In his own words: How Awolowo defended himself from Achebe’s accusations when he was alive by Reuben Daba

Since Achebe released his book, ‘There was a country’, in the United Kingdom a week ago, lots of Nigerians have stated their stands on the touchy issue of Nigeria’s Civil war, either agreeing or disagreeing with the renowned author on the role played by Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
Some have wondered how Awolowo would have responded to Achebe’s criticism if he was alive. Well, it so happens that we know how he would have responded, because he did respond to these same accusations when he was alive. They were issues and controversies that followed him throughout his years on earth.
First, this is what Achebe wrote about Awo:
“The wartime cabinet of General Gowon, the military ruler, it should also be remembered, was full of intellectuals, like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, among others, who came up with a boatload of infamous and regrettable policies. A statement credited to Awolowo and echoed by his cohorts is the most callous and unfortunate: all is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder’.
“It is my impression that Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself and for his Yoruba people. There is, on the surface at least, nothing wrong with those aspirations. However, Awolowo saw the dominant Igbo at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when the opportunity arose with the Nigeria-Biafra war, his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go to every length to achieve his dreams. In the Biafran case, it meant hatching up a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations.”
So how would Awo have responded? Thanks to www.nigeriavillagesquare.com, we have transcripts of an interview in which the late Yoruba sage personally responded to some of these issues raised.
In the build up to the 1983 elections, as Chief Awolowo went campaigning, he was hosted to a town hall interview in Abeokuta, where in addition to other pertinent topics of the day, he spoke on his role in the civil war, the 20-pound policy, starvation as a weapon, change of currency, abandoned property and many more.
Read below, and tell us what you think:
CIVIL WAR
MODERATOR: Yes Mr…….Mr. Oparadike.
QUESTION: Chief Awolowo, your stand on the civil war…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 feel 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, 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 pisces, in Latin pisces mean Fish.
So I put pisces 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 matters. 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 Urhobo 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 these 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’ 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 returned 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 won’t 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 ambushed 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

Jungle Justice: I am with Aluu Community. by Desola Ade-Unuigbe

After seeing only two of the pictures that were being circulated about the 4 “innocent” boys murdered by the Aluu community, and hearing bits and pieces of the story surrounding their deaths, I did not even bother to watch the murder video as I again got angry at my country and tweeted a couple of things about how I had lost all hope in the country, and the countrymen.
One of my brothers immediately tackled me on bbm and tried to get me to see things differently. The truth is that I do. And my anger has simply been misinterpreted. And allow me admit here that my deep hatred towards Nigeria has been overly convincing. I do not hate Nigeria and probably never will. I will probably always carry an unlit torch of hope for her in my heart. Because I am like a mother when it comes to Nigeria; your child does something bad and you want to punish her, let her know that it is unacceptable to treat people in certain ways. But then in the next minute of a positive achievement you are proudly displaying medals and showing her off to your friends.
I am that mother.
Let me start off by pointing out two things that this situation has made me become aware of, firstly, we obviously do not know the whole story about this alleged laptop and phone theft or cultism or armed robbery resulting in the murder of these four students of University of Port Harcourt. Secondly, the Nigerian people have become so confused that they now do not know where to direct their anger. Or humanity. Or inhumanity.
Just to be clear, I do not in anyway whatsoever support that gruesome murder, I do not support the video of that murder, I do not support the people circulating it, I do not support the people who where murdered, and I do not support the community that carried out the murder. But I understand that community.
I am that community.
Humans are by nature animalistic and barbaric people. Before education and literacy, we had no clue how to live, what to eat or what to wear. The only thing that has helped us achieve some sort of civilization and sophistication is education. So all of this, is just a cover up. Because inside of me, I am an animal, and if cornered, the only defense I have of myself and my family is too attack and attack blindly. Animals do not see reason.
It is because we are animals, dressed up as humans, that we have created the law. We need some sort of regulation and guide because if we are left to wander and control ourselves, we would hurt ourselves.
So we have put our faith in people that we have chosen, people that we trust to help us hear our voice and make sane decisions to profit us as a group of people. That is why we have the government. Not to rule us, but to guide us. Somewhere along the line, the Nigerian government must have gotten the wrong message about why they were put in the positions that they are in. I think it started with the oil, but that is another anger entirely.
I’m not going to focus on the empty promises that we have gotten over the decades, or the unfairness to most Nigerians in their own country, because I don’t even know their story. What I do know is this. The Nigerian people have now reached a point where our government is pointless to us. Our ears are filled with empty promises of change, quelled corruption, discovered secrets and hidden loot. We have heard it all, and we have seen it all.
We do not have a functioning police system. The legal system is flawed. The media is tilted in ways we can’t even begin to comprehend. And the government is king. So let me ask this, if there is a crime, a crime so painful and hurtful, one that personally affects you, one that there’s every possibility that the prepertartors will go free. And if you could, if you were given the opportunity to take matters into your own hands, what would you do?
That’s jungle justice.
If someone walks up to me and says to me, “See this man, he is the one that killed your father. We are not totally sure yet, but we have certain reasons to believe he is the one. And if we let him go now he will get away. So take him”. I will take him. I will hurt him. I will cause him pain in all the ways that I have felt pain. That’s jungle justice.
The law says that every man is innocent until proven guilty. True. But who is doing the proving? And how long is it taking? Nigerians are tired and are having to resort to their own hands for justice. And humanity is dead because we are not human, we are animals. The law should be the human, and Nigeria has no law.
So what do we do?
With jungle justice there is usually no fairness or patience to listen to sides. But even our legal system now has no fairness. Are there no innocent people in jail? Are there no innocent men who have been hung while the guilty ones who sacrificed them sit and watch? Nigeria needs jungle justice. And that’s why I am on the side of the Aluu community. Not because I have no emotions, and not because I am completely evil, but because we have gotten to a period where our actions can be our only words. And the government must be forced to hear.
The Nigerian people do not know where to direct their anger. We are now confused people. We should be angry at the system, and not just empty anger, we should be angry such that our actions are our words. And if we can kill ourselves for minimal reasons, why can’t we fight this bloody system? Because the system is bloody. The massacre in Mubi is still fresh off our lips and again we are dealt with another atrocity that the Nigerian government will slyly push aside till a more convenient time.
A lot of people are condemning the act. A lot of people are condemning the people who acted so barbaric and evil. I will not condemn. I am the people. I have been pushed aside and waited and waited for investigations to finish so that I could have justice. For decades. I am tired of waiting. I will take justice in my hand and pull it out whenever I please. I will misuse justice. I will spit on justice like I have been spat on. I will walk all over justice like I have been walked on. I will hurt whoever I have to hurt for the government to see that Nigeria is in chaos. And that they need to make a turnaround. I will shit on justice till the Nigerian government sees me and stops investigating long enough to actually act.
They are still investigating the Mubi Massacre.
They are still investigating the ABSU gang rape.
They are still investigating Boko Haram bombings.
They are still investigating James Ibori’s theft.
They are still investigating corruption in the power sector.
They are still investigating the Dana crash, Sosoliso crash, Bell View crash.
They are still investigating the death of Rotimi Williams.
They are still investigating elections MKO Abiola should have won.
They are still investigating the fuel subsidy scam.
They are still investigating the 2013 budget.
They are still investigating offshore accounts that Abacha had and we can’t find.
They are still investigating.
While they are investigating, let us take justice in our own hands, and channel our anger towards the government. Let them see that we have had enough and won’t just mouth off for a couple of days and return to our lives. While they are investigating, let us take a moment to not reflect on the crime of Aluu community, but to reflect on what pushed them there.
That anger is also in all of us.
We are Aluu community.
Again, just to be extra clear on the matter, I do not in anyway whatsoever support that gruesome murder, I do not support the video of that murder, I do not support the people circulating it, I do not support the people who were murdered, and I do not support the community that carried out the murder. But I understand that community.
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Adesola Ade-Unuigbe tweets from @DayDesola

Opinion: Thank you Nigeria, Nigerians are now lawless

by Olisa Ezeanya

If I can provide my own water, provide my own electricity; if I have to pay for security and ‘ndi nche’; then, I can as well execute justice myself. Thus, jungle justice.

Yes, many of you have watched the video and probably seen the pictures of some UNIPORT students burnt alive by Aluu villagers in Rivers state, Nigeria for allegedly stealing phones, laptops in an off-campus hostel of the university.
Before I proceed further, I am warning you to stop if you don’t have eyes for the truth, just stop now, stop reading. I do not intend to mince words in this article, I do not intend to follow any rules of writing. I do not intend to mesmerise you with good sentences and big vocabularies. No time. I just want to say what I feel, the way i want to say it. And, yes, I don’t give a fuck whose ox is goared, yes I said ‘fuck’. The so called, well-mannered Olisa who speaks nicely and respectfully dare speak in a vulgar way. Fuck the manners. Yes, I said it and you will probably see lots of it in this write. So, if you choose to proceed, i’m not responsible for anything you read o. Ayaf talk my own.
Why isn’t anyone taking this matter seriously. Oh! You all think they were criminals and received their wage in death abi, but a cruel one. As much as so many watched this wicked act of justice and felt pity, atleast as humans, i’m sure that for some, that feeling of pity was for a moment. Later, the same people would have a contrasting reasoning and would feel satisfied on the treatment meted out to them. If you think they deserved such treatment. Can you honestly say why.
Do you remember years ago when there was a mass attack on the Igbo’s in the north, i think in 2006 precisely. Then, I had left Lagos for Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, my alma mater, to submit my Industrial Attachment report. I had spent the night in Onitsha and the next day decided to go to Awka. That was the same day the Igbo’s decided to retaliate in the east.
I was in Onitsha that day about to take another bus enroute Awka. It was pathetic to see how hausas were chased around and butchered like animals. I remember vividly how my bus climbed on bodies because the roads were all littered with dead bodies of ‘ndi-hausa’. One that has remained indelible in my mind is seeing one man hide behind a car. I watched him quietly from my bus, hoping that my gaze would not direct anyone towards him. I observed him tiptoe to a nearby bush away from the rear of that bus. He just hid there, watching how the Igbos cut his brothers to pieces. What could he be thinking, i tried to place myself in his situation. I tried to think his thoughts.
They made sure even the dead were not spared, they killed the already dead again perhaps hoping that even their souls may feel the pain of a matchete on their already decapitated body. Then i heard them say ‘rapu ya, anyi ga egbu ya. O chere na anyi afuro ya’ (leave him, we will kill him. He thinks we haven’t seen him). I felt sad when it dawned on me that I wasn’t the only one who had seen him, unfortunately he had been seen. Watching him die was worse than the death of these students, it was real, I had seen enough for the day, or so i thought. Our drivers had driven across so many bodies, I had seen many even jump into the river Niger below from the Niger-head bridge that joined Asaba to Onitsha, they drowed obviously, how many could swim. I saw corpes flaoting, it was enough.
Tears fell from my eyes, a woman had said to me, ”e n’ebe akwa and laughed’ (you are crying).
She then reminded me of how ‘our’ people who work tirelessly to build the economies of those states are killed by even their close friends and neighbours because they are either christians or ‘nyamiri’.
That hausa man was caught, his leg cut off, just one leg at first; then his fingers cut bit my bit. I wached his penis cut off, yet he groined in pain. Crying. His hand was cut also, they gave him all the time to feel the excruciating pain that would lead to his death.
Our bus suddenly filled up and we drove away, climbing on bodies and trying to avoid the ones we could. I was sure the hausa man was later beheaded. What was his crime? If he or they had commited any crime, couldn’t our courts have discharged the right justice.
Earlier in the week, I was praying and in my bible reflection was a very popular verse or perhaps a very popular story: ‘a woman caught in adultery’, from john 8: 1-11. She was caught in the act, obviously like those boys. And she was beaten by the mob, just like those boys were. She was about to be stoned to death and we all know what Jesus did here. In His exact words: ”all right, but let he who has never sinned cast the first stone”. He had given them the order, you all can go ahead and kill her if you wish to, there was no miracle here. Jesus didn’t send angels from heaven to guide the woman. He simply spoke to their conscience. Unfortunately for Ugonna, Tekana and Chiadika; Jesus wasn’t there to speak words and write on the ground. They we’re stoned to death or rather, the Nigerian should be, burnt to death.
Yes, we are all sinners. Irrespective of the gravity of our sins. We are all sinners. Then, how dare you join a mob to beat someone and you’ve advised your girlfriend to abort a pregnancy, you’re a murderer. Yes even you ladies, some of you also strip, prostitute, do aristo runs all for blackberry, school fees, fun and financial benefit abi dat one no be sin? So, you dare pick up a tyre to burn someone else and you’re gay, putting your dick in another man’s asshole and you shout ‘kill them, kill them them be thieves’. You, yes you, how dare you bring a lighter or matches and you’re fucking a goat. And you, you dare offer the fuel amidst the scarcity of fuel and you in a secret society that offer blood rituals. Fuck you all. Yeah. I said it. Fuck you.
What could be the reason for this sort of justice? Some have said it is simply because we believe more in jungle justice than our courts.
Therefore, I believe three groups must bear responsibility for these deaths: the Nigerian Police Force,the Judicial system and the Government. All must bear responsibility for any jungle justice meted out. The blood is in your hands. All those judges, justice and lawyers that have twisted the law to set a criminal free, may thunder fire you.
Also, the Nigerian system should also be blamed. What has happened to the Otedola and Lawan issue, where are those that stole our subsidy money. What has happened to the Abacha loot that was recovered; some individuals have assets declared to be in thrillions of naira, yet have no business, how come?
If Ibori wasn’t disgraced by a London court, perhaps our courts would have discharged and aquitted him plus embraced am join, like they’ve done the others.
Nigerian Police Force, please who really killed ken-saro wiwa; who exactly killed Dele Giwa. I heard that M.K.O was also killed, who killed Bola Ige, Who killed my friend Bassey, who killed my fellow King’s college old boy, Ugo Ozuah days after his wedding, who are the killers of the mubi students. Where are the killers. Please answer me.
Even the Col. Hamza Mustapha sef that was arrested for taking part in killing Alhaja Kudirat Abiola hasn’t been really charged since over ten years.
Those indited for fraud, the arrested boko-haram suspect, how long have they been in your custody. None has been charged and we’re all aware that Mutallab has been charged sharp sharp in America.
I have no words for the police force, ok, actually I do but words enough can’t quantify nor properly express my anger and disappointment. The only question I will ask is: why are you always present at the scene after the incident?
These and obviously more is the agitations that has culminated into a new imbibed character of the people, Nigerians don’t trust Nigeria anymore. If I can provide my own water, provide my own electricity; if I have to pay for security and ‘ndi nche’; then, I can as well execute justice myself. Thus, jungle justice.
The meander of justice and lawlessness of a supposed arbitrator, the Judicial system; the weakness of the governnent and the obvious misplaced priority and lateness of our Police has disseminated to the people.
Lawless breeds lawlessness.

Ebuka Obi-Uchendu: Our future is bleeding (YNaija Frontpage)

What bothers me is how these issues will pass us by again, not because we do not feel bad for the dead in Mubi and Aluu, but because, many more will soon die in the same circumstances and we would simply have to move on to grieve with the next set of victims and their families, leaving the current ones to their own fate. When will it all stop?

Violence in Nigerian universities peaked in the 1990s. Students’ heads were chopped off and hung at school gates in Enugu, entire hostel blocks were serially held hostage in Benin City, professors were trailed and killed in Makurdi, students’ mothers were killed in their homes in Owerri, the list was endless. Confraternities had taken over and the battle for the soul of campuses across the country, were fought between rival cults (as they were/are more commonly called) on the one hand and between cults and school authorities on the other. As was the case in most schools, the authorities had pretty much lost the fight and stood on the sidelines hoping the battle between rival fraternities never boils over too quickly, too often.
While all this happened though, the one thing that struck me was how the media treated the issue. Most of these violent clashes never made news. When they made news, they were tucked somewhere in page 12 or thereabouts. It was never priority, or at least given that status. That was probably the biggest reason why heinous acts flourished for many years, aided of course by the fact that we lived in military times, when the law took a back seat to force.
Those days are not completely behind us as we still hear the random news about cult clashes in our higher institutions today, even if they have definitely gotten a lot less frequent. I look back now at people from that generation and some things start to make sense. A lot of the young men, who have caused Nigeria the most violent pain in recent times, come from that generation. Whether it is with militancy in the south or kidnappings in the east or terrorism in the north, a lot of the people leading these groups happen to be in the category of people who were either in a higher institution at the time, or had their peers there. Basically, they have been groomed to see that violence and crime is the easiest way to get your message across, regardless of whose blood is spilled. Sadly, this generation may do worse.
Last week started on the most shocking note when on Monday, news came in about killings on a Polytechnic campus in Mubi, Adamawa State. Most people’s instincts immediately screamed ‘Boko Haram’. In one fell swoop, 28 or 43 or 44 students (depending on who you are asking) had been called out by name, brutally murdered and laid out in the open like livestock at an abattoir. Following the killings, students have come out to say that they tried to warn their colleagues when they knew the killers were on campus but the recent destruction of mobile facilities by terrorists in the Northeast had made services really poor. There were others who say they actually got through, especially to security agents. But nothing was done.
Theories are flying all over about there being a student union power struggle and that the killers were on the losing end. Some other theory says Muslim students could not stand a Christian led Student Union Government and so decided to kill the newly elected President and his team. Yet another simply says the group Boko Haram, in their ever-changing style, simply just came up with a new chilling way to make a statement without using explosives. For me, all I ask is why? Why have we let ourselves sink so low; to a stage where young men who should either be in school building a proper foundation for themselves or building empires like a certain Facebook owner who is within their age group, are instead engaged in killing their colleagues and having their dead pictures splashed all over Facebook?
As if that was not enough, the University of Port Harcourt and a host community called Aluu, decided not to be outdone. The story is that that armed robbers have held that community hostage for a while and they had been waiting for a scapegoat. As fate would have it, 5 UniPort students were apparently caught in an uncompleted building within the community. They were subsequently accused of stealing the laptops and mobile phones seen with them and immediately dragged out in the open. The pictures and videos (which I couldn’t watch) of their beating, eventual unconsciousness and final burning with tyres round their necks, are some of the most stomach churning clips you would see anywhere. What’s worse? The perpetrators laughed and joked all through with witnesses enjoying it well enough to have it captured on their mobile phones.
Jungle justice is almost an accepted form of punishment in Nigeria these days, borne out of a lack of faith in the security and judicial systems. Many have turned a blind eye when armed robbers get that treatment. But when unarmed students who ‘allegedly’ stole material worth less than the tuition at Law School, are killed so gruesomely with their bloody images splashed all over the internet, it becomes tough to keep calling it ‘jungle justice’ because taking anyone’s life, is simply murder.
What bothers me is how these issues will pass us by again, not because we do not feel bad for the dead in Mubi and Aluu, but because, many more will soon die in the same circumstances and we would simply have to move on to grieve with the next set of victims and their families, leaving the current ones to their own fate. When will it all stop?
We are grooming a future of killers and criminals who can only do more harm than good to this country. So while you shrug and feel like your nice little home is hundreds of miles away from these gory murder scenes, think 20 years from now and the sort of people who will be in charge of Nigeria…

Firestorm: Yoruba leaders blast Achebe for “attacking” Awolowo

by Stanley Azuakola

It was bound to happen. You don’t speak ill of one of the greatest Yorubas of all time and not expect a backlash. Not even if you are a legendary world icon like Prof. Chinua Achebe.
The literary giant recently released his civil war memoir titled There was a Country last week, in which he asserted that war-time Head of State General Yakubu Gowon and the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo both formulated policies that promoted genocide against the Igbo nation.
Achebe wrote in the book that: “Almost 30 years before Rwanda, before Darfur, more than 2 million people- mothers, children, babies, civilians-lost their lives as a result of the blatantly callous and unnecessary policies enacted by the leaders of the federal government of Nigeria.”
He said: “Throughout the conflict, the Biafrans consistently charged that the Nigerians had a design to exterminate the Igbo people from the face of the earth. This calculation, the Biafrans insisted, was predicated on a holy jihad proclaimed by mainly Islamic extremists in the Nigerian Army and supported by the policies of economic blockade that prevented shipments of humanitarian aid, food and supplies to the needy in Biafra .”
Then the part of the book which has riled lots of Yorubas. Speaking about Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was the vice chairman of the Federal Executive Council and minister of Defence, Achebe said: “The wartime cabinet of General Gowon, the military ruler, it should also be remembered, was full of intellectuals, like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, among others, who came up with a boatload of infamous and regrettable policies. A statement credited to Awolowo and echoed by his cohorts is the most callous and unfortunate: all is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder’.
“It is my impression that Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself and for his Yoruba people. There is, on the surface at least, nothing wrong with those aspirations. However, Awolowo saw the dominant Igbo at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when the opportunity arose with the Nigeria-Biafra war, his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go to every length to achieve his dreams. In the Biafran case, it meant hatching up a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations.”
As expected, some eminent Yorubas have been reacting to Achebe’s claims. According to reports on this and you can read excerpts of that report below:
Mr. Ayo Opadokun who was Assistant Director of Organisation of the late Chief Awolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and later Secretary of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), described the Achebe assertion as “typical”.
“It is a reharsh of the perverted intellectual laziness which he had exhibited in the past in matters related to Chief Obafemi Awolowo. When Achebe described Awo as a Yoruba irredentist, what he expected was that Awo should fold his arms to allow the Igbo race led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, to preside over the affairs of the Yoruba nation,” Opadokun said.
Opadokun pointed out that some of his colleagues who played prominent roles in liberating Nigeria from the clutches of military rule, such as Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (rtd),  Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (rtd), Dr. Arthur Nwankwo, Alhaji Abulaziz Ude and others who he described as “men of honour and integrity”, are Igbo. But he found it difficult to believe that a scholar of Achebe’s stature could be so unforgiving.
He said, “Let our Igbo brothers be reminded that about three-quarters of their assets not in the eastern Region are in Lagos and we have been very liberal and accommodating. We have allowed them to live undisturbed.”
Senator Biyi Durojaiye shares Opadokun’s view. He said: “My view is that you don’t expect somebody on the receiving end of a war to say something pleasant about the winners.
“I don’t share Achebe’s view that Awolowo did all he did for personal political aggarandisement. It was all in the process of keeping Nigeria one. What he and General Gowon did was in the process of preserving the integrity of Nigeria .”
He urged the Igbo to be more charitable, seeing that both sides of the war are now benefiting from its outcome. He enjoined all to join hands in facing the challenges of the moment, insisting that the way to go is for all Nigerians to support a Sovereign National Conference and restructuring of the polity. Mr. Jacob Omosanya who participated actively in Action Group politics as a member of the Action Group Youth
Association AGYA), said Achebe and many of his kinsmen in public life are tribalistic and “that is what he has exhibited in this new book.”
“It is not new. He canvassed similar views in The Trouble with Nigeria. Dr. Azikiwe and his people should be grateful to the Yoruba who have always been liberal. When Zik was on his way back home from the United States, he ran into trouble in the Gold Coast. It was a team of lawyers led by the late H. O. Davies that saved him. This is a fact of history that should not be lost on the Igbo.”
Mr. Omosanya said he had expected that people intellectuals such as Achebe, would be bridge builders and avoid inflaming passions.

Achebe hits hard: “The genocidal Biafran war still haunts Nigeria

by Chinua Achebe

The persecution of the Igbos didn’t end with the Biafran conflict. Until the nation faces up to this, its mediocrity will continue.

Almost 30 years before Rwanda, before Darfur, more than 2 million people – mothers, children, babies, civilians – lost their lives as a result of the blatantly callous and unnecessary policies enacted by the leaders of the federal government of Nigeria.

As a writer I believe that it is fundamentally important, indeed essential to our humanity, to ask the hard questions, in order to better understand ourselves and our neighbours. Where there is justification for further investigation, justice should be served.

In the case of the Nigeria-Biafra war there is precious little relevant literature that helps answer these questions. Did the federal government of Nigeria engage in the genocide of its Igbo citizens – who set up the republic of Biafra in 1967 – through punitive policies, the most notorious being “starvation as a legitimate weapon of war”? Is the information blockade around the war a case of calculated historical suppression? Why has the war not been discussed, or taught to the young, more than 40 years after its end? Are we perpetually doomed to repeat the errors of the past because we are too stubborn to learn from them?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines genocide as “the deliberate and systematic extermination of an ethnic or national group …”. The UN general assembly defined it in 1946 as “… a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups”. Throughout the conflict the Biafrans consistently charged that the Nigerians had a design to exterminate the Igbo people from the face of the earth. This calculation, the Biafrans insisted, was predicated on a holy jihad proclaimed by mainly Islamic extremists in the Nigerian army and supported by the policies of economic blockade that prevented shipments of humanitarian aid, food and supplies to the needy in Biafra.

Supporters of the federal government position maintain that a war was being waged and the premise of all wars is for one side to emerge as the victor. Overly ambitious actors may have “taken actions unbecoming of international conventions of human rights, but these things happen everywhere”. This same group often cites findings, from organisations (sanctioned by the federal government) that sent observers during the crisis, that there “was no clear intent on behalf of the Nigerian troops to wipe out the Igbo people … pointing out that over 30,000 Igbos still lived in Lagos, and half a million in the mid-west”.

But if the diabolical disregard for human life seen during the war was not due to the northern military elite’s jihadist or genocidal obsession, then why were there more small arms used on Biafran soil than during the entire second world war? Why were there 100,000 casualties on the much larger Nigerian side compared with more than 2 million – mainly children – Biafrans killed?

It is important to point out that most Nigerians were against the war and abhorred the senseless violence that ensued. The wartime cabinet of General Gowon, the military ruler, it should also be remembered, was full of intellectuals like Chief Obafemi Awolowo among others who came up with a boatload of infamous and regrettable policies. A statement credited to Awolowo and echoed by his cohorts is the most callous and unfortunate: all is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder.

It is my impression that Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself and for his Yoruba people. There is, on the surface at least, nothing wrong with those aspirations. However, Awolowo saw the dominant Igbos at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when the opportunity arose – the Nigeria-Biafra war – his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go to every length to achieve his dreams. In the Biafran case it meant hatching up a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation — eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations.

The federal government’s actions soon after the war could be seen not as conciliatory but as outright hostile. After the conflict ended, the same hardliners in the Nigerian government cast Igbos in the role of treasonable felons and wreckers of the nation – and got the regime to adopt a banking policy that nullified any bank account operated during the war by the Biafrans. A flat sum of 20 Nigerian pounds was approved for each Igbo depositor, regardless of the amount of deposit. If there was ever a measure put in place to stunt, or even obliterate, the economy of a people, this was it.

After that outrageous charade, Nigeria’s leaders sought to devastate the resilient and emerging eastern commercial sector even further by banning the import of secondhand clothing and stockfish – two trade items that they knew the burgeoning market towns of Onitsha, Aba and Nnewi needed to re-emerge. Their fear was that these communities, fully reconstituted, would then serve as the economic engines for the reconstruction of the entire Eastern Region.

There are many international observers who believe that Gowon’s actions after the war were magnanimous and laudable. There are tons of treatises that talk about how the Igbo were wonderfully integrated into Nigeria. Well, I have news for them: The Igbos were not and continue not to be reintegrated into Nigeria, one of the main reasons for the country’s continued backwardness.

Borrowing from the Marshall plan for Europe after the second world war, the federal government launched an elaborate scheme highlighted by three Rs – for reconstruction, rehabilitation, and reconciliation. The only difference is that, while the Americans actually carried out all three prongs of the strategy, Nigeria’s federal government did not.

What has consistently escaped most Nigerians in this entire travesty is the fact that mediocrity destroys the very fabric of a country as surely as a war – ushering in all sorts of banality, ineptitude, corruption and debauchery. Nations enshrine mediocrity as their modus operandi, and create the fertile ground for the rise of tyrants and other base elements of the society, by silently assenting to the dismantling of systems of excellence because they do not immediately benefit one specific ethnic, racial, political, or special-interest group. That, in my humble opinion, is precisely where Nigeria finds itself today.

S.O.S: “INEC is so broke, we may not be able to pay salaries” – Jega cries out

by Stanley Azuakola

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, shared some disheartening news on Wednesday. The commission said that it is so broke that it may not be able to pay staff salaries from next month.
Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, who was represented by Dr. Abdulkadir Sulaiman, disclosed this to members of the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters, who visited INEC headquarters in Abuja.
“If we don’t do anything about it on time, we may not be able to pay salary by next month,” he said.
He told the visiting legislators that following this paucity of funds, the commission’s aspiration of conducting the 2015 general election in line with international best practices is in jeopardy.
According to a Vanguard report:

He also told the visiting legislators, led by the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Jerry Manwe, that the paucity of fund had drastically slowed down the pace of work on all the capital projects being executed by the commission.
According to him, no other release has reached INEC as the second quarter release did not come directly to the commission.
Jega said: “Of the N35 billion earmarked for the commission in the 2012 budget, only N10 billion was released to the commission in March. That was seven months ago.
“The second quarter of the money was released to the commission last month, September.”
“However, it was not sent directly to the commission, it was lodged in the Treasury Savings Account under the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation. The commission is yet to access this fund.
“It has sent complaint to the Minister of Finance, requesting for exemption from the TSA scheme in view of the autonomy granted this commission in the 1999 Constitution and the 2010 Electoral Act.
“The commission is still awaiting the Minister’s response. And in view of the fact that the N10 billion released to the commission is quite low, the commission has to suspend most of its projects, pending the time the remaining money is released.
He said the projects include renovation of INEC offices nationwide, printing of permanent voter cards, purchase of 100 KVA power generating sets in INEC offices nationwide, construction of residences of INEC Resident Commissioners, and electrification of state offices of INEC.
He commended the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters for finding time to visit the commission to find out things for themselves.
Jega said the commission was ready to cooperate with relevant bodies in ensuring that its operations were carried out as spelt out in the constitution.
Manwe said the revelation about the state of the commission by its leadership was worrisome.
He said his committee condemns Federal Government’s handling of the affairs of INEC in totality, stressing that an urgent letter would be sent to both the Minister of Finance and Accountant-General of the Federation to appear before the House to explain reasons behind the Federal Government’s position.
He said the committee was totally committed to assisting the commission conduct hitch-free elections in 2015.