How A Fabricated Nation-State And Its Junta Understands Democracy

BY AMBROSE EHIRIM

 Queen Elizabeth in Nigeria: Olubunmi Jibowu bows and looks at the camera as she presents a bouquet to the Queen during her visit to Nigeria to inaugurate the Federal Court in Lagos. Image: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Getty, February 1956.



The Queen supervised the transition process for sovereignty from colonial administration to independence, undertaken by the constitutional conferences. Nigeria would gain her independence on October 1, 1960, on a Parliamentary set up, which paved way for the Prime Minister to run the affairs of state on party platform based on majority rule. What was projected to lead the continent in its political process and the sound human capital to her credit, would be overwhelmed by widespread scandals of bribery and corruption, coupled by internal strife, and a loophole that gave the military every reason to usurp power in an array of power play within the juntas for nearly 30 years.

Meanwhile, the Pogrom of the Igbo would erupt upon assassination of Aguiyi Ironsi, in what had begun the junta, leading to the Biafran War and the 'Economic Blockade' orchestrated by Obafemi Awolowo, which desperately starved Biafran women and children to death in which the international community worried that an ethnic group was being wiped out, called for help to arrest the situation from around which British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his genocidal allies had agreed it was justified for its position to be firm on Nigeria, even if it has to cost millions of lives..

In its take, following how the world had reacted to the Pogrom, Senator Edward Kennedy, in dinner with Nobel Laureate, Rene Cassin, at the International League for the Right of Man, at the New York Hilton Hotel, December 6, 1968, called for massive assistance to the desperately starved Biafran women and children urging President Lyndon Johnson to name a special representative to supervise the Biafran tragedy. Johnson did nothing.

Richard Nixon's White House did, and had been made known and, the worry had begun to show when the National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger, sent an urgent memorandum to President Richard Nixon dated January 28, 1969, acknowledging an ongoing genocide, thus, demanding swift measures to save the children of Biafra. Kissinger writes;

"There are no exact numbers on the scale of the human tragedy gathering in Biafra. But all our sources do agree that more than a million people are likely to be in danger of starvation... There would be no question about evacuating the 5500 U.S. citizens or sacrificing the $300 million private investment on the Federal side if these stood in the way of relief. The heart of our dilemma, however, is that our instinctive moral concern and involvement with this tragedy cannot be separated from the political tangle."

 The junta continues with its dictatorship upon armistice and end to the Biafran War with promises of transition to civilian rule which is often delayed while another junta stages a coup and refreshes its mandate with assurances a legitimate process would conduct free and fair elections and reinstate a democratic fabric to the republic.
 A 2nd Republic is established, short-lived, and the junta wrestles power from the subdued civilians, again. A trend follows, and the "Army Arrangement" continued apace, from the lot of the Muhammadu Buhari  murderous junta, to the Ibrahim Babaginda criminal mafia operations, and subsequently, the Sani Abacha death squad and reign of terror, in its final play, the ordinary civilian was brain dead, and would be confused, and would not know what democracy had meant, learning nothing at all from its first stage as the colonists left it, and thus begun the 4th Republic and a nation still run by the junta in continuity.

In what was widely thought to be a nation's coup culture, the "soldier go, soldier come," and business as usual kind of thing, on affairs of state run by the military, as its citizens never bothered, even though a population had been immuned, and all the bad stuff and bullying by the juntas that came along with it, getting used to pain, from constant whooping and ultimate hijack of the peoples mandate, which dealt the civilian structure a big blow.

Regardless of the "bloody civilian" slogan by a half-baked, bad military trained nihilists and hoodlums, which left an ugly mark on the civilian order, there were no qualms in dealing with the situation, and a population that had succumbed to dictatorship and, a lasting wound on the ordinary citizen that would be permanently disfigured, and a sustained military existence, henceforth.

But a noted few had resisted tyranny and the unreasonable nature of the juntas by way of their expression in music, art, writings, and other forms of activism, in which nothing could convince them a dance or dialogue with the military brass was a normal affair. The stages of the junta had been a nightmare, subduing the private citizen, who had been perpetually battered and silenced, losing all of its sanity and having no choice but being insane to adopt and applaud a military dictatorship with its high profile personnel part of governance that destroyed all aspects of civil liberties.

All the civilian personnel engaged in the Yakubu Gowon junta to the Abdulsalami Abubakar military regime, so-called transition to democracy, were all part of the conspiracy, finding it comfortable, working with the junta. In some cases, a resistance and challenge to the junta had ominous consequences drawn from the Olusegun Obasanjo panicking junta that closed down Chris Okolie's New Breed Magazine for stories the junta had thought threatened the military machines and a procedure not accepted in totalitarian regimes. Obasanjo's predecessor, Murtala Mohammed, however, was more brutal in his executions of military power. The drug addled, reckless tyrant, who all of a sudden, became a national hero, mercilessly dealt with the civilian structure in its administrative order, and sacked civil servants from public office with "immediate effect" on no prior notice. A spooky event, and funny enough, he was applauded and seen as the nation's champion for reform..

The military and the civilian structure are two different institutions with each assigned its specific roles. The military has no business in the affairs of state. But in Nigeria and elsewhere on the African continent, the junta and brigade of arms bumps into the people and wrestle power from them, in collaboration with their pick of civilians they have cowed into obeying the last orders and accept what is offered them without resistance. They are then set up as stooges, collecting fat checks from bogus accounts, fabricating manpower, embezzling money meant for infrastructure, bellyful but won't hesitate or complain, or decline to any requests to be part of draconian laws against the people, rather they find themselves enjoyably good, while the junta keeps up with decrees that silences the people in every aspect of life. They have become stationery puppets and would do anything the junta had asked to implement as the "bloody civilians" becomes their tool for any operation that spells anarchy and policed in the kind of the gestapo.

The draconian laws never changes or modified in consideration to the plight of a subdued population, battered beyond recognition to have lost every sense of purpose in basic human rights, the ultimate of free press in a democratic fabric and respecting the rule of law. That was never in existence; the junta had turned a sovereign nation into a banana republic. and controlled from the barrels of the gun. Shoot at sight was the method of operation in what they had seen as threat in their continued rule with brutality and underground killings.

Such was the situation of presumably a nation known for its enormous human capital and abundant natural resources, and in high expectations to be productive with its materials and operate effectively. It had been a case of sad reality. Nothing had worked with the junta running the affairs of state while citizens were treated like animals, ordered around like a zombie, and so disturbing no one knew when the nightmare would end to pave way for a sound democratic fabric, as in all organized societies, even when the juntas had promised over and over again, to end military rule and hand over power to civilians. It had been a coup culture, and each junta that wrestles power promises not to keep power for long until overthrown by another set of junta that keeps the same rules with added damning decrees, the draconian laws that prohibits free movement of people and total abuse of human rights.

As it would happen, we were driving, and poking around town in Lagos, on Sunday, October 19, 1986, on a fun-filled seeking evening to end a rusty week, the junta handling of state, and months of uncertainties getting used to the nations coup culture, while the DJs at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, the FRCN, were at work spinning the tracks from albums that were the smash hits of the day, when the news break was brought in announcing the fatal killing of Newswatch founding member, Dele Giwa.

"Unbelievable, and it could not be true," I'd say, "because, I had talked to Austen Oghuma earlier in the day and no such thing popped up in our discussion," as we drove along the streets for hang outs, while the 1980s sensational theme vibrated from the airwaves. Oghuma was the staff writer, news reporter and researcher for Newswatch Magazine, and we always had met on Sundays for talks over lager at his Alagbon Towers residence in Ikoyi, and sometimes on a more engaging evening at the Ikoyi Hotel, on discussions about junta proclaimed Babaginda's "democratic regime," when the junta had made it known he was a democrat, a term the foreign press had adored, even when the declared "evil genius" had been on a murdering spree of its citizens, especially silencing the press, institutionalizing corruption and destroying every aspect of civil liberties.

Following the radio announcement and a prime time event of the brutal assassination of Dele Giwa, with a sophisticated letter bomb at his Ikeja residence, about a year and some fractions the junta Babangida had overthrown the Buhari-led junta on inexplicable events, Babaginda had blamed his predecessors of all kinds of problems that had worsened situations in the country, especially, on press freedom and free movement of peoples, and on Buhari's sidekick in the regime, with more authority, Tunde Idiagbon, who was then Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, of the junta, he had blamed for using the arms of the military regime as his own personal tool when arguments had heated up between the rank and file, and leaders of the authoritarian government, and the kingpin responsible for the state's criminal mafia.

Babangida who had self acclaimed himself a democrat, had carried out underground killings of his military opponents and adversaries who disagreed with his dictatorship. He had gotten away with all kinds of offenses against the state including institutionalizing corruption. He was the "evil genius." He was the nation's "Niccolo Machiavelli." He was the "Maradona" of Nigerian politics, a nick name given to him by the Nigerian press for wizard dribbling of his friends and foe. He was the "Don" of every crime in the land using his military power to legitimize it. He conquered the soul of the gullible and vulnerable civilian population with the impetus to deal with his subjects summarily without resistance. He had locked up journalists without bringing charges before them. He had ransacked the offices of the National Security Organization, the NSO, removing his personal files for any implications to his brutal rule and killings, and drug trafficking, and other related abnormal behavior to human nature.

He dissolved the NSO upon that; making sure there were no tracks of any trace, and created his own watchdog and, death squad, with divisions, the State Security Service, SSS, to monitor every event with the civilian puppets he had appointed to discharge duties on his orders. He created fictitious and uncountable bank accounts with conduits that channeled stolen funds to foreign banks in which none could be traced and eventually lost, and attested by Obasanjo, urging Nigerians to prove where the funds can be located for prosecution of the "evil genius,"

 He was everything bad in description. Not even a clue of who had murdered Giwa. All in all, he was free of charge and had the desire to run the country again in civilian outfit just like his former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo, had done in a cycle that would surface the present agbada wearing former junta, Buhari, and rerun of his murderous years, and clamp on the press.

Despite all the damages and havoc caused by the military, they remain in power, in its quasi-democracy, recreating itself of the past in typical military fashion which tells how stupid and confused Nigerians were when they gave Buhari their vote after the former junta's four attempts to fulfill his goal and agenda of what had been unfolding since he felt accomplished, and a second time around to deal with his subjects by reinstating dictatorship. To add more insult to dishonor, a blindfolded Nigerians reelected him, and now the same set of clowns, of a banana republic, are complaining of misrule by the former junta whose purpose was to complete his agenda and validate Islamic republic.

But it's quite clear, the overwhelming issue of a conquered population has been that of fear; the fear to pull the bull by the horn and take a radical step, taking back what belongs to them, giving its legislature ultimatum to cease and desist, effective immediately, a fabricated document put together by the juntas, and create its own document on a pattern that conforms to its standard as in all organized societies and effective democracies.

Buhari is now a nightmare. He resurrected himself. He declined to listen, and going by no rules that spells democracy. He has done it before, in army uniform, which gave him all the power he needed to make draconian laws, backpedaled, and execute them, on those targeted as warning shots to a "bloody civilian" structure.

Nigeria ain't seen nothing yet!



References;

1). Dinner Conference, International League for the Right of Man, New York Hilton Hotel; Associated Press, December 6, 1968

2). White House Memorandum to President Richard Nixon, January, 28, 1969

3). "IBB Where is the SSS File" by Austen Oghuma, 2010

Children of Biafra: Their Spirits Continues to Haunt Nigeria

By Ambrose Ehirim

Some Commentaries from accounts of the documentary "Nchamere Nd'Igbo: Evidence of the Anti-Igbo Pogrom":

The Igbo generation today, our generation, must ensure that this genocide never happens again. Nigeria murdered 3.1 million Igbo children, women and men people between 29 May 1966 and 12 January 1970. This figure represents one-quarter of the Igbo nation's population at the time, The Igbo genocide is the foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa and the most devastating genocide of 20th century Africa. All those involved in the murder of the Igbo will be brought to trial. They can be sure of that. No one murders Igbo people and gets away with it. International law on the crime of genocide has no statute of limitation. This we know.

........................................Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, Leading Scholar, Igbo Genocide

The story of the tragic history of Nigeria. I can see myself in one of those sick and starving children. We saw it and suffered it and God saw us through it. And nobody should ever make us go through it again. We all still bear the scars of those horrible years. And we must never forget that Igbo Holocaust.

........................................Noble Ojigwe

Those who are responsible for this will pay, either here, or in the hereafter; unless there is no God.

........................................Paschal Ukpabi, Southfield, Michigan-based attorney

This is horrible. I am so unaware of these atrocities in the world and the individually stories. I feel her pain. May the world know Peace through the divine love of mothers.

........................................Kuumbar Recasner, Hollywood celebrity custom jewelry designer, reading the story from my documentary "Nchamere Nd'Igbo: Evidence of Anti-Igbo Pogrom" where   a mother cradles her dead child watching Russian Ilyshin bombers. The woman herself died few moments later.


 

Starving Children of Biafra: Image culled from the cover of Chimah J. Korieh and Ifeanyi Ezeonu's editions of "Remembering Biafra: Narrative, History, And Memory of the Nigeria-Biafra War" 



Every Now And Then, My Colleague, Austen Oghuma, And I, would dabble into arguments and related discourses regarding a never ending internal strife that had overwhelmed a Nigerian national state since Yakubu Gowon's-led genocidal campaign against the Igbo nation, following the proclamation of "no victor, no vanquished" assertions--really not meant from the haters' heart, the vanquishers, the bloodthirsty northern Nigerian Islamic Jihad nihilists, a Yoruba nation in collaboration and a Russian-British backed federal Nigerian forces; the vandals--to start all over as a rebirth nation on the basis of reconstruction and moving on for national interest, nothing seemed to have worked.

Gowon was celebrating war victory in what he had attempted--genocide--with his colleagues of bigots and haters who had made innocent civilian population including women and children their victims, and jubilant over the destruction of a nation state without any remorse, and, with no attempt to apology in the sense that the victims were either compensated by way of retribution or a moral plan by rendering help to rebuild what had been plundered and demolished.

No one in Gowon's military regime had thought of what measures on compromise to have initiated a healing process from wounds inflicted on an entire state, with ominous consequences that had befell them, and why it had mattered if the country should move on marching toward onward objectivity as nation states indivisibly obtained. The clan of Gowon's-led military juntas--Murtala Mohammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, Hassan Katsina, I.B. Bissala, Theophilus Danjuma, Mohammed Wushishi, and several others--the brutal genocidal commanders and administers of the affairs of state of a military regime during the so-called "Reconstruction Era" had focused on another direction entirely; the pillage of the nation's resources coupled by a continued humiliation of the Igbo nation on which their properties had been embezzled at the time of persecution when the Igbo flee.

In what had been tragic from its method of operation, and recalling back to what had generated the formation of a national state, each time Oghuma and I, pops up, as usual, in order of the anti-Igbo pogrom, we discuss in detail what a fabricated Nigeria had been since the fabricators, the British empire, on what it had displayed at its expedition during which the country, Nigeria, coined as so, and had not been in existence before then, and from what the tribal leaders they had bumped into in the quest for divide and conquer at the time of its colonial conquest, the tribal leaders who were not in any position to fathom what the British had intended, for they were not prepared to face the challenges posed in the fusion of a variety of different people together, who had communed by language spoken, food consumed, tradition and custom adopted and, pattern of dwelling following their forebear's footsteps and how it should have been kept intact and viable--the aftermath of that union, if the tribal leaders in question had vision and had not been confused when a prescribed amalgamation by the colonial administrators and its flawed compromise of a nation state called Nigeria had taken place, what had been a Nigeria from the 1914 Amalgamation to this day and time, and, state of troubles, shouldn't have been.

Before colonial conquest, nations--the Igbo, the Yoruba, the Hausa, the Ijaw, the kalabari, the Urhobo, the Itsekiri, the Igala, and other ethnic groups--had existed as nation states and governed itself according to its nature and how it all began from its ancestral roots. These nations had been republics and much, much better in its charge toward the affairs of state than a forced direct democracy which was alien at the time, and which had been shoved to their throat on the grounds of empowering an authentic order of rule designated for a better education and enlightenment. And to be sure of the colonial conquests so as to enforce the rules of democratic fabrics, it should be borne in mind that the "Southern League" in its original partitions of nation states were already educated by its format and enlightened, thus the way they had been governed through the republican ideal.

The British empire did what it had to do, its platform made up with expectations to reach its desired goals--which, eventually, was accomplished through the series of constitutional conferences and a leadership they had wanted for the fabricated nation--bestowing power to the north on accounts of made-up numbers that justifies popular and electoral votes in a power to the north for easy access through coercion and theft, of the nation's natural resources and manpower, trained, and catapulted abroad to neutralize powers and influences the "Southern League" may have had.

It was this very idea that created a condition from around which the empire was able to adopt series of measures to portray its good intentions, in bringing developments to a people in darkness, labelled as is, with the opportunity to tap its resources--a way of its operation all around the continent in which they have not given up.

Nigeria's situation as to other colonies since an abominable amalgamation declared in 1914, was derived from a confused and pigheaded tribal leaders who had lacked a sense of purpose and belonging through the colonial era and constitutional conferences until the freedom bell rang on October 1, 1960 for its sovereignty, none envisioned the impossibility of Nigeria to live in harmony throughout its trial of considering whether the nation states and democracy would fair well under the British colonial mandate.

Though in a hurry and unprepared for nationhood because of the irregularities and manipulations inserted by the colonists and a bunch of local and tribal war lords who gave no trust and confidence on what had been fabricated for the time being, and what had been thought of the new nation as indivisible, promising, with unity and faith as emblem was first erupted by political disorder and chaos upon its beginning from the Western jungles of the Yoruba nation when in 1962 the Obafemi Awolowo-led Action Group, the AG, and fractions of disloyal party members had not been able to get along on related party lines, the first shot of decamping from a party and joining another, began creating balls of confusion, leading to the nation's first major political crisis, arresting the very political situation which had taken nearly sixty years to obtain from the colonists in 1914, given on confessional implementation to hold on, and access the possibilities of democracy, in which by its dispense takes the nation downhill never to be the same again from a birth that was originally full of uncertainties.

Also, in a Nigeria overwhelmed by the state of denial, and not acknowledging what had happened between 1966 and 1970, which draws Oghuma's attention, and of his arguments about my persistence of recalling in every discourse, acts of the blood thirsty nihilists and the anti-Igbo pogrom which was yet to be explained as the nation moved on with the open denial as if nothing happened; bringing to my attention what indeed should be explained clearly when the Igbo had decided to opt out of Nigeria, and in particular, when Biafra had invaded the Midwest, overpowering it, and in advance to Lagos to end the war as supposedly should, that it was abundantly obvious that Biafrans looked for trouble and begun something they could not finish.

My arguments which was also quite understood, stated, and, one being weary of pointing out, that upon the premeditated acts and diabolical nature of killing the Igbos in the north, and the widespread incidents of looting of Igbo properties all around the nation as the Igbo flee, in addition to plundering them, that nothing had justified such actions under any circumstances. And that what the Nigerian vandals had done was uncalled for and if only they had respected the decisions reached at Aburi, that no such attempts of Awolowo's economic blockade as evil minded the project was, wouldn't have occurred and a better option could have been implemented rather than the ugly situation which denied food and medicine, a "war strategy" according to Awolowo by avoiding to "feed their enemies fat" and which had worked in desperately starving women, infants and children to death.

What had been more damning was what had begun the pogrom before Awolowo's initiatives to wipe out the Igbo from the face of the earth upon effect of the economic blockade. And, though, nothing was going to stop the murderous Islamic Jihad hoodlums and nihilists who had gone from school to school, church to church, at the market square and place to place of Igbo dwelling--Minna, Kaduna, Zaria, Jos, Sokoto, Kano, Makurdi, Bauchi, Maiduguri and a long list of other places--of a capsuled blood soaked event, most of the atrocities in the north, if not all, were not captured on camera because of a plan to seal every act of the genocidal intent, and after they had carried out their operations in the North, hundreds of thousands of the Igbo had perished.

And despite what had been sealed in the north as the Islamic nihilists carried out its operation to wipe out every Igbo, many instances in the East when a full course war was blown up, the international community, the humanitarian services and a global media were able to capture the events; which we use today as evidence, and for instance, in Owerri, thousands of Igbo children, near death and suffering from dysentry lay on the ground amid vomits and human waste and nobody seemed to want to help them.

In Mbano, thousands of children, too, were found either weakened and could no longer walk, even with the help of relief workers, some of them, their bodies rejected nutritious food as a result of the advanced malnutrition. That was not the case in the north where mass graves were used by the nihilists, after hacking their victims, killing them in most brutal of circumstances--capsuled and without coverage.  

In what the Islamic Jihad nihilists had begun in May 29, 1966 until the vanquishers emerged in January 15, 1970, to jubilate in what it had seen as victory with an estimated 2 million murdered, never did it occur to any that the spirits of these innocent children sent to their graves without justification will continue to haunt the nation until the appropriate and right thing is done.

IBB: Where Is the NSO File?

BY AUSTEN OGHUMA

Ibrahim Babaginda


A law enforcement official was once asked how he thought history would view his tenure. "I think history will take care of itself," he said. He was convinced he had put in his best. Let the facts speak for themselves. By the time he died several years later, history had truly rendered its verdict.

It concluded that the officer may not have been guilty of all the transgressions that occurred during his tenure but stood no chance of public pardon. His lack of leadership were so apparent and offences so egregious.

His Nigerian equivalent has no such humility. He always harbored hideous intentions that were not so discernible. “Secret agenda,” the media cried. There were broken promises and its attendant chaos. He believed he could undermine the lives and choices of the people and supplant them with his own personal ambition. After all, he felt, he was the master of the universe, a Maradonna in a non-level playing field for he had thrived on treachery and betrayals in the past.

But society was still willing to forgive with the belief that he was perhaps, a dedicated public servant whose tenure could have been appropriate in earlier times. It concluded that it was in the interest of society and natural progression to consign him to history books; he was such an egomaniacal figure, a misfit for the job at hand at the time he served in that he nearly destroyed the society he pledged to protect.

He was so tunnel vision, who failed to see the big picture every leader contends with, the multi- color details that shows society to be a whole lot bigger and more complex than he could conceptualize.

The above description fits the profile of Ibrahim Badamasi Babaginda, one of the self-styled political retrofits jostling to lead Nigeria in 2011.

Unlike the officer, Babaginda has no patience for history. He wants to re-write it without acknowledging his failures and lack of leadership qualities. His style was simply basic, to exploit greed and hunger of the masses in a society that required a more sanguine and delicate handling, a society that craved competition, in a hurry to catch up with the rest of the world. He could not see that aspect of the Nigerian population at the time.

But now they have grown out of his needs to re-validate himself. They have no patience for visionless experiments. He now blames the military government, which he led for all the bad decisions of his 8-year rule.

Since he has chosen to be a permanent feature in the Nigerian political space, intent in re-writing history, we would assist him first in documenting some of the atrocious acts as they were before he attempts to re-write them. Journalism, they say, is history on the fly!

Some of the issues are already well known and I will unveil some others for him to determine where his “reputation defenders.” should begin their job.

The June 12 election annulment is pretty much covered along with Dele Giwa’s assassination and Gloria Okon, who was arrested in Kano for drug trafficking. She died barely three days after she reportedly embarked on hunger strike. We all know that even laboratory rats on food deprivation live longer.

Babaginda, the man who wants to rule Nigeria, should explain to the public what transferred in the confidential file room at State Security Services office on August 28, 29, 30, 1985 soon after he deposed General Muhammad Buhari.

Perhaps, he forgot that some activities are never so sheltered from the public even if they conducted in total privacy. In certain circumstances, even the walls have eyes. On the days mentioned above, the confidential file room of SSS also had ears. While the country waited for IBB to unveil his programs, he was alone in a highly private room on Awolowo Road, Ikoyi.

He had embarked in search of a resolution to his immediate troubling issue which was to locate his personal file as compiled by the Buhari government. That trumped all state matters. For the next three days IBB sequestered himself, sought no assistance from no one and asked no questions. He was determined to rescue his confidential file the custody of SSS. By the time he was through, the neatly arranged confidential file room was in disarray. Every file folder was pulled and its content emptied on the floor, and some file cabinets were over turned. It was in a mess, an elephant locked in such a tiny space could have done better..

He did not know that SSS at the time had deployed some advance technology in record keeping by using microfiche for some personal files of certain categories of criminal suspects. When he finally found it in a microfiche, he heaved a sigh of relief and promptly removed it and walked out in triumph. You scallywag!

It is the content of this file that has formed the basis of his refusal to reconcile with Buhari. They will reconcile for the file contained a lot of gory details including his dalliances with all sorts of people some of which were referred to by Gideon Orkar in his attempted coup broadcast. It also included details of his expanded drug trade and his numerous bank accounts in phony names in foreign countries. They were huge balances for a general in the Nigeria army. It was also illegal for any government official to operate a foreign account. IBB had several. Some of the SSS case officers who compiled the information were promptly retired others detained under house arrest for several years.

Is this the man that wants to repair the damage he did to Nigeria? Probably so! He can begin the repair work by returning that file to the treasury without any alterations. We would then evaluate its content.


That file was compiled with public funds and it should be returned to where it belongs. There is nothing in public service regulations that authorizes any official military or civil to remove his personal confidential file from the treasury no matter the content. IBB took his own file away.

The purpose of this article is not to discourage Babaginda from running for president. In spite of my personal disagreement with his leadership style, I want him to run. He represents one thing: bad leadership who represents everything evil or what a good leader ought not to be. He simply does not have the traits. He cannot continue to experiment with people’s lives.

He also has the capacity to unify opposition, those who reject slimy politics, deception and falsehood, lack of transparency and above all lack of vision!

Donald Duke Launches His Presidential Campaign In Los Angeles

I had ignored Yahoogroups' internet brigade's circulation of former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke's coming to Los Angeles to propose to Nigeria Diaspora his quest to run for president of "Federal Republic of Nigeria" on the platform of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party -- PDP -- until my colleague and good friend, Austen Oghuma, tried to persuade me it's time for change in a fabricated Nigerian national state.

As it happened, on Saturday evening, March 14, 2010, we drove to LAX Marriot Hotel, 5855 West Century Blvd., for "An Evening with Governor Donald Duke," and walking into the lobby of the hotel, we asked the doormen where Duke's event was unfolding and being a little bit late we were directed to the basement where Duke, at the podium, was selling his program for the presidency. We secured a seat in a packed forum of Nigerians in Greater Los Angeles and watched Duke speak of how to effect change in a troubled Nigeria, "convincing" a gullible and vulnerable Nigeria Diaspora audience that he's the right man to take the country -- based on its enormous human capital and abundant natural resources -- to where it should belong in the global scene.

Never-minding Duke's rhetoric and all that blah, blah, blah, I had to take pictures which to me was normal of such events. I took a lot of pictures of Duke at the podium, took more of a gullible Diaspora audience who had no clue how to influence decisions back home, and who had lost every sense of purpose in getting things done. And taking those pictures with the concept of a strong press and strong democracy, the organizers, Ebube Wadibia, Uzo Diribe, Acho Emeruwa and their cohorts confronted me and asked me to leave, that if I don't leave they will call security on me; that I cannot take pictures of the presidential candidate; that I was not invited to an event that was open to all 'Nigerians' in the Greater Los Angeles; that taking such pictures "is" not allowed; that I was not the right person to be taking pictures of a misleading Duke campaign for the presidency; that I have been warned; that it was a special event for the Nigeria Diaspora elite, and that I am not politically affiliated. That's my ordeal at Duke's presidential campaign.

Duke had arrived to the shores of this land in the company of his campaign manager, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi whose closing remarks had nothing to do with Duke's address to run an efficient and thorough democratic fabric. The question and answers to the governor was prearranged by the moderators and organizers of an event that lacked substance from the perspective of Duke having no business, in the first place, to launch his campaign in Diaspora. It is only in Nigeria that a presidential aspirant kick-starts his campaign from abroad. It is senseless in many ways and why would an opportunist, confused, Diaspora bunch welcome Duke to launch his campaign for the presidency when he is suppose to begin that ambition from his native-land of Calabar? And why would the Los Angeles-based organizers in the likes of Ebube Wadibia, Uzo Diribe and Acho Emeruwa be so concerned it would take Duke, a South Southerner to change the course of the nation's history when Vice President Goodluck Jonathan who also hails from the South-South is now presiding on the affairs of state? What message is Duke sending to the South-South whose history in Nigeria has been of violence and political impotence? What need is the double-cross in a situation the country now lives on a borrowed time?

I'm not sure how it really works, but with Duke's campaign staff urging every Nigerian Diaspora to commit $25 monthly contribution for the presidential candidate's war chests in order to raise $500,000 is indeed troubling.

The Reader, The Writer, The Informed and The Library

Ambrose Ehirim

May 17, 2009

I had held an open-minded discourse with a friend and colleague of mine, Austen Oghuma, on a variety of issues regarding books, library, reading and writing, and writing stands alone when it comes to the way most of us think. It all began from David Ejoor's biased and unintelligible interview that got internet crackpots outraged.

But I had reasoned Ejoor does not deserve the attention given him, so far, and I have kept my word that Ejoor is a midget in the history books of the Nigeria crisis and as far as I am concerned he has no place in that fabricated country's history. Well the point I am trying to make here is when I asked Oghuma where one can purchase Ejoor's "Reminiscence" he said probably in Nigeria but I doubt if the book is still around any shelf. Besides, most of the books in Nigeria are poorly produced and published.

We don't write and we don't keep archives which is why our history will one day vanish. On the other hand, it is absolutely why our democracy will keep to be fledgling until eternity and the following comments are vivid accounts why a democracy had thrived:

"A popular government without a popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

James Madison

Libraries are the wardrobes of literature, whence men, properly informed may bring forth something for ornament, much for curiosity, and more for use."

William Dyer (1636 -- 1696)

"There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the Earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration."

Andrew Carnegie

"A democratic society depends upon informed and educated citizenry. Information is the currency of democracy."

Thomas Jefferson

"I received the fundamentals of my education in school, but that was not enough. My real education, the superstructure, I got out of the public library. For an impoverished child whose family could not afford to buy books, the library was the open door to wonder and achievement, and I can never be sufficiently grateful that I had the wit to change through that door and make the most of it. Now, when I read constantly about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that the door is closing and that American society has found one more way to destroy itself."

Isaac Asimov, New York: Doubleday, 1994

Democracy works if applied on the basis of the above comments and I strongly believe in letters, and I encourage that as we learn each day that we live. Now, let me hear from you, where, how and when you write and which is your favorite and why writing is a powerful weapon.

Da Week and Da Happening

Whoo boy, what a week that had begun from checking out an eatery and learning a whole lot about the cowardice Yoruba nation that collaborated in slaughtering my kith and kin to ending up in a forum I have been asked to play a significant role in organizing The Fat Waller Musical Show conceived by Richard Maltby, Jr. and Murray Horwitz; and musically staged and choreographed by Arthur Faria. The Tony Award winning Fats Waller Musical "Ain't Misbehaving" at the Ahmanson Theatre on Temple Street in Downton Los Angeles will run through May 31, 2009, and then following would be the Summer jams and the line-ups.

Well, it's good to know that Ronke Bernadette, owner of Lagos Cafe, has admitted showing some improvements after my visit there a week ago. She has been paying homage to the local churches here in Los Angeles invoking my write-up that God sent me. Patrons have been flooding her eatery ever since that piece, "Lagos Cafe's Arrogance and Horrible Services is a Culinary Disaster." I hope her customer relations has improved, too, because it was zero during my visits. It's time to appreciate the fine work of investigative journalism even though the dummies who had no idea what they were writing about will never realize that.

There has been talk that Seun Kuti will be visiting the City of Angels again following his fantastic and successful performance last Summer at the California Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles. I'm yet to confirm that but when I'm in the know, you surely will get every detail. Seun is just the carbon copy of Baba, the Chief Priest, Fela Kuti, and the flow of his music is awesome.

With a series of activities as the summer jams approaches, a Jewish friend of mine did not find it funny why I missed the Fun and Wacky Passover Adventure at the Shalom Institute in Malibu, California, last week. The event featured Carl Weintraub and music performed by Robbo and Cindy Paley. This guy is a fellow we hold intellectual discourse into the night about the Holocaust six million Jews perished and the pogrom in which the Hausa-Fulanis in collaboration with the Yoruba nation that stinks slaughtered innocent civilians, eviscerated pregnant women, and coerced and stole Igbo properties. Like a Jew learning from the Synagogue that "to forget is to proclaim Hitler innocent," so also is to forget is to proclaim the Hausa-Fulanis and the Yorubas innocent after slautering my people in the most brutal way.

The Twitter nation is waxing strong by the second. It is the real deal. It is the talk of town. Even my good friend, Austen Oghuma, talks about it all the time and how America is a great nation with its brilliant pattern of creativity. That I agree. He is hooked to it and so is everybody. It's Twitter and nothing else. If you follow me, I will follow you. How about that and a way to connect?

For some reasons, I haven't been following up with the few remaining games in the NBA and I'm quite sure it's because of Lakers' inconsistency, allowing King James and his gang to take the lead, overall. But I still pick my LA Lakers to come out smoking, in the long run. We'll see, as the whole drama unfolds. Go Lakers, go!

Oh, before I forget, Ugandan model, actress and performer, Imat Akelo-Opio will be gracing the cover of our debut magazine in an exclusive interview.

Bruce Springsteen who turns 60 in September is now on the road with his E Street Band to support their latest project "Working on a Dream." I haven't watched the guy live lately but I sure do have the ticket for his April 16 jam at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. I will be there. That's my hood and I know it's going to be a hell of a show knowing Bruce for his activism and the way he's loved.

That's da happening and whatever happens keep on twitting. It's good for the soul.

Ehirim Files Classic: "The Cultural Order"

CULTURE: Ohafis/Bende War Dance. Image: Steemit         

By Ambrose Ehirim

No question, Los Angeles has emerged as a cultural model for cities all around the globe. Take a ride on Crenshaw Boulevard to Leimert Park and you will find out it has become synonymous with the African American cultural community. Hancock Park and La Brea Avenue is an identity of the Synagogues and Jewish cultural and arts centers. East Los Angeles identifies with the Chicano cultural and labor union communities. On Venice Boulevard toward Venice Beach, the samba-playing Brazilians entertain in their usual colorful and flamboyant manner. Where can I identify my own cultural order?

On April 10, 2003, I checked my messages arriving home from the stressful and bumper-to-bumper bottleneck Los Angeles streets and freeways traffic with calls from loved ones, my brother, my niece, my church pastor, my daughter's teacher, Dr. Edmund Ugorji, telemarketers, my childhood buddy Eugene Onyeji, my classmate at college Ardis Hamilton who was at All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) launching as my guest, my good friend and renowned journalist Austen Oghuma, community leaders meeting, Los Angeles African American Political Forum and many others too numerous to mention.

I played back the calls. I returned and missed some of them. Among them, the call from Dr. Ugorji of which I left a message. He returned back my call and spoke of my incommunicado, and among other things, delightedly invited me to his house for dinner, the next day. I honored his invitation and told him I would pop up at 7:30 PM, the scheduled day. After my conversations with Dr. Ugorji, I called Oghuma whose fascinating political debate takes us into the night. Debates on why Biafranigeria shouldn't break up, and debates on why I insist Biafranigeria has no business being a "one united nation." And, too, debates on why Olusegun Obasanjo should keep keeping on in leading the nation at its critical era.

However, it was the eve of Mbieri Community Association of Southern California fundraising event and launching of its first almanac that I kept up my word to pay homage to Dr. Ugorji for dinner. On my way, I stopped by Four Seasons Market run by Dozie Ozoemena to check the week's fliers-fundraising events, wake-keeping, launching, naming ceremonies, baby showers, cultural dances, graduations, weddings and the latest in local politics before my final destination of the said evening. At Four Seasons, the fliers and political junkies hung around. It was usual and typical of my expectations as the Zik ekwuo aru ahia mgbede gatherers were at work doing their thing, saying what they don't know and what they do know sometimes, the kind of "tabloid press" you see at the newsstands, and the kind of trash talks you encounter at barbershops..

It was really nothing new to see the loquacious ahia mgbede gatherers, evening market gossipers in their same old ways talking big and rubbing shoulders of what's new in town. Talks like "Nna, inugwo?" Asi na Jerry gburu ozu, oloputara brand new zero-mileage Hummer H2" (Man, have you heard it? It is said Jerry launched a brand new zero-mileage Hummer H2) was the cultural order. One even asked me "what are you driving now, Hummer?" I was not moved knowing the way ndi be anyi, our people operates which is worrisome for the fact that our values and popular culture is being wiped out ever since the "Push Factor" began, the political, economic and socio-cultural conditions that made us flee our native lands in search for a better life.

Nevertheless, in order not to spoil my evening and looking forward to a sound political and intellectual discourse with Dr. Ugorji, I took off to keep up with my appointment as initially planned. Dr. Ugorji, a linguist, and medical director of Los Angeles Department of Health Services is another political junkie. He welcomed me and offered me and seat. He asked "what kind of drink" I would like. "Water or soda will be fine, precisely lemon drink if soda," I said to him. Generous, humorous and frank, he admitted I was a rare gem based on my thought-provoking articles and confidence regarding the way I speak. It was a long debate as we talked into the night while his kids went to bed. It was the eve of the ridiculous and embarassing National Assembly elections of Olusegun Obasanjo's dubious administration. And, all in all, it was the usual Friday evening when the otimkpus, the alarmists gather to make some noise in a series of pepper soup joints around Los Angeles.

Somehow, that evening, I allowed Dr. Ugorji to do all the talking while I sipped my soda listening attentively. He spoke at length his disgust with Achike Udenwa's inept and corrupt administration in Imo State and the many wonders found in the Igbos of the Diaspora and their chieftaincy titles. He talked about the schools we left behind and its deteriorating conditions, and why nobody is doing anything about it since the missionaries and ndiocha, the white people left us alone to figure things out. He talked about secession bid for autonomy by every hamlet in Igboland and how it created a big divide in the Igbo nation. He talked about the scramblers and opportunists erecting mansions and "palaces" on dusty alleys with no street numberings. He complained, too, about the pogrom and civil war comparing the Igbos with the Jews which really caught my attention in all that he was saying.

"Igbos have nothing at all in common with the Jews," I would say. "Nothing at all, no comparison and not even close." First, despite quarrelling among themselves, greed, envy and hatred do not exist in the Jewish nation. Their pop-culture dating back from the Biblical days is still intact and viable. They know Adolph Hitler was evil and "never again" would the most blood soaked event in humankind be allowed to take place. A five year old Jewish kid, growing up learns in the Synagogue, day care centers and faiths in the Torah that "to forget is to proclaim Hitler innocent." Ask a Jewish kid who the father of the modern Jewish state is and he or she will be quick to tell you.

In contrast, the Igbos have quickly forgotten the evisceration of a pregnant woman, the widespread bloodletting, the "Asaba male death march and drowning," Benjamin Adekunle's proclamation of shooting at every moving creature in Igboland and other horrible cases of that nature, finding solace having an affair with a people who never acknowledged what they did was evil and must not be entertained. Just like the Diaspora Jewish kid who has learned about the Holocaust and the state of Israel, its migration and persecution over the years, a Diaspora Igbo kid and second generation immigrant to be exact, ask who the Igbos are or who is Francis Akanu Ibiam and you likely would hear "never heard of him." Or speak Igbo to these lost generations and you will hear "I don't get it, man!"

But ask this kid or a number of Igbo Diaspora kids who Lebron James is. One hundred percent of these kids will be quick to tell you without guessing that he is the number one ranked High School basketball sensation from Akron, Ohio. He will be recognized by all. To a point and so disturbing some Igbo intellectuals do not want their kids to speak Igbo in public. What's all these for?

Ugorji was pissed and admitted exhaustion of all options in Igbo renaissance. "Does it mean we are finished?" I would ask.

"Enyi amaghim," --my friend, I don't know, Ugorji would distressingly respond.

Of course, we are finished and being weary of pointing out that we have no "adversaries" and enemies but ourselves, we who have caused every divide within our kith and kin tailored to the desire of our enemies should be blamed for the present state of the Igbos. I left Ugorji's house with the never-ending excruciating pains I have beared all my life looking at the sorry state of the Igbo nation.

My evening was in order and I looked forward to the very big occasion about to take place the next day. Earlier, Ugorji and I discussed about the big event, Mbieri gala night. He offered me a high table for the upcoming event, and knowing the story of the dog named "Jack" I declined and promised to show up as usual, to observe and report.

On Saturday April 12, 2003, many invitations and fliers sat on my study desk, and many occasions of the cultural order were taking place the same day. There was Onicha Igbo Cultural Association fundraising event, Okwahuman Association of Southern California Special Easter Dance, Eko Club California, Nkwerre Association of Southern California, Amaigbo Cultural Association, Mbieri Community Association of Southern California Fundraising and Launching of its first almanac, South High Car Wash Crusade to raise fund for the football team and many other socio-cultural events. I checked my calendar and had marked Mbieri Community gala as my first point of call in all the cultural order.

Traditional outfit wearing doormen, beautiful looking children rehearsing at the back corner for the occasion's special dance, uniformed Mbieri women cheering on the aisle, the hippies roaming around and cocking eyes at one another, the flowing gowners showing their stuff, Veronica serving her delicious dishes and uniformed Mbieri men tending bar, it looked like one of those Brazilian carnivals and Big Easy's Madigras, populated by men and women who had been invited to the "fundraising event and launching of 1st Mbieri almanac."

I popped up late in the evening and was greeted by one of the occasion's organizers Nze Odunze Igbonagwam who had sold to me one of the event's tickets. Before my arrival, I had called Oghuma to meet me at the ballroom of Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood, California and collect a ticket I reserved for him sold to me by Dr. Ugorji. Oghuma, however, could not make it to the show due to other special engagements elsewhere in the Los Angeles area.

The evening was all showman and local celeb Solomon Egbuhuo's doing. For the last several years, the one and only MC in Igbo cultural events around the Los Angeles area has organized and mceed occasions to help various communities raise funds for worthy causes despite the widespread scandals of keeping funny books. Egbuhuo, a businessman and promoter of local music ensembles loves showbizness and the attention it gives him.

Noted deejays Ike and Jasper spinned while the folklore musical group Umunna of Los Angeles did their own thing--the Mike Ejeagha akuko na egwu, folklore kind of stuff. It was electric. It was much, much better than the spraying money in your face and high fives of the notorious Coque Brothers.

Meanwhile, I had taken up a seat in the ballroom and had gone to the menu section to help myself with what the caterer Veronica had prepared for the event. I served myself a concoction from Veronica's menu table--rice, fried plantain, anu ewu (goat meat), moi-moi, fried fish, vegetables, kpof-kpof (call it donut if you like), okporoko, (stockfish) and you name it, I had it all. I sat at a corner with a couple of hometown buddies to do justice to my concoction, my own combination. Dealing with my dish and watching what was going on, Los Angeles area renowned MC Egbuho introduced UmuIgbo USA, uniformed and tantalizingly hot to perform for the evening.

As the second generation immigrants were ushered in to perform what has been rehearsed and choreographed for months, UmuIgbo USA arrived on stage in a standing ovation after the president's opening remarks which preceded Nigeria and America national anthem, making me ponder and questioning about Igbo "national" anthem. Perhaps that was beside the point since all that mattered was Mbieri fundraising and launching of its first almanac. The sensational group walked into the ballroom across the cobbled square, through the hallway, and onto the stage. Turning to the crowd, they bowed and sang. All eyes turned on them cheering and saying a new generation has arrived the shores of America. They were marvelous, up and adequate to the occasion.

Then followed formal opening of the floor by the high table coupled with "processional" entry of Nd'Mbieri in the kind of egwu ure, recalling my memories to the days of egwu umu ada and joyous festivities when culture was still intact. After the procession and dance, Umunna of Los Angeles performed live with breaks between songs. Every attendant shimmied to the beat of the band's original folklore, "making people happy and keeping the crowd dancing." Umunna's music gave me a feel for egwu agba ochie, the real vibe in the heydays of egwu onwa, moonlight plays, folklore and highlife music, and not the ridiculous money campaign, spraying money in your face performed by the ilk of Coque Brothers and the changed Stephen Osita Osadebe.

Then again, the president's speech and "launching, launching, launching," the time for charity and kind gestures, donations and vice versa. While donations and pledges were being made, a whole lot of shaking and hugging was going on, men and women snapped pictures while happy little children ran all over the place. It was a good feel of community. It was the feel of culture made whole and not "even the sum of parts" as Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka once put it.

I can't describe how much my spirit was lifted. It looked like my boyhood days when we played the hide and seek game during conventions like this, and our parents will be sneaking out to the porch and everywhere looking for us. I left the ballroom totally satisfied that "culture is not parts, it is a whole and an entity."

"Them changes," and as it happened, I suspended my rock classic freaky behavior listening to Peter Frampton, Boston, Rolling Stones, Uriah Heep, The Allman Brothers Band, Thin Lizzy, Eagles, Aerosmith, AC/DC, The Doors, Beatles, David Bowie, Van Halen, David Lee Roth, U2, Rick Springfield, Journey, Rare Earth, Grand Funk, Pat Benatar, Triumph, Bad Company, ZZ Top, Blue Oyster Cult, Foreigner, Rod Stewart, Genesis, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Middle of the Road, Men at Work, Bob Miga's Strangers, John Cougar Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, Don Henley, Kim Carnes, Bob Seger and dedicated the month of April and May to the music of Paulson Kalu, Celestine Ukwu, Ali Chukwuma, Prince Nico Mbarga, Ikenga Superstars, Eddie Okonta, Ofo, Ozoemena nwa Nsugbe, Harcourt White, Peacocks, Rex Lawson, the old Osadebe, and Bright Chimezie for "culture is not parts, it is a whole."

On my way home, egwu agba ochie, old school became my new cultural order as I flipped Nkengas in London CD with the masterpiece "Asampete Special" entertaining me all the way. "Culture is not parts, not even the sum of parts, it is an entity." I remembered that!

This article was exclusively published at BNW Magazine in April 2003