Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and John Garang de Mabior forged a strong bond in Dar-es-Salaam just as a group of Biafran intellectuals relocated to the Tanzanian capital at the end of the civil war. Garang was in Nigeria before war broke out and was taken out of Biafra by Captain Andrew Nwankwo in 1967. Both landed in Dar-es-Salaam and were well received by President Julius Nyerere. Museveni was at the University of Dar-es-Salaam [UDSM] to study Political Science and one of his favourite lecturers was Professor Okwudiba Nnoli, from Oraifite. He also attended the History class of Dr. Walter Rodney. Museveni and Garang got to meet in 1970 just as the Ugandan was rounding off studies. The Sudanese came in with a degree in Economics from Grinnell College, Iowa, United States. Another Biafran at UDSM was Dr. Theodore Okeahialam, from Otulu, Ahiara-Mbaise. He was the Paediatrician who managed malnourished Biafran children in Gabon. I got to know Okeahialam, now professor emeritus, from an old school pal, Emeka Onyenacho. And the man confirmed the Museveni-Garang link that was developed in Tanzania. He said:”President Museveni of Uganda was a student of Political Science at that university then, tutored by our own Prof. Nnoli [now late] and the famous Guyanese Afro-Thinker, Walter Rodney, my friend, also late.” Prof. Okeahialam’s younger brother, Heron, played a key role during the Civil War. A British-American trained engineer, he was the brain behind Radio Biafra. The small but powerful station continued to operate from ‘unknown’ locations. Okeahialam, the engineer, once hung the aerial on top of a palm tree in his Otulu village while Nigerian soldiers searched all over occupied Enugu for the location. When Biafra fell in 1970, Col. Olusegun Obasanjo was excitedly surprised to find the Radio station operating from Obodoukwu, Urualla. Okeahialam, the medical doctor, was at the State House, Lagos in 1966 as Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi’s physician. That was where he met Capt. Nwankwo. Nwankwo was the Air Force Aide de Camp to Ironsi, the Head of State. There were other ADCs. Lt. Sanni Bello represented the Army, Sub. Lt. Den Okujagu was for the Navy and from the police came Timothy Pam. When Ironsi was killed in Ibadan, Nwankwo was lucky. A deal with Bello saved the Air Force officer. Bello confused the assassins, causing them to fire at an empty bush while Nwankwo ran to safety on the other side. Garang was a student of Government Secondary School, Afikpo. He came from troubled Sudan and was already battle tested. At ten, the boy was orphaned. Some elders of his Dinka ethnic nationality pushed him out to acquire education.
There were other African students at Afikpo under disciplinarian principal, George Chukwuneke Akabogu, from Nnewi. Hilton Sinyangwe came from Tanzania. Iyassu Gutama was Ethiopian. From Namibia [South West Africa] there was Samuel Chichindua. Those were the years of Tete Mbuk and Precious Omuku. Paul Omeruo, Bernard Akpunonu and Lorderick Emejuru had joined from Nigeria Military School, Zaria. One of the junior students was Sasa Nwoke, the boy who would later become famous as gunner of the armoured vehicle, Corporal Nwafor. Capt. Nwankwo had lived in Tanzania as a member of the Presidential Fleet of Mwalimu Nyerere. He had also done similar job for Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. Nwankwo was a member of course six, Haile Selassie Military Academy, Harar [July 21, 1962-October 12, 1965]. His mates included: John Atom Kpera, Sunday Orinya Ifere, Umaru Alhaji Mohammed, Robert Omakwu Obeya, Peter John Okoli [N/591] and Lambert Ogbonna Ihenacho. Others were Peter Adomokai, Layiwola Yusuf, Philip Onyekweli, Ezekiel Umaru, Innocent Ihemekwele and Augustine Azubugo. It was therefore easier to ask Nwankwo to take Garang to Tanzania in 1967. It did not come as a surprise that the country was the first to recognize Biafra. By 1968, Onubogu was a Major and in charge of Uli Airport. Nyerere had turned Tanzania to a safe haven for revolutionaries from all over the globe. Eduardo Mondlane was there, from Mozambique. Ernesto Che Guevera, Malcolm X and Stokely Camichael came from the Americas. Laurent-Desire Kabila of Congo lived there. So did Apollo Milton Obote of Uganda and Kenyan opposition leader, Oginga Odinga. Kabila’s son, Joseph, spent childhood and part of his teenage years in Dar-es-Salaam. Congolese thought Joseph Kabila was more Tanzanian because he spoke better English and Kiswahili than French. The father owned property in Dar-es-Salam, something that did not go down well with Gueverra. When Museveni got to UDSM, the campus was littered with intellectuals. Apart from Nnoli and Okeahialam, there was the Nigerian, Claude Ake. The list included Ghana’s Ayi Kwei Armah, Ngugi wa Thiong’o of Kenya, Mahmood Mamdani from Uganda and the Zimbabwean, Nathan Shamuyarira. Dr. Walter Rodney was a popular face. He first arrived in 1966, left in 1967 came back two years later and stayed till 1974. His famous book: ‘How Europe Under developed Africa’, was written right inside UDSM. This was the environment that gingered the duo of Museveni and Garang to more battles from the bush. They were lettered and revolutionary at the same time. Garang later bagged a doctorate after post graduate studies in Agric. Economics from the Iowa State University. I saw President Museveni in 1991. He had become President of Uganda in 1986. The former guerilla fighter came to Abuja for the African Union Summit [then known as OAU] fully loaded. I think his wife was also there with him and I was given two of his books. One, ‘The Path of Liberation’, was a selection of his speeches in 1986. The other, ’Consolidating the Revolution’, spanned through speeches delivered in 1989. At the International Conference Centre, Museveni asked West Africa to thank Nigeria for stabilizing the sub region with ECOMOG, a bold step no country in East Africa could take. Museveni felt very much at home with Chief Moshood Abiola. There were reports that the Nigeria billionaire played a huge role in the emergence of the Ugandan leader as president. Garang went back to Sudan. He later became First Vice president. On July 30, 2005, Garang died in an air crash. The chopper was part of Museveni’s fleet.
The Kano State Police Command have uncovered an illegal orphanage home suspected to be involved in child trafficking and rescued 27 children alleged to have been kidnapped or born for trafficking from the home known as Du Merci orphanage.
The command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Abdullahi Haruna confirmed to Channels Television that a self-acclaim professor, Solomon Tafa who operates the home has been arrested.
“We were able to rescue nine children here, after the arrest; he was not able to present any document that shows how these children are being sourced.”
Public Relations Officer, DSP Abdullahi Haruna
DSP Haruna also revealed that the suspect, Tafa, works alongside a hospital that helps him take care of the pregnant women before and after delivery.
“He procures pregnant women, gives them all the necessary ante-natal attention and care. After delivery, he then hands over the newly born babies to the owner of the orphanage home.”
The suspect, Mr. Tafa claimed that his orphanage home is duly registered and the authorities in Kano state are aware of its existence since 1996 when they started operation.
“We are registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) with 10 boards of trustees that are the Directors.
“We have been running the home since 1992, but officially opened in 1996. I’m registered with Women affairs and social development and the children are from many sources,” he claimed.
Meanwhile, Channels Television, in a bid to ascertain the suspects claim, was informed by the Commissioner for Women Affairs and social development, Zahra’u Umar-Muhammad that the suspect was yet to register with the Ministry and there is no record showing the existence of any Du Merci children home in the state.
The police said an investigation is ongoing and the children are now in the custody of the Kano state Children’s home, while the alleged baby-making factory remains under lock and key.
AKURE — A Baby factory has been uncovered in Ilu-Titun in Okitipupa council area of Ondo State by the state command of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS. At least 24 suspects were arrested in connection with the illegal establishment. Among those nabbed by the anti-trafficking detectives of the command included five pregnant women, five nursing mothers, five babies, two of which are less than a month old and eight men whose duty it was to impregnate the women. Also, some guards of northern extraction were picked. The arrest of the proprietor of the baby factory, Mrs Happiness Ogundeji, was after several months of intelligence gathering and discreet surveillance by officials of the command. The suspects were paraded before newsmen at the command’s headquarters in Akure, yesterday, by the state’s comptroller of NIS, Mr Musa Al-Hassan. According to reports, the proprietor, Mrs Ogundeji had to relocate to Ondo State after she was arrested in Imo State for a similar offence. Al-Hassan told newsmen that following a tip-off, the suspects were rounded up at their hideout by a combined team of his officers and military operatives. According to him, the suspects had earlier resisted arrest following which they reinforced to effect the arrest. Vanguard gathered that the illegal operation was being carried out at a well-secured two-flat apartment in the town. The proprietor was said to have pretended that the baby factory was a natural healing home. It was gathered that young girls between the ages of 19 and 25 were recruited into the home where some young men purposely work to impregnate them. Once a girl is pregnant, she is separated from those yet to be impregnated. After delivery, the girls are offered ridiculous amount, their babies taken from them and sold to rich men and women who pay millions of naira, depending on the sex of the baby. Twins are said to be the costliest as they go for N2.5 million. It was learnt that the Abuja office of the command learnt of the operation of the syndicate in Ondo State following a tip-off from Cross River State Command and it subsequently directed both the Ondo and Imo State commands to investigate the allegation. Consequently, the anti-human trafficking officials of the state command led by Obisesan Abiola acting on intelligence reports burst the syndicate. It was further discovered that the proprietor is assisted in the factory by a Cameroonian. Al-Hassan said the command would always collaborate with sister agencies to rid the state of criminality. One of the pregnant girls in her early twenties simply called ‘Grace’ claimed to be a student of Lagos State University, LASU, and is engaged to the son of the proprietor. The supposed husband insisted that his mother had not committed any crime while the proprietor denied operating a baby factory. Ogundeji said she was operating a herbal natural clinic. Items discovered at the factory were eight luxury cars, foodstuff, baby items, among others. Meanwhile, all the suspects are to be transferred to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, headquarters in Lagos after preliminary investigation by the officials of the command. The house used for the illegal business had been sealed off by security operatives.
Nigerian police have freed 19 pregnant women from properties in Lagos, which they describe as "baby factories".
Most of the women had been abducted "for the purpose of getting them pregnant and selling the babies", a police statement said.
Two women who operated as untrained nurses have been arrested but the main suspect is on the run.
Police said that male babies would be sold for $1,400 (£1,100) and the females for $830.
They added that the children were to be trafficked, but it was not clear who or where the potential buyers were.
Stories of these so-called "baby factories" are not uncommon in Nigeria. There have been several raids in the past including one last year when 160 children were rescued.
This time four children were rescued.
The women travelled to Lagos after being told they had jobs as domestic workers
What happened to the women?
The rescued girls and women, aged between 15 and 28, had been lured to Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, from different parts of the country with the promise of employment.
But they were then held in the properties and raped.
"[A] woman came to pick me at the [bus] park and brought me here," one of those rescued told the Vanguard newspaper.
"The next day, I was summoned by our madam, who told me that I would not leave the premises until next year," she is quoted as saying.
"So far, I have slept with seven different men before I discovered I was pregnant. I was told that after delivery, I would be paid handsomely."
Another victim told the BBC that she was held against her will and prevented from leaving when she discovered her baby was going to be sold. Another said that her phone and money were taken from her and she was told she could not leave the home to seek medical help despite her condition.
The women and children have now been rehoused and are being rehabilitated, the police said.
(CNN)As the world experiences a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, tailors in Nigeria are responding by hand-making equipment like overalls and face masks.
Rising demand, panic buying, hoarding, and misuse have disrupted the global supply of PPE, according to the World Health Organization, putting lives at risk.
Now, tailors in Abia state, in the southeast of the country, are using local fabrics, cotton, and polypropylene to sew PPE for people looking to protect themselves.
With cases of Covid-19 rising in Nigeria, the Abia state government released a 12 million naira (about $31,000) grant to support tailors to make the protective gear.
The grant was disbursed to 100 selected tailors at the start of April to help them buy additional equipment, source materials and employ more people, according to Sam Hart, the director-general of the Abia State Marketing and Quality Management Agency.
Hart explained that the initial face mask samples were examined by a team of medical experts and that the gear is intended for citizens looking for protection, rather than for health workers.
The tailors sew different varieties of overalls and facemasks. Photo: Sam Hart
Local solution
So far, tailors in Aba, the state's commercial nerve center, have produced 200,000 face masks and 3,000 overalls, the agency said.
One of the tailors, Queen Duruibe, told CNN that the overalls she makes are waterproof and puncture-resistant, and are made from a polyamide fabric coated with protective materials.
Her face masks are made with cotton and polypropylene and are hypoallergenic, she said. She alsoproduces decorative face masks made from a colorful print fabric, which aren't intended to protect from coronavirus.
Duruibe had been producing face masks since January but says she has now taken on more staff and converted her fashion store to make up to 10,000 masks per day.
Queen Duruibe runs her own fashion store in Aba.
"I sew different types of clothes here in Aba and I usually buy my materials from China," she said. "But when coronavirus happened, they (her suppliers) started telling me how bad things are, that there are no materials and face masks are scarce.
"So I thought to myself that if things are so scarce, I can actually start producing them myself."
Finding buyers
The equipment produced by the tailors is sold for around 200 naira (roughly 50 cents), according to Hart, and it is finding a range of buyers.
"We had a pharmacist who bought 10,000 pieces to stock in his pharmacy for sale," he said. "The PPE overalls and face masks have been made available to the public -- anybody can order. We even have some Nigerians in the diaspora who have made bulk orders for their communities and villages here in Abia."
Tailors say the overalls they make are water and puncture proof.
The state government has also ordered masks, which it will distribute to the most vulnerable citizens, according to John Okiyi, the state commissioner for communications.
"65,000 of these facemasks have already been distributed in some local governments through churches and mosques," he told CNN. "The government has also ordered the production of an additional 150,000 face masks for further distribution."
He added that the state government has distributed N95 face masks to health workers, because those are more suited to medical professionals.
And it cuts across regions of the country SE included
I pray we ditch such reasoning soon
Even your response isn't immune from tribalism. You just singled out one ethnic region that happen to be the victim of the tribalism I was talking about!
Mediocrity is when a decades-old business can not come up with ordinary N4 billion to make common respirators?
Mediocrity is begging for money and Innoson's inability to rise up and perform your patriotic duty and or participate in the corporate social responsibility acts by patriotic and well-meaning Nigerians.
But your govt is begging for common respirator online? BTW Innoson never begged for money, he asked for orders to save the lives of people like you.
CSTR2: If I am innoson, I would take the risk, produce, and charge the govt heavily per unit.
No look face at all.
Though govt may tax the living daylights out of him.
Igbo business ingenuity has outgrown the normal sensitivity of Nigerian political space which breeds mediocrity. If you read in between the lines you I'll know the point that barshir or whatever is making. They never wanted to buy any ventilators but innoson indicted the government by making a declaration that they can produce ventilators, which also implies that Nigerians need ventilators at this time but the government. is not providing them.
I would have blamed innoson for acting "irresponsibly" by not contacting the government privately. But a promising brand should grow by boosting its corporate image through trust and transparency as done elsewhere. If innoson ever ventures into backdoor negotiations like Dangote, the Fulani cabal can easily set him up and achieve their longstanding target of destroying his business.
Many jealous folks from some sections of the country see it as STH that enriches an Igboman called innoson but God forbid should you or any of your relations get sick and can't get a ventilator in a hospital then you'll know you are neither fooling innoson nor FG but yourself.
The thread is so revealing of the mindset of an average Yoruba person. The Yoruba's won't accept that they have no natural economic advantage over the Igbo's. The east has sea ports, better environment, better education and most importantly the human resources to become an economic giant. if I were a yoruba, I would find it shameful bragging with status of Lagos when I know it was the nation's politics of development that made the city at the expense of the east. well, no wonder they all choke at the mention of Biafra.
nlPoster: Cultural values held by children depends on if the parents' individual heritages are matrilineal or patrilineal.
For Yorubas, it's patrilineal so the fathers most times ensure the kids are familiar with his culture. If the mum is from a strongly matrilineal society, then the kids would be closer to her own heritage.
My opinion.
yea its patrilineal but the children will only get to be familiar with their yoruba heritage if their mother is yoruba. across cultures children lean towards mothers. The influence of the mother in the early stage of childhood is big. The father can only achieve the important dream of having a child following his cultural footprint if his cultural values and that of his wife cling together in symphony.
CAPSLOCKED: this one is promoting tribalism with the aid of the Bible. that's fair. but you know something about these miscreants? their "do not marry any other tribes" chant only apply to other Nigerians because of the hate and envy they nurse in their hearts for their fellow Nigerians.
they'd prefer to get married to the poorest Vietnam or Haitian man instead of their fellow Nigerian.
they will make up excuses to go ahead with the Nigerian if he or she is very rich though. so who is fooling the other? .
you obviously have nothing reasonable to write other than throw curses around and use the word " tribalism" as a psychological weapon of blackmail, even when you hardly understand it's meaning.
Professorcplus: why not. Why bring out issues out of nothing. Afterall I'm living witness one of my lecturers back in uni is an Igbo Christian married from the core north a Muslim wife. How did he manage to pull through it. He's an intellectual man and religion and tribe isn't a barrier to him as long as they have mutual understanding.
I pains me when right men in their right senses abide to live all your life by some certain rules that doesn't pertain or relates to your current circumstance in reality in any way. In as much as I detest referencing any Bible tales because you said it that our culture and tribes differs so what as Samson or Solomon era love story has to do with today's society relationship.
Either you agree or not the Bible was also influenced by the custom and culture of it era. So every man to himself.
I'm not hear to convince you otherwise but at times when you are caught with some real life situations you stop living every bit of your life following some biblical patterns that doesn't relate to you.
That how someone said to my lady wearing trouser not biblical for whenever reasons I don't care to know. When you come over to stay in Canada when temp is -7, but on skirt now. No one will tell you when cold reset your brain.
You abide to one biblical law and and ignores the other.
You even said falling in love is not biblical. Well I don't have problem with that statement but you are so good as being one sided with biblical terms. What will be your response telling you that having phone with you is not biblical.
I would have responded to every bit of your write up but I got time for other important stuff. When I'm less busy I'm still coming to modify.
These yoruba clowns can go any extent to make themselves happy. the halfwitted op knows that no specific category among finance, ICT and tech will have afonja women dominate. so he had to list all yoruba women he knows in the corporate world and branded it leading women in "fintech". smh
FortuneDeGreat: Moronic nonentity, marriage to me and indeed to all sane people in the world is an emotional stuff, it may be a business stuff to you I don't care but please off my mention with your bitter, hateful and divisive soul.
disoriented one, pls read properly. "making a choice of who to marry" and marriage proper are not the same. "choice" and "emotion" do not go together. every aspect our live demands more reason than emotion. Even love as originally conceived is an act of will which must be deliberately expressed unconditionally beyond the frontiers of race, religion, language, friendship and family. This is why it is always given as a command, but marriage is a purely conditional thing which must happen between people of shared interest and value (race, religion and language) for the union to have a strong natural foundation. your misinformed mind tells you that you hate others the moment you chose to marry from your kind, but it is not true. You owe everybody even your enemy love but you don't owe marriage to them. Heck you can neither marry a HIV positive person as a negative person nor marry someone without a matching genotype, but you owe them all love. you see why I say you're are disoriented? sadly, you're an emotional time-bomb. I ignore your insults became I'm only educating you.
FortuneDeGreat: Uninformed miscreant, there's no way political correctness and emotional issues collocate, go get educated bitter soul.
disoriented one, marital choices are not "emotional issues". life's most important decision is not taken based on emotion. I hope you've got advisers in your family.
FortuneDeGreat: Marriage and love has nothing to do with politics, trying to be politically correct before falling in love is out of place and never sounds right, your so called wide education doesn't teach you an issue as simple as that. Hide your hateful face.
disoriented one. go search for meaning of political correctness before looking for who to quote. continue "falling in" and out of love.
FortuneDeGreat: Nwannem nwanyi, I'm married to a Yoruba and I'm from Enugwu Ukwu, I'm happy in marriage. Ask God for your husband and not necessarily from your tribe.
Pls stay married in your lane. Happy people don't get defensive. you sound disoriented yet want to advice another.
for your education, love is unconditional but marriage is very well conditional. You must love everyone but you must not cross every boundary if you want your marriage to stay strong ,last long and have a Compact family. culture and value compatibility are part if it. Any Igbo man that marries a Yoruba woman must have been in a wrong place at the wrong time when he met her. There is not political correctness about it
The United States (US) has ordered President Paul Biya of Cameroon to “immediately and unconditionally” pull out the military from Southern Cameroun territory.
The 72-hour ultimatum followed U.S. Congress approval, in a resolution of an Act, authorising President Donald Trump and U.S. Department of Defence for Biya to comply.
The announcement was made, yesterday, in a YouTube video, monitored in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
According to the video, the U.S Congress Act, said: “President Paul Biya has 72 hours to pull the military from the Union Treaty Territory of Cameroon.”
Other facilities to be evacuated by Cameroonian military include four airports in the occupied territory, to be monitored by U.S Military Intelligence in Chad, Nigeria, Central African Republic and Gabon.
It warned: “Failure to comply will face the wrath of U.S. military authorities,” urging Biya to release all detained citizens of LA du Republic Cameroon.
It has also been reported that 24 councils of Borno, Adamawa and Taraba states in Nigeria are curved out for the new state.
According to UN workshops Coordinator and Chairman, Steering Committee, Prof. Martin Chia Ateh, Cameroonian military pullout was to actualise the State of Cameroon by the United Nations (UN) on July 10, next year
People especially non-Igbos become defensive whenever the "Jewish origin" theory is being debated. However we try to wish it away, complex questions like why the Igbos have non black majority unlike every other west African group will always seek answers beyond the regular "climate" and "food" discuss. The Hebrew origin theory, although without evidence yet is still the most credible, Igbo skin tone, their name, their social organization, deeply entrenched traditions, political organization which is marked by spiritual rather than political authority, and their emphasis on spiritual purity before contact with any major religion as noted by Basden and Eqiano are all pointing towards a direction.
Note that the original Hebrew people were not white, they are rather light brown since Israel is located Between black Africans( Egyptians etc) and fair Arabs. A skin tone related to what many Igbo people have today.
This Morning the Nigerian Media space has been awash with planted story of how the Chairman of Air Peace was indicted by the US Department of Justice over alleged money laundry and bank fraud. The first observation is that it was one version, published by our so-called reputable newspapers. There is no different aspect of rhe report. It was simply almost word for word in all the papers. That means the entire story is from one source. The entire story of indictment spins around an excess transfer of $20m into account (s) managed by one of the registered companies linked to Onyema, the Air Peace Chairman. About three agents of the US Department of Justice were quoted and no explanation was reported on the part of the companies of the Air Peace Chairman. But the bottomline is that all the transactions and explanations centred on the purchase of aircrafts as explicitly contained in the report planted to generate bad blood. This has gained massive attention by the Nigerian because of the inherent plot to always destroy based on ethnic consideration. The US Government has been permanently at war with several Chinese companies over several claims of fraud, hacking or money laundry. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/ 12/20/us/politics/us-and-other-nations-to-announce-china-crackdown.html https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chinese-telecommunications-device-manufacturer-and-its-us-affiliate-indicted-theft-trade But it has always been fought on the level of defence from the Chinese Government. Even the dispute between Apple and Samsung had clearcut interventions of government intervention. Whilst Samsung was found guilty by US Courts, the Korean Courts gave Samsung soft landing by finding both companies guilty. In the case of Nigeria, the Media and Federal Government through her agencies will team up to scandalise the Air Peace Chairman. The next story you will hear is EFCC claiming that they will cooperate with the US Department of Justice. The country has become a place where citizens cannot count on the support of the Federal Government and her agencies when they face challenges. It must be stated that the Chairman of Air Peace Allen, Onyema described the allegations of fraud and money laundering made against him by the United States authorities were false. He said ” “The allegations are unfounded and strange to him,” Onyema’s lawyers A. O Alegeh & Co. said in an emailed statement on Saturday morning. “Allen Onyema has a track record built on honesty and integrity and will take all necessary steps to clear his good name and hard-earned reputation.”
Politics › Re: Museveni, Garang Dined With Biafrans by Noneroone(op): 10:55pm On May 04, 2020
