₦airaland Forum

PaChukwudi44:
It is not my responsibility to charge him to court. It that of the Buhari led FG to extradite him to pay for his crimes.If Buhari fails to do the needful. northern voters will be waiting for him

You are an irresponsible Nigerian if you see the well being of your countrymen in jeopardy and you refuse to act to protect them.

PaChukwudi44:
Kayode Ogundamisi:The OPC is nothing less than 4 million people. We have
trained about 75,000 to resist state oppression. We could launch an
attack but that should be the last option.

Kayode Ogundamisi trained about 75,000 terrorists to kill innocent Nigerians. such a vile creature must be brought to book

It's actually more than that, and they are all over Nigeria. It's time you make this a prominent alert to all security agencies so Nigerians can be saved from the imminent calamity. Dont you think?

PaChukwudi44:
https://www.kemifilani.com/2018/11/kayode-ogundamisi-killing-pdp.html

Take it to court

Tushkito:
Didn't you guys rain fire and brimstone on Peter obi's head because of the alleged deportation of Northerners but here you are killing them in your back yard and defending it.

Did Hausas kill Yorubas in Sagamu. Yes or no?

PaChukwudi44:
So what did the innocent hausas Kayode Ogundamisi slaughtered do to deserve their brutal killings? Was that also self defense?

It does not matter how many times Hausa massacre Ibo, you will never stop labeling them INNOCENT...but to you Yoruba is your enemy.

Identify a case for the massacre and act as advocate for the voice of Hausa to rally for a trial of Ogundamisi. Shouting hausa massacre here gets you no where.

PaChukwudi44:
The innocent victims of Kayode's brutality cries out for justice. Kayode Ogundamisi must be tried for mass murders of hausas in Lagos

Where did Ogundamisi kill anyone, and who are the victims? Give us names of victims.

Tushkito:
Really? so northerners do not wish you peace? you have a very weird way of defending violence.

Do they wish you peace in East?

Beremx:
Na you sabi. I am not sentimental about my comment. I just stated the truth

Your truth has no reference in any democratic setting. Even America targets and kills its Black citizens because their politics is racial-patronize. They kill and eliminate competition from Blacks. This is human response when competing for resources, which is what we see in Nigeria.

Dear, please dont join people that just talk irrationally. You are above that.

Tushkito:
Good, it very pleasing to see that you have agreed that your people are also hatefull and that gives you absolutely no freaking right to accuse some one else cuz that's just hypocrisy.

We are not hateful. Hate is targeting others unprovoked. We go after those who do not wish us peace. Its called defense.

Johnnyessence:
the way and manner kayode was exposed now will exposed others and their tactics too.

There is no exposure. The names of OPC leaders is public info on internet.

In fact Aare Ona Kakanfo was an OPC leader, and still is till today.

Na una for East they worry yourself over nothing. We in West are sound and bold! We don't go after others, but when provoked we don't hide either. We walk our talk!

Tushkito:
Whether he is on the ballot or not, the fact remains that you and that man are the same, the only difference is that he killed northerners in Lagos in their thousands, you have no evidence against Peter obi, everybody don't hate like you yorubers do.

Your retort is misplaced. Yoruba has never disputed killing Hausas, after all it's on internet and it was even subject of a UN investigation and in which they came down heavily on OPC. So what's new when you say Ogundamisi killed Hausas, is that a new story? Do the Hausas not know this? Has Ogundamisi denied being member of OPC? Please share any new findings on this story that Hausas do not already know.

Al Mustapha killed Kudi Abiola. Is he not walking free today and mingling with MASSOB?

Beremx:
Kayode na confirm bigot. He is an Igbo hater and he doesn't hide. His anti Igbo comments on facebook were so disgusting I stopped following him on facebook.


What a bitter and frustrated fella

Im surprised, Beremx, that you will call anyone a bigot in Nigeria. Nigerian politics is ethnocentric. Our democracy is ethno-patronizing. From top to bottom of our politics do you not see elements of tribalism and bigotry everywhere? You should question people without ethnic sentiments, not the other way.

I'm not getting it...has Ogundamisi ever denied being a member of OPC? No he hasn't. Who led all the many years of massacres in the North....a nobody Dont they have a name for the Hausas responsible for years of massacres in North, since 1945? Yorubas are not cowards. The cowards of Nigeria are the ones hiding behind different names and pseudo ethic identities to forment problem.

The Health Commissioner, who is the biological daughter of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, is to appear at plenary alongside some principal officers of her ministry and the state Accountant General, Augustina Wandamiya. Presiding at plenary on Tuesday, Speaker of the House, Kabiru Mijinyawa, had said: "The invitation of the officers was over non-payment of six-month salaries of some recruited health workers.

Fatima Atiku Abubakar, Commissioner of Health, Adamawa State, will on Thursday appear before the Adamawa State House of Assembly to explain non-payment of six-month salaries to some health workers in the state.

The Health Commissioner, who is the biological daughter of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is to appear at plenary alongside some principal officers of her ministry and the state Accountant General, Augustina Wandamiya.

Presiding at plenary on Tuesday, Speaker of the House, Kabiru Mijinyawa, had said: "The invitation of the officers was over non-payment of six-month salaries of some recruited health workers.

"The House has also constituted an ad hoc committee, under the chairmanship of the Majority Leader, Hassan Barguma (APC-Hong), to probe the alleged utilisation of N2 billion Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) agricultural loan.”

The CBN was said to have granted the loan to the state through the Adamawa Agricultural Development and Investment Ltd, (AADIL).

Chairman of AADIL Board, John Garba, and the Managing Director of AADIL, Ibrahim Dasin, who appeared before the plenary, were referred to the ad hoc committee.



http://saharareporters.com/2018/11/07/adamawa-assembly-grill-atikus-daughter-over-non-payment-salaries

A group, the Oduduwa Vanguard, has fired back at the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, for allegedly attacking President Muhammadu Buhari over the federal government’s $500,000 donation to Guinea Bissau. The group asked Atiku to take a course on economy before trying to provide advice.

Atiku had slammed the federal government’s $500,000 donation to Guinea Bissau, as wasteful. According to him, it was one of the ways that President Muhammadu Buhari administration brought a once thriving economy to its knees. But the Oduduwa Vanguard described Atiku’s comment as un-strategic. Aare Kunle Adewole, President of the group said Atiku was not qualified to be entrusted with making decisions for 200 million Nigerians because he lacked patience to fully understand issues before reacting. According to Kolawale, “We wonder how an Atiku that can donate lavishly to buy cars for women will find it wrong that Nigeria wants to play its big brother role to other Africa nations. This is double standard at play at best and we advise the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari not to join Atiku at the level to which he has sunken. It will amount to wrestling a hog in the mud.

The group said if Atiku had been patient enough, he would have seen that there are gains to Nigeria when the donations to Guinea Bissau are well exploited. “For one, a revived Guinea Bissau or any other African country provides fertile grounds for Nigerians to go exploit since we fortunately have enterprising Nigerians that have made marks for themselves in their places of sojourn. “We believe that helping other nations to stay afloat when we can is a strategic way of ensuring that our country’s huge population is able to spread outwards to these other places and earn their keep. An intelligent person will realize that remittances from the funds repatriated by such Nigerians will go a long way to helping the economy back home.

“But we ask for once that he should believe in the capacity of other people to be upright. Such realistic perception of others would have made him to realize that the money promised to Guinea Bissau is not the type wasted on sponsoring team members to Dubai or for paying a foreign agent to procure election hacking services from Russia.

“By using “Father Christmas”, a concept synonymous with contemporary Christianity, to imply wastefulness, Atiku has shown that he holds the spirit of giving among adherents of this religion in disdain hence the negative casting of the joy that Father Christmas brings to the world. “This is unacceptable, highly condemnable and we expect the PDP candidate to immediately apologize to the Christian population for this slight. Had such offensive analogy been made with icons of other religions, there is all tendency that all hell would have broken loose by now.”


Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/11/oduduwa-groups-fires-back-at-atiku-over-fgs-500000-grant-to-guinea-bissau/

Making Nigerian constitution workable:


The DAWN example


Constitution amendments or not, Nigerians have already begun to see themselves as peoples belonging to the North-western, North-eastern, North-central, South-western, South-eastern and South-southern areas, euphemistically called “zones”.

The Southwest, on its own, has moved further to create a Development Agenda Commission for Western Nigeria (“DAWN Commission”). The major role of that commission, at the moment, is to conduct research to generate pieces of advisory information for the benefit of each of the South-western state governments on integrated development programmes.

As a first step, the people of each of these South-western states are trying to key into APC to back up the possibility of their governments to speak with one political voice, using one manifesto under one political party.

It is an experiment worthy of encouragement and emulation by the people of the other zones for the strengthening of a federal political attitude towards physical and social development within each zone.

How Nigeria was structured in history


We all know that, it involved series of foreign military expeditions to translate the consulates into the British colony of Lagos in the mid-19th century. After properly taking hold of and settling down in Lagos, it involved another series of British military expeditions to structure together the villages, towns and settlements around the network of rivers that flow into Lake Chad and into Rivers Niger and Benue to constitute the land mass called the British Protectorate of Norther Nigeria later in the same century.

Hundreds of years earlier, with series of internecine wars, history had witnessed the structuring of what had been known as Bornu Empire, the Zamfara Empire and other empires and kingdoms in the areas being established into the British Protectorate of Norther Nigeria.

It must also be remembered that the century immediately before the advent of the British witnessed the Fulani military jihads that replaced the Habe dynasty with the Fulani Emirates under the Sokoto Sultanate in the same North. The sole design of the Fulani jihads was woven around what they pronounced as “introduction and reformation of Islam”, which involved series of wars and inter-communal bitterness.

Towards the close of the same 19th century, by similar series of military expeditions, the British Protectorate of Southern Nigeria was also created. Before then, through wars of expansion of one ancient authority over certain numerous communities, Oyo and Benin Empires has been structured for centuries in the area to be eventually established as the British Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. By the same use of force, the British protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria were amalgamated in 1914 with the Colony of Lagos to establish the British Nigeria colony.

There were constant intra and inter-communal resentments of the British managements of those “community marriages” called Nigeria. For three or more decades thereafter, the British was adopting all forms of military repressions to sustain the amalgamation of 1914. In 1939, Nigeria was split into Norther, Western and Eastern regions for ease of colonial control.

From its initial structuring, the geographical entity called Nigeria as the Hausa land under the Fulani emirate governments based on Islamic footings, otherwise known as Hausa/Fulani people. Side by side with the Hausa/Fulani people are the Kanuri, Tivs, Yoruba, Edo, Urhobo, Igbo, Ibiobio and Ijaw (as major ethnic nationalities) that have been interspersed with minor ethnic nationalities like the Gwari, the Margi, the Bata, the Longuda, the Angas, the Nupe, the Igala, the Ebira, the Idoma, the Efik, the Ekoi, the Itsekhiri and such other ethnic groups.

In the 1950 National Conference at Ibadan, the agitation for merging of Ilorin and Kabba provinces with the then Western Region was initiated by Oba Adesoji Aderemi, the Ooni of Ife. That was the beginning of agitations for restructuring in Nigeria. Thereafter, the politicians increased the tempo of the agitations for restructuring by demanding for the creation of a Middle Belt from the North, the Mid-West from the West and the Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers State from the East. Side by side with the agitations for geo-political restructuring, there were demands for power allocation. While some politicians advocated the unitary form of government for Nigeria, others canvassed for a federal form of power allocation. There might have been some sense in the knowledge of our leaders that reduced those agitations into a series of constitutional conferences that led Nigeria to the adoption of a federal form of constitution up to Independence in 1960.

The British, knowing that agitations for geo-political restructuring usually tended to involve wars, cleverly evaded those demands but, instead, granted Nigeria independence in 1960. Within the first decade of the independence, there was a bloody military coup and another bloody military counter-coup resulting in a three-year civil war before the military adventurists had the opportunity to mis-structure Nigeria and to misallocate powers as contained in the present unworkable 1999 Constitution.


Geo-political restructuring or nothing?


Therefore, “restructuring” must be seen as a more Herculean major task for all Nigerians than a mere political change of power for which APC was put together.

The North is a largely Hausa-speaking people, traditionally mix-bred and assimilated with and governed by minority Fulani rulers through Islamic emirate system since two centuries ago. The North has been amalgamated with the South in law and in fact since a century ago. And, presumably, the Fulani has been perceived to be manipulating the North to rule Nigeria since Independence in 1960.

Even if one does not like the minority Fulani rulers of the North for being hegemonic in characteristics, can one easily separate them from the original majority Hausa-speaking people of the same North? Unless one was ready for another civil war, could one ostracise the whole North in the political considerations of Nigeria?

It is within that context that those of us who do not wish to wait for another civil war to effect a geo-political restructuring, have decided to go ahead with the APC arrangement, while our opponents are left behind to assume a loud coarse noise on mere sloganeering – ‘Restructuring’ – without any clear definition or a peaceful workable strategy.

PERMIT me to start by appreciating the leaders of All Progressives Congress (APC) who organise this APC-USA Second Annual Convention and who have kindly invited me to attend it as a Special Guest of Honour. I am excited and challenged by the theme of the convention, namely: “Advancing the APC Change Agenda, the Report Cards and the Role of the Diaspora”.

In this address, I am merely restating the summary of the APC Change Agenda, which is clearly contained in the APC manifesto launched in 2013 and which should have been well known to most members of this convention as leaders of APC in the USA.

I am not qualified to talk about the “Report Cards” because, due to my personal phobia for holding public offices in old age, I have refused to accept direct participation in any of our APC governments in Nigeria.

I would like to invite APC leaders at the convention and our entire members in the Diaspora to research into and to attempt a clarification of what we describe as ‘Devolution of Powers’ in our Manifesto, vis-à-vis its mix-up with what is being described as ‘Restructuring’. The purpose of that clarification is to prevent our opponents from successfully misleading the general public about the “Report Cards” of our various governments on implementing the APC Change Agenda.


The Change Agenda


In a paper delivered by APC Deputy National Chairman for the North during the 1st Convention of the APC-USA held at the LaGuardia Plaza Hotel in New York, from 17 – 18 September, 2015, Senator Lawal Shuaibu said: “the party ‘s manifesto was encapsulated into three:

To create jobs;
To eradicate corruption; and
To bring peace back to Nigeria.
These three summaries of APC manifesto have since become the ‘Change Agenda’ of our party for Nigeria.

Please, permit me to adopt as my summary of APC Change Agenda for Nigeria the above encapsulated statement by Senator Shuaibu.


Devolution of power

In my understanding, the means to achieving “devolution of powers” is just persuading the national and state assemblies to reduce the exclusive functions of the central government, and to rearrange the concurrent responsibilities between the central government and the state governments in the lists of functions recorded in the 1999 Constitution with a view to giving more residual powers to the states. With intensive debates and negotiations among all political parties that have members in the national and state assemblies, this can be easily achieved. APC Federal Fovernment alone cannot do it.

However, the biggest problem will be how to fund the various functions by non-viable states, if Nigeria remains consisted of 36 or more states, and if the existing crude oil rental economy falters, or is no more.


Restructuring

This is the most complex exercise in nation building.

Only political illiterates would not appreciate what ‘Restructuring’ involves. It is a function of population manipulation within the ethnic nationality spreads and power redistribution.

In the South of Nigeria today, for reasons of variables of Western civilisations, majority of men marry one or few wives and majority of women practise family planning and birth control. In the North, however, for reasons of culture, majority of men marry several wives, majority of women when they are young and prefer to have as many children as possible; birth control is even religiously abhorred. There is more tendency, therefore, for the North to continue to have more electoral representative constituencies that the South in the National Assembly as long as its population continues to grow higher and faster.

By nature, the military that ruled Nigeria for 29 years since independence created states and local government areas according to selfish demands by fiats rather than by any scientific political reasonings during tenures. These states and local government areas have been enshrined by the military decrees in the 1999 Constitution. They might have inequitably created more local government areas per population per state in the North than in the South with a view to making the North continue to benefit from high revenue sharing from the national treasury.

‘Restructuring’ is, therefore, the equitable rearrangement and redistribution of the existing local government areas and states per population within the various ethnic nationalities, and making appropriate amendments to the Nigerian constitution to accommodate such rearrangements and redistributions. It is sheer political illiteracy, however, to think that the word ‘equitable’ can be easily defined to convince those who might have had extra advantages under the existing constitution to surrender those advantages easily.

http://thenationonlineng.net/beyond-restructuring-by-akande/


Former All Progressives Congress (APC) Interim National Chairman Chief Bisi Akande has a word of caution for advocates of restructuring. Mere sloganeering restructuring without any clear definition, peaceful and workable strategy is an invitation to chaos, the one-time Osun State governor says. In his remarks titled: “Devolution of powers and national restructuring” at the weekend as a Special Guest of Honour at the APC-USA Second Annual Convention at the Hilton Garden Inn, Washington DC Greenbelt, Chief Akande says appropriate amendments must be made to the 1999 Constitution for equitable rearrangement and redistribution of existing local government areas and states must precede restructuring.

Fifty-Seven Years After: The Case for Restructuring Nigeria
Blog Post by Guest Blogger for John Campbell

Ayobami Egunyomi is a Franklin Williams intern for Africa Policy Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. She received her BA in International Relations from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. She is a native Nigerian. This is her submission written a year ago, November 8, 2017

https://www.cfr.org/blog/fifty-seven-years-after-case-restructuring-nigeria

The decade after Nigeria’s independence, Africans referred to it as “the giant of Africa,” with the promise of great things to come for the newly minted African nation. Fifty-seven years after, it is a different story. Plagued by myriad problems, the future of Nigeria in its current form, with less than twenty years as a democracy under its belt, is bleak. Fortunately, the people’s consciousness of the severity of the situation is growing.

The country is witnessing a renewed firmament for the secession of Biafra by the Southeasterners and support for restructuring by the Southwesterners. Even Nigerian elites, such as Bola Tinubu, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, Emeka Anyaoku, and former vice president of Nigeria Atiku Abubakar, are lending their voices to support restructuring the country. The increasing clamor for change should be unsurprising considering how numerous the problems are that the country has been plunged into, including poor infrastructure, lack of good governance, endemic corruption in all sectors, as well as ethnic and religious tensions.

Restructuring in order to enable true federalism represents a first step to solving the challenges the country faces. Nigeria practiced true federalism and regionalism in the 1960s as enshrined in the 1960 and 1963 Nigerian constitutions. However, with the emergence of the 1966 Military junta in Nigeria came the destruction of this system, and Nigeria has since been unable to return. One of the most viable ideas put forward for restructuring Nigeria is a new system that will subsume the thirty six states into their already-present six geopolitical zones. These zones would then become self-governing regions, with their own local governments under the auspices of a less powerful federal government. The regions increased autonomy would enable them to look inward and develop more self-reliant local economies, as opposed to relying on ‘handouts’ of oil revenue from the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja). Western Nigeria is rich with cocoa and limestone, the South with oil palm, coal, and crude oil, and the North with agricultural resources such as groundnut and cotton. As these regions turn inward for wealth creation and development and hold themselves accountable, they will help create a vibrant and diverse national economy that can propel Nigeria forward.

Contrary to popular belief, regionalism does not pose a threat to nationalism. Instead, it furthers the cause of developing a national identity by promoting equitable regional development throughout the country. This is because uneven development among the regions has bred resentment that eventually expresses itself in the form of ethnic and religious tensions. Suffice to say, restructuring would reduce such ethnic and religious tensions. Since Nigerians are largely loyal to religion and ethnicity, it would not be hard to convince them that restructuring might be the solution because restructuring would be done along ethnic and religious lines. Moreover, it will silence the agitation of the unrelenting Biafra and Niger Delta movements by giving them a region with the autonomy they seek.

True federalism will send the old recycled politicians back to their tent as there will be less concentration of power in the center, hence less reliance on the ‘national cake’—the vast oil wealth of Nigeria that it distributes through Abuja to the rest of the country. Hopefully, by removing this concentration of wealth and temptation, this new system can at least begin to address the bane of corruption. While these politicians could take this menace of corruption to the regional level, it is unlikely to be so, as citizens would be better able to hold their regional leaders accountable when they see other regions flourish, encouraging friendly competition among these regions. This form of accountability, one that is closer to home and not in the far-away capital, is what is needed to make Nigeria work.

Bannylove13:
What's the essence of this thread.. to continue with awo lies or to use style style get igbo sympathy..

Oga war is over..
We're talking referendum restructuring..or outright breakup..

No stories again

We already know our enemies..and our enemies knows that fact.

All this stories ain't changing nothing..

Back to daura for now.. while we keep supporting ipob on referendum.. restructuring..or outright breakup..

Whichever one that comes first is very okay by igbo nation.

One thing is certain..with time all must be accomplished..

Now afonjas ..should keep hallucinating about igbos..till then.


Obediently atikulating

No one can keep us from glorifying Awolowo. No one!

CIVIL WAR
Moderator: Yes Mr…….Mr. Oparadike.

Question: Chief Awolowo, your stand on the civil war, however unpopular it may have been to the Biafran people…Your stand on the civil war, however unpopular it may have been to the Biafrans or Ibo people, helped to shorten the war. Today, you’re being cast as the sole enemy of the Ibo people because of that stand, by among others, some of the people who as members of the federal military government at that time, were party to that decision and are today, in some cases, inheritors of power in one Nigeria which that decision of yours helped to save. How do you feel being cast in this role, and what steps are you taking to endear yourself once again to that large chunk of Nigerians who feels embittered.

Awolowo: As far as I know, the Ibo masses are friendly to me, towards me. In fact, whenever I visit Iboland, either Anambra or Imo, and there’s no campaigning for elections on, the Ibo people receive me warmly and affectionately. But there are some elements in Iboland who believe that they can maintain their popularity only by denigrating me, and so they keep on telling lies against me. Ojukwu is one of them. I don’t want to mention the names of the others because they are still redeemable, but ….Ojukwu is irredeemable so I mention his name, and my attitude to these lies is one of indifference, I must confess to you.
I’ve learnt to rely completely on the providence and vindication of Almighty God in some of these things. I’ve tried to explain myself in the past, but these liars persist. Ojukwu had only recently told the same lie against me. What’s the point in correcting lies when people are determined to persist in telling lies against you, what’s the point. I know that someday the Ibos, the masses of the Ibo people will realize who their friends are, and who their real enemies are. And the day that happens woe betide those enemies. The Ibos will deal with them very roughly, very roughly.
That has happened in my life. I have a nickname now, if you see my letterhead you’ll find something on top, you’ll find a fish done on the letterhead. Some people put Lion on theirs, some people put Tiger, but mine is Fish. And Fish represents my zodiac sign, those of you who read the stars and so on in the newspapers; you’ll find out that there’s a zodiac sign known as pieces, in Latin pieces mean Fish.
So I put pieces on top, that’s my zodiac sign being born on the 6th of March,….er well, the year doesn’t matter, it’s the day that matter. And then on top of it I write Eebudola. All of you know the meaning of that. You know I don’t want to tell a long story but………………Awolowo school, omo Awolowo, the…… started in Urobo land, in mid-west in those days. They were ridiculing my schools, I was building schools –brick and cement, to dpc level, block to dpc level and mud thereafter. And so the big shots in the place..”ah what kind of school is this? is this Awolowo school? Useless school” and when they saw the children..”ah this Awolowo children, they can’t read and write, Awolowo children” that’s how it started, with ridicule, and it became blessing, and now they say “Awolowo children, they are good people” no more ridicule about it, that’s how it started, so the Eebu becomes honor, the abuse became honor.
And so when I look back to all my life, treasonable felony, jail, all the abuses that were heaped on me, to Coker Inquiry, all sorts, and I see what has happened to the people who led, who led all these denigration campaign, where are they today? Those that are alive are what I call Homo Mortuus- dead living, oku eniyan, that’s what they are, those that their lives have gone.
So when I look back, I come to the conclusion that all these abuses which have been heaped on me all my life for doing nothing, for doing good, they have become honor, and so Eebudola is one of my nicknames. So I’ve cultivated an attitude of indifference, I’ve done no evil to the Ibos.
During the war I saw to it that the revenue which was due to the Iboland- South Eastern states they call it, at that time..east central state, I kept it, I saved the money for them. And when they ….was librated I handed over the money to them- millions. If I’d decided to do so, I could have kept the money away from them and then when they took over I saw to it that subvention was given to them at the rate of 990,000 pounds every month. I didn’t go to the executive council to ask for support, or for approval because I knew if I went to the executive council at that time the subvention would not be approved because there were more enemies in the executive council for the Ibos than friends. And since I wasn’t going to take a percentage from what I was going to give them, and I knew I was doing what was right, I wanted the state to survive, I kept on giving the subvention - 990,000 almost a million, every month, and I did that for other states of course- South eastern state, North central state, Kwara and so on.
But I did that for the Ibos, and when the war was over, I saw to it that the ACB got three and a half million pounds to start with. This was distributed immediately and I gave another sum of money. The attitude of the experts, officials at the time of the ACB was that ACB should be closed down, and I held the view you couldn’t close the ACB down because that is the bank that gives finance to the Ibo traders, and if you close it down they’ll find it difficult to revive or to survive. So it was given. I did the same thing for the Cooperative Bank of Eastern Nigeria, to rehabilitate all these places, and I saw to it as commissioner for finance that no obstacle was placed in the way of the ministry of economic planning in planning for rehabilitation of the war affected areas.

TWENTY POUNDS POLICY
That’s what I did, and the case of the money they said was not given back to them, you know during the war all the pounds were looted, they printed Biafran currency notes, which they circulated, at the close of the war some people wanted their Biafran notes to be exchanged for them. Of course I couldn’t do that, if I did that the whole country would be bankrupt. We didn’t know about Biafran notes and we didn’t know on what basis they have printed them, so we refused the Biafran note, but I laid down the principle that all those who had savings in the banks on the eve of the declaration of the Biafran war or Biafra, will get their money back if they could satisfy us that they had the savings there, or the money there. Unfortunately, all the banks’s books had been burnt, and many of the people who had savings there didn’t have their saving books or their last statement of account, so a panel had to be set up.
I didn’t take part in setting up the panel, it was done by the Central bank and the pertinent officials of the ministry of finance, to look into the matter, and they went carefully into the matter, they took some months to do so, and then make some recommendation which I approved. Go to the archives, all I did was approve, I didn’t write anything more than that, I don’t even remember the name of any of them who took part. So I did everything in this world to assist our Ibo brothers and sisters during and after the war.
And anyone who goes back to look at my broadcast in August 1967, which dealt with post-war reconstruction would see what I said there.

STARVATION POLICY
Then, but above all, the ending of the war itself that I’m accused of, accused of starving the Ibos, I did nothing of the sort. You know, shortly after the liberation of these places, Calabar, Enugu and Port Harcort, I decided to pay a visit. There are certain things which I knew which you don’t know, which I don’t want to say here now, when I write my reminisces in the future I will do so. Some of the soldiers were not truthful with us, they didn’t tell us correct stories and so on.
I wanted to be there and see things for myself, bear in mind that Gowon himself did not go there at that time, it was after the war was over that he dorn himself up in various military dresses- Air force dress, Army dress and so on, and went to the war torn areas. But I went and some people tried to frighten me out of my goal by saying that Adekunle was my enemy and he was going to see to it that I never return from the place, so I went.
But when I went what did I see? I saw the kwashiorkor victims. If you see a kwashiorkor victim you’ll never like war to be waged. Terrible sight, in Enugu, in Port Harcourt, not many in Calabar, but mainly in Enugu and Port Harcourt. Then I enquired what happened to the food we are sending to the civilians. We were sending food through the Red cross, and CARITAS to them, but what happen was that the vehicles carrying the food were always ambushed by the soldiers. That’s what I discovered, and the food would then be taken to the soldiers to feed them, and so they were able to continue to fight. And I said that was a very dangerous policy, we didn’t intend the food for soldiers. But who will go behind the line to stop the soldiers from ambushing the vehicles that were carrying the food? And as long as soldiers were fed, the war will continue, and who’ll continue to suffer? and those who didn’t go to the place to see things as I did, you remember that all the big guns, all the soldiers in the Biafran army looked all well fed after the war, its only the mass of the people that suffered kwashiorkor.
You wont hear of a single lawyer, a single doctor, a single architect, who suffered from kwashiorkor? None of their children either, so they waylaid the foods, they ambush the vehicles and took the foods to their friends and to their collaborators and to their children and the masses were suffering. So I decided to stop sending the food there. In the process the civilians would suffer, but the soldiers will suffer most.

CHANGE OF CURRENCY
And it is on record that Ojukwu admitted that two things defeated him in this war, that’s as at the day he left Biafra. He said one, the change of currency, he said that was the first thing that defeated him, and we did that to prevent Ojukwu taking the money which his soldiers has stolen from our Central bank for sale abroad to buy arms. We discovered he looted our Central bank in Benin, he looted the one in Port Harcourt, looted the one in Calabar and he was taking the currency notes abroad to sell to earn foreign exchange to buy arms.
So I decided to change the currency, and for your benefit, it can now be told the whole world, only Gowon knew the day before, the day before the change took place. I decided, only three of us knew before then- Isong now governor of Cross River, Attah and myself. It was a closely guarded secret, if any commissioner at the time say that he knew about it, he’s only boosting his own ego. Because once you tell someone, he’ll tell another person. So we refused to tell them and we changed the currency notes. So Ojukwu said the change in currency defeated him, and starvation of his soldiers also defeated him.
These were the two things that defeated Ojukwu. And, he reminds me, when you saw Ojukwu’s picture after the war, did he look like someone who’s not well fed? But he has been taking the food which we send to civilians, and so we stopped the food.

ABANDONED PROPERTY
And then finally, I saw to it that the houses owned by the Ibos in Lagos and on this side, were kept for them. I had an estate agent friend who told me that one of them collected half a million pounds rent which has been kept for him. All his rent were collected, but since we didn’t seize their houses, he came back and collected half a million pounds.
So that is the position. I’m a friend of the Ibos and the mass of the Ibos are my friends, but there are certain elements who want to continue to deceive the Ibos by telling lies against me, and one day, they’ll discover and then that day will be terrible for those who have been telling the lies.

OP,
Every religion in the world, every culture in the world, urge that when a person dies we should wish them to rest in peace. That peace include leaving all their errors and fallacies, whatever it is, in the past and buried....never to be brought up in glorious recounts of pain and agony. Do not join the author of this article in broadcasting the dirty laundry of a deceased. It is an abomination and humanity abhors it. Modify your post and delete the content. Chief OPE is not here to defend himself....and we know there are two sides to a story. Delete this one-sided abomination.

shakmati:
At least he is making effort. The lifeless one does not wven have the mental capacity to make effort.

Effort at what, can you elaborate?

Thou shall not steal...not Nigerian treasury, and definitely not the works of others!

Atiku Abubakar has been aspiring to become Nigerian President since 1992, twenty six years....and he still had not put together a ready-to-go policy document, until recently he invited a collection of politicians to join him in Dubai and help formulate a policy document. In actuality Atiku published a book called "Making Things Happen, The Atiku Abubakar Policy Document". He is reluctant to use contents of that work because it originally was the idea of Senator David Dafinone, and Atiku had plagiarized it. You can read some of it here....http://atiku.org/policydocument/

His plagiarism was uncovered by a group claiming the following...

A group known as "Concerned PDP Members" has described as "The Mother of all plagiarism", the manifesto document of PDP Presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar tagged "Making Good Things Happen."

At a press briefing in Abuja yesterday, Kenny Okohugbo and Taiye Garreck, who spoke on behalf of the group, alleged that the document which specifically outlines what Atiku's plan for the turnaround of the power sector is was stolen from a document written by Senator David Dafinone.

https://allafrica.com/stories/201012020382.html

In addition, Ganesan called for stronger professional standards so that a situation like Nigeria’s former Vice President Atiku Abubakar engineered to transfer $14 million to Washington, D.C.’s American University would not occur again.

Mr. Abubakar and his wife succeeded in bringing $40 million in suspect funds into the United States between 2000 and 2008, $14 million of which were accepted by American University. In accepting the money, the Washington school did not question the source of the offshore corporations that transferred the funds in return for consultations by the college to help Mr. Abubakar set up a university in Nigeria.

“With the case of American University and others, it is also critically important, even in the absence of legislation, that universities, realtors, and other institutions do an adequate amount of due diligence, because even if it’s not illegal, if this information comes out, it’s certainly not acceptable to most of the public. And it would certainly be eye-opening to the people of Nigeria, who haven’t seen their living standards increased necessarily, that the money and the wealth of their country is ending up in a U.S. university,” Ganesan explained.

Supporters of the new legislation are hoping that it will plug several loopholes that were revealed in Thursday’s hearing and lead to more rigorous U.S. government enforcement efforts. Arvind Ganesan recommends another tactic he hopes will prompt U.S. consular services to deny visas to foreign rulers suspected of diverting and laundering funds, a tool that he says should be used more often to prevent the sale of mansions to people implicated with “abusing the wealth of their nation for personal gain.”

blackcat1:
No other reason than that the woman divorced the man . It is common in Europe that when black divorce white the children will be taken away and turned against the black parent. Or they keep the black women fighting for their kids in court with all their savings. Horrible

When black divorce black are the children taken away at all? People that don't want their children taken away would know what not to do.

begwong:
BREAKING!!!
El-Rufai chooses Hadiza Balarabe as running mate
Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has announced the selection of Dr. Hadiza Balarabe as his running mate for the 2019 general election. The choice of Dr. Hadiza Balarabe as running mate continues Malam Nasir El-Rufai’s deliberate policy of promoting women. There are five female commissioners in his 14-person cabinet, a feat not attained even by governors that had much larger cabinets. This is the first time in the history of Kaduna State that a major political party will select a woman as running mate.
The incumbent Deputy Governor, Arc. Barnabas Yusuf Bala, has opted to go to the National Assembly and has since emerged as the APC’s candidate for the southern Kaduna senatorial district.
Dr. Hadiza Balarabe is the current Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Primary Health Care Development Agency, a position she has held since February 2016. In that role she has overseen the Kaduna State Government’s programme to revitalise and strengthen primary health care as the core of health service delivery in the state. Under her watch, the state is renovating and equipping 255 primary health centres with tools to assist better antenatal services and safer delivery. The agency has also helped expand vaccine coverage to protect children across the state.
Prior to joining the Kaduna State Government, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe was Director of Public Health in the FCT. She studied Medicine at the University of Maiduguri, and graduated in 1988. She was a Senior Registrar at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital before joining the services of the FCT in 2004.
Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, who was born in 1966, is from Sanga local government which is located in the southern Kaduna senatorial district.
Signed
Samuel Aruwan
Senior Special Assistant to the Governor (Media & Publicity)
Friday, 2nd November 2018

In the East do they not choose Christian/Christian?

bigtt76:
This one be living his dream life flying upandan the World 'campaigning' for presidency ....shei tomorrow he will be sworn in as the President Federal Republic of Nigeria (Diaspora Branch)

Don't say that. See Sowore the way APC saw Omisore in the run-off election in Osun. Sowore could consolidate the mandate for bigger outcomes and advantages. Abike Dabiri-Erewa is President Buhari's Asistance on Diaspora. For the President to create an office for Diaspora and staff it, there is some tangibles there for the administration. If Diaspora vote Sowore as its flag bearer, it puts him in direct lobbying access to the President. Thats a very powerful position. The outcome of that vote means a lot in terms of the opportunities and doorways it can open for someone politically savvy!

If I were Oshiomhole, going by the theatrics of Amosun and Okorocha, I will expel them from the party. They have become disgruntled elements. When you have a disgruntled employee in your business you don't want to keep them because they become saboteurs and can ruin business for you. The only reason Amosun and Okorocha have not defected is because they will not win their Senatorial ambition under PDP. Once they win under APC and go into Senate they will aid opposition to hurt APC....we have seen this pattern happen numerous times.