve!There is another layer of complexity that I would like to point out that makes this work so vitally important: Literacy in African traditional languages – the number of people who can read and write in a given language – is very low. This is not unique to Africa, indeed it also true in all places around the world where we find theproblem of linguistic extinction. The building blocks of literary and linguistic fluency (equally important) – the alphabet, phonetics, penmanship, diction, syntax, grammar etc. must be also captured and widely taught. It is also important to state that language does not exist in a cultural vacuum…in cultural isolation. The ‘Omenani’ of a people – their belief system, customs, cosmology, values, and worldview – are channeled through a people’s language. Now, these are aspects of a people’s culture (and there are other vital components)that should be captured as well, if one is to attain the goal of preserving a people’s language effectively.
NP: How do you avoid the perception that you are imposing your will on others- something that your work has so eloquently highlighted?

CA: That is an excellent question…The Achebe foundation’sIgbo project does not and will not practice cultural imperialism.Wedo not impose artificial structures on the languages (a subject of my Odenigbo lecture of 1999), but willstrive to preserve what is on the ground and respect linguistic dynamism. That means having the people themselves lead the way and having members of our team approach the work with humility…not with the “I am here to save the world” mentality, but with a “how can we, together, accomplish this incredibly important task!” spirit.Another way to protect indigenous cultures is to make sure you have present local representation and a diversity of workers and perspectives on the project.

A small army of experts and partners from around the globe – linguists, computer scientists, statisticians, literature professors, linguistic historians, educators, etc. – have been working on this for several decades. It is all very exciting, but it also means that no one group can exert an undue influence or pressure on the work. There is also a major push to capture what has been termed “linguistic idiosyncrasies” – speech patterns and accents that may have been lost to history. For instance, in the dictionary there is a list of several versions of a single word (in various dialects) rather than one standardized version.
We intend very soon to present our work to the local schools and provide teachers, students, parents, communities, women’s groups and others with tools to preserve, engage with, and propagate Igbo language and culture.


NP: Your work with the Igbo Language projectis incredibly important. Do you intend to spread your effort to other parts of Africa, other endangered languages of the world?

CA: Yes and I hope that the funding will be available.There are many other languages that UNESCO and others have placed on the endangered list. We would like to provide a helping hand in confronting the problems facing several other African languages in much the same way we have tackled the Igbo Language project, to protect them from extinction… but we cannot do it alone. This project has been very expensive and has required personal expenditure on my part…and I do not consider myself a wealthy person. Thankfully, it has also been supported by several foundations and universities in America, but more funding is needed.

International NGOs [Non-Governmental Organizations] and African governments should tackle this alarming problem as well. African governments have a lot of work do -there are stumbling blocks to reading that we have discovered – poor eyesight for example. There is a great need for reading glasses in the millions – it is quite alarming.

You can see from what I have described and how long it is taking in just one instance that language and cultural preservation is a painstakingly difficult process that requires an army of dedicated workers and a great deal of resources and effort.This is not a simple problem but one of great complexity. And we need well-funded,large-scale projects to tackle this problem before it is too late.


NP: You’ve experienced living in what you have termed the “poorer addresses of the planet” – in African nations – as well as indeveloped Western countries. What’s your evaluation of the relationship between wealth, technology and culture?

CA: In my opinion, good art can come from any culture and background. Great Art does not cluster in one part of the world or the other. We are living in interesting times. Globalization is our reality, for good or ill… and I can talk about the problems for hours!There are also good things – technology: the internet, television, emails; other tools– have made our world smaller. Many of the best artists and writers are global citizens – they move constantly.Today, there exists a significant degree of cross-fertilization of cultures, ideas, values, stories, art, music, languages – you name it, on a grand scale across the globe. Many artists might have come from former less developed colonies but now they operate on the world stage. So the times have changed.

Having said that, I still feel that before we can announce the arrival of the Great World Story, or Universal culture, we should hear all the stories… appreciate all that the world has to offer. We should hear more stories and revel in the Art from indigenous societies of Africa, Australia, from the Middle East, from Eastern Europe, from Native Americans, from China,India, Brazil and under-represented cultures of Latin America-countries like Ecuador, Uruguay-the Caribbean, and Oceania etc.

Artists from the developing world do no one a favor by blindly copying Western styles and forms. And let me be clear, because I am often misunderstood: I am not decreeing how a writer should write. I am not suggesting that artists should not or cannot be influenced by other artists from different parts of the world.

That is welcome. I am suggesting that an artist should be true to who and what they are and should aspire to produce the best art that they can …that is when the magic in art is released. What I am calling for is an environment where freedom of creative expression is not only possible but protected… where an artist from any part of the worldcanacquire and develop their unique voice and then express themselves on the Great Cultural Stagein full ear shot of the world!


NP: You are now based at Brown University – an American Ivy League University, where you hold the David and Marianna Fisher University Professorship and spearhead the Achebe Colloquium. Tell me a bit more about this initiative.

CA: Yes… well the eminent Ruth Simmons, the former President of Brown recruited me to Brown in 2009,to start a new project in keeping with my life’s work. The Achebe Colloquium on Africa as it is called annually brings together an international group of scholars – Africanists, officials from African governments, the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and other organizations – for two days of intense deliberation and exchange of ideas on the importance of strengthening democracy and peace on the African continent. We have had three gatherings since its inception and discussed topics like Corruption, the leadership crisis in Africa, the Rwanda Genocide, the Crisis in the Congo, Nigeria’s myriad problems, the Arab Spring etc. This year’s conference will focus on Governance, Peace and Security in Africa.


Q: Let me end on a lighter note. Why have you attempted to write books for the children while you’ve been mostly focused on writing serious novels for the adults? How is it possible for you to shift your concentration from the complex and problematical world of adults to the simple and happy world ofchildren? Which type of writing is more enjoyable to you?

CA: I decided to write for children as a matter of urgency and necessity. I first noticed there was a problem when I had my first child Chinelo and went to the bookshopsto buy books for her. This was soon after independence from Great Britain. The books about Africa for children were, to put it mildly, not appropriate. So I decided that if I did not like the content of the children’s books, I would write my own. Now, around the same time, my friend Christopher Okigbo – Africa’s greatest modern poet – was the Cambridge University Press’ representative for the entire West African region. He also wanted to create a body of work that was based on local thought and African values for our children. Okigbo was a phenomenal publisher. He was so busy with the world and life and yet he got Cyprian Ekwensi to write a Passport of Mallam Ilia. He then came to me and said “Chinua you must write a children’s book.”

So, in many ways, Chike and the River was a mandated work by Christopher Okigbo. Okigbo had a way of “getting you to do something that you want to do.” He had a saying that the books he published must be first rate or he wouldn’t bother at all. He outlined the Cambridge University Press ‘culture’ – their expectations for a certain number of pages, for a particular moral code, for a particular standard of writing etc. When I accepted to write the book, I already had an inspiration in my life from which to draw for this particular story. I shared in Okigbo’s desire to mold young children into good citizens through good story telling. It sounds heavy, but infact, good writing has a heaviness of its own – like the moral purpose that pervades Shakespeare or the work of Charles Dickens.

So when I took my manuscript in 1966 to Okigbo, he sent it immediately to the Cambridge publishers and they said they liked it but it was too short, to which Okigbo said in good humour to me: “go and read Ekwensi’s children’s book to get a sense of what we want.” So I went back to work and increased the length of the book. It wasn’t something I was planning to get done immediately, but Okigbo gave it an urgency. We were both concerned that African literature for children as it was formulated up to that point, had numerous stories in our oral tradition, but nothing in published form, so I too understood that there was work ahead of us to do, and quickly!I later published other books for children How the Leopard got its Claws, the Flute; and the Drum.

I think writing is very serious work and very important. All writing for me is a privilege and a joy. I do not have a favorite genre and I have written novels (prose), poetry, children’s books, essays, non-fiction works and political commentaries.

I will leave you with a passage from my new book There was a country-A personal history of Biafra, that I feel encapsulates my sentiments about writing:

The triumph of the written word is often attained when the writer achieves union and trust with the reader who then becomes ready to be drawn deep into familiar and occasionally unfamiliar territory, walking in borrowed literary shoes so to speak, towards a deeper understanding of self, society, or of foreign peoples, cultures and situations.


Nasrin Pourhamrang is an Iranian journalist and the chief editor of Hatef weekly magazine, a local publication based in the northern Iranian province of Guilan

Please oo my Nairaland brothers and sisters.i have a younger cousin who wants to write the up coming shell scholarship examination which she has just apply for.she called me and ask if there are recommended books to read but i could not prescribe any particular book because i never wrote one in my university days.

please i need your help especially from those that might have written it before.are there books she can read to have better grades?

i love this my cousin so much and she is a very brilliant girl and am will to do anything for her to make sure she make good grades.Thanks to you all


Mods please will appreciate you moving this thread to the front page.

by John coker

"The Hausa-Fulani has no ideals, no ambitions save such as sensual in character. He is a fatalist, spendthrift and a gambler. He is gravely immoral and is seriously diseased that he is a menace to any community to which he seeks to attach himself".
- Lord Lugard in a Letter to his colleague, Walter H. Lang on September 25, 1918.
“Under the circumstances of what has been happening in Plateau State, some people just have to die……Any society that refuses to be just and fair shall become a jungle where only jungle justice shall operate……… Indeed, majority of our killings were carried out in areas where there was strong government presence.”
Mallam Sale Bayero, Fulani leader and secretary Sultan’s Farmer/Cattle Rearers Conflict Committee boasting as he justified the massacre of the Birom people while protesting the arrest of the Fulani murderers in Plateau State of Nigeria, quoted in THE SUN NEWS of Friday, March 12, 2010

Dan Fodio
Some time towards the middle of the second decade of the 1800s (1815 AD or thereabout), Uthman Dan Fodio was reported to have had a scary dream about his Sultanate empire that he had just built. This dream was said to have saddened him that the empire he had spilled so much blood to build would only lasted 200 years. As a courageous warrior that he was, Dan Fodio was reported to have summoned the will to interpret the dream make this prediction abouthe future of his Empire.
According to informed sources as reported by Adewale Adeoye in The Nation of March 14, 2010, this fear of the realization of Dan Fodio’s dream was what informed the hurried movement of the Capital of Nigeria from Lagos to Abuja. The report said inter alia:
“The source hinted that in the 1970s, Northern leaders of Fulani extraction had met and resolved that the capital of Nigeria be moved from Lagos to Abuja, in anticipation of the prophecy of late Uthman Dan Fodio. He said the meeting was
propelled by the dream the then Sultan of Sokoto had that he saw his offsprings, in years to come, being requested to obtain visa permits before entering the Southern part of the country….”
There are a number of deductions that could be made from the above:
a) That the entire Nigeria was and is still regarded as part of the Sultanate Empire of Uthman Dan Fodio.
b) That this is why the Fulani have been exuding this arrogant attitude permeated with the “BORN TO RULE” mentality.
c) That this is why they have always ruled Nigeria as if we are in the middle ages and consider the wealth of Nigeria as theirs to dispense as they see fit.
d) That the recent liberation struggles in Birom, Niger Delta, and the rest of the South, west or east is being seen as the beginning of the end of the Sultanate Empire by the Fulani people
e) That the Fulani people have been scheming and preparing to get ready for when they would leave or be chased out of Nigeria.
It is this writer’s view that there is nothing wrong if the Fulani have to pull out of Nigeria to sustain and maintain the remnant of their Sultanate Empire. It would definitely serve all concerned very well. But this writer is not convinced that the Fulani would let go very easily, regardless of their palpitation about the dreams of Uthman Dan Fodio. They are going to fight hard. Anyone familiar with their trickery and how they subdued all the fledgling Hausa States one after the other, using Hausa masses against their kings would agree with this writer.
To this extent, I disagree with Lord Lugard that the Fulani (let us leave the Hausa ethnic nationality out for now), “has no ambition.” The Fulani has ambitions and great ones at that. The Fulani ambition is to always rule others whether they (Fulani) have the capacity to do so or not. The Fulani liked and still likes his empires, at least that of Uthman Dan Fodio has been in place before Lord Lugard ever was born.
It is this inherent ambition that forced the Fulani to develop the methodology to use religion to mobilize the Hausa critical mass against their own Hausa rulers and replaced them with blue-blooded turban-carrying Fulani rulers as Emirs across what used to be Hausa kingdoms. As time goes on, the Fulani sought ways to modernize its means of extending the frontiers of the Sultanate and refined its tool that was used against the Hausa Kingdoms in preparation for the conquest of the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.
What the Fulani came up with was a different brand of what they did to the Hausa kings and empires. The Fulani concluded that because of cultural and religious factors, it would not be easy to use the critical mass of other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria to be able to supplant the leaders of these ethnic nationalities. So, the Fulani to sustain its ambition to rule and dominate, cultivated corrupt satellites in every ethnic nationality in Nigeria while politically annihilating the true leaders of other ethnic nationalities.
In 1957, during the heated battles for self government and independence, Sir Ahmadu Bello referred to Nigeria as “The mistake of 1914.” To correct this “mistake” a meticulous plan to dominate the future Nigerian Armed Forces was surreptitiously embarked upon while the British was helping out on the political front manufacturing Parliamentary seats for the North against the South of Nigeria. Thus, barely six months after independence, Sir Ahmadu Bello was able to say with confidence in the Daily Times of May 3, 1961, the following:
“I’m set and fully armed, to conquer the Action Group, AG, in the same ruthless manner as my grandfather conquered Alkalawa, a town in Sokoto province, during the last century.”
The writer would like readers to pay due attention to the words used by Sir. Bello, in this quote. He used the word “conquer” not "negotiate." Ahmadu Bello executed this desired conquest of the West as he had planned. Though, it backfired temporarily as it consumed him a number of years later, but the Fulani sentries in the Caliphate Armed Forces euphemized as the Nigerian Armed Forces along with its surviving civilian wing have adopted Sir. Ahmadu Bello’s method of propping up political, economic and religious satellites in all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria to be able to maintain control from Abuja, Sokoto and or Gobir, the birthplace of Uthman Dan Fodio.
It would be alright, if the Fulani could live with others as others are willing and prepared to live with them in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa, at least. In Nigeria, there has been more than 100years of evidence that various ethnic Nationalities have accommodated, loved respected and cared for the Fulani in their midst. There are abundant evidence that the Fulani have been treated as fellow human beings and accorded the same rights that the host have always enjoyed.
But it is very unfortunate that the Fulani has not had the same “live and let live” approach to other ethnic Nationalities in Nigeria. The Fulani concept of living is that others have to die, so that the Fulani may live. As far as the Fulani are concerned, other peoples of other ethnic nationalities are second rate slaves to be used, dumped, maimed, raped or killed for the good of the Fulani man. The Fulani see Nigeria as his great grandfather’s inheritance to be toyed with as he wishes and as he wants. This attitude of Fulani makes him believe that he has to rule wherever he is, regardless of his comparative intelligence and capability to that of his host among other reasons.
Presenting a paper reviewing Paul M. Lewis’ book Ethnologue: Languages of the World, (16th Edition), to a study group in Philadelphia recently, Professor Wola Awoyale, a linguist at the University of Pennsylvania noted that the Fulani are recent immigrants in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Benin Republic, Guinea, Senegal, Niger, Mali and Sudan. The Fulani symbol is turban, flag, alukimba, mosque and book. The Fulani are “a very creative” people who are often very “tight-lipped, silent and secretive” in their approach. They are very “mistrusting, calculating and patient.”
The Fulani are described as “cold blooded and ideological.” They are “ascetic, reclusive and tough-minded.” The Fulani places premium on the role of the mosque in its culture and this is why in all of Nigeria, a Fulani would not be a part of Jamaa (the congregation) where another man of different ethnic stock is leading muslims in prayers.
The Fulani language Fulfude with its variations in Fulah, Pulaar and or Pular are very highly priced. It is their weapon to discuss in secrecy and manipulate and carry out their machinations. The Fulani will freely learn the languages of others as a means of infiltrating them for economic, political and religious advantages while rarely speaking Fulfulde in the presence of others.

In the same March14,2010 edition of The Nation, Baba Oluwide, a former economic consultant to the United Nations (UN) was interviewed. Part of the interview read inter alia:
“To him,(Baba Oluwide) the frequent clashes 'reflects a reawakening of consciousness among nationalities which territories were forcefully taken by the Fulani' adding that it also 'signifies the collapse of the Fulani Empire.' He said the 'main cause of the downfall of the Fulani Empire' was the defect inherent in their political and social perspectives which he says celebrates lack of tolerance for diverse culture and a resentment of pluralism of ideas.”
This writer, in disagreement with the interviewee, would not be so swift to sing the dirge of the Sokoto Caliphate or the Sultanate. While one may agree that there is “a reawakening of consciousness among nationalities which territories were forcefully taken by Fulani,” there is still the need for the ethnic Nationalities in Nigeria to remain vigilant. It is one’s view that the battle to overthrow the yoke of the Fulani political imperialism/neo-colonialism, economic exploitation and religious extremism is just about to begin.
While it may be true that the Fulani is being haunted by the dream of Uthman Dan Fodio and are making preparations for the D-Day when they would leave Nigeria or chased out, it would amount to political suicide for the oppressed and enslaved ethnic nationalities in Nigeria to go to sleep, waiting for the time when the Fulani would voluntarily leave Nigeria. There may be eventual negotiations, but this writer doubts it giving the characteristics of a Fulani man.
It is one’s view that freedom is not cheap and neither is it free. There is always a price to pay for one’s freedom. The Fulani is willing to loot, maim, and kill to hold on to its empire. This suggests that to take it from them, all the ethnic nationalities have to be prepared for every eventuality just in case words and negotiations would not solve the problem.
It would be recalled that the Fulani embarked on ethnic cleansing of the Jukun ethnic nationality in Taraba State in the 1990s. The Fulani are vociferously claiming the ownership of Idi-Araba and yelled “barao, barao, barao” meaning “thief, thief, thief” on the then Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu in his own State. The Fulani started war on traditionalists in Shagamu in Ogun State over the celebration of Oro Festival. The Fulani have tried to reduce the Tiv’s population by extermination during the First Republic. The Fulani have tried to emasculate the Katafs in Kaduna before. The Fulani tried to cleanse Zakibiam of non-Fulani blood. The Fulani have been killing owners of the land in Iseyin and Shaki in Oyo State. Media reports noted that scores of owners of the lands in Oyo were left “dead, maimed or raped.” The Fulani are determined to wipe out the Birom people of Plateau from their ancestral lands. The Fulani has just recently killed a policeman in Ekiti State after wounding the owners of the land. The Fulani has an Emir of Ilorin, a Yoruba town. The Fulani is determined to have an Emir of Jos and possibly Enugu too, very soon
The Nation, in its report of March 14,2010 also noted the following:
“In many West African countries, clashes between nomadic Fulani and indigenous communities are well known underlining the fact that the challenge is a sub-regional phenomenon. In Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Togo and Niger, frequent clashes between nomadic Fulani and land owners constitute a major security problem for national and regional governments. In the Chad basin, clashes between Fulani and Shua Arabs have led to thousands of deaths, reliable sources claim. Many of the clashes were between indigenous communities and Fulani herdsmen accused of trespassing on native lands and in many cases, attempting to take over the lands by force of arms.”
This shows that the Fulani has a character that is antithetical to the hopes and yearnings of other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria and around West African sub-continent. They are used to taking things that do not belong to them by force. Exploiting the oil of the Niger Delta in the way and manner it had been for this long is not out of character for the Fulani. Spending the national resources to which they contribute next to nothing like a drunken “gambler” is part of the Fulani nature. The Fulani has no capacity to be compassionate where his interests are at stake. Thus the murdering of a Ken Saro Wiwa here and a Dele Giwa there, or another Akaluka here and Oluwatosin there means nothing to the Fulani. Murdering in coldblooded massacre, several Junkun women and children has no meaning to the Fulani. Wiping out the entire villages of the Birom people does not mean anything to the Fulani. Looting, raping, maiming and murdering innocent and generous Yoruba hosts has no meaning in the consciousness of the Fulani. It is just a way of life.
The essence of bringing this to the attention of the world, especially the ethnic nationalities in the bondage called Nigeria is to let them know what they are engaged with in the struggles to be free and have self determination. The Fulani is not prepared to negotiate if he is going to lose out. The Fulani will fight. And he will be ruthless and cold-blooded in the fight.
The only language the Fulani understands is war and conquest. All you need to do is just listen to Mallam Sale Bayero in the quote above. Listen to the post-humous voice of Ahmadu Bello echoing from the grave as he uses the words “ruthless” and “conquer” in speaking about his supposed fellow countrymen. Listen to Mallam Bala Garuba in the West African Pilot newpaper speaking of “conquest” of his supposed countrymen. Listen to Mallam Falalu Bello (MD, Unity Bank of Nigeria) threatening “there will be no real peace in this country moving forward,” because he feels the Fulani has no control over the resources and means of others. Listen to Balarabe Musa making a case for permanent rulership of Nigeria by the Fulani. Listen to the Bala Usman of this world as to why no one of other ethnic nationality should be allowed to rule Nigeria. Listen to the silent yells of Maitama Sule making the same case. Yes, the nightmare of Dan Fodio’s dream may hang like a noose around the Fulani’s neck, but the Fulani would never give up without a fight.
The Hausa people are still wondering how they have become so slavish to the Fulani. They are still wondering how their very valuable heritage has been polluted and dumped for that of the Fulani settlers. The Hausa are still wondering how the great histories of their forefathers have been supplanted by that of the Fulani to whom they have shown great love and hospitality.
Every ethnic Nationality in Nigeria needs to be aware that the Hausa people are very confused right now. Some of their elites have been incorporated by the scheming and secretive Fulani. The Fulani are very few in numbers and they have brainwashed the Hausa people to believe that their (Hausa) destinies are tied together with that of the Fulani because of Islam. The Fulani use the Hausa numbers as a buffer to perpetrate Fulani evils in Hausa name. What they have done to Hausa people is to make them believe in the Fulani as the path finders for them (Hausa).
Now, it is the Hausa who is used to fight the Fulani fights and battles. This is what Sir. Ahmadu Bello, taking a page off the book of his Fulani great grand father, Uthman Dan Fodio, has also done with other minority groups in the North of Nigeria, using them as tools for the Fulani conquest of Nigeria. As pointed out above, this trick has been extended to all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria and as such one could find among them corrupt leaders who hold allegiance to the Sultanate rather than their peoples.
This writer has his doubts if the Hausa people would ever wake up. Even, if and when they wake up, the benefits of greed and the unabated appropriation of resources for which they have never labored out of the Niger Delta and other parts of Nigeria would still guarantee the Hausa - Fulani cooperation.
The minority ethnic nationalities in the North are waking up. They are realizing that they are slaves in their own lands. They are just realizing that they have been fighting the battles of Fulani to their own and their peoples’ detriment. They have just realized that cows are much more treasured by the Fulani than the Birom mothers, Tiv wives, Jukun sisters, Igala children, Nupe brothers and Kataf fathers.
The Fulani is a fiercely ambitious man, contrary to what Lord Lugard is trying to make us believe. The Fulani would plunder, loot, rape, maim and kill in pursuit of this ambition. The Fulani would take advantage of the weaknesses of his host and supplant him and appropriate his wealth and means. The Fulani for the last 200 hundred years has been at loggerhead with every known hospitable host of his, not just in Nigeria but in West African sub region. The Fulani ambitions are intolerant of the existence and well being of others. This is where one could agree with Lord Lugard – that the Fulani is “seriously diseased” and “a menace to any community to which he seeks to attach himself.”
The ethnic nationalities in all of Nigeria still stand a good chance to be free. That chance would fizzle and dissipate without standing firm, strong and willing to make the necessary sacrifice that would be required. It is time to repel the Fulani imperialism and or neo-colonialism. It is time to reclaim our freedom and rights. It is time to seek any means necessary to be free from the bondage called Nigeria. Cows could not, should not, would not and must not be more important than our daughters and sons, brothers and sisters as well as our mothers and fathers.

Junaid Mohammed: North Is The Majority, Any Attempt To Deny Us Our Right Will Lead To Anarchy

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In the last few years, especially since the formal inception of President Jonathan’s administration, Nigeria has been subjected to a spate of violent attacks on innocent citizens by the Boko Haram sects and some other fringe groups, hiding under the general umbrella of the sect.

Their objectives have not been fully articulated beyond the fact that its members abhor western education, as implied by their name, and the wider goal of imposing their own brand of Islam on the nation in spite of the established constitutional secularity of the Federation.

There has been additional, but faint rationalisation pinning the enduing gruesome killings to revenge operations following the killing of the sect leader in police custody.

Can that be the whole story? According to a publication of The Stanley Foundation, “mass violence is a political tool used by those with power for their own strategic objectives. It is not an unpreventable and unmanageable explosion of existing tensions.” In other words, the current violence is partly political.

Recently, they have come close to disclosing their political intentions with the demand that President Jonathan should convert to their brand of Islam or resign his position as president of the republic or they will continue with their indiscriminate killings.

To a great extent, they have made good on that fiendish threat as more unjustifiable killings have indeed taken place since then.

There is no doubt that for the sect or any group for that matter to be this successful in its operations, it must have support from elements that are spread out across the various social classes including the rich and poor. As well as the educated and not so educated – hinting at some degree of acceptance in some quarters.

Violence by nature is a lot easier to achieve than peace and it is therefore not correct to determine the relative success of a violent campaign solely from the point of view of its popularity or even legitimacy.

The Boko Haram sect is “succeeding” probably because the leadership has not really looked into the root causes of the insurgency and even if that has been done, has refused to treat the matter with the seriousness that it deserves.

What is however, irritating to most observers is the way and manner that all sides to the debates have tried to politicise the scourge. The government has tried to tie the whole development to activities of its “political enemies” thereby taking its eyes off the ball, while the sect inflict more and more damages all to the shame of the nation’s security system. That much was the impression that the former National Security Adviser, Gen Owoye Azazi, gave the world.

By trying to implicate political opponents as solely responsible for the problems, obviously stemming from the dysfunctional political economy of Nigeria, which predates our contemporary politics, government unwittingly created an effective alibi for those merchants of death to continue to hurt the nation while we fixed official gaze at the wrong places.

For example, the statement that was made by the President soon after the October 1, 2010, Eagle Square bombing which attempted to link the violence to the handiwork of disgruntled political opponents, whereas a splinter group of MEND was claiming responsibility for it, did a great deal to weaken the much-needed cohesion in the fight against terrorism in Nigeria.

Of course, the opposition has also not helped matters by seeking to justify the mayhem of Boko Haram as the inevitable outcome of the overall failure of the Jonathan Goodluck presidency of which the recent rationalisation by Mallam el- Rufai represents the reductio ad absurdum.

Taunting the president with the inability of his government to curb the Boko Haram violence and summing it up with a call for him to resign is clearly overboard and not helpful in the effort to eliminate violence from the land.

Instead, it gives some political justification to what is clearly evil. The world has since learnt that in the final analysis, nobody profits from violence and politicians who initiate or instigate violence with a view to reaping political benefits are being made to pay for their sins.

As a consequence of the Holocaust inflicted on the Jews by the Nazis during the Second World War, there has been a global resolve to prevent future deployment of state or partisan political power for the perpetration of mass violence just to acquire ephemeral political advantage.

Accordingly, the phrase “Never Again” has been the standard refrain of the global community in its rejection of the use of violence to achieve political or sectarian objectives. I am therefore surprised that Nigerian politicians still think that there is room to politically profit from violence at this day and age.

With the recent impossible demand by Boko Haram that the president should resign if he fails to convert to Islam, the political character of their campaign is getting clearer to an otherwise shocked nation. And this also signifies the ultimate failure of the insurgency as Nigerians begin to know the differences between religion and politics even if their leaders pretend ignorance of that fact for their selfish ends.

At the end of the day, good governance predicated on social justice commanding that citizens tolerate each other, not partisan politics, is the way to our collective survival as a people, Boko Haram or not.

geeez: It's now madness because you didn't see what you were anticipating right?

If you're in doubt, you can write the NBS or conduct your own private research and I bet it won't be any different if you're objective about it

you get sense at all?what do they have in osun that is employing them? let's not talk about the fact that they are lazy and not enterprising like their eastern counterpart. unless you want to tell me that okada riding,bus driving and armed robbery are employing 80% of their population.by the way am based in osun,so i know osun very well.

looking at it from another angle,if true they clam that osun has 3% unemployment the it is a way of proving that osun has very low population which truly it does but fake statistics in Nigeria will always say otherwise

na wa oooo,where did he get that kind of money from? our so called opposition that wants to unseat a corrupt government....i dey laugh ooo,we go see as e dey go.

According to what First Weekly Magazine reported, the National leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is
determined to make sure his political party wrestles power from the incumbent Labour Party in Ondo State in the next governorship elections, which is scheduled to hold on 20th October 2012.

According to First Weekly Magazine’s findings, Asiwaju Tinubu has released a whooping 30 billion naira to the CAN governorship candidate, Barrister Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), to prosecute the political war and unseat the incumbent Gov. Segun Mimiko of the Labour Party.

Our source informed us that the former Lagos State Governor has already deployed all his political warriors to Ondo State, to make sure the state is delivered for ACN.

“Yes, it’s true Asiwaju has approved N30 billion for ACN in Ondo State. And I want to assure you that the money will be spent well to win the governorship election,” a source confided in us.

We further gathered that Tinubu sees winning Ondo State by the ACN as very
important to his dream of regional integration of the South West zone.

“It’s very important we get back the glory of the South West, and Ondo State is very key to the development of the entire South West. That is why Asiwaju is not taking this with kids’ gloves at all. I can tell you that you will see changes in the campaign strategies of the ACN in the next few days.

“It is just two months to the election, and I want to confess to you that Ondo people already know that it’s only ACN that can deliver democracy dividends for them,”an ACN stalwart in Ondo State stated.

But on the contrary, a Labour Party chieftain, who spoke with us on the condition of anonymity, said ACN does not exist in Ondo State.

“Where is the structure of ACN in Ondo? They are bringing in people from Lagos to come and fool Ondo indigenes. But we are very intelligent here. Mimiko is our man and we have decided in Ondo to give him a second term.

“Forget regional integration they are preaching. They know that apart from Lagos, Ondo is the richest in South West. Tinubu’s eyes are in our oil money, and we won’t let him get it. You see, combine Ekiti, Osun, Ogun and Oyo state’s allocation together, it is not up to what Ondo State gets from it’s 13 percent derivation of oil. So, it’s our oil money that Tinubu wants, and he won’t even smell it,” the Labour Party official said. A political observer who spoke with us also cast doubt on the chances of the action congress winning the Ondo governorship race.

“Before Akeredolu was forced on the party members of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), as their flagbearer, the ACN was in close second, giving the Labour Party a real threat, but with the choice of Akeredolu, the ACN has slipped to the third, behind even the
PDP, the party is so much in disarray now. Can you imagine that out of the about 41 in the race, the night Akeredolu was pronounced as the flagbearer, about twenty one of them decamped to the Labour Party, while between twelve and fifteen left for the PDP. You can see what imposition of candidates can do.

“Ask Asiwaju what Tunji Abayomi told him, when he called them to a peace meeting. He said Tinubu has destroyed ACN in Ondo, also can you imagine what Professor Boroffice is going through now? The man was enjoying himself ‘jeje’ in the Senate, when Tinubu started mounting pressure on him and started sending text messages to him and his wife
that he is the next Governor of Ondo, the senator bought the bait and jumped from the Labour ship to ACN or is it the case of Abraham, a young enterprising billionaire, who was enjoying his peace in America only to be invited home, used and dumped?

“If you add all these, and the fact that the ACN leaders wanted to pay back a favour done them by somebody to the detriment of the party’s goodwill in the state, the outcome might be disastrous,”he said.

people like clark irritates me because they supported the pogrom against easterners just to be a minister and handed his people’s resources over to the northerners and westerners thinking that igbos needed it more and not done with that,championed abandoned property with hope that his people will increase as igbos decreases but today his former allies in murder,and molestation are bringing the battle to him and he want justice and understanding where as he did not give it to his neighbors that needed it from him and his people in 1966-1970.His brother ADAKA BORO started his own version of boko haram to make Nigeria ungovernable for IRONSI just because he an IGBO and they ”hailed” him but today the foundation of ”un-governability” they laid because of their hatred is now visiting their brother through their allies in the un-governable enterprise.NATURE IS A STRICT ACCOUNTANT.

i have always know this SLS and is a full time boko haram member and his support for Islamic banking which is being sponsored by Umar Mutallab is to create an avenue for financing terrorism and also his beaf with bank MDs right though, but he has been doing it maliciously and with envy because the south dominates the banking industry.