'Why We Blocked Autopsy On Chuba Okadigbo'

BY ABUBAKAR ADAM IBRAHIM

DAILY TRUST, OCTOBER 9, 2016

CHUBA OKADIGBO

Mr. Melville Ebo was a long-standing political associate of the late Senate president and the 2003 presidential running mate to Muhammadu Buhari on the platform of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Chuba Okadigbo. September 25th marked 13 years since the political icon died during a political rally in Kano. In this interview, Mr. Ebo spoke about Okadigbo’s political dreams, his alliance with President Buhari and why they blocked attempts to have an autopsy performed when Okadigbo died. He also spoke about the rumblings in the South-East since the 2015 general elections.


As a close associate of the late Senate president and vice presidential candidate of the ANPP in 2003, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, how would you say the last 13 years without him have been?


It has been a work in progress for his dream Nigeria. One of the last dreams he had was for the country to be led by an honest, hardworking, straight-shooting soldier- politician. It was a dream he crafted and was excited about and allied by choice with the general (Buhari), a man who chased him out of power in the 1983 coup. But he kept faith with that dream and moved on. Wherever he is now, Chuba will be happy that the dream he had with the general has been actualised.


Was this dream something he really nurtured, or simply an arrangement of convenience, seeing that he was a staunch member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before he was eventually forced out of the party? Was this what led him to ally with Buhari?

Let me say that Chuba wasn’t forced out of the PDP. My association with him was such that we always discussed intimate political issues. I was always involved in his public politics. It was by choice that he left the PDP. I was there from 1976 when we first met. We were in constant conversations even when I wasn’t in the country. And when he became a senator, we always talked about everything. After he had the experience as Senate president we had extensive sessions on what went wrong, soul-searching sessions. I asked why he was still in the PDP when it was obvious that the then President Obasanjo had set political booby traps for him in the Senate and in the Anambra North senatorial zone, using prominent sons and daughters of the PDP. My view was that he should leave them and seek political ambition elsewhere, taking a shot at the presidency. 

He said he wanted to do that but he didn’t have money. I said we could do that using his long-standing relationship with politicians in the North and the South-West. Money isn’t everything. And he agreed. If he had gone ahead and contested for the Senate with the obvious booby traps and failed, then I would have agreed that he was forced out. But he never gave them the chance. He said to me, “Enough of speaking English, join me let’s do this.’’ So I left Europe and joined him. The choice at the time was the All Peoples Party (APP), which was at the point of metamorphosing into the ANPP where the tall, slim General Buhari was holding sway. And he said, “That’s the man to beat.’’
We did the rounds and he excited the Nigerian people. Inevitably, the two of them (Okadigbo and Buhari) clashed. Chuba had the mastery of the political terrain, he had charisma and was eloquent. Consequently, instead of a clash of two titans, it became a marriage of minds between two great friends. I remember the evening of the ANPP convention at the Eagle Square, and when the General moved into the arena, he (Okadigbo) turned to me and said, “The masquerade has come. The gentleman remains a soldier in his carriage. I think I want to do business with him.’’ It wasn’t surprising that at the end of that evening, the General chose him to be his running mate.

So it hadn’t been pre-arranged for him to be chosen as running mate?

No, no, obviously there had been groups within and outside the party talking to the General about him (Okadigbo). I recall our political swing through the North-West and our emotional trip to Sokoto, Shagari’s village, our meeting with governors in the North and our party’s National Assembly members, and it was clear to all that a political union between Buhari at the time and Okadigbo would be a winning ticket. It remains a post-independence most celebrated, dynamic and strong union across this country. It actualised what, in Zik’s time, they called a handshake across the Niger. I don’t think we will ever see anything like that again.

As celebrated as that union was, it still didn’t deliver. What do you think went wrong?

No. The jury still remains out on that. Look at the damning reports of both national and international observers on the 2003 elections. I have reports from various international organisations that clearly indicted the electoral body at the time. That election was massively rigged. That was the electoral process on which General Buhari attended court effectively four years. Chuba kept faith with that process, but unfortunately, he moved on. I know the exit polls. I have the actual reports that showed the traditional ANPP states, the votes we got and how they were tampered with. Chuba had a robust defence on that. 

I saw a report in the Sun newspaper this weekend, featuring an interview with my friend, Buba Galadima. I don’t know the point he was trying to make when commenting on South-East’s political relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari when he said the region had a choice in 2003 when Chuba was there and they didn’t vote for Buhari. I think that is an unfortunate comment as we know there were no elections in the South-East in 2003, as Chuba had in his reports. I think Galadima was on the fringes of the 2003 presidential campaign team for him to say that the region did not support the candidacy of Chuba and Buhari. I think it was mischievous.

Don’t you think it may be as a result of the impression that the South-East wasn’t inclined to supporting a Buhari candidacy?

That’s not correct. I was involved. Yes, there were challenges. The Igbo are a business- driven people. Unfortunately, after the generation of Zik, and Chuba as the last of the political Mohicans, they lost out as a people and have been driven by mercantile politicians. It is said that goats follow the man with palm fronds because they like palm fronds. 

The PDP has ruled the South-East extensively, so if you go by that analogy, the people will follow the man that has his finger in money. So we had that challenge. There was General Buhari at the time, who was purposeful and straightforward, and there was Chuba in the same mould, same profile, but the two lacked money. Whereas Buhari had permeated the entire North and Chuba was well loved in the South-East, we had a challenge convincing people that there was life beyond money. It had nothing to do with rejecting the presidential candidate at the time because we didn’t like him but because we lacked the wherewithal to change mindsets. But now that he is the president, if he can focus on the basic things, if the roads in the East are fixed, if he can link the East and the West, particularly the rail thing, link the seaport by rail to the South-East, they will begin to connect. Just do it right this first term and they will see him as the man with the palm frond. Of course there was the fear of him being a devout Muslim. We are in the third world where fear and suspicions govern thoughts, and that played a role. I know the effort Chuba’s campaign made across the zone to make them see the man, his integrity and the promises he made to us.

Realistically speaking, do you think the union between Buhari and Okadigbo would have worked, considering that both men are seen as unyielding or strong-willed?

I will also add that they were both born in December. The union was not forced. It was a chemistry made in heaven and adopted on earth. Like I said, Buhari overran the democratic process in 1983 when Chuba was acting as an adviser to the then President Shehu Shagari. Everyone kept their own side of the politics leading to the 2002/2003 convention. I am 99 per cent certain that before then, there wasn’t any serious meeting or consultation between the two; people did all that juxtaposition and lobbying for the two to meet. And once that meeting happened, that was it. There was no looking back. I never saw any friction. Buhari was happy to come to Chuba’s house for every meeting. The two had telephone conversations when they were not in the same town. The question of clash was not there. Chuba never shared any suspicion or misgivings about the General. He always saw him as a kind and committed gentleman who had a vision for the people.

Incidentally, that union or political adventure was the last Okadigbo would participate in as he died in a rally trying to actualise this vision. And 13 years after, speculations about how he actually died still persist. What really happened?

He died in the cause of actualising and redeeming our political process. What we have was that he died at a rally in Kano. At the time, I was recalled to Europe to attend to some family matter, so I missed the rally. There were so many things said about what happened. I wasn’t there, so I wouldn’t know. I understand that there was a rude interruption by security forces who fired teargas. It was unnecessary, it was callous, it was uncalled for. I have been to Kano a couple of times, and if Buhari was visiting Kano, it was anarchic because everyone poured out to see this man, to have a piece of him, if possible. So after the general elections, which we believed he won but was massively rigged, it was a deeply emotional period. So for the security forces to fire teargas into such a mammoth crowd was callous. The government at the time should take responsibility for it. The international community should hold the then inspector-general of police and the commissioner of police at the time, as well as the presidency at the time responsible for what happened. Why didn’t anyone see the risk of throwing teargas at the place? What if there had been a stampede as a result? How would they have controlled that?

One of the theories was that Dr Okadigbo was asthmatic . . .

He wasn’t asthmatic. Those were rumours spread to diminish his capacity. But he ran the process, he walked his talk and went practically everywhere. There is no photo or video evidence of him using an inhaler. He was so public; if he were asthmatic, someone must have seen him using one or losing his breath, or collapsing. What I knew he did was that he smoked. If he had been asthmatic, why would he smoke like that?

In whose interest was it to circulate the rumour that he was asthmatic and the teargas was targeted at him?

Chuba was a fine gentleman who was committed to working for the downtrodden. If their plan was to throw teargas and hasten his demise, well, only God knows. But I believe that when your number is up, it is up. If God, in his grace, said he would drop out at that height of his political career, so be it.

You were not there when he died, but you were there immediately afterwards and there was no autopsy performed. Why was there no autopsy?

My position was that there shouldn’t be an autopsy. Chuba used to say things that seemed weird at the time. He would say if a man was healthy and was shot by the police or armed robbers, we know that it was the bullet that killed him, so why cut him up to find out that it was the bullet that killed him? If we opened him up and saw that the bullet hit his lung or his heart, would that bring him back? He was very squeamish about these things. If you talked to him about medical procedures like surgeries, his reactions were amazing. With particular respect to autopsy, he said he didn’t understand it and he kept that position until he died. So I said to his family, the man never liked it, why do an autopsy? The man was okay, went to the rally in Kano and was tear-gassed and died. Why open him up? The man is dead. Can we leave him the way he wished others be left? But the presidency took a strong position because they wanted to do an autopsy. I remember we were hauled off to the police headquarters and I got the impression that they were trying to muscle us into agreeing to do an autopsy and I said no. The family kept faith. We were let off when we agreed that we weren’t going to take the corpse elsewhere for an autopsy. We had to strike a deal that we and the government weren’t going to do an autopsy before they released the corpse to us.

Were you not curious to know precisely what killed him?

Would that bring him back to life? It won’t bring him back to life. My mother was in the medical profession, so I grew up around medical people. I have read extensively about medical reports. If you brought seven pathologists to do an autopsy, they would tell you seven different things. If they had done the autopsy, they could have used the strength of the system to say this man wasn’t killed by teargas. They could have said maybe it was stress. Or they could say, this man smoked a lot and that it was the cigarettes that killed him. They were trying to railroad people into seeing it their way, but they didn’t have the opportunity. No one could predict tomorrow; but probably, if they hadn’t tear- gassed him in Kano, he could have had a long life.

He died for a cause, which was to actualise a Buhari presidency. Now that Buhari is president, do you think he should investigate the circumstance of Okadigbo’s death?

It’s 13 years now. The president is challenged by deep-rooted national issues. Chuba was a man of peace. He was gentle. He was kind. If he were asked this question, he would tell you that what happened to him was a dot on the history of Nigerian democracy, a staining dot in the process to actualise a free and fair electoral process. He would not have advised a president so challenged to commit state resources to investigating what happened. He would ask you to focus on the Nigerian state rather than what happened in Kano.

As someone who was close to Okadigbo, and by extension, has been close to President Buhari, what would you say concerning the thinking in the South-East that the region is being sidelined? 

Consequently, we have seen increased agitations for Biafra. You see, let me say that the Biafran experiment ended 46 years ago. Nigeria has moved on. And the people of the South-East have moved on. There is no point looking back at that fight. People who push that agenda are not being fair to the Nigerian state. I know so many countries that have progressed beyond their conflicts, and we know that even immediately after the war, there were efforts to reintegrate the people of the South-East into the Nigerian state. Look at Kosovo. What has been the status of the people in that community after their crisis? 

I know there was a national policy that allotted a greater slot for people in the South-East and South-South to enrol in the army in order to give them adequate representation. The consequence of that policy is that Igbo people have been service chiefs, police chiefs, navy chiefs. If that deliberate policy wasn’t there, then you could ask: What is the problem of these people? Of course there are challenges of full reintegration, I am not saying there is none, but if you compare us to Congo, Lebanon, Kosovo, look at Was this dream something he really nurtured, or simply an arrangement of convenience, seeing that he was a staunch member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before he was eventually forced out of the party? Was this what led him to ally with Buhari?

Let me say that Chuba wasn’t forced out of the PDP. My association with him was such that we always discussed intimate political issues. I was always involved in his public politics. It was by choice that he left the PDP. I was there from 1976 when we first met. We were in constant conversations even when I wasn’t in the country. And when he became a senator, we always talked about everything. After he had the experience as Senate president we had extensive sessions on what went wrong, soul-searching sessions. I asked why he was still in the PDP when it was obvious that the then President Obasanjo had set political booby traps for him in the Senate and in the Anambra North senatorial zone, using prominent sons and daughters of the PDP. My view was that he should leave them and seek political ambition elsewhere, taking a shot at the presidency. 

He said he wanted to do that but he didn’t have money. I said we could do that using his long-standing relationship with politicians in the North and the South-West. Money isn’t everything. And he agreed. If he had gone ahead and contested for the Senate with the obvious booby traps and failed, then I would have agreed that he was forced out. But he never gave them the chance. He said to me, “Enough of speaking English, join me let’s do this.’’ So I left Europe and joined him. The choice at the time was the All Peoples Party (APP), which was at the point of metamorphosing into the ANPP where the tall, slim General Buhari was holding sway. And he said, “That’s the man to beat.’’ 

We did the rounds and he excited the Nigerian people. Inevitably, the two of them (Okadigbo and Buhari) clashed. Chuba had the mastery of the political terrain, he had charisma and was eloquent. Consequently, instead of a clash of two titans, it became a marriage of minds between two great friends. I remember the evening of the ANPP convention at the Eagle Square, and when the General moved into the arena, he (Okadigbo) turned to me and said, “The masquerade has come. The gentleman remains a soldier in his carriage. I think I want to do business with him.’’ It wasn’t surprising that at the end of that evening, the General chose him to be his running mate.

So it hadn’t been pre-arranged for him to be chosen as running mate?

No, no, obviously there had been groups within and outside the party talking to the General about him (Okadigbo). I recall our political swing through the North-West and our emotional trip to Sokoto, Shagari’s village, our meeting with governors in the North and our party’s National Assembly members, and it was clear to all that a political union between Buhari at the time and Okadigbo would be a winning ticket. It remains a post-independence most celebrated, dynamic and strong union across this country. It actualised what, in Zik’s time, they called a handshake across the Niger. I don’t think we will ever see anything like that again.

As celebrated as that union was, it still didn’t deliver. What do you think went wrong?

No. The jury still remains out on that. Look at the damning reports of both national and international observers on the 2003 elections. I have reports from various international organisations that clearly indicted the electoral body at the time. That election was massively rigged. That was the electoral process on which General Buhari attended court effectively four years. Chuba kept faith with that process, but unfortunately, he moved on. I know the exit polls. I have the actual reports that showed the traditional ANPP states, the votes we got and how they were tampered with. Chuba had a robust defence on that. 

I saw a report in the Sun newspaper this weekend, featuring an interview with my friend, Buba Galadima. I don’t know the point he was trying to make when commenting on South-East’s political relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari when he said the region had a choice in 2003 when Chuba was there and they didn’t vote for Buhari. I think that is an unfortunate comment as we know there were no elections in the South-East in 2003, as Chuba had in his reports. I think Galadima was on the fringes of the 2003 presidential campaign team for him to say that the region did not support the candidacy of Chuba and Buhari. I think it was mischievous.

Don’t you think it may be as a result of the impression that the South-East wasn’t inclined to supporting a Buhari candidacy?

That’s not correct. I was involved. Yes, there were challenges. The Igbo are a business- driven people. Unfortunately, after the generation of Zik, and Chuba as the last of the political Mohicans, they lost out as a people and have been driven by mercantile politicians. It is said that goats follow the man with palm fronds because they like palm fronds. 

The PDP has ruled the South-East extensively, so if you go by that analogy, the people will follow the man that has his finger in money. So we had that challenge. There was General Buhari at the time, who was purposeful and straightforward, and there was Chuba in the same mould, same profile, but the two lacked money. Whereas Buhari had permeated the entire North and Chuba was well loved in the South-East, we had a challenge convincing people that there was life beyond money. It had nothing to do with rejecting the presidential candidate at the time because we didn’t like him but because we lacked the wherewithal to change mindsets. But now that he is the president, if he can focus on the basic things, if the roads in the East are fixed, if he can link the East and the West, particularly the rail thing, link the seaport by rail to the South-East, they will begin to connect. Just do it right this first term and they will see him as the man with the palm frond. Of course there was the fear of him being a devout Muslim. We are in the third world where fear and suspicions govern thoughts, and that played a role. I know the effort Chuba’s campaign made across the zone to make them see the man, his integrity and the promises he made to us.

Realistically speaking, do you think the union between Buhari and Okadigbo would have worked, considering that both men are seen as unyielding or strong-willed?

I will also add that they were both born in December. The union was not forced. It was a chemistry made in heaven and adopted on earth. Like I said, Buhari overran the democratic process in 1983 when Chuba was acting as an adviser to the then President Shehu Shagari. Everyone kept their own side of the politics leading to the 2002/2003 convention. I am 99 per cent certain that before then, there wasn’t any serious meeting or consultation between the two; people did all that juxtaposition and lobbying for the two to meet. And once that meeting happened, that was it. There was no looking back. I never saw any friction. Buhari was happy to come to Chuba’s house for every meeting. The two had telephone conversations when they were not in the same town. The question of clash was not there. Chuba never shared any suspicion or misgivings about the General. He always saw him as a kind and committed gentleman who had a vision for the people.

Incidentally, that union or political adventure was the last Okadigbo would participate in as he died in a rally trying to actualise this vision. And 13 years after, speculations about how he actually died still persist. What really happened?

He died in the cause of actualising and redeeming our political process. What we have was that he died at a rally in Kano. At the time, I was recalled to Europe to attend to some family matter, so I missed the rally. There were so many things said about what happened. I wasn’t there, so I wouldn’t know. I understand that there was a rude interruption by security forces who fired teargas. It was unnecessary, it was callous, it was uncalled for. I have been to Kano a couple of times, and if Buhari was visiting Kano, it was anarchic because everyone poured out to see this man, to have a piece of him, if possible. So after the general elections, which we believed he won but was massively rigged, it was a deeply emotional period. So for the security forces to fire teargas into such a mammoth crowd was callous. The government at the time should take responsibility for it. The international community should hold the then inspector-general of police and the commissioner of police at the time, as well as the presidency at the time responsible for what happened. Why didn’t anyone see the risk of throwing teargas at the place? What if there had been a stampede as a result? How would they have controlled that?

One of the theories was that Dr Okadigbo was asthmatic . . .

He wasn’t asthmatic. Those were rumours spread to diminish his capacity. But he ran the process, he walked his talk and went practically everywhere. There is no photo or video evidence of him using an inhaler. He was so public; if he were asthmatic, someone must have seen him using one or losing his breath, or collapsing. What I knew he did was that he smoked. If he had been asthmatic, why would he smoke like that?

In whose interest was it to circulate the rumour that he was asthmatic and the teargas was targeted at him?

Chuba was a fine gentleman who was committed to working for the downtrodden. If their plan was to throw teargas and hasten his demise, well, only God knows. But I believe that when your number is up, it is up. If God, in his grace, said he would drop out at that height of his political career, so be it.

You were not there when he died, but you were there immediately afterwards and there was no autopsy performed. Why was there no autopsy?

My position was that there shouldn’t be an autopsy. Chuba used to say things that seemed weird at the time. He would say if a man was healthy and was shot by the police or armed robbers, we know that it was the bullet that killed him, so why cut him up to find out that it was the bullet that killed him? If we opened him up and saw that the bullet hit his lung or his heart, would that bring him back? He was very squeamish about these things. If you talked to him about medical procedures like surgeries, his reactions were amazing. With particular respect to autopsy, he said he didn’t understand it and he kept that position until he died. So I said to his family, the man never liked it, why do an autopsy? The man was okay, went to the rally in Kano and was tear-gassed and died. Why open him up? The man is dead. Can we leave him the way he wished others be left? But the presidency took a strong position because they wanted to do an autopsy. I remember we were hauled off to the police headquarters and I got the impression that they were trying to muscle us into agreeing to do an autopsy and I said no. The family kept faith. We were let off when we agreed that we weren’t going to take the corpse elsewhere for an autopsy. We had to strike a deal that we and the government weren’t going to do an autopsy before they released the corpse to us.

Were you not curious to know precisely what killed him?

Would that bring him back to life? It won’t bring him back to life. My mother was in the medical profession, so I grew up around medical people. I have read extensively about medical reports. If you brought seven pathologists to do an autopsy, they would tell you seven different things. If they had done the autopsy, they could have used the strength of the system to say this man wasn’t killed by teargas. They could have said maybe it was stress. Or they could say, this man smoked a lot and that it was the cigarettes that killed him. They were trying to railroad people into seeing it their way, but they didn’t have the opportunity. No one could predict tomorrow; but probably, if they hadn’t tear- gassed him in Kano, he could have had a long life.

He died for a cause, which was to actualise a Buhari presidency. Now that Buhari is president, do you think he should investigate the circumstance of Okadigbo’s death?

It’s 13 years now. The president is challenged by deep-rooted national issues. Chuba was a man of peace. He was gentle. He was kind. If he were asked this question, he would tell you that what happened to him was a dot on the history of Nigerian democracy, a staining dot in the process to actualise a free and fair electoral process. He would not have advised a president so challenged to commit state resources to investigating what happened. He would ask you to focus on the Nigerian state rather than what happened in Kano.

As someone who was close to Okadigbo, and by extension, has been close to President Buhari, what would you say concerning the thinking in the South-East that the region is being sidelined? 

Consequently, we have seen increased agitations for Biafra. You see, let me say that the Biafran experiment ended 46 years ago. Nigeria has moved on. And the people of the South-East have moved on. There is no point looking back at that fight. People who push that agenda are not being fair to the Nigerian state. I know so many countries that have progressed beyond their conflicts, and we know that even immediately after the war, there were efforts to reintegrate the people of the South-East into the Nigerian state. Look at Kosovo. What has been the status of the people in that community after their crisis? 

I know there was a national policy that allotted a greater slot for people in the South-East and South-South to enrol in the army in order to give them adequate representation. The consequence of that policy is that Igbo people have been service chiefs, police chiefs, navy chiefs. If that deliberate policy wasn’t there, then you could ask: What is the problem of these people? Of course there are challenges of full reintegration, I am not saying there is none, but if you compare us to Congo, Lebanon, Kosovo, look at Morocco, Germany (East and West), how long did it take from the end of World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall? 

We spend so much time deriding our capacity. Since the war, I don’t know a time, whether in civilian or military administration, when the federal government doesn’t have people of the South-East being key members of that administration. If these calls are being made as pressure group mechanism, you could say there is a strategy there, but if it is being used as a distraction to the people, then there is a problem. During the last census, the South-East lost its numbers because those pushing for Biafra asked people not to be counted. They intimidated the people, shops were closed, and as a result, the figures that came out of there were horrible. Now, if these figures are used for infrastructural development, who loses?

If you consider the recent elections, the people of the South-East decided that Jonathan was their son. I don’t know that Otuoke was part of Igbo land, but they did anyway. That government had 70 per cent of the key positions being occupied by Igbo people. And the challenges the region is facing now were there; they were created by their mismanagement of opportunities of the presidency of their ‘son’, Jonathan. Now if their ‘son’ was the president and they supported him and had 67 per cent of decision makers in his government, what happened to the roads in the South-East? Is it that Buhari became president in 2015 and overnight dug up the roads and flooded the area? Or that the educational system was dilapidated suddenly because he caused mental or spiritual problems for the Igbo? I am not speaking for the president, he can defend himself and has people who can do that, but I read recently in the papers that there is a conference coming up, to be chaired by the deputy Senate president, to call on Igbo people to come home and invest because they are not happy that a dry port is being set up in Kaduna, Lagos gets a second or third seaport while 90 per cent of our people are the ones importing. For the six years that your ‘son’ Jonathan held sway and you had 70 per cent of decision makers in that government, why didn’t Jonathan, with all of you in tow, build the Lagos-Calabar rail that would veer through the East? Under their watch, the PDP was building the East-West road that avoided the core South-East states, and everyone knows the basic economics that if a major road passes through your villages it empowers your people. This road will relegate the Lagos-Ore-Benin road to the background while the new one cuts out your community. When these documents were drawn up, why didn’t the Igbo people in the government question them? Why didn’t they say they didn’t have an airport of international standard? And their daughter was the aviation minister? The second Niger Bridge has been in deplorable condition for years, and in the six years that their ‘son’ was president, he didn’t’ take it seriously.

Germany (East and West), how long did it take from the end of World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall? 

We spend so much time deriding our capacity. Since the war, I don’t know a time, whether in civilian or military administration, when the federal government doesn’t have people of the South-East being key members of that administration. If these calls are being made as pressure group mechanism, you could say there is a strategy there, but if it is being used as a distraction to the people, then there is a problem. During the last census, the South-East lost its numbers because those pushing for Biafra asked people not to be counted. They intimidated the people, shops were closed, and as a result, the figures that came out of there were horrible. Now, if these figures are used for infrastructural development, who loses?

If you consider the recent elections, the people of the South-East decided that Jonathan was their son. I don’t know that Otuoke was part of Igbo land, but they did anyway. That government had 70 per cent of the key positions being occupied by Igbo people. And the challenges the region is facing now were there; they were created by their mismanagement of opportunities of the presidency of their ‘son’, Jonathan. Now if their ‘son’ was the president and they supported him and had 67 per cent of decision makers in his government, what happened to the roads in the South-East? Is it that Buhari became president in 2015 and overnight dug up the roads and flooded the area? Or that the educational system was dilapidated suddenly because he caused mental or spiritual problems for the Igbo? I am not speaking for the president, he can defend himself and has people who can do that, but I read recently in the papers that there is a conference coming up, to be chaired by the deputy Senate president, to call on Igbo people to come home and invest because they are not happy that a dry port is being set up in Kaduna, Lagos gets a second or third seaport while 90 per cent of our people are the ones importing. For the six years that your ‘son’ Jonathan held sway and you had 70 per cent of decision makers in that government, why didn’t Jonathan, with all of you in tow, build the Lagos-Calabar rail that would veer through the East? Under their watch, the PDP was building the East-West road that avoided the core South-East states, and everyone knows the basic economics that if a major road passes through your villages it empowers your people. This road will relegate the Lagos-Ore-Benin road to the background while the new one cuts out your community. When these documents were drawn up, why didn’t the Igbo people in the government question them? Why didn’t they say they didn’t have an airport of international standard? And their daughter was the aviation minister? The second Niger Bridge has been in deplorable condition for years, and in the six years that their ‘son’ was president, he didn’t’ take it seriously.

Farewell My Mentor: Adieu, Chuba Okadigbo

 From Ehirim Files Archives

By Ted Onyeji, New York
September 30, 2003

Nigerian vice presidential candidate for the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, gestures during an interview at his home in the state capital Enugu, April 17, 2003. Okadigbo stated no winner from the ANPP would sit in a "police parliament" after alleging gross election rigging during the recent parliamentary elections, the first democratic poll since the end of military rule in 1999.


NEW YORK (BNW MAGAZINE)--I met him only once in 1982.  A tall and handsome, oft described as brash, but articulate young political stalwart. He was the youthful, vibrant, educated new breed infusion, appointed to the position of special adviser on political affairs in the second republic, during the Shagari regime.

In his charming characteristic attributes, he became the darling of the young people, and almost single-handedly embodied the hope and aspirations of the youth of Nigeria in general, and especially, that of the Igbo youth, who were still grappling with the notion of one Nigeria, and a sense of political rebirth. It therefore did not come as a surprise, when Chuba Okadigbo embarked on a quest to encourage the youth to participate in the new government, by making himself accessible to them.

Growing up poor, in the trackless jungle of a congested Lagos metropolis, I was among those whose ambition and aspirations was kindled by the glow of this young politician.

After summoning up the courage to write, to convey my admiration for what he meant to me , I was resigned to the realization that most Nigerian politicians were nonchalant to such overtures. Suffice it to say that it came as a pleasant surprise to me, when I received a correspondence from him as follows;

Though belated, I write to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 23rd November, 1981. I thank you immensely for the kind sentiments expressed therein. You might wish to contact my personal secretary at the above address, for an appointment as to how and when we can meet. With every good wish and a happy new year. Yours sincerely

~~~ Chuba Okadigbo.

Why did I keep this letter for over 20 yrs, you might ask. Your guess is as good as mine.

We arranged to meet at his office in the presidential compound. I had my doubts if this meeting would actually take place, because of the timing. The government was busily engaged in the last minute preparations for a papal visit to Nigeria. Pope John Paul II, was due in the country in 48 hours, and Chuba was charged with the coordination of the arrival.

Nevertheless, I found myself sitting in front of my mentor, in his office, amid the chaos of the incessant phone calls that were prompted by the pending papal visit. Yet, looking rather calm and unruffled, I was treated to the most engaging 30 minutes of conversation with this endearing role model. After apologizing for not being able to spend more time with me, he encouraged me to pursue my ambitions and goals in life, despite the hardship of my background. I saw in him the promise and opportunity that awaited all Nigerians in this dawning era, and I left his office buoyed with hope and enthusiasm, and a feeling of pride and nationalism.

Months later, I was confronted with a tough situation, and had to make a choice. It was hardly a difficult decision for me. I had turned down a supervisory position with my employer, and the perks of the entitlement to a down payment for a Volkswagen beetle. There were bigger and better things for me to accomplish. I was bubbling with vigor, hope and enthusiasm, and the sky was the limit.

That was the aura that Chuba Okadigbo brought to my generation. Though I may not always have agreed with his politics, the fact is undisputable, that no Igbo politician since the second republic have worked more than Chuba, to champion the cause of a wholly inclusive one Nigeria. For this, his reward was vilification and humiliation, even from the highest quarters, for the sheer reason of his origin.

I will never see my mentor again, because his life was snuffed out in a haze of poisonous gas, a testimony to the deference , or lack of , that was accorded a person of his stature.
Perhaps, in an irony, he succumbed to this uncanny but cryptic way of his demise, to lament the final futility of the pursuit of one Nigeria.

As for me and many in my generation, he would always be a mentor and a role model, and would be greatly missed. The tragedy of Nigerian politics is the cannibalization of its best and brightest citizens.

I named my son 'Chuba' 12 yrs ago, representing a continuation of the hope and aspiration that he gave us all.

"I Did Not Betray Nd'Igbo" - Chuba Okadigbo

From Ehirim Files Archives

By Mike Ebonugwo

September 17, 2003

Nigerian vice presidential candidate for the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, gestures during an interview at his home in the state capital Enugu, April 17, 2003. Okadigbo stated no winner from the ANPP would sit in a "police parliament" after alleging gross election rigging during the recent parliamentary elections, the first democratic poll since the end of military rule in 1999. Image: Howard Burditt/Reuters

Prior to the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) national convention where he emerged as presidential running mate to General Muhammadu Buhari, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo was perceived in many respected quarters as one politician who would never compromise on the question of the supremacy of civil democracy over military dictatorship. The reason for this is not far-fetched.

He remains till date one of the few politicians who refused to serve under any military government in spite of tempting offers and gestures that had less principled politicians scrambling for one position or the other.

So, eyebrows were naturally raised when he agreed to run with former military dictator, Gen. Buhari whose regime went down in history as one of the most oppressive. Apart from that, the emergence of Buhari as military head of state via a coup d'etat that toppled the Second Republic civilian government where Okadigbo was a prominent figure led to his seeking political asylum in Britain.

So what has changed to make the Fourth Republic former Senate president to embrace Buhari as a presidential partner in spite of what many regard as Gen. Buhari's hardline anti-democratic disposition?

Also by discarding his widely publicised presidential ambition to run with Buhari instead of joining his fellow Igbo presidential aspirants in their walk out protest against the emergence of Buhari as presidential candidate, can he be said to have betrayed the Igbo presidential cause as some are now accusing him?

These are some of the questions, I asked the former Senate president. And his answers represent the vintage Okadigbo— forth-right, pungent and uncompromising especially on the questions of the 2003 elections and the lingering state of uncertainty in the country.

Running mate to Gen. Buhari

IT'S a very simple matter really. First of all, some people say why did you become running mate to Buhari, after a long background of not serving any military government. My answer has been, I was not going to serve any military government; it’s that Buhari is joining us in a constitutional government. So it’s the other way round.

So, it’s victory for pro-democratic government rather than a loss as it added to its number such a personality. And we have accepted a democratic temper and the Constitution. So the question raised by those who have problems about serving military government or not by Okadigbo just put the wrong question to the wrong place. The question should have been were we going for a military government or a civilian democratic government? My answer is the latter, so there shouldn’t be any blame there. So, the question of going to serve a military government is non sequitur.

Considering the way and manner you emerged as running mate to Gen. Buhari, there are still many today who see you as having betrayed and undermined the Igbo-for-president cause which was the clarion clamour for the Igbo before the last elections. What is your reaction to this? I asked him. He did not hesitate to explain his seeming controversial action at the time.

My answer to that is a capital no! I neither betrayed the Igbo cause nor undermined the chances of an Igbo becoming President. You have to look at the question of an Igbo emerging president in the context of what is happening in the country. In the PDP, no Igbo presidential candidate had evolved, even though there are five Igbo governors in the party. To the contrary, they worked against the emergence of (Dr.) Alex Ekwueme; I saw it coming and I dodged the bullet and went to the ANPP to try my hands elsewhere and to keep it open in the PDP in the event that Ekwueme will emerge. If he had emerged, I would have pulled out; I wouldn’t be involved. And that is the major party.

The second largest party was the ANPP. So, the movement to the ANPP was not an Igbo movement. The Igbo did not say go; I went. They also did not ask me to go to the PDP. I was one of those who formed the PDP, but when it was time to go, I moved. So, you have to do your calculations and projections to make a move. Now, at Abuja, there were Northerners who wanted to be President and also Igbos who also wanted to be President, plus Pere Ajuwa from the South-South. I think about eight Northerners were able to stand down for Gen. Buhari. But among the Ndigbo candidates, including Pere Ajuwa, no one could stand down for the other. Put the question this way: Among these gentlemen, does it make sense empirical, theoretical, religious, sociological or whatever sense that I should step down for a Rochas (Okorocha)?

That is a preposterous proposition. You must step down for something you can serve to the other Nigerians! Not to carry a load and throw it over to them. So, for failing to be able to do what the Northerners did for themselves, we now blame Dr. Okadigbo for not being president. That is balderdash! And in so far as I was concerned, the shortest cut to the president was to take the vice presidency and in four years time get the presidency as agreed within the ANPP. So by now we would have been talking of an Igbo man becoming president by 2007.

Did he sincerely believe this could have worked out as envisaged given the popular belief that Gen. Buhari was not particularly sellable as a presidential candidate because of his poor democratic credentials? I could not help but ask. But he immediately took exception to this, just as he restated for the umpteenth time that the ANPP won the last presidential election in the country.
Did you watch the election? The ANPP won the election hands down. We defeated the PDP flat out! The European Union election observers said there were monumental electoral fraud in 23 states of the federation. Everybody knows that we floored the PDP. How come up till date they have not celebrated any victory except maybe the one they had in one hotel. You find people who said they won an election hiding. What do you call that? (President) Obasanjo cannot come to Lagos without at least 13 lorry load of mobile police.

This is more of a security movement than a political movement. Protection from the presence of the people who are supposed to have elected you have become the primary duty of the Nigeria Police Force. What kind of victory is that? It reminds me of Omoboriowo who won an election under the NPN in the Second Republic but was looking for police protection to claim his victory (prolonged laughter). How come PDP people are looking for police and army protection, yet they say they won. Everybody knows they failed.

Now they’re busy talking of 2007 when they have not finished with the issue of their failure in 2003. The outcome of the election is still in the court and we have to settle that before anybody starts talking of 2007. The PDP and their governors and their people are petrified by their unpopularity vis-a-vis what they see is our popularity with the people.

So I don’t think the quest for an Igbo president was affected by the outcome of what I did. What they did affected their outcome not only in the ANPP but also in the PDP. You have to win as a Nigerian not as an Igbo man. In the case of Obasanjo in 1999, the Yorubas voted against him, he was still made President by us.

Talking about 2007, it would appear that the initial campaigns do suggest that Ndigbo are completely out of the picture to produce a President, I told him. He laughs it off, insisting rather that the elections of 2003 are not over yet as the courts still have to decide on a number of election related cases pending before them. He is also of the view that if the tribunals and courts do their jobs objectively and fairly, the ANPP would emerge victorious. He did not stop there.

These electoral panels, the Court of Appeal and also the Supreme Court are in a position to examine and decide the issue of democracy in Nigeria. They better do it right or face the consequence. And until these (election petitions) are determined, the question of 2007 is nothing but hogwash.

The fundamental issue now should be how to address the problems of unemployment, insecurity of life and property. We should be talking of how to deliver goods and services to the people and providing good roads and checking armed robbery, as well as seeking solutions to the problem of lack
of electricity and water. Right now our economy is lying prostrate. The question should be what are we going to do about it?

But the Federal Government has signaled its intention to address the problem of the economy through a new blueprint it calls the New National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS), I reminded him. He dismissed this with a wave of the hand.

Is it the one they said will materialise in 10 years time? he scoffed dismissively. I hope he (Obasanjo) doesn’t think he would be there in 10 years time. The implication is that they have no programme; that they have already failed by their own testament. In 10 years time there will be some glimmer. The Economic Summit by Professor Anya and the rest of them came up and said they were wrong in saying 10, that at the way we're going, it will take 20 years for the economy to recover.

So, 10 years or 20 years from now we will remain in economic coma? You know what that means? We’'ll all die. One more year of things remaining the way they are the system will collapse.
Nigeria is facing atrophy in a reckless way from the top. The top is leading the country to a break down of the system which is alarming. And the President with his cabinet is telling Nigerians that they have no hope for the next 10 years. Even that little thing left, which is hope, they have also dashed; you can’t even hope when you have been given a picture of 10 years darkness; no light at the end of the tunnel. This is shocking and we need a change to reverse the negative trend.

How Shagari Granted Ojukwu Amnesty

The late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s former media aide, Mr. Kanayo Esinulo, today concludes his account of life with Ikemba Nnewi
Saturday December 17, 2011 - Daily Sun

Gowon’s pardon

By 1981, particularly after President Shehu Shagari granted amnesty to General Yakubu Gowon, Emeka, who was fond of calling Gowon ‘Jack,’ felt that their ‘two cases’ could have been considered in tandem, but because the people of Plateau made a strong case for Gowon, while ‘the East’ was not able to present a united front on his case, it would appear to Shagari that Gowon’s case was a more pressing national issue. He then suggested that we pursue a new initiative by making the necessary contacts with those within the listening range of President Shagari and others outside of this orbit. The primary targets were Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, Dr. Ibrahim Tahir and Chief Victor Masi.

Okadigbo was to be the arrowhead, since he was the Political Adviser to the President. Tahir, then Chairman of the Board of Nigerian Telecommunications, was chosen because of his influence and political pre-eminence within northern political circles. Masi was an important Minister of Works in the Shagari administration and a brilliant Army Captain with the Biafran Army Engineers. General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu gave these as his reasons for preferring that we worked with these eminent Nigerians.

The meeting with Tahir and Obiano

In part two of this narrative that appeared last week, I traced the initial involvement of Okadigbo in the project of Emeka’s homecoming, and how I took him and Obiozo to Bingerville to meet and discuss with the General. Soon after we returned to Nigeria, we tracked Dr. Tahir at Ikoyi Hotel, where he was temporarily accommodated. He was very warm and polite to us and Okadigbo had tutored Vincent Obiano and I how to present the case to Tahir. As he chain-smoked, he listened us out and made promises he so dutifully fulfilled. We then moved to Victor Masi’s official residence in Ikoyi. He was waiting for us. Obiano had contacted him, for they knew themselves at the University of Nigeria in the early sixties. Here, again, the reception was warm and friendly. Before we knew it, Emeka called Chief Ike Onunaku, a top management staff of the United Africa Company (UAC) (I mean the UAC under Chief Ernest Shonekan), who was a part of us and who hosted so many of our meetings in those difficult days, to say he was getting feelers on how effective the team had become. By this time, Emeka had asked Colonel Joe Achuzia to join us and to handle the security component of the project. We continued to meet regularly at Onunaku’s Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi residence – Bless his soul.

Ojukwu met Shinkafi in London

One early Saturday morning, Onunaku sent his driver to bring me to Ikoyi. ‘What about’? I asked the driver. He wouldn’t know beyond the instruction to get to my Ikeja residence and “get Kanayo here before two o’clock.” When I arrived, I was told that the General wanted to give me a new brief by 3pm, and since I didn’t have a telephone at home, Onunaku’s place at Ikoyi was the best option. At exactly three o’clock, the call came through and Emeka said he had just returned to Abidjan from London, where he had “fruitful and rewarding discussions” with the Director-General of the Nigeria Security Organization (NSO), Alhaji Shinkafi. I was to constitute a strong media team to start working on softening the ground for his journey home. His meeting in London with Shinkafi had increased his optimism that his days in exile were, indeed, coming to an end, he said. He sounded slightly excited, and I was happy and so was Chief Onunaku.

The media campaign

Two days later, I traveled to Enugu on a Nigeria Airways flight, in the company of Vincent Obiano. We were in Enugu to ask for the support of a good friend and colleague, Obinwa Nnaji, who was then Editor of Sunday Satellite of the Satellite Newspaper Group in Enugu. We confided in him and told him precisely how the General wanted the media aspect of the project handled from the East. After getting his advice, support and firm commitment, Vincent and I came back to Lagos. The following day, I drove to Iwaya Road Yaba, Lagos to brief and request the support and sympathy of veteran journalist and editor, Gbolabo Ogunsawo, the former editor of Sunday Times. Emeka knew him by reputation and specifically advised me to reach out to him. In his days as the editor, the weekly was reputed to be the highest circulating newspaper in Africa, south of Sahara. And from exile, he was a loyal reader of Sunday Times.

We secured Gbalabo’s sympathy and through him the understanding of the Unity Party of Nigeria, as well as access to as many editors in the Lagos/Ibadan media axis as possible. Obinwa Nnaji also inherited the duty of getting his editor colleagues in the South East to step up the media campaign. Before we all knew it, Ojukwu’s return to Nigeria had developed into a huge national discussion and conversation. Indomitable Tai Solarin added his voice in an article that was published in both the Nigerian Tribune and the Daily Sketch.

The debate was now widening and going in the direction we had planned. And Emeka was letting us know that he was following developments closely but warned: “You must not relent until Shagari pronounces the magic word ‘Emeka, Come Home.’” Dr. Chuba Okadigbo was doing just fine in the political turf. He called me one day to say that the media tempo must not go down at all. Gbolabo, Obinwa and I were taking care of the media angle. Colonel Achuzia (now a chief in his native Asaba and its Ochiagha) was making progress with security arrangements. Everything was going good. Everybody was cooperating and the end of Emeka’s days in exile was nearing its terminal stage.

Shagari’s declaration

In a terse statement issued by the presidency, Shehu Shagari allowed Emeka to come home and a huge volley of joy and jubilation were unleashed. Preparations for his trip home began in earnest. Individuals and groups that were afraid to mention Emeka Ojukwu’s name in public since January 1970 began to come out of their holes, like termites. I remember one fellow who refused to touch the letter from Ojukwu to him in 1972, and even warned Emeka Enejere and I never to mention that we ever saw or came to his office located in central Lagos, was busy granting elaborate press interviews soon after the amnesty announcement. He was hailing the General as “my infinite hero,” who is on his way back home. Such is life.
At the end of it all, however, many genuine Igbo groups made contacts with us and began to donate time and buses that would convey people to Lagos and back.

The Cote d’Ivoire angle

Many Ivorians, too, voluntarily donated huge sums for the printing of thousands of T-shirts. Emma Ackah, an Ivorian presidency staff, was in-charge of that. Emeka had instructed what should be written on the shirts – simple Igbo words, ‘ONYEIJE NNO.’ What happened at the airport the day he arrived Nigeria is now history. The day his body arrives Nigeria will record yet another history.

It is on this note that I say, with tears in my eyes, to my General, mentor, adviser and ogam: sleep well and good night – Chukwu nabata mkpuru obi gi. Ka emesia!