I will be turning 50 in a few months time, I worked in Financial Services for almost 2 decades, rising to Regional Management Position, I studied Engineering and had an Msc and MBA!! None of these were my true callings nor aligned to the talents God imbued me with. I was in your circumstances in Secondary School; English and History were my standout subjects and I excelled in them, making an A2 and A1 respectively.

But as a very 'intelligent' student I was encouraged or rather compelled to do sciences. I can't say I have regrets about the path I took in life because I have made a huge success out of it, but I always knew I could have done better in a vocation that was my true calling and could harness the talents God imbued in me, and I am today moving in that direction in seeking for self actualization.

So, you are still young!! You can move in the direction your heart and head directs you, but be sure you are not running away from challenges!!

A RESPONSE FROM CHI REPUBLIC INTER-CREED COUNCIL TO THE COALITION OF NORTHERN GROUPS (CNG)



We are lost to what emotions to attach to reading your address to Southeast leaders. When we remember that people came together after consultations, decided on the agenda, gave out the task of penning this address to people, while others approved it, we are left ponderous.


You described the disowning of IPOB by Southeast leaders as "insufficient, deceptive and unacceptable." Before we take on these three words, can CNG give us the equivalent of the Northeast Governors caucus or the Northwest Governors caucus or the North Central Governors caucus, or even the 'almighty' Northern Governors Forum coming out with the equivalent of what the Southeast Governors Forum came out with?


Can you provide us any official instance where any of these forums or caucuses in the north came out to disown and condemn Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen and the bandits that ravage the north? We can pull out for you news headlines upon news headlines of prominent northerners playing advocate for these hoodlums; and we mean senators, governors, professors, even the president -all playing advocate for these criminals. So, on what moral platform do you stand to describe as "insufficient, deceptive and unacceptable" the position of the Southeast governors?


Now, to those words you used: When you say that the response of the Southeast governors are insufficient, what do you mean? You want to see them murder peaceful Igbo youths before you can be placated? While you hold negotiations with criminals and bandits and compensate them with positions in our armed forces and funds coming from the south, including the Southeast, you want Southeast leaders to gun down youths asking for a better and secure life. How else can hypocrisy be defined?


You call Southeast leaders deceptive because they set up the security outfit Ebubeagu. To you, Ebubeagu and Eastern Security Network (ESN) are one and same. The noteworthy thing in equating Ebubeagu with ESN is not just in making that equation, it is in understanding why these security outfits were formed in the first place.


Let us remind you: These were formed in response to the murderous barbarity of the Fulani herdsmen. A group whose infamy has seen them claiming one of the world deadliest terror groups for years running now. Ebubeagu and ESN are the people's acts of self-defense against these deadly terrorists, whose atrocities have been felt by millions across Nigeria.


So, when you see Ebubeagu and ESN as one and the same, you are simply spelling out that you have issues with the people's efforts at self-defense. If you had backed Ebubeagu, then some may understand your grouse with ESN; but you neither want Ebubeagu or ESN. What does that make of you? If armed robbers attack a street and the people rush into their homes to pick whatever they can use for self-defense, what do we call anyone who fumes at the people's attempt towards defense from the robbers? How can such a one claim he or she is not part of the robbers? As you equate Ebubeagu with ESN (both, self-defense initiatives), why should we not equate you with bandits, terrorists and murderers seeing that you would rather weaken the hands of those who choose to resist these demons? Should we still assume that CNG means Coalition of Northern Groups and not Coalition of Nefarious Groups -bent on a Mephistophelean plot?



In what capacity do you define the decision of state executives in a federal system as unacceptable? Are you so unfeeling that you cannot feel the piercing arrogance in that word "unacceptable"? So, if we may ask, what is acceptable to almighty you? The slaughtering of Igbo youths? The impression you give is that your stance is in defense of northern lives being wasted by Igbos. Would you mind if we take stock? Would you mind if we ascertain how many Igbo and other southerners lives have been wasted in the north, even under peaceful atmosphere? How many have been wasted under Boko Haram? How many have been kidnapped on northern roads? The befuddling thing is that you come down south, Southeast inclusive, it is still your brothers wrecking deadly havoc on southerners as they kidnap, maim, rape and kill; both in the rural areas and our highways. So, do you really mind our taking stock of who really is killing who?


Are the Igbos really killing northerners and the north is that calm? Since when did you learn self-control, that your own will be killed and your towns will not erupt in mayhem? Did you require your own to be killed before you erupted in murderous violence over a cartoon in Denmark? Did you require that your own be killed before you unleashed a 'Belzeebubic' violence on innocent souls over a beauty pageant? Who was killed before you drenched the soil with blood over elections lost fairly and squarely in 2011? Should we remind you about the Sharia pogroms -called riots? Who was killed by the Igbo before your boy Shekau took to the stage made of human skulls in a murderous dance?

Where in the Southeast do you have anything nearing the equivalent of these? The Unknown Gunmen? Should we give you a list of Igbos killed by the Unknown Gunmen? For your information, the Igbo have taken the largest hits by these Unknown Gunmen such that many Igbos think that these Unknown Gunmen are you guys in disguise. Who would blame anyone who has such thoughts? Are your legacies in bloodletting not enough proof?


So, can you see why it is difficult to muster the right emotions for your address to Southeast leaders as that address reeks of incredible hypocrisy? Mind you, we are not advocates for Southeast leaders. We will surely let them know how we feel. Some other groups are already doing so. To know how lots of Igbos feel about the Southeast leaders, you just need to go online and read Igbos themselves. The great Igbos say that when a person calls his place a trash heap, people will dispose their trash there. If Southeast leaders had carried themselves well, from where would you have picked the guts to utter such arrant nonsense of an address to them? From where?



Well, it is said that even a bad clock is right at least twice a day; happily, this holds true for you too despite your gaffes. Your decision to move that a referendum, whose aim is for Igbo exit from Nigeria, be conducted is a most reasonable stance from you. This shows that not all hopes are lost in reading and hearing reason from your end. Well, if you can muster some sincerity, you will agree that the Biafran agitation has been a peaceful call for a referendum. That it has not happened is not the Igbos' fault. Actually, we may need to ask you why it has not happened all these years. However, now that you have woken up to the benefits of a referendum, knowing too that the yam and knife appears to be in your hands, this will be a very good opportunity to redeem your image of double speak.


But wait? You said that all Igbo, high and low, is in agreement with being a nuisance to Nigeria. Why then do you need a referendum to throw them out? Why not just throw them out? What if in the very unlikely situation they vote to remain a nuisance to Nigeria and Nigerians, what happens? Well, just throw them out; so, that no one in Nigeria, especially up north, will proceed to rest in peace because of the Igbo.



Signed:

Ike Eluigwe -Council Chairman

Engineer Uche Ekechukwu -Council Vice Chairman


Edwin Abba -Council Secretary

MUHAMMADU BUHARI, HIS IDEOLOGIES AND OUR EXPECTATION OF LEADERSHIP


Just like the great philosopher, James Allen, posits in that timeless essay, "As A Man Thinketh, So Is He", every man is a reflection of what he thinks; and what he thinks, he becomes. All of a person's actions and inactions are the fruits of his thinking. Furthermore, this thinking is anchored principally on his or her ideologies.

Millions of lives and livelihoods depend on the character, competence, altruism, ideology and integrity of the man or woman who sits in office as our president -- whatever their party affiliation maybe.



Nigerians, especially those who put their trust in the 'messiah' Buhari, in the hope for a life of eldorado, are left in serious bewilderment; with some wriggling in pain as to the kind of 'change' that he has brought on them. To make matters worse, after a failed Change in his first term, he has now taken Nigeria and Nigerians to the 'Next Level' of hell.


What manner of change has brought hyperinflation to the land? The ordinary or the poorest of the poor, as Mr Buhari labels them, still wonder how a man who claims to love them has allowed a bag of rice they bought N8k in 2015 to rise to N36k today. How did a sachet of Milo and Milk that he and his VP deceptively used for campaign in 2015 now sell for N150 today from N50? They wonder how pump price of Fuel has jumped from N85 in 2015 to N162 today. As a supposed progressive who he claimed he is, they are still wondering how N10k in their pockets in 2015 has 'progressed' to a value of about N3k today.


Whilst they were wondering, the man of 'integrity', the man who abhors corruption, the man who loves them, increased VAT by 50%, hiked electricity tariff by over 100% and imposed all manner of levies on financial transactions.



My message to Nigerians, in the words of Ngugi Wanthongio: "weep not child", because a leopard never changes its skin.


I have studied Buhari for some time now and can accurately predict his actions. I was once swayed by his well-groomed and packaged deceit. I took him to be a Spartan, an incorrigible and honest man. I was wrong! I was a core Buharist from 2007 to 2014 preaching his 'gospel' and getting backlashes from all angles. I stood firm. When he cried on National Television, professing his love for our nation, I cried with him. Thankfully, I could not be fooled for long.


What Ideologies guide the thinking, actions and inactions of the man, Buhari? Simple: Feudalism!


Feudalism is a political, economic and social system practised in medievial times. In feudalism, vassals and peasants lived in the farmlands of the nobles, working and giving back produce. Beyond these, they pay homage to the nobles in expectation of protection. In feudalism, the vast majority of the people MUST remain in abject poverty as to have the critical mass that would always bow and pay total allegiance to the nobles. In this practise, suffering and poverty is an acceptable way of life for the peasants; and the nobles must live in royalty and opulence.



In essence, feudalism is a modified practise of caste system. In this case, the poor live to serve the rich; as a result, must be made to remain poor. If Nigerians understand these facts, they will understand the man, Buhari, and begin to determine how to reclaim our today and future from his stone age ideologies.


In his first coming in 1983, Buhari gave us a taste of his innermost ideologies and unfortunately we still allowed him a second chance to accentuate it. Between 1976 and 1983, Nigeria's economy was booming with the attendant rise and uptick in the middle class population. Families and households began to enjoy enhanced standards of living; and society also began to upscale. As a child in the early 80s, I witnessed and experienced these upgrades. My father bought a brand new Peugeot 504 Station Wagon in 1982; at that same period, my mother's retail and distributorship business was booming.


In came Mr Buhari with his wicked anti-people policies and life as many families knew it collapsed. Many families could no longer afford the basics, even feeding became a problem. Buhari sent soldiers to breakdown and loot shops. I remember waking up one early morning by 5am and going to queue in front of Kingsway SuperStores in Enugu with my mother for groceries, which were now termed 'essential commodities'. For the first time as a child, I saw despondence and helplessness in my mother's face. Helplessness! How could she reconcile the fact that a few a months ago, the milk, sugar and 'Ovaltine' we were going to queue for were freely served in excess, and sometimes wasted on the family dining table?


That was the man, Buhari! Yes, this is the man, Buhari! That will always be the man, Buhari!


How did he intentionally make a majority of the people poor, and deliberately dismantle the middle class?


1) He changed our currency within a very short period, thus making many citizens lose humongous sums that couldn't be changed within the banking system.


2) He banned the importation of staples and basics without providing alternatives.


3) He closed our land borders and pitched us against our neighbors.


4) He heavily devalued the Naira.


Fast forward to his present coming and ask yourself if anything has changed. His ideology is about creating a critical mass of the poor, dismantling the middle class whilst deceiving the people.


How else would you describe a leader who, in the face of the ravaging Covid-19 pandemic that resulted in massive job losses and highly diminished incomes for households, would approve almost a 100% hike in electricity tariff and increment in pump price of fuel? This is in addition to the 50% VAT increase earlier in the year. In his feudalistic ideology, the citizens are the vassals and peasants; and should be taxed to fund the lifestyles of the nobles like him.


This ideology is exactly while he would lockdown the country, but allow his wife and daughter travel to the UAE to undertake shoppings for a royal wedding. All in the same week he imposed this increases on the 'peasants'! To him, he is a noble and the rest of Nigerians are peasants. The same thinking would make him feel no remorse when an Al Jazeria journalist asked him why he stopped the deposit and transfer of forex in 2015, and how it would affect students studying abroad whilst children like his will have no problems. He smiled and answered, "It's tough luck! Those who can afford it, can have it." Exactly while he would ceaselessly embark on medical tourism abroad, but still look us in the face and condemn the same act. He is nobility and can't be judged on the same score with peasants and vassals.



This same thinking made him go to Benue or Maidugiri in the heat of incessant attacks by terrorists and make them feel they are privileged to even have him visit them. The same reason he would be smiling in the face of thousands of his country men and women killed by bandits as he responds to questions from journalists.


Buhari, the noble, finds it very belittling to be talking directly to his peasant citizens; and chooses rather to have the King's spokesmen always release senseless and emotionless statements -even on burning national issues. What more? He doesn't care any less if we accept or believe whatever they release! It is still exactly the same reason why he doesn't deem it fit to address Nigerians on the hikes in electricity tariffs and pump price of fuel at such a difficult time, but would rather jet out to Niger Republic and address his fellow nobles on mundane issues of political power.


When Buhari says he would take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in ten years, in his heart he meant the opposite. His plan is to take 100 million Nigerians into poverty; and we can all see as his plans are unfolded in bits. Under his watch, Nigeria has attained to the unenviable title of the poverty capital of the world? What other proofs do you need to understand the goals of Buhari? It would do Nigerians a lot of good to glean into the mind and ideologies that guide Mr Buhari to be able to withstand the shocks of his ill winds.



Unfortunately, for the sake of selfish and personal ambitions, ethnic and primordial sentiments, supposed progressives and urbane men like Bola Tinubu and Yemi Osinbajo joined forces with a feudalist; and have since given traction to his retrogressive and anti-people policies. As civility demands, and as people who are observing table manners on the King's dining table, they can't talk whilst they are eating. Their mouths are filled, and our Senior Pastor would look Nigerians in the face and force us to admit that our lives are better today than it was 5 years ago. How exactly? How are our lives better?


1) Unemployment has soared from about 8% in 2015 to almost 29% today.

2) Inflation, especially food inflation, has topped over 200% from 2015.


It is only an evil man that will destroy your life and force you to accept that you are faring better.



The worst attributes of feudalism is the belief that the peasants and vassals must not have a voice. They must endure their sufferings and poverty in dignified silence, accepting it as their lot and position in life. The peasants should enjoy glitz, glamour and royal opulence, only from those oozing from the courtyards of the nobles in pictures and videos; whilst they languish in actual desolation. This is the reasoning behind the recent Executive enactment of the Hate Speech Bill. This is also why we cannot gather as citizens to protest any negative actions of Buhari's government. How dare you mere mortals, peasants and vassals question the decisions of the nobles? Yours is to obey all the commands of the 'gods'.



However forlorn the situation might be, man is like all creations of the Almighty God. All beings will have their own time in power; and, ultimately, their own time on Earth. They can decide how they use both power and time; but, will surely account for their deeds.



Let us not despair, for even Buhari's time too shall pass!



Author
Engr Uchenna Alban Ekechukwu
BEng, MBA
Management Consultant and Public Affairs Analyst
uchennaekechukwu5@gmail.com

MUHAMMADU BUHARI, HIS IDEOLOGIES AND OUR EXPECTATION OF LEADERSHIP


Just like the great philosopher, James Allen, posits in that timeless essay, "As A Man Thinketh, So Is He", every man is a reflection of what he thinks; and what he thinks, he becomes. All of a person's actions and inactions are the fruits of his thinking. Furthermore, this thinking is anchored principally on his or her ideologies.

Millions of lives and livelihoods depend on the character, competence, altruism, ideology and integrity of the man or woman who sits in office as our president -- whatever their party affiliation maybe.



Nigerians, especially those who put their trust in the 'messiah' Buhari, in the hope for a life of eldorado, are left in serious bewilderment; with some wriggling in pain as to the kind of 'change' that he has brought on them. To make matters worse, after a failed Change in his first term, he has now taken Nigeria and Nigerians to the 'Next Level' of hell.


What manner of change has brought hyperinflation to the land? The ordinary or the poorest of the poor, as Mr Buhari labels them, still wonder how a man who claims to love them has allowed a bag of rice they bought N8k in 2015 to rise to N36k today. How did a sachet of Milo and Milk that he and his VP deceptively used for campaign in 2015 now sell for N150 today from N50? They wonder how pump price of Fuel has jumped from N85 in 2015 to N162 today. As a supposed progressive who he claimed he is, they are still wondering how N10k in their pockets in 2015 has 'progressed' to a value of about N3k today.


Whilst they were wondering, the man of 'integrity', the man who abhors corruption, the man who loves them, increased VAT by 50%, hiked electricity tariff by over 100% and imposed all manner of levies on financial transactions.



My message to Nigerians, in the words of Ngugi Wanthongio: "weep not child", because a leopard never changes its skin.


I have studied Buhari for some time now and can accurately predict his actions. I was once swayed by his well-groomed and packaged deceit. I took him to be a Spartan, an incorrigible and honest man. I was wrong! I was a core Buharist from 2007 to 2014 preaching his 'gospel' and getting backlashes from all angles. I stood firm. When he cried on National Television, professing his love for our nation, I cried with him. Thankfully, I could not be fooled for long.


What Ideologies guide the thinking, actions and inactions of the man, Buhari? Simple: Feudalism!


Feudalism is a political, economic and social system practised in medievial times. In feudalism, vassals and peasants lived in the farmlands of the nobles, working and giving back produce. Beyond these, they pay homage to the nobles in expectation of protection. In feudalism, the vast majority of the people MUST remain in abject poverty as to have the critical mass that would always bow and pay total allegiance to the nobles. In this practise, suffering and poverty is an acceptable way of life for the peasants; and the nobles must live in royalty and opulence.



In essence, feudalism is a modified practise of caste system. In this case, the poor live to serve the rich; as a result, must be made to remain poor. If Nigerians understand these facts, they will understand the man, Buhari, and begin to determine how to reclaim our today and future from his stone age ideologies.


In his first coming in 1983, Buhari gave us a taste of his innermost ideologies and unfortunately we still allowed him a second chance to accentuate it. Between 1976 and 1983, Nigeria's economy was booming with the attendant rise and uptick in the middle class population. Families and households began to enjoy enhanced standards of living; and society also began to upscale. As a child in the early 80s, I witnessed and experienced these upgrades. My father bought a brand new Peugeot 504 Station Wagon in 1982; at that same period, my mother's retail and distributorship business was booming.


In came Mr Buhari with his wicked anti-people policies and life as many families knew it collapsed. Many families could no longer afford the basics, even feeding became a problem. Buhari sent soldiers to breakdown and loot shops. I remember waking up one early morning by 5am and going to queue in front of Kingsway SuperStores in Enugu with my mother for groceries, which were now termed 'essential commodities'. For the first time as a child, I saw despondence and helplessness in my mother's face. Helplessness! How could she reconcile the fact that a few a months ago, the milk, sugar and 'Ovaltine' we were going to queue for were freely served in excess, and sometimes wasted on the family dining table?


That was the man, Buhari! Yes, this is the man, Buhari! That will always be the man, Buhari!


How did he intentionally make a majority of the people poor, and deliberately dismantle the middle class?


1) He changed our currency within a very short period, thus making many citizens lose humongous sums that couldn't be changed within the banking system.


2) He banned the importation of staples and basics without providing alternatives.


3) He closed our land borders and pitched us against our neighbors.


4) He heavily devalued the Naira.


Fast forward to his present coming and ask yourself if anything has changed. His ideology is about creating a critical mass of the poor, dismantling the middle class whilst deceiving the people.


How else would you describe a leader who, in the face of the ravaging Covid-19 pandemic that resulted in massive job losses and highly diminished incomes for households, would approve almost a 100% hike in electricity tariff and increment in pump price of fuel? This is in addition to the 50% VAT increase earlier in the year. In his feudalistic ideology, the citizens are the vassals and peasants; and should be taxed to fund the lifestyles of the nobles like him.


This ideology is exactly while he would lockdown the country, but allow his wife and daughter travel to the UAE to undertake shoppings for a royal wedding. All in the same week he imposed this increases on the 'peasants'! To him, he is a noble and the rest of Nigerians are peasants. The same thinking would make him feel no remorse when an Al Jazeria journalist asked him why he stopped the deposit and transfer of forex in 2015, and how it would affect students studying abroad whilst children like his will have no problems. He smiled and answered, "It's tough luck! Those who can afford it, can have it." Exactly while he would ceaselessly embark on medical tourism abroad, but still look us in the face and condemn the same act. He is nobility and can't be judged on the same score with peasants and vassals.



This same thinking made him go to Benue or Maidugiri in the heat of incessant attacks by terrorists and make them feel they are privileged to even have him visit them. The same reason he would be smiling in the face of thousands of his country men and women killed by bandits as he responds to questions from journalists.


Buhari, the noble, finds it very belittling to be talking directly to his peasant citizens; and chooses rather to have the King's spokesmen always release senseless and emotionless statements -even on burning national issues. What more? He doesn't care any less if we accept or believe whatever they release! It is still exactly the same reason why he doesn't deem it fit to address Nigerians on the hikes in electricity tariffs and pump price of fuel at such a difficult time, but would rather jet out to Niger Republic and address his fellow nobles on mundane issues of political power.


When Buhari says he would take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in ten years, in his heart he meant the opposite. His plan is to take 100 million Nigerians into poverty; and we can all see as his plans are unfolded in bits. Under his watch, Nigeria has attained to the unenviable title of the poverty capital of the world? What other proofs do you need to understand the goals of Buhari? It would do Nigerians a lot of good to glean into the mind and ideologies that guide Mr Buhari to be able to withstand the shocks of his ill winds.



Unfortunately, for the sake of selfish and personal ambitions, ethnic and primordial sentiments, supposed progressives and urbane men like Bola Tinubu and Yemi Osinbajo joined forces with a feudalist; and have since given traction to his retrogressive and anti-people policies. As civility demands, and as people who are observing table manners on the King's dining table, they can't talk whilst they are eating. Their mouths are filled, and our Senior Pastor would look Nigerians in the face and force us to admit that our lives are better today than it was 5 years ago. How exactly? How are our lives better?


1) Unemployment has soared from about 8% in 2015 to almost 29% today.

2) Inflation, especially food inflation, has topped over 200% from 2015.


It is only an evil man that will destroy your life and force you to accept that you are faring better.



The worst attributes of feudalism is the belief that the peasants and vassals must not have a voice. They must endure their sufferings and poverty in dignified silence, accepting it as their lot and position in life. The peasants should enjoy glitz, glamour and royal opulence, only from those oozing from the courtyards of the nobles in pictures and videos; whilst they languish in actual desolation. This is the reasoning behind the recent Executive enactment of the Hate Speech Bill. This is also why we cannot gather as citizens to protest any negative actions of Buhari's government. How dare you mere mortals, peasants and vassals question the decisions of the nobles? Yours is to obey all the commands of the 'gods'.



However forlorn the situation might be, man is like all creations of the Almighty God. All beings will have their own time in power; and, ultimately, their own time on Earth. They can decide how they use both power and time; but, will surely account for their deeds.



Let us not despair, for even Buhari's time too shall pass!



Author
Engr Uchenna Alban Ekechukwu
BEng, MBA
Management Consultant and Public Affairs Analyst
uchennaekechukwu5@gmail.com